Chapter 1 I Should Have Killed You

"I should have killed you back then." The middle-aged man unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, then rolled up his sleeves, revealing a scarred wrist. "Today, I will make up for my past mistake."

Hearing this, Zhou Jinwu's corpse laughed even more exaggeratedly, his eyes rolling upwards in a strange manner, revealing large areas of white. "Minister, you truly won't shed tears until you see the coffin. Do you still think it's like back then? Now, I am also an S-class. Today... I will dig out that door on your body!"

Before his words could fade, several figures rushed out from the end of the corridor. There were guards with stiff expressions, and a woman with short hair and a neat appearance… These people, like Zhou Jinwu, had been made into puppets, and were now rushing towards the middle-aged man with strange steps.

"Hee hee hee..."

Without hesitation, the middle-aged man suddenly pulled out a handgun from his chest.

It was an old-fashioned revolver, with a frighteningly large caliber and a badly worn ivory handle.

"Bang!"

The muzzle flash instantly illuminated the man's stern face. The bullet, carrying tremendous kinetic energy, didn't fly towards the puppets charging at him. Instead, it seemed to have missed, flying towards the ceiling in the distance.

Accompanied by a scream, a figure fell from the dark ceiling.

It was a small, hunched figure wearing the kind of colorful clothing worn by old-time street performers.

Next to him lay half an arm.

Naturally, it was the puppeteer, curled up in a ball, clutching his severed arm and screaming in pain. The large-caliber bullet had directly torn apart his limb. If he hadn't reacted quickly, the shot would have blown his head off.

With the puppeteer seriously injured, the puppets also lost control and fell to the ground. The middle-aged man didn't hesitate, firing another shot at the puppeteer's head.

The puppeteer's face twisted. Time seemed to slow down infinitely at that moment, and it was even possible to see the trajectory of the bullet.

The middle-aged man suddenly frowned.

It wasn't seeming; it was real!

But it wasn't time that was slowing down; it was his movements and the speed of the bullet.

An invisible force was obstructing them, as if they were submerged in water.

At the same time, a vague, ethereal chanting sound came from all directions, making it impossible to pinpoint its location. The strange intonation seemed to originate from everywhere.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, a piece of black cloth suddenly appeared beside the puppeteer. A person jumped out from the black cloth, wearing a black top hat, a tailcoat, a white shirt underneath, white leather shoes, and holding a scepter in his hand.

The magician took the black cloth and scooped up the puppeteer. With a light tap of his scepter, the bullet arrived as promised in the next second, instantly tearing apart the black cloth and the person inside. The enormous impact even pushed the person several meters away, and a large patch of blood blossomed on the ground.

The person inside had his head shattered, as expected, but more importantly, the person inside wasn't the puppeteer at all, but another, taller person!

Having done all this, the magician bowed slightly to the middle-aged man, making a curtain call gesture. When he raised his head, he revealed a pale, sickly face. "Minister, how have you been lately?" The magician waved the scepter in his hand. "We... have been looking forward to your death every day!"

The middle-aged man looked at the weirdo in front of him without changing his expression. He knew this person as well. His nickname was Magician, a lunatic who enjoyed killing. He was once a follower of the Crimson extremist group, causing trouble everywhere under the guise of Crimson's name.

Like the puppeteer, he had personally captured him and sent him to prison.

"Since you're here, don't hide." The middle-aged man straightened up. "Come out!"

"Oh, my, I've been discovered, hee hee hee..." A suppressed giggle rippled through the air like water. A woman wearing a gauze bandage dress slowly walked out from behind the corridor wall.

The woman had a delicate appearance and a moving figure. The exposed skin was dazzlingly white, and her bewitching eyes were especially captivating.

Seeing the middle-aged man look at her, the woman stopped and bowed. "This humble one greets Minister. Did Minister smell the Butterfly Attraction Incense on me?"

"Heh, you slut, Butterfly Attraction Incense, my foot! You should cover up the stench of fox from your body!" A burly man with a blade on his back walked out from behind the middle-aged man. After spitting on the ground, he said in a loud voice, "Minister clearly smelled the bloody scent on my blade!"

"We should be finishing up at this time, hurry up, this is the Execution Department headquarters after all!" Another clear voice spoke. No one was seen, only a blurry figure remained on the wall.

"We finally got out, and you're the one raining on our parade!" The burly man with a blade on his back pulled off the broadsword behind him. The blade was densely covered with serrations.

"Puppeteer, Magician, Dancer, Demon Blade..." The middle-aged man tilted his head to look at the illusory shadow on the wall, emphasizing, "And you, Singer, you... have all come."

The Demon Blade brandished his broadsword, a look of fanaticism before bloodshed on his face. His two copper bell-like eyes bulged, covered with dense blood vessels. "If it weren't for you back then, we wouldn't have ended up in such a state. Today, I will offer your life as a sacrifice to my blade!"

The Magician smiled sinisterly. "Demon Blade, don't you like collecting the weapons of your enemies? This is the Minister of the Execution Department. His gun is quite significant."

Looking at the silver gun in the middle-aged man's hand, the fanaticism in the Demon Blade's eyes faded slightly. He turned his head and cursed at the Magician, "Go screw your mother, you bastard! You just want me to be the first to fight him to the death, and then your eggless self is thinking of picking up the cheap at the end? Let me tell you, don't even think about it. Your little tricks can't fool me!"

"If we're going to attack, we'll all attack together!" The Demon Blade brandished his broadsword, the blade pointed at the middle-aged man.

"But we are all S-class after all. Five people fighting the Minister alone, wouldn't that sound terrible!" The Dancer twisted her boneless waist, but the smile on her face betrayed what she was thinking.

"Jie jie jie..." The Magician laughed wantonly, tapping the ground with the scepter in his hand. "Listen to me, everyone. I have a good idea. Today, why don't we just kill everyone in this building? Dead people... will definitely not spread what happened here!"

"Hurry up and attack!" Enduring the pain, the puppeteer, hiding in the back, urged in a sharp voice. Looking at the severed arm not far away, he wished he could flay the middle-aged man alive.

"What's the rush! We've endured for decades, what's a few more minutes?!"

The Magician, who was being urged repeatedly, was a little impatient. He enjoyed the scene before him, which reminded him of how the middle-aged man had forced him into a dead end back then. Truly, the tables have turned!

The puppeteer wanted to argue, but thinking of his current situation, he wisely chose to shut up.

The Magician turned to the middle-aged man with a mocking smile, his eyes slightly narrowed. As he walked, the heels of his leather shoes made a very smug tap-tap sound on the ground. "Let me guess... What is our Minister thinking right now?" He deliberately dragged out the words. "Ah, I guessed it. The Minister must be thinking of stalling for time, and then waiting for his good brother Gong Zhe to descend from the sky like a savior to rescue him, right?"

The Magician's expression became even more exaggerated. At this moment, morbidity and madness were fully displayed on his body. "But my dear Minister, I regret to inform you that you should stop waiting for Gong Zhe. He won't come!"

"Because he didn't receive your message at all!"

"Don't you understand why?" The Magician pretended to be surprised, as if it were a soliloquy in a stage play. "Hee hee hee, because your subordinate, the Deputy Minister, betrayed you!"

"Mr. Wu Houde! He is much more sensible than you. We were all able to stand here today thanks to Mr. Wu driving us in, otherwise..." The Magician smiled, took a breath and said, "It would have been a troublesome matter indeed!"

"There's no good end for traitors," the middle-aged man said calmly.

While the Magician was speaking, his eyes were fixed on the middle-aged man's face, but after noticing that the middle-aged man's face didn't have the expression he wanted, his face twisted.

What he wanted was the middle-aged man to be afraid, even to beg them to let him go, just like... he had done back then.

"Minister," the Magician threatened, "Don't you have anything to say? We... are about to send you on your way."

"Have a nice trip." The middle-aged man raised his gun and pulled the trigger at the Magician.

Faced with this gun that could be described as a nightmare, the Magician was caught off guard and terrified, and immediately fastened the black cloak around himself. Then, in the next instant, the cloak lost its support and fell to the ground, while the person inside disappeared into thin air.

Not far away, the Magician reappeared, panting heavily, a strange flush appearing on his pale face.

He was angry, both anxious and angry, because the middle-aged man didn't fire!

"Trash." The middle-aged man shook his head.

"Let's attack together!"

This time, the Magician roared, his slender voice cracking, and threw out several playing cards at the middle-aged man, then immediately pulled out his scepter and rushed towards the middle-aged man.

The Demon Blade, not wanting to be outdone, wielded the broadsword in his hand. The blade seemed to have some kind of strange connection with the Demon Blade, and it actually made a buzzing sound.

"Oh, please don't fight, you're scaring me..." The Dancer showed a strange smile, then stared at the middle-aged man and began to dance. Her pair of light chestnut-colored, soft and weak eyes actually turned into a light purple, with a dazzling, enchanting light flowing within.

And with the Dancer's twisting, pairs of soft, boneless, slender hands actually stretched out from behind the middle-aged man, then stroked his cheeks, eyebrows, chest, and several very restless hands groped downwards.

The middle-aged man remained unmoved. He first dodged several playing cards that came like sharp blades, then turned around and neatly fired a shot at the Demon Blade.

The Demon Blade couldn't dodge in time and could only block with his sword. The bullet hit the blade and sparked, and the enormous kinetic energy forced the Demon Blade back. Then, he threw a heavy punch, hitting the approaching Magician's chest squarely.

This punch undoubtedly pierced through the Magician's thin body, but what was puzzling was that not a single drop of blood flowed out. The Magician gave the middle-aged man a strange smile, and his body instantly exploded, turning into countless playing cards that flew all over the sky.

The playing cards were as sharp as blades, and cut the middle-aged man's cheeks and body as they fell.

The black cloak appeared behind the middle-aged man, and then the Magician jumped out from it, raised his scepter, and smashed it down on the man's shoulder. "Die!"

The middle-aged man reacted extremely quickly. Just as he was about to dodge, someone suddenly jumped down from the ceiling and hugged him tightly. In a hurry, the man turned sideways, using the person who was hugging him to block the Magician's attack.

A scepter that seemed light and delicate suddenly shattered when it touched the body, revealing a slender triangular knife inside. The blade directly cut off the body of the person hugging the man, and then cut the man's arm.

The middle-aged man kicked out, sending the Magician flying backwards, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"Hee hee hee..." The puppeteer, controlling the puppets with one hand, looked ferocious. "Don't ignore me, Minister. Let me send you on your way too!"

The ethereal chanting sound rang out again, but this time it was very close. A blurry figure appeared beside the middle-aged man, and the enormous resistance pressed down like a mountain, not giving the middle-aged man a chance to breathe.

The middle-aged man's body suddenly became heavy. If he was immersed in water before, then this time, he was immersed in glue.

Even movements like raising his arm seemed to be in slow motion.

"Now!"

After the Dancer's sharp cry, countless slender hands poured out, layer upon layer, tightly covering the middle-aged man's eyes, even submerging his entire face.

The Demon Blade, who had been waiting for an opportunity for a long time, jumped up suddenly, wielding the broadsword in his hand, and slashed down at the middle-aged man, who had already been restrained.

"Bang!"

The middle-aged man finally broke through the shackles of resistance, raised his gun, and blindly fired a shot at the location of the Singer in his mind.

At such a close distance, the enormous kinetic energy accurately hit the illusory figure's body, directly tearing him apart from the middle. The two halves of the body flew backwards and hit the wall, splashing blood everywhere.

At this moment, the high-level disciple named Singer revealed his true face.

It was an old man with white hair and a beard, wearing a tai chi uniform. At this moment, the old man's face was full of disbelief. It seemed that he couldn't understand why the person who died was himself.

Clearly, his ability should have been the strongest in self-preservation among these people.

"Puchi!"

Another stream of blood spurted out, splashing onto the ceiling. A human head, with inertia, spun in the air, then rolled to the ground and stopped only after hitting the wall.

The Demon Blade gasped for breath, raising his ghost-headed broadsword. In front of him was a headless corpse, and the corpse's hand was still tightly clutching a handgun with white smoke coming out of the muzzle.

"Damn!" The Demon Blade spat on the head and said fiercely, "Damn it, this guy really has some tricks up his sleeve. If the Singer hadn't been able to suppress his abilities, we probably would have had another death today."

Covering his chest, the Magician, with blood still on the corner of his mouth, walked over, first kicked the middle-aged man's corpse hard, then flicked out a white handkerchief. The handkerchief grew larger and larger as it turned, until it finally covered the middle-aged man's corpse.

On the other side, the short and wretched puppeteer picked up the head on the ground.