# Chapter 75: A Fateful Encounter?
Inside a narrow valley filled with water vapor, Su Xiao stood on a piece of raw stone beside accumulated water. While pursuing a violator moments ago, he had clearly sensed two distinct auras from that violator.
This indicated that either the violator had two souls within their body, or another individual was attached to them. Which situation it was remained uncertain.
Su Xiao's style of conduct was: when cutting weeds, remove the roots; when killing a man, grind his bones to ashes—leave no future trouble.
Su Xiao constantly sensed the water surface around him, while Baha had already dived into the water to investigate the violator's corpse.
Drip~
The sound of water droplets came from the right. Su Xiao slashed sideways with his blade. With a bang, the accumulated water on his right splashed high into the air.
"Boss, caught it."
Baha burst out from the water, his eagle claws swinging to toss a fleshy mass onto the rocks beside the accumulated water.
"I inherited 30% of Thousand Faces' assets!"
The fleshy mass shouted. Looking closely, there was a face on it. Perhaps due to losing Thousand Faces' body's energy supply, this face appeared withered, with a mouth full of dense, sharp teeth and marble-sized eyeballs that seemed ready to fall out of their sockets at any moment.
"This little thing looks really damn unique."
Baha looked at the face on the fleshy ball and gave a very impartial evaluation.
"Hand it over."
D·Assassin appeared in Su Xiao's hand, aimed at the fleshy ball a few meters away—that is, Shazhi.
"Of course, but we need to sign a contract. I'll draft one..."
Shazhi's words were only halfway spoken.
Pfft, pfft, pfft.
Su Xiao pulled the trigger of D·Assassin, calmly firing three shots at Shazhi. D·Assassin's shooting feel was as excellent as ever, but the power was disappointing; the bullets only created bleeding holes in Shazhi's body without blowing it apart.
"Spare... my life, I can... help you..."
Pfft, pfft.
Su Xiao fired two more shots, craned his neck to check on Shazhi's condition, found it still alive, and fired a few more shots. Based on his extensive robbery... ahem, extensive combat experience, he determined that this thing had no bargaining chips whatsoever.
After tossing a few alchemy bombs into the water, Su Xiao grabbed onto Baha's eagle claws and ascended in height as Baha flew.
Explosions echoed from the valley below. After a while, Su Xiao released Baha's eagle claws and landed on a rocky area. He wanted to know: where was this?
Having pursued the enemy for over three hours, Su Xiao didn't plan to return the way he came. He began setting up an alchemy formation diagram, using the initial formation diagram previously set up in the office in Youke City, which now came in handy.
After setting up the formation, Su Xiao and Baha stood on it. The peregrine falcon circling in the sky had disappeared, presumably dead from overexertion of its life force.
Boom!
The spatial formation activated, cracking the rocky ground beneath them. The Demon race's spatial technology was, as always, bold and violent.
When the light and shadow before Su Xiao's eyes stopped distorting, he took a deep breath. After a moment, the discomfort from the teleportation faded. He had once wondered why the Demon race used such violent spatial formations. Now he understood: this teleportation technology was very safe, and as for the side effects, one gradually got used to them.
Su Xiao felt that using other unstable spatial formations now would cause discomfort that couldn't shake him in the slightest.
Su Xiao went up to the third floor, took a shower, found a chair, and sat by the open window. The cool breeze blowing in his face eased his fatigue slightly. Although the battle process hadn't been long, before that, Su Xiao had been in full pursuit for over three hours, which consumed more stamina than an actual fight.
The hunting mission was complete, and the search for the Ultimate Insect was also on track, no longer without leads. What was needed now was time.
Su Xiao had originally planned to eliminate Xianji as well, but after testing, he temporarily abandoned this idea. The method used to find Violator 14023 was completely unfeasible for finding Xianji.
The supernatural animal Su Xiao had prepared had just used S-001 when that Red-Headed Jackal exploded into a cloud of blood mist. This was a naturally supernatural beast, more resilient than the Peregrine Falcon·Horus.
Directly tracking Xianji was impossible, and using the method for finding the Ultimate Insect would take too long, plus Su Xiao didn't have that many intelligence operatives under his command.
One had to admit a problem: although Xianji didn't have the intellect of Gray Gentleman or Father, she was the strongest combatant among the three. With Su Xiao's current strength in a one-on-one fight against Xianji, he would definitely lose.
The Ultimate Insect was already troublesome enough; whether he could defeat it was still unknown. Before dealing with the Ultimate Insect, if he relentlessly pursued Xianji, Su Xiao was very worried about one scenario: the Ultimate Insect and Xianji joining forces. That would be very bad.
Given Xianji's strength, her resources were definitely abundant. She most likely had rare items that could emergency escape this world. In fact, for high-rank violators, this had almost become a necessity.
Baha's Demon Eagle Domain had already been used and was in a long cooldown period. Going to besiege Xianji now would be a very unwise choice.
Therefore, Su Xiao decided to temporarily ignore Xianji. That side had already been arranged—Xianji was a public enemy, hostile to the four major powers of this world. As long as she had even a shred of rationality, she wouldn't come to the Eastern Continent or Southern Continent.
At this stage, Kingsley was overseeing the search for the Ultimate Insect and had already headed to the Eastern Continent. Su Xiao planned to first handle matters related to the Blood of Fate, then go meet up with Kingsley.
The Blood of Fate was related to the Lightning Summoning Secret Art. In Su Xiao's view, that golden lightning wasn't just for using "Heaven's Wrath·Thunderfall." After successfully summoning lightning, if he could store a portion of that golden lightning, as long as he used it properly, it could likely permanently enhance himself.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao took Baha and left the office, got into the vehicle driven by Xili, and headed back to Jiaman City.
...
Seven PM, on the busiest commercial street in Jiaman City. The colorful neon lights on both sides were dazzling, and the street was filled with an endless stream of pedestrians. Among them were scantily clad women and heavily drunk drunks. The pungent alcohol smell from one made passersby cover their noses and frown—the intensity of the smell made one wonder if he was drinking pure alcohol.
This drunk staggered along, and in a moment of carelessness, bumped into a white-haired youth. The drunk squinted with bleary eyes, let out a burp, and said with alcohol-laden breath:
"Where are you from, you country bumpkin? You bump into someone and don't even apologize?"
The drunk staggered a few steps, swaying his upper body as he blocked the white-haired youth's path.
"Brother, you're drunk."
The white-haired youth just smiled, making as if to support the drunk's arm.
"Don't touch me, pfft."
The drunk swung his arm, pushing away the white-haired youth's hand. A hint of anger rose in the white-haired youth's heart. Just as he was about to push the drunk aside, the drunk staggered toward him.
"Aiqi, Jiaman City is really a prosperous and chaotic city."
The white-haired youth's mood was somewhat depressed. Beside him, Aiqi remained silent. In recent days, Aiqi had been very quiet, and his aura was getting colder and colder—a dark, cold aura.
"Aiqi?"
"Hmm?"
"What's been up with you lately?"
"Nothing."
Although Aiqi said this, he knew something was wrong with him. Starting four days ago, he could smell a very special scent. Whenever this scent drifted into his nostrils, he felt an urge to devour people, as if all living beings he saw were his food.
"Aiqi, you..."
The white-haired youth didn't continue. Of course, he could feel that his friend was becoming increasingly cold and increasingly dangerous.
Just as Aiqi and the white-haired youth were talking, a black-dressed girl walking from ahead caught both their attention. Although there were many pedestrians, aside from this black-dressed girl, all others faded into the background.
The black-dressed girl walked between Aiqi and the white-haired youth, leaving a faint lingering fragrance between them. As the three passed each other, everything around seemed to slow down.
"Two idiots, run."
A soft female voice reached the ears of the white-haired youth and Aiqi. Both stopped simultaneously and turned to look behind them. The mysterious girl in the black dress had already disappeared.
"Aiqi, something's wrong."
"Oh."
Aiqi took off his coat and rotated his neck left and right.
"Don't fight here. Too many civilians."
"Survival is hunting. I'm the top predator..."
Aiqi stopped mid-sentence, a look of surprise in his eyes. He didn't know why he had said such words. In that instant just now, he had felt an urge to kill all the civilians on the street and find the attackers hiding among them.
"Aiqi, I think something's wrong with me."
The white-haired youth shook his head. The images before his eyes were doubling, and his head felt very dizzy, like a hangover.
Vaguely, the white-haired youth saw a figure by the street a hundred meters away. The figure was holding a wine bottle. Noticing his gaze, the figure pulled out the cork from the bottle and poured the liquid inside into his mouth. That wasn't alcohol at all—it was 98% pure alcohol + bitter salt tree resin. One was flammable, and the other would explode upon contact with air friction.
After the figure drank the liquid from the bottle, the dizziness in the white-haired youth's head intensified. He discovered that his body was filled with alcohol. This alcohol had fused with his body cells for unknown reasons. If he were an ordinary person, he would have died on the spot.
Just as the white-haired youth was about to charge forward, as soon as he took a step, a heart-wrenching burning pain spread throughout his body. He looked down and saw that the clothes on his torso, arms, and legs were covered with sparks. If he continued moving, he would turn into a burning human torch.
In the same situation was Aiqi. Both were covered in sparks, standing still, not daring to move an inch. The faster they ran, the faster they would die.
"Aiqi, any ideas?"
"Yes."
Black semi-fluid emerged on the back of Aiqi's hand, wrapping around various parts of his body, then spreading toward the white-haired youth. The sparks on their bodies were quickly stripped away.
Unknown to them, over a dozen men and women in black trench coats with unfriendly expressions were standing at both ends of the street. Noticing this, Aiqi and the white-haired youth both charged forward simultaneously.
Half an hour later, in a pitch-black alley, Aiqi and the white-haired youth stood against the wall. Both had unpleasant expressions. They could sense that the enemy was nearby, surrounding them without disturbing the civilians. Those people's methods were too skilled—they were all very adept at fighting in crowded areas, their moves silent but deadly.
"They're from the Agency."
The white-haired youth pressed one hand against his chest and abdomen. Wisps of smoke drifted through his fingertips, emitting a dizzyingly sweet, fishy smell.
"How do you know?"
Aiqi sat leaning against the wall. Without fully awakening the Devourer within him, he couldn't shake off the pursuers. But fully awakening the Devourer would be a burden Aiqi couldn't bear.
"Only people from the Agency and the Eclipse Organization are this skilled at fighting in crowded places. Aside from the supernaturals of these two factions, the supernaturals of other powers don't care about civilian casualties. They consider themselves above others."
The white-haired youth also sat down in the corner, looking at the stars in the sky. They had been set up too badly this time. He felt he might die here. If the enemy hadn't been concerned about civilians and hadn't used their respective specialized weapons, he and Aiqi would have died long ago.
The white-haired youth laughed bitterly. He had spoken with Kingsley before, and Kingsley's reply was that the matter was over—their grudges with the Eclipse Organization and the Agency were settled.
Not only that, Kingsley had also arranged for a big shot from the Agency named Xili to step forward. After some negotiations, their conflict with the Agency was resolved.
Now it seemed things weren't that simple.
"Aiqi, lately, you've become someone I don't recognize."
The white-haired youth spoke with a smile. In the past, he wouldn't have said such things, but now that they were about to die, of course he had to speak his mind.
"I've never changed. Or rather, you've never truly understood me."
"Then tell me, who are you?"
"I am... Devourer·Aiqi."
"Devourer..."
The white-haired youth was speechless, then laughed, laughing so hard he doubled over. With powerful enemies surrounding and searching for them outside, he was here doubting whether his partner Aiqi would turn into a monster. This made him feel his behavior was very childish.
"Two idiots being all lovey-dovey, disgusting~"
A female voice came. Aiqi and the white-haired youth looked toward the sound. A black-dressed girl was sitting on the highest wall at the deepest part of the alley, watching them with interest.
"Shorty, who are you calling disgusting?"
Aiqi stood up, his gaze unfriendly.
"Short... shorty?"
The black-dressed girl, that is, Geya, pointed at herself, as if confirming whether Aiqi was referring to her.
"That's right, I'm talking about you."
Aiqi spoke in a low voice. He wasn't stupid—speaking loudly now would attract the enemy.
Geya took a deep breath, looking as if she was about to shout loudly.
"This lady, we were wrong."
The white-haired youth pressed one hand on the back of Aiqi's head, and both of them bowed to apologize together.
"Oh ho~, idiots do have some intelligence too."
Geya stood up from the high wall. Before turning to jump down, she glanced sideways at the white-haired youth and Aiqi and said:
"Two idiots, aren't you following? Or do you plan to die here?"
"Huh?"
The white-haired youth was stunned for a moment. He exchanged glances with Aiqi, who also looked completely confused. With powerful enemies surrounding them, they had no other choice. Whether they lived or died, they might as well see what this mysterious woman intended to do.
Both the white-haired youth and Aiqi jumped onto the wall, then onto the roof of a residential building.
Geya crouched here. She tossed out two marble-like glass balls, and the white-haired youth and Aiqi each caught one.
"What's this?"
"Stick it in the back door."
Geya said this with a mischievous smile on her face.
"Back... back door?"
The white-haired youth's face turned pale. To be honest, this was a bit outside his knowledge.
"This is Type-C Assimilation Substance. It can help you eliminate your own aura for half an hour. Made by the Agency, quality guaranteed."
"I won't use it."
Aiqi's answer was particularly firm.
"Then just wait to die. I don't care. I'm saving you because I'm bored. The Hunter Company in the Eastern Continent has already targeted you. Poor little seamstress apprentice sister—the person she deeply loves is about to die."
"Hunter Company? Wasn't it the Agency that set us up?"
The white-haired youth was starting to lose track of the situation.
"The Agency set you up? Do you have a hole in your head? If the Agency wanted to deal with you, you'd be dead already. They'd have scattered your ashes in the river."
Geya looked at them like they were idiots.
"This thing, I won't use it."
Aiqi looked at the marble-like glass ball in his hand, his face pale.
"Up to you."
Geya had an indifferent attitude. The white-haired youth and Aiqi both fell silent. After a moment, Aiqi's expression twisted, his teeth grinding audibly.
"Oh, by the way, I was lying earlier. Type-C Assimilation Substance is meant to be held in the mouth."
Hearing this, the white-haired youth quickly tossed the glass ball into his mouth. Beside him, Aiqi's face darkened, his shoulders trembling with anger.
"Oh my? You didn't actually... tsk tsk tsk~"
Geya took the art of being sarcastic to the extreme. Aiqi didn't speak. He opened his right hand and calmly tossed the Type-C Assimilation Substance into his mouth. Seeing this, Geya clicked her tongue in disappointment at failing to mess with Aiqi.
"This lady, are we just waiting here?"
The white-haired youth voiced his doubts.
"Shut up and wait quietly. Those guys down there are here to hunt. This isn't their territory—they're afraid of alerting the Agency. But why has the Hunter Company targeted you?"
Geya took out a pocket watch, staring unblinkingly at the second hand. After waiting about ten seconds, she jumped down from the roof and walked openly on the street.
The white-haired youth and Aiqi hesitated for a moment, then chose to follow behind Geya. They passed through five alleys, a library, entered through the front door of a residential building, and exited through the back. After that, they successfully broke out of the encirclement.
The white-haired youth and Aiqi looked around at the quiet street, both momentarily unable to come to their senses.
"Don't just stand there. Carry these boxes and follow me."
Geya continued leading the way ahead. The white-haired youth and Aiqi hesitated for a few seconds, then each picked up two large iron boxes and walked behind Geya. The white-haired youth found the iron box in his arms extremely heavy. After just a few steps, he felt his waist starting to ache.
"How much further?"
Aiqi's tone had improved considerably. Regardless, Geya was their lifesaver.
"Almost there. That warehouse ahead is the place."
Geya stopped in front of a two-story warehouse. She cleared her throat and knocked on the heavy iron door.
With a clang, the large iron door opened. A burly man standing in the darkness nodded at Geya and let the three enter the room.
Inside the dimly lit room, the white-haired youth and Aiqi put down the large iron boxes. Both had sweat on their foreheads.
The burly man who had opened the door came out from the inner room, carrying a money box in each hand. Seeing these two money boxes, Geya's face lit up with joy.
"Don't just stand there, you two. Help me count the money."
Geya tossed one money box to the white-haired youth and the other to Aiqi, then sat on the sofa waiting.
The white-haired youth and Aiqi said nothing. As their lifesaver, they couldn't refuse this request. With unskilled hands, they counted stack after stack of Ta Pounds, finally determining that it was 2.5 million Ta Pounds—a huge sum.
"Total 2.5 million Ta Pounds. This lady, can you tell us why you..."
Before the white-haired youth could finish, Geya picked up the two large money boxes and walked toward the door, muttering, "The market's really good lately."
Geya stopped at the door, turned to the white-haired youth and Aiqi, and winked with her left eye.
"Thank you, and good luck."
Leaving these words, Geya pushed open the door and left. The nearly 20-centimeter-thick heavy iron door slammed shut.
The white-haired youth and Aiqi were full of question marks. Both wanted to know: what was going on?
"Wooly, Wozworth, Puman, come out and take the goods. Miss Geya has delivered two top-quality supernaturals this time. They'll fetch a high price in the Eastern Continent."
As soon as the burly man with folded arms finished shouting, one after another, burly men came out from the inner room. Unbeknownst to them, a floral fragrance had begun to permeate the room.
"?"
The white-haired youth's gaze was somewhat dazed. He exchanged looks with Aiqi, who also looked at him blankly.
"Aiqi, I think... we've been sold by that woman named Geya."
"Yes, that's right."
Aiqi answered through gritted teeth. They had been sold, the transaction price was exactly 2.5 million Ta Pounds—not a cent off. They had counted it with their own hands.