# 1260
1261: 27's Assassination
"That is..." When Lin Qiye saw that familiar hood, his heart trembled.
Was it him?!
He had infiltrated Asgard as well?
Thor stared blankly at the headless corpse toppling to the ground, his pupils involuntarily constricting.
From Loki's appearance to the head falling to the ground, this reversal completely exceeded Thor's understanding. No matter what, he could never have imagined that Loki would be decapitated at this moment.
After a moment, he came back to his senses and looked at the figure standing in the shadows, endless fury blazing in his eyes.
"Who are you?!"
Loki was his political rival, his mortal enemy, the being Thor despised with every fiber of his being, but regardless, he was still one of Asgard's Chief Gods, capable of standing as Thor's equal, and also the father god Odin's most trusted subordinate.
Even if Thor eventually became the god-king, he would never kill Loki. Similarly, he believed that if Loki had become god-king, he would never kill Thor either.
Although they had always been at each other's throats, on this matter, there was an inexplicable默契.
Asgard could not be without Thor, nor could it be without Loki. Just as the world could not exist without light and darkness.
Loki being so easily assassinated before his very eyes by some unknown entity was undoubtedly a provocation to him and to Asgard as a whole!
Furious thunder surged forth, sweeping toward that figure in the shadows, but there was another person whose speed surpassed even Thor's!
Hela's expression阴沉, and she reached out to grasp the figure in mid-air. Several slender skeletal arms burst from the ground, grabbing his ankles at lightning speed and pinning him firmly to the earth.
Bang—!
A skeletal beast immediately钻出 from the depths below. Its tunnel-sized jaws snapped shut viciously, as if to crush the figure into pieces.
The shadow first brushed its hand across Loki's head, tucking it into its cloak, then conjured two short blades from thin air. Cold light sliced through the skeletal arms as the figure spun in place, slicing through space in a bizarre manner and reappearing on a boulder hundreds of meters away.
The skeletal beast failed to catch the shadow's身形, but the雷电's silhouette in mid-air sharply veered, instantly blasting both the shadow and the boulder beneath it into smithereens!
The shadow tumbled out from within the thunder's explosion, its form flickering before dissolving into hazy mist and vanishing across the horizon.
"Tyr, you lead the others out first!"
Thor transformed into lightning and gave chase at top speed. After hesitating briefly, Hela followed!
As several figures vanished into the sky one after another, an eerie silence descended once more upon the尸骸 palace.
Tyr furrowed his brows and strode to Loki's headless corpse, kneeling to examine it closely, his eyes narrowing as if searching for something.
Nearby, Witness 22, who had observed the entire event, seemed to realize something. He turned to Lin Qiye beside him, disbelief written across his face.
"That guy isn't..."
Lin Qiye shot him a look, and 22 immediately closed his mouth.
Perhaps the gods of Asgard didn't recognize that shadow, but Lin Qiye would never forget. Back in the mist, Lin Qiye had made a deal with that person.
Lin Qiye would help him find someone, and he would help Lin Qiye kill a god.
And the target he wanted killed was precisely Loki!
Lin Qiye's mind once again conjured the image of 27 decapitating Loki moments ago, his heart filled with shock.
Back then, when 27 had said he could kill anyone below the Supreme God, Lin Qiye had harbored doubts. But after witnessing the entire process of him killing Loki, Lin Qiye's heart was left with only profound astonishment and confusion.
Who exactly was this 27?
When had he hidden within Tyr's shadow without anyone detecting him?
The goddess of harvest, Sif, walked to Tyr's side and asked, "Well?"
Tyr shook his head. "Loki isn't so easily killed."
"Are you sure? But his head was cut off." Sif couldn't help but interject.
"The Great Xia's Yuanshi Tianzun swung his sword back then and still didn't kill him completely. Why would it be different now?" Tyr slowly stood up, a cold smile curling his lips. "If I had to guess, he's probably set up a death-substitution ritual elsewhere again...
He's like a cockroach that just won't stay dead. Every time you think you've got the upper hand, he pulls out another trump card."
Tyr lifted his chin, pointing at the headless corpse on the ground.
"Don't believe me? Look."
Sif lowered her gaze. The headless corpse, gushing blood everywhere, was actually dissolving at a肉眼可见 rate. Piece by piece of bone was exposed to the air—these bones varied in length and thickness, seemingly sourced from different people's bodies, eerie and unsettling.
Witnessing this, both Lin Qiye's and 22's expressions shifted.
Even at this point, they had still let Loki escape?
Was this guy invincible or something?
"It's too dangerous here. Let's head back."
Tyr scanned the dormant mountain of corpses surrounding them, then led Lin Qiye, the two of them, and Sif away as a streak of light.
Asgard.
Human Enclosure.
In the heart of the mountain of corpses, a mysterious symbol outlined in black threads gradually illuminated, resembling an eye slowly opening, or a gaping serpent's mouth.
Suddenly, streams of black threads frantically swept across the flesh of nearby corpses. The nearly ten thousand bodies piled up in this slaughterhouse were all withering at visible speed. Meanwhile, a man's form rapidly materialized from the void.
A breeze swept through the slaughterhouse, lifting the ashes of the ten thousand corpses—transformed into bloody mist—into the sky like a crimson cloud drifting upward.
The figure suspended in the air abruptly opened his eyes. The pallor of his face was etched with shock and bewilderment.
"Who? Who was it?!"
Loki's memory停留在 the moment 27 had pierced his heart and cut off his head.
He hadn't seen the assassin's face, but that cold, murderous aura lingering around that person clung to his mind like a nightmare.
That kind of presence was definitely not something an ordinary god possessed!
Moreover, thinking about it carefully, this entire incident was filled with suspicious points. The most critical issue was—how had Thor known Loki had hidden Sif in the underworld? And if he had come to the underworld to抢人, why had he brought two humans?
Was it coincidence that those two humans had found the location where Sif was imprisoned, or was there something else going on?
Loki's chest剧烈起伏. After a long while, he finally calmed his nerves, exhaled slowly, and surveyed his surroundings.
"Another death-substitution array consumed... Time to set up another one.
Twenty thousand lives exhausted in half a year. I wonder how many more wretched souls remain in this Human Enclosure for me to kill."
Loki暂时搁置 the matter of 27 for now. His form flickered, transforming into a tall, gaunt mortal wearing sacred ecclesiastical robes, and he strode directly out of the slaughterhouse.