Returning to the Mysterious Era

Li Wei had finally caught Count Andrew.

With the Blood Race in his sudden embrace, Li Wei's arms, as solid as steel beams, twisted and, with a crack, cut his body in half at the waist. The torn flesh sprayed blood and bits of bone, along with what looked like pieces of internal organs, exploded.

Under Li Wei's powerful grip, Count Andrew's body cleaved in two. His upper half, cut off due to inertia, flew forward and rolled violently on the ground, leaving a gory trail.

"Argh!!!" A shout suddenly came from behind and was getting closer.

Covered in blood, Li Wei had barely turned his head when a red figure holding a shield crashed into him. For some reason, Owl hadn't fled during the chaos and had instead risen to fight again.

Molten fire spewed out from the gaps in the tortoise shell shield. The intense heat scorched Li Wei's body, producing a sizzling sound as if fat were being seared. Cassius, suspended in midair, felt his eyelids twitch involuntarily. It was as if a glowing red-hot iron the size of half a person was being branded on someone—a symbol of pain and horrific harm. Yet, Li Wei remained expressionless, seemingly unfamiliar with the concept of pain.

He was pushed back two steps, then his massive black right hand swung down like a colossal iron hammer onto the shield. With a thunderous crash, Owl met the same fate as last time.

The light shield shattered, and his shield-wielding hand was crushed. Now, he had no hands left, and his figure looked like a stick.

A large black hand clamped down on his head, and a strange suction force began. Owl's body trembled like a shaking sieve as streams of blue energy was pulled out from the totem on his chest.

Owl's lips turned pale, and his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. The pain of having his totem extracted made his entire body curl up like a boiled lobster, his face contorted in extreme agony.

The shamans of the Ten Thousand Mountains were masters of supernatural power, wielding totemic powers. This totemic power originated from the Totem King, Kassares, hidden deep within the Ten Thousand Mountains.

The Totem King had been slumbering in the mountains for a very long time, and it was said that the aura it unintentionally emitted altered its surrounding environment, causing animals, plants, and even inanimate objects to mutate and produce totems. The shamans originated from many villages and towns near the Ten Thousand Mountains with some born with their totems, while others gained them through prayer or other strange means.

However, one thing was certain: once a shaman gained totemic power, the only one who could take them away was the Totem King. Only he had the authority to remove a totem; the other shamans could only utilize the Totem King as an intermediary to achieve their objectives.

The Blood Race operated under the same principle where their origins traced back to a common ancestor, Yumila, the True Progenitor of Blood, who was said to be a giant, terrifying bat. Yumila had left behind the Blood Ritual for the direct lineage of the Blood Race where they could pray for the purity of Yumila's original blood.

Like the Totem King, only Yumila, the True Progenitor, could strip someone of their dark essence; other members of the Blood Race neither had the right nor the capability to do so.

Both shared a commonality: the Totem King and the True Progenitor of Blood were the original entities from which their respective dark creature races first emerged. In ancient texts, they were referred to as the Primordial Dark Entities.

And now, Owl was being forcefully extracted from his totem by Li Wei.

Did that mean…

For a moment, the horrifying realization of this implication temporarily suppressed Owl's pain. His face was filled with shock.

Two figures ran over from around a street corner.

"Who are you?!"

"Put that man down, or I'll shoot!"

The recent battle had been so loud, and even had an exploding car, that two patrolling officers came rushing over upon hearing the commotion. They wore blue uniforms, with buttoned coats for warmth, and were armed with guns, specifically powerful standard-issue P55s.

The black streetlamp cast a circle of light around them. The two officers could vaguely make out a tall figure holding someone up in the air. Whoever it was had brutal methods.

"Hey, did you hear me? Put him down!" As the officers spoke, they cautiously approached. But the distant shadow still didn't respond, standing like a rigid statue, with the person in his grasp struggling continuously.

The other officer whispered, "Yorm, something doesn't seem right…"

As they got closer, they saw the street was in complete disrepair. The road was badly damaged, full of pits of varying sizes; the smaller ones were the size of footprints, while the larger ones were several meters in diameter as if tanks had rolled over it.

The surrounding buildings hadn't escaped unscathed, with occasional black holes and scattered rubble from shattered stones. Some walls had collapsed, with broken bricks piled haphazardly in the corners. They saw two wrecked cars, at least seven to eight corpses with long-barreled pistols lying beside them.

"It's a gang shootout!!!"

The two officers quickly realized what was happening. Without a single second of hesitation, they immediately opened fire on the figure twenty meters away. Who knew if this gangster was also armed, just like those bodies on the ground, and could attack at any moment?

Bullets whizzed through the air, most of them seemingly hitting the shadowy figure. Then came the clinking sounds of bullets falling to the ground.

With a snap, the person in the shadow's grasp was casually thrown to the ground. Then, he started walking toward them, quickly entering the streetlamp's yellow glow.

More than sixty percent of his body had thin, black snake-like veins slithering all over it. Moreover, due to the swollen musculature of Li Wei's body, he had, unbeknownst to anyone, reached a height of over two meters—perhaps taller.

At a glance, he looked like a muscular half-black, half-white giant with pure black pupils as he lumbered over with a blank expression. The bulging black muscles gave the impression of standing before a massive ocean liner; it made one feel incredibly small.

"You… You… Don't come any closer!" The two officers gasped, scrambling back in fear. At the same time, they reloaded their guns with shaky hands.

Yet, Li Wei did not immediately kill them. He just stood there, seemingly showing a flicker of humanity—until one of the officers raised his gun again.

With a sudden motion, Li Wei instantly appeared in front of the officer, grabbing his arm and twisting it, turning it into a bloody mess. White tendons and red muscle fibers sprang apart, and fingernail-sized fragments of bone shot out.

And Li Wei simply stood there, watching the officer's face contort in pain as if he were pondering this extreme reaction.

Crack, crack, crack…

After a series of sounds like beans popping, the two police officers' limbs were all broken. Nearby, Li Wei squatted, watching with great interest, a smile spreading across his face.

Quietly, Cassius observed the scene below in the air, feeling a chill run down his spine for some unknown reason. Li Wei was displaying curiosity, unlike the pure, single-minded instinct from before. This might indicate the birth of a consciousness in the dark creature or the splitting of its soul.

With a swoosh, Li Wei stood up from the ground. He turned his head and walked quickly to where Count Andrew had been sliced in half earlier. In no time, he had returned to the spot.

But there was only half a body left on the ground. There was a steaming trail of blood dragging along the ground.

Count Andrew's will to survive was astonishing. Just once glance at the scene and one could imagine what had transpired. Count Andrew, with only his upper body remaining, crawled along the ground. Blood and organs flowed from the cross-section, spraying steam. His one remaining hand gripped the ground, clinging to life like a worm craving a tiny chance of survival.

If I can… If I can just get there… If I can just reach that place…

He gazed longingly at a filthy manhole cover in the shadows. Gathering all his strength, he moved toward it, shakily pushing the iron cover aside and dropping into the filthy sewer below.

In that foul sludge, amidst the dirty trash, rats, cockroaches, and even human waste, he crawled toward the next manhole cover. Although he was severely injured, with half his body severed and a massive loss of Blood Race energy, Count Andrew could still live. All he needed was a few blood-rich snacks and Andrew could temporarily recover his body and escape. Then, he would plan carefully and use every means at his disposal to deal with Li Wei, this dark creature disguised as an ordinary human.

He swore, that if he survived this, he would use the most brutal methods to torture Li Wei. Skinning and dismembering would not suffice; he would use the Blood Race's most severe punishment: the dissolving blood pool.

Once they were thrown in, a Blood Race's body would be dissolved little by little by the pool's waters, and the pain would be magnified a hundredfold. Moreover, the victim would not die prematurely from excessive injuries but would have to experience the full agony of their body dissolving until only their head remained.

Fueled by intense anger and hatred, Andrew reached the next manhole cover. With his remaining hand, he grasped the rusty, corroded iron ladder and slowly pulled himself up, rung by rung.

In the silent street, the continuous clanging of metal resounded.

The old manhole cover, stepped on by countless people over the years, its edges dusty and dirty, slowly lifted before flying off with a bang.

Andrew looked up at the sky, overjoyed. His mud-covered face lit up with elated relief. "Finally! I—"

Two pairs of eyes locked onto each other. The air around them seemed to freeze, and the only sound was the mud on Andrew's body dripping and splattering onto the ground.

"No!" A final desperate scream ripped out of his throat, only for a black, serpent-like arm to cut it off, snapping shut like a vicious mouth. He was yanked up as easily as pulling a carrot from the ground.

With a snap, he was crushed to death.

***

8:00 a.m., June 11, in a residential area of Beiliu City.

Morning sunlight shone through the gaps in the clouds, making the pointed and rounded city buildings around them gleam faintly. A few white pigeons jumped from the windowsills of houses and flew onto tree branches. The light mist had dissipated, leaving the moss slightly damp.

Longta Street had been cordoned off by the police, with at least a dozen officers in blue uniforms patrolling the nearby streets. The entrance was blocked off by yellow police tape, and several officers in black uniforms were walking back and forth inside, taking pictures of the scene.

These officers were different from the ones in blue; their black attire appeared more refined and advanced, and their actions were notably professional. Among them was a handsome man wearing a black police hat, strolling toward the entrance from one end of the street. Each time he passed a body, he would stop and look with shocked eyes.

His name was Fritz, the deputy leader of the Special Operations Team. Early this morning, he received a report and was dispatched for this special assignment.

Fritz initially thought the so-called special case was merely the brutal murders of two patrol officers. Perhaps a gang fight from the previous night.

But the crime scene was far beyond his imagination.

He carefully stepped over a body with a broken neck. Fritz glanced at a nearby wrecked car with its collapsed center and twisted and deformed metal frame. The dent looked like the impact of a human body. No, it didn't "look like it," someone did hit it!

He walked forward a few more steps, circling around a deep pit about a meter in diameter on the ground. To the right, there was a chunk missing from a white wall that stood about one and a half meters high. A three-meter-long section of the wall had been sliced diagonally, the cut surface smooth as if it had been struck by an extremely sharp weapon, as effortlessly as a knife slicing through tofu.

Taking a deep breath, Fritz hurried over to a man on the ground who had a large hole in his chest. Seconds later, he reached the street's entrance where clouds of cigar smoke surrounded a bearded captain. His gaze was fixed on something in the distance.

Fritz walked over and couldn't help but say, "Captain, why don't you look more worried? We've never handled a case like this before."

The bearded captain exhaled a ring of smoke and turned his head. "Indeed, we've never dealt with a case like this before. That's why more specialized personnel are on their way."

He walked over and patted Fritz on the shoulder. "They're specifically responsible for cases like this. All we need to do is secure the scene. All the officers from the Special Operations Team and the patrol officers outside have to sign a confidentiality agreement as well."

Suddenly, there was the sound of a car engine coming from the main road.

The captain froze for a moment, then turned to see an approaching black sedan. In no time, it arrived at the entrance to Longta Street and stopped.

Fritz exchanged a glance with the captain. The two of them immediately walked toward the sedan.

Click!

The rear door of the car opened, and a pair of black leather shoes slapped the ground. A figure dressed in a black and white suit stepped out, white gloves glinting slightly.

The captain looked at the newcomer and blurted out, "A kid?"

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