Chapter 045: "I Was Only Joking Just Now" (Please Vote for Me!)

These fellows turned out to be all half-beasts! From the moment he heard that grumbling complaint, Tang Mubai sensed something was amiss. Instantly, he pretended to turn away, but in a split second, he enhanced his hearing and unleashed the full range of his sense of smell.

With his hearing, he listened to the heartbeats of those men. With his sense of smell, he memorized their scents. Tang Mubai was already intimately familiar with the heartbeats of half-beasts, so he confirmed their identities immediately. Memorizing their scents was an extra precaution. During this process, he also inhaled the stench of alcohol, sweat, and pungent bodily fluids, but he forced himself not to retch as he drove away.

After driving some distance, he finally opened the window and took a deep breath. But then, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Someone was behind him!

He was being followed!

In an instant, Tang Mubai thought of the man who had complained about the half-beasts and had been knocked unconscious. He hadn’t seen the man’s actions before he left, but he could sense them. Now, someone was tailing him—most likely that man himself, or the other man who had apologized to Tang Mubai on his behalf.

These two were stalking him in secret, clearly intending to eliminate him! Perhaps they weren’t sure whether Tang Mubai had discovered their identities. Killing him, just like Tang Mubai memorizing their scents, was merely a precaution.

Eliminating danger in the cradle—not only humans followed this principle, half-beasts did as well!

“Damn it...” Tang Mubai gritted his teeth. Another calamity out of nowhere! For the third time! It had already happened three times—he kept encountering half-beasts. Despite deliberately avoiding them and not wanting to get involved, each group tried to kill him!

These beasts, hidden among the people, had already become a threat to the stability and harmony of Maple Leaf City.

“And the Security Bureau—days have passed, and they’ve done nothing! They’re all a bunch of idiots!” Tang Mubai’s anger extended to the Security Bureau as well. If he were alone, it wouldn’t matter.

He could have driven into an alley, lured the pursuer in, unleashed his aura, and killed them. But with his little cousin in the car, he couldn’t take the risk. Bringing the pursuer back to the headquarters was out of the question...

Wait—perhaps it was possible! Only one person was following him, which meant there wouldn’t be any unforeseen complications. As long as he killed the pursuer before they could escape, he could avoid harming the innocent. As for the other half-beasts, Tang Mubai had already memorized their scents—he could double back and eliminate them afterward!

Having figured it out, Tang Mubai maintained a slow speed, took out his phone, and called Fang Shuixian, telling her to wait at the entrance of the headquarters. At this hour of the night, she was surely already asleep, but there was no time to worry about that. After making the call, he continued to drive, keeping a close eye on the activity behind him.

He was driving slowly to begin with, so with the stamina and speed of a half-beast, following him was no challenge at all. One man and one car made their way through the night, slowly arriving at the headquarters of the Miracle Mercenary Group.

He pulled up to the gate, stopped the car, took his little cousin in his arms, and handed her to Fang Shuixian, who was already waiting at the door. Before she could speak, he greeted her and quickly headed to the first-floor conference room.

He opened the conference room door and turned on the light. Without stopping, he darted to the window, opened it silently, and slipped outside.

Climbing over the wall, he circled around, making his way to a narrow alley diagonally across from the entrance, where a dark figure was lurking. He now stood behind the shadowy figure.

The street outside was deserted. The alley was dim, lit only by a single lamp at the mouth of the lane. Under the hazy streetlight, the figure hid in the corner, the glasses on his face catching the light.

It was the bespectacled man who had apologized to Tang Mubai!

He had followed Tang Mubai all the way to the headquarters, watching from afar as Fang Shuixian carried the little cousin up the stairs, and keeping an eye on the brightly lit conference room on the first floor.

“Have you seen enough?” In the silent alley, a voice suddenly rang out.

No longer willing to wait, Tang Mubai deliberately made his footsteps audible as he walked toward the bespectacled man.

Swish! The glasses-wearing man stepped back, turned around, and looked at Tang Mubai with a mixture of wariness and shock. “You knew I was following you all along?”

“More or less,” Tang Mubai replied coldly. “I noticed you the moment you started following me.”

“I see.” The bespectacled man adjusted his frames and slowly walked out from the corner. “You noticed me, yet didn’t run. Are you confident you can take me down?”

“What do you think?” Tang Mubai’s face was expressionless.

The bespectacled man suddenly laughed. “Don’t be so stiff. True, it was wrong of me to tail you, but I mean you no harm. I just wanted to know where you live so I could come by tomorrow and offer a proper apology.”

“Oh really?” Tang Mubai smiled as well. “You’re very considerate, I see.”

“It’s only right,” the man waved his hand, slowly approaching Tang Mubai. “After all, we were in the wrong. It’s only proper that we come to apologize in person.”

“Oh? Then let me thank you in advance. But tell me—why didn’t you just ask to ride with me instead of sneaking along behind my car?” Tang Mubai’s face was all feigned curiosity.

“I just didn’t want to cause any unnecessary trouble,” the bespectacled man replied apologetically, drawing closer and closer. “If I’d explained myself, you might have misunderstood, and that wouldn’t be good. But see, now you’ve misunderstood anyway. After all, all I want is your life!”

At the last word, his speech sped up and his whole body suddenly lunged. His hands, spread wide like a pair of deadly claws, slashed toward Tang Mubai with ferocious swiftness.

Buzz—

In that instant, the air itself seemed to tremble.

A vast, oceanic, formless pressure descended from above, engulfing the bespectacled man and smashing him to the ground. His hands froze in their original posture, his face pressed to the earth, his whole body rigid.

“A... Grandmaster?” The bespectacled man, suddenly immobilized, was left dazed.

Such terrifying pressure was utterly beyond his capacity to resist. Even the bone bead he wore around his neck was useless; he had no time to activate it, and even if he did, it would make no difference. The aura of a Grandmaster-level human martial artist was a force unto itself!

“Spare... spare me...” Driven by the primal urge to survive, the bespectacled man struggled to speak through his terror. “I... I was just... just joking. I... I really only wanted to... to apologize... to make amends! If you... if you...”

“I want nothing else—just like you, I only want your life.” Maintaining the crushing force, Tang Mubai strode over to the bespectacled man. Before the latter could transform, before the terror and frustration could even coalesce, Tang Mubai stomped hard on his back, shattering his heart.

Bang!

The bespectacled man died on the spot.

The next moment...

[Detected loss of life energy. Do you wish to recover it?]

“Yes!”

[Life energy +205]