For some reason, the moment Xi Renjie saw those hollow eyes, his heart sank.
âTheâthe warehouse!â one of the enforcers shouted, drawing everyoneâs attention to the depths of the warehouse behind the crimson-robed figure.
An overpowering stench of burning plastic and charred meat poured from the warehouse. Amid the flames, countless blackened centipede corpses lay curled on the ground, their bodies torn apartâcovered in bite marks and missing limbs. The scene resembled a meticulously arranged hellscape.
Whether it was the visual horror or the suffocating stench, several enforcers clutched their stomachs and dry-heaved on the spot.
All dead?!
Xi Renjie stared at the warehouse floor littered with calamity corpses, his mind reeling. From the moment this figure had lured the creatures away to now, barely ten minutes had passedâand yet, every single one had been annihilated?
And judging by the bite marks on the corpsesâŠ
Xi Renjieâs gaze snapped back to the crimson-robed figure, his wariness skyrocketing.
âWho⊠are you?â he demanded, eyes locked on the fluttering red opera robe.
The figure didnât answer. It simply walked forward in silence, like a soulless husk.
Thenâa breeze swept across the wilderness.
The crimson robe swayed gently in the wind, and from its sleeves, a scarlet butterfly fluttered out, drifting lightly past the stunned onlookers.
This butterfly had no patterns, no discernible organs or limbsâas if cut from red paper. Its wings flapped, blood-red and unnatural.
Then came a second. A third. A fourthâŠ
With a flick of the figureâs sleeve, a flood of butterflies surged forth, a swirling crimson tide that engulfed Xi Renjie and the others!
Xi Renjie instinctively raised his arms to shield his face. Through his fingers, he saw the crimson robe itself dissolving into butterflies, blotting out the world in a haze of scarlet.
âWhere did all these butterflies come from?!â An enforcer squinted against the fluttering wings, panicking as he fumbled for his gun.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire rang out, but the butterflies didnât disperse. Instead, Xi Renjieâs furious roar followed:
âIdiot! Who told you to shoot?!â
The crimson figure might be mysterious, but heâd saved Xi Renjieâs life and drawn away District Threeâs calamities. Even if his motives were unclear, that didnât make him an enemyâwhich was why Xi Renjie hadnât drawn his sword or gun yet.
But now, with this fool opening fire, what if the figure took it as a declaration of war?
The shooter froze mid-panic. Before he could react, the swirling butterflies before him suddenly coalescedâ
The crimson-robed figure materialized inches from his face, hollow eyes staring into his soul.
The enforcer screamed, instinctively raising his gun againâbut as the figureâs sleeve flicked, the weapon in his hand suddenly felt lighterâŠ
When he finally lifted it, what he clutched was no longer a gun, but a fresh yellow banana, pointed squarely at Chen Lingâs forehead.
A banana?!
The enforcer gaped at the fruit in his hand, his brain short-circuiting.
Before he could process this, the crimson sleeve swept againâ
The butterflies around him twisted, elongating into slender snakes that coiled around his body like ropes. Their forked tongues flicked against his cheeks, icy and damp.
The horror shattered the enforcerâs sanity. He shrieked, thrashing to escape, but the snakes clung like a second skin.
âAAAAHHHâ!! HELP! HELP ME!!â
As he screamed, Xi Renjie gritted his teeth, drew his steel sword, and charged forwardâslashing through the snakes binding his comrade.
The severed snakes fell away, revealing the enforcerâs bare torso beneath⊠Both men stared, rubbing their eyes.
Had his clothes turned into snakes? Or had the snakes been his clothes all along?
An illusion?
Thenâa ghostly crimson figure appeared behind Xi Renjie.
Every hair on Xi Renjieâs body stood on end. He spun and swung his sword without hesitation!
The blade shrieked through the airâ
But as his vision blurred, the steel sword in his grip morphed into a charred wooden stick, whistling toward Chen Lingâs head!
For a split second, Xi Renjieâs heart lurched. But remembering how his sword had cut the âillusionaryâ snakes earlier, he convinced himself this was another trickâthat he still held an unbreakable blade. He tightened his grip and swung harder!
Crack!
The stick snapped in half.
Xi Renjie stared blankly at the broken piece in his hand.
Because blocking his strike was none other than his own steel swordânow wielded by Chen Ling. Like the enforcer before him, Xi Renjieâs brain blue-screened.
Wait⊠what?!
Werenât the butterflies and snakes just illusions?!
Just as Xi Renjie accepted reality as false, the false became real again. And when he dismissed it as illusion, reality reasserted itself. He could no longer distinguish truth from deception.
The only constant was the eerie, chilling smile on the crimson-robed figureâs face.
The steel sword whistled down, narrowly dodged by Xi Renjie. Desperate, he yanked his gun from his holster, shut his eyes, and pulled the triggerâ
No gunfire came.
His fingers touched something smooth.
Xi Renjie opened his eyes in disbelief. The gun in his hand had transformed into⊠a banana.
âThis canât be real.â His mind blanked.
This has to be fake⊠Or is it?
Then he watched as Chen Ling slowly raised a banana of his ownâ
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three bullets slammed into Xi Renjieâs body. Though his
[Iron Clad]
softened the blows, his mind might as well have died on the spot.
Thereâs no winning this.
He couldnât comprehend the logic behind this absurd battle. His thoughts drowned in endless scarlet, leaving only Chen Lingâs haunting visage.
When the false becomes real, the real becomes false.
As if all of thisâevery twist, every trickâhad been conjured into existence with a flick of that crimson sleeveâŠ
A scarlet sleight of hand.