Chapter 230: The Killer
Following behind the guide, Xu Zhi passed through the gaps between the tents and the soldiers moving back and forth, until she reached one of the more central tents in the encampment.
This tent was clearly the largest. Xu Zhi had no idea how it had been set up—at a glance it didn’t even feel like a tent, but more like a simply furnished room. The weather in the lower districts was overcast and gloomy, yet once the door opened and she entered, the lighting inside was surprisingly bright.
As the door opened, most of the people inside glanced toward the entrance. When they saw that it was a completely unfamiliar young girl—and one in a wheelchair at that—many of them showed puzzled expressions. Still, no one spoke up to ask questions. These uniformed personnel were gathered around a round table, seated as they watched something playing at its center. It looked like a live feed.
The footage showed a group of heavily armed soldiers conducting a raid somewhere. From time to time, figures in slightly different uniforms flashed across the screen. Unlike the others, they weren’t carrying guns. Xu Zhi guessed these were probably supernatural operatives.
Mobilizing this much force to deal with a serial killer could only be described as cautious.
The female officer who had first interacted with Xu Zhi pointed to a spot behind the round table. There were quite a few people seated there as well, their status seemingly lower than those at the table. Xu Zhi was pushed over to their side, occupying an inconspicuous position.
For most of the time, the room was quiet. Only occasionally did the people at the round table exchange a few words as the operation on the screen progressed.
Xu Zhi could sense it clearly—although everyone appeared to be focused on the live raid footage, there were still subtle, scrutinizing gazes falling on her from time to time.
Were they watching to see how she reacted to what was happening on screen?
Xu Zhi didn’t really care. She focused her attention entirely on the live feed. She, too, was curious about the true face of the “killer,” and she made no effort to hide that curiosity.
Judging from the footage, the location was not far from the slums where they lived—likely somewhere between the nearest factory and the residential area. There were makeshift shacks built along the roadside, as well as people living inside massive industrial pipes discarded by the factory. This area was mostly inhabited by lower-district residents who refused to work and had completely given up on scavenging—people who had utterly abandoned any effort to survive.
This was without question the filthiest and most degenerate part of the lower districts. Compared to this place, the slum where Qi Yixin lived could almost be considered orderly.
Most people referred to this area as the “Rat Hole.”
As the soldiers in the footage advanced step by step, Xu Zhi saw many emaciated scavengers sprawled casually along the roadside. Their expressions carried an absurd kind of calm. They watched these soldiers—figures that almost never appeared here—pass by without curiosity or interest, as if nothing that happened anymore could stir their desires.
Xu Zhi wondered: what was the difference between these people being alive or dead?
Before long, the soldiers in the feed locked onto a house and surrounded it completely. Without any hesitation, they kicked the door in and stormed inside.
The weather in the lower districts was always poor, and the streets were already dim. Inside a windowless room like this, it was practically night. The tactical flashlights mounted on the soldiers’ helmets provided some illumination, but there were still corners the light couldn’t reach.
And it was at the very moment the assault team poured into the room that—like a flash of lightning—a black-and-red blade shot out from the darkness. It pierced straight through the highly defensive combat armor. The instant it touched flesh, the red patterns along the blade flickered faintly, and the soldier’s blood drained away at terrifying speed. In the next heartbeat, as countless bullets were fired toward that direction, the blade had already been withdrawn without a sound.
Everyone monitoring the operation fell silent.
Even Xu Zhi showed a look of shock.
Of course, the others were shocked by the sudden strike from the darkness—how that seemingly light, effortless blow had pierced straight through a fully armored assault trooper. Xu Zhi, however, was shocked for a very different reason.
That blade looked far too familiar.
Wasn’t that her blade?!
“Is there really someone this skilled in the lower districts?”
Someone at the round table voiced the question.
“There’s something off about that blade,” another replied. “As for the person—if he were really that capable, why would he still be living in a place like this, waiting to die?”
The female officer spoke up, “He probably encountered some kind of opportunity during this period.”
Xu Zhi thought of what Qi Yixin had told her about the factory workers who had gone missing after skipping work. Others didn’t know, but Xu Zhi did—this blade possessed growth potential. And not just the blade itself; the one wielding it would also be affected by it.
Given where this man lived, those missing workers were likely intercepted and killed on their way to or from work.
As the number of killings increased, the blade’s influence on him would have grown stronger and stronger, until he had completely fallen into its grasp. At this point, it wasn’t the man using the blade—it was the blade using the man.
Xu Zhi didn’t believe someone living in a place like this could have the willpower to suppress the blade’s corruption.
By now, he probably couldn’t even be considered an ordinary human anymore. Those polluted by the blade would likely degenerate into followers of [Cup].
And probably the lowest tier at that—judging by his crude, reckless behavior, his intelligence clearly wasn’t high.
Causing such a massive disturbance without even trying to flee, and still attempting to kill when surrounded… how should she put it? It gave Xu Zhi the strange feeling of running into an “old acquaintance.” That sense of familiarity—long missed.
Since arriving in this world, Xu Zhi hadn’t heard a single piece of news related to [Cup]. Combined with what she already knew—that the Federation was a prison created to contain a supreme [Cup] existence, but that something had gone wrong—it was possible that the outside world still didn’t know the truth.
In their eyes, this world probably didn’t even have any [Cup]-attribute supernaturals.
Who knew where that true supreme being was hiding now, plotting its schemes—but today, this murderer was clearly about to give the people of this world a small taste of [Cup]-attribute “shock.”
A flashbang was thrown into the pitch-black room. The assault team, wearing protective goggles, wasn’t affected—but the killer lurking in the darkness was.
The instant the blinding light hit him, a hoarse, grating shriek tore from the corner of the room.
When his “true appearance” was revealed, both the assault team and those watching the live feed reacted with astonishment.
Could this still be called… a human?
He was completely bald—every strand of hair gone. He looked tall, but his body was hunched, making his actual height impossible to tell. He was frighteningly emaciated, every joint sharply outlined beneath his skin. His body seemed caked in layers of old filth and dried blood, turning him into a mass of grimy black.
Even more bizarre—his eyeballs were black as well. The only hint of color came from the grotesquely enlarged head, where thick red blood vessels bulged as if on the verge of bursting.
And in his hand—Was that black-and-red saber.
