[Restart Volume] Chapter 242: A Fight Breaks Out!

At the sound of the alarm, the entire hall erupted into chaos.

“What? The Imperial City Special Police are here?”

“Hurry! Run!”

“Take the auction items with you!”

“You’re after them too?”

“Let go! They’re ours!”

In the confusion, the guests’ greedy natures were laid bare. Before Mo Xing’s eyes, a scene unfolded in which a pack of desperate criminals shouted, fought, tore at one another, and scrambled for anything they could seize.

“Hurry up and take the Drifting Blade!” said the man beside Mo Xing. He vaulted over the seats and dashed away, leaving only one sentence behind:

“That blade is extremely important!”

“Ah!” Mo Xing finally came to his senses.

The man was leaping from chair to chair with astonishing agility. It was practically the legendary art of light-footed movement across water!

No—more like—

The art of light-footed movement across chairs!

Mo Xing released Divine Frostless and ran straight after him.

At the center of the stage, a vast crowd surged chaotically. Some people were arguing, others were snatching up objects, while the auctioneer, clearly unable to protect the goods, simply covered his head and fled.

“Damn it, the Drifting Blade is mine!” Scarface Henren led a group of his brothers into the crowd, striking and robbing their way forward.

“Air Pirates, move out!” Fatty Gulaga charged over with the weapon in his hands.

“Gulaga, it’s been five or six years, and you’re still carrying that piece of junk, the Adamant?” Scarface Henren mocked the red-and-white greatsword in the fat man’s hands.

“Your Sharktooth isn’t anything special either!”

Fatty raised the greatsword named Adamant and brought it crashing down toward Scarface Henren’s head.

The two clashed, unleashing one skill after another.

The pirate crew led by Scarface Henren and the air-pirate crew led by Fatty Gulaga had been enemies for generations. Their grudge could even be traced back to the time of their grandparents.

That era had been turbulent and unstable. Scarface Henren’s grandfather, Da Jianren, and Fatty Gulaga’s grandmother, Gulaga Fragrant-Indeed, had once planned to stabilize both sides through marriage. On the day of the wedding, pirates and air pirates from every corner of the world arrived bearing lavish gifts. The celebration had been an extraordinarily lively affair.

But in the end, Da Jianren abandoned Gulaga Fragrant-Indeed and eloped with Tian Not-Sweet of the Bandit Gang, leaving Gulaga Fragrant-Indeed and the air-pirate crew utterly humiliated.

From then on, the pirates and air pirates became sworn enemies, and their feud had continued into the present generation.

While the pirate crew and the air-pirate crew fought with all their might, Thin Marcus quietly slipped over to the crystal case, a sly grin spreading across his face.

“Fight all you want. I’ll let you fools tear each other apart while I walk away with the Drifting Blade.”

Business had been difficult for the Bandit Gang in recent years. To make matters worse, their leader, Boss Tian, had been arrested not long ago, leaving the gang leaderless and scattered.

If he could obtain the Drifting Blade, he would surely be able to rally the entire Bandit Gang once more.

At the thought of this, Thin Marcus grinned even more broadly.

Whoosh!

Thin Marcus suddenly felt an immense pressure rush toward him from behind. Before he could turn around, a sudden kick sent him flying into a nearby pillar.

The others turned at the sound. They stared in shock at Marcus sprawled against the pillar, then looked toward the person standing beside the crystal case.

It was the masked man!

“You people don’t seem to have paid anything for it,” the man said, brushing the dust from his leather shoe.

“You masked bastard! Don’t think you can do whatever you want just because you knocked out Marcus! I’ll have you know, I’ve got an entire pirate crew behind me!” Scarface Henren snorted as he used Sharktooth to knock Fatty Gulaga away.

“Hey, masked brother! Want to work together? The air-pirate crew can pay you double!” Fatty Gulaga suddenly called out.

He was a man who knew how to read the situation. Ever since he was young, his grandmother, Gulaga Fragrant-Indeed, had taught him one principle: win others over and expand your connections. That was how one secured and strengthened the interests in one’s hands.

If he joined forces with the masked man before him, they might be able to wipe out Scarface Henren’s pirate crew in one stroke. It would also fulfill his grandmother’s lifelong wish for revenge.

“Work together?” The masked man paused, his eyes narrowing into slits. “Sure. Let’s destroy the pirate crew together!”

“Destroy the pirate crew? In your dreams!”

Scarface Henren raised Sharktooth and charged toward the masked man, shouting:

“Brothers! Attack! Capture the leader first!”

“Charge!”

The pirates surged forward all at once.

“You’re still reciting children’s lines?” The man slowly rolled his neck. “What era do you think this is?”

A surge of blue-green energy burst forth. The pirates at the front were blasted backward. Only Scarface Henren managed to withstand it, though the soles of his feet scraped continuously against the floor.

“This… this is terrifying!”

The pirates behind him turned and fled.

“Hey! Get back here!”

Scarface Henren roared, but only a few people glanced back at him before continuing to run with the others.

“Ugh, what a bore.”

The man turned toward the crystal case and was just about to open it when he suddenly froze.

At that moment, Mo Xing was hurrying toward the center of the stage with Divine Frostless in hand. He was wondering what kind of person this man was. He had taken down so many pirates in an instant.

As Mo Xing came down the stairs, he saw the man standing before the crystal case, motionless. Then the man suddenly shouted in his direction:

“Get out of the way!”

A mass of black mist abruptly erupted from the crystal case. The man instantly teleported to Mo Xing’s side and released a blue-green protective shield around them, preventing the black mist from seeping in.

When Mo Xing recovered from his shock, he saw countless serpentine tendrils formed from the black mist wrapping around the necks of Scarface Henren, Fatty Gulaga, and the others nearby. They did not even have a chance to struggle.

“Graaah!”

They let out strange, distorted cries. Black smoke began pouring from their bodies, while their bones and features twisted into the shape of rats.

“What… what happened to them? What was inside that crystal case?” Mo Xing asked in astonishment.

He had seen a similar scene during the freshman assessment. The berserk warrior from that time had been transformed in much the same way.

Could it be another—

“Banned medicine from the Kallentis Order,” the man replied. “The Drifting Blade inside that crystal case was fake. It contained one of the Seven Forbidden Drugs: Kaito, the blue potion representing greed.”

“How do you know so much…”

Mo Xing turned his head to ask another question, but he was stunned by the man’s face.

At some point, the man’s mask had come off. But that was not what shocked Mo Xing.

The man’s face looked remarkably like Mr. Shen’s.

He was practically a younger version of Mr. Shen!

“You… you’re Shen—”

Mo Xing could hardly believe his eyes. From beginning to end, he had not realized that the man standing before him was actually—

“All right, I know you have many questions.” Mr. Shen did not turn his head. He merely smiled faintly in profile. “These are unusual circumstances. I’ll explain when we have the chance. For now, continue cooperating with me.”

“Mo Xing!”

“All right!” Mo Xing bit his lip and nodded.

“Fight our way out first!” Mr. Shen released the wind element, blasting back the monsters closing in around them. “Do not hold back!”

“All right… Pillar of Frost!”

Mo Xing gathered ice energy along his blade and summoned a ring of towering ice pillars.

Roar!

A rat-headed monster smashed straight through the ice pillars and reached toward Mo Xing with its claws.

Bang!

Mr. Shen released a wave of blue-green energy that sent the monster flying. Then he shouted again:

“Remember, they are no longer human! Use your blade to tear through their bodies!”

“Understood!”

Mo Xing steeled his heart. That was right. The monsters before him were no longer human. Holding back would only give them the advantage.

“Ice Blade!”

Mo Xing cleaved through the monster before him while releasing razor-sharp shards of ice that pierced through its body.

The wounded monster began to emit black smoke. A blue-green cyclone summoned by Mr. Shen swept it away, spiraling through the air nearby like a kitchen exhaust fan drawing away smoke and grease.

“To the stairs! Find higher ground!” Mr. Shen shouted. “If they’re too close, I can’t use my full strength!”

“Got it!”

Mo Xing cut down the monsters in front of him and followed Mr. Shen toward the stairs. Behind them, the monsters pursued with the mindless frenzy of the undead in a zombie film. Their twisted faces seemed to bear only one word:

Devour.

The two of them raced all the way to the top of the stairs, which led into the casino hall.

“Mo Xing, hold them off for a while!” Mr. Shen suddenly said.

“What? How long?”

Mo Xing looked at the countless monsters before him. Facing them alone was going to be difficult.

“Five seconds!” Mr. Shen answered.

At the same time, he drew a massive bow made of blue-green crystal from his storage bracelet. A raging whirlwind burst to life around his body.

“Fine! You charge up your ultimate move, and I’ll deal with the monsters! Holy—”

Before Mo Xing could finish, a monster pounced at him. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and cut it down in midair.

“Grasp of Frozen Water!”

Mo Xing swung his blade. Combined with the water element, it transformed into a gigantic claw that ripped the surrounding sofas and chairs from the floor and hurled them at the charging monsters.

A massive figure suddenly emerged from the side.

It was Fatty Gulaga, but his expression had become horribly twisted.

Mo Xing froze for a moment before tightening his grip on his blade and thrusting it toward Fatty Gulaga’s body.

“Graaah!”

Fatty Gulaga let out one final howl. Blood mixed with an unknown blue liquid sprayed through the air. Mo Xing hurriedly retreated several steps to avoid being splashed by the strange fluid.

Divine Frostless was clearly no ordinary weapon. The blood on its blade was instantly sealed beneath a layer of frost, then shattered into fragments of ice that scattered across the patterned red carpet.

“Mr. Shen! Are you done yet?” Mo Xing shouted.

In truth, his hand had been trembling from the very beginning. He was still somewhat afraid of this kind of brutal fight to the death. That damned merciful heart of his refused to let go.

“Mr. Shen?”

When Mr. Shen did not answer, Mo Xing hurriedly turned around.

Mr. Shen had vanished.

What the hell?

Damn it! Had Mr. Shen sold him out?

“Graaah!”

The monsters surged forward again. Mo Xing hurriedly released Frozen Water: Spiral Tempest, sweeping aside the obstacles before him and carrying himself briefly through the air to another position.

Come to think of it, Mo Xing rather liked this technique, Frozen Water: Spiral Tempest. It was like combining a toy helicopter with a water-spraying truck: it could disrupt an opponent’s vision while also carrying him to a safe location.

“Graaah!”

Only then did Mo Xing realize that several monsters had crawled out from beneath the nearby gaming tables. Half-human and half-beast, they were shrouded in black mist.

He was surrounded!

“Damn it! Why are there so many weasels?”

Mo Xing frowned, bit down on his lip, and tightened his grip on Divine Frostless.

He faced the countless super-mutated, bio-engineered gamblers with yellowish faces and rat-like heads, each of them howling like a wolf. He had no idea how much chance he had of surviving.

“Graaah!”

The “weasels” pounced at him all at once.

Mo Xing raised Divine Frostless as ice energy began to gather around him in the shape of a storm.