Chapter 10: How Do You Wish to Die?

"Director Chu, you're finally here."

Luo Xuan, who had been drifting in a daze, snapped back to reality.

The moment she opened her eyes, the glaring sunlight assaulted her vision, causing her to involuntarily furrow her brow and shut them once more.

In the next instant, amidst a splitting headache, the memories of her ordeal came flooding back.

She was about to be slain by the Skinner who had assumed the identity of Grandmaster Xu Tianfang. Then, right before her consciousness completely faded from sheer mental exhaustion, she had seen a figure clad in crimson Divine Machinery strike Xu Tianfang flying with a single punch from the side.

What had happened after that?

Just before losing consciousness entirely, she had briefly regained a sliver of awareness. Though unable to open her eyes, she had distinctly caught the tail end of a sinister voice murmuring:

"...If you insist on courting death, injuring one of my people—"

The owner of that voice was definitely not Xu Tianfang, nor did it resemble anyone she had ever heard before.

*“The 'one of mine' mentioned by that person... does he mean me? When did I ever have that kind of relationship with anyone?”*

Luo Xuan pondered silently: *“Still, it seems I actually survived...”*

A sudden jolt of terror seized her—where was Zhou Yan?

With that single thought, she finally purged the lingering fog from her mind and took stock of her current physical situation.

She was draped across a solid, sturdy back, her long legs hooked around a waist and hips by someone's supporting hands, her arms resting over another's chest, with her cheek pillowed against a broad shoulder. Her nostrils were filled with a familiar, comforting scent.

*“Someone is carrying me?!”* Luo Xuan snapped her eyes wide open. Refusing to let the harsh sunlight blind her this time, she immediately looked up.

What greeted her vision was a familiar, handsome face at close range.

"Zhou Yan...?" the girl murmured instinctively.

"Oh, Xiao Xuan is awake," came Chu Wan's breezy, teasing voice from the side.

Zhou Yan turned his face toward the still-dazed, pretty visage and smiled faintly: "Xiao Xuan, how are you feeling?"

"I..." Luo Xuan instinctively tried to sit up, only to find her entire body weak and sore.

"You'd better let Zhou Yan carry you," Chu Wan's smiling voice chimed in again.

Luo Xuan managed to turn her head with some difficulty, catching sight of Chu Wan's alluring face: "Sister Chu... did you save me?"

"Obviously not." Chu Wan shook her head, smiling as she looked at Zhou Yan. "As for who saved you, you'll have to ask your deputy here."

She stared fixedly at Zhou Yan: "Little Brother Zhou, care to explain the situation?"

Zhou Yan also smiled and shook his head: "Xiao Xuan and I were hunted by the Skinner disguised as Xu Tianfang. We decided to split up and flee. The Skinner had no interest in me and went straight after Xiao Xuan. When I doubled back up the mountain to find her, I only saw her collapsed beneath a tree, while the Skinner had been reduced to a pile of minced meat."

Luo Xuan listened intently, then suddenly furrowed her brow: "Zhou Yan, didn't you leave immediately after getting away?"

Zhou Yan tilted his head and smiled at her: "I originally wanted to go, but when the sounds of combat stopped, I simply couldn't set my mind at ease, so I came back for you."

Luo Xuan's expression turned frosty: "We had an agreement! If you came back like that, what if I had already... You would have died for sure facing the Skinner head-on. If you had died too, what would happen to Luo Ke...?"

"Heh heh." Zhou Yan bypassed her reprimand entirely and said instead, "Of course I remember the agreement. Now we've both survived just as we agreed, right?"

With that, he gave Luo Xuan a pointed wink with his left eye.

The clear, unmistakable implication instantly reminded Luo Xuan of what they had said before parting ways.

*If we survive, a date?*

A faint blush crept across the girl's cold, pristine complexion.

"Oh, oh, oh~" Chu Wan, who had been listening to their exchange the whole time, let out a few strange chuckles. "It seems the two of you made quite the remarkable agreement. Did you secretly pledge your lives to each other if you survived?"

Her face was written with gossip, her eyes brimming with playful amusement.

Luo Xuan's limbs tightened instinctively, hugging Zhou Yan's neck and waist a bit more firmly, though her expression reverted to a stern mask: "Sister Chu, don't make random jokes."

Sensibly steering clear of the topic, Zhou Yan turned with a smile toward Chu Wan: "Director Chu, now that you're here, what about Expert Wu...?"

Hearing Zhou Yan's question, Chu Wan's expression turned serious: "When I arrived, Lu Ming was already dead, and Wu Wanqing was on the verge of dying from severe injuries."

She said coldly: "I've already eliminated all of those Skinners, and Wu Wanqing has been arranged for emergency transport to the hospital."

She looked at Zhou Yan: "I already have a general grasp of the situation and have filed a report. Yicheng hasn't seen an entire village replaced by Skinners in a very long time, and two teams from the Exorcism Department even died in the line of duty. The severity of the incident has enraged the upper echelons of the Vermilion Palace; I expect my position as Director won't be spared."

Luo Xuan, who had buried her face back into Zhou Yan's shoulder, lifted her head again upon hearing Chu Wan's words: "Then Sister Chu, what will you do next?"

Unexpectedly, Chu Wan shook her head nonchalantly: "With a problem like this, I am hard-pressed to shirk personal responsibility. Dismissal or demotion are only to be expected. Let's not worry about that for now."

She looked at Luo Xuan and Zhou Yan: "Get in the car first, we'll talk back at headquarters. I've already arranged for other officers to process the scene."

Zhou Yan handed the black Divine Machinery in his hand to Chu Wan: "Director Chu, this is the Divine Machinery the Skinner used. It seems damaged—shouldn't it be turned in to the department?"

Chu Wan took it, glanced it over, and nodded: "This is Grandmaster Xu Tianfang's Divine Machinery, and also a high-grade piece from the Black Tortoise Palace. This fellow served the Black Tortoise Palace in his early years, and after reaching old age, he returned to the Vermilion District to retire. He apparently passed away a few months ago. By all accounts it should have been cremated, but it now appears that before cremation, it might have been..."

She suddenly raised her head, her burning gaze locking onto Zhou Yan: "Little Brother Zhou, your timing with that reminder couldn't be better!"

"Huh?" Zhou Yan blinked in surprise, then immediately understood as well.

The two spoke in unison: "There's a problem with the crematorium!"

Luo Xuan, resting against Zhou Yan's shoulder, felt a flicker of discomfort as she watched the tacit understanding between Chu Wan and Zhou Yan.

Her hands instinctively tightened their grip around Zhou Yan just a fraction more.

Without any further hesitation, Chu Wan strode forward holding the black Divine Machinery, opened the door, and got into the vehicle: "You two, hurry up and get in as well. We're heading back to the city immediately!"

Obediently following along, Zhou Yan shielded Luo Xuan's head as they both ducked into the back seat.

He gently and softly settled Luo Xuan onto the seat, then took his place right beside her.

Luo Xuan watched all of this quietly, gazing at Zhou Yan's face inches from her own, and felt a sudden wave of restlessness.

Averting her gaze, she asked, "Zhou Yan, did... did you get hurt?"

"No," Zhou Yan replied, turning his gaze back to her. "What about you? Your clothes are covered in blood; you must have been heavily injured. You need to receive treatment immediately once we get back."

"I didn't..." Luo Xuan started to say she was fine, but a sudden realization hit her.

"Eh?"

She silently circulated her internal energy to check her body, discovering that aside from exhaustion and mental fatigue, she seemed completely devoid of any injuries, prompting a soft sound of astonishment.

She remembered very clearly that at the very end, she had pushed her Divine Machinery and her own power to the absolute limit, unleashing her strongest strike, "Chongming," and that the exertion had caused her skin to tear and bleed all over her body.

Yet now, while the blood stains were clearly still on her clothes, her injuries had inexplicably vanished.

Clearly, it was that mysterious figure who had saved her, using some miraculous method to heal her wounds.

Who on earth was that mysterious person?

Luo Xuan pondered the words she had heard before losing consciousness entirely.

*I am 'his' person...*

She couldn't help but glance at Zhou Yan, who only returned her look with a puzzled expression.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Yan asked.

"Nothing," Luo Xuan lowered her head.

A complicated expression washed over the girl's face.

*Zhou Yan... was it you?*

***

Somewhere inside Yicheng.

A hurried man knocked on a door.

"Come in," a steady male voice replied from within.

The man immediately opened the door, slipped inside, closed it carefully, and spoke in a rapid tone: "The life signals for Xu Tianfang and the two Exorcism Department experts have vanished."

"Furthermore, I've received word that a large contingent of Public Security officers has been dispatched to the outskirts, heading toward Shouhe Village."

Finally, the man voiced his deduction: "That place must have been exposed."

"Mm, I know."

The steady male voice sounded. Following the man's line of sight, an ordinary office desk sat before him, behind which sat a middle-aged man who looked close to forty.

At the moment, the man was leaning back in his chair, reading a book.

His features were utterly unremarkable, the kind that would instantly blend into any crowd.

He turned a page without lifting his head and said softly: "Immediately arrange for the personnel at the crematorium to evacuate, and inform the other dormant Skinners to lie low. No more trouble is to be stirred up during this period. If this affects the Society's grand plan, I will make them beg for death."

"Understood! Hall Master, I'll handle it right away!" The subordinate turned to leave at once.

"Wait," the book-reading man addressed as the Hall Master called out to his subordinate. "Bring me the transmitted footage from right before Xu Tianfang and the two Exorcism Department experts died. I want to see it."

"Yes, sir!" the subordinate replied once more.

He turned, opened the door, and left. Soon after, another staff member knocked and entered, handing a tablet computer to the Hall Master.

The man took the tablet and began playing the footage of the three Skinners' deaths at double speed.

As he watched, he muttered low evaluations under his breath.

"Wu Wanqing from the Exorcism Department's First Team... quite lucky indeed. But even so, he lost his entire right arm; even if it can be reattached, he won't have any combat capability for a short time."

"Chu Wan... this woman's Divine Machinery is a special model. Did she almost instantly kill two people...? Though those two were only ordinary Annihilation-tier, being instantly killed while both sides were using the second-gear power of their Divine Machinery is no simple feat..."

"Xu Tianfang's opponent looks somewhat familiar..."

"Ah! This Divine Machinery—it belongs to Luo Huaiyi's daughter."

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is. Luo Huaiyi, I didn't expect you to stubbornly go looking for trouble while you were alive, and now that you're dead, your own daughter is going to follow the exact same path?"

"Interesting—someone come here!"

Raising his voice, a subordinate soon entered: "Hall Master, your orders!"

The Hall Master calmly instructed: "Investigate everything about the woman Xu Tianfang faced, including her address and her family and friends in Yicheng."

As he spoke, a smile crept onto his face as he looked down at the high-definition yet violently shaking video of Luo Xuan collapsing to her knees.

"Let her taste the pain her father suffered."

In the next second, his gaze locked.

On the screen, Xu Tianfang's wild laughter abruptly cut off, and the camera view violently flipped upside down.

As the image stabilized, it revealed a figure clad in crimson armor who, after settling Luo Xuan down, walked slowly toward the lens.

And in a fleeting moment, the crimson armor shifted into terrifying pitch-black plate armor.

Immediately afterward, the voice of the black-armored individual echoed from the speakers:

"How do you want to die?"

It sounded as though he were asking Xu Tianfang, yet equally as though he were asking the person watching the video.