His speed was so impossibly fast that the man didn’t even have time to unleash his ability before being sent flying.
Bang!
Tables and chairs toppled instantly, one chair leg snapping clean off, its jagged end stabbing straight into the man’s back.
If not for the vines protecting him, he would have been impaled.
“Fuck! What the hell?!”
The man’s voice twisted with shock. He frantically mobilized his energy to resist while trying to see what exactly had attacked him.
Qiao Xi’s strength and speed were several times greater than during the day. She pinned the man to the ground and raised her hand to snap his neck.
Only then did the man get a clear look—the one who had tackled him was a woman.
A very beautiful woman, at that.
He crossed his arms in front of him to block, while his other hand gathered energy.
Green light swirled around his palm, and a vine shot out, wrapping around Qiao Xi’s neck in an instant.
The immense force dragged her backward, while the vine around her neck kept tightening.
Tighter. And tighter.
If she were an ordinary person, she would already be struggling to breathe, her body going limp.
Qiao Xi’s expression remained unchanged. She used all her strength to push back against the force.
At the same time, she reached up to tear the vine away, but it was wrapped too tightly.
She couldn’t get a grip on it at all.
Just as she felt her neck about to be crushed, the corner of her eye caught the man’s smug face—
And his right hand, glowing green.
She decisively lifted her foot and stomped hard on his wrist.
Crack!
The moment his wrist bone shattered, a miserable shriek tore from the man’s throat.
The next instant, a stainless steel straw pierced into his carotid artery.
His scream cut off abruptly. Clutching his throat, eyes bulging wide, he stared in terror as a bewitching smile curled across Qiao Xi’s beautiful face.
She leaned down, bit the other end of the straw, and drank his blood in deep, greedy gulps.
“You… you… ugh…”
The rich, sweet blood slid down her throat, carrying a pure energy aura that stimulated her senses.
Qiao Xi narrowed her eyes, driven by instinct as she kept drawing blood, completely oblivious to the fact that the sounds of fighting outside had already stopped.
Qin Wang’s room looked like it had just been through a major earthquake—most of the furniture had been blasted to pieces, the walls were cracked, and the floor was a mess.
The wind-type ability user lay on the ground, his chest pierced through by the Lightning Spirit, a gaping hole torn open in it. He was deader than dead.
The ice-type ability user, Li Feng, had been holding a heavy hammer made of strange material and could have held out a bit longer—
But Li Chuan, who had been hiding in the shadows, appeared and teamed up with Qin Wang to take him down.
The moment Qin Wang finished his side, he strode quickly toward the room across the way.
He’d heard fighting from this side earlier, and now that it had gone quiet, he didn’t know how Qiao Xi was doing.
A split second before the door opened, Qiao Xi was still immersed in the deliciousness of the ability user’s blood.
Hearing the faint sound of the door lock scraping, she snapped awake.
The instant Qin Wang stepped through the door, she yanked out the straw, grabbed the corpse by the shoulders, and with a hard shove, successfully flipped it over.
Qin Wang entered.
First, the thick stench of blood hit him, making him frown.
Then he heard the sounds of a struggle.
On the other side of the bed, Qiao Xi was pinned to the ground by the plant-type ability user. She was gripping something like a metal rod, and with a squelch, she drove it into the man’s neck.
Qin Wang’s brows knitted tightly. He hurried over and shoved the man off her.
The ability user looked tall and burly, but he was lighter than expected.
By the time he hit the ground, he was already dead.
Qin Wang felt a flicker of confusion, but before he could look closer, Qiao Xi threw herself into his arms.
“Who were those people? They scared me half to death.”
Qiao Xi looked thoroughly shaken, her arms wrapped around his neck with unusual tightness.
Even when she’d been facing down two ability users moments ago, she hadn’t felt this suffocated.
Qin Wang could barely breathe. He patted her arm.
“Let go!”
Only then did Qiao Xi loosen her grip slightly.
But she still clung to him, refusing to get down.
Which meant Qin Wang couldn’t examine the corpse for any important items.
He had no choice but to carry her down to the first floor first.
Li Chuan stood at the doorway, watching Qin Wang carry Qiao Xi downstairs.
As they passed him, Qiao Xi’s fingertip brushed her lips in a seemingly casual gesture.
It looked like nothing out of the ordinary, but Li Chuan’s brow suddenly furrowed. His mind immediately jumped to something.
After the two figures disappeared around the corner, Li Chuan stepped into Qiao Xi’s room and began examining the plant-type ability user’s corpse.
From the corner of her eye, Qiao Xi caught the sudden change in Li Chuan’s expression and knew he was suspicious of her again.
A faint smile tugged at her lips. That was exactly what she wanted.
Downstairs.
Qiao Xi spotted Xia Manman, whose face bore fresh injuries. She had already changed clothes, hiding the wounds on her body.
Those people must have burst in and hurt her.
Xia Manman showed no particular reaction, only shooting Qiao Xi a hateful glare when she appeared.
But she quickly looked away and continued sitting in the corner of the living room, head lowered.
Before long, Li Chuan came down from upstairs. His steps were slow, his expression thoughtful, and the look he gave Qiao Xi carried a chill of suspicion.
He reached the first floor, glanced at Qin Wang, and seemed to want to say something but held back.
Dawn was already approaching.
Qin Wang laid out the items confiscated from the three Ability Users on the table—two guns, a hammer, and some bullets.
The guns didn’t look particularly special, but the hammer was rather adorable—only palm-sized, exquisitely crafted, and gleaming with a dark metallic luster.
Qiao Xi was just about to reach for it when Li Chuan suddenly spoke up. “I want this hammer.”
He paused, then smiled as he looked at the others. “No objections, right?”
Qin Wang remained expressionless, idly toying with one of the pistols.
Qiao Xi furrowed her brow. “I have an objection.”
Li Chuan’s expression shifted slightly, his gaze at her carrying both coldness and wariness. “Don’t tell me you want it too?”
Qiao Xi nodded matter-of-factly. “Yeah.”
“I’ve taken a liking to this little thing. I want it.”
Li Chuan’s face darkened. He glanced to the side. “Qin Wang, who do you say it goes to?”
At his words, everyone turned their attention to him.
Qiao Xi said, “That bad guy snuck in tonight, and I killed one too. Even if we’re dividing spoils by merit, this hammer should go to me, right?”
Li Chuan sneered. “Then I killed two. Should I get two guns to match?”
“You have the nerve to say that? It was your watch shift tonight. You let people in, and you still have the face to claim credit here?”
Li Chuan immediately denied it. “With that many people on the other side, isn’t it normal for a few to slip through during the fight?”
“So the ones who slipped upstairs were all Ability Users, huh? And they could pinpoint our room exactly.”
Qiao Xi’s expression turned mocking. “Who knows if someone deliberately leaked our room number.”
The moment she finished speaking, Xia Manman, who had been sitting in the corner, gave a violent shudder. She shot to her feet and pointed at Qiao Xi’s nose, cursing, “Qiao Xi, who the hell are you being so passive-aggressive at? What are you trying to say?”
The outburst caught Qiao Xi completely off guard.
Chen Zhiang, sitting nearby, was also startled. “Jeez, they’re the ones arguing—why are you getting all worked up?”
Li Chuan let out a cold snort. “Not satisfied with how I kept watch? Then you take the next shift!”
As his words fell, silence settled over the room.
Xia Manman’s face was taut as she sat back down in her original spot.
“Give her the thing. You keep the gun.”
Qin Wang, who hadn’t spoken the whole time, suddenly uttered a sentence.
Everyone instinctively looked at him.
“Give it to who?”
Qin Wang’s expression was cold as he uttered two words. “Qiao Xi.”
With that, he pushed the hammer in front of Qiao Xi.
Li Chuan watched with cold eyes, his expression growing uglier by the second. Finally, without another word, he grabbed a pistol and stormed upstairs in a huff.
As he passed by Qin Wang, he lowered his head and whispered something in his ear.
“You’d better be sure that what you’re protecting is a person.”