92: Person in the Mist
"These things are so strange." Cutting the decaying wooden wall in front of her in half with one sword, Bai Ling's heart was full of confusion.
When the mist began to spread, she sensed something was wrong.
But when she looked up, wanting to tell Leticia about this wrongness, that girl had already been swallowed by the thick fog and disappeared without a trace.
Bai Ling panicked for a moment, but she quickly calmed down. She believed Leticia's side wouldn't have any major problems. A demon who could escape from her former self wouldn't capsize so easily.
Moreover, the opponent's target should be herself.
What Leticia could think of, Bai Ling could naturally think of too, and she reached conclusions much faster than Leticia.
After the mist appeared, Bai Ling lost contact with the outside world. This could also indicate that this mist wasn't the work of the Hero Association or the United Government—otherwise, they wouldn't exclude themselves.
"Is it that Parliament Member? But why would he have this kind of thing?" Bai Ling pondered while holding her chin.
"Miss in black, if you can obediently hand over your briefcase, I might spare your life." Just as Bai Ling was thinking of countermeasures, an old man's figure suddenly appeared in the thick fog.
Bai Ling instinctively hid the briefcase behind her. This old man gave her a very strange feeling.
It was a weird sensation between life and death that was impossible to fathom.
"Who are you?" Bai Ling squinted her eyes, endless sword light brewing in them. "That Parliament Member's helper?"
"Helper doesn't quite fit. Just cooperation partners." The old man shook his head. "Your strength is decent, but if you want to leave this city, it's far from enough."
"I've heard this kind of talk many times." Bai Ling was too lazy for nonsense. This old man's strangeness made her unable to believe even a single word from his mouth.
For enemies with whom there was no need for communication, Bai Ling only ever did one thing.
Slash!
Brilliant starlight tore apart the old man's body, but his voice still echoed in the space: "Seems we can't make peaceful money, then let's get to work."
Accompanied by eerie shrieks, one after another strangely shaped creatures jumped out from the mist, targeting the box in Bai Ling's hands.
The monsters worked hard, but Bai Ling appeared very calm. Those monsters couldn't approach her body at all. Once a monster came within about five meters of her, a phantom sword would suddenly appear and pin them to the ground.
But Bai Ling's actions had little effect. Those monsters weren't living beings at all, but rather condensations of the mist.
They couldn't be killed.
Bai Ling considered using her full strength to directly split this place open, but she still had some reservations. She was afraid this mist wasn't that solid.
If something went wrong, her full-power attack might vaporize an entire block in an instant.
This was the trouble of Bai Ling, this human-shaped nuclear bomb. Unless she was in sparsely populated wilderness, she didn't dare use her full strength.
Otherwise, if the post-disaster statistics showed more people died by her hands than by the enemy's, that would be very embarrassing.
So Bai Ling began to flee. She ran out of the alley and came to an old and unfamiliar street.
Dim streetlights stood on both sides of the road, and old-style buildings seemed to transport Bai Ling across a hundred years of time.
She looked around and found a manor not far away.
Then came the scene from the beginning.
She cut down the wooden wall and entered the manor.
The courtyard here was very spacious—a suitable place for battle.
This was what Bai Ling thought, and naturally the old man hiding behind the mist thought the same.
Countless strange creatures growled as they walked out from the mist. Their turbid eyes stared at the calm Bai Ling, waiting only for their master's command to pounce and tear their prey to pieces.
"Little girl, this is the last chance. Hand over the box and you can keep your corpse intact." The old man's voice carried smugness. In his view, even the Association's strongest hero would be in grave danger when surrounded by these monsters.
"Illusory things, insignificant."
"Heh, refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit!" The old man was thoroughly angered by Bai Ling's attitude. Two attempts at negotiation had both ended in failure. He clearly understood Bai Ling would absolutely not surrender.
Since that was the case, then let's fight.
"Attack!"
The monsters received their orders and fearlessly pounced toward Bai Ling. Their dense numbers could definitely be called hell for those with trypophobia.
How many monsters were there?
Bai Ling was too lazy to count. Sometimes quantity could bring qualitative change, but no matter how many of these monsters there were, they were just slightly harder flour lumps to her.
She only needed to gently squeeze, and they would be beaten back to their original form without any resistance.
"If this is your trump card, then I can only regretfully tell you it's far from enough." A phantom sword flowing with stars across the sky appeared in Bai Ling's right hand. She focused her gaze and swung what seemed like a light sword toward the group of monsters pressing down on her like dark clouds.
The stars tore through the dark clouds, creating a galaxy in this world of mist.
The monsters didn't even have time to let out a wail before being crushed to fragments by Bai Ling's terrifyingly extreme attack.
"Let me see how many times you can release attacks like that." The old man hidden in the mist also twitched at the corner of his eye. That Bai Ling had so easily shattered his attack was something he never expected.
Beside him, several similarly-featured men were sweating profusely as they manipulated the mist to form monsters. Hearing the old man's voice, one of them looked up: "Old Eagle, I feel we can't outlast her."
"How can you not outlast her so quickly? Aren't you supposed to be able to display several times your strength here? Don't you have inexhaustible energy?"
"We didn't just trap one person here. There are two more on the other side, and we also trapped the advance team sent by the Hero Association." The speaker continued: "We need to pay attention to three places, so this side is somewhat unsustainable."
Old Eagle began pacing in place, calculating in his mind how to resolve the current situation.
Just as he was hesitating, a phantom female voice rang in his ear: "Bring that white-clothed little girl to the clock tower."
Hm? Why would this person actively contact him?
Old Eagle's heart filled with doubt. His communication with this person was limited to him offering tributes and this person releasing the mist.
Communication like this was the first time in decades.
"That is hope, a perfect body worthy of the gods. I want you to bring her to the clock tower, immediately, right now!"