The distance was close. There wasn’t much room to dodge, but…

  Pity, that knife was just too slow.

  Snap. An iron claw locked the assassin’s wrist...

  A light twist reversed the blade, burying it right into its owner heart!

  The final twist sealed the deal.

  Blood sprayed from from the maiden’s mouth, but a handy hardwood board intercepted the spray midair.

  A light kick to the stomach sent the assassin launching back like a ragdoll, thumping to the ground a few meters away.

  Bubai looked at the writhing assassin on the ground, struggling like a fish flopping on a chopping board and coughing up bits of shattered organs.

  So… weak. Pathetically weak. This level…

  “A mortal that hasn’t even reached the late-stage of Qi refinement?”

  With such cultivation, she dared to assassinate him?

  Even if his injury wasn’t purely for show, this level of assassination was a joke!

  Want to trick him with cheap honey traps like this? Please.

  Sure, this lady had a serviceable figure and a pretty face, but it was unmistakable she had dolled herself up to reach this standard.

  This kind of prettiness born from cheap powder and rouges is simply incomparable to the natural radiance owned by those flowers blooming in his own garden!

  Just look. Even that hot attendant behind him was a class above this nameless lady!

  Let’s not even mention the other members of his harem. Each is better than the last.

  With so many bombshells under his green thumb, why would he be interested in wild flowers like this?

  Even if he felt pent up after back to back fights, he won’t look for this type of flower girl to help him enter sage mode.

  Even more so now, when a certain redhead already let him vent to his heart’s content just earlier.

  To the current Bubai, this flower girl held no attraction whatsoever! Merlin’s beard, she can’t even get a raise out of him!

  If he takes his combat power into consideration, it’ll be ridiculous if he really falls for a lame trick like this!

  Honest to goodness. Where did this crazy woman get the idea that this would work? Or...

  Did someone put her up to this?

  Seeing the assassin spit out black blood like in dramas, Bubai’s brows furrowed.

  The cliché poison to get rid of any leads. Was that prepared? Or…

  Bubai locked onto the buried knife. Smeared on there? Was that her confidence?

  Glancing back at the assassin’s face, he could see the tears streaming freely from the woman’s already dulling eyes.

  Bubai knew he won’t be getting much answers out of her.

  But he noticed her lips moving, mouthing out something.

  His ears perked up and barely picked up on her broken mutters.

  “...give me back my child... my Ke’er… my child…”

  Bubai’s face sunk and his feet became rooted there, watching the mother lying in a pool of blood.

  Watching and listening...

  She didn’t stop crying for her child… not even on her very last breath.

  “...ah… Ke...”

  Then her chest rose for the final time, then stilled forever.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The lifeless body lay in a pool of blood, her eyes wide open, unseeing.

  Bubai tore his eyes away and looked up to the indifferent heavens, exhaling slowly. “Karma, huh?”

  There was no right or wrong in this tangled web.

  Lian Ke. That guy carried the hope of others on his back.

  He was just trying to climb higher, fighting for a better life, just like anyone else.

  It’s unfortunate he chose to step on a landmine to get there.

  The ending was set, leaving broken ties.

  Some people can look past death and live on strong.

  Others, like this mother, couldn’t.

  Attacking an inner disciple in broad daylight wasn’t a trivial matter.

  Perhaps she came prepared and never thought about going back alive.

  Sad, but in some twisted sense, it was better this way.

  For Bubai, he was simply glad she wasn’t the type to bottle up hatred just to stab him in the back decades later.

  The grass had been cut, and so had its roots.

  This was a good thing, but...

  Why did it still leave a bad taste?

  Bubai turned away and finally lowered his eyes. “Let’s go.”

  Time to turn the page. Walk forward into this world where justice rarely asked for consent.

  Behind, Miss Hong threw one last glance at the end of a tragedy. “Tsk. Stupid.”

  After that soft curse, her heels tapped out bursts of Qi and she chased after the man that left a trail of death in his wake.

  Not long after the light-footed pair disappeared down the road...

  Step. Step. Step. Black boots came to a stop right beside the cold corpse.

  The echoes of the mother’s cries seemed to be carried by the breeze, blowing over to tug at the long black ponytail of the masked lady in black.

  A small glass vial appeared over her palm.

  The cork popped off and the crystal-clear water flowed out onto her empty palm like liquid moonlight.

  Those jade-green eyes stared into the empty air as though seeing something others could not…

  “Rest.”

  The judge’s hand swept out, sprinkling the sacred water over the body...

  Upon contact, howling gray mist writhed out and dissipated into the air like shadows fleeing the sun.

  Malice, hatred, and pain—traces of a life ended in despair—evaporated as though never there.

  Some deaths were heavy as Mount Tai, while others meaningless like scattered ash.

  Such was the world.

  The last of the wisps soon vanished…

  “Send to crematorium. Case closed.”

  After impassively leaving the order, she whipped around and walked away.

  Tailing her, the teen officer sporting a bright red ponytail cast one last look back at her officer sisters packing up the body for its final journey.

  “Stupid. There’s so many ways to get revenge. Why seek death? Che.”

  After a quiet annoyed mumble, the fangirl turned away, quickening her steps to chase after her idol.

  Where will their path lead to? Who knows.

  North District. Public Commons.

  Stalls. Bubai said he was never stupid enough to come here again, but…

  As long as that golden core eunuch doesn’t bother with the world outside his tent, this place was actually great for blindsiding all those eyes watching over him...

  Opening the creaky door to a stall near the southern entrance, Bubai glanced over his shoulder and sighed inside, “Seriously, don’t they got better things to do?”

  Perching atop the distant stall roofs were ladies in black, spreading out like crows to form a wide half-ring around the area.

  Now, that’s a rare scene.

  Law enforcers usually skirt around this place full of forsaken women, yet here they are.

  Plain as daylight, unapologetically visible.

  Well, it wasn’t too surprising. Here, there were only stalls and more stalls.

  Spots to hide were many, but if they want a good field of vision, there really wasn’t much options.

  Can’t get the best of both worlds.

  Now, they had abandoned any pretense entirely. Literally saying: “You can’t escape. We’re always watching.”

  Alas, there wasn’t much Bubai can do about it.

  Privacy laws aren’t upheld for the weak.

  Surveillance was just another chain until he can resolve a critical link in his case.

  But that’s a task for later.

  Bubai dropped his gaze onto his attendant in her sleek black qipao. “Xiao Hong, wait here and keep others out.”

  “Tsk, nobody cares what dirty business you do in there.”

  Miss Hong crossed her arms and blew aside her bang annoyingly.

  “But you better make it quick, unless you want to miss the next round.”

  “I know.”

  Bubai nodded and pulled the door shut. Turning around, he faced the cramped space.

  “Well, if it’s roomy enough for waist-swinging pairs, it’s enough for what I need to do. Now let’s see...”

  Rubbing his hands excitedly, he opened his high-grade storage pouch.

  Lying dormant in a corner of that large cluttered space was a sleeping beauty with a visage as cold and perfect as a frost-kissed statue of an ice goddess.

  “The seal is still working fine, but... it’ll last a few hours at most. Heck, who knows if it’ll go poof sooner. If she suddenly wakes up in there…”

  Bubai grimaced at the thought.

  A low-tier doll can be shut down once the control core gets cut off, but...

  If a mid-tier puppet doesn’t get deactivated properly, once it links back to any energy source, it will reawaken in the mode it was last set to!

  In this case, it’ll be combat mode.

  What does that mean?

  It meant there will an out-of-control, indiscriminate slaughterer wrecking havoc in his storage pouch.

  Imagine his hand getting turned into a popsicle whenever he stuck it inside…

  Or getting hit by a mini ice age every time he opens the bag…

  Or worse, a killer doll crawling out of his storage pouch mid-battle...

  Yeah, definitely don’t want that.

  "It’s best to completely incapacitate her now..."

  Even better if he can directly resolve the main problem here and now.

  And he just so happen to have an idea worth trying…

  Reaching in, Bubai pulled out the frozen goddess and set her against the stall’s wall, taking a moment to admire her.

  A perfectly sculpted face. Flawless skin so smooth he can’t see the pores.

  Even in such a shabby, decrepit place, this goddess looked so gorgeous.

  Her hourglass waist invited him to feel her up…

  From smooth to firm and elastic...

  Even in this stasis state, he could imagine all the fun he could have with her.

  A quiet sigh escaped Bubai. “Pity I have to muzzle this.”

  But it was all for the greater good.

  That mouth was too dangerous, in many ways.

  Enjoying this ice queen can only be left until later, unless...