Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)

“Where is everyone?” The Reaper’s heart began to pound uneasily. This shouldn’t be. What did they say they were going to do earlier? It didn’t sound important. It was just going to the toilet. After that, they were supposed to intercept the car as planned. So why are all my teammates gone? Have they retreated? If they had, they should have sent me a signal.

The Reaper tried to summon his comrades again. “Come out, all of you!”

Still, no one responded.

He cursed inwardly. A bunch of unreliable bastards. Now that things have come to this, I’ll have to handle it myself!

Lu Yang was also somewhat surprised by the Reaper’s appearance. After dealing with the genetically modified warriors, he had followed their directions to a nearby Supreme Society base. Since he was already at it, he decided to drop by. With a few minor tricks, he made everyone at the base turn themselves in at the police station.

I was already so thorough with my cleanup, yet the Reaper still slipped through the net. Indeed, rushing things can easily lead to oversights.

“All of you, run!” Mi Xue’er pushed the others away and charged at the Reaper.

“I’ll help too!” Yu Ran volunteered.

The Reaper realized something was wrong the moment he engaged Mi Xue’er. “You’ve been hiding your strength!” Based on the intelligence, Mi Xue’er shouldn’t be this strong!

Yu Ran’s attacks followed in quick succession. Although she wasn’t as strong as Mi Xue’er and the Reaper, she created openings for Mi Xue’er to exploit.

Outmatched by the two women, the Reaper considered retreating, but escaping now was easier said than done. He feigned an opening, and Mi Xue’er’s inexperience in combat led her to fall for it.

Seizing the opportunity, he lunged at Lu Yang and Lan Hai, hooking an arm around Lu Yang’s neck. His hands were his deadliest weapons. With just a bit of force, he could sever Lu Yang’s throat.

“No one move! Otherwise, I’ll kill him!”

Mi Xue’er and Yu Ran froze in their tracks, not daring to advance.

“Ah, I’ve been taken hostage.” Lu Yang raised his hands in surrender.

The Reaper sneered, backing away step by step with Lu Yang as his hostage. Before leaving, he threw a small note. “If you want him to live, come to this location!”

The Supreme Society had a base nearby. He planned to lure Mi Xue’er and the others there.

Mi Xue’er picked up the note with a grim expression. By the time she stood up, both the Reaper and Lu Yang had vanished.

~~~

The Reaper sprinted with Lu Yang in tow, trying to contact his comrades, but there was still no response. A sense of foreboding welled in his heart.

He took an elevator down into the underground secret base.

The place was brightly lit yet devoid of any living soul. The coffee on the tables was still steaming. There were no signs of struggle.

The Reaper felt a chill run down his spine. It was as though everyone at the branch had evacuated in an emergency.

“Hey, Extreme Frost, are all of you here—

“All Things Born, if you guys are here, say something—”

The Reaper’s voice echoed down the long corridors, but no one answered.

Suddenly, a voice came from the end of the hallway. “Mr. Reaper, I’m here.”

Overjoyed, the Reaper rushed over. I knew there had to be someone.

But standing at the end of the hallway was a housekeeping robot. It stared at him with hollow eyes as the emergency lights behind him flickered on and off. “Mr. Reaper, would you like some coffee?”

The Reaper stumbled backward in horror at the sight. He gasped for air, as though he had just experienced a life-or-death struggle.

He then made his way to the surveillance room and pulled up the footage from after he had left. Everything appeared normal after his departure. Growing impatient, the Reaper sped up the footage.

The branch, which had been full of people moments ago, suddenly became empty.

Trembling, he rewound the footage and reduced the playback speed again and again—twice, four times... all the way to thirty-two times speed. Yet he still couldn’t see what had happened.

In the slow-motion footage, which was thirty-two times slower, the branch members vanished one by one. No one seemed to notice their comrades disappearing until they themselves were gone. It was as if some indescribable entity had silently devoured them all.

Connecting this phenomenon to his missing teammates, terror flooded his heart. The ventilation system operated normally, and the fluorescent lights cast a warm glow, yet the Reaper felt as though the branch was the gaping maw of a monster, pitch-black and cavernous, waiting to swallow him.

A hand tapped his shoulder, causing him to jump in fright. “Are you okay?”

The Reaper turned and sighed with relief. It was Lu Yang. I’m not alone after all. Lu Yang’s expressionless face also gave him a sliver of courage.

“It’s just the two of us here. Aren’t you scared?”

“Two of us?” Lu Yang looked baffled. “Haven’t there always been three of us here?”

Right after those words left his mouth, a figure clad in yellow slowly materialized in the air.

“AHHH—” The Reaper completely broke down. Fear had consumed him entirely.

Ding.

The elevator chimed, and the Reaper madly made a dash for it as if he had seen his savior.

Lan Hai and the two girls were in the elevator. They had come to rescue Lu Yang.

By now, the Reaper had completely forgotten his mission. He charged at the three of them like a madman, giving him a huge fright.

“Stop right there!” Mi Xue’er stood right in front, watching the Reaper warily.

“Run! There’s a ghost! A ghost!” the Reaper screamed wildly, spouting incomprehensible words.

Mi Xue’er frowned. She subdued him easily. Scanning her surroundings, she also found it strange that the branch was empty. She had prepared herself for an all-out battle. Could it be a trap?

“Mi Xue’er, Yu Ran, Lan Hai, I’m here.” Lu Yang walked out of the surveillance room, waving from a distance.

At the sight of the composed Lu Yang, the Reaper collapsed to the ground, pointing at him and scrambling backward.

“Ghost! Ghost! Ghost!”

“Brother Meng, you’re safe! Thank goodness.” Mi Xue’er and the others were relieved to see Lu Yang unharmed.

“I’m fine. After this Reaper brought me here, he picked up someone else’s coffee without drinking it, then started yelling and making a scene.

"He got excited when a housekeeping robot answered, and when it asked whether he wanted coffee, he nearly jumped out of his skin. He seemed delirious, so I seized the chance to slip away.” Lu Yang patted his chest, still shaken.

“How strange.”

“Yeah, it’s really strange. Could he be possessed?”

“He kept muttering about ghosts. Did he see one?”

“We should be scientific. There are no such things as ghosts. Don’t you agree, Brother Meng?”

Lu Yang nodded, fully agreeing. “Exactly. There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“There really is a ghost!” To win the others over, the Reaper mustered his courage and led them to the surveillance room to watch the footage.

But all the footage showed was static.

“It’s you! You deleted it!” The Reaper pointed at Lu Yang, shrieking. In his eyes, Lu Yang was now possessed by an evil ghost.

Lu Yang shrugged, looking very innocent. “I didn’t do anything.”

He was telling the truth. He hadn’t touched the surveillance. It didn’t matter whether he deleted it. The footage wouldn’t have revealed his figure to Lan Hai and the others. If it wasn’t me, was it Ether? Does that mean Ether has taken notice of me?