As the girl put a finger to her chin, glancing between the various tools at the side of the room as if she were truly considering how she chose to be killed, Liu Xing tried as hard as he could to sense the qi around him. He desperately searched for any difference between the qi in this place and the qi in the direction of the resting area. There had to be something he could sense. His heart beat like a drum against his ribs, but he fought to remain calm. Fear and panic would accomplish nothing.

  The girl asked whether the one who would eat her had specified how she needed to be killed, and the old man said that he had not. He just wanted her meat to be in good condition—not even that clean, actually, since he would process it personally after it was processed here. "I've heard he is also an alchemist," the old man commented.

  "I see," the girl said, nodding as if she had just asked a question about a designer bag and received a satisfying answer. "Then, I'll just go with the main way." She looked toward the chair inside the bird cage. "Nothing flashy."

  "Great choice!" The old man smiled, a bit too wide, showing his teeth. "Now, let's get prepared."

  The girl nodded and stepped between the pillars of the cage. The gap was wide enough; the cage was not meant to lock people in but was likely part of a mechanism tied to the chair itself. She entered as easily as a butterfly into a garden. At first, she moved slowly, hesitantly, as if entering a sacred place. Then, a smile spread across her face, and she giggled. Overcome by a great joy, she began to twirl, moving left and right in a dance. Happiness radiated from her very being, and her laughter sounded like a beautiful, ringing bell.

  Liu Xing tried to ignore the sickening feeling in his stomach. He closed his eyes, desperately trying to sense something, anything, even hoping for a miracle. The girl's dancing, despite its morbid purpose, was a small blessing. It gave him time to probe the qi around him.

  The old man, seeing the girl dance as gracefully as a butterfly, began clapping his hands rhythmically, as if creating music to accompany her.

  She danced for a full minute, ending with a small, cute bow not to the old man, but to the chair, as if performing a ritual to please a god.

  The old man’s rhythmic clapping stopped. "Are you ready?" he said.

  "Yes," the girl said, her eyes glowing brightly. "I am ready."

  "Then, I'll start the process. Relax your body. Don't resist if your body moves on its own."

  The man snapped his fingers, and instantly, the qi inside the cage began swirling. It was not ambient qi. Rather, it was a qi that felt like nothing at all, which Liu Xing thought was likely a pure type. This kind of qi was not rare, but it was not very popular either. Since it was pure, a cultivator could mold it into whatever they wished; lightning, fire, and more. However, it was considerably faster to cultivate a specific type of qi from the start.

  The dome of the cage began rotating slowly. The girl, codenamed Thirty-Three, began to float, sustained by the pure qi. She looked down, her jaw wide open in awe. She floated higher and higher until the qi positioned her atop the spinning chair. After a moment, the girl began to spin too, and slowly but surely, she descended. The qi guided her arms, her legs, and her posture until her back touched the chair in perfect synchronicity. Soon, she was resting fully on the chair, and the spinning began to slow.

  The cables hanging from the ceiling and connected to the chair were all tangled, but instead of creating a mess, they wove together as if trying to braid themselves into a beautiful shape. The cables began to shine, then the chair, and finally the girl herself, until she glowed like a gentle sun that had descended to earth. She was smiling, so bright and full of happiness that for a full second, Liu Xing thought that perhaps it was okay to let her die.

  After all, she was happy. By saving her, he would be taking that happiness away. She would also have a painless death, and Liu Xing knew for a fact that not all people were granted such a peaceful end. He himself had caused people to suffer great agony because he had failed to kill them swiftly.

  Not to mention, saving her and killing the man would expose him. He thought that if he killed the man in a blind spot, it would take longer for his presence to be noticed. However, sooner or later, the old man's death would be known, and that would only complicate his mission to retrieve his belongings and gather information. If he did nothing, on the other hand, he would ensure his presence remained concealed and his mission was not compromised.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  It was a tempting thought.

  But in the end, Liu Xing crushed the thought.

  He needed to remember that while the girl seemed happy to be killed and eaten, it was only because she had likely been groomed and brainwashed by the Nether Lotus Sect. He also had to remember that the old man, smiling at the side of the cage, was nothing short of scum. He would take advantage of a corpse that would then be sent off to be eaten as if she were not human, but mere livestock.

  No, Liu Xing refused to do nothing.

  He positioned himself behind the old man and pointed his invisible gun at the back of the man's head. He loaded the gun with Exploding Fist bullets, his index finger ready to twitch at a moment's notice.

  While doing this, he was still trying to sense how the surveillance system worked. He wanted to find a blind spot, but he could not discern what kind of system was in place, let alone find a weakness. He did not have time to return to the resting area and observe it; the girl was currently literally on the verge of death.

  "Ah, it's pleasant," the girl said as she closed her eyes. The chair was spinning slowly but rhythmically, creating a soft shushing sound. If one listened intently, it sounded like the perfect noise to lull someone to sleep.

  "It's designed to be pleasant, child," the old man chuckled. "Your death will be swift. Do you have any last words?"

  "None," the girl answered instantly. "I've said everything that needs to be said to my friends. I'm ready to go."

  "Then, I'll count to three and activate the mechanism. You will feel sleepy, and then you will be gone. Please don't resist it."

  "I will not," the girl said.

  "Then, three, two, one—" The old man was about to snap his fingers when Liu Xing pulled the trigger.

  The bullet shot from the barrel of his gun, deadly and silent, until it hit the back of the old man's head. On impact, his head exploded like a watermelon smashed by a giant hammer. Blood and brain matter splashed onto the sterile white floor, the spinning pillars, and even Liu Xing himself, who instantly willed the gun to make the blood coating him invisible as well. Unfortunately, the gore also splashed directly onto the girl's face and white clothes. Her sleepy eyes snapped wide open, and her mouth hung agape, her brain seemingly having ceased to function.

  Liu Xing aimed his gun at the tangled cables atop the chair. When the next bullet hit, the cables exploded into smithereens. The cage and the chair stopped spinning. The girl, who had been ready to be killed, was alive. The man, who had been ready to kill, was dead.

  Liu Xing’s mind settled into a cold focus as he felt the qi around him begin moving frantically. It was either triggered by the death of the man—now a headless corpse on the ground—or by his destruction of the chair's mechanism. Whatever the source, Liu Xing understood that he could not just stand there.

  His body now invisible again, Liu Xing moved into the cage, pulled the girl into his arms, and carried her. She blinked several times, her mind scrambling to catch up with the situation as Liu Xing kicked off the ground and launched himself out of the room and into the corridor they had passed through.

  In just a moment, they passed the corridor with the glass overlooking the beautiful garden, passed the fork in the road, and entered a white corridor that looked familiar, yet he knew for a fact that he had never been there. Soon, Liu Xing saw several doors. Assuming these led to the visitors' chambers, he yanked one open and hurried inside. It was indeed a bedroom, with a huge white bed in the center, a chair, a nightstand, and lamps on the tables and more. It was akin to a hotel room. To one side, a glass wall overlooked another garden, making the room feel as if it were outdoors.

  Liu Xing put the girl on the bed, then turned, closed his eyes, and tried to sense the qi around him.

  He instantly understood that this place was not devoid of qi. The room actually had more qi, so dense that Liu Xing thought it was better for cultivating than his cave in the Purple Moon Sect. However, as he felt the qi, he realized there was a certain type that he could feel outside the room but not inside.

  There was no qi that felt like blood.

  He nodded. Assuming the old man's words were true, that this place was private, then that had to be it. The elder backing the Nether Lotus Sect used a certain type of blood qi to create a surveillance system.

  However, while Liu Xing was still thinking about how to use this information, he sensed two sources of qi moving toward him. They were distinctly human, and he was lucky because both of them—while they felt like Core Splitting cultivators—were weak, even weaker than the old man he had killed. Logic dictated that killing them would not be too hard, but Liu Xing prepared for the worst.

  "I cannot fight here," he muttered and looked back. The girl was still in shock, her eyes wide open. Fighting here would endanger her, so he needed to move outside.

  Liu Xing reflexively dropped his invisibility. The moment he became visible, the girl was startled.. Her eyes filled with terror. "You're safe," Liu Xing said. "Wait here."

  He willed the gun to shroud him in invisibility again. Once it was done, he opened the door, felt the blood qi all around him, and kicked off the ground repeatedly, intending to get out of the facility and fight outside.

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