CHAPTER 407: CHAPTER 407: I’LL GIVE YOU ANOTHER CHANCE, REORGANIZE YOUR LANGUAGE

Red Hair finally saw Lu Luo!

A man who, in such a dangerous situation, was actually still searching corpses.

How had such a greedy person managed to survive until today in an Imperial environment riddled with Transcendents? Did he really not understand what it means to be vigilant as a Transcendent?

"HMPH!"

After snorting coldly, Red Hair’s body suddenly accelerated, and in a flash step, he arrived behind Lu Luo. The red glow on his fingertips, carrying a cold murderous intent, was about to land on Lu Luo’s legs.

Lu Luo had a major connection to the disappearance of the Sunset Association’s Holy Artifact. Red Hair couldn’t just kill Lu Luo; otherwise, the two nearly completed Holy Artifacts would be wasted. Holy Artifacts were important items for the Sunset Association, and under no circumstances should they be casually lost in this place.

This slash is meant to sever your legs!

Red Hair’s eyes turned red, revealing a bloodthirsty luster. It seemed that in the next second, Lu Luo’s legs would be separated from his body, and he’d be wailing on the ground.

DING!

What? Red Hair was momentarily stunned.

The outcome was often different from what many expected. When the red light Red Hair emitted struck Lu Luo’s body, sparks unexpectedly flew!

Lu Luo turned his head, impatiently shoving a large gold chain into his ring and giving Red Hair an annoyed glance. He brazenly raised his handgun.

"What do you want?" he asked. "Do you know what this is? A gun! Do you know what a gun is used for?"

Lu Luo shook the gun he had snatched a few times and then... turned back to rummage through the bags.

Red Hair was utterly dumbfounded. What is happening?

He felt humiliated. This is a great insult to a Fifth Tier expert!

"You—"

BANG!

Just as Red Hair began to speak, Lu Luo’s sweeping leg had already hit his waist.

How outrageous was a strength of 350? The reality was that many Soxth Tier monsters didn’t even have a strength attribute of 350. Combined with the Steam Qi He’s amplification of strength, Red Hair was sent flying as if hit by a missile. He flew out instantly, smashing through walls and glass, flying out of the building outright.

Then, a barely noticeable thin thread caught Red Hair’s body!

"Huh!?"

Red Hair was pulled back, only to be met with a solid punch from Lu Luo.

BOOM!

Blood completely dyed Red Hair’s dirty red hair a vivid red. Lu Luo grabbed the messy, bloodied hair and slammed him onto the ground.

Perhaps feeling that throwing a Fifth Tier Transcendent onto the floor wouldn’t produce any substantial effect, when Lu Luo slammed Red Hair down, the ground’s rocks began to condense and gather, turning into a materially tougher substance. This material’s sole purpose was for Lu Luo to use it to hit people.

"[Kid, that’s not how you use a Fusioner,]" the Observer commented.

Lu Luo didn’t utter a word. He grabbed Red Hair’s head and slammed it down several more times. Only when this Fifth Tier expert from the Sunset Association had completely lost his ability to fight and all his teeth had been knocked out did Lu Luo finally stop.

"I forgot to interrogate him!" Lu Luo muttered.

"[The current floor level is 12. The building’s maximum height is 21 floors. There is still a lot of room for development,]" the Observer noted.

Lu Luo nodded. That’s right! Who cares about some measly reward money? How could I ever earn big money and live in a mansion by relying on such a dead-end channel like completing tasks? Half-Mountain Villa is so large and in such a prime location. It must be worth... 3,000-5,000 yuan, right?

"[Are you sure it’s three to five thousand, not thirty to fifty million?]" the Observer interjected.

"Do I look like someone who has thirty to fifty million?" Lu Luo retorted.

Lu Luo unceremoniously grabbed the redhead’s hair. This guy is a Fifth Tier master. A Transcendent of this level wouldn’t be considered cannon fodder anywhere. Since he’s here, he must be one of their cadres, definitely someone of some value. No need to kill him immediately; I’ll let him be for now. As for the others, I’ve pretty much looted their bags clean. The money and resources weren’t much, but I did get quite a few mobile phones. I’ll pick a few of the best ones. As for the rest, I’ll deal with them when the Qi He troops arrive.

Lu Luo examined the elevator. This thing seems to have an independent power supply. Even if I cut off the power source for the first and second floors, this elevator should still operate normally. However, the floor selection is strange; it only shows floors above the ninth. It must be exclusively for the Transcendents within the Sunset Association’s building.

"So, it’s specifically for escaping, huh!" Lu Luo muttered.

Lu Luo walked into the elevator, pressed the button for the ninth floor, then stepped out. Once the doors closed, he violently ripped open the sturdy iron doors of the elevator car. With a casual swing, a blade of Sword Qi shot out, severing the safety cables holding the elevator, which snapped instantly.

That way, the elevator can’t come back up.

After doing all this, Lu Luo headed for the building’s only fire escape.

Unless the people upstairs decide to jump, this should now be the only way down.

「The rooftop.」

Lady Juliette was starting to feel uneasy. Although it hasn’t even been ten minutes, Red Hair’s words keep echoing in my ears! She had even taken several nervous sips of her red wine due to anxiety. Now her wine glass was empty, and her fingers were still unnaturally fiddling with its rim.

Lu Luo wouldn’t choose such a foolish course of action. His strength is probably between Fourth and Fifth Tier. His bullet-time... it was just like an act, a performance!

Suddenly, Lady Juliette seemed to realize something and sat up with a start.

"Acting! It was an act!" she exclaimed. "If Red Hair’s judgment is correct, and Lu Luo is very good at acting, then..."

Lady Juliette’s thoughts turned to the events at Half-Mountain Villa. A Holy Artifact is an item used to summon malevolent spirits. It’s said that each Holy Artifact itself was once the part a Chieftain-grade creature took the most pride in. After such a creature dies, the most valuable part left is its Holy Artifact. As long as it undergoes the Sunset Association’s refinement rituals and is awakened by a special Secret Technique, a new Chieftain-grade creature can be summoned. Furthermore, the summoned creature would be controlled by the Artifact’s Spirit Master, who is also the President of the Sunset Association. This is an incredibly powerful technique, said to be a power wielded by one of the envoys the Sunset Association serves—the Spirit Messenger. It’s precisely by relying on this ability to sacrifice, summon, and control Chieftain-grade creatures that the Sunset Association has grown increasingly formidable and dominant.

The Holy Artifact at Half-Mountain Villa had been placed there a long time ago, and the Sunset Association had inspected it before. It was developing well; as long as it remained undisturbed, a few more months of growth would allow it to hatch two powerful Chieftain-grade creatures. According to the timeline, the Holy Artifact at the mountaintop villa should be close to hatching its creature. Could this situation itself have undergone some unexpected development? For example... did the Holy Artifact hatch into a creature ahead of schedule, and then have some kind of special interaction with Lu Luo? If this conjecture is correct, did Lu Luo somehow gain control over those two Chieftain-grade creatures? Or did he join forces with other organizations hostile to the Sunset Association and secretly kill the Chieftain-grade creature at the mountaintop villa? Logically, a Holy Artifact shouldn’t just disappear without a trace. Therefore, something must have happened at the mountaintop villa that day—something we don’t know about.

Women are indeed prone to letting their imaginations run wild. And as it happened, Lady Juliette’s wild guesses were remarkably close to the truth. She just never considered that the person behind all of this was Lu Luo, and Lu Luo alone.

"Something’s wrong. This Lu Luo is not right at all!" Lady Juliette exclaimed, her voice trembling slightly. "He’s acting! He’s putting on a performance for us to see! I need to notify Red Hair, tell him to bring some skilled backup."

Panicked, Lady Juliette pulled out her phone and dialed Red Hair’s mobile number. But before the call could connect, crisp footsteps echoed from outside the top-floor office.

TAP! TAP! TAP!

The footsteps grew closer. Lady Juliette knew with certainty, Those aren’t Red Hair’s footsteps. He doesn’t wear leather shoes.

At this moment, a sense of alarm gripped her; events seemed to be spiraling in a direction she could not have anticipated.

"Red Hair... has something happened to him?" she whispered, her voice filled with dread.

Panicked, Lady Juliette wanted to go to the door, to see who was in the hallway. But having been accustomed to a life of comfort and authority for so many years, she simply couldn’t muster the courage. In her turmoil, she didn’t even notice that the footsteps outside had ceased. When she finally registered it, her surroundings had fallen utterly silent again.

But this silence offered no comfort. On the contrary, it only amplified her burgeoning terror.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The dial tone buzzed from the phone in her hand. A chilling aura began to spread around Lady Juliette. A cold mist started to form.

"Is this... fog?" she stammered.

The surrounding fog grew thicker, rapidly becoming so dense she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. Moreover, the fog was frigid; prolonged exposure would surely form a thin layer of frost on her skin. Deprived of sight and clear perception, Lady Juliette grew even more frantic. Her fingers fumbled blindly, and soon, they brushed against something—a human head!

AH!!! A head! A head! her mind shrieked.

Lady Juliette fumbled for her phone and switched on its flashlight. The dim light pierced the mist, illuminating the head she was touching. The mere sight of that matted, dirty-red hair was enough for Lady Juliette to identify him.

Red Hair! My most capable subordinate! A top-tier expert of the Sunset Association, ranked among the top three in all of Dong’an City—Red Hair, Lan Fu!

"How could this be? How could this happen?" Lady Juliette despaired. "How did Red Hair end up like this?"

She felt that Red Hair’s entire cheek had caved in. His teeth were gone. And yet... although it was incredibly faint, a thread of breath almost imperceptible without intense focus, Lady Juliette sensed it.

Red Hair isn’t dead! In this state... the assailant deliberately spared him! It was definitely intentional! But why? What is their purpose?

After all, Lady Juliette was a significant figure in Dong’an City. After the initial wave of panic, she gradually began to calm herself.

I still need to check him further, at least to ascertain his current condition. Thankfully, his body is still here... but why do his bones feel so mushy? Are they broken? No, not just broken—they’re completely shattered! All the bones in Red Hair’s body have been crushed... With injuries like these, even if he recovers, he’ll likely never regain his former strength.

Lady Juliette was filled with grief and indignation. Why did the assailant toy with us like this? Red Hair was the confidant I nurtured for so many years. Besides being my number one enforcer, in my daily loneliness, it was his attentive care that brought me comfort. My status is unique; if not for a subordinate powerful enough, it would be impossible to... have a normal intimate relationship. So, Red Hair was truly the apple of my eye. Now that my most precious one has been so brutally battered, how can I not be enraged?

She suddenly stood up and shouted into the fog-filled air, "Who on earth are you? Why are you doing this to us? A warrior can be killed but not insulted! If you truly wish to humiliate us, then bring it on!"

A voice replied calmly from the mist, "Hm, I’m here. And then?"

Lady Juliette’s breath caught in her throat. I’m a Fourth Tier Transcendent. Normally, someone at my level would instinctively counter-attack when faced with such a threat. But I can’t. I’m all too aware of my own strength. Even Red Hair was no match for this person; he was defeated so easily, so brutally. I have absolutely no chance of winning. I must endure, bide my time. Only by enduring can I hope for a chance to turn things around, and only then might Red Hair have a chance to live.

"Are you... Lu Luo?" she asked, her voice hesitant.

The figure in the fog was indistinct, and Lady Juliette didn’t dare to shine her phone’s flashlight on them as she had before. Lu Luo, shrouded in the mist, seemed to have no intention of hiding himself.

"Whether I am or not, what can you do about it?" he retorted.

"[He’s putting on an act again!]" the Observer commented inwardly.

But Lady Juliette indeed fell for it. After Lu Luo’s dismissive remark, she didn’t dare press the question further.

"I apologize," Lady Juliette said quickly. "It was our ignorance and arrogance that offended you, Your Excellency. If you have any requests, I will do my utmost to compensate you."

"Are you trying to negotiate terms with me?" Lu Luo’s voice was cold.

"Of course not! This compensation is unconditional. I only hope it can, in some small way, atone for our previous errors."

Lady Juliette had already come to a chilling realization. It doesn’t matter if this person is Lu Luo or not. His strength is absolutely astonishing. It’s even possible he personally handled the incident at Half-Mountain Villa. If I harbored any doubts about his power before, I certainly don’t now. I’m as skittish as a bird that’s heard a bowstring snap. A being who could so brutally dispatch Red Hair could naturally deal with the aberration at Half-Mountain Villa single-handedly. That would be perfectly normal for someone like him.

"We can discuss compensation later," Lu Luo said. "Right now, I just want to ask you: what exactly is this ’Holy Artifact’ you people keep mentioning?"

Lady Juliette was slightly startled. So he really is after the Holy Artifacts? Does he already know the Sunset Association’s secrets? No matter. I can’t afford to keep stalling with someone this dangerous.

"A Holy Artifact," she began, her voice steady despite her fear, "is a relic left behind by a Chieftain-grade creature—specifically, its most powerful part..."

Lady Juliette told Lu Luo everything about the Holy Artifacts in painstaking detail, even revealing the process of sacrificial summoning.

Lu Luo could practically taste her intense desire to survive.

So, the purpose of a Holy Artifact is to reforge an aberration after a sacrifice? And then it can also be controlled by people? This feeling... why does it seem so familiar? Lu Luo mused.

"[Isn’t it just a weakened version of a Summoner? And a severely nerfed one at that—probably stripped down over N versions,]" the Observer interjected.

Hearing the Observer’s comment, Lu Luo had a sudden realization. That’s right! Isn’t this method of using power just a weakened version of what a Summoner does? It’s the Sequence again! Could it be that the Imperial’s Sequences have been dismantled into even finer, fragmented pieces, scattered throughout every corner of the Imperial? Ugh, forget it. I can’t make sense of it now.

Lu Luo turned his attention back to Lady Juliette.

"Very well. Your sincerity is... acceptable. However, there’s one more small matter I need to discuss with you."

"Please, speak freely! Anything you need, just say it!" Lady Juliette urged.

"That mountaintop villa, is it yours?"

"Uh, yes, it’s mine. Is there... a problem?"

"I’ve taken quite a liking to the place," Lu Luo said casually. "Name your price."

Lu Luo actually wants the mountaintop villa? But that place... it’s the sacrificial ground meticulously prepared by the Sunset Association! Can I refuse? Of course not. Even though the mountaintop villa is worth hundreds of millions, perhaps even over a billion, when weighed against my own life... I’ll choose my life.

"Mr. Lu Luo, you have excellent taste. The mountaintop villa is indeed a splendid location. How about... 20 million?" Lady Juliette ventured, forcing a smile.

Lu Luo simply raised an eyebrow.

"Twenty million?" he drawled. "I’ll give you one more chance. Rephrase that. Carefully."

Lady Juliette was on the verge of tears. What is he implying...?

"Then... then... how about 50 million?"

"Hm?" Lu Luo emitted a single, questioning sound.

"Eighty million! Eighty million! Let’s settle on 80 million!" she blurted out, her voice cracking.

"Hmph. That’s more like it," Lu Luo said. "Remember to get the paperwork and a bank card ready. Find some time and deliver them to me."

"Yes, yes! Absolutely! It will be done!"