CHAPTER 193: CLEVER BLACK SINNERS

In the distance, a crow blended perfectly with the night.

Crimson eyes watched everything happening around the Remnant Ash shop.

Hmm? What the hell are these four morons doing? Why aren’t they attacking yet?

Luckybe cursed under her breath.

In her line of sight, the four underlings she’d sent out had stopped dead in their tracks after reaching the target shop, God knows what they were thinking.

Whatever, as long as they’ve blown their cover, this mission’s already done what it needed to do. Everything will go according to plan!

...

You go!

I’m not going!

He should go!

I’m not going either!

In front of the Remnant Ash shop, the four Black Sinners were locked in a staring contest.

None of them wanted to be the sucker who stuck his neck out.

For a moment, the air got real quiet.

...

"...Why the hell aren’t these Black Sinners moving?"

Security Officer Willie frowned.

Had they sniffed out the ambush?

No... if they’d caught wind of it, they would’ve bolted for sure...

Captain Barossa said, getting antsy:

"Can we jump them yet?"

Security Officer Willie shook his head:

"Hold your horses. Something’s off about how they’re acting."

"Hold till when?"

"Till the moment’s right..."

"..."

Barossa was about to blow his top.

So damn wishy-washy! What was there to think about?

Just grab them and call it a day!

"Gentlemen, they’re on the move!"

...

In front of the Remnant Ash shop, the four Black Sinners finally moved!

They all pretty much at the same time... well... crouched down in some dark corner, apparently cooking up something big!

"Guys, we can’t keep dragging our feet like this. If we don’t get this job done, Lady Luckybe’s gonna have our hides for sure!"

"Damn right!" x3

They all nodded along, but...

"So who’s taking point?"

"..."

A cold breeze swept by. They knew they had to figure out who was going first.

"Everyone here’s tougher than me. Can’t expect a screwup like me to lead the charge."

One Black Sinner was first to make his case, pulling the whole ’I’m weak so I’m right’ card.

That made sense. Since he had the guts to admit he was deadweight, naturally he didn’t need to go first.

Then the second Black Sinner spoke up:

"You all know that not too long ago, I got my ass kicked pretty good finishing a secret job for the lady... Cough cough!"

Halfway through his spiel, he started hacking up a storm, and blood actually started seeping through the bandages wrapped around his chest!

Seeing this, the other Black Sinners shut right up.

Naturally they couldn’t make the guy who was half-dead take point.

Only two left standing.

Crunch time had arrived!

"I’m gonna lay it all out there. Truth is, I’m Lady Luckybe’s right-hand man, responsible for keeping tabs on you guys, so..."

The last Black Sinner opened his mouth.

He couldn’t claim to be worthless.

He wasn’t banged up.

He wasn’t the lady’s trusted lieutenant...

Finally, he let out a bitter laugh:

"Guess I’m up."

Under his buddies’ encouraging looks, this Black Sinner got to his feet.

The second he lifted his head, his face went white as a sheet:

"What the—!"

"BOOM!"

An absolutely bone-chilling dark purple force field slammed down.

The four Black Sinners immediately felt crushing pressure coming at them from every direction.

They thrashed around like crazy but couldn’t fight back at all, trapped like sitting ducks!

What! What’s going down!

The three Black Sinners still crouched on the ground couldn’t see who was laying into them.

All they could make out was some terrifying black shadow appearing behind them. Their hair stood on end, and the ice-cold killing intent filled them with pure dread!

All of a sudden, scorching heat wrapped around them. The nasty cold they’d been giving off got instantly replaced by heat that cut right to the bone.

"Caw!"

I’m here! Let me check out your soul waves!

Red Spirit got down to serious business reading them.

"Roar!"

I got ’em!

The glory’s mine!

Purple Vortex roared, standing guard.

...

On the third floor across from the shop:

"Young Master Carlos, no matter how many times I see it, your buddy’s power is just plain scary."

Captain Barossa’s bearded face was full of respect.

So damn convenient—just the perfect way to nab people.

One little squeeze and enemies couldn’t budge.

Security Officer Willie’s eyes were dead serious.

Such terrifying crushing force!

Just watching was enough to put serious pressure on your heart.

Willie’s years of battle instincts told him he probably wouldn’t stand a chance against this monster!

A troubled look flashed across his beady green eyes.

"Gentlemen, send some people to take over the questioning!"

"You got it!"

"Thanks, Young Master Carlos!"

The captain and security officer locked eyes.

You take two, I take two?

Mm... deal!

In just a heartbeat, the two had worked out how to split up the interrogation.

"Bang!"

To get answers fast, the two high-level psionics jumped straight out the window to round up their crews.

In the room, only Carlos was left.

He watched what was happening below, deep in thought.

Red Spirit had already read their soul waves.

These four Black Sinners had gotten orders from their bosses to hit this shop tonight and waste everyone inside.

Simple murder?

For Black Sinners at this point, besides getting exposed, this didn’t have much upside.

There had to be deeper reasons.

Even weirder was that their so-called Lady Luckybe had specifically told them to let their auras show—clearly wanting to grab human attention.

And that mystery tip-off letter—who would know about Black Sinner attack plans?

And why the hell did they rat them out?

Looking at all this stuff, the more Carlos thought about it, the more he felt like there was some serious scheming going on here.

Wait! Why does this feel familiar?

A lightbulb went off in Carlos’s head.

In the original timeline, when the Black Sinners successfully cracked open the passage later on, they first secretly fed all kinds of ’intel’ to human traitors:

Where Black Sinners would strike, where Black Sinner members were hiding out, Black Sinner secret hideouts, and all that jazz.

By throwing some pawns under the bus, they made that human traitor earn the trust of human leadership.

During the final ritual, he fed them bogus intel, pulling human fighters away and making sure the ritual worked!

"If the Golden Sand Society hadn’t gotten wiped out, maybe future stuff would’ve gone down right here."

The more Carlos thought about it, the more he figured this mystery letter was probably Black Sinner bullshit.

If similar letters kept showing up and turned out to be spot-on every time, Rock Sand City’s bigwigs would definitely put major trust in letters like that.

Then at the end, Black Sinners could use that trust habit to feed them fake intel and pull the heavy hitters away.

"But this is just guesswork with no real proof!"

Plus, Carlos couldn’t be totally sure—what if the letter was intel some psionics had stumbled across?

Even if more tip-off letters showed up later, it wouldn’t prove his theory.

He could only say it was possible...

"Pain in the ass."

This problem was a real headache.

Whether it was Black Sinner mind games was damn near impossible to prove.

Because until the final moment, Black Sinners would absolutely never give out fake information.