Chapter 75: Cross

Chapter 75: Cross

Hearing Fors’s question, Xio hesitated briefly before saying,

“We’ve been discovered…”

They had said something similar earlier, but repeating it now did not carry the same meaning. Previously, it meant that the matter of recognizing Sherman had been discovered by the other party’s hidden protector or monitor. Now, the emphasis was that their own choices and corresponding actions were all within the expectations—or arrangements—of the person behind the scenes, and were utterly without secrecy.

This meant that the opportunity Xio longed for might truly have appeared, but what else hid behind it was impossible to guess.

“If we act according to the intention of the one who left the ‘message,’ the final result will depend entirely on whether she holds goodwill, and that is something we cannot control.” Xio added from a rational perspective.

The reason she used “she” to represent the one behind the scenes was because she had thought of the faint, sweet fragrance she had smelled the last time she lost track of Sherman.

Fors listened quietly. Nodding in agreement, she said,

“Yes. In this whole matter, we are far too passive. The best choice is to leave this place…”

Her voice had barely faded when she looked toward that warehouse, opened her mouth, and yet added nothing.

She had thought of Sherman’s current possible situation and suspected that “he” might be deep in danger. In the end, however, she deliberately ignored it and did not mention that point.

To Fors, Sherman was only someone who existed in Xio’s descriptions, no different from a character in a novel. If she had the ability and the opportunity, she would be willing to save that person in passing. But if doing so meant taking on risk, making her friend act recklessly and face mortal danger, then she would absolutely not consider it.

Xio nodded once.

“All right. We will leave now.

“However, the one who left the ‘message’ definitely will not want to see us do this. She will surely set up some obstruction.

“Uh, how about this? We flee in different directions, forcing that person to choose one side. Whoever successfully leaves this area will immediately create a commotion and draw the official Beyonders over.”

“Why not directly create a commotion here?” Fors instinctively raised a question.

“That will definitely be obstructed or sabotaged!” Xio gave her reason.

Fors nodded thoughtfully.

“That makes sense.

“All right. We should not delay any longer. Let’s begin.”

Xio said no more. Clutching a three-edged dagger so transparent that it was almost invisible, she bent low, darted out of their hiding place, and ran along the areas covered by shadow toward the outside of the docks.

That three-edged dagger was a mystical item she had commissioned the Craftsman to create using the dust and residual spirituality of an ancient wraith through The Hermit of the Tarot Club. It had cost her five hundred pounds in cash and was called the Icy Blade.

Anyone struck by this weapon, even if merely touched, would fall into a frozen stiffness. Their thoughts would no longer be under their own control, as though they were possessed by a wraith. At the same time, if a battle dragged on, even enemies of the Icy Blade who had not directly come into contact with the dagger would gradually find their thoughts slowing and their movements becoming stiff and sluggish.

The negative effect of the Icy Blade was comparatively less terrifying, and there was only one: it made its carrier’s body gradually lose temperature, shifting toward an undead state. Once a certain time limit was exceeded, that process would become irreversible.

Thus, Xio had recently become more and more fond of running or riding bicycles at high speed, producing heat herself to resist the loss of temperature.

Even so, she had only increased the interval before she had no choice but to separate the Icy Blade from her body from three hours to four hours.

After running for some distance, Xio glanced…