Chapter 1048: Chapter 1048

"Who are you looking for?"

As the door slowly opened, the man on the phone hung up and stood at the doorway, looking up at the Central Earth youth outside.

"Are you the manager in charge of drivers here?"

He Ao glanced down at the man in front of him and quickly asked.

"Do you need something?"

The man frowned slightly, put down his phone, glanced up and down the corridor, then returned his gaze to He Ao, "Do you have an appointment? What is the front desk doing, letting people in without notice?"

"Who do you work for?"

He Ao lowered his gaze, his voice calm and icy as he stared at the man before him.

The man was taken aback by the question and then looked up, puzzled, meeting that pair of cold eyes.

It was as if he was being stared at up close by an ancient beast, and the survival instinct ingrained in his genes made his body suddenly tense up, with the sound of his roaring heartbeat continuously pounding against his chest.

He Ao withdrew the mark that had been on the man from the start, glanced at the man’s phone displaying the contact name ’Boss,’ took a half step back, and left the place.

It took a while for the man to recover from the fear that had seized him. He slumped against the wall, gasping for air.

Sweat dotted his face like raindrops, then slid down his chin, while the muscle soreness from an adrenaline overload spread throughout his body.

He reached out to touch his soaked back, his voice trembling heavily, "What in the world was that just now..."

He had never felt so close to death, as if in that moment, any wrong move could have meant dying on the spot.

His weakened body couldn’t even bear the force that had erupted in response to the imminent threat of death; adrenaline had caused his muscles to tense up instantly, and now he was barely able to stand up straight.

It was then that the man’s phone vibrated with a new voice message.

He opened the message from the contact labeled ’Boss’ and an angry shout came through the phone, "You dare hang up on me, are you tired of your job?"

"Hey, you gonna talk or what?! Huh?!"

Another voice message quickly came through the phone, filled with the boss’s furious shouting.

The man shivered, hurriedly grabbed his phone, about to speak.

At that moment, a pair of hands suddenly appeared from the side and grabbed his collar.

Accompanied by the sound of an old train’s whistle, the man’s figure vanished from the spot.

Inside a dark, old alleyway, an old train passed through the middle, and the Central Earth-looking youth, pulling the man, walked through the train door and out onto the street.

He Ao looked up, scanning the nearby scenery. He had passed by here earlier when he was looking for the taxi company, memorizing the nearby landmarks, so he could directly summon the Velora to bring him over.

He let go of his grip and looked back at the somewhat panicked man, calmly asking, "Not far from here, right?"

The man, staring at the Central Earth youth in front of him, trembled and leaned against the wall, "What are you saying?"

"The Skal Family’s stronghold."

Hearing these words, the man’s body shook, and he spoke nervously, "The Skal Family is Feklay’s biggest gang, with connections everywhere. Why are you looking for them? They have a very violent temper, wouldn’t blink at killing someone. Just a little defiance and they might kill you, they’re all madmen in there."

Then he swallowed, continuing, "You might not know, but these gangs have contracted the port construction work. They love to turn those who oppose them into concrete piles and sink them into the sea."

"But you still work for them."

He Ao glanced at the man and said calmly.

The man trembled upon hearing this. He nervously glanced at He Ao and smiled, "What are you talking about? I don’t understand."

He Ao looked at him calmly and spoke slowly.

The man’s body immediately stiffened. He lifted his head as if to refuse, but upon meeting that icy gaze, he trembled and slowly moved forward, "Please follow me."

He Ao followed him and soon left the alley, crossing the streets to arrive at a villa hidden behind dense woods.

The alleyway He Ao just arrived at was indeed not far from the Squirrel Gang’s stronghold in the man’s memory, just a few steps away.

At this moment, standing in front of the villa’s gate were three men in black coats; the leader, a young man with a gold necklace and a cigarette in his mouth, was just casting his gaze in this direction.

He looked at the two approaching figures, his eyes landing on the taxi company’s manager, and sneered,

"Yo, Kake, you’ve got the guts to come here today?"

Then his gaze shifted to He Ao standing behind Kake, his hand naturally moving towards his back, "And you brought a new friend from Central Earth?"

Kake lifted his head to glance at He Ao behind him and then turned his eyes to the young man, and with gritted teeth, he said, "I want to see Mr. Skal."

"Mr. Skal is someone you can meet just because you want to?"

The young gangster sneered. He looked at Kake, then at He Ao, hand still on his back, "Mr. Skal is resting today, not seeing anyone. Come back tomorrow if you have business."

Kake’s face tensed, he turned his head and hesitantly looked at He Ao.

"It seems you don’t have much say in front of your friend from Central Earth,"

The gang member turned his gaze to He Ao, smiling, "Our friend from afar, you can go back now. Whatever you need, you can come back tomorrow."

Then he drew a handgun from behind his back, "But if you don’t feel like leaving, I can escort you, and then you might only make it into the sea."

Laughter broke out amongst the young men behind him.

Hearing these words, Kake, trapped in the middle, grew even more nervous.

"That Mr. Skal you’re talking about,"

He Ao ignored the words of the youngster at the door and lowered his head to look at Kake, asking calmly, "Is he in that room at the top of the villa with the light on?"

Kake was somewhat bewildered. He followed He Ao’s gaze, hesitantly saying, "It seems that is indeed Mr. Skal’s office."

"It looks like our friend from Central Earth doesn’t want to leave by himself,"

The gold necklace-wearing youngster witnessed this scene, smirked ominously, raised the gun, and aimed it at He Ao, "I can escort you both then."

His finger was directly on the trigger, "Kid from Central Earth, let me give you your first lesson in a foreign land, oh, and it might also be your last."

The two men behind him also drew their guns.

He Ao’s eyes still did not fall on them but instead grabbed Kake’s collar beside him and took a step forward.

The gold necklace-wearing youngster’s finger tensed on the trigger.

In that instant, a strong hand appeared like an illusion, grabbing his wrist, squeezing lightly, then he felt pain in his arm, and his fingers naturally loosened.

After that, the illusion-like palm slid backward, as if it was the most natural thing to do, snatching away his handgun.

Accompanied by three crisp gunshots, three wide-eyed figures toppled backward.

At the same time, Kake felt an immense force seize his body, then his entire frame shot out like a cannonball, flying over the garden and crashing into the illuminated window of the villa’s top floor.

Accompanied by the sound of shattering glass and a shower of glass pieces, an office decorated with opulent splendor and a crystal chandelier came into view.

However, the office was now unlike the tidiness he remembered, it had become a complete mess.

Everywhere were shards of broken expensive porcelain, as well as what seemed to be the components of computers scattered all over the floor.

Red streaks of flesh covered the office like spider webs, wrapping around the brightly lit office as if it were a cold, damp, underground cave.

A twisted and terrifying bone-chilling cold spread throughout the office.

Kake instinctively looked towards the end of those red streaks.

A flesh monster that resembled a starfish, still clad in an uncompletely damaged suit, was hunched in front of the office door, gazing at the door.

Much like a spider waiting for its prey.

Kake stared dumbfounded at the ruined silk suit; he recognized it, it was Mr. Skal’s favorite custom suit.

And at this time, as the speed of his descent slowly declined, Kake felt the grip on his body loosen slightly before being gently nudged.

He naturally landed on the ground, rolling into a corner of the office.

Meanwhile, the Central Earth youth calmly stood on the glass-strewn ground, reaching out to place the pistol he had just seized onto a marble desk that still retained most of its structure.

The flesh strewn all over the office slowly began to wriggle, and the creature in the suit at the door seemed to notice the two people who had crashed in through the window.

It turned what seemed to be its head, revealing a blood-red eye, and looked at He Ao.

Then, contracting its body, it leaped suddenly from its crouched position on the wall, its flesh writhing as it pounced towards the young man by the window.

The soft body split open in the middle, revealing sharp fangs lined with blood vessels.

Then the fangs parted to the sides, showing a ferocious gaping mouth.

Upon witnessing this, the young man simply raised his hand and lightly swung it.

An invisible sword light flashed through the air in an instant, cleaving the ferocious monster in two.

What was a fearsome and insubstantial flesh monster just a moment ago, lost its vitality in the blink of an eye and fell to the ground.

He Ao looked down, eyeing the twitching flesh on the floor, "Interesting, we’re late."

Feeling his entire worldview shaken in a brief moment, Kake trembled as he stood up, glancing at the corpse of the creature on the floor, then hesitantly moved to He Ao’s side.

He cautiously took in the scene in the office, "Mr., Mr. Skal?"

He Ao looked at the fleshy monster on the ground and spoke offhandedly.

Shadowless Sword turned into a shadow and returned to his side.

Kake looked at the remains on the ground with a slight horror.

At this time, He Ao also lifted his head, looking around at the traces, "It seems that a few minutes before we arrived, he became , roughly the same time I was talking to you."

He lowered his head to look at the corpse on the ground, "It appears to be some kind of Extraordinary Ability that can induce mutation; it’s also possible that this guy was already a Transcendent on the brink of madness, and someone controlled this ’progression’,"

His gaze swept over the somewhat damaged desk, he crouched down, picking up a piece of the hard drive from the ground, "All electronic devices have been destroyed."

Kake still hadn’t snapped out of it.

He Ao stood up and spoke calmly.

"Silence him? Because he knows too much?"

His body trembled as he looked at He Ao with shaking eyes. "Big brother, you have to save me. I didn’t do anything. I just agreed to help them gather some information. I just do the job; I don’t know anything."

"What information did you collect for them?"

He Ao turned his head to look at Kake.

He probably only knew from Kake’s thoughts that he was working for the gang, gathering information on tourists, but he didn’t know exactly what information Kake had gathered.

"I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you,"

"Mr. Skal asked me to gather information about all the tourists from out of town, especially those from foreign countries. As soon as we got this information, we would immediately send it to them. As for what they did with this information, I have no idea at all."

"Do you have a record of the information you collected?"

He Ao glanced at him.

Kake hastily said, "I have backups in the cloud drive! I have the account and password here."

He quickly opened the memo on his phone and showed the account and password to He Ao, "Most of the rental companies in Feklay are gathering information for them, and not just our company. If we don’t work for them, our families are in danger."

"When you took the money, did you tell yourself the same thing?"

He Ao withdrew his gaze from the corpses absentmindedly and asked.

Kake’s face stiffened.

Just as He Ao’s attention turned to Kake’s phone screen, the tightly closed office door was suddenly burst open.

A burly man with a machine gun rushed in from behind the door. He looked at the flesh and blood scattered all over the office and the monster’s corpse on the floor. He approached He Ao, pointing the muzzle of the machine gun at He Ao’s body and stared coldly at He Ao.

"Central Eather, what have you done to Mr. Skal? Where is he now?"

"He’s right there on the ground."

He Ao glanced at the monster’s corpse on the floor, then looked at the burly man and the gang members who were starting to appear continuously behind him, "I just happen to have some questions for you."

"You’re courting death!"

The burly man raised his machine gun, ready to pull the trigger.

At this moment, He Ao had already picked up the pistol from the desk, twirled it around, and then pressed the muzzle against the burly man’s chin.

The bullet went through the brain, and the splashing blood burst open on the back of the burly man’s head.

The burly man’s eyes widened, his body slowly leaning backwards and collapsing onto the ground with a ’thud’.

And the gang members standing behind the burly man stared blankly at this scene. They looked at the body of the burly man and then at He Ao, hesitated for a moment, and didn’t shoot again.

They watched the Central Earth youth in front of them warily and carefully, as if he was the true master of this place.

Kake trembled as he watched this crazy scene.

He felt that his life for the past forty years had never been as thrilling as today.

He Ao glanced at Kake’s phone screen and then looked at the gang members blocking the doorway. He placed the handgun back on the desk as if the recent event had never happened. "Has anyone suspicious been in contact with