Chapter 625: Various... (Third update)

Having had an ear ripped off alive, Bing Quan rolled on the ground in pain. It took a long time for the agony to subside. Though he was furious inside, he dared not show it on his face; he had already witnessed Su Xiao's ferocity.

"York Hotel. Don't make me repeat myself a third time."

Bing Quan gritted his teeth and stood up shakily, blood spraying from the knife wounds on his body.

"Let me... change my clothes."

At this moment, Bing Quan was covered in filth. He held a high position in the underworld, and going out like this would be a great loss of face.

"Fine."

Bing Quan let out a sigh of relief. After walking out of the alley, he entered a clothing store around the corner.

Ten minutes later, Bing Quan walked out of the store. He had changed into clean clothes, with white cloth strips wrapped around his body and head. He was naturally thin like a bamboo pole, resembling a drug addict, and the massive blood loss now made him look like he could kick the bucket at any moment.

"The York Hotel isn't far from here."

Bing Quan had already seen the situation clearly. Not to mention the metal wire wrapped around his neck that could sever his head at any second, he was no match for Su Xiao in terms of strength—a fact just proven by the total ineffectiveness of his prized neurotoxins.

Bing Quan walked in front, Su Xiao followed behind, with an extremely inconspicuous metal wire between them.

Driving through the streets, it wasn't long before a magnificent hotel appeared before them. The hotel had over 40 floors, and according to that Ten Elders member, he would be waiting for Su Xiao on the 30th floor.

A row of men in black stood at the hotel entrance. These men were dressed in crisp suits, with bulges at their waists—everyone was armed with a gun.

There is a saying that offending the Ten Elders means offending all the underworld factions across the six continents. While it sounds impressive, one could tell from the strength of the Shadow Beasts that the Ten Elders' influence wasn't as terrifying as imagined; it was only terrifying in the world of ordinary people.

If the Phantom Troupe were to battle the Ten Elders' forces without outside interference, the Troupe could completely crush them.

And since the Phantom Troupe, a band of thieves, had set their sights on the auction goods, war with the Ten Elders' forces was inevitable.

If one were to truly join the Ten Elders' forces, they would become enemies with the Phantom Troupe, but so what? There were indeed people in the Troupe who could kill Su Xiao, but they certainly couldn't reach the level of crushing him.

Among the Troupe, there were four people Su Xiao was most wary of: Chrollo Lucilfer (the Leader), Feitan, Nobunaga, and Phinks.

The Leader was highly intelligent with troublesome abilities, while Feitan's ultimate move was too ferocious; there was no possibility of hard-tanking that "Miniature Sun."

Nobunaga possessed extremely strong dueling capabilities; generally, anyone who uses a blade well is not weak in a duel.

As for Phinks, his "Ripper Cyclotron" ability was astonishing. The more his arm rotated, the greater his punching power became. While rotating too many times might cost him his arm, if he were to rotate it dozens of times, he could very well take Su Xiao down with him.

Aside from these four, the others in the Troupe were either countered by Su Xiao or had relatively balanced abilities, posing little danger.

Shaking his head to clear these thoughts, Su Xiao pushed Bing Quan's back, signaling him to lead the way.

Bing Quan stumbled from the push. He dared not say a word, clutching his ear and walking into the hotel with his head buried.

The first floor of the hotel was a lobby filled with men in suits. It seemed this was the Ten Elders' method of intimidation, or perhaps this was just the style of the underworld.

Su Xiao ignored the hooligan-like underworld members. If he were to let loose and kill, this place would become a living hell in two minutes at most. To ordinary people, Su Xiao was already monster-class; no, to most Second Tier Qiyuezhe, he was monster-class. Long ago, his strength had become severely disproportionate to his Samsara Brand level, which had created a virtuous cycle.

They took the elevator on the first floor, and it rose slowly.

Ding!

The elevator opened on the 12th floor, and the sheathed Checking Zhan Long Shan appeared in Su Xiao's hand.

The dark purple scabbard, "God's Afterglow," was exceptionally gorgeous, and combined with Checking Zhan Long Shan's simple, unadorned hilt, the two created a strange aesthetic beauty. Anyone who saw Checking Zhan Long Shan for the first time would want to possess this blade, as it was impeccable in both appearance and quality.

The elevator doors opened to reveal three men standing outside. Su Xiao recognized two of them: the Shadow Beasts Worm and Porcupine.

"Excuse me."

Just as the Shadow Beast Porcupine was about to step into the elevator, Su Xiao pressed the tip of his scabbard against the man's chest.

"Get out."

Porcupine was about to speak when he saw Bing Quan winking at him.

"Excuse me."

Porcupine smiled and backed out of the elevator, keeping his small eyes fixed on Su Xiao the entire time.

The elevator doors closed slowly. Porcupine took out his phone and dialed; the other end answered immediately.

"He's coming up. Very strong. Based on current investigation results, he is not from a hostile faction. As for which faction he serves, it is currently unknown."

Porcupine listened quietly to the phone, agreed a few times, and hung up.

"What did the Ten Elders say?"

The Shadow Beast Worm, who resembled a soft-bodied organism, spoke up.

"They didn't say much."

"Are we just going to let the matter of Leech being killed slide?"

There was dissatisfaction in Worm's dull, yellow eyes.

"I really hope we can just let it slide. Leech was beheaded, and Bing Quan is half-dead. If we were to seek revenge, who do you think should go?"

Hearing Porcupine's words, the Shadow Beast Worm felt a chill in his heart.

Did he even need to ask? They, the Shadow Beasts, were the Ten Elders' strongest subordinates. Of course, they would be the ones to go, and in the end, they would be the ones to die.

"Then... I also hope we can just let it slide."

"Right. Nine of the Ten Elders have agreed to end this matter here to minimize losses. Although we are an underworld organization, we don't go head-to-head with enemies who are too strong. That would be foolish."

Porcupine was right. The Ten Elders' forces were indeed an underworld organization, but when faced with someone of Su Xiao's strength, the Ten Elders would choose to negotiate and recruit first. Only as a last resort would they spend money to hire powerful Nen-user assassins to kill Su Xiao.

Famous assassin organizations in the world aren't cheap. With the Ten Elders' financial resources, wanting to hire an assassin capable of killing Su Xiao would require paying an astonishing reward.

For the Ten Elders, as long as they didn't go to full-scale war, there was a possibility of negotiation. As for Leech, a dead man had no value. "Blood for blood" wasn't the style of the underworld; that was just something beautified in movies and TV shows.

The elevator gradually rose to the 30th floor.

Ding, the elevator opened.

Seeing the scene before him, Su Xiao raised an eyebrow, Bubu Wang's eyes widened, and Bing Quan bared his teeth in a smile.

The layout of the 30th floor was simple. There was a large screen on the inner wall, and the room contained only a large bed. The massive room inevitably felt empty.

But at this moment, the 30th floor was not empty. The room was filled with women in revealing clothing—at least a hundred of them, ranging from their teens to their twenties: mature women, lolis, bunny ears, nurse uniforms...

"Greetings, my lord. Welcome to the York Hotel."

The large group of women bowed in unison before stepping forward, some even pulling their clothes down to their shoulders.

Su Xiao looked at the large screen in the room. The image on the screen was of a man with yellow crew-cut hair, a square face, and a scar on his lip. He looked to be about 40 years old.

"Friend, a small gift, please don't mind it. Enjoy yourself to the fullest. These women were all carefully selected. However, before you enjoy yourself, how about you release Bing Quan? After all, no one likes being watched while doing that."

Needless to say, the man on the screen was one of the Ten Elders. The Ten Elders wouldn't show their faces easily, especially when facing someone as dangerous as Su Xiao. None of the ten of them had come to the York Hotel because they didn't dare to. If they lacked even this much caution, the Ten Elders' forces would have been wiped out long ago.

PS: (The update is a bit late. I have a cold, my brain speed is slow, and I still need to maintain my state, so I deliberately wrote slowly. Everyone, please forgive me. Don't tear up your monthly tickets; Feiwen has already resumed three updates.) ===== CHAPTER 626 =====