Chapter 297: Brains Matter (Beginning of Month, Requesting Monthly Votes)

Feeling a wind carrying the stench of blood and charred flesh whip against his back, Lu Mi spun nimbly and darted into the alley leading to Nightingale Street.

The werewolf, his pitch-black eyes streaked with blood vessels, was dominated by rage and the lust for slaughter, forcibly twisting his body as he charged headlong into the alley.

He saw Lu Mi leap lightly over the barricade ahead and followed with a similar bound.

The next instant, his vision caught an uncovered sewer entrance, its iron-black ladder descending straight into darkness.

Lu Mi stepped precisely on the edge of the sewer opening and cleanly vaulted over this "natural" trap.

Thud! The werewolf crashed into the sewer, half-sunk, his wounds splitting further, his head spinning with dizziness.

Seizing the opportunity, Lu Mi turned and summoned again a flock of crimson fire crows, sending them spiraling toward the enemy trapped at the sewer's mouth.

With a thunderous rumble, the crimson fire crows engulfed the area, igniting gray fur, charring skin in patches, and tearing open more flesh.

The werewolf shoved hard with both hands and finally leapt clear of the sewer, while Lu Mi, having landed his strike, sprinted away again.

The werewolf grew even angrier, desperate to tear apart this bastard and dump his entrails to the stray dogs passing by.

With a hiss, Lu Mi, reaching the alley's exit, sharply veered left.

The werewolf closed the distance in a few steps and spun around with a tail-whip motion.

But before him, in the darkness, rose a barricade nearly a meter high—Lu Mi, prepared, reached out, pressed down, and flipped cleanly over it.

The werewolf realized too late; there was no time for another strategy—he could only choose between a hasty leap or crashing straight into it.

He pushed hard with his legs, trying to clear the barricade's top, but his forward momentum was too great; his feet snagged the obstacle before his body fully lifted.

Thump!

The werewolf tumbled over the barricade, landing hard enough to see stars.

Lu Mi halted his run once more, one hand in his pocket, gazing at his enemy.

Around him, a new swarm of fire crows coalesced, zipping and whistling toward the base of the barricade.

The werewolf rolled desperately, but at least ten fire crows struck him; his abdominal wound, no longer held shut by his grip, split open again, spilling bloody intestines.

Only now did the werewolf realize he'd walked into the trap, regaining fragments of reason, sensing his body's weakness and unstable state.

He smothered the flames on his skin, struggled to his feet, and tried to flee.

At that moment, Lu Mi's voice, laced with mockery, reached his ears:

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to fight in a 'hunter's' familiar territory?"

"You dared chase me through the backstreets and surrounding areas? All I can say is brains matter—you just don't have any."

The werewolf's mind rang like a struck bell; he became wildly enraged.

He willingly sacrificed his reason, unleashed his desires, and amplified his body in every way.

He became a "madman"!

He chased Lu Mi once more.

Lu Mi alternated between sudden stops to counterattack, slipping beneath the stone arm of a statue jutting from a corner, waiting until the werewolf crashed into the obstacle before turning back with a volley of crimson fire crows, feigning intent to enter the underground Trill, then lying in ambush.

In this endless chase and flight, the werewolf finally reached his limit, his body on the verge of collapse.

He returned from his frenzy, gripped by a strong sense of danger, desperate to escape this area and flee the Honest Man's Market District.

At that moment, Lu Mi, as if anticipating it, stopped and turned, smiling.

Watching the werewolf now move far slower as he began to flee, Lu Mi summoned a long spear of blazing white light.

Lu Mi whipped his body and hurled the flame spear.

A streak of blazing white light cut through the air, piercing the werewolf's ravaged body and pinning him to the ground, igniting him completely.

Amid the sudden blaze, Lu Mi, one hand in his pocket, walked toward his enemy.

Behind him, one crimson fire crow after another coalesced, screaming and circling before diving into the werewolf's various wounds, destroying his heart, lungs, and other organs.

By the time Lu Mi reached the target, the "aberration" had ceased breathing, life gone.

His eyes were wide open, frozen in clear regret and terror.

"You could've just gone to our Sava Party's boss—why attack me? Trying to turn me into a puppet to prepare for assassinating Gardner Martin?" Lu Mi looked down at the werewolf, shaking his head with a tsk-tsk. "How little do you think of gangsters? How arrogant are you?"

Earlier, he'd already prepared for the possibility that the enemy would be hard to handle—even a Rank 6—and his "escape" route had always led toward White Coat Street.

Once there, he could draw Franca's attention, letting her secretly use the enemy's spilled blood to cast a fatal curse.

If Lu Mi had foreseen that even two of them together might not subdue the target, he would've quickly turned into Market Avenue, using fireball explosions to create noise loud enough to attract official Exalted ones and scare off the enemy.

But given the enemy's madness and excessive lust for slaughter, Lu Mi judged he wouldn't quickly weigh risks and end the fight to evade official Exalted pursuit—he'd have to hold out a while longer before dawn arrived.

Lu Mi crouched and searched the werewolf's clothing.

He found only three Ferring coins and burned banknotes, a charred wallet—nothing else useful.

"You didn't even consider bribing me? Just relying on brute force?" Lu Mi muttered, feeling a pang of regret.

He wasn't too disappointed—he knew this werewolf was unlikely to be a Gifted One; soon he'd extract a Rank 7 Exalted Trait containing Rank 9 and Rank 8 components.

That was worth thirty to forty thousand Ferring—or more!

Lu Mi could use it to combine with the "Shadow Branch" to craft a miraculous item, or trade it for another, more suitable Exalted Trait.

Considering the many weaker explosions he'd created, Lu Mi didn't linger on the street; he briefly handled the werewolf's corpse, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and carried it to the back door of the Breeze Dance Hall.

Sackota and other Sava Party members were no strangers to murder and body disposal; they quickly fetched a body bag, stuffed the corpse inside, and dispatched someone to clean the blood trails.

Lu Mi tossed the body bag into the Breeze Dance Hall's carriage, planning to visit Gardner Martin that very night.

Along the way, he opened the bag several times, finally seeing a faint black-green glow seep from the corpse, merging with a sharp, canine fang.

After several dozen seconds, Lu Mi obtained a black-green, peculiar fang.

He considered briefly, then decided to leave the fang inside the body bag and see what Gardner Martin would do.

Given this "superior's" established style, when it came to rewards, he'd reward—either giving Lu Mi the werewolf's Exalted Trait directly, swapping it for another, or buying it outright with sufficient gold.

If so, Lu Mi was happy to show sincerity.

At just past one in the morning, the Breeze Dance Hall's carriage stopped at Spring Street 11, Memorial District. Lu Mi unceremoniously tugged the rope beside the iron gate, letting the bell's chime echo through the pale-gray three-story villa.

Soon, the male servant with clear South Continent ancestry appeared and opened the door.

He looked disgruntled, clearly woken from sleep—but upon seeing Lu Mi's charred, torn clothes and the dragging body bag, he suddenly shuddered, regaining the proper manners of a servant.

Lu Mi dragged the body bag inside the villa and saw Faustino, the butler, also a member of the Iron Cross.

Faustino, with his neatly tied cravat, stared at Lu Mi and the body bag for several seconds, then asked with mild surprise:

"What's this?"

"A strange fellow," Lu Mi answered with a smile.

Faustino asked no further, leading Lu Mi into the parlor on the first floor.

Gardner Martin, dressed in a deep blue silk robe, reclined in his armchair and smiled:

"Who's in the body bag?"

"You came all this way at night—this must be more than ordinary."

Lu Mi unfastened the body bag and spilled the werewolf's corpse, along with the black-green fang, onto the parlor rug.

Gardner Martin glanced once, his expression gradually turning serious:

"A werewolf…"

Lu Mi laughed:

"He came asking who our Sava Party boss was—and tried to control me, turn me into a puppet."

Gardner Martin nodded slowly:

"And then?"

"And then?" Lu Mi raised an eyebrow, smiling. "Then I killed him."

Hearing this, Faustino, standing beside his superior, looked from the werewolf's corpse to Lu Mi—whose clothes bore only clear signs of charring and tearing—and his demeanor lost its calm composure.

Gardner Martin's gaze sharpened; after a few seconds of silence, he sighed:

"Pity—you don't have 'Spirit Communication.' You missed out on a lot of intelligence."

Lu Mi had been about to say, "Maybe I need a miraculous item that grants Spirit Communication," but feared it might eat into his reward, jeopardizing the "Shadow Branch's" pairing.

Gardner Martin continued:

"I'll handle the follow-up investigation and response. You don't need to worry about this now—I'll call on you when you're needed."

"What was he trying to do? He seems to have a significant background," Lu Mi said, glancing at the werewolf's corpse, deliberately showing his confusion.

Gardner Martin shook his head:

"Not certain yet."

He then turned to Lu Mi and smiled:

"Do you want this werewolf's fang—or something else?"

"Any options?" Lu Mi didn't bother with politeness.

ps: Beginning of the month—requesting monthly votes~

(End of Chapter)