Chapter 584: Li Ang: After All, I'm Not Some Kind of Demon Either

Inside a massive starship reeking of blood.

A half-human, half-serpent male creature pressed its head hard against the cold floor, saying with a hint of fear, "My lord Zhakuli, the souls stored aboard are nearly gone. If you would just—"

Hearing this, a snake-haired woman with six arms slowly flicked out a forked tongue. "Is that so. Then use your lives to make up the difference."

"But—"

The male serpent-man jerked his head up, instinctively wanting to say something.

But when he saw the utterly emotionless gaze of his master, he couldn't help but swallow hard, then stammered, "I-I understand."

The Daoist dies but his fellow Daoists don't—as the starship's administrator, as long as there were still people alive aboard, it wasn't his turn to fill that gap.

The snake-haired woman remained seated in the place of honor, watching this uneasy subordinate leave the room.

She naturally knew what the other was thinking, but so what.

She only cared about results, not the process.

As long as they could cover the soul consumption for the journey, she could turn a blind eye to however much these idiots embezzled.

But if they couldn't cover it—

The snake-haired woman flicked her tongue, and at some point a pale blue orb of light had appeared in her hand.

This was the soul of the previous starship administrator—she had been storing it for quite some time.

Zhakuli savored the addicting despair within the soul as she silently thought to herself:

'This one doesn't look particularly troublesome. Why would the Society send me out?'

'Is there something hidden going on?'

As the Mingjin Society's ace debt collector, Zhakuli had seen plenty of difficult gamblers, among them no few with formidable strength and deep backgrounds.

But in the end, all of them had been dealt with by her.

Not in the physical sense, of course—after all, what the Society wanted wasn't to kill these gamblers, but to recover the debts owed.

Even if it was only the principal.

But according to the intelligence Zhakuli had received, this target had neither powerful strength nor a deep background, and was rated by the Society as having weak repayment ability. Logically speaking, they shouldn't have been able to run up such an enormous gambling debt.

'Tch—looks like the problem's no small matter. I'll have to wait until we reach the Grand Casino to investigate further.'

With this thought flashing through her mind, the snake-haired woman swallowed the soul in her hand whole, then closed her eyes to rest for a bit.

But just then, a strange, eerie fluctuation suddenly caught her attention.

Zhakuli opened her eyes to see a pitch-black rift, like an abyss, appear out of thin air ahead of her.

Then, before the pilots could react, the starship plunged headlong into it.

In the blink of an eye, the surroundings shifted from the dead silence of space to a frigid world filled with howling wind and snow.

Seeing the scene before her, Zhakuli couldn't help but furrow her brow tightly, then flashed out to the exterior of the starship in an instant.

After halting the out-of-control vessel, she asked in a low voice, "Who might you be?"

But the only response was the howling of wind and snow.

"."

Zhakuli drew a deep breath, then her six arms tightly gripped six different weapons.

Since the other party refused to show themselves, she would have to force them out.

Just as the snake-haired woman was about to launch her attack, a sudden jet sound came from the heavens, and then a giant steel hand pierced through the cloud layer and slammed down toward her.

Screech—

As a dazzling blade-light flashed past, a crack immediately appeared on the giant steel hand.

Seeing this, Zhakuli's amber pupils contracted sharply.

She had full awareness of her own strength—ordinary mechanical creations facing this attack would only end up split in two, yet the steel hand above had only gained a single crack.

In an instant, several factions famous for mechanical-type abilities flashed through this debt collector's mind.

'The Holy Forge Sect? Or the Steel Spine Conglomerate?'

'Or perhaps—'

'Giant God's Heavy Industries?'

Thinking this, Zhakuli's heart immediately sank.

If it really was as she suspected, then today's matter was going to be troublesome.

Although the Mingjin Society was no small enterprise within the Universal Corporate Alliance, compared to this giant corporation it was still nothing more than a stray dog by the roadside.

'Hopefully I'm overthinking it—'

Zhakuli drew a deep breath, trying to keep her emotions in check.

Facing the steel giant palm still pressing down toward her, she chose to actively give way.

The very next moment, the giant hand collided with the starship and brutally crushed it into the ground.

Seeing her subordinates wiped out cleanly, Zhakuli felt not the slightest pang of heartache, instead focusing entirely on guarding against the mechanical-type professional who still hadn't shown themselves.

Just then, the mechanical giant hand—which had just crushed the starship into fragments—suddenly froze, then crumbled into pieces under the snake-haired woman's gaze.

".?"

The sudden turn of events left this debt collector somewhat baffled.

Was this some new technology she hadn't seen before? Or was it meant to lower her guard so they could land a killing blow?

Just as Zhakuli was puzzling over this, a slightly helpless voice came through the wind and snow to her ears: "Old Wu, is this your super transformation form?"

"Uh—it's possible she hit a major artery, but don't worry, I still have backup hidden energy."

"Forget it, I'll handle it myself."

As the words fell, a bone-deep chill suddenly swept through Zhakuli's entire body—she had never expected there to be two attackers.

Realizing this, the snake-haired woman's gaze instantly turned utterly dark.

But before she could react, a magic bullet wreathed in deep crimson blood-flame had already torn through the blizzard and arrived before her.

Feeling the familiar aura emanating from the magic bullet, Zakuili paused in surprise: "Magic?"

'Another one is a demon?!'

Demons aren't rare in this world, but they usually appear only in a few places—【Price Desire Group】and【Mingjin Society】are two of them.

Coupled with the suspicious nature of this mission, a thought immediately rose in Zakuili's mind.

'Is that gambler a Ma Jia used by certain people in the casino to embezzle the group's assets?'

'Are they ours or Price's people?'

It wasn't unreasonable for her to think so—it was simply too coincidental.

The debt collector, convinced she had uncovered the truth, spoke while dodging the relentless crimson magic bullets: "Even if you kill me now, it won't fix anything—such a massive hole will still prompt the Society and the Desire Group to send others to investigate."

"And next time, it might be a Level Six."

As she spoke, a crimson magic bullet grazed Zakuili's arm, leaving a deep wound that laid bare bone.

Feeling the piercing pain, Zakuili clenched her brows and activated her internal magic to heal the wound as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, it's impossible.

The crimson magic continuously devoured the wound, and faint frost slowly spread outward.

'What a disgusting ability.'

Zakuili had never encountered such an ability before, but now was not the time to investigate it.

"But if you cooperate with the investigation and tell me exactly who was involved, the Society won't hold you accountable."

She didn't believe these two were the masterminds—there were surely many others secretly embezzling the Society's assets.

And her best chance of escaping alive today likely rested on this point.

As she spoke, Zakuili cleanly severed her injured arm.

To prevent the destructive magic from spreading further, this was the best solution she could think of.

The next instant, a pale arm identical to the previous one rapidly regrew from the stump.

Unfortunately, the debt collector was disappointed—despite her clear explanation of the stakes, the two hidden in the blizzard offered no response.

With no other option, Zakuili abandoned her hopes and coldly uttered four words: "Obstinate fools. Do you truly think the Society is so easy to deceive?"

Just as she thought she'd get no reply, the owner of the earlier steel giant hand spoke, somewhat wearily: "But the problem is, we aren't from the casino. Talking to us about this is useless."

"?"

Hearing this, Zakuili froze, barely avoiding a crimson magic bullet piercing her chest.

But she quickly regained her composure, slashing apart another magic bullet with a casual strike, then frowned and retorted: "Not from the casino? Then who are you?"

"That's none of your business. Our contract was to kill you."

"."

Hearing this, Zakuili rapidly recalled anyone she'd offended lately—and realized she'd angered more people than six hands could count.

But the problem was, none of those people could afford to hire these two.

After a brief silence, Zakuili spoke: "I'll pay double. Can you tell me who hired you?"

"This isn't about money."

As the voice faded into the blizzard, an unimaginably terrifying energy surge erupted and slammed toward Zakuili's position.

With no time to ponder the meaning of those final words, the snake-haired woman whirled her weapon, shredding the blizzard in an instant.

But it was useless—the debt collector, whose skill points were all invested in close combat, could only watch helplessly as the energy consumed her.

After a long while, the energy dissipated, revealing Zakuili, her body covered in wounds.

"Cough… cough…"

She coughed, her body growing weak.

Recalling the previous attack, Zakuili felt a surge of dread.

'Was that Level Six?'

'It shouldn't have been that strong yet.'

She had seen Level Six before—though the attack's destructive power was excessive, it hadn't reached that level.

Of course, that wasn't the key issue—more importantly, beings like that usually appear only in the largest factions.

Like the Federation. Like the Empire.

'So what could possibly have driven them to attack me?'

Just as Zakuili tried to find an answer to this question, a voice filled with surprise suddenly sounded beside her: "Huh? Still alive?"

Zakuili turned toward the voice and saw a young man standing at a distance, watching her.

Beside him stood four other figures, all distinct.

But when the debt collector noticed one of the five was a cyborg, a flash of insight struck her.

Coupled with the power these people had just displayed, their identity became obvious.

'【Giant God's Gravity】!'

'But do these engineers even accept contracts?!'

Before Zakuili could process this, the shadow of death suddenly loomed over her heart.

As the blinding Jin Guang filled her vision, her mind raced.