My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 400 The Death of the Ripper (10,000 words, seeking monthly votes)

It was 6:30 PM on August 24th, a cool and refreshing evening.

Typhoon "Big Windmill" did not arrive on time as predicted in the weather forecast; the sky was a mix of light blue and dusky yellow.

The fjord city nestled by the sea is bathed in the glow of the setting sun. Windmills along the harbor turn slowly, the sea glistens, and lights shine brightly in every house, making it seem like just an ordinary, unremarkable sunset.

At this moment, in the basement of Lao Wu's antique shop.

After a day of revelry in the underground bar, most of the White Raven crew members had already left.

Now, Zhuge Hui has left Haifan City with Zhong Wujiu, and Lin Xingshi is missing. There are no longer any opponents in Haifan City who can threaten the White Raven Brigade.

Even if they are discovered by the exorcists' association, there is no risk to them.

So, Anron and Robert put on face masks, changed into a pair of roguish floral suits they'd never worn before, and walked side by side into the local casino.

Naturally, Qi Yuanli also disappeared. As always, his whereabouts were unpredictable, and it was difficult to see him except during his missions. Xueyi said he wanted to go to the beach alone to relax, watch the sunset, and feel the sea breeze.

So for a short while, only Xia Pingzhou, Enma Rin, Ayase Origami, Andrew, Bai Tanlang, Hacker, and Rukawa Chiba remained in the bar.

Xia Pingzhou turned the doorknob and walked out of the private room, glancing at the scene inside the bar.

Andrew was slumped drunk on the bar, White Wolf stood by the wall with his arms crossed, head bowed in thought, Rukawa Chiba was flipping through an anatomy book, and Ayase Origami was drinking orange juice alone.

Finally, he turned his gaze to a girl in a black and white JK school uniform in the corner.

She placed the scabbard on the bar and sat down there, munching on small bites of puffed biscuits while watching cartoons on the television.

Enma Rin's expression remained unchanged for a long time until she noticed Xia Pingzhou staring at her, at which point she turned her head and glanced at him.

Xia Pingzhou exchanged a glance with her, then walked over and sat down in the swivel chair next to Yan Molin.

"What is it?" Enma Rin asked casually, her eyes still fixed on the television.

"Can't I have a heart-to-heart talk with you?" Xia Pingzhou replied.

"How rare. You're not going to go and fawn over your young lady anymore?" Enma Rin mocked.

Xia Pingzhou was silent for a moment, then glanced at the black fur gloves he was wearing. "Miss said that you chose these for her."

"Your birthday present?" Enma Rin said casually. "She's so stupid, she just stood there in the mall for ages, lost in thought. I couldn't stand it, so I just gave her some advice."

"I have to thank you for that, otherwise I don't know what strange things she would have picked out to give me."

As he spoke, Xia Pingzhou took his phone out of his pocket, removed the cat charm from it, and placed it on the bar counter. The chain was coiled around the bottom of the charm, and the cat sat motionless on the table.

“Instead of chatting with me, why don’t you go visit her?” Enma Rin said. “She just complained to me on her phone that you’ve been avoiding her these past few days.”

"Is there any?"

Enma Rin took her phone out of her school uniform pocket, placed it on the table, and casually pushed it toward Xia Pingzhou.

The phone swiped across the bar counter and landed in Xia Pingzhou's palm. He picked it up and glanced at it casually.

[KamiNeko: Jack.]

[Hell Girl: Say it.]

[KamiNeko: Did I do something wrong?]

[Hell Girl: What do you mean?]

Xia Pingzhou remained silent for a moment before looking up from his phone screen.

He asked, "How did you interpret that she was talking about me from that sentence?"

"Otherwise what?" Enma Rin said, "Why would our young lady get emotional over something? Instead of asking yourself why you're avoiding her?"

She paused for a moment: "We should have talked. If you hurt her, then I'll kill you."

Xia Pingzhou put down his phone and pushed it to her from the table.

"When did you join the Phantom Troupe?" he asked suddenly, looking up at the television.

"Don't change the subject."

"Answer my question first, and then I'll answer yours."

“One year ago,” Enma Rin said after thinking for a moment.

"What's your reason for joining the Phantom Troupe?"

Do I need a reason?

"need."

“I was just interested. The leader sent me an invitation.” Enma Rin said, glancing at Ayase Origami out of the corner of her eye. “If I had to give a reason, it would be that I saw her in the Phantom Troupe.”

"she?"

“I didn’t go to school when I was very young, and I helped my family manage a bookstore. I saw her a few times in the bookstore back then. She was still the eldest daughter of the Ayase family, and Oda Takikage was always following her around.” Enma Rin said, glancing at the kimono-clad girl in the distance who was looking at the haiku collection. “She always looked empty. I felt that she was a lot like me, so I remembered her back then.”

“I see,” Xia Pingzhou said, “Then you two are quite destined to meet.”

He paused, took a sip of orange juice with ice, and after a long while said:
"Actually, we are quite destined to meet."

"Where do we have this connection?" Enma Rin asked. "I have no recollection of ever seeing you before."

"You killed my parents, isn't that a sign of fate?" Xia Pingzhou asked expressionlessly.

"Do you think this kind of joke is funny?" Enma Rin asked expressionlessly. "We all know you're an orphan, and you have an albino sister whom you're looking for."

Xia Pingzhou thought for a moment: "When you kill people, are you really happy?"

"It was quite fun at first. It's like playing a game. At first, you drive and run over those NPCs, and you think it's fun and stress-relieving. But then you gradually get bored." Enma Rin crossed her arms and tilted her head, a strand of straight black hair falling from her ear. "I've almost completely lost interest by now. It's only when I'm PK-ing with other players that I feel a bit of fun."

"Player? In your world, do you consider me an NPC or a player?"

“You’re a pet dog that a player is walking.” Enma Rin thought for a moment, then turned her face away indifferently and made a joke, “Compared to an NPC, at least you’re somewhat interesting.”

"Didn't you say before that I was your kind?" Xia Pingzhou said. "Then if I'm a pet dog, are you a pet cat?"

Enma Rin fell silent, but Xia Pingzhou beat her to it and grabbed the scabbard she had placed on the bar.

"Can't we be a little more civilized?" he asked. "Don't always resort to knives and guns; it's not good for harmony among the group members."

The moment Xia Pingzhou grasped the scabbard, he suddenly saw a scene.

It was dusk when the girl in the school uniform unlocked the door with her key, stood at the front door, and silently looked up at the entrance.

There was a woman who was hanging from the ceiling by a rope.

"Mom, I was bullied at school...it hurts so much." The girl said, walking blankly over and shaking the woman's feet.

The mother remained motionless.

"Mom, my teacher told me that as long as I communicate well with Dad and Mom, you won't fight anymore..."

The mother remained motionless.

"The teacher also said that it was all my fault for being too timid."

The girl in the school uniform lowered her head, spoke softly, and gently shook her mother's foot.

"But I'm so scared. I don't dare to talk to you. But today I suddenly realized that if I don't speak up, this will continue forever."

She gently pinched her mother's trouser leg.

"So, could you and Daddy please stop fighting..." she said, "and be nicer to me, okay?"

At that moment, the mother's indoor slipper fell off her foot and landed on the floor with a "thud," breaking the deathly silence in the room. The school uniform girl looked down at the slipper, stunned for a long, long time, before tears welled up in her eyes.

Then, she ran away without looking back.

"It would be better if everyone just died..." the girl murmured.

She sat alone on a swing in the park, swinging the swing rope with one hand, and suddenly raised the other hand as if pulling a gun, aiming it at the setting sun.

"Boom..."

The girl spoke softly, a touch of bright red hanging from the corner of her pale lips, like a red bean dripping onto paper.

The next moment, the sunset on her fingertips suddenly shattered.

Xia Pingzhou slowly came to his senses and realized that these were her memories.

"If you want me to be civilized, then you'd better not provoke me." Enma Rin said, a slight smile playing on her lips.

“Oh, then let me ask you another question about civilization,” Xia Pingzhou said after a moment of silence.

"explain."

"Six months ago, when you passed through that alley in Lijing, you saw a group of NPCs looking at you from the rooftop, so you suddenly felt very annoyed, right?" Xia Pingzhou thought for a moment, "At that time, you were thinking, 'They're just a group of NPCs, why can they look at you so carelessly?'"

Enma Rin lowered her eyes, thought for a while with a blank expression, and then slowly turned her head to look at Xia Pingzhou.

"you are right?"

“Didn’t we talk about this at the port last night? You killed a family six months ago, but you spared one boy because the blood covered the photos, and you couldn’t be bothered to investigate.”

Enma Rin then remembered, and said:
"Adolescence is about getting angry for no reason, not liking to be watched, so they die."

Xia Pingzhou remained silent, his face expressionless. The bar was noisy, and the television screen emitted the chattering of cartoon characters. Yanmo Lin ate another puffed biscuit.

"Do you still remember their faces?" he asked.

“I forgot,” Enma Rin said.

He began by saying, “The father of that family is an honest man who wears glasses and worries every day about whether he will be fired from his company, but he is a good man who cares about his family; the mother is a very ordinary housewife who takes care of housework every day; their daughter is only twelve years old, she likes to doodle in her notebook, she has a kind heart, and she often helps her sick classmates bring their homework home.”

Enma Rin turned her pale face to the side, looking down at Xia Pingzhou's profile with indifferent eyes, while slowly gripping the dark red scabbard on the bar.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Don't you understand now?"

Xia Pingzhou slowly turned his head to look into Yan Molin's eyes, meeting her eyes which were as black as the polar night.

"The person who escaped from your clutches six months ago..."

He lowered his voice and said, "It's me."

Upon hearing this, Enma Rin's expression subtly changed.

Her pupils dilated slightly, and the face reflected in her eyes suddenly became unfamiliar. At that moment, a black and white halo suddenly surged out from Xia Pingzhou's body, transforming into a ring and spreading outwards.

In an instant, the ring engulfed the figures of Enma Rin and Xia Pingzhou.

Two or three seconds later, the other people in the bar noticed the commotion and turned around.

But just as they belatedly turned their gazes towards him, the ring of the "Black King's Domain" had already contracted and closed, and Xia Pingzhou and Yanmo Lin's figures disappeared together in front of the bar.

A moment later, inside the Black King's domain.

On a desolate yet magnificent chessboard, black and white squares intertwine and stretch all the way to the ends of the earth.

At this moment, on the chessboard, two slender figures stood facing each other, a hundred meters apart.

Xia Pingzhou looked up at Yan Molin.

Enma Rin widened her eyes slightly and stared at the floor for a moment, lost in thought.

Her long, straight black hair obscured Enma Rin's eyes. She slowly raised her eyes from under her bangs and met his gaze.

The two looked at each other in silence for a moment before someone spoke, breaking the silence on the chessboard.

“It’s you…” she murmured.

“Yes, just ask me whatever you want. I’m very forgiving of the dead,” Xia Pingzhou said calmly.

"You traitor, your tone is quite impolite." Enma Rin sneered.

"if not?"

"So you joined the White Raven Brigade from the very beginning just to take revenge on me?" Enma Rin paused. "Because... I killed your family six months ago?"

Xia Pingzhou lowered his eyes and then raised them again, replying, "Yes, but not entirely."

"What do you mean?"

"Actually, taking revenge on you is meaningless to me. Trying to find such a high-sounding reason for myself just seems a bit inexplicable. After all, Xia Pingzhou's parents mean nothing to me. Like you, they are just an NPC that can be seen anywhere in my eyes."

Xia Pingzhou paused here, then said, "But you're different. You're a level monster. If you're not killed, you'll get stuck. The reason you die is that simple."

Enma Rin stared at him, her voice turning colder, "Have you started talking nonsense?"

“I’m telling the truth, after all, I have no reason to lie to a dead man.”

After Xia Pingzhou finished speaking, a black and white halo flowed out from his body, forming a Möbius strip-shaped loop.

In an instant, he reached out and grabbed the king's piece from the ring road, placing it behind him. Then he summoned five soldier pieces in one go.

The diamond soldiers raised their shields in unison, kneeling firmly on one knee, forming a formidable shield formation.

"Yo——!"

Suddenly, the neighing of a spirited horse rang out, followed by a deafening roar of hooves that seemed to engulf the entire world. Immediately afterward, two stone knight statues emerged from both ends of the shield formation, charging forward on their spirited steeds.

Their spear tips were pointed directly at Enma Rin, moving so fast they almost transformed into two black streaks of light.

Enma Rin remained silent for a moment, then ripped off the tie from her school uniform.

Almost without reservation, she activated "Ju-on Form" the instant the battle began, and in an instant, the hilt of the demon sword transformed into an extremely black "卍".

Immediately afterwards, all the pores on the blade opened, and countless vengeful spirits surged out like a tidal wave, enveloping her entire body.

A mournful sob stirred and howled in the air. When she raised her head again, her eyes, as dark as the midnight sun, held a bewitching deep red.

In an instant, she leaped upwards, sword hilt in hand, her black panther skirt swaying like falling petals. Two stone knight statues swept past beneath her. She drew her sword, and a crescent-shaped arc of light descended, decapitating the rider on horseback; his two heads fell into the air.

"Black and White King Flash".

Seizing the moment when Enma Rin was suspended in mid-air, Xia Pingzhou gave the order. The three soldier statues were offered as sacrifices, transforming into a stream of black and white light that flowed into the king's scepter.

Immediately afterwards, the colossus of the king raised his scepter and pointed the end of it at Enma Rin.

The black and white light spots expanded and contracted, then suddenly exploded completely, transforming into a magnificent beam of light that shot straight out.

"Bam—!"

Logically speaking, Enma Rin has no way to adjust her position while in mid-air.

But the next moment, the schoolgirl touched the head of the knight statue with her toes, and then her figure once again leaped into the air like a falcon, avoiding the beam of black and white light that was gushing out, and brushing past it.

Her school uniform ripped apart at the shoulders and waist, and the aftershocks of the beam of light tore her fair skin apart, spilling blood that landed on the blade of the demon sword.

"Boom—!" A sudden cannon shot rang out from afar, once again drawing Enma Rin's attention.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Xia Pingzhou materialize two stone cannon statues, which pointed their cannons at Yanmo Lin and fired at the same time!
At the same time, Xia Pingzhou reached out and grabbed a series of demon chess pieces on the ring road.

These were the chess pieces he had acquired after hunting down so many demons in Tokyo and Lijing, and now he was revealing them all.

Aside from the "Black Sun Demon," Xia Pingzhou did not intend to use this catastrophe-level demon as a pawn here.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of demon figures appeared in mid-air, forming a phantom python like a procession of a hundred demons at night. The snake coiled its tail around the python, and the demon army surrounded and attacked Yama Rin from all directions.

This scene was reflected in Enma Rin's pupils: the gunfire from the cannons and the encirclement by demons and monsters arrived as expected at this moment.

Enma Rin remained expressionless, her eyes devoid of any extra emotion.

In the blink of an eye, she transformed the demon sword into a scythe, her figure nimbly twirling in mid-air like a crescent moon, the scythe drawing a bright new crescent.

"Ode—!"

The sharp and eerie full moon, centered on Enma Rin's body, swept outwards in an instant.

In an instant, it severed the cannonballs from the stone statues, then split the demons in two. Immediately, flames shot into the sky, and black dust covered everything above the chessboard.

Enma Rin broke through the black mist, tumbling to the ground, her school uniform skirt fluttering like a bird's tail feathers.

At this moment, her scythe once again retracted into a dark red katana. She raised her head and walked step by step toward Xia Pingzhou.

"Are you playing around?" Enma Rin said. "I won't go easy on you."

"Didn't you say you've always wanted to kill me?" Xia Pingzhou said calmly, "I'll give you a chance."

“You talk too much. You’re so different from usual,” Enma Rin said. “If you say this battle has nothing to do with revenge, but is so that I won’t feel guilty when I kill you, then you’re wrong.”

She paused for a moment: "I don't regret killing your parents at all. Now I only regret not eliminating the root of the problem and killing you as well."

“You’ve misunderstood. I’m saying all this only because you’re already a dead man,” Xia Pingzhou said. “It doesn’t matter what you say to a dead man.”

"You're quite confident. It seems our little kitten is really going to turn the tables and become the master," Enma Rin said coldly.

In an instant, she stomped her feet and shot straight toward Xia Pingzhou like a ghost.

"Whoosh!"

The air pressure seemed to drop suddenly. Enma Rin rushed forward and slashed down, cleaving the shields of the remaining two soldiers in two, and decapitating them in the process.

Immediately afterwards, Enma Rin stepped on their shoulders and spun around in the air.

She transformed the demon sword into a scythe, swung it around in a phantom-like motion.

The arc-shaped blade of light cleaved the cannonball in two, sweeping outwards and destroying two more colossal cannon statues further away. It then passed over Xia Pingzhou, who was protected by the King's Barrier, and hurtled straight towards the isolated and helpless King's statue.

"The raging demon."

As soon as Xia Pingzhou finished speaking, the third contracted demon, "Raging Demon," immediately transformed into a shield and appeared directly in front of the king's statue, blocking the scythe's radiance.

Seeing that Xia Pingzhou had protected the king, Yanmo Lin did not immediately attack him after landing. She understood that it was pointless; as long as the king was still alive, Xia Pingzhou was absolutely safe.

At this moment, Xia Pingzhou reached out and picked up the most elegant chess piece on the ring road, as graceful as a swan.

With a "crack," the chess pieces shattered, and the Queen's statue appeared.

"The Copy Demon".

Xia Pingzhou summoned the second contracted demon, and a trembling little paper figure appeared on his shoulder.

"Copy object, raging demon."

The moment the command was given, the cloned demon leaped from his shoulder and transformed in mid-air into the form of a raging demon—a skeletal humanoid figure embedded in a silver cross.

"The clone is enraged, sword form."

Xia Pingzhou continued, then copied the demon's body and shrank back into the silver cross. The cross rapidly contracted, and then a sharp bone blade extended from its tip.

The Queen statue, holding the "Shield of Wrath" in its left hand and the "Sword of Wrath" in its right, charged towards Enma Rin.

Possessing both a furious "shield form" and a "sword form," the Queen Statue's defensive and offensive capabilities have been elevated to an unbelievable level.

Enma Rin was slightly taken aback, and for the first time, surprise flashed in her eyes.

The colossal queen was as fast as lightning, closing in in an instant. Her bone sword tore through the air and slashed at Enma Rin, causing the chessboard beneath her feet to shatter under the wind pressure generated by the sword.

"Bam—!"

Enma Rin raised her demon sword, the tip of which touched the shield in the Queen's left hand, using the recoil to propel herself backward. She used softness to overcome hardness, creating distance between herself and the shield.

But by the time she came to her senses, the Empress had already swept up behind her.

She whirled around, raising her demonic blade to meet the queen's bone sword. The purest crimson clashed violently with a chilling white, sparking a wave of fireworks that tore apart the monotonous black and white of the chessboard, causing even the air to vibrate.

In just a second, the two agile figures clashed fiercely more than ten times on the black and white chessboard. The flashes of swords and blades danced across the board.

Each time red and white collide, the chess squares beneath their feet shatter instantly, and this series of deafening crashes only resound in succession when they appear a second time.

They were faster than the speed of sound.

Although Xia Pingzhou was the manipulator of the Empress statue, his dynamic vision was not enough to see the process of their battle. He could only see the sparks from the clash of swords and the dark red and pale white ripples remaining in the air.

After several confrontations, Enma Rin in her "Ju-on form" was at a disadvantage.

Knowing that engaging the queen in a prolonged battle was pointless, she suddenly feinted, tricking the queen into raising her shield. Then, she lightly touched the ground, brushed past the queen, and hurtled towards the king's statue.

“Shadow Demon,” Xia Pingzhou said.

As soon as the words were spoken, the king's statue was instantly dragged into the shadows by the shadow demon.

Enma Rin's wielding longsword missed its target. Having lost her target, she turned slightly, and her demonic blade slashed out, striking the bone blade of the queen statue.

"Song—!" A blinding white light flashed, leaving a deep groove on the demon sword and sending Enma Rin flying more than ten meters away. Sparks flew as her feet scraped against the chessboard, barely managing to stop her retreat.

The colossus of the queen raised its shield and stood guard before the king.

Enma Rin looked up at the Empress. She knew that she would have a hard time fighting against the Empress, who was equipped with a bone sword and a bone shield.

At that moment, she squeezed out all the remaining lifespan of herself, along with her soul, and fed it to this greedy Sky Chaser.

The vengeful spirit on the demon sword howled, blood trickled from the corner of Enma Rin's mouth, and the deep red in his pupils magnified infinitely, swallowing the black in his eyes like a spark in the universe.

She was breathing heavily, and apart from the howls of those vengeful spirits, she could hear nothing else. At that moment, those who had died by her blade seemed to burst forth from the ground beneath her feet, trying to drag her into hell.

"I'll be there in a bit." Enma Rin suddenly grinned.

In the next instant, she shot out like a dark red lightning bolt and arrived directly in front of the Queen's statue.

The katana swung horizontally, its bewitching and ferocious light like a giant python writhing behind the blade's shadow, roaring as it shattered space and struck the queen's bone shield.

"boom--!!!"

With a deafening roar, the shield shattered, and hundreds of cracks suddenly appeared on its surface.

The queen statue reacted with lightning speed, raising the bone sword to block it. But then, the bone sword was also engulfed by the dark red blade light that rushed towards it like a tidal wave, and its entire body was sent flying a hundred meters away.

"Bang—!!!" Taking advantage of the opportunity, Enma Rin swung his demon sword and severed the head of the giant king statue. The black and white barrier that had been covering Xia Pingzhou disappeared.

She took a deep breath, looked up at Xia Pingzhou, and, holding the demon sword, approached him step by step.

"Do you regret it...? If you had kept it a secret instead of overestimating your abilities, you wouldn't have died."

"No regrets."

After speaking, Xia Pingzhou suddenly produced a card from his palm like a magician. The front of the card showed the night view of London, with a huge golden clock tower located in the center of the city, standing tall like a giant under the night sky.

That was the event card he received in London, "It's High Noon".

[Event Card Name: It's High Noon]

[Card Effect: This card can only be used at midnight. It emits a bell-like sound, and enemies who hear the sound will experience a sudden amplification of gravity.]

Duration: 5 seconds.

In the world of the chessboard, there is no concept of time; it can be both day and night. All time exists simultaneously, yet it also does not exist, which is why this card can take effect here.

Suddenly, the phantom of London's Big Ben appeared behind Xia Pingzhou. As the pendulum swayed, a deafening chorus of chimes erupted, surging out in all directions like a flood.

Enma Rin was slightly taken aback. At this moment, her body seemed to suddenly become a thousand times heavier, as if every joint was shackled, making it difficult to move an inch.

At that moment, the Queen statue, carrying a long bone sword, shot forward like a bird soaring through the air.

Enma Rin watched this scene out of the corner of her eye. She was burning her life to the extreme, and every inch of her blade was howling like a hungry ghost, with dark red light gushing out.

In an instant, she raised her katana, pouring all her strength into her wrist without reservation, and then slashed at the bone sword of the queen statue! A blade of light powerful enough to cleave the world surged forth from the blade, accompanied by the roars of countless vengeful spirits.

There will never be another sword light as eerie as this in the world.

An oppressive feeling swept over us like a flood, and the entire chessboard world was instantly dyed a ferocious dark red.

But at that very moment, the Queen's statue suddenly vanished into nothingness, as the flood of sword light and Enma Rin's body pierced through her.

The Empress came up behind Enma Rin.

Immediately afterward, she rolled over and pierced Enma Rin's chest from behind with her sword, straight into her heart. She twisted the bone sword, shattering her internal organs along with it.

Enma Rin remained silent.

The queen statue pulled out the bone sword.

Enma Rin lowered her head, still standing in place like a statue.

The blood that gushed from the hole in her chest slowly stained the hem of her skirt.

After a while, she stopped resisting the gravity acting on her and slowly knelt on the ground.

Then she let out a long sigh, turned to her side, and fell to the ground. Blood gushed out of the hole like a fountain, instantly turning the chessboard beneath her into a warm pool of blood.

After a while, the demon sword fell from her palm.

The blade struck the chessboard, producing a clear, crisp sound.

"You lost." Xia Pingzhou said, slowly walking towards her. "Any last words? If not, then forget it."

The chessboard world was deathly silent, with only the sound of flowing blood. Enma Rin's eyes gradually became empty.

"do you know?"

In the dead silence, she suddenly spoke.

"what?"

“I rarely tell people my name.” Enma Rin looked up at the black and white sky, her lips moving slightly. She closed her eyes. “You are the first.”

Xia Pingzhou was silent for a moment, then said expressionlessly:
"My name is Ji Minghuan."

As soon as she finished speaking, the stone statue of the queen raised her hand and brought down the bone sword in her hand, which fell towards the neck of Enma Rin.

Silently, blood spurted out, staining Xia Pingzhou's gloves and his cheeks red.

Then the queen silently bent down, raised her right hand, grabbed the girl's hair, and lifted her head up.

At the same moment, a series of black and white notification boxes popped up in Xia Pingzhou's eyes.

[The final mission of Unit 2 has been completed—"Infiltrate the White Raven Brigade and kill Jack the Ripper."]

[Quest rewards obtained: 3 attribute points, 3 skill points, 3 split points.]

[Detection indicates that all main quests for Unit 2 have been completed, and the "Unit Graduation" reward has been obtained: 4 attribute points and 4 skill points.]

Xia Pingzhou moved his fingers.

[The "Strength" attribute of Unit 2 has changed: D-rank → C-rank (up 3 points).]

[The "Speed" attribute of Unit 2 has changed: S+ level → SS level (↑2 points) (reached the unit's maximum attribute)]

[The "Mental" attribute of Unit 2 has changed: S+ level → SS level (↑2 points) (reached the unit's maximum attribute)]

After the second unit kills its opponent, the Black King's Domain will rapidly shrink within four seconds. Then, in the next instant, the entire black and white chessboard world begins to contract dramatically.

It felt as if a circular wall was pressing down on them, and all the air was sucked away.

A deadly feeling of suffocation washed over me.

Xia Pingzhou took a deep breath of the murky air, thick with the stench of blood. He slowly raised his eyes from the pool of blood on the ground, his gaze as cold as a deep abyss.

The Queen's statue, clutching the Ripper's head, vanished together on the chessboard.

Meanwhile, inside the underground bar.

A jet-black raven suddenly flew into the bar, flapped its wings, and slowly landed on the bar counter, transforming into a black feather that scattered outwards.

Qi Yuanli's figure then appeared amidst the scattered crow feathers. He sat on the bar, slowly raised his eyes, and looked around.

By this time, Andrew had sobered up and was holding his sniper rifle, rubbing his forehead.

The hacker sat in a swivel chair, shaking his leg and playing on his phone, while the Bloodline leaned against the bar with his arms crossed, and White Wolf chatted with Rukawa Chiba with a blank expression.

"Captain, you're finally back." The hacker breathed a sigh of relief.

"How is the situation?" Qi Yuanli asked.

"The thing is, Xia Pingzhou suddenly went crazy, and while we were chatting, he suddenly pulled Ripper into his domain." The hacker clicked his tongue. "I don't know if the two of them were just messing around or what, but anyway, they called you over first."

How long were they inside?

"They've been inside for a while now, a minute?"

"One minute?"

Qi Yuanli lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then turned to look at Ayase Origami.

The girl in the kimono was sitting quietly on the sofa reading a book, seemingly unaware that anything was going to happen.

"Origami Ayase, do you know what happened?" Urushi Rihime asked expressionlessly.

The girl in the kimono was silent for a moment, then looked up from above the haiku collection and shook her head.

"How interesting..." Rukawa Chiba smiled slightly.

"Boss, should I call Anron and Robert back? They're still causing trouble at the casino," the hacker asked.

“No, there’s no need for that,” Qi Yuanli said. “Let’s see what the situation is first.”

The underground bar was silent for a moment, then suddenly a black and white dot of light flashed through the air.

Immediately afterwards, Xia Pingzhou and the giant statue of the Queen returned to the interior of the bar.

Everyone's eyes were on them. The girl in the kimono was the last to look up. She looked up from the haiku collection and looked at Xia Pingzhou's face.

The neon signs in the bar were flashing on and off, making Xia Pingzhou's expression appear uncertain.

He raised the back of his hand and wiped the blood from his cheek.

In the darkness, a chilling blue flame burned in the eye sockets of the Queen's statue. Holding a bone knife in one hand, she slowly raised Enma Rin's head above her head with the other, so that all the members present could see the blood-soaked skull.

The scene was eerie and chilling, like a statue of the goddess of victory holding aloft a torch, leaving the members of the group stunned and gasping for breath.

Qi Yuanli remained silent, only glancing down at Enma Rin's head.

Bai Tanlang's face twitched slightly.

The hacker stood there, frozen in place.

The Bloodline slowly loosened her arms from her shoulders, and almost immediately turned to look at Origami Ayase.

The girl in the kimono sat on the sofa, raising her eyes to reflect the raised head of the empress statue in her empty pupils.

"Jack?"

Qi Yuanli remained silent for a moment, then withdrew his gaze from the head in the Empress's hand and asked Xia Pingzhou in a low voice:
"What's the reason?"

Xia Pingzhou raised his head and silently looked into his eyes.

After a long pause, he said, "The Ripper killed my family."

“Is that so…” Qi Yuanli murmured, “It was my carelessness.”

Immediately afterwards, a hysterical roar shattered the silence in the bar.

"Xia Pingzhou, you...you beast!" Andrew first looked at the blood-soaked head, then glared at Xia Pingzhou with wide eyes, roaring almost word by word, "So you've been a traitor all along?!"

Xia Pingzhou did not answer him, but instead looked down at the blood-stained woolen gloves.

He lowered his face and said coldly, "I'm only warning you once: I don't intend to fight you here. But if you insist on doing so, I'm not without a chance of winning."

The moment he finished speaking, Andrew's finger was already on the trigger.

Seeing this, the Queen's statue suddenly transformed into a lightning-fast blur, hurtling forward. She raised her long bone sword, the tip of which pierced Andrew's heart in an instant.

Too fast to predict, that was everyone's first thought. No one present could see the Queen statue's movements clearly; she was as fast as the Grim Reaper approaching with a scythe.

Hard to guard against.

Qi Liyuan was slightly taken aback.

If Andrew and Qi Liyuan had been closer, perhaps Qi Liyuan could have saved him.

Rukawa Chiba laughed excitedly, his mouth almost splitting open, the dim neon lights reflecting off his glasses.

In the dead silence, the Queen pulled the bone sword from Andrew's body.

"Wow..."

Blood gushed out of the hole in Andrew's chest like a waterfall.

His face was filled with horror, and he wrapped his arms around his chest, but it was no use: blood gushed out uncontrollably. Andrew slowly knelt down on the ground, his head hanging low.

"Hey, are you serious..." the hacker muttered blankly. He was the last to react among everyone. At this moment, he looked down at Enma Rin's head, his face extremely pale.

"Bloodline, White Wolf, restrain him." As Qi Yuanyuan spoke, he summoned the Heavenly Chaser, and Zhou Jiuya's Tonggu Compass appeared in his right hand.

"Theresa."

Xia Pingzhou suddenly spoke, uttering an unfamiliar name. At that moment, a figure in a red dress in the underground bar froze in place.

After a while, the Bloodline slowly raised his head. "Why do you know this name?"

“1001 relayed this to me. He said it’s your name.” Xia Pingzhou looked into the Bloodline’s eyes. “Theresia, I can take you to see him.”

The Bloodline remained silent for a long, long time, her head bowed, her pale golden hair falling down and obscuring her eyes.

After a moment, she suddenly smiled.

The vampire girl spread her sky-covering dragon wings and stood protectively in front of Xia Pingzhou, raising her crimson eyes to meet the gazes of the other members.

The hacker stammered, "What's going on here...?"

Qi Yuanli also frowned slightly.

“White Wolf, your son’s name is Philo, right?” Xia Pingzhou continued, “I met him once when we were in London. He said he was afraid to see you because he ate his own mother. He didn’t know you were still looking for him.”

Upon hearing this, Bai Tanlang also froze on the spot.

“I know where he is and I can take you to him… but if you attack me here, this opportunity will be lost. I advise you to think carefully about what your purpose is in joining the Phantom Troupe.”

After Xia Pingzhou finished speaking, he took off his pair of blood-stained gloves and walked past Bai Tanlang expressionlessly.

He walked step by step toward Origami Ayase.

The sound of footsteps echoed loudly in the quiet bar.

"Don't...come any closer." After a while, someone suddenly said.

Xia Pingzhou did not stop.

The girl in the kimono hung her head, stunned for a long time, before pulling a piece of paper from her sleeve. The sharp paper flashed out in an instant, slicing across Xia Pingzhou's face and leaving a hideous bloodstain.

"No, come here," she said again, her voice soft and trembling slightly.

In an instant, layers of overlapping paper formed a pale paper barrier, blocking Xia Pingzhou's way.

But the next second, when she looked up and saw the line of blood flowing down Xia Pingzhou's face, the paper screen shattered.

The paper turned into colorless fragments, falling like snowflakes and drooping on the floor.

Xia Pingzhou's face remained expressionless. He took off his gloves and slowly overlapped the two gloves together, the blood flowing from the gloves staining his five fingers red.

Then, he slowly raised his head and handed the gloves to Ayase Origami.

“You said this was a gift that Ripper picked out for you. But Ripper was the enemy who killed my parents, so I can’t accept it. Now… I’m giving it back to you.”

After saying that, Xia Pingzhou saw that Ayase Origami had not reached out for a long time, so he released the gloves.

The blood-stained gloves slowly fell from mid-air and drooped on the floor.

Ayase Origami, like a kite with a broken string, stared blankly at the scene, her pupils slightly contracting, her eyes reflecting the gloves slowly falling in front of her.

Even after the gloves fell to the ground, Origami Ayase was still in a daze.

Her lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but she couldn't say anything at all; she couldn't open her mouth.

Xia Pingzhou glanced at her one last time, then turned around and looked at Qi Yuanli.

"See you in Iceland, lacquer principle."

After saying that, he looked away and walked towards the bar's exit without turning back.

Bloodline and White Wolf hesitated for a moment with their heads down before following.

"Sorry, Commander," White Wolf said hoarsely.

Bloodline remained silent, walking like a puppet with its strings cut.

From beginning to end, her mind was filled with only that one name that no one had ever mentioned in the past century.

Theresia.

This is the name 1001 gave her, a secret known only to the two of them.

The bar was silent. Rukawa Chiba maintained a smile throughout, but in the end, he couldn't even suppress the madness in his smile, took off his glasses, and shook his head.

Amid the chaos, the hacker muttered, "Hey, boss, are we just going to let them go like that?"

But Qi Yuanli did not respond to him. He just hunched over and silently looked at the girl's head on the ground and the cowboy man's body with a gash, his face expressionless.

Rukawa Chiba glanced at Ayase Origami out of the corner of his eye.

In the silence, the girl in the kimono lowered her head and stared at the gloves on the ground. The shadow of her bangs obscured her face, making it impossible to see her expression.

After a while, suddenly, a tear silently rolled down her cheek.

This emotionally numb, doll-like girl, who didn't even understand what sadness was, was now shedding tears. Her lips moved slightly, like a malfunctioning robot, as she murmured to herself:

"...Don't go."

It was as if he had been holding it in for a very long time, and it took all his strength to squeeze those words out from between his lips.

But that person is gone, and no one will hear what she said anymore.

It took a long time for the lacquer to react.

He raised his head expressionlessly, while a flock of crows fluttered in the air, lightly scattering a feather to the ground.

Raven feathers covered Enma Rin's head and Andrew's corpse.

After disposing of the two bodies, Qi Yuanli sat silently for a while, then his figure turned into a scattered feather and disappeared, reappearing on the dome of Old Wu's antique shop.

Looking up, they saw that the White Greedy Wolf had already transformed into its beast form, spread its bone wings, and carried Xia Pingzhou and the Bloodline disappeared at the edge of the horizon.

Soon after, the sun completely sank below the horizon, taking away the light that had fallen on this fjord city. At the same time, the long-awaited typhoon suddenly arrived.

That night, the entire city of Haifan trembled in the howling wind and rain.

(End of this chapter)