This villain is too popular.

Chapter 176 Sudden 'Death' in Ink Painting
"These are no ordinary citizens; we must take strong measures!"

Inside the Twelve Brass Conference Hall, after listening to the report from his subordinates, Councilor Frank slammed his fist angrily on the table in front of him.

What could possibly make someone like him, who prides himself on being elegant, do such a thing?

This shows just how bad the situation has become.

After a brief moment of anger, Frank regained his usual composure.

He turned to look at a bronze-clad nobleman not far away and asked, "What's the association's attitude?"

"They said that ordinary people's problems should be left to ordinary people to solve, and they refused to get involved."

"Outdated! What kind of time is this, and they're still clinging to those useless formalities!"

Even so, Frank knew the truth in his heart.

Once the Steam Chapter actually helps them suppress the mob, other chapters will soon report the matter to the Headquarters.

Not only will the entire Steam Branch suffer as a result, but those who instigated the Steam Branch will also be in deep trouble.

Frank took a deep breath, then his gaze fell on three empty brass seats in the distance.

"What does the church think? Haven't they resolved their internal problems yet?"

Out of respect for the president, the Star Envoy Association cannot arbitrarily interfere in local affairs.

But the Gear Church is different, even though the association also imposes some constraints on these Star Envoy organizations.

But if you're careful enough, they can still help you secretly.

But soon, Frank received another piece of bad news.

"Their situation is equally bad. The death of the Golden Knight Fisher was so suspicious that they could no longer suppress the voices within and had to report the matter to the Cult of the Machine God above."

"Therefore, they will not do anything else unnecessary before the people from the Papacy arrive."

Upon hearing this, Frank irritably tugged at his bow tie.

"Damn it! All these troublesome things have suddenly appeared overnight!"

In fact, at this point, everyone realized that something was wrong.

First, Vivian launched a sudden attack on the church.

Then came the sudden death of the Golden Knight Fisher.

Now it's the Rusty Iron Zone rats that have suddenly rioted again.

Each of these three things is troublesome, and they all happened at the same time.

It's as if an invisible hand is secretly manipulating everything right now.

While Frank and the other brass nobles were pondering how to end the riot in the lower city.

A brass nobleman suddenly stood up with a 'whoosh'.

Seeing this, everyone, including Frank, turned to look at him.

"what happens?"

The brass nobleman said in a trembling voice, "The Steam Branch said that Captain Sui Mo of the Fifth Division..."

"Explain yourself! What happened to Captain Shuimo?"

"Captain Shuimo died at the Fifth Division's base in the Gear Building!"

"what?!"

Upon hearing this news, everyone's expression turned extremely grim.

Because compared to the previous three things, if this one is not handled properly...

Then they're all doomed!

It should be noted that six years ago, the Iron Dome family, one of the four major families, was punished for arbitrarily mobilizing the Star Envoy Association resources of the Steam City and the Deep Blue Metropolis.

Afterwards, President Ennet, who hadn't left headquarters for many years, personally came to find him. This legendary strongest Star Envoy of the contemporary era didn't make any unnecessary moves; he simply stood outside the 'Third Floating City - Quantum Fortress' and waved his hand.

In an instant, at least a third of the quantum fortress was reduced to burning ruins.

The current situation has not yet reached the point of alarming the president.

The fact that a squad leader died in his own territory is as egregious as slapping the face of the entire Star Envoy Association.

"Let's go! To the Gear Building right now!"

Without any hesitation, the seven brass nobles present all stood up and headed towards the Gear Building.

As viewers watched the frantic brass nobles on screen, comments rained down on the virtual screen.

'Wait, Captain Shuimo has already logged off?'

'Something's not right. Something feels off. How could so many things happen in one night?'

"Holy crap, this plot twist came faster than a rocket! One second I was watching a mob riot, the next second I'm showing this?"

Amidst the confusion of the viewers, the scene shifts to the Fifth Division's base.

In an instant, a shocking scene of death appeared before the eyes of all viewers.

The ink-wash captain, who had shown a strong presence for several episodes in the second season of Stars: Glimmer, was now impaled on the wall of the Fifth Division with a sword.

A large amount of congealed blood covered the snow-white wall, making his corpse look like a 'flower' blooming on a cliff.

Seeing this, all the viewers in the dimensional world felt that 'Shuimo' was absolutely dead.

Meanwhile, the production team of Stars gave a special close-up of the surrounding environment.

There were no sword marks, no trace of an explosion, and not even a single broken brick.

This is undoubtedly a clear message to all viewers that the ink painting style died suddenly, or rather, died without any chance of fighting back.

This left the anime/manga audience somewhat confused.

'Holy crap, that close-up of the environment! The production team is clearly implying that he didn't resist at all before he died!'

'It's chilling to think about! Who exactly could make ink painting stop resisting?'

'I'm guessing it's Branch President Liam! Only he has the ability!'

"Wake up, upstairs! If the branch chairman wanted to kill a squad leader, would he nail him to the wall as a warning? He has a hundred ways to do it without anyone finding out."

"Yes, the current situation is clearly a deliberate provocation against the Steam Clan."

'Do you think it's possible that it could be the mysterious masked man who appeared in the first episode, the one who resembled the Heavenly Dao?'

'That's quite possible, considering that guy hasn't appeared since the first episode.'

Although the audience is not yet clear about the real reason for Shuimo's death.

But there was one thing they were very clear about.

That was the sudden riot in the lower city following the mysterious deaths of the Golden Knight and Shuimo.

The three most powerful organizations in the Steam City—the Gear Church, the Twelve Brass Councils, and the Steam Branch of the Star Envoy Association—are all embroiled in their own troubles.

The entire steam city is about to descend into chaos!
Right beside the blood-stained wall where the ink-wash corpse stood, Chen Xing and Tian Dao, who had completely shed all pretense, calmly watched their masterpiece.

That lifelike, ink-wash-style corpse was so realistic it was indistinguishable from a real person.

"Heavenly Dao, things have come to this point, shouldn't you be closing the net soon?"

Upon hearing this, Tiandao gazed at the gruesome death of Shuimo not far away, adjusted his sunglasses, and laughed.

"Yes, indeed. It's time to close the net."

PS: Progress of four chapters a day (5/7), strongly requesting monthly votes!
[37 chapters owed from last month's monthly votes and alliance leader requests]

[Repaid: 30]

(End of this chapter)