33 Hunting Cobra

Outside the black market's gambling den, a figure wearing a gold mask walked toward the entrance. He had a few people following behind him, including a person that was being dragged on the ground. That person was covered in blood, dyeing the floor red. He was in a horrible state.

The people standing watch in front of the gambling den all bowed and greeted, calling out respectfully, "Secretary Jin."

The gold-masked figure walked straight in and the people behind him followed. The watchmen then wiped off their sweat. Although Secretary Jin had only passed by them, they could still sense a powerful pressure coming from him. It might be their instinctive fear of him.

After Secretary Jin entered the gambling den, the place became a lot quieter. Some people automatically followed behind them.

There was an extremely extravagant private room on the gambling den's top floor, and many people were guarding outside.

People walked over successively, out of which, there were some important characters in the black market. They included Cobra, who had a high standing in the black market, as well as Qin Zhong, who was in charge of the gambling den and fighting arena.

In the room, the gold-masked figure sat on a huge sofa, playing with a blade* in his hand.

There were two words inscribed on it—Skywalk.

The owner of the blade lay on his stomach in front of him. It was the person who had been dragged in earlier. He was weak and covered in blood.

"Secretary Jin."

"Secretary Jin." Everyone who came in greeted him respectfully before standing to the side. No one dared to say anything.

The black market was a place filled with sins. If one didn't have any backing, they wouldn't be able to sustain in this place for long. Moreover, a tremendous number of federal coins would flow into the black market every day, and just the gambling den would bring about very high profits daily. This sum of money wasn't something that an individual could keep for themselves.

Even a vicious person like Cobra was just a subordinate. As for Qin Zhong, he was the manager of the gambling den and the fighting arena.

"Moke, do you recognize this?" Secretary Jin handed the blade to the person next to him who was wearing a mask.

Moke then took the blade from him and nodded. His body was bent over, not daring to stand straight.

"Show it to them," Secretary Jin said.

Moke passed down the blade. Cobra, Qin Zhong, and the others took a look before it was eventually returned to Secretary Jin.

"This organization has been more lively recently, foiling a lot of our plans. He's one of the members." Secretary Jin's voice was as cold as a machine. At this moment, his body inclined forward and the blade in his hand pierced straight through the person's palm. The weak figure on the ground immediately let out an agonizing cry, his hand pinned to the ground.

Secretary Jin then squatted down and his gold mask got right up to the other party. He asked coldly, "Who is your leader? How many people are there in the organization?"

There were many such organizations in the Subterranean World, and he didn't pay them a lot of heed. They were just a bunch of rats who lived underground, and the underground city-state didn't pay too much attention to their existence. It'd just be a matter of a few deaths.

However, this organization seemed to be tracking him recently, as if keeping an eye on the things he was doing. This was something he couldn't tolerate. No one was allowed to foil his plans.

"Kill me!" the person said painfully.

Secretary Jin let out a cold snort and sat on the sofa, saying coldly, "Trust me, if you don't say anything, you won't be able to die."

Cobra walked up, squatted on the floor, and then spun the blade that was pierced through the person's hand. He said coldly, "Speak up."

The person howled agonizingly, feeling that his situation was worse than death.

"The organization is scattered and everyone doesn't know each other. The leader is Old K, but I've never seen him before. We only pass messages to each other through secret channels. I really don't know Old K's actual identity." The person howled agonizingly. "This is all that I know. Kill me."

"Think about it a little more." Cobra's arm broke up to form a blade, piercing through the other party's body through his back. His other hand then continued to turn the blade in the man's hand. It was extremely brutal.

"Old K could be in the black market. As for the other things, I really don't know," howled the person. Cobra then looked up toward Secretary Jin and the latter nodded.

At this moment, the blade pierced into the man's heart from his back. The man kept spurting out blood from his mouth, dyeing the floor red. Very soon, his breathing stopped.

"Moke, go investigate things outside. As for Cobra, get your guys in the black market to keep an eye on things." Secretary Jin instructed. All of them bowed and said, "Yes."

"There'll be a mission in a few days that you'll need to cooperate in." Secretary Jin then gave a few more instructions before finally saying, "Qin Zhong, make the arrangements, I want to go to the fighting arena. It's been very long since I've gotten some exercise."

"Yes, Secretary Jin." Qin Zhong nodded then backed out of the room.

Cobra and the others broke into mocking smiles. The reason Secretary Jin participated in the fighting arena was purely to enjoy the exhilaration of killing. How could the people from the fighting arena be a match for him?

In their eyes, Secretary Jin was an invincible existence. Even the vicious Cobra was extremely fearful of Secretary Jin. He was very clear that he was just a lackey working under Secretary Jin.

Just as they had thought, not long later, a round of extremely brutal one-sided massacres took place.

As Cobra, Moke, and the others saw the massacre taking place downstairs from a private room, their fear of Secretary Jin deepened a little again.

...

Xu Mo trained in the abandoned factory for most of the day and only returned to the general store at night.

Mia was waiting for him at the door. When she saw Xu Mo with his head lowered, Mia found it a little strange and said, "Xu Mo, what's wrong?"

"Miss Mia, it's nothing." Xu Mo lowered his head and wanted to sneak his way in, but Mia grabbed his hand and moved it away.

When she saw the bruise on Xu Mo's face, Mia was stunned for a moment. Xu Mo then braced himself and said, "I accidentally bumped into something again."

Mia glared at Xu Mo. She was not stupid.

However, since Xu Mo did not want to say it, she did not ask. She said silently, "I'll go get the medicine."

Xu Mo sighed.

"Xu Mo, did you do something bad and get beaten up?" Bai Wei asked quietly.

Her guess was quite accurate.

"Elder Sister Bai Wei, what bad things can I do?" Xu Mo denied it.

"It's good if that isn't the case," Bai Wei muttered. "If you really did something bad, you wouldn't be hit in the face, unless the other party was a woman."

Xu Mo: "..."

Mia brought the medicinal ointment over and applied it on him, wearing an expression of heartache. The bruise from yesterday hadn't recovered, but now he had another one. She wondered who was so vicious.

Although she wanted to know, she could only make guesses since Xu Mo didn't want to say it.

"Xu Mo, Elsa wishes to invite us to her house," Mia spoke up when she was applying medicine on Xu Mo.

"Us?" Xu Mo said, feeling a little surprised.

"Mn." Mia nodded. "Elsa should have guessed it."

Xu Mo naturally understood what Mia meant. Given the relationship that Elsa and Mia had, it was easy to guess that those music pieces hadn't been created by Mia.

When Xu Mo didn't say anything, Mia continued, "Elsa knows many people. Susie, the person from before, was her friend. Susie's father works in the city-state parliament. Although Elsa didn't mention it, I'm guessing that her father also has connections to the city-state parliament. If that was the case and if Elsa was willing to help, she might be able to take better care of you and Yao`er."

Over the past two days, Elsa had tried to find out a lot of information about Xu Mo. Young ladies were very meticulous and quick to catch onto things, so how could Mia not be able to tell?

As Mia spoke, she looked at Xu Mo's face. He seemed to be getting better-looking. He had grown taller these days and had surpassed her in height.

At this moment, Xu Mo was a little surprised. He did not expect Mia to have thought through so much. He could naturally tell that Elsa's family might be very wealthy. Even the coachman had extraordinary skills. It was likely that he also had the role of protecting her.

It seemed that although Mia was kind-hearted, she wasn't a fool. It was just that in the Subterranean World, there were many times when she'd rather act like a fool. It'd make her feel better that way.

"I'm not going," Xu Mo looked at Mia and replied.

"Why?" Mia looked at Xu Mo and said, "Do you still mind the matter from before? Although Elsa is a little proud, she is still quite good-natured."

"Miss Mia, I'll be heading up to rest." Xu Mo ignored what Mia said and headed straight upstairs.

Mia was stunned for a moment. In the past, Xu Mo wouldn't be so impolite.

After being stunned for a moment, a faint smile appeared on Mia's lips, but it disappeared in an instant.

The thoughts of young ladies were always so complicated.

In the following period, Xu Mo would always head out early and come back late. However, Mia didn't say anything about this. She knew that Xu Mo was different from the old him. He had his own opinions.

Bai Wei was the one who'd sometimes feel a little curious about what Xu Mo was up to, heading out every day.

She even secretly guessed if Xu Mo might have gotten into a relationship.

What would Xu Mo think if he knew what she was thinking?

These few days, he had been going through demonic training, and he was improving in leaps and bounds. He realized that cultivating the breathing art after intense depletion seemed to have better effects.

At this moment, in the abandoned factory's fighting arena, the sound of a blade and sword clashing kept on ringing out incessantly.

Xu Mo attacked with fierce blade moves, while Seth's heavy sword carried a huge force of 500 kilograms. However, even though Seth was stronger than Xu Mo, he was unable to suppress Xu Mo anymore. The practice Xu Mo had been put through these few days didn't just improve his combat techniques.

His physical attributes, perception, and reaction speed had all gotten a lot stronger than before.

At this moment, Seth slashed down with his heavy sword, and Xu Mo put up a block with his blade as he made use of the impact to back off. After that, he kicked lightly into the ground and his body suddenly darted out. He then slashed his blade out with extremely fast speed. On the other hand, Seth had just raised his heavy sword and wanted to sweep it over when he saw Xu Mo's blade's momentum changing, following an arch and consecutively slashing out after bypassing the heavy sword. Xu Mo's blade then came into contact with Seth's armor, and the friction produced a sharp and piercing sound.

Screeeech... 

Seth raised his shield and pushed it against Xu Mo's blade. Xu Mo then borrowed the momentum to slide back. Both of them were separated by a distance.

"Amazing!" Seth said to Xu Mo, "Xu Mo, your improvement is too quick. If I wasn't wearing armor, I'd be dead."

"Seth, my strength still can't compare to yours," Xu Mo said. Seth had great strength.

"The two of you can stop flattering each other." Ye Qingdie sat by the side and watched the excitement.

She naturally saw the improvement Xu Mo had made in the past few days. This fellow was indeed talented. According to him, he had only come into contact with the breathing art and cultivated origin energy after his parents died.

Xu Mo looked at Ye Qingdie and heard her say, "Ordinary people are no match for you. In the future, the enemies you face might be modified humans, genetic warriors, and surpassers who cultivate origin energy. If you can't even break through armor, what's the point?"

Xu Mo was too familiar with such tricks, but he couldn't be bothered to expose her. Furthermore, what Ye Qingdie said made sense. From what he had learned in the past few days, the power controlled by the major characters in the underworld was far from what they could compare to.

He was more curious about the Surface World now.

"Alright, rest well today. We'll start carrying out the mission tomorrow," Ye Qingdie continued.

"Mission?" Xu Mo looked at her.

"Hunting Cobra!" Ye Qingdie smiled. 

Footnote:

[1] The blade that Uncle Fang had passed the MC previously was called a dagger previously. It also had the word 'Skywalk' on it. Not sure if it's the same type here, but the author just referred to the one here as a blade.