Stronger with Crimson Modifier-Chapter 119: Passage [3]

As midnight approached, the city slowly sank into a tranquil slumber.

The bustling streets gradually grew quiet, the flow of traffic thinning to a trickle.

Due to a recent string of murders in Anshan City, fewer people were venturing out for evening strolls. Most chose to stay indoors, rarely leaving their homes.

However, in life, some things are simply beyond one’s control.

Take the wage slaves, for example. Forced by the pressures of life, they had no choice but to work overtime late into the night, only able to leave after completing the tasks their bosses assigned.

Zhou Li was one of them.

As a married man in his thirties, he was in the most stressful period of his life.

He had parents to support and children to raise.

He was an only son, and while his parents were still healthy enough not to require his care, he had a son and a daughter at home.

Since his children were still young, his wife had to be a stay-at-home mom, leaving her no opportunity to get a job.

As a result, the entire family’s financial burden fell squarely on Zhou Li’s shoulders.

His salary wasn’t low—over ten thousand a month—but in a first-tier city like this, after rent, utilities, and other expenses, supporting his family was still a struggle. Money was tight.

So, his only option was to work overtime to earn a little extra.

Standing outside his office building, Zhou Li glanced at the time on his phone.

11:39 PM. The subways had already stopped running for the night, and there were no more buses.

To save on rent, he lived seven or eight kilometers from the downtown office—not exactly close. But he was long used to it.

He walked to the curb, planning to unlock a shared bike for the ride home.

The streets were nearly deserted. The wintry night wind, carrying a few drifting snowflakes, made it feel even colder.

His palms and ears were turning red from the biting cold.

The wheels ground against the pavement, their lonely rumble echoing through the silent streets.

Zhou Li pedaled on, listening to music through his Bluetooth earbuds. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

As he rode on, the towering buildings around him began to thin out.

As he rounded a bend in the road, a blurry figure appeared up ahead under the dim yellow glow of a streetlight.

As he got closer, he saw it was a woman with long hair standing there.

Her face was exquisite, the corners of her eyes tilted slightly upward, giving them a bewitching, cat-like allure.

She was gorgeous, but she was dressed far too thinly for the dead of winter.

She wore only an oversized, out-of-place sweater and a pair of black shorts, her fair, well-rounded legs completely exposed. She was standing barefoot on the cold ground.

Just then, the woman seemed to sense his approach. She turned her head to watch him draw near.

Zhou Li’s brow furrowed. He was curious about what she was doing out here in the freezing cold, but he wisely decided it was best not to get involved.

’Some things are best left alone. It’s not like she’s helpless. Maybe she just likes the cold.’

With that thought, he began to pedal faster, wanting to get away quickly.

After all, his wife and kids were waiting for him.

The woman’s head tracked his movement as he rode past, but she remained silent.

The sight was unsettling.

A chill ran down Zhou Li’s spine.

Unfortunately, the bike lane was only so wide, with a greenbelt on the other side. The best he could do was hug the curb.

Just as he was about to brush past her, the woman’s lips suddenly curled into a smile.

Her mouth opened to reveal a set of sharp, jagged fangs that glinted coldly in the lamplight.

Before Zhou Li could react, the woman moved, crossing the two or three meters between them in an instant and tackling him viciously to the ground.

The impact sent his head slamming into the pavement. He didn’t even have time to scream. A pungent, metallic smell flooded his nostrils, and he passed out on the spot.

The woman straddled Zhou Li’s body, her long, pale legs on either side of him.

From a distance, the pose might have looked incredibly sensual.

Her gaze fell upon the figure pinned beneath her and the blood trickling from Zhou Li’s forehead.

A flash of greed lit up her eyes.

She took a deep breath, as if savoring the aroma of a fine meal.

"The scent of a blood meal... truly exquisite."

As she spoke, cloudy, viscous saliva dribbled from the corner of her mouth.

Just as she was about to savor her freshly caught meal...

WHOOSH!

A sudden, tearing crack split the air.

The next instant, before she could even react, a streak of black light shot through the night and pierced the center of her brow.

The immense force snapped her head back, flinging her entire body through the air and pinning her to the trunk of a nearby tree.

Her limbs twitched, the spasms growing weaker and weaker.

Only then was it possible to see what the streak of black light actually was.

It was a straight-bladed Horizontal Blade.

The blade had sunk completely into the woman’s forehead, leaving only the hilt quivering in the air. The tip of the blade protruded slightly from the other side of the tree.

Blackish-red blood trickled steadily from the wound.

As for the woman, with her skull pierced through, she was as dead as could be.

TAP... TAP...

At that moment, the sound of footsteps approached from the side.

A figure soon drew near.

It was Hu Qi, disguised as a square-faced, middle-aged man.

He ignored her wide-eyed, lifeless stare.

He reached out and pulled the blade free.

With its support gone, the female Blood Slave’s corpse slid down the tree trunk and slumped to the ground.

He looked at the blackish-red blood coating the blade. His nostrils twitched as a nauseating, foul stench wafted from it.

Frowning, Hu Qi dipped a finger into the blood and brought it to his lips.

An instant later, his expression soured, and he spat it out.

’As I thought. The blood of this kind of Blood Slave is completely useless to me.’

He had suspected as much, so this didn’t come as a surprise.

After all, he’d encountered these things before and had never felt the physical craving to devour them.

He glanced at the female Blood Slave’s corpse on the ground, then grabbed it and stuffed it into a large green dumpster nearby.

’Leaving this kind of thing by the side of the road is a bad idea. It’ll scare people.’

Then, he turned and left.

An unknown amount of time later, Zhou Li finally stirred, clutching his head as he staggered up from the ground.

Remembering the scene from before he passed out, he looked around in terror, but found nothing.

’Did I just fall and hallucinate the whole thing?’

He slapped his cheeks, then touched his forehead. His hand came away covered in blood.

His face paled.

He immediately decided to get on his bike and head to a nearby hospital.

...

Time passed. By dawn, Hu Qi, now back in his original form, finally returned to his villa.

All through the night, he had moved through the city, relying on the powerful senses granted by his Three-Eyed Primordial Snake Bloodline to easily find the hidden Blood Slaves.

In that one night alone, he had killed ten Blood Slaves.

His only regret was that he hadn’t encountered a single Lower-Rank Black Blood Species.

Still, that was to be expected.

After all, if Lower-Rank Black Blood Species were that numerous, Anshan City would have fallen long ago.

Even so, the situation was dire.

With this many Blood Slaves running around, it was no wonder there had been so many murders.