74: Chapter 74: Iron-Fisted Tactics 74: Chapter 74: Iron-Fisted Tactics Special Affairs personnel and special forces swiftly exited Guangde Mall.
Seeing the number of injured and people introduced, Nie Xuan couldn’t help but frown and, with a stern face, walked into the main entrance.
Inside the mall, there was no general illumination, but some emergency lights were still on.
The faint light barely made it possible to see clearly, as a muscular man crouched over a special forces member tearing and biting at him, looked up, scoffed, and said, “What a pretense, wearing a suit in this scorching heat, truly an eyesore!”
Nie Xuan took off his coat, unbuttoned his shirt, and rolled up his sleeves before saying, “What a coincidence, I also find you unpleasant.
Cut the crap and come at me.”
The muscular man stood up, and with a thrust of his foot, he surged forward with the speed of a cannonball.
Swinging his arms left and right, he hurled two long benches at Nie Xuan!
“Justice’s steel pipe.” A white steel pipe as long as Nie Xuan’s arm appeared in his hand.
Wielding it casually, he struck the benches away without much effort, and, facing the muscular man who followed the benches hoping to catch him by surprise, Nie Xuan charged with the steel pipe raised!
Both sides were accelerating, and the strike seemed unavoidable.
Yet, at the last moment, almost face to face, the muscular man changed direction at a bizarre angle and retreated towards the back-left!
Nie Xuan glanced behind him and muttered, “A special item?”
Retreating to the doorway of a shop, the muscular man proudly touched the black rope tied around his waist before once again launching an assault on Nie Xuan, stepping on the walls!
Nie Xuan, swinging the steel pipe, responded with ease, but gradually his expression darkened.
Having trained in professional combat in the military since childhood, his fighting techniques were superior.
Even three muscular men could not match him, but whenever he was about to succeed, the adversary would use the elastic rope to dodge, repeatedly draining his patience and strength.
Moreover, it seemed his elastic rope could latch onto anything—the doorknob, a chandelier, a counter.
You couldn’t tell when it was tied, only revealing its shape when it pulled someone away.
“Go to hell!” Seeing Nie Xuan lost in thought, the muscular man leaped from the side, mouth open revealing yellow teeth, intending to tear open Nie Xuan’s throat just as he had with the special forces member!
“Indelible Fingernails.” Standing still, Nie Xuan suddenly turned around and reached out his hand toward the approaching man!
The muscular man tried to retreat but his body suddenly became rigid mid-air, as if he was being pulled from both ends, and remained suspended.
“What did you do?” The muscular man struggled, the elastic rope behind him pulling, but Nie Xuan, although within reach, had just raised his hand and not touched him!
Nie Xuan’s face was cold, and he didn’t bother to converse with the man.
His index and middle finger joined together and swiftly struck at the man’s throat, blood spurting out violently!
Thunderstruck, the muscular man grasped at his own throat and then reached out to grab at the figure before him, only to have his arm broken by a blow from the steel pipe!
As the elastic rope lost its effect, the muscular man fell to the ground.
Nie Xuan stood beside him, watching as he bled out and slowly expired.
Once the man was fully dead, Nie Xuan sidestepped the spreading pool of blood, bent down to retrieve a translucent fingernail from the corpse’s shoulder, and returned it to his index finger.
Then he turned towards a certain direction on the second floor, “Do you come out on your own, or do I bring out your corpses?”
With a clang, iron bars slammed onto the tile floor as a young man hurriedly showed his face and quickly raised his hands, “I surrender, don’t kill me!”
Zhao Sheng followed behind him.
“Come in and arrest people,” Nie Xuan said into the earpiece, then he asked the young man, “How many people are in here all together?”
“Ei-eight, including our boss, a total of nine people,” the young man replied.
Nie Xuan nodded, ordering others to lead them out for identification, then continued with his team to carry out his colleagues from the mall before systematically checking each room.
To his surprise, in a staff rest area on the first floor, they found several players chained up.
“They’re all white players.” A Special Affairs personnel confirmed after checking their numbers.
“Bring them all back,” Nie Xuan said and then asked, “Have the identities of the Holy Sword Society members been verified?”
“Yes, they have been matched,” the assistant reported through the earpiece, “Except for the nine members who left two hours ago, the remaining eight all check out.
The one you just killed was only found by the Holy Sword Society tonight, there was a warrant for him, he’s the culprit of the mass murder in the neighboring city’s six family annihilation.”
“However, the boss of the Holy Sword Society, the one nicknamed Old Eagle, is not among these people.”
“Did anyone break out?” Nie Xuan paused and asked.
“No,” the assistant said.
“He might have a special item in his possession.
I’ve just inquired about it.
Although members surrender their items or potions upon joining the Holy Sword Society, the truth is that the impressive items all come from Old Eagle, and he’s the one who distributes them to the other players.”
Nie Xuan surveyed the inside of the mall, if Old Eagle had used an item to escape, naturally there was nothing he could do, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility that the man was still hiding in the mall.
“Cut off the mall’s water, electricity, and gas.
Everyone with a gun, except the snipers, get in.”
Consequently, more than forty special operation and paranormal personnel were divided into two teams to remove potentially dangerous items from the mall.
They set up their guns and opened fire on everything inside the mall: counters, decorations, clothes, and even the signs and the roof were not spared.
In the blink of an eye, the vast mall was riddled with holes, with smoke and dust flying everywhere!
Observing the smoking mall through a telescope from an adjacent residential building, Xu Huo’s lips curled slightly: “Tough character.”
The female player from earlier had told the truth: the Holy Sword Society’s base was indeed in Guangde Mall.
That player known as Old Eagle probably possessed an ability to go invisible.
With such a convenient trait, he most likely wouldn’t risk escaping but would rather hide in the mall until the danger had passed.
However, he probably hadn’t expected the paranormal bureau’s people to be so ruthless, directly demolishing the mall.
Another half-hour passed before Nie Xuan led his people to retreat, but no additional person came out.
Tape was placed outside the mall, leaving a few individuals behind, the fleet departed.
Xu Huo saw the snipers on the neighboring building hadn’t withdrawn.
He packed away the Floating Balloon, then waited patiently.
Only at three o’clock in the dead of night did something stir in the mall, a potted green plant’s branches trembled.
“Bang!” A bullet created a hole in the wall behind the greenery, and immediately afterwards, several silhouettes dashed towards the mall from the darkness.
Needless to say, those were players arranged by Nie Xuan.
Putting down the telescope, Xu Huo took hold of his guitar strings and went downstairs, chasing in the direction Old Eagle had fled.
Meanwhile, Old Eagle, who had taken two bullets, was struggling to evade the pursuit of the paranormal bureau’s players.
He wasn’t fatally wounded, but he was bleeding quite a bit, leaving traces along his path.
Thus, even though he occasionally concealed his tracks, he couldn’t completely shake off those few players.
Feeling those players getting closer and closer, Old Eagle gritted his teeth and produced a golden Smoking Pipe in his hand.
He put some white powder into it and blew into the Smoking Pipe; thick smoke rushed out eagerly, engulfing several streets in an instant.
Standing outside the surging smoke, he said in a low voice, “A counterfeit Golden Pipe, a brief life of just one hour.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the smoke underwent a change; it no longer rolled and surged but solidified in the area like fog, silencing all sound.
Old Eagle finally breathed a sigh of relief, pressed against his abdomen, and moved away from the Mist Area.
He had just left the street when suddenly someone greeted him from above: