Xia Xiaomo stood her ground, but when she mentioned Ren Yuanhao, the Xia siblings and the crowd realized that the steel needles, which had been frequently appearing, had not struck the grey-blue building for a long time!
"Could it be that the brother from before wasn't trying to escape after all?" Elder Zhu’s voice was filled with elation.
"He's definitely not running. The only reason I've been holding you all back here is to give you time to calm down and, like me, trust my man. He promised me he would rescue you all. If anyone doesn't believe me, tie me up and take my life in exchange for theirs. I won't even flinch."
As soon as Xia Xiaomo finished speaking, Xia Yun'er burst into laughter, "Hahaha, what a joke! Relying on some accountant? Have you lost your mind from love? Perhaps he's already long gone, cozying up with another woman to calm his nerves."
Xia Xiaomo remained silent for a moment, then simply, yet powerfully, stated, "I believe him."
...
Ren Yuanhao suddenly sneezed. The incredibly precise mechanical gears of the clock tower, through constant meshing and turning, strictly controlled the movement of the hands. Here, one could truly feel time having a sound, and it was within this 'tick-tock' that humans were born, grew, aged, and died.
"Looks like someone's been talking about this great me."
Ren Yuanhao straightened his perfectly tailored suit and tossed the half-smoked cigarette out of the clock tower. The ember, catching the autumn breeze, drew a perfect parabola against the night sky, like a meteor streaking across the heavens.
"You're quite something. No one has managed to dodge my twenty steel needles so far. Those guys were all killed in one blow; it was rather boring. I don't like torture; it's lifeless. So, for fun, I usually pin 108 steel needles onto the bodies of the deceased. It takes quite an effort for the body collectors to retrieve them. Sometimes, by the time they're picked up, the corpses are covered in lividity, and in hot weather, swarms of maggots crawl in and out of the deceased's orifices, breeding and hatching, forming a vast system."
The man standing opposite Ren Yuanhao was completely enveloped in a wide black robe, like a killer shrouded in dark clouds. His words tumbled out like popping beans, as if a fly were constantly buzzing around overhead.
"Speak. Why do you want to kill people from the Xia family?"
Ren Yuanhao had no weapon in his hands. He leaned half of his body against the somewhat rusted railing, his deep eyes gazing at the brilliant nightscape of the stone city. The night sky was silent, devoid of moon or stars, as desolate as a piece of Xuan paper waiting for its first brushstroke, exuding a sense of "the sky is like a vast dome covering the wilderness."
"Wait a moment, there's another person to hunt now. I'm still waiting for the employer to reply. After all, killing one more person means a completely different price. As the saying goes, three is a crowd. How much more should I ask? Two beautiful girls and one handsome guy, and their family is so wealthy. If they could pay twice or even three times the price, wouldn't it be a beautiful thing for me to turn the tables? But that would break the rules. Perhaps a whole bunch of assassins would hunt me down as a traitor. If I fail and kick the bucket, my money would be eaten by worms. It would be better to write a will and donate the money to a charity foundation after I die. Wait, I don't even have a wife or children. Where am I supposed to send this will?"
Ren Yuanhao suddenly felt as if flies were fluttering all around him. Snapping back to reality, the killer was still chattering away, spitting as he spoke. He thought that if this killer continued his incessant prattling, it might go on until dawn.
Although Ren Yuanhao knew that interrupting someone was extremely impolite, at this moment, he would rather be impolite than silently endure this magical attack of "verbal diarrhea."
"Enough, enough." Ren Yuanhao stuck his little finger into his left ear and grinned, saying, "I guess your employer never told you that as an assassin, one must speak less and maintain a cold demeanor, right?"
"No, no, no. I just feel that since you could dodge my twenty steel needles and are qualified to stand before me, I respect you as a person."
"So, you mean I'm qualified to listen to you drone on and on here? Come on, I'm incredibly busy!"
Ren Yuanhao whirled around, and the slightly rotten broom at his side was immediately grasped firmly. For a martial artist, holding onto something always brought a sense of security, and this broom was now Ren Yuanhao's blade!
"Such speed! It seems you can finally bring me a little joy!"
A hand finally emerged from the killer's wide sleeves. However, this hand was studded with three or four steel needles, each half a meter long. Ren Yuanhao's broom was like child's play against these sharp needles. With a single strike, the broom instantly disintegrated. Ren Yuanhao sidestepped, using the killer's shoulder to leap high, and pulled a steel needle from the killer's hand to use as a weapon.
"Thanks."
Ren Yuanhao shook the acquired steel needle, tilting his head as he watched the narrow second hand sweep past like a sharp sword.
"Your footwork is incredibly strange, but in the next move, speed alone won't be enough!"
The killer's robe spread out like inkblots, and the hissing sound was like the cries of a thousand birds. Ren Yuanhao thought, "Holy cow, could this be Uchiha Sasuke's Chidori?" But as soon as this thought flashed through his mind, he felt hundreds of projectile forces, like roaring bullets, intensely shooting towards him!
Ren Yuanhao was acutely aware of the firing speed and immense power of the opponent's steel needles. At this distance, a direct confrontation was impossible. To his left was a sheer drop of nearly seventy to eighty meters, while to his right were massive gears constantly turning and meshing. If he used them to evade, one wrong step would result in him being ground to dust by the gears.
The steel needles wouldn't wait for Ren Yuanhao to think. Before they even arrived, the gust of wind struck him like a gale. At this moment of life and death, Ren Yuanhao suddenly glimpsed the narrow, rotating second hand and was struck by inspiration. He lightly leaped outside the railing, grabbed the hand of the clock, and felt the rushing wind flash past his waist and face. He was then swept higher by the second hand!
At this moment, inside the silent Xia family residence, someone with sharp eyes pointed at the clock tower to the west and shouted, "Look quickly, it's, it's that brother from before!"
The crowd then crouched down and looked in the direction the person was pointing, illuminated by the streetlights. They saw Ren Yuanhao clinging to the rotating hands of the clock tower with both hands, looking rather disheveled. Before they could exclaim, they saw a dark shadow-like object stepping on the second hand and ascending to the top of the clock tower!
"That brother is indeed going to deal with the killer for us, Miss Xia. You are truly trustworthy."
"No, it's not me who's trustworthy, but my boyfriend who is trustworthy!"
Her eyes sparkled with an almost worshipful light as she watched Ren Yuanhao ascend to the rooftop.