“Interesting puppet art…”

Although he had a rough idea of the puppet’s origin, Suren couldn’t understand how it was controlled.

He didn’t feel any thread connections, nor any energy fluctuations. He figured the [Terror Waxwork] was likely controlled by a soul manipulation technique, or some kind of dark magic.

“Its intelligence doesn’t seem very high; it’s probably direct soul control…”

Suren could sense soul fluctuations. Generally speaking, spirit bodies of evil spirits and similar monsters were incomplete, and their intelligence wasn’t very high. It was probably like training dogs; long-term training of evil spirits could allow them to retain some of their abilities from when they were alive.

Before he could think further, the figure in the trench coat in the distance suddenly attacked.

Suren didn’t feel any sense of crisis. As long as it wasn’t a Tier 7 professional, there weren’t many people who could threaten him now.

With a slight glance, he saw the raindrops within dozens of meters around his body suddenly freeze in mid-air. High-frequency ripples vibrated on the surface of each crystal-clear droplet, then transformed into willow-leaf-shaped blades.

“Such strong water element control ability, this technique is quite interesting…”

Suren narrowed his eyes slightly, remarking inwardly.

“Swoosh!”

“Swoosh!”

“Swoosh!”

“…”

In the blink of an eye, those suspended raindrops shot towards Suren like bullets.

The all-encompassing, inescapable coverage echoed through the alley like the sound of rain beating on banana leaves.

The raindrops cut through his clothes, and some special raindrops even penetrated his protective elemental barrier, striking Suren’s body directly.

Upon impact, the raindrops didn’t completely dissipate but felt like blades sliding across rock. Even without much damage, the sharpness was palpable.

If this attack had been directed at almost any Tier 6 or lower professional, they would have been severely injured, if not killed.

But Suren had the [Rune Golden Body] protecting him, so it was roughly equivalent to a scratch.

“What a bizarre waxwork puppet!”

Suren stomped the ground hard, charging forward like a cannonball through the rain of blades. He raised his hand and punched the trench coat figure in the abdomen.

But when this punch, capable of shattering stone and splitting metal, landed on its target, his fist felt like it had struck a water bag. Ninety percent of the force vanished, weakened by the layers of shock-absorbing power.

“Elemental Body!”

After this brief exchange, Suren judged his opponent’s combat strength to be around that of a Tier 5 professional. But with the [A-004-Raincaller]'s four basic element talents, few of the same tier could defeat it.

At this close range, Suren could see the trench coat figure’s face clearly.

It was a terrifying face with several centipede-shaped sutures, jagged fangs, and skin on the neck that was a strange, dark cyan color. The face was covered in thick makeup, but it couldn’t hide the black veins and corpse spots, which only added to the ghastly feeling. It wore a pure white bridal headdress, black lipstick, and eye shadow, as he had identified, this was a [Ghost Bride].

Moreover, up close, Suren could see a thin layer of corpse wax on its body.

His punch clearly hadn’t done any damage to the bride, so he used the momentum to spin into a back kick, slamming it heavily into its head.

With a “whoosh,” the water sphere exploded, and a spray of foul-smelling black water splattered everywhere.

The black water clearly had extremely corrosive and toxic properties, hissing as it corroded the ground. After a wisp of green smoke, small, pockmarked holes appeared.

However, even after its head was kicked apart, the [Ghost Bride]'s aura didn’t weaken in the slightest. In the blink of an eye, it used the elements to condense a new head, its dark, hollow eyes fixed on Suren.

“Tsk tsk… very strong! I didn’t expect a puppet to be able to do this.”

The more he tested it, the more curious Suren became.

He himself was not only proficient in puppetry but also in animating corpses.

Yet, the [Ghost Bride]'s abilities were far superior to those of a living corpse, almost like a real person.

That super strong elemental affinity was definitely not something simple corpse control could achieve!

If he could capture it for research…

The thought suddenly popped into Suren’s head.

……

Clearly, capturing it alive was impossible.

The [Ghost Bride]'s intelligence was obviously not very high. It probably thought it could kill Suren. As soon as its head was re-formed, it reached out with one hand, revealing its long black fingernails.

In an instant, the technique was complete.

The water element in the air formed a spherical water prison around Suren’s body. No matter where he tried to escape, the water prison stuck to him like glue, haunting him relentlessly.

The surrounding water elements condensed thicker and thicker, and Suren felt like he was falling into a quickly drying pool of glue, making it increasingly difficult to move.

Moreover, this technique not only restricted his movements but also rapidly extracted the moisture from his body.

In a moment, he feared he would turn into a dried corpse and die on the spot.

“Directional [Water Element Stripping]? Such a strong understanding of techniques, this has at least a fragmented Tier 6 Law comprehension. It must be an ability the corpse had when it was alive. Which means, this corpse was at least a Tier 6 professional, or even Tier 7?”

Suren analyzed inwardly, finally sensing a hint of mortal danger. “The soul fluctuations aren’t very stable, so the wraith inside it probably isn’t original…”

He had to admit, this [Ghost Bride] was truly powerful. Its elemental abilities made it almost immune to any physical attacks, its ability to manipulate basic elements made it difficult to find a countermeasure, and the corpse’s original elemental comprehension reached Tier 6.

It could be said that any professional below Tier 6 had almost no chance of winning against it!

After several exchanges, Suren had tested out some of the information he wanted. Thinking that the mastermind behind the scenes had probably noticed as well, he didn’t delay any further, and an invisible aura suddenly enveloped his fist.

Without even needing to form a spell seal at this distance, he instantly teleported behind the [Ghost Bride]. Without hesitation, he unleashed a domineering punch that blasted into the monster’s chest.

“Bang!”

The punch pierced through!

For an elemental body, Haki was the most effective tool.

Suren’s punch didn’t shatter the stable form of the water element, but directly annihilated a portion of the elements at a microscopic level.

These days, he had become proficient in some of the uses of Haki. With this punch, Suren controlled the Haki to explode in a spiral, directly blasting the [Ghost Bride]'s upper body into fragments.

Normally, this kind of output would be enough to kill this waxwork puppet.

But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, a bizarre scene unfolded before his eyes.

The damage was severe, and the target’s aura had dissipated for a moment, but Suren didn’t see any “gray mist” emerge.

“Didn’t kill it?”

He looked at the black water on the ground, puzzled.

Suddenly,

From the sewer opening a few meters away, he sensed that familiar soul fluctuation again!

“Escaped?”

Suren’s eyes twitched slightly. He understood everything.

It had escaped so decisively that he couldn’t catch up even if he wanted to.

The [Ghost Bride] had clearly realized that Suren had the ability to kill it, so it didn’t stubbornly resist, and after reforming, it directly chose to flee. Its elemental abilities ignored terrain restrictions, turning into black water and flowing into the underground through the drainage pipes.

“Heh…”

Suren chuckled self-deprecatingly.

He had thought it was a sure thing, but he didn’t expect it to slip away.

But he was more puzzled.

“That shouldn’t be! How could it not be killed?”

Suren pondered, his punch just now had used Haki, there was no way the [Ghost Bride] should have survived.

He rapidly replayed what had happened in his mind, thinking, “That’s not right, it didn’t revive on its own! It seemed like there was another mysterious external force that reassembled it?”

Thinking of some key points, his brain began to work rapidly.

Almost instantly, he remembered that he had seen this situation before.

The time he explored the cursed space of the Dawn Relic [1911 Hotel], he had encountered four unkillable anomalies.

The evil black magic that created the anomalies was called the [Four Anomalous Spirit Fallen Sacrifice Array], which gathered corpses with the characteristics of earth, wind, water, and fire to achieve an endless cycle of energy, mutually reinforcing each other, making them immortal and indestructible.

When one corpse was killed, it would be resurrected by the other three, forming an almost unsolvable closed loop.

No wonder it was used for deliveries; this kind of puppet couldn’t be captured and couldn’t die, making it perfect for the job.

“Could it be that the mastermind has collected all four elemental waxworks?”

Suren frowned, feeling that the difficulty had instantly increased by several levels. “Immortal and indestructible, this puppet is truly formidable…”

Luckily, he only encountered one today. If there really were four as he suspected, he would probably have to run.

But on the other hand, a master who could control this kind of waxwork was definitely not an unknown figure in London.

Another professional related to puppetry, the suspect list had narrowed again.

……

Originally, he had wanted to track the source of the potion, but now that the delivery person had escaped, there was no point in Suren lingering.

Moreover, the person behind the scenes, having discovered that he was being followed, might send a warning to the Vaughan Brotherhood.

Even a gang wouldn’t distribute goods of unknown origin indiscriminately. At least the chairman, “Old Smokestack” Fogg Rales, must know some information about the supplier of these goods.

Suren didn’t want even the slightest clue to slip away.

He sensed Reyna’s location, rapidly changing his hand seals, condensing the dark energy needed for targeted displacement, and with a flash of spatial fluctuation,

he reappeared on top of the old building.

Reyna was lying on the roof with her sniper rifle, aiming at the warehouse, when she suddenly saw Suren appear beside her. Her bright eyes lit up, “Mr. Suren, you’re back?”

She said, pointing at the gang members near the warehouse entrance, quickly adding, “Just now, they seemed to have received some information, and someone rushed inside.”

Listening to Reyna’s report, Suren guessed that his interception had been exposed. He nodded decisively, “Be careful, I’m going in.”

After a moment’s thought, he added, “If anyone runs out, kill them. Try not to leave anyone alive.”

Reyna nodded seriously, “Okay.”

Suren didn’t waste words. With another teleportation, he appeared directly at the warehouse entrance.

The tattooed thugs in suits looked over, and before the shock on their faces could turn into alertness, blood appeared on their necks.

A fountain of blood erupted, revealing the bloodstained, crystalline threads.

Throughout the whole process, Suren didn’t even glance at these guys, striding straight into the warehouse.

The mastermind was probably already on their way, and there was no time to slowly chat with these guys for information. Killing them and extracting their soul fragments was the most efficient.

He teleported again, appearing inside the warehouse.

A new figure appeared in the warehouse. More than twenty fully armed thugs looked over menacingly, dozens of gun barrels pointing at him.

The leader, holding a triple-barreled magical energy gun, was none other than “Old Smokestack” Fogg Rales.

Suren’s eyes were filled with indifference. Without saying a word, he formed a spell seal, his eyes flashing fiercely, “Hormone Overdrive – Four Releases!”

With another grab, gargoyles and several puppets appeared out of thin air in the warehouse.

Immediately, a fierce battle erupted.

Dong, dong, dong, dong…

The sound of gunfire in the enclosed warehouse was deafening, like muffled thunder.

Suren focused on beating “Old Smokestack” Fogg Rales to a pulp.

After all, he was a Tier 4 professional, so this guy would take a little effort.

Some of the other goons fought back, while others saw that the enemy was too strong and ran away at the first sign of danger. But just as those who wanted to escape climbed out of the windows, several sniper bullets accurately blew their heads off, exploding into a pile of rotten watermelon.

The battle erupted fiercely and ended very quickly.

In less than two minutes, Suren had wiped out everyone in the warehouse.

After extracting Fogg Rales’ soul, he found the supplier’s information as expected.

Suren didn’t delay, collecting the loot and walking out of the warehouse.

As he came out, he saw Reyna on the roof, sniping one person after another with deadly precision. Those gang members who had heard the commotion and wanted to come to reinforce were pinned down before they even reached the street corner.

Suren gave the silhouette on the roof a hand signal to retreat, and Reyna responded with a bright smile.

She put away her sniper rifle, agile like a cat, and slipped silently into the alley.

Suren withdrew his gaze and casually tossed a firebomb behind him to destroy the evidence.

With a “boom,” a fiery explosion erupted, and the entire warehouse burst into flames.

The alchemical world’s forensic doctors were very skilled and could make corpses “talk.” They could determine the killer’s personality and methods from the marks on the body. The skilled ones could even directly draw a person’s facial features. If one corpse wasn’t enough, then many would do, and they could always piece them together.

Suren had seen it before, so he didn’t dare to be careless.

Now that there were no survivors in the warehouse, all the better.

After taking care of the scene, he condensed a spell seal in the void.

In the blink of an eye, he had appeared next to Reyna in an alley hundreds of meters away.

The two exchanged a relaxed smile, changed back into their previous attire, and walked onto the street without arousing any suspicion.

……

The sudden sound of fighting from the warehouse alerted the entire neighborhood.

No one knew what had happened, but they probably assumed it was a gang fight. Members of various gangs appeared on the streets with their weapons, menacingly on guard, not knowing who the enemy was.

The onlookers from the nightclubs also heard the news and flooded into the streets, like ants pouring out of their nests, filling the streets.

Suren put his arm around Reyna’s slender waist and took the opportunity to mingle with the crowd, unnoticed.

Someone fired a gun in the crowd, and suddenly the street erupted in gunfire.

The crowd scattered like birds and beasts, not daring to watch the excitement anymore, and in an instant, the streets and alleys roared with the sound of motorcycles.

Suren and Reyna went to the Rolling Stone Bar garage to retrieve their motorcycles and followed the stream of vehicles out of Fox Avenue.

Unlike when they had arrived, Reyna sat behind him, hugging Suren intimately, a happy smile on her pretty face.

The wind rushed past their ears. As they drove out of the neighborhood, Suren suggested, “Want to grab some late-night snacks?”

After dancing all night, Reyna was also a little hungry and happily replied, “Sure.”

……

Normal restaurants were closed at this hour, but Reyna, being rich, could have some high-end restaurants open specially for them, but Suren didn’t plan to trouble the chefs to work overtime in the middle of the night.

Before long, the steam motorcycle stopped in the Mann neighborhood.

This was a working-class district, with many manufacturing factories nearby, and many workers would come out to find food at night. Over time, it had formed a lively night market.

Suren parked the motorcycle on the street and found a small stall called “Beef Pie & Mashed Potatoes,” which sold the food on the sign.

This was a shop he had found in the memories of the gang members he had extracted earlier, and it tasted very good.

The workers hadn’t rested yet, and business was slow, so the two of them found a table and sat down.

The food was delicious, the prices were affordable, and the portions were generous.

Suren thought it was pretty good. In his eyes, it was all just the difference between protein and carbohydrates.

He didn’t care about the refinement or the environment.

Rats were squeaking and foraging in the dark alley, and broken steam pipes on the walls were hissing with white smoke. The people coming and going were all plainly dressed members of the lower class…

Reyna, the young lady from a wealthy family, didn’t mind the environment at all. She could sit in a high-end restaurant and elegantly sip wine, and she could also eat roadside snacks with relish.

As they ate, they talked about the previous battle.

Suren had extracted the memory of “Old Smokestack” Fogg Rales and learned the origin of the goods’ supplier.

It was a guy in the underworld with the nickname “Curator.”

This guy had a considerable reputation in London’s underworld, and it was said that he was also a powerful figure in reality. But he was very mysterious in real life, and no one had ever seen his true face. He had become acquainted with the Vaughan Brotherhood because of some illegal human trafficking dealings. That guy would also often buy black magic materials or ancient books through the gang.

Suren had fought the [Terror Waxwork - Ghost Bride] before, and the conditions matched, so he could almost confirm that the “Curator” himself was the one supplying the goods behind the scenes.

However, compared to this news, Suren thought that something else was worse.

In addition to knowing that the person supplying the goods behind the scenes might be the “Curator,” he had also obtained some information from the Vaughan Brotherhood members that made him feel that there was a big problem.

That was, a disease called [Red Death] was spreading in London’s lower class.

Diseases and plagues were nothing new to humans. From the mythical era to the present, there had always been intractable infectious diseases.

Such as the bubonic plague, the Black Death, smallpox, and so on… countless deaths.

But this time was different.

The reason Suren noticed it was because… the way this disease spread was also through bodily fluids.

This was extremely similar to the accident on the "Queen Rodericka"!

Moreover, the strange thing was that this disease couldn’t be cured by other means, but the [Invigorating Potion] made from blood-refined crystals could suppress the symptoms or even completely eliminate the disease.

A conspiracy immediately surfaced in Suren’s mind.

Knowing that there was a problem with the potion, and now there was a disease that could only be solved with this potion, it was impossible to say that there was no connection.

Suren had previously thought that the potion was spread through drug addicts, which would only have a small-scale impact.

But if it was as he suspected, and the spread of the disease was also related, then this matter would be very troublesome.

Very troublesome!

The potion couldn’t be detected to have any problems, so it might really be used by those who didn’t know the truth to treat the disease.

Then the chain of transmission would be terrifying…