February 6, 2023, Early Night, Two hours before the Lantern Festival began
"Liu?"
The tiger shengxiao, Laohu Xin, asked with a frown. He prepared to draw the greatsword from behind his back.
"What are you doing here? You should have your own place to wait. Liu."
Without saying anything, with a grin, Liu Xingsheng, the monkey shengxiao, take off black glove he's wearing.
On the back of his right hand, is the symbol of the inverted cross organization. There was a name written behind his inverted cross.
Paulus.
Without a word, Laohu Xin, the tiger shengxiao, remained silent.
That night. Their surrounding, only the sound of crickets, which suddenly stopped chirping, could be heard.
"I see. So that's how it is. The death of your wife and daughter has driven you mad, Liu."
Drawing the greatsword from behind his back. Laohu took a firm stance as he point the greatsword forward.
A very large greatsword, not just an ordinary greatsword. The sword was too big, too thick, too heavy, and too crude to be called a sword. It would be more accurate to call it a chunk of raw iron.
"If this is the path you choose. Then I will gladly kill you before you go too far down this misguided path. Liu!"
Both rushed and leaped, attacking.
Clang!
On the other side, Sizhu and his friends had no intention of meeting monkey shengxiao. They wanted to pursue Gui Wuxing, who had run into the pagoda building of the Hunter's main headquarters. But they were blocked by Liu Xingsheng, who stood calmly in front of the door.
"Huff... I suspected we would huff... meet another five-star Hunter sooner or later. Huff... Among the five-star Hunters I huff... didn't want to meet was him. Huff... The angry uncle." Mei Mei bent down, taking a moment to catch her breath after running to catch up with Sizhu and Elizabeth. The two of them ran very fast when the silver coin was stolen by Gui Wuxing, and the three of them chased his tracks.
Elizabeth was breathing quite heavily as she tried to cast water magic, creating water swords in both hands. Beside her, Sizhu breathed steadily as he tightened his grip on his body-length wooden staff. Taking a stance, both were ready to fight at any moment.
Mei Mei only had a hand knife in her robe pocket and a pistol in her hand. She pointed the pistol forward.
"Green-eyed boy. You are the cursed child sought by *him* and the young master. Your meeting with one of our members is no coincidence, little one. The young master has planned everything. He will kill you soon, and kill the two little children you brought here."
Without a word, Sizhu lunged forward and struck his staff from above his head at Liu Xingsheng's face.
Thwack!
Liu first raised one hand above his head, blocking the echoing blow of Sizhu's staff.
"I don't know who you are, but I won't let those children be killed."
Sizhu spun down and struck the staff from below towards his waist, Liu immediately parried it, Thwack! As soon as Sizhu's staff was parried, Sizhu spun behind him and rotated the staff to strike the other open side, Thwack! Liu first raised one leg to waist height to block the staff blow, but that left his front defense wide open.
Slash!
Elizabeth threw a water sword towards Liu's chest, immediately the water sword pierced through his body and stuck into the floor in front of the pagoda.
"We will meet again."
After his chest was pierced by Elizabeth's water sword, no blood came out, only dust. Slowly Liu disintegrated into dust. Before that, Sizhu punched the angry uncle's face and Sizhu only hit a swirl of black dust in the air.
"He turned to dust?" Mei Mei and Elizabeth ran closer. The three of them stood silently in front of the pagoda entrance.
"He didn't give us any coins after we successfully defeated him?" Mei Mei complained, watching the dust carried away by the night wind. "What a stingy grumpy uncle!" She sneered.
"Mei Mei." Elizabeth patted Mei Mei's shoulder, tell her to look around. There were many Liu Xingsheng surrounding the pagoda at the moment. They all had the same flat, grumpy-uncle-like expressions.
Mei Mei immediately squeaked like a mouse surrounded by cats.
"Eek! I was just kidding! So please let us go..."
As soon as she finished speaking, all the Liu Xingsheng that had appeared around the pagoda immediately ran quickly towards the three of them.
Sizhu pulled Mei Mei's collar to get her into the pagoda with Elizabeth. He quickly smeared blood on his staff. Sizhu gathered green flames and spewed them forward, creating a wall of green fire around the entrance, intending to burn the Liu-Liu who were running. He didn't want a single Liu Xingsheng to enter the pagoda.
But for some reason, they were immune to fire. Although the wall of green fire was created to drive them away, those Liu-Liu didn't hesitate at all to keep running through the burning green fire wall, chasing Sizhu and his friends.
"We'd better hurry and catch up to Gui Wuxing." Sizhu went inside and closed the front door of the pagoda. Elizabeth nimbly locked it. Dozens—scores of Liu Xingsheng immediately lunged and crashed into the door, like a flood held back by a dam. But the door wouldn't hold those Liu-Liu for much longer.
"What exactly is that?" Mei Mei shivered in fear, seeing hundreds of identical grumpy uncle faces targeting their lives. She raised her gun towards the front door with trembling hands.
"Maybe a special magic technique?.." Elizabeth answered with a shaky, hesitant voice.
"Clones. He has the same magic technique as Ye Chen, the man I fought in a duel last night." Sizhu said calmly. He turned around and saw an elevator installed inside a pillar in the center of the pagoda building.
Elizabeth and Mei Mei remembered Sizhu's duel opponent who could use clone techniques. But Liu's clones were truly on a different level. Not only were there hundreds out there, but their strength was almost equal to the original.
Thud!
The front glass door cracked. The Liu clones began to retreat and use their brains. They hit the front door simultaneously and repeatedly. Before long, the large two-frame bulletproof glass front door immediately shattered, and the Liu clones swarmed in.
Crash!
Inside, the first floor was still brightly lit. And all that could be seen were three footprints of young people running towards the elevator. The elevator light was on, indicating someone was taking it to the top floor.
Not much different from the situation Sizhu and his two friends were experiencing. Where Reza and Amon stood with Zhang Fei, the dog shengxiao. They were attacked by dozens of Liu clones who charged like an army of a thousand men.
"We're surrounded by the same person. Unbelievable." Amon regulated his panting breath after hitting and being hit by many Liu clones. Just like Reza beside him, he also took many hits and managed to eliminate several seemingly endless Liu clones.
"Mr. Zhang Fei! Who exactly is that monkey shengxiao?" Reza asked while ordering his ice turtle to freeze the ground and his wind pigeons to sever the heads of the Liu clones whose steps were frozen.
"Ha?! You mean the clones of the man we're fighting? Hahahahaha!" Zhang Fei laughed while scratching left and right. Dozens of Liu clones were instantly burned by his fiery claws.
"He is the most annoying old man. In this country, the only clone technique user who can create a thousand clones overnight is him. Old man Liu Xingsheng."
***