The Person Hiding Behind

Unlike the masked person she had seen before, the Li Ming Su Ran saw now had his face uncovered.

His left palm was crudely wrapped in a tattered cloth.

Su Ran could still see the bloodstains left on the cloth.

“How did you find this place?”

Seeing her effortlessly dodge his slash, Li Ming tightened his grip on the blade in his hand.

The seemingly frail and weak young lady was simply too agile.

And she possessed some unknown tracking method.

She was hiding in this desolate area near the abandoned stadium, a place where people rarely passed by.

But even though he had taken precautions, when he sensed someone passing by, he couldn’t help but come out to investigate.

As a result, he had recognized Su Ran’s figure.

‘The other party is just an ordinary Sequence One. How could she find my hiding place?’

Li Ming did not rush to attack again.

He wanted to probe Su Ran’s words, to find out if there was anyone else behind her.

Su Ran remained silent.

The circuits in her body increased their magic essence output, all of it channeled by her witch abilities.

Since Su Ran’s magic essence ability was ice control, she condensed a large amount of ice mist around herself.

In an instant, the weeds near Su Ran were covered in a thin layer of frost.

Stimulated by the ice mist, the sword blade in her hand fiercely purified the ice mist generated around Su Ran once more.

At this moment, even the air Su Ran exhaled froze into white mist.

During the purification process, under Su Ran’s control, the longsword in her hand endured it along with her magic essence.

Su Ran had specifically set aside time today to find Li Ming, not for a long chat, but to personally eliminate this threat.

Especially since this person’s role was to specifically seek out her former self.

One must know, her former identity was that of a patient with disabled legs.

It was impossible for her to have provoked anyone.

Li Ming’s act of coming to her door meant that someone had their eyes on her former self.

Judging by how easily he had developed the intent to kill her, if her former self had been found by him, the outcome would not have been good.

The magic essence the ice crystal longsword could withstand was about to reach its limit.

On a whim, Su Ran swung a slash of light blue light towards Li Ming.

Boom, boom—

Faced with the thick magic essence within the sword light, even though he was a Sequence One just like Su Ran, Li Ming could not block it directly.

He was inevitably blasted back several steps by the sword light, a gash opened on his chest.

The frost that had originally just covered the weeds now spread from Li Ming’s wound like a persistent disease, gradually emitting a faint chill from outside the wound.

“What is this thing!”

Li Ming, who wanted to mobilize the magic essence in his body to stop the bleeding, could no longer maintain his composure when he felt his magic essence flowing slowly and uncontrollably.

He had never encountered such a strange freezing effect.

The bone-chilling ice seeped into his flesh, placing shackles on the flow of magic essence within his body.

Li Ming even gradually began to feel that it was becoming incredibly difficult to even lift his hand.

Su Ran, who had delivered the ‘one sword’ strike, paid no attention to the shouting Li Ming.

The process of using the ice crystal longsword had given her a completely different experience.

It was different from directly firing the desired magic essence bullets with her ice crystal pistol.

The melee weapons condensed from ice crystals all seemed to imbue her weapon attacks with a frost enchantment.

Even though she didn’t know any swordsmanship, the power of the slash, just by infusing magic essence, was enough to astonish Su Ran.

This unremarkable slash was named Frost and Snow by Su Ran, because after being struck once, the Sequence One Li Ming’s entire body was now covered in frost.

He was like someone standing outside in a heavy snowstorm, completely covered by frost and snowflakes.

Proportional to its power were the limitations of this one strike.

First, if it weren’t for the Ring of Pride’s recovery, Su Ran would not have been able to provide enough magic essence to cast it.

Second, while infusing the magic essence, Su Ran could only stand still and could not be interrupted.

All in all, Frost and Snow was a high-risk, high-reward attack.

Or it could be understood as simply using her witch abilities and a large amount of magic essence to brute-force her way through.

Seeing that the frost-covered Li Ming had become motionless, Su Ran’s anxious heart finally settled.

She had been worried about the move Li Ming used to raise his sequence level, but it seemed the casting of Frost and Snow had not given him a chance to use it.

However, Su Ran wasn’t taking any chances.

She activated her witch ability, and two long spears instantly formed in mid-air.

If Philly saw the shape of the spears, she would recognize that Su Ran had formed the shape of the Spear of Judgment.

But compared to the magic essence skill cast by Philly or Su Ran herself, the Spear of Judgment condensed by her witch ability this time was a mere imitation, with only the sharp blade being replicated.

But for the current Su Ran, a sharp blade was enough.

She severed her connection to the Spears of Judgment.

Unable to remain suspended in the air, they fell straight down towards Li Ming’s position.

Bang!

The Spears of Judgment crashed to the ground, kicking up a small crater.

Li Ming’s arms were severed by Su Ran.

After ensuring Li Ming posed no threat, Su Ran slowly approached, observing the assailant who had broken into her home.

Seeing his shriveled face and emaciated body, if she hadn’t just heard him speak, Su Ran would have thought it was just a corpse.

After confirming he wasn’t breathing, Su Ran searched his body for a while but found no valuable clues.

But she wasn’t going to give up.

Since Li Ming could operate here, it meant his nest must be nearby.

Perhaps by finding traces in Li Ming’s lair, she could find out how he had found his way to her home.

Thinking of this, Su Ran prepared to explore deeper.

There was still some time before the last bus, so she had a little time to search.

Su Ran cleared away all the ice crystals she had created with her witch ability, leaving only Li Ming’s body on the spot for someone else to find.

But this was, after all, a wasteland on the city’s outskirts.

It would probably be some time before he was discovered.

Su Ran gradually began to explore the area around the sports field, looking for signs of human life.

Li Ming’s corpse lay quietly in the crater alone.

After a while, the motionless corpse in the crater propped itself up, preparing to leave without even picking up its own two arms.

“A puppet?”

A blood flame descended from the sky, and Winnie’s figure leaped down from a high place.

She had been following Su Ran even before her fight with Li Ming.

Even after Su Ran left, Winnie herself had not departed.

Even when she heard the description of Li Ming from the security officers, she had already faintly confirmed it in her heart.

Upon seeing Li Ming’s true body, her last bit of doubt vanished, and she could finally be certain.

The Li Ming before her was merely a puppet.

The person truly controlling him was still hiding in the shadows.