Guding saw that the person was none other than the imposter Ailee, the teacher who had questioned him in class today.
The Red Light District was not a place ordinary people would come to, let alone a teacher who taught cultural classes at a military academy. The real Ailee, like most of the other teachers who taught cultural classes, was an ordinary person with a Cell Comprehensive Index of only about 1, and as for combat ability, she had none.
The moment Guding caught sight of Teacher Ailee, he confirmed that Reid's earlier speculation had been entirely correct. When he saw Teacher Ailee enter an alleyway with a speed even faster than his own, he quickly followed her.
The alley was deep and gloomy, his footsteps were light, yet his speed was not slow.
Not long after Guding disappeared, a tall man, shrouded in a cloak, abruptly appeared at the entrance of the alley. He paused only briefly before following into the alley.
At the end of the alley was a deserted street. Guding peered out, looking left and right, but found no one. Just then, a chilling Killing Intent arose from behind him. Before he could react, a hand reached around from behind and clamped onto his neck, almost suffocating him. At the same time, a faint fragrance that Guding distinctly remembered being that of Teacher Ailee's usual perfume wafted from behind him.
"Speak, who sent you to follow me?" A voice rang in Guding's ear, sounding like Teacher Ailee's, only colder and more menacing.
"Teacher Ailee, I..." Guding began to explain when he was abruptly interrupted.
"Carrying backup, I see. Don't come any closer, or I'll kill him." The woman dragged Guding in front of herself as a shield.
In the dim alley, not far from them, stood a tall man, cloaked in black, with even his face obscured by a hood, indiscernible to the onlooker. Although Guding couldn't make out the man's face, his instincts were screaming danger, indicating that this man was exceedingly dangerous, perhaps dozens of times more so than the "Teacher Ailee" who was choking him. He could also distinctly feel that the man's target was not him, but the "Teacher Ailee" behind him. However, he was well aware that the man would not hold back from attacking "Teacher Ailee" out of concern for Guding.
As expected, after the woman spoke, the cloaked man simply hesitated in his step before moving forward again, completely disregarding the woman's threat.
Without any hesitation, the woman turned her claws into palms, chopping at Guding's neck and forcefully pushing him away. Clearly, she intended to use him to make her escape.
Guding felt a pang of pain at his neck, then his consciousness blurred as a force struck him from behind. His body was thrown into the air, and at the same moment, he passed out.
It was hard to say how much time had passed when Guding groggily awoke to a shocking scene.
Not far away, the "Teacher Ailee" had been impaled through the chest by a rod the man had produced from his hand. Even more bizarre, "Teacher Ailee's" face started to blur, as if a layer of Human Skin Mask was peeling away, revealing her true features—a woman who was slightly more beautiful than Ailee, with a touch of seductive charm. However, no matter how attractive, she was now a corpse. The rod pinned her firmly against the wall, and her struggles had come to a complete halt.
The cloaked man dug deep into the pocket of the woman's body and retrieved an item. In the dim night, despite Guding's incredible eye power, he could not see what the man had taken.
Just then, the cloaked man suddenly turned, his gaze falling on Guding. In the instant their eyes met, Guding felt as if an icy scythe of Death God was poised at his neck, the acute sense of crisis preventing him from moving a muscle. His instinct told him that any slight movement could lead to his instant execution.
"Target identified, scanning!"
"Scanning complete, target Guding, student at Sea Blue Star's basic military academy. Initiate elimination?" The cloaked man murmured to himself. Although Guding couldn't make out what he was saying, he guessed the man was communicating with someone, but the intense sense of crisis still did not dissipate, and he dared not move at all.
"From the military academy? Never mind him, the woman's body will be found sooner or later anyway. How's the mission progressing?" A deep and resonant adult male voice quickly came through the communicator.
After receiving the instruction, the cloaked man turned his attention back to the cold body.
"Target: Multi-faced Fox, Lin Na"
"Fourth-order Gene Body"
"Special Ability: Disguise"
"Cell Comprehensive Index: 181"
"Affiliated pirate group: the Judge of Pirates"
"Bounty amount: 7 million Star Coins"
"Target deceased, item acquired. Mission complete! Awaiting further instructions."
"Now that the mission's completed, withdraw," the deep male voice gave the command once more.
After receiving his orders, the cloaked man finally turned to leave. At the moment he turned, a gust of wind happened to blow, lifting his cloak and revealing his left hand.
Guding, with his astonishing eye power, caught a glimpse but distinctly saw a white number printed on the sleeve of the man's left hand—108.
"108? What does that mean? A code name? Or the designation of an organization?" Guding was momentarily distracted.
When he came to, the man had vanished. Guding looked around; the street remained empty. He then walked toward the body.
The body was pierced through the chest with a strangely made black rod, the other end nailed to the wall. In the Red Light District, where criminal cases happened every day, Guding had seen no fewer than twenty similar death scenes and was not the least bit frightened. He approached merely to confirm whether the woman was indeed Teacher Ailee.
Upon closer inspection, Guding was certain that this woman, as Reid had said, was an imposter. Apart from her face, her skeletal structure was even larger than the real Teacher Ailee's. Teacher Ailee was not short, around 1.68 meters tall, but this woman, after her disguise had faded, was at least 1.75 meters. Her fingers were slender, her nails painted with scarlet nail polish, and Ailee never wore any...
As Guding observed closely, a metal wristwatch fell from the woman's wrist, rolling right to Guding's feet.