"Do you know how many men we have lost?! How much property damage we have incurred?! All this could've been prevented if you just did your job properly and protected this damned city!!! I'm going to report this to my superiors, you can be sure of that!"
The city lord was left defeated as he let out a helpless smile. Even though what Manager Ming had said had crossed the line, he couldn't help but think it was true.
'Maybe if I was at the headquarters I could have reduced the damages that have been done?'
He was the city lord after all, tasked with protecting his city; if he were to fail at his task then what were to be of him?
Snapping out of his thoughts, the city lord expressed an ambient smile as he said, "Do send my deepest condolences as well, I will personally compensate the family of those who have died..."
Hearing that, Manager Ming's stern expression lightened, a mocking smile taking its place, "Suites you just right!" scoffing away, the arrogant Manager called for his assistant, prompting a beautiful woman, with long, red hair and innocent eyes to appear.
"What may I do for you Manager?"
Looking at her with eyes that hide lust, the Manager replied,
"Compile a list of all who have died here today and hand it over to the esteemed city lord...", a mocking smile returning to his face as he made it to the end.
It was an obvious play of provocation but he was left with a bitter taste in his mouth as her saw the unchanging expression on the city lord's face. Clicked his tongue, he turned around, leaving to take care of what he needed to.
Once he had left, the city lord turned towards the assistant that hadn't yet left before saying, "Don't worry about what he said, the forensic team will be here shortly as they are required to register all those that have died. I'll make sure they send you a copy of the list."
Relief could be seen written all over her face as her job had now been made much more easier. After all if the city lord hadn't offered a helping hand, she would have to identify and document all those tattered and mangled corpses by herself, which would have required her a long time to accomplish.
Thanking the city lord, she excused herself as she had other business to take care of, leaving the city lord who had one more place left to visit.
. . .
Arriving at the main residence of the Star family, the city lord was met with the same gruesome scene. The only difference was that this time, there wasn't a single crazed left standing. They were all either detained or dead and scattered across the ground.
Amongst the countless bodies he could see members of the Star family as well as their private guards doing their best to clean up the mess. Spotting the patriarch of the family, the city lord approached without really being noticed by anyone. When he was a meter away, he calmly greeted,
"Clinton, long time no see..."
The patriarch who was named Clinton Star, was surprised by that as he hadn't seen or sensed the city lord approaching nor arriving.
"As sneaky as ever, lord Zachary... I heard that your headquarters was also attacked, how are the damages?"
"A lot have died, but it has been contained. I came here as backup but it seems like you've handled the situation rather well..."
Hearing that, Clinton held a confused expression as he said, "It wasn't all us, there was an expert that came and took care of most of the crazed... Weren't you the one that sent them?"
'An expert?', the city lord shook his head in suspicion. Although it was a good thing the expert had done, it didn't sit well with the city lord for there to be one he had no knowledge of.
"Although I've sent reinforcements, I wasn't behind this expert... Did you, by any chance, get to see who it was?"
Shaking his head Clinton said, "They were moving too fast. I suspect their cultivation base is at the completion realm or higher, that would be the only way for them to evade my eyes... they were also using a mysterious movement technique, it made them seem like a phantom, phasing in and out of reality..."
"Hmmmm" The city lord paused in thought going through all the movement techniques the occupants of Earthmire city used but non had an effect like that.
'Someone from out of town maybe???'
As he thought that, a sudden figure appeared in his mind, it was the man that had came with Yuno and Bao Obi as their body guard...
'But then why would he? There's no reason for him to go out of his way to do the deeds he's done...'
Of course, it might have just been a virtuous act by a passing cultivator but, there was still the thought at the back if his mind that held the stance that it had been done by Han Sen. There was no evidence to back it but you can say he had a hunch about it...
Seeing the city lord stay quite for a while, Clinton asked, "Do you have any particular person in mind?"
Snapping out of his thoughts, he replied "No, but that technique you mentioned does seem interesting..."
As the two conversed, the forensics team arrived. They were a group of a dozen, hazmat suit wearing individuals. They walked out of the transport drone with a random slow motion effect that made them look much cooler than they actually looked before, going straight to work.
Bringing out hand held devices, they scanned the corpses, identifying them as either citizens of Earthmire city, or employees of the Star family.
Once the distinction was made, each hazmat brought out little ceramic orbs that received the identification data before floating up and collecting all the DNA that matched the DNA of the individual.
This caused arms, legs, heads, bowls, and blood, to fly through the air creating a sickening scene. Almost as if showing the extent of the horrors that had taken place.
As the orbs collected the matching DNA, they also increased their sizes, growing into the size of a large capsule-like coffin that housed the individual's body, being recreated using the collected DNA.
Using that, the capsulizers were able to recreate the persons body and appearance around 95% of the time, that other 5% percent was failure attributed to parts of the DNA that had vanished from existence. Resulting in some of the reformed bodies to miss some parts of their limbs, eyes, and skin, making them to look rather frightening.
Finishing his conversation with the patriarch of the Star family, the city lord took his leave and returned back to the headquarters. This time though, the headquarters had been cleaned back to its original state.
The only thing left being the destroyed structures that had yet to be reconstructed. Once that was over with, things were bound to go back to normal... right?
That question concerned the city lord as this wasn't even the first time something like this has happened. This was the second time Venus auction house had been targeted. Being overwhelmed, the city lord took a deep breath before exhaling,
"Let's just take this one step at a time..."
. . .
Back at the city lord's mansion, Han Sen could be seen holding a tied up crazed in his arms. The crazed was a woman in her mid twenties with purple hair and wild features.
Unfortunately, she was now in a crazed state and could be seen trying her best to regain freedom. Squirming for a while, Han Sen had no choice but to chop at the back of her neck causing her to go unconscious.
"I've done what you've instructed Master, but I must ask, why?"
Ever since the beginning, he had been wondering why his Master had specifically instructed for him to retrieve an attractive female under the effects of the mania mist.
"Well you see, I'm about to carry out different tests on the given subject to find a counter to the mania mist... The reason I specified the subject to be an attractive female was so that I could get an extra motivation into succeeding."