When they saw that the newcomer was just a petite Fox Girl, dressed in the uniform of the Ten-Lords Commission, wearing sunglasses, with light cyan hair and fox ears faintly reflecting in the dim light, their initial shock was quickly replaced by annoyance.
Especially since, after kicking open the door, this Fox Girl just stood there straight in the doorway; the expression on her face behind the sunglasses was unreadable, but her posture... didn't show the slightest hint of fear, but rather a sense of provocation.
After a brief, dead silence.
The sharp-featured, young member of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus let out a scoff first, breaking the silence: "Hah! I thought someone had snuck in, but it's just a Little Judge from the Ten-Lords Commission? And a little brat at that?"
His tone was flippant, filled with undisguised mockery, "What, lost? Or has the Ten-Lords Commission run out of people, sending a diaper-wearing baby like you to hand us an achievement?"
The scarred brute twirled his short blade, sneering, "This one is soft and tender, doesn't look like she has an ounce of strength. Hey, kid, didn't your elders teach you that some doors shouldn't be kicked open?"
The one with shifty eyes stared at Huo Huo's Tail, licking his lips: "A Foxian? That's rare... I wonder how this fur..."
The middle-aged man leading them frowned. He was more cautious than his subordinates. Although he also felt that this Little Judge who had suddenly intruded posed no threat, having someone from the Ten-Lords Commission appear here was, in the end, trouble.
He raised a hand to stop his subordinates' increasingly crude jeering and said in a deep voice: "Little friend from the Ten-Lords Commission, this is a private place and we do not welcome outsiders. Considering your youth and ignorance, leave now, and we can pretend we didn't see you."
His words seemed to offer an out, but in reality, they were a condescending dismissal.
Clearly, they didn't take the lone, fragile-looking Huo Huo seriously at all; they just wanted to get rid of this unexpected little nuisance quickly so as not to delay their "important business."
Huo Huo stood at the doorway, listening to these taunts, threats, and dismissive words, her lips pressed together beneath her sunglasses.
Strange, she didn't feel afraid in the slightest.
In fact, looking at these faces filled with "malicious intent" and listening to those grating words, the inexplicable irritation in her chest flared up even hotter.
She didn't answer, just slowly raised a hand to adjust her slightly slipping sunglasses.
Then, in a cold tone she wasn't even aware of, she spoke clearly to the four members of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus in the room who obviously hadn't taken her seriously: "You all are too noisy for my ears."
"Pfft—"
The sharp-featured young member of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking as if he had heard the world's biggest joke.
He sauntered forward, twirling the poisoned short blade in his hand with a clumsy flourish; the blade glinted with an ominous dark green in the dim light.
"Hurting your ears?"
Mimicking Huo Huo's calm yet impatient tone, he exaggeratedly picked at his ear, "Little Judge, did you walk onto the wrong set? This isn't your Ten-Lords Commission academy; no one's teaching you the rules here, so big brothers will teach you—"
As he spoke, he leaned in with a contemptuous smile, his free hand reaching directly toward the cheek that was mostly hidden by Huo Huo's sunglasses; judging by his posture, he wanted to pinch it.
The other three also wore expressions of watching a show; the scarred brute even crossed his arms, waiting to see this Fox Girl scream in terror.
However, the next second.
That hand reaching toward Huo Huo's cheek was firmly gripped by the wrist in mid-air by a slender yet unusually steady hand!
The sharp-featured man's smile froze on his face.
He instinctively tried to pull his hand away, but felt his wrist being clamped like a pair of iron pliers, unable to move at all!
He looked down in astonishment, meeting the blurry darkness behind the sunglass lenses.
"You..." He only had time to utter one word.
On the hand Huo Huo was holding his wrist with, without any warning, a cluster of cyan-green flames ignited with a "whoosh"!
The flames weren't hot; they even carried a trace of eerie chill. Instantly, they spread along the point of contact like living vines, engulfing the sharp-featured man's entire upper body in the blink of an eye!
"Urgh?!" The sharp-featured man shuddered, not because he was burned—the flames had absolutely no temperature.
But a palpitation and icy chill originating from the depths of his soul swept over him.
The playfulness on the faces of the other three froze instantly, turning into astonishment.
The sharp-featured man, engulfed in cyan-green flames, looked down blankly at the flames dancing on his body, which seemed to come from the netherworld.
No pain, no burning, but...
"Ah... ah ah..." Meaningless wheezing sounds came from his throat.
Immediately after, countless chaotic, intense, and dark emotions, like a dam bursting, tore down his mental defenses!
The pent-up fear, twisted greed, resentment from petty squabbles with colleagues, the anxiety of living a life of skulking in the shadows, and the trace of base shame deep within his heart that he didn't even want to admit to himself regarding what he had done...
All the negative emotions he had deliberately ignored were amplified several times over, ignited, and burned wildly by these eerie flames!
"No... don't... it wasn't me... help... so painful... so hateful... why..."
He roared incoherently, the expression on his face twisting and changing—at times terrified, at times violently ferocious, at times streaming with tears and snot.
Huo Huo let go of his hand.
"Aaaaaah——!!" The sharp-featured man let out a shrill scream that didn't sound human. It wasn't a cry of physical pain, but a wail of his soul being torn apart by countless negative emotions!
He staggered backward, his hands frantically clawing at his head and chest, as if trying to dig those burning emotions out of his body.
"Save me! Save me! Help me!"
He reached out to his former accomplices, snot and tears streaming down his face, his eyes unfocused and filled with desperate pleading.
The scarred brute, the middle-aged man, and the shifty-eyed member of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus had all the color drained from their faces, as if they had seen a living King of Hell in broad daylight.
Watching their companion in a state of suffering countless times worse than being sliced into a thousand pieces, a chill shot straight from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads!
What kind of sorcery is this?! Since when do the judges of the Ten-Lords Commission possess such wicked means?!
"Run... run quickly!"
The middle-aged man was the first to react, his voice cracking—there was no trace of his earlier composure left.
He didn't even bother to save his companion, who was rolling on the ground and wailing in a horrific state; he turned and bolted toward the other side of the basement, toward another hidden exit they had reserved!
The scarred brute and the shifty-eyed one were also terrified out of their wits; the instinct to survive overcame everything else. They followed the middle-aged man closely, scrambling and crawling toward the exit, wishing only that they had been born with more legs.
Huo Huo stood in place, her gaze behind the sunglasses sweeping coldly over the sharp-featured man curled up and twitching on the ground, who now only had weak moans left, and then looked at the three figures fleeing in a panic.
She didn't pursue them, just raised her hand.
The cyan-green flames covering the sharp-featured man, like a ghost returning to its nest, made a "whoosh" sound, detached from the body that had already fallen into a deep coma, turned into a streak of light, and obediently returned to Huo Huo's fingertips, quietly vanishing as if they had never appeared.
The person on the ground stopped moving completely, his face pale as paper, his breathing weak.
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