"And will you hide this girl's true nature from him too?" Asura asked with interest.
"The less they know, the sounder they sleep. It's a good principle of action," I replied calmly.
Walking further into a dark alley, I changed back into martial arts attire and put on the Asura mask. It was quite far from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, so even using my energy as effectively as possible, I only managed to reach the place after about three hours, so it was already starting to get light. The healing potions of the old man helped me stay on my feet; they really have miraculous properties.
The building where the Khabarovsk Keepers' base was located belonged to one of the international companies subordinate to them. It was a residential building, quite comfortable for living. I was even starting to think that the Vladivostok Keepers were just slacking off, choosing abandoned buildings. The infiltration plan was also simple: through the roof. Before starting, I thoroughly scanned the building, wanting to find the strongest mage. If he was at Elena's level, there might be problems.
Unfortunately, he was on the first floor, and there were only three floors in total, so I would likely have to fight him in open combat. Well, so be it. Infiltrating the building, I approached the first room; I could sense beginner-level mages behind it. The door was naturally locked, and using lightning shock, I managed to melt the lock. The door opened with a creak, and I saw a room resembling a dormitory room: five beds, nightstands next to them, and two wardrobes opposite the door. Five beginner-level mages slept soundly in their beds, unaware of the disaster that awaited them.
I activated my artifact and sent five daggers towards each of the mages. I had never done this before, so it was quite difficult. However, I had to kill them all simultaneously, or the remaining ones might wake up and raise the alarm. Five daggers began to hover evenly above the heads of the five mages. With a slight flick of my right fingertips, I lowered the daggers with great acceleration, so that they pierced the mages' heads and sank into the beds with a dull thud. Not a single loud sound was heard; everything was quiet and peaceful. After that, I carefully retrieved my daggers and headed to the next room, but it was empty, as were all the others.
Going down to the second floor, I saw a mage walking to the bathroom, who felt quite strong, a mid-tier second or third-level. He stared at me with a blank expression, standing in a t-shirt and shorts, holding a towel and shampoo.
"Who are you..." Before he could finish, one of my daggers whistled through his chest. As he fell, he made quite a noise, and I could only hope that no one strong had woken up.
Approaching the next door, I already felt that my luck had turned against me and the mage sleeping there had already woken up and was even ready for battle. It was good that he didn't attack immediately. I summoned my shield, reinforcing it with wind energy to the limit, and with the wrath of lightning, I opened the door, creating an element of surprise. However, in response to my wrath of lightning, a fire fist flew at me. It was only thanks to the shield that I remained unharmed. The door no longer bothered me, and another of my daggers flew into the door. I had to guide it by feel, as the smoke from the fire fist had not yet dissipated.
At that moment, a creak of a door was heard from behind. I quickly jumped and turned around. It was another mid-tier mage who had come out of the opposite room. It was a woman about thirty years old in a nightgown. She had already finished composing an ice star chart, and six ice chains had formed around her. Quickly composing two wind and lightning star paths, I created a composite spell, a lightning wind blade, and sent it towards the woman's chains. At the same moment, another fire fist flew at me, which I also covered with my shield. I was thrown towards the woman. Her ice prison was destroyed by my magic, which surprised even me! Combining magic is an incredibly powerful thing.
She herself took a couple of steps back, breathing heavily. Having flown back from the fire fist, I found myself very close to her and quickly used one of my daggers to pierce her, using her confusion. As expected, she couldn't react and calmly fell to the ground. At this time, the last room on this floor opened, and a wolf almost two meters tall flew out, breaking everything in its path. Apparently, there was a summoner mage who had summoned this beast for his protection. I retrieved all the daggers I had released, taking two in my hands and heading straight for it. It was just a high-level servant, so I wasn't afraid of it at all.
The wolf tried to bite my head off, but it wasn't fast enough. I skillfully slipped under it and pierced its neck and chest with my daggers, directing a dual lightning shock into its body. It lost consciousness, and I knocked it to its side, turning my back to the open door from which the ice mage woman had emerged. At that moment, a third fire fist flew in my direction, and it was from this that I covered myself with the wolf. Using wind boots and a wind step, I increased the inertia from the impact and flew out the window opposite the door. Finding myself outside, I didn't fall down, but using the same spells, I ran around the house along the wall and returned through the window, finding myself behind the fire mage.
He didn't expect my appearance, so while he was turning around, my wrath of lightning hit its mark, but he had armor that protected him. The fire mage was about to send another fire fist at me, but my daggers, hitting his chest and piercing the armor, prevented him. However, it still managed to protect his life, so he only suffered from the recoil of the blow. This gave me time to finish the lightning wind blade and attack him again. This time, he flew into the corridor, and his armor was covered in cracks. Although he was severely stunned, he was not dead.
"Where did that guy go!" someone shouted. Judging by the voice, it was a young girl, but it was clear she couldn't be seen due to the dust. "He killed my wolf! I'll tear him to pieces!"
Clearly, it was the summoner mage who had unleashed the wolf on me. Well, it's time to finish them all, and this is a great chance to test the whirlwind of wind blades spell in practice. Unfortunately, it took time to cast, during which I almost took a hit of wrath of lightning from the summoner mage girl. Also, the dust had settled a bit, and I saw the fire mage coughing up blood and preparing a new fire fist. Unfortunately, it was too late. Jumping up, I activated the spell, which took me no more than eight seconds to cast. The air behind me formed into a dozen small blades, which I directed at the fire mage and the summoner mage girl standing next to him.
The girl's eyes widened at the sight, and the mage immediately swore, but it was already too late. From the recoil of the magic, I flew out the window again, and the wind blades tore the mage and the girl apart, incidentally shattering the concrete floors so that the entire building collapsed like a house of cards. The partitions on the first floor also couldn't withstand it, and a column of dust rose into the sky.
Using a wind step, I carefully landed about twenty meters from the house, in its backyard. However, one thing was bothering me: there were three more quite strong mid-tier mages on the first floor, but where were they now? The answer came immediately after my feet touched the ground. Stone columns with stone grates grew around me. I had already seen this spell in Yueyang, only this time it was enhanced with approximately a small spiritual seed.
"Well, here you are," someone said behind me. The voice belonged to a man in his forties.
Turning around, I saw him with short gray hair and a well-groomed, medium-sized, handsome beard. Mages stood on either side of him. On the right stood a woman in her mid-thirties with long black hair. And on the left, a guy about twenty-five with short blond hair. A powerful mid-tier magical aura emanated from the three of them. The old man's main element was earth, the woman's fire, and the guy's light. Quite strong guys gathered to meet me.
"Anastasia Anatolyevna, please, kill him with maximum cruelty, for the death of all our juniors," the old man said to the woman.
"With pleasure," she replied, creating clots of poison in her hands and heading towards me.
"Ha, you thought that by putting on this strange mask, being just a mid-tier first-level mage, you could defeat us," the blond guy chuckled.
"Don't underestimate him; he alone killed all our juniors, and among them, as you know, were Pyotr Ivanovich, who almost matched Anastasia Anatolyevna in fire control, and Olga Mikhailovna, who was at the second tier in ice," the old man said, warning the blond guy.
"Yes, don't worry, he just got lucky," the guy waved it off and stared intently at me.
The woman approached me almost closely, already preparing to use poison magic on me. I hadn't been idle all this time. Of course, it was impossible to destroy this cage with an ordinary wind blade. Using a whirlwind of wind blades was also not an option; it was too dangerous for me. However, I could still use lightning wind blades. All this time, I had been trying, with little success, to compose two such spells simultaneously. Although it was difficult, with my experience, it was not impossible.
With each step of the woman, with each failed attempt, my concentration grew stronger and stronger, my heart began to beat faster and faster, and my internal energy began to circulate at incredible speed. Gradually, the golden threads of internal energy, extended to the central stars, spread to the small ones, wrapping them as a mother wraps children in warm clothes in winter. This made the stars less capricious, more compliant, and they began to arrange themselves into the required star paths, as soon as I thought of the required spell.
I felt that something in my stars had changed slightly, and for the better. When the woman was about to use poison magic, I finally finished two lightning wind blades. Unnoticed, I took two daggers from their sheaths and directed the spell's energy into them. Two small daggers were also prepared for instant firing.
Striking the daggers in a cross pattern, I released the magic, simultaneously moving forward and sending the daggers flying. The magic successfully shattered the cage into dust, knocking back and severely wounding the woman. The guy and the old man froze in shock for a second at what they saw. The guy received his dagger in the chest, and the old man was only slightly grazed; after all, he wasn't as careless with me. However, it was already too late. With the help of internal energy, I began to compose initial-level spells instantly; I didn't even need effort to control the stars. They themselves, upon hearing the command, arranged themselves in the required order with astonishing speed.
So, immediately after that, I had already finished the wind charge and was flying towards the old man. This time, even he didn't react and was killed by a blow to the chest and a lightning shock, just to be sure. Dropping him to the ground, I breathed heavily; it was incredibly exciting, I was really close to the end. However, from the proximity of death and the interesting battle, I experienced such pleasure that you cannot imagine. And the pain from Lin Yun Er's departure had almost completely passed, as if it had never been there. This had only happened once before, yesterday in the basement, when I tortured those Keepers to death. Perhaps I am indeed a terrible sadist and a psycho, and I deserve a psych ward, but I don't care. The main thing is that all my loved ones are safe, and I can enjoy this pleasure.
After catching my breath, I pretended that the Vladivostok Guardians had attacked them. Using a fire stone, I set a couple of corpses ablaze, and with an ice stone, I froze others, having previously removed all traces indicating they were killed with daggers. I simply turned the places they were hit into mush. I left the base of the Khabarovsk Guardians as dawn was breaking, so I found a dark alley, changed my clothes, and headed to the train station to return to Hong Kong.