Martial Arts Master

After a brief silence, Smith spoke in a tremulous voice.

“Alright, I’ll be there right away. ”

After hanging up, Lou Cheng examined his surroundings, but failed to spot any valuable leads. He turned his eyes back to the unconscious Joseph.

He made it look all too easy in the previous fight, defeating the martial artist in one fell swoop with his combination attacks. However, that was only what it looked like on the surface. In truth, to achieve such an effect, he had gone all out without any reservations. Centering around his Ice Mirror, he perfectly combined prediction, force, secret arts and footwork into one harmonious body. That was the key to taking down his opponent deftly.

Defeating a quasi-Inhuman mighty one wasn’t as easy as it sounded!

That was exactly why it was impossible for him to conceal the characteristics of his kung-fu. Even without exposing his appearance, there was a chance that Joseph could uncover his identity in the future, after regaining consciousness, and that would poses a problem.

Lou Cheng had already put some thought into the matter. When he first came up with Operation Connecticut Criminal Extermination, he already had it all mapped out. Against a weak enemy, he could easily conceal the characteristics of his kung fu and throw in a little technique from the Geruga Sect. Against a strong enemy who was proven guilty, he was prepared to be merciless. It wasn’t uncommon for martial artists to sustain severe brain injuries during a “bout”. The American government might even be pleased at the result. According to what Master said, they desperately needed martial artists who went through a “hard reset” for their Artificial Weapons Project.

But considering that he was alone in a foreign land with no intel and no leads, he felt that he was in no place to find anyone guilty or sentence anyone to death. Also, his actions might leave a mark elsewhere, so he gave up on the idea and brushed it off as a fantasy. That was before he met Smith.

These people are with the secret service. They probably have more tricks up their sleeves than I do when it comes to dealing with such situations… But if they fail, I’ll do it myself, “one step at a time”… While Lou Cheng remained absorbed in his thoughts, Smith pulled up outside the mansion and maintained the interference on the alarm system. Walking into the mansion, he picked up a packed meal that dropped onto the floor, before closing the door.

His gaze shifted from Lou Cheng— in the guise of a low drooping cap and thick-rimmed glasses— to the unconscious Joseph sprawled across the floor. The muscles on his face began twitching, and his eyes turned bloodshot. He looked as though he wanted to leap onto his enemy and sink his teeth into his flesh.

“You are so fast! Sunny’s father is not even here yet. I’ll start with a preliminary investigation,” said Smith. Having gone through years of training and evolving a supernatural ability of his own, he regained his composure in no time.

Lou Cheng nodded slightly.

“I can help if you have trouble finding the evidence,” he said in a low voice.

With his detection skills after making a breakthrough in Ice Mirror, he might be able to “see” more than trained eyes and catch on to something.

His confidence came from his communication with the spiritual gem, along with other evidences, and by then he was almost certain that Joseph was the “Butcher”— every Connecticut girl’s nightmare.

Also, taking into account the large number of supernatural ability users and spiritual mediums in America, the case wouldn’t have gone cold if the decisive evidence lay elsewhere. That could only mean one thing. Joseph’s mansion was the key to the mystery. Lou Cheng believed they could find something in there as much as Smith did.

“Okay. You can start by covering your tracks,” instructed Smith. He pulled out a set of devices and began his search from the collection room on the first floor. A smooth, glossy bone carving caught his attention, but he did not have the means to analyze and determine what it was, so he settled with a brief check and scraped off some parts for further analysis.

By injecting pure Flame and Ice Force into him, Lou Cheng destroyed all symptoms of Emperor Yan Force and Ice Spirit Force lingering in Joseph’s body. He then cleaned up the traces of battle in the living room. Anything that could be linked back to him.

Before long, just as Smith was getting impatient from finding nothing, the doorbell chimed.

Lou Cheng poised for attack, his eyes turning into a slit and his hair standing on ends. Smith walked out from the collection room and waved him off.

“It’s Sunny’s father… We’ve got to hurry. We have ten minutes before the delivery boy comes knocking.”

He paced to the door, took a glance at the surveillance system and disabled the lock. From outside came a middle aged man with grey hair and a jowly face.

“Cole…” Lou Cheng muttered confusedly under his breath.

Wasn’t this Cole from the Geruga Sect who trained alongside him under Joseph’s student Lin Deluo?

Just that afternoon he had been curious as to why someone with the ability of a Professional Ninth Pin never became an official disciple— insisting that he had to awaken his own spirit before he “promoted”…

Seems like he had an ulterior motive…

Cole’s eyes latched onto the sprawled Joseph the moment he entered the door. His teeth made a gritting noise, and his jaw trembled in anger. His gaze was so malicious, spiteful and intense that it threatened to carve a hole in his enemy’s flesh.

“Uncle Cole, we don’t have much time,” reminded Smith.

Breathing heavily, Cole pulled his gaze away and began to inspect the room.

He didn’t recognize Lou Cheng in his thick rimmed glasses and baseball cap, but he took him for a nameless superhero and nodded gratefully.

“He’s Sunny’s Dad?” Lou Cheng asked in a low voice when Cole wistfully went off to inspect somewhere else.

With the level of surveillance Smith conducted on him, he couldn’t have not known Cole to be his classmate.

“Yes. Uncle Cole wanted to become Joseph’s student so he could get the chance to guard this place,” said Smith, sullen and pained.

“He’s not afraid of being exposed?” Lou Cheng asked doubtfully.

“A demon who killed at least 40 innocent girls wouldn’t remember their relatives one by one. Plus, Uncle Cole divorced Sunny’s mother way back. He only visited Sunny a few times a year.” Smith paused. “It’s something he always regretted…”

While they were talking, Cole seemed to feel or hear something, and a layer of mist drifted from his grey-white eyes. He swung around, walked into the collection room, and muttered as he stared hard at a blood-red gemstone.

“Is that you, Sunny?”

“Is that you, Sunny?”

He reached out with quivering hands, stroking at the surface of the ruby. Suddenly, the gem gleamed, as though a strong light had been cast onto it. Scarlet light spilled and gently “fondled” Cole’s cheeks.

“Sunny… Sunny!” cried Cole. The mist in his eyes condensed into gouts of tears that rolled off his cheeks, across his coarse face and grey-white stubble.

The surrounding gemstones and sculptures began to resonate, each sparkling in their own glory, enveloping the collection room in melancholy and sorrow.

“Sunny…” Smith repeated incessantly as he bounded for the ruby. He vaguely felt the blonde girl’s warmth, as if it was yesterday once more.

He believe he had found the lead…

Stimulated by the surge in spirituality, Joseph slowly regained his consciousness, looking around in the wails of “Sunny”. He sensed that the spirit objects were radiating out of control.

“You caught me…” he sighed plaintively.

“Why? Why?” Smith swung around and bounded to Joseph. “Why did you kill Sunny?”

“Sunny?” Joseph clearly didn’t remember who Sunny was. Or perhaps he never knew her name in the first place.

After a brief pause, he smiled without a tinge of guilt, and answered,

“For their pure and sacred spirits.”

Cole held the blood-red gemstone in his hands, his eyes reflecting its scarlet light.

“Where did you hide her body?” he shouted.

A satisfied look spread across Joseph’s face, so creepy that it made their blood run cold.

”

A part of it went into the spirit object. The rest became a part of me.”

Gag… Lou Cheng almost retched up the coffee from earlier when he understood what he meant.

“Demon! You demon!” Cole cursed as he paced towards Joseph.

Poor Sunny. She was murdered in cold blood for such an absurd reason, when she had done nothing wrong. She never even knew why she was killed!

She must have been so lost. So confused. So baffled.

Joseph paid no heed to their reactions and struggled to have a look at the “delivery boy”, but all he could see was his jeans, shirt, black-rimmed glasses and baseball cap.

Slightly less than 6 feet tall. Physique covered by clothes. Skin matted with ice crystals. Can’t tell which race he’s from… But his spirit is strong. Very strong…

“So, you must be the new Superhero in town?” Joseph rasped, his blue pupils darting around. He wanted to know why the stranger stuck his nose into the matter and assaulted him.

“No,” Lou Cheng replied curtly.

Well, I can’t tell him the purpose of this “visit” was eliminating all threats to Ke. Can’t expose my weakness to Smith and Cole…

If Joseph killed those women for their pure and sacred spirits, then the premise of him only targeting young girls was wrong. With the talent Ke showed when she entered the still stance, she could have actually became a target…

“In the name of justice then? Look at that, the Nemesis of Crime and Evil!” Joseph scowled.

“Not really,” Lou Cheng confessed.

Joseph froze.

“So why did you come here? Why mess with me?” he blurted confusedly.

Lou Cheng hesitated before pushing the bill of his baseball cap down.

“I had nothing better to do.”

Which is true, if I had something better to do, I wouldn’t have had the time to construct those fantasies. Just so happens that I’m also quick to put my thoughts to action…

“Nothing better to do…” Joseph repeated stupidly. He never expected that to be the reason.

I got targeted because he had nothing better to do?

F***! S***! What kind of lousy reason is that!

The rage in his heart burned. He was dying to get up so he could tear Lou Cheng to pieces with his teeth.

In that moment, he was lost, confused and baffled, just like what Sunny and the others felt when they were murdered in cold blood. At the same time he was filled with hatred and pain.

In his misery, Smith thought Lou Cheng was taunting Joseph, and that made him feel a lot better. He walked over, took out a palm-sized metallic box from his coat, and from inside he produced a syringe, needle and container that held a liquid with pale gold glow.

Smith injected the liquid into Joseph after assembling the syringe and needle. He turned and smiled at Lou Cheng.

“Muscle relaxant. Prevents him from moving a muscle in the next hour, and, has a serious side effect of damaging recent memories. He might have been able to resist it had he been in his best shape, but right now? God bless him.”

“Nice,” Lou Cheng nodded approvingly.

Smith stood up, glimpsed at his watch, and turned to Lou Cheng.

“Let me send you off. Uncle Cole, you guard the scene,” he said.

“Okay,” Cole replied in a deep voice, his eyes fixated on Joseph.

When Smith and Lou Cheng had driven off in the sedan, far from the mansion, hysterical laughter erupted from Cole as he crept up to Joseph.

For the first time, the calmness on Joseph’s face vanished; it came to his realization that he might not last until his lawyer arrived.

“Hey! What are you trying to—” he shrieked.

…

In the sedan, Lou Cheng glanced at Smith and sighed.

“You already know what’s going to happen in that mansion.”

“Uncle Cole has the resolve to take full responsibility for whatever happens in there,” Smith replied indirectly.

Without saying anything else, Lou Cheng closed his eyes.