Chapter 1627: I Heard Your Wife’s Pretty Good

The battle over, Su Xiao swept his gaze around. There were only three Scarlet Cards left on the ground; this was already thanks to his higher Luck Attributes. With a Large Adventure Team like Blood Gate active in the Holy Grail World, the drop rate of Scarlet Cards here was ridiculously low. This wasn’t an open-world, after all.

Putting away the three Scarlet Cards, Su Xiao made sure there were no survivors, then took Bubu Wang, A Mu, and Bennie and left without looking back.

Bubu Wang went ahead to clear the way, so Su Xiao wouldn’t run headlong into Blood Gate Adventure Group’s reinforcements. Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened along the way, and Su Xiao quickly returned to Fuyuki City.

Not long after Su Xiao left, a large group of Contractors rushed into the abandoned factory district. What was left for them was nothing but a swathe of corpses and shattered ice all over the ground.

Crunch, crunch…

Stan stepped on the broken ice, shards flying. He noticed a mangled corpse on the ground and crouched down. This was Iron Rat’s body.

“Looks like you didn’t last fifteen minutes, and you didn’t hold out until I got here.”

Stan’s expression was very calm. Iron Rat had already reported the situation in the team channel beforehand. Although time was short and Iron Rat only managed to give a few key bits of intel, Stan already understood what had happened: Night of Beheading had tracked them into the Holy Grail World, here to settle old scores.

In fact, Stan had long anticipated this might happen, and he had tried to strangle the possibility in its cradle. Unfortunately, they simply couldn’t track Su Xiao. Their only successful attempt had been due to special circumstances, and the cost of that tracking was something Blood Gate couldn’t afford a second time. The team’s resources simply couldn’t bear it.

“Iron Rat… is dead.”

A somewhat choked voice came from beside Stan. Stan was stunned for a moment, then returned to normal. He turned his head to look at a gaunt, skinny man—this was his other trusted lieutenant, Old Smoker.

Old Smoker muttered something under his breath, growing more aggrieved as he spoke, and in the end he even started wiping away tears. Even with Stan’s composure, he was full of doubts. This was not the Old Smoker he knew.

Beside him, Stan’s wife Naloi was also staring at Old Smoker in astonishment. But faced with the carnage in front of them, neither Stan nor his wife shouted about revenge or swearing undying enmity. They were very calm—so calm it was terrifying.

“Old Smoker, Iron Rat’s death can’t be undone. A Lone Ranger who can single-handedly take on thirty-nine Contractors—against that kind of opponent, we have to be cautious. Forget the Artificial Holy Grail for now; we have to get rid of him first. We must.”

Hearing Naloi’s words, Old Smoker wiped his nose and squatted in front of Iron Rat’s corpse.

“Leader, that dead midget owed me 760,000 Paradise coin. Can the team reimburse that?”

“…”

Stan said nothing, but his meaning was obvious: Old Smoker should roll as far away as possible.

“How the hell did you just die like that? I only lent you the Paradise coin because you’re a Tank…”

Old Smoker’s mood was exceedingly foul—which made sense, considering 760,000 Paradise coin had just gone down the drain.

“Stop making a spectacle of yourself. The people below are still watching.”

Naloi spoke in a low voice. Old Smoker squatted on the ground, pressing a hand to his face.

“Bai Ye, you mother*******”

Old Smoker launched into a ten-plus-minute-long tirade cursing Su Xiao. Stan ignored him and instead examined Iron Rat’s corpse.

“Every strike breaks through shields. From the way the ice is distributed, he likely used the terrain to split the battlefield. But regardless, the fact is he slaughtered the entire Extermination Squad. Temporarily suspend all plans.”

Obviously, Stan wasn’t going to grit his teeth and continue the Artificial Holy Grail plan while taking Su Xiao’s hits head-on. He intended to deal with Su Xiao first.

On the streets of Fuyuki City, Su Xiao wrapped his forearm twice with bandages before tearing them off. After this raid on Blood Gate Adventure Group, he absolutely wasn’t going to actively show himself in Blood Gate’s line of sight again.

Su Xiao’s current advantage came from his Main Task. Even if he did nothing, he could still complete the Main Task; at worst he’d just get a very low reward at world settlement. He wouldn’t suffer any punishment from failing the Main Task itself.

Right now, Su Xiao needed to shift his focus to finding the Violator. As long as he dealt with the Violator, he could slowly grind it out against Blood Gate. He didn’t know what Blood Gate’s Main Task was, but they definitely couldn’t afford to stall. If they failed to complete their task, the forcible execution from Reincarnation Paradise was no joke.

Use your own advantage to hammer the enemy’s soft spot—that’s what a smart person should do, instead of butting heads directly with Blood Gate.

Thinking of this, Su Xiao’s mood improved. He even opened the Derived World Contact Platform to see if there were any Contractors still alive outside Blood Gate. Unfortunately, the contact platform was deathly silent.

After a brief hesitation, Su Xiao decided to “greet” Stan.

Bai Ye (Dawn Adventure Group): “Stan, hope you’ve been well. How’s your health lately? I hear your wife’s pretty good.”

Old Smoker (Blood Gate Adventure Group): “Bai Ye, fuck your mother******* (200 words omitted).”

Stan (Blood Gate Adventure Group): “Thanks for your concern. I’ve been well enough. If you died, I’d probably be even better. Though I heard your parents died miserably? Pity I had no chance to see it in person.”

…

Seeing Stan’s reply, Su Xiao, walking down the street, smiled. Stan hadn’t mentioned what happened tonight, nor did he sound enraged. Instead, they were simply trying to disgust each other.

Bai Ye (Dawn Adventure Group): “I watched the video. The Jade Crown suits you.”

Clearly, with things having reached this point, Su Xiao and Stan were both temporarily unable to do anything to the other. Holding onto the principle that “if the other guy is pissed, I feel great,” and with a leisurely attitude while he had nothing better to do, Su Xiao decided to make Stan very unhappy.

With that one simple line from Su Xiao, Stan’s cheek twitched out on the outskirts of Fuyuki City. He turned to look at his wife Naloi.

“There’s still… a rec…or…ding?”

Stan stared at Naloi, enunciating each word. Naloi stretched lazily, her curvaceous figure on full display.

“I’ve got a recording of you and that woman too. All kinds of positions, three gigabytes in total. Want to relive the memories?”

“No need.”

Stan was left speechless. In truth, at the root of it all, he was the one who first wronged Naloi. Whatever feelings they’d had as husband and wife were long dead in all but name, which was why Stan couldn’t dig too deeply into this. The interests of the team took precedence.

“Relax, there’s no video. I’m not so weak|brained as to do something like that.”

Right now Naloi also hated Su Xiao so much her teeth ached, but she had no way to find him in person.

This was Su Xiao and Stan’s first true direct clash, and judging from the outcome, Su Xiao was clearly the victor.

…

Fuyuki City, Shiro Emiya’s home.

Shiro Emiya was asking Rin Tohsaka about the details of the Holy Grail War. As for that mysterious corpse, they’d temporarily stored it in the storeroom. Shiro Emiya wanted to call the police, but Rin Tohsaka, out of concern for the officers’ safety, stopped him.

“Normally, every Heroic Spirit has an origin. As for whether your Heroic Spirit is good or evil, that depends on what Holy Relic you chose. When you summoned your Heroic Spirit, was there anything noteworthy at your side? The older the better.”

Rin Tohsaka took a sip of hot tea. To be safe, she’d sent Heroic Spirit Emiya to tail Su Xiao.

“Something old? I don’t think there was anything old at the time. He just forcibly branded the command seal onto the back of my hand, and then he appeared.”

“Pff~”

Rin Tohsaka spat out a small mouthful of hot tea and pointed a trembling finger at Shiro Emiya.

“He forcibly branded you?!”

Rin Tohsaka looked like she’d seen a ghost, all kinds of thoughts flashing through her mind. Just then, the door to the room was pushed open, and Heroic Spirit Emiya walked in.

“Back so soon?”

Rin Tohsaka steadied her emotions and spoke with feigned calm—that was her “authority” as a Master.

“Yeah. The battle ended faster than I expected.”

“Battle? Bai Ye clashed with other Heroic Spirits?”

“No. They were some very strange people. They weren’t Heroic Spirits, and they didn’t seem like Magicians, yet they wielded very strong Power.”

“How did it turn out?”

“Those people have all been killed by Bai Ye. Thirty-nine in total. If we go there now, we can still see a vast field of shattered corpses. Rin, let me say this in advance: if that man wants you dead, I may not be able to protect you. What you do after this—you’ll have to decide for yourself.”

Heroic Spirit Emiya was very composed. Dozens of corpses weren’t anything unusual to him.

“A… a whole field of corpses?”

Shirou Emiya stared at Heroic Spirit Emiya in shock. Heroic Spirit Emiya ignored him. Just then, the wooden door to the room was yanked open with a clatter, and Su Xiao walked into the room.