Xue Dongming

A few days later.

Inside the bright airport, crowds of people surged as a gentle boarding announcement echoed beneath the glass dome.

A man in disguise held his briefcase, looking around as if waiting for something.

With only ten minutes left until boarding, the final flight of the day from Jianghou City to Chi City was nearly ready, and he could not wait to leave this godforsaken city.

It wasn't just because of the local accent or the gang wars visible on every corner.

It was also because his backpack contained a top-secret file regarding Devil Tower City, which detailed the coordinates of the Eight-Spider Holy Remains.

The man's name was Xue Ming, a frontline mystic scholar and one of the only two people in the world—aside from the Eight-Spider Zerg—who knew the location of the Eight-Spider Progenitor's remains.

No... now he was the only one, because not long ago, he had personally ended the life of his colleague of many years.

Xue Ming was currently a fugitive in exile, wanted across the entirety of Red Heaven at the highest level.

All his assets had been frozen, including his private jet parked at Red Maple Port.

The bounty on his head was high enough to make even him envious; if the people of the Mountain Crow family knew he was here, the army would march into this airport the next second.

There was no doubt that in Red Heaven, where underworld culture and individual heroism prevailed, the consequence of being captured by the Snow family was ten thousand times more severe than death.

Those pure-looking women were absolute devils when it came to biological research.

During interrogations, they would inject prisoners with reagents that caused them to grow spider legs, spider eyes, dragonfly wings, beetle antennae, or longhorn beetle shells as if the chemicals cost nothing.

In Red Heaven, the human rights acts of Life Daybreak were no different from waste paper.

He had to leave this place unless he wanted to be tortured to death by punishments that far exceeded the lower limits of human morality.

Those people calling themselves the Pole Star Society truly had some means to help a top-tier fugitive like him forge an identity and pass through multiple security checks.

For some reason, he felt his body grow hot.

The fragrant breeze drifting through the air caused his greedy gaze to fall upon the girls walking past.

The vitality inadvertently emitted by these young women felt like invisible hands stroking him, making his whole body itch with an uncontrollable urge.

Primitive desire surged from the depths of his heart, gradually seizing his logic and turning his vision blood-red.

The thoughts born within his mind were terrifying even to himself: he wanted to tear these girls limb from limb.

Just the thought of the begging and misery they would emit before death made the man subconsciously swallow his saliva; it would surely be a wonderful sound.

"Mister, you don't look so good."

A calm, slightly raspy voice came from the side, giving Xue Ming a start.

The man hurried to shake his head, tossing the blood-red imagery from his mind as his vision cleared.

Young women dressed elegantly walked past arm-in-arm, while a woman with heavy makeup stood beside him holding a cigarette.

Damn it.

Just how many years had he spent in that observation well?

As a mystic scholar, he usually used potions to suppress his desires to the minimum, but after leaving Devil Tower City, the desires he had restrained for years began to erupt like a flood of beasts, making him feel like a stranger to himself.

He struggled to suppress the bloody urge, adjusting his expression to that of a 'nice guy' as he scratched his head sheepishly at the woman.

"Sorry, I'm about to hand over a project I've worked on for years, so I didn't sleep well last night. Do I really look that bad?"

At the same time, he scrutinized the woman before him.

Whether intentional or not, the strap of her lazy-looking nightgown had slipped to one side, revealing a reddish-white shoulder.

Her makeup was thick but could not hide her natural beauty.

She was using perfume from the Red Maple Lake Vsaka series, specifically a scent called Vka produced in the perfume capital of Gefinniel.

The annual production of this perfume was not high and was inaccessible to the underclass, yet Xue Ming could confirm something.

This woman was an unrefined amateur.

Such a clumsy performance could not fool him.

They said a woman's heart was a needle at the bottom of the sea, but he believed he could grasp a woman's mind quite well.

From innocent schoolgirls to cold female executives, even mature women who had been lonely for years—from commoners to the social elite—there was no kind of woman he hadn't encountered.

Before becoming a mystic scholar, he had been a tuner who was widely sought after by high-society celebrities, so he was more than familiar with perfumes.

The Red Maple Lake Vsaka series focused on a fresh and natural scent containing an invisible allure, like a hunt occurring on the shores of Red Maple Lake.

Usually, when one was attracted by the fresh scent and wanted to know the other person better, they had already fallen into the hunter's trap, only to find that the fragrance was actually rich, intense, and deadly.

By the time they wanted to withdraw, it would be too late because their heart would already be maddened by the woman's crimson lips.

The proper way to use Red Maple Lake Vsaka was 'two presses and one rub': one press on the neck, one on the chest, and then using the hands to rub the scent evenly over the body.

As for why he called her an unrefined amateur...

The scent on her was far too strong; he could smell it from a great distance.

She clearly didn't understand the application method and was likely an impostor who had obtained the bottle by chance and sprayed it directly on her face.

What kind of hunt was this? A prey would have been scared off long ago after smelling that scent from afar.

The woman also looked him up and down.

Under the shell of a 'nice guy,' his clothes were clean and meticulous, and his temperament was steady and outstanding.

He wasn't exactly a playboy, but he was certainly dapper, which suited her aesthetic.

Thinking of this, the woman's red lips curled into a stunning arc as she asked, "Are you alone?"

"Yes, why?" Xue Ming smiled.

"A long journey alone is a bit boring, so I'm looking for a photographer who can help me capture the scenery along the way. Of course, there will be compensation."

Xue Ming felt contempt in his heart.

Such a low-level pickup technique didn't even qualify as a clumsy hunt.

What was the difference between this and a prey actively exposing its throat to a predator?

Overemphasizing being alone and using the photographer excuse was so outdated; he felt as if he had returned to the period decades ago when he spent his time among flowers.

It was a refreshingly refined level of stupidity.

Yet, he maintained a gentle smile. "I am alone. Do you need me to help carry your luggage?"

In the past, he would have ignored this, but the impulse in his heart was about to break its shackles, and since the prey had foolishly run right in front of him, he didn't mind tasting a little dessert before the real hunt began.

He chose to follow his primitive desires; after the plane landed, he would find a hotel and kill this woman.

He would kill her in every way possible!

The flight announcement sounded, and a gust of wind blew between the two, dispersing the last traces of their reserve and barriers.

"Of course, I'll have to trouble you then." The woman smilingly handed her heavy luggage to Xue Ming and licked her dry lips. "Shall we board the plane together?"

"Of course. We're going to fly all the way to the sky," Xue Ming whispered in a voice only he could hear.