Volume Two: The Youth of a Thousand Faces – Chapter Fifty-Five: Countless Phantoms

He had nearly taken the life of the Leopard, so it was understandable the other bore a grudge against him. But why on earth would a head of thick, black hair have anything to do with him? What Hoyeh didn’t know was that the Leopard had once been obsessed with his own hairstyle, changing it almost every week and liberally applying hair growth serums to keep his hair lush. Years ago, Hoyeh's blade had left a deep scar on the Leopard’s scalp, destroying the follicles beneath, and that patch had become a barren wasteland.

This meant all the perfect hairstyles were now forever out of reach for the Leopard, so he had simply shaved his head bald. Restoring hair growth would have been an easy matter—these days, any cosmetic clinic could erase scars and perform follicle transplants. Yet to the Leopard, the scar was a mark of humiliation; until he could avenge himself, he would not allow it to be erased.

Hoyeh didn’t much care what threat the Leopard could pose. The greatest advantage of youth was the capacity for growth; at fifteen, he couldn’t defeat the Leopard, but now, at nineteen, his odds in a one-on-one fight were above ninety percent.

So Hoyeh was curious. Since they were still within the transmitter’s range, why hadn’t the Leopard waited until everyone had left Bancroft before pressing the button? Was he planning to leave himself here in some grand pose? That was just serving himself up on a platter.

As the Leopard ground his teeth in rage, Hoyeh stroked his chin and asked, “Tell me, if ugliness isn’t a disease, then why are plastic surgery clinics called hospitals?”

The Leopard nearly choked on his own breath. Damn it—

Hoyeh was content; he relished getting under people’s skin—it was a wicked pleasure of his.

He said, “Since you’ve killed your fellow operatives, it seems the others who were captured won’t survive either. I might as well leave you a way out.”

“Arrogant!” the Leopard snapped, then charged at him, wielding a pair of brass knuckles.

The punch came with ferocious force, as if to smash Hoyeh’s skull in one blow. But Hoyeh didn’t dodge—instead, he laughed. It wasn’t a friendly gesture; it was as if to say, “How pitiful.”

The Leopard’s fist passed right through Hoyeh’s head, hitting nothing but air. He nearly stumbled to the ground.

Regaining his balance, he heard Hoyeh’s voice behind him: “Where are you aiming? I’m over here.”

The Leopard turned, only to see Hoyeh still smiling at him with that insufferable, superior gaze.

Blood Blade Thirteen Forms, Fourth Form: Thousandfold Phantom.

By combining footwork and his powers, he could conjure illusions to confound his opponent’s vision. That was the effect of Thousandfold Phantom.

Abilities like clones and phantoms were traditionally the domain of spatial adepts, who could invoke such tricks with their powers alone. For users of other abilities, achieving similar results required immense effort and often yielded little reward—attacking an opponent’s strengths with your own weaknesses was rarely worth it.

Eddie, for instance, had once spent an entire sleepless month mastering this move, just to get back at the spatial adept who had humiliated him with illusions at the academy. Hoyeh’s mother had told him of his father’s relentless drive when he created this technique—his father’s capacity for vengeance was truly remarkable.

It was this refusal to admit defeat, this thirst for retribution, that had shaped the Black Reaper as he was today.

As the Little Reaper, Hoyeh had mastered the Blood Blade Thirteen Forms at an early age. After awakening his dark-compatibility ability, he devoted himself to combining multiple powers—Lightning Rush was a product of that period.

Over the years, Hoyeh had learned so much that it was almost overwhelming. When sparring, he held back; in battle against disasters, he gave his all. He’d only encountered VRF after arriving at Bancroft, and it had always been difficult to practice unfamiliar techniques. But now the situation was perfect—the Leopard wanted him dead, yet his strength was within Hoyeh’s grasp. A perfect training dummy.

Hoyeh drew a deep breath, letting the darkness attribute flow from his chest throughout his body.

He didn’t know if it would work, but he asked casually, “What is your objective?”

“None of your damn business!” The Leopard swung another punch—alas, it struck only a phantom.

“I admire your attitude,” Hoyeh replied. “You know, almost every question in life can be answered with either ‘none of your damn business’ or ‘none of my damn business.’”

“Then why the hell do you—keep—asking?”

The Leopard, roaring with rage, kept attacking Hoyeh’s phantoms, never learning from his mistakes.

Hoyeh, still smiling, dodged every blow with Thousandfold Phantom, until the Leopard finished venting. Then, in a flash, Hoyeh struck.

First Form: Round Dance.

The blade swept out, quick and merciless, aimed straight for the Leopard’s neck, as if to behead him in one stroke.

But surprisingly, the Leopard didn’t dodge. He took the blade to his neck head on.

A metallic clang rang out as the Leopard crashed to the ground, a faint line of blood on his neck—his defense was astonishing.

Hoyeh seized the chance, stomping on the Leopard’s chest, the sword tip pressing to his eyeball. His gaze was cold and fierce as he said, “That damned assassin of yours nearly hurt my friend. Tell me, isn’t that my business?”

Shangguan Yudie had no way to heal herself. Though Hoyeh had been ready to shield her with his own body, the explosive speed of the Air Blade’s projectile meant he could never have reached her in time. If not for Huo Xialan’s intervention, Shangguan Yudie’s fate would have been dire.

The thought made Hoyeh wish he could go back and cut down Air Shuttle himself, rules be damned. After all, the only requirement was to try to take prisoners when possible. Air Shuttle, by unleashing a potent, wide-area destructive power in a crowded public place, had already violated the “Colonial General Law on Ability Users”—his actions were a grave threat to public safety. Any volunteer ability user maintaining order on the scene was fully authorized to kill him on the spot.

Hoyeh didn’t like getting blood on his hands. His blade was meant for slaying disasters, not men; that was why he hadn’t intervened before. Now it was too late.

Jiang Feng’s intelligence network was the most advanced in the academy. With his mind operating at full throttle, monitoring the entire campus, his search rivaled a super-crystal brain. His extra three percent of brain development was wholly devoted to focus, memory, and computation—his IQ was just average.

Hoyeh had arrived long before Huo Xialan and the others. When Huo Xialan, Xiao Linghuo, Qin Shiqian, and Feng Wuming finally arrived, they were taken aback by the sight of corpses frothing at the mouth strewn across the ground.

“Did he do this?” Xiao Linghuo asked, referring to Hoyeh.

Qin Shiqian glanced over the bodies and shook his head. “Doesn’t seem like it. There are no visible wounds—it looks like poisoning.”

Suddenly, the Leopard, playing possum, struck. He smashed Hoyeh’s sword aside with his forehead and aimed a vicious punch at Hoyeh’s groin.

Hoyeh was appalled. Was there no bottom to this man’s shamelessness?

Without hesitation, Hoyeh kicked the Leopard flying. The man crashed heavily against the city wall.

Feng Wuming flicked his horsetail whisk, pointing at Hoyeh. “It seems we ought to lend a hand to our friend Hoyeh.”

Qin Shiqian adjusted his glasses. “Why help? I think he can handle it himself. This is a good chance to observe his performance against humans. We’ll face him in the club tournament soon enough. If anything goes wrong, his accelerated regeneration will keep him intact, and we’re close enough to intervene in time.”

Feng Wuming shot him a glance. “Old Qin, your thinking is a bit too calculating.”

Xiao Linghuo wanted to argue for helping, not out of any real concern for Hoyeh, but because only the Burned Mountain Fire team knew his true combat ability against humans. The longer they could keep that advantage, the better.

Huo Xialan, however, said nothing. She simply strode toward Hoyeh.