Chapter 683: Wind Ghost, Part One

Bang!

Amid the howling wind, several ventilation windows on the second floor of the warehouse were flung open at the same time.

Dazzling sunlight suddenly poured into the dim warehouse, making everyone's eyes blur. Many people instinctively raised their hands to block it while warily lifting their weapons.

"Ah! Too bright!"

"Who's up there?"

"Enemy attack!"

"Calm down!"

"Careful!"

"Who's going to check?"

"Steady!"

Amid the chaos, the Red Viper had no choice but to roar and overawe the whole place, forcing the gang members who had just experienced a slaughter to calm down and slowly adapt to the light before them.

"There's no one here. It's not an invasion."

Gutierrez kicked off the wall and climbed to the second floor. He picked up the snapped window latch while warily watching the movement on the roof.

"Maybe it's just... a bit windy?"

Only then did everyone let out a breath and relax the nerves that had been stretched tight after the battle.

"Damn it, what kind of evil wind is this?"

Sangare wiped the blood from his face.

As soon as he finished speaking, another gust of wild wind attacked the warehouse, making everyone raise their hands to shield themselves from the dust.

"Who knows? Maybe it's retribution for what we've done."

Duro looked at a shattered window and snorted disdainfully.

Fogg glanced at him, his gaze complicated.

"The wind is strong enough to blow open this many windows? Are you sure there's no one else up there?"

Gamandia looked up at the ventilation windows on both sides overhead, still suspicious.

"If you suspect something, why don't you come up and look yourself? Afraid to die?"

Gutierrez coldly shot back.

"Stop arguing. Send more people to check!"

Nekra said impatiently. He had to raise his volume to cover the sound of wind.

"Seal the main roads, search the warehouses in front, behind, left, and right. Whether they're sentries, overseers, or workers, not a single one is allowed to leave until we find the person playing tricks!"

"Remember to keep it quiet!"

Sangare did not forget to remind them.

"Don't make the whole dock know what happened here..."

"Know what?"

Duro rubbed the blood on his hands and mocked with dissatisfaction.

"Know you stabbed one of your own in my venue? Or know you violated city law and committed murder in Jade City?"

"Duro, old friend, I know your foul temper."

Nekra's expression cooled.

"But when it comes to things you don't understand, you'd best shut your mouth."

Duro answered with a cold snort.

"And if I don't?"

Nekra's expression chilled, and Fogg quickly interrupted them.

"Brother Duro, about this..."

Just then, the masked black-clothed man, who had been standing silently in the shadows, suddenly spoke.

"Where are you taking her?"

Everyone froze at once and turned their heads.

At some unknown point, Catherine, who had been lying in a pool of blood, had disappeared.

"Where is she?"

"What the hell!"

Amid the uproar in the warehouse, the black-clothed man slowly turned.

The gang members followed his gaze.

In the shadows beneath the sunset, the unconscious Catherine was being held by an unfamiliar figure. The latter was moving along the wall under the cover of backlight, calmly and quietly advancing toward the warehouse's back door.

"Damn it! Bastard!"

"Someone's trying to slip away!"

"Surround him!"

The remaining gang members reacted instantly and quickly blocked the exit.

The unfamiliar figure holding Catherine paused and had no choice but to stop there.

"You bunch of trash! How did no one notice?"

"Does this guy walk without making sound?"

"The wind was too loud just now..."

"The windows opened. The light was bad!"

"It's fine. He's alone!"

One step.

The suddenly appearing figure, Ralf, looked at the blocked exit ahead, then looked at the heavily wounded and unconscious Catherine in his arms and sighed softly.

One step, and he would have been out.

Just one step.

He lowered his head and gazed at the dying Catherine in his arms, slightly distracted.

Nekra and Fogg's men shouted to one another and charged through the bloody air, surrounding him completely.

"A fish slipped through."

Fogg frowned and examined Ralf.

"I've never seen you. Are you one of Catherine's people?"

Catherine's person.

Ralf clenched his fist.

He lowered his head and carefully studied the familiar yet unfamiliar woman before him. Time had added many wrinkles and white hairs to her. She was far from the spirited figure she had been back then. Her heavy injuries made her look weak and powerless, no longer as domineering and sharp as she once was.

"The fight was so intense just now, yet you survived. Were you playing dead the whole time?"

The Red Viper stared at his back, killing intent gradually emerging.

"Just to take advantage of the chaos and save the Blade Bitch?"

On the other side, Duro stared blankly at Ralf, his expression surprised.

Was this... the younger brother of that new Fatty Wya?

Wait, where was Fatty?

In the crowd, Zimikas recognized Ralf and instinctively wanted to cry out, but Glover, gnashing his teeth beside him, covered his mouth and dragged him backward.

Damn it, damn it, damn it!

I knew it! No self-awareness, no discipline, never listens to advice. I fucking knew this mute was unreliable!

But Ralf, the focus of everyone's gaze, still stood where he was. He ignored the murderous gang members before him and only looked at the woman in his arms with a complicated gaze.

"No, Turnbull, no..."

The pale-faced Phantom Blade had her eyes tightly shut and murmured unconsciously. She tightly covered the wound at her severed arm, and her abdomen was even more mangled.

She looked heavily wounded and close to death.

Ralf fell into a daze. It was as if he saw his former self, lying in the ruins and blood of Red Lane, waiting for death in despair.

But...

[Tell me, Blade Bitch, that wind-playing Ralf. Did you give him a chance?]

Ralf's heart hurt.

[When you used your so-called "most trusted, most promising subordinate" as an abandoned pawn, as a sacrifice, as bait... sending him to the One Night War to die for nothing... so that you could rise inch by inch and step by step...]

[Did you give him a chance?]

Ralf suddenly turned his head, no longer daring to look at her.

"Kill him."

The Red Viper ordered coldly.

"Make it clean."

"Wait!"

Fogg suddenly spoke, stopping the subordinates who were preparing to act.

The Wanderer stepped forward.

"To dare come save her at a time like this shows he is a true man."

Fogg looked at Ralf's back.

"Put her down. I won't kill you."

Catherine truly did have many loyal subordinates.

What a pity.

But Ralf stood where he was as if he had heard nothing.

"Fogg!"

The Red Viper was very dissatisfied.

"This is not the time to show grace!"

"We're not murder maniacs."

Fogg refused him outright.

"The goal has been achieved, and the outcome is set. There is no need to shed more blood."

Nekra burst into laughter.

"You say that as if the person who stabbed her in the back just now wasn't you."

"The reason you can still stand in my territory and talk so freely right now, Little Red..."

Fogg suddenly turned his head. His expression was fierce, and his words carried threat.

"Is definitely not because you know how to speak."

Nekra's expression changed.

The warehouse quieted.

For a moment, the Red Viper's eyes shone with a fierce light, and his subordinates prepared themselves for another internal fight.

But in the end, Nekra took a deep breath and looked toward the silent black-clothed man.

"Now you're the boss. What do you say?"

But the black-clothed man remained silent and did not speak, his gaze behind the goggles unknown.

The Red Viper frowned, but Fogg ignored the two of them and spoke directly to Ralf.

"Child, you are still young and still have hot blood. That is good. So you are even less worth throwing your life away for this kind of filthy matter."

Fogg looked at the Phantom Blade's miserable state and sighed.

"Even if you keep your life and come find me for revenge later, that's fine too."

His words stirred whispers in the warehouse.

"I told you, he's old."

Gamandia said unhappily.

Keep his life.

Revenge.

These words made Ralf's thoughts sink slightly.

Revenge?

"Hey! Did you hear that, friend?"

The Red Viper impatiently shouted at Ralf.

That voice, etched into his bones, made Ralf tremble slightly.

The parts below his knees seemed to start aching faintly again.

Revenge?

The hands with which he held Catherine instinctively exerted force, and the Phantom Blade gave a painful moan.

Ralf slowly turned around and looked at the Red Viper.

"Put her down and you can live. Maybe you'll even be appreciated."

Nekra glanced at Fogg and sneered disdainfully.

"That's what our broad-minded Boss Fogg said."

This scum.

He did not recognize me.

Ralf looked at Nekra. At first, anger rose in his heart, then emptiness.

After so many things, after so many years...

He did not even remember what I looked like?

"Wasting time. Wouldn't killing him directly be the end of it? We don't have..."

Sangare opened his mouth to protest from the side.

But another voice interrupted him.

"Tetto. That's your name, right?"

Duro spoke in a deep voice.

"I don't know what relationship you have with Boss Catherine, but... put her down and come back."

Duro looked around and said dully,

"For a bunch of scum killing each other, it isn't worth it."

These words drew dissatisfied noises from many gang members.

The Red Viper's thoughts moved.

"Duro, you know this guy? Is he your subordinate?"

"None of your fucking business, scum."

Nekra had only invited humiliation. He sneered.

"Put her down, mute! Don't go crazy!"

In the crowd, Zimikas suddenly exerted force and broke free from Glover's hand in an instant.

"These are real ruthless characters, not a small-time thug like me. They'll really kill you!"

When that happened, Boss Duro and we, as his little brothers, would not end well either!

Zimikas remembered something and quickly shook Glover beside him, who was still shocked.

"Fatty, that's your brother! Say something!"

Brother?

Feeling the gazes of the people around him, Glover's expression changed.

Damn it!

Hearing the familiar name, Ralf looked toward Glover with doubt in his eyes.

This time, Zombie understood what he meant without needing translation.

Why haven't you left?

Leave my ass!

Glover's heart burned with anger.

This damned mute, cripple, idiot, fool. When they broke into Renaissance Palace and were captured, why hadn't the Royal Guards beaten this little disaster-causing bastard to death?

But there was no other way. Glover could only suppress his anger and respond to Zimikas's request under the hostile gazes around him.

"Ahem, Tetto, brother? Uh, that... I know Boss Catherine did you a favor, but... forget it. Let's go home. Remember? Home?"

Home?

Ralf fell into a daze.

Home.

He suddenly remembered another place.

It was the Covendier family's manor, the vampires' basement.

At that time, he had been tightly bound in shackles, becoming their blood food, supplying them with blood, unable to live and unable to die.

Only despair had kept him company.

Until that boy arrived.

[Then, are you willing to break free of these shackles?]

Shackles?

Ralf's breathing trembled.

Seeing that he did not move, Fogg's tone slowly became serious.

"Put her down, young man."

Put her down?

Ralf lowered his head again and looked at the woman in his arms: Big Sister, the Phantom Blade, Catherine, and... the person who might have betrayed him.

At this moment, he became the focus of the room. The black-clothed man, Nekra, Fogg, Duro, Glover, Zimikas, everyone's gaze was fixed on him.

Put her down.

As long as he put her down, he could live.

Put down?

The next second, Ralf walked toward the wall.

The surrounding gang members became nervous, but Fogg made a gesture, telling them to stay calm.

In the crowd, Glover looked at this scene. Though he cursed inwardly, he could not help holding his breath.

Ralf leaned against the wall and gently put Catherine down.

This made some people breathe a sigh of relief, but also made others slightly disappointed.

But just as Ralf was about to stand, the unconscious Catherine instinctively reached out and tightly grabbed his wrist.

Like grabbing a life-saving straw.

Ralf looked at his own wrist and frowned faintly.

He gently grabbed Big Sister's hand and, slowly but firmly, pulled it away.

"Good."

Fogg nodded, his words somewhat sorrowful.

Ralf said nothing. He silently stood.

"That's more like it. I thought you had so much courage, but in the end, you're still afraid to die."

Nekra sneered.

"You few, go finish it."

The Red Viper looked in Ralf's direction and lowered his voice.

"Remember, 'finish it'..."

His two fighters understood. They tightened their grips on their machetes and walked toward Ralf with hostile expressions.

"Hey, move aside..."

Looking at the approaching men, Ralf's expression changed.

The next second, he instantly lowered his body and smashed an elbow into the abdomen of the man in front.

Thud!

His movement was practiced, his expression steady, as if he had done this hundreds or thousands of times.

"Urgh..."

The opponent curled over in pain.

"No!"

"He didn't surrender!"

"Kill him!"

Roars rang out through the warehouse. The other fighter shouted and drew his machete, charging forward.

Hoo.

A small, sharp breeze swept across the fighter's face, forcing him to close his eyes.

The next second, what greeted him was Ralf's side kick.

Bang!

The second fighter screamed and flew more than a meter away together with his machete, falling to the ground and not getting up.

The shouting in the warehouse grew louder.

"Damn it!"

"He dares sneak attack!"

"Surround him!"

No one knew that when Ralf acted, his heart was incomparably calm.

And also incomparably chaotic.

Why did he attack?

Why did he look for trouble and seek death himself?

Why did he even drag his companion into this?

For revenge? For gratitude?

To end the past? For years of resentment?

For a chance, for an explanation?

Ralf did not know.

He did not know.

That woman, whether Phantom Blade or Catherine, was clearly only an ordinary gang leader, was she not?

She had even betrayed him, had she not?

And he, had he not already decided to leave the past behind?

Had he not already crossed mountains and rivers, broadened his horizons, transformed himself, found new life, and ceased being the street thug whose blood could be stirred hot by a few words?

He was no longer that person!

He had no reason to save her.

No reason to interfere.

No reason!

Ralf told himself this. Over and over again, he told himself, in pain, in hatred, in unwilling pity, and in unwilling resentment.

But just now...

Just now...

When the corner of his eye saw Catherine lying in a pool of blood, holding her broken body, struggling in despair, barely clinging to life...

[Break free of these shackles, then take this ruined body and continue struggling in this world. Continue surviving miserably.]

That boy's words echoed beside his ears.

[See how cruel it can still be.]

Ralf clenched his fist.

Just now, when all of them, Fogg, Nekra, Zimikas, Duro, Glover, no matter how different their reasons, all uniformly wanted him to "put her down"...

[Are you willing?]

At that moment, he, Midira Ralf, a man who had lost his legs, lost his past, lost himself, and had been lost for far too long...

Suddenly understood.

[Struggle one more time.]

[Are you willing?]

Ralf's breathing quickened. He raised his head and looked at the Blood Bottle Gang members before him, roaring and clamoring.

Put her down?

No.

He gently split his mouth and released a smile.

These people, these bastards, these rotten people, these...

What they wanted him to put down, what they were forcing him to put down...

Everything in this damned world that spoke with one voice and tried to force Midira Ralf to put down...

Was not her!

[Struggle one more time!]

Thinking this, Ralf smiled and took a step forward. He slowly raised his left hand and showed Nekra...

One middle finger.

Everyone in the room, including Nekra, froze at the same time.

Middle finger?

What did that mean?

Only Glover sighed faintly.

"Fuck, I knew there was a trick."

Nekra reached out and calmed the shouting gang members, deliberately glancing at Fogg.

"When someone has made up his mind to die, you can't stop him even if you want to. Fogg, do you still want to show grace now?"

Fogg did not answer. He only looked at Ralf, who was guarding Catherine, with a complicated expression.

Duro took a deep breath. He looked at Ralf standing in the corner, outnumbered and alone against so many people, and admiration grew in his eyes.

In the crowd, Glover clenched his fists and shoved aside the trembling Zimikas, who wanted to say something to him.

That terrifying black-clothed killer still stood in the shadows, saying nothing.

"Fogg, what do you say? Still want to buy people's hearts?"

Nekra spoke maliciously.

Fogg frowned.

He looked deeply at the smiling Ralf and suddenly understood. The reason the other man did this was very simple.

Because he wanted to.

That was all.

And this simplicity was something he, Fogg, had lost many years ago, something perhaps he would never have again in this life.

The next second, Fogg closed his eyes and waved expressionlessly.

"Go."

The three blade-wielding gang members in the front row exchanged glances. They looked at their unlucky companions from earlier, raised their weapons with extreme caution, and slowly surrounded him.

Facing the battle that was about to erupt, Ralf's first movement was to crouch down and place both hands on his knees.

His still relatively intact knees.

The flesh and blood closest to his legs.