This was a symphony of the night, where many agendas connected with one after another. Be it orchestrated or not.

"I trusted that bitch—!" Narissa the Mermaid couldn't even finish her thought as her body went limp and lost strength. The grotesque beast's sharp claws held onto her leg and injected a pure toxin into her bloodstream, making her unconscious.

The beast then leapt out of the building, unbidden and uncaring of the inherent dangers of dropping from perilous heights. It—no, he was already at the peak of its existence. Instead of experiencing a terrible pain, the creature's fall caused a crater to form on the streets of the open city. It caused a destruction seen and visible by many ordinary citizens.

When the dust cloud cleared, it was seen—

"Standard procedure, let out those shadows, people!" A voice ordered from numerous earpieces. Lotte Jensen sighed in relief once the darkness seeped across the entire street and the entire sky like inky shadows. It would blind the people from seeing the reality of trouble..

Normally, she wouldn't have gone this far as she understood it wasn't their jurisdiction, but the group had to do what they had to do. They had come all the way to track down a merfolk that mutated and transformed itself into its current state now—a car's light pierced through the darkness. The vehicle barreled into the beast. The Shadow Hunter's jaw dropped, and she yelled at her fellow hunters.

This was a sensitive and crucial mission!

Nobody should be risking the other mermaid from getting hurt—

Both the CEO and the secretary leapt out of the car at the last minute, and somehow, the aquatic beast stopped the car with one fin and tossed it into the air, attacking some invisible foe. One could see that Narissa was unconscious over its shoulder, and it was only wise to judge their foe and the situation.

[ Assessment Complete ]

[ Tyrannical Merfolk (Mutated) ]

A subclass of the Undine that has been corrupted by the depths, gaining superior strength and durability over its normal species. May develop skills.

Li Yang caught sight of Ying Yue He's hesitant face and knew he had to move. A plan was already set in motion prior, and all it took was actually doing it.

The CEO's speed caught the creature off guard. The man threw a sudden kick out of nowhere, but his attack simply bounced off its plate-like scales. Even with his improved strength from becoming a stage three qi condensation cultivator, somehow it could not cause apparent physical damage.

The creature howled at him and attacked, throwing the man across the streets. Except the man held his ground, digging his heels into the cement, and held its arm in place. He threw one look at Ying Yue He, expecting the woman to move and get the idol off from the shoulder of the beast, but she was frozen in place.

The creature screamed in his face, a sonic-like blast that made the man wince and feel something pop in his ears, until he was launched back into the nearest building. His back struck against the wall, pain wracked throughout his entire body. When he lifted his head, he could see the creature escaping.

It was a long overdue choice.

Multiple sounds of notifications sprung across his mind, and he felt the effects of more qi gathering around his body and being absorbed. All the carefully kept Charm Points went down the drain.

[ Deducting 60—]

[ Deducting 750— ]

[ Deducting 9000— ]

[ Deducting 12000 CP From Host— ]

[ Purchased Harem Cultivation Qi Condensation— ]

[ Purchased Harem Cultivation Qi Condensation VII! ]

Energy coursed through his body, the pain cleared from his body and he sprung to his feet, launching towards the creature. The rest of his charm points were thrown into the air for any possibility of a weapon that could help him out of this mess.

[ Deducting 500 CP From Host... ]

[ You Have Purchased 1x Mystery Box! ]

[ You Have Received LSO Starglitter-Pen! ]

He had terrible luck.

But it didn't matter to the CEO who used it to stab the aquatic beast right in the eye, his former speed already surpassed by his current one, and bursts of light emanated from the ballpoint pen that resembled a laser more than actual glitter. Before the creature could swipe at him with its claws, the CEO jumped and snatched the unconscious woman from its shoulder.

He landed several feet away, holding the woman in his arm, and tried not to lose his footing.

The qi in the surrounding air around him was unstable, his body processing it all and condensing it. A mixture of both negative and positive qi and all of them were being assimilated into his body to perform feats greater than that of an average human—he dove to the right and avoided the concentrated sound blast. His pen was still stuck in the creature's eye, an ichor of green liquid dripping across its face.

Even if he couldn't defeat it, the chances of escaping were possible.

Until a wide and malicious grin formed in its maws, it threw out the pen and its bleeding eye regenerated back. Spikes gathered up in its body, a deadly aura constricting around itself and once again it attacked with its blast, not at him this time.

The blast was heading straight to Ying Yue He and the CEO tried to move to block it, his secretary still frozen in place, but he was wrong.

The attack wasn't meant for her.

The incredibly concentrated blast struck through the darkness permeating them. It pierced towards the hotel and caused multiple windows to explode, the entire building shaking in the moment, and it began to fall.

Destruction was imminent.

And even for a cultivator like himself, the man could do absolutely nothing to stop it at his current state unless he could stop an entire building from collapsing. Ying Yue He snapped out of her shock and petrification and ran. Her fight-flight-freeze instincts finally adapted to reality. He had accomplished his goal to save the Mermaid at this cost.

"Collateral damage is unavoidable." Bao finally appeared, as if reading his mind.historical

—-—-

Author Note: Both actions in bed and out of it are a tad difficult for me. Don't believe Li Yang's luck, he managed to overcome the bottleneck in this scene! Trying to balance cultivators and supernatural creature physique and power scale is a bit difficult too xD Well, that's all for today, thanks for reading!