Superman Termination Manual - Chapter 66

Chapter 66 – 056: Monster Family
Ke Xiaomo’s brows furrowed slightly, then he looked up into the sky and saw that the thick spider silk tethering the message scroll was coming from the roof of a residential building adjoining the alleyway.

At that moment, a sinister figure sat atop the railing of the rooftop.

They were slightly hunched over, swaying their elongated legs, skin shifting in liquid-like shades of ashen grey. The corners of their mouth were raised high toward the sides, almost reaching the roots of their ears.

“Hey, friend, what were you just muttering to yourself? I’m quite interested.”

As they spoke, the Deception Puppet yanked up the scroll stuck with spider silk, grasping it in their palm, and casually flipping it open to look down at its contents.

“Uh, the Dragon of Disaster has already been found… How intriguing. So why would ninjas and dragons be opposing forces, when they are two completely unrelated things? Oh, speaking of which, this reminds me of a game called ’Ninja Dragon Sword Legend.’

Ke Xiaomo observed him quietly, as if gauging the strength of his enemy.

“Right, why didn’t you hold onto the scroll, giving it up to me like this?”

The puppet paused for a moment. “Or is it that… you’ve already decided to kill me to silence me, so you think it doesn’t matter?”

Before the words had even finished, Ke Xiaomo had transformed into a shadow and dived into the ground, moving along the walls of the residential building like a snake running through the jungle, sweeping past the glass reflecting the morning light.

In less than a second, the elongated, weasel-like shadow exploded onto the rooftop floor.

Ke Xiaomo emerged from the shadow, capturing the puppet from behind, and pulled a dagger from his sleeve, pressing it against the puppet’s throat.

The dagger was covered with a layer of faintly dispersing shadows that were eroding at the puppet’s neck.

“Who are you?”

He whispered almost word-for-word into the puppet’s ear.

“Who I am is not important, but perhaps there will come a time when you need me. In half a month, your family will be in danger, and then on whose side will you stand? Will it be with the dragons or with the ninjas?”

The puppet spoke calmly, toying with the scroll in their right hand, occasionally opening and closing it.

“Nonsense.”

Ke Xiaomo said, moving the icy dagger a fraction closer, carving a notch into the puppet’s neck.

“How about we become friends? That way, when the time comes, I might come and help you protect your family.”

The puppet raised three fingers, still speaking unhurriedly, “You know, my connections are vast, with characters like Qing Ya, Black Wukong, Magical Girl Ash—they’re all my friends. Maybe I could ask them to come and lend you a hand, perhaps?”

“If you think I would waste time with a lunatic, you’re mistaken.”

As the words fell, Ke Xiaomo swiftly decapitated the puppet with his dagger.

He thought this would end the farce, but upon glancing down, he saw the puppet’s head roll on the ground twice and then continue to babble.

“Ah, why does everyone in your family have to be so ill-mannered, chopping off hands and heads at every turn? All fans of Qing Ya, not one with a healthy psyche.”

Watching this scene, Ke Xiaomo said softly, “You’re not human.”

“Of course I’m not human; I am called ’strange thing’, pleased to meet you.”

As he spoke, the puppet suddenly broke into manic laughter, his tone getting faster and faster.

“You will understand me soon enough, Mr. Ninja. I am simply reminding you out of goodwill… Perhaps when you face that choice, all the knowledge you have ever had will collapse in an instant…

The heart you thought to be impregnable will be torn into thousands of pieces within a few short seconds, and when it’s all over, no matter how humiliatingly you bend your waist, kneeling on the ground, you won’t be able to piece it back together.”

“Like its name… a strange thing,” Ke Xiaomo said with a frown, his mouth uttering the sarcastic remark coldly. Just then, a shout came from the alley, its clear voice falling into his ears.

“Big bro, are you done yet? Why’s the bathroom taking you so long?!”

“Your brother is waiting for you, do you still want to tangle with me?” the puppet asked in a low voice.

Ignoring the puppet’s words, Ke Xiaomo took two steps forward, sheathed his dagger, and closed his eyes to take a deep breath.

The next moment, the puppet’s body and head began to slowly sink into the shadow cast on the ground, as if absorbed by a layer of gray, murky swamp.

“Hey, what are you doing? This lump of shadow is about to devour me.”

The puppet’s head sank deeper into the shadow, as if being consumed. It looked down at the patch of darkness, its tone filled with surprise, “This isn’t fun at all.”

Ke Xiaomo gave no response, and merely transformed into a weasel-like shadow pressing against the wall, rapidly weaving through to the interior of the public restroom, and finally emerging from the shadow of one of the stalls.

He casually flushed the toilet and walked slowly outside amid the thunderous sound of the water.

At the same time, the puppet’s body and head were entirely swallowed by the shadow on the rooftop, disappearing without a trace as if it had never existed.

“That move was really vicious, huh? The Deception Puppet got swallowed by that shadow?”

At this moment, the second perspective in Ke Mingye’s mind faded away, indicating that the puppet was dead.

He thought to himself, “This method of killing and disposing of the body, I bet no one would be able to find where it is, no wonder he is an A+ ranked ninja. Big bro must be one of the top combatants in the Ninja Sect…”

Ke Mingye reflected for a moment, recalling the information from that scroll, on July 4th, two weeks from now, the Shadow Heir Ninja Sect would launch an encirclement and suppression operation against Ke Yongzhu.

Moreover, they did not mention the disaster dragon’s human identity in the scroll, it seemed that they were deliberately concealing it from Ke Xiaomo.

They probably believe that when Ke Xiaomo learns that the disaster dragon is actually his family member, even if he turns traitor, it would be more than enough to gather the entire strength of the Ninja Sect to fight against him and Ke Yongzhu.

Ke Mingye was also unclear about what choice Xiaomo would make when he found out that the last disaster dragon breed was his own brother.

At least he knew well that killing Ke Yongzhu would be far from as simple as the Sect Master had imagined.

Thinking of this, Ke Mingye couldn’t help but snicker, thinking to himself that what they were facing wasn’t just a dragon, it was an entire family of monsters…

[Congratulations, you have completed the first node objective of the main mission “Destruction of the Ninja Sect” —— getting close to “The Sect Master’s Great Disciple—Xiao Mo” in a disguise.]

[Node reward points obtained: 2000 Experience Points, 8 attribute points, 2000 Mall Coins.]

[Your level has been raised to Lv.6 (1500/3000 points), and you have gained 1 attribute point as a level-up reward.]

[You have a total of 9 unused attribute points, please allocate them promptly.]

[The next node target of the main mission is: Observe what choice “Xiao Mo” will make, and depending on his different choices, either aid him in slaughtering the last of the disaster dragon breed, or help him completely destroy the Shadow Heir Ninja Sect.]