Chapter 29

Qi Xing retracted his fist and turned to look back at Elaine: "Alright. Which bookshelf is the next book on?"

033: Even the Dead Shall Fear Him

Qi Xing truly did not take Voodoo Hot Girl seriously.

After all, he had to beat a few bad guys of this caliber to death every week. Besides, he didn't have a memory as strong as Elaine's.

Unless the opponent had particularly interesting abilities, magic, or a background, or was exceptionally strong, having fought an earth-shattering battle with Qi Xing, or had done something truly detestable, Qi Xing would basically forget about them after a few days.

That being said, Elaine would not forget. That was why she had called for Qi Xing to "capture" Voodoo Hot Girl instead of just blowing her up with a single punch.

How did this Voodoo practitioner sneak into Castel SantAngelo?

And why did she specifically come to steal the book "Gospel of the Serpent"?

The strangest part was that Voodoo Hot Girl actually threatened Qi Xing, saying: "If the library gets smashed to pieces, not only you, but even the old man who is the president of the [Association] will be held even more accountable!"

Ha! There is no way this is something an unrelated bystander would say!

Two days ago, Qi Xing had found traces related to Voodoo hexes. However, as soon as he began interrogating, it triggered a curse buried within the gang leader, causing him to drop dead on the spot.

All of the above matters simply could not be a coincidence.

As things stood, they certainly couldn't continue to leisurely search for books in the library, nor could they immediately interrogate the Voodoo Hot Girl captive here. Otherwise, it was highly likely they wouldn't get any answers, and another one would just die, wasting their breath.

Removing a curse? It sounded simple, but deeply rooted Voodoo blood curses or vows on others were not things that a Martial Immortal like Qi Xing could easily undo—you could ask Qi Xing to kill a minor god and he'd have the confidence to try, but removing curses was outside his area of expertise.

Since that was the case… "Let's go first."

Elaine packed the three selected books into her bag. "We at least need to let the Witch Hunters outside know that an enemy has broken in."

Qi Xing did not directly respond to her. After binding the hot girl tightly with a restriction spell, he looked up at the ceiling—which meant looking up at the ground level—and frowned: "They might already know."

Although he didn't have clairvoyance or clairaudience, having refined his form to dwell in the world and attain immortality, his eyes and ears were sharp. As long as he focused on looking and listening, he could quickly detect any anomalies.

By the time they followed the sounds out of the basement and returned to the surface—the area outside Castel SantAngelo was already in complete chaos!

At this very moment, the castle entrance was swarming with people. The chaotic clamor rose and fell under the night sky. Tourists, reporters, busybodies, and even some unidentified intruders were all crowding the entrance, pushing, shouting, and scrambling to surge into the castle gates.

Anger, curiosity, and unease intertwined into a noisy din. The security guards were struggling desperately, trying to use a human wall to block the crowd. But the pushing of the crowd made their formation precarious, and even their voices were drowned out by the noise: "Please step back! The castle is not open at night—"

But the people didn't listen at all; instead, they squeezed closer and closer.

These security guards were all Witch Hunters from the [Association], albeit at the very bottom of the ranks. But even if they were hit by ten bullets, they wouldn't easily fall, and they could still fight with the agility seen in "Assassin's Creed", so they could at least be considered to have bodies tempered through a thousand trials.

However, in the current situation, even with such strength, how could a dozen security guards cope with a crowd of hundreds or thousands? Could they open fire on a crowd of civilians? That was absolutely impossible!

Someone shouted: "We have the right to know what happened!"

A reporter even held a microphone high, pushing forward desperately, while the camera behind the cameraman shook wildly, trying to capture the scene of chaos.

"Don't push me!" An old woman was caught in the middle of the crowd, almost falling over.

Young tourists shouted loudly, trying to film close-up footage, and one young tourist even took advantage of the chaos to climb the iron railing, wanting to vault over, but was immediately grabbed by a Witch Hunter security guard.

But they ultimately dared not truly use force, and could only shout orders, push back, and pull. This was no different from trying to block a flood with one's palm, and instead made the crowd's emotions even more intense. Some accused the security guards of abusing their power, others held up their phones to livestream, and some even began to incite the onlookers around them: "What are they hiding? What secrets is the Roman Curia covering up?!"

More people squeezed up during the chaos, and the situation at the castle entrance could spiral completely out of control at any moment!

Elaine was stunned and speechless.

Qi Xing also shook his head: "Have they watched too much of 'The Da Vinci Code'?"

What to do? "Strike them with lightning! Blast them to death!" That was of course the simplest method. But in all honesty, this was really something that shouldn't be done.

Elaine immediately turned to the surveillance room and asked the security captain: "Can you hold the gate?"

But the Witch Hunter squad leader was also in a difficult position regarding this: "Let alone opening fire, we don't even dare to hit anyone hard, so how could we possibly keep blocking them?"

It was no longer the Middle Ages. In this day and age, let alone opening fire on a crowd, even just punching someone hard or throwing tear gas would surely lead to being sued in court afterward.

(But why on earth did it become like this?)

Gazing at the crowd, Elaine suddenly felt suspicious: could such a gathering and protest really have formed spontaneously? As things stood, she also began to suspect that the events of the last few days perhaps weren't coincidences at all: all these crowds protesting that the Roman Curia had problems didn't just suddenly sprout from the fields, did they?

Who on earth was behind this?

Her gaze began to scan the seething crowd outside the gate, searching for unreasonable clues in their eyes and expressions.

She indeed discovered something.—And Qi Xing's actions were fast.

Under the night, the plaza in front of Castel SantAngelo had fallen into madness.

The crowd was still pushing, roaring, and screaming as they charged the security guards' defensive line. The air was filled with the scent of sweat, anger, and anxiety, like a riot on the verge of spinning completely out of control.

However, just at the moment the chaos was about to spiral completely out of control—BOOM!!

A thunderbolt that tore through the night sky suddenly descended, violent electrical light surging straight to the ground, slamming fiercely into the center of the plaza! "BOOM—"

The explosive sound of thunder shattered the night, firelight and shockwaves swept the surroundings, the ground cracked open with a deep fissure, and the air waves rolled, instantly suppressing all the shouting of the crowd!

In an instant, the air was filled with the acrid smell of ozone, and the scorching aftershocks of lightning leaped and tumbled on the flagstones, like flickering ghost fire.

With a huge [BANG], the phones of the crowd and reporters all fell into dead silence. Large cameras all exploded and caught fire, blue flames erupting from the machines. Even the streetlights above their heads began to emit orange and green sparks, and then extinguished.

The crowd that had been pushing and clamoring were now all stunned, their eyes wide with terror in the darkness, blind as bats.

Qi Xing, on the other hand, expressionlessly rubbed his fingers—Lightning Arts actually had many uses in a modern environment.

The darkness caused by the loss of electricity allowed a brief silence to shroud the entire scene. Under the might of heaven, everyone was stunned, at least stunned for a moment—whether it was the fanatical masses, the reporters, the thugs attempting to break the blockade, or even those shadows hiding within the crowd.

An ordinary person's eyes would be trapped by the darkness, but Qi Xing's eyes did not let them go.

From the shadows of the night, they slowly stepped out, the bone ornaments on their bodies clashing gently in the wind, making crisp sounds, like specters returning from hell.

They wore skull masks, their skin was gray, and their attire was tattered and bizarre, a mix of Voodoo priest robes and the graffiti-covered leather of street thugs. Most terrifyingly, their bodies, flesh, and skin were sewn full of bone ornaments, iron nails, iron rings, and the black cross of Baron Samedi. Some people even had the remains of other animals or humans sewn into their bodies. It was truly terrifying and disgusting.

With every step they took, these eerie decorations would make a faint, piercing clinking sound.

In an instant, Qi Xing noticed that Elaine had frozen behind him. As soon as she saw these strange figures, she was just as afraid as she had been two days ago when she saw the gang leader being cursed to death to silence him.

Interesting. "So, you are the Black Spartacus."

Qi Xing's gaze swept over these skull-masked figures, swept over the panicked crowd, swept over the security guards beside him and Elaine behind him, then nodded. "At least the situation is much easier to understand now."

What he hated most was enemies hiding in the shadows and refusing to show their faces.

These black skull-masked people did not speak. They faced Qi Xing, striking a cold pose. But that didn't matter; Qi Xing was very knowledgeable and familiar with this type of person. He knew how to deal with these cool guys. Within five minutes, they would start begging for mercy.

034: Regardless of Gender, Anyone Will Do!

The battle at the entrance of Castel SantAngelo was over. In the plaza, the dust had settled, and no mortals remained. Reporters stumbled as they fled, cameras dropped on the ground. Tourists screamed and fled in all directions.

The plaza that had just been seething was now cleared. Only a small group of guys who were barely human remained.

[Les Revenants]—French: The Returned Undead

The elite combatants of Black Spartacus referred to themselves by this name. It implied that they moved like ghosts, and also meant that they were [already dead] in their faith, living only for the organization and their mission.

Combatants who needed to operate during the day would wear skull masks during battle. As for those who didn't need to appear in the surface world at all, they simply had their faces modified—piercings, nails, stitches, mouths cut open, black crosses tattooed on their foreheads, making them exceptionally horrifying.

Some combatants even had the remains of animals or humans sewn onto their bodies, symbolizing that they were no longer fragile mortals, but a combination of the dead and the living.

Before battle, they would chant Voodoo hymns in low Creole, calling upon Loa spirits to possess them, granting themselves super speed and strength. Then, using curses and corpse poison, they would attack in concert like phantoms, circling the prey before swarming them.

A squad of such elite combatants totaled twenty-eight. Although individually they weren't particularly powerful, when gathered together, they could use weird and terrifying combined attack techniques to torture even experts.

Good! Impressive! Simply too terrifying! Qi Xing actually had to take a full minute to knock them all down, and four minutes wasn't enough to interrogate them all—he had truly lost! He would probably not forget them for the next few days.

What was even more terrifying was that after Qi Xing killed half of them, he electrocuted the remaining half on the spot, intending to interrogate them. Afterward, he removed one person's mask to look, only to discover they were Black.

Being Black was actually fine. Qi Xing did not discriminate against African friends. As usual, he electrocuted them for half a minute first, then interrogated them on their names, identities, and combat objectives.

As a result, he discovered that this group of Black men couldn't speak English. Too terrifying!

Qi Xing electrocuted them, they would scream, shouting out some language Qi Xing couldn't understand… It didn't seem like a language he had never heard at all. Qi Xing felt it was still somewhat familiar.

"This is French." He heard Elaine say softly behind him, "These people should be from Haiti… refugees who came over from the Caribbean side."

Refugees. Speaking of Europe's refugee problem, people generally first think of the waves of refugees surging from the Middle East. But in fact, besides the Middle East, there were many refugees from other places who also came to Europe in large numbers.

For example, Central America, South America, for example, the Caribbean islands. In recent years, tens of thousands of refugees from Central and South America have entered Europe every year. The actual total number is probably not to be underestimated.

"The Caribbean islands… Oh, Black people in Haiti speak French?" Qi Xing suddenly realized.

"The current Republic of Haiti was once a French colony." Elaine explained somewhat helplessly, "The native language of Haitians today is essentially French. It's not substantially different from my own native language."

"Oh… huh?" Qi Xing nodded, then suddenly reacted, "You're French? I thought you were Italian like Father Amos!"

Elaine was finally completely speechless.

Heaven help her, she had been an assistant by Qi Xing's side for nearly two years, washing his clothes, feeding him, and writing reports for him all day long, yet this person didn't even know where she was from.

Sometimes Elaine really felt a bit depressed—could it be that Qi Xing not only ignored his enemies, but was even too lazy to care about his weak allies?

Just as she couldn't help thinking this, she heard Qi Xing change the subject: "So what bad blood do you have with these Haitian Voodoo people?"

"?!" Seeing Elaine so stunned, Qi Xing finally smiled: "Do you really think I couldn't tell that you get nervous whenever you see Voodoo magic? I've been watching you cook for nearly two years."

He could also tell how surprised Elaine was now, and couldn't help feeling a bit smug.

But Qi Xing had ultimately thought of this matter too simply.

"My parents…" After a long while, Elaine finally spoke dryly, but halfway through, she shook her head again, "This matter is not important, Mr. Qi. I did indeed once have a feud with certain Voodoo practitioners in Haiti. But that should have no causal relationship with the current situation."

After speaking, she even smiled slightly, mocking herself: "Don't worry about my [backstory], let's get to the real business first."

Damn it, why is this woman so fussy? Qi Xing couldn't help but shake his head. But he wasn't playing a gal-game. If a girl refused to talk, was he supposed to grab her and keep questioning her like a gentle, hot-blooded shonen protagonist? He clearly wouldn't.

If Qi Xing didn't know that Elaine wasn't being deliberately pretentious, but that her personality was just like that, he would have already reached out and knocked her on the head.

On the other hand, he couldn't be bothered to pursue it now, also because the situation before his eyes was truly strange. Qi Xing had knocked down twenty-eight Voodoo combatants, killed half of them, and interrogated the other half. But there were more than just those people in the plaza of Castel SantAngelo now.

Hundreds and thousands of tourists, reporters, and busybodies had been scared away by his thunder. Yet, there were still nearly a hundred people in the plaza now.

There were dozens of tourists who looked like ordinary civilians, but for some reason, just now when Qi Xing was electrocuting people to drive them away, they not only didn't run, but instead charged at him with bloodshot eyes!

"These people aren't right." This surprised Qi Xing very much, "There is actually no fear in their eyes when they look at me."