Outside the hotel, the patrol team that first encountered Lu Yao and his companions was hiding in a dark corner, discussing their strategy.
The oldest patrolman lit a cigarette and said indifferently, "We'll just stay here and wait for the tough guys to leave before blowing the whistle. We can just deal with it perfunctorily."
The other four had no objections. Those three 'tin cans' obviously weren't ordinary people, and they felt it was better not to get involved.
The old patrolman exhaled two streams of smoke from his nostrils and sighed, "There's bound to be big trouble, we're going to be busy afterwards."
As soon as he finished speaking, a cacophony of crackling and booming noises erupted from the hotel's top floor banquet hall, which was bustling with activity.
Soon after, a window suddenly shattered, and a foreigner with fangs leaned out and shouted, "Help!!!"
He was shouting while trying to jump through the window, but the next second, a large hole the size of a bowl suddenly appeared in his chest. The foreigner let out a bloodcurdling scream and fell down.
The wound was charred and smoking; when he hit the ground, he had already turned into a heap of ashes!
The patrolmen retreated further into the shadows, and the old patrolman whispered in shock, "The people who reserved the upper floor are from the Opium Company! Were those three tough guys here to kill Western Demon Beasts?! And this is within the Concession Territory!"
"Good riddance!" said the young patrolman who had been slapped earlier.
He looked at the banquet hall, where the light from the fire kept flashing, his face flushed with excitement, "These Western Demon Beasts have been lawless for too long; someone should've dealt with them!"
The old patrolman gave him a glare and admonished in a low voice, "You'd better hold your tongue!"
At that moment, the shrill sound of a whistle could be faintly heard.
The worried young patrolman said, "The Concession Territory's military police are coming... The heroes need to retreat quickly!"
~~~~~~~~
Newspaper girl Su Er Ya arrived outside the hotel early on, clenching her teeth as she looked up at the top floor.
In her eyes, Master Lu was battling a Demon Beast, and she couldn't just stand by and watch; she had to find some way to help.
Just then, a skinny boy with an unusually large head came over, carrying a shoulder pole and whispered:
"Little Er~ When I was delivering vegetables to the hotel, I saw lots of Tianzhu men pushing a large cage covered with black cloth; it looked very suspicious."
Er Ya quickly asked, "Where is it?"
The boy pointed with the shoulder pole and replied, "It's at the hotel's back door, the one that leads to the kitchen."
Upon hearing that, Er Ya immediately ran to the spot.
She sneaked into the spacious Western-style kitchen at the back door of the hotel and saw a big cage covered with black cloth placed at the freight elevator entrance.
Seeing no one around, she tiptoed over, pulled off the black cloth for a look, and indeed, the cage was filled with youthful boys and girls.
All were under the age of thirteen, dressed in white robes, and had a triangular symbol carved onto their foreheads with a blade, at the center of which was an eerie eye.
Lu Yao showed no sign of stopping, as in the midst of the melodious violin sounds, he, along with the two sisters, killed off all of these demon beasts.
By now, the once grand banquet hall had been reduced to ruins, scattered with spent shells and building debris, the air laden with the smell of gunpowder and burning.
They casually cleaned up the battlefield, the violinist who was a human was left alone, and the three of them paid him no mind.
Liao Qe picked up a pigeon-egg-sized ruby that Kartin had dropped and said, "Thirty vampires, but only ten gems have been found, not every one of them drops this stuff."
Lu Yao indifferently said, "It might be related to their strength. Those missing boys and girls are not here, let's go down and search."
The trio took the elevator straight to the kitchen on the lowest level. The elderly performer put down his violin and watched them with his pale eyes as they departed.
~~~~~~
As soon as the elevator doors opened, they saw a Tianzhu man stepping on the two-year-old's face.
Upon seeing three humanoid tanks exit the elevator, Mahad's expression went blank.
"My master... What have you done to my mistress!!!"
"Killed her~"
Lu Yao's genuine steel fist sent the man's teeth flying, then he helped the two-year-old up and even picked up her cap and placed it back on her head.
The two-year-old could not speak, only pointing incessantly at a cage.
Liao Ya stepped forward, and amid the grating "screech" sound, tore open the metal cage to rescue the children inside.
The two-year-old looked over several times, not seeing her own sister. She grabbed a familiar-looking boy and asked, "Where is my sister?"
As soon as the boy removed the rope that had been tied around his mouth, he looked at the two-year-old with a complicated expression and said, "Your sister... She was taken away by this guy and never came back..."
The two-year-old let go of the boy's hand and slumped to the ground, her eyes void of any spirit.
Lu Yao sighed, walked over to Mahad, raised his foot armored with metal leaves, and placed it on the man's chest, slowly exerting force.
Mahad desperately screamed and hammered with his fists, but that metal foot pressed down firmly, his chest slowly caving in, the sound of bones breaking echoed, and blood gushed from his mouth and nose.
Just as Lu Yao was about to crush the man to death, the two-year-old stood up, approached with a kitchen knife,
Lu Yao ceased applying force with his foot, leaving the final blow to her.
"Aaah" the two-year-old screamed, stabbing the knife into Mahad's eye, but the force was too weak to be fatal.
Lu Yao hammered on the knife handle, driving it deep until even the tip pierced into the ground.
The two-year-old let go of the knife and fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably while Lu Yao gently stroked her thin, small back to console her.
Looking at these imprisoned boys and girls, he always felt the symbols on their foreheads looked familiar, but couldn't recall where he had seen them.