Chapter 27: The Embarrassed Hounds

The man’s smile froze on his face.
He really couldn’t figure out how, under such a clear disadvantage, this little girl still had the audacity to provoke him.
Did she not care about the lives of the two girls behind her?

“Lady Xia Xingli, please think carefully.
Even if you are an A-rank ability user, in the ‘Magic Suppression Field,’ can you really defeat our well-trained ‘Hounds’?”

“Little Xingli… what on earth is going on?
Are you really an A-rank ability user?
And who are they?”

Looking back at Esther, who finally couldn’t help but ask, Xia Xingli smiled, her tone much gentler.

“I am indeed an A-rank ability user, a ‘Guardian.’ As for them… just a bunch of the coalition government’s running dogs.”

“Xia Xingli! I feel I must warn you, don’t think you can just say whatever you want because you’re an A-rank ‘Guardian’!”
The man’s face turned completely gloomy.
“If you don’t take back what you just said, I don’t mind cleaning house for the ‘Guardians’!”

“Are you worthy?”

It was not Xia Xingli who answered him, but a cold male voice.
As this voice sounded, a deep wound abruptly appeared on the military man’s chest, as if he had been slashed by an invisible blade.

The military man let out a pained grunt and staggered, almost falling to his knees.
His subordinates around him were in an uproar, their guns nervously pointed in the direction the voice came from.

Shun, seemingly always dressed in black, had appeared in mid-air nearby at some point.
He stood suspended in the air, as if there were a transparent ground beneath his feet.
After heavily injuring the military man, he glanced in the direction of the young girl.

“The coalition government is quite generous.”

As Shun’s voice fell, everyone present heard a crisp cracking sound, and Xia Xingli felt that the faint sense of heaviness on her body was gone.
Looking up at the young girl who had just spat out a mouthful of blood, there was no doubt that it was Shun who had forcibly broken her “Magic Suppression Field.”

This was the power of a strong S-rank ability user.
Xia Xingli didn’t even feel Shun’s ability fluctuation, yet he had already easily broken the “Magic Suppression Field” that targeted ability users.

“Cough, cough… why… are you here…”

The military man clutched the wound on his chest and struggled to stand steady.
His expression seemed somewhat unwilling, but he did not have the courage to fight Shun.
Any S-rank ability user was not an existence that their “Hounds” could provoke.

“The ‘Guardians’ are taking over these people.”

With no intention of answering the military man, Shun waved his hand, and more than a dozen “Guardians” suddenly appeared from all directions.
It was unclear whether they had just arrived or had been hiding nearby all along.

These “Guardians” went straight ahead, controlled the thugs, and took them away without a second thought.
Although they were under the guns of the “Hounds” the entire time, no one cared, as if the “Hounds” were just a group of motionless puppets.
And the military man didn’t dare to obstruct them in any way.
He had no doubt that if he made even the slightest wrong move, the entire “Hounds” squad would lose their lives in an instant.
Shun had this ability, and he wouldn’t care about the consequences of doing so.

Glaring at Xia Xingli with gritted teeth, the military man understood that they had to leave immediately.
His own injury was quite severe; Shun’s attack had almost taken his life.
He believed that if he didn’t leave quickly, Shun wouldn’t mind finishing him off.

“Retreat!”

The “Hounds” quickly retracted their guns and retreated from here in various directions, not forgetting to help up the heavily injured military man and the young girl.
To their retreat, Shun just watched coldly, with no intention of interfering.
After all, what he wanted was for this group to leave, not their lives.

“Thanks.”

When Shun turned his head, he heard Xia Xingli say this to him.
He didn’t come down from mid-air, but glanced at Xia Xingli, who smiled at him.

“Don’t get too involved.”

Leaving behind such a cryptic sentence, Shun “teleported” away directly, not giving Xia Xingli any chance to ask questions.

Swallowing the question that was already on the tip of her tongue, Xia Xingli shook her head helplessly.
She had originally wanted to ask about the “Point Transfer Incident” that the “Hounds” had mentioned, but she hadn’t expected Shun to give her no chance at all, clearly not wanting her to interfere.

“Well, forget it. Since that’s the case, I can’t be bothered with this matter either.”

Having no choice but to put this matter to the back of her mind, Xia Xingli turned around, only to be startled by a face right in front of her.

“Whoa!!”

“Ah, sorry, sorry, little Xingli, I didn’t mean to scare you, ehehe~”

Esther took a step back and showed a cute smile without any sincerity.

“…Really, why did you have to get so close without making a sound?”

Subconsciously patting her chest, Xia Xingli complained.
Fortunately, she hadn’t inherited Xia Lixing’s habit.
If it were Xia Lixing, his first reaction would probably have been to smash a ball of ability at her.

“I was just curious. I didn’t expect little Xingli to look so young and yet be an A-rank ‘Guardian’.”

The “Guardians” themselves were not divided by rank.
An “A-rank ‘Guardian'” simply referred to an A-rank ability user who had joined the “Guardians.”

“Well… my strength just suddenly improved.”

Facing the starry-eyed Esther, Xia Xingli could only explain vaguely.
What else could she say?
“I’m actually an unknown creature that inexplicably appeared after your Teacher Xia blew himself up, and I inherited his memories”?

There was no way she could say that to anyone!

“I really didn’t expect little Xingli to be even more amazing than Teacher Xia. An A-rank ability user, wow. Including little Xingli, there are only 153, right?”

“To be precise, the ‘Guardians’ only have 153 A-rank ability users. After all, not all ability users have joined the ‘Guardians’.”

Correcting the small error in Esther’s words, Xia Xingli asked the question she had been wanting to ask before she could speak again.

“Stop trying to change the subject. Esther, can you explain why you and Erin were outside the school?”

“Uh… well… that is…”

The smile on Esther’s face began to stiffen, and her gaze became evasive.
Caught off guard by Xia Xingli’s sudden attack, she was at a loss and could only desperately think of some plausible excuse.

And Xia Xingli suddenly showed a very kind smile, delivering the final blow before she could come up with an excuse.

“You should have taken a day off, right? Then, come with me and find a place to explain it in detail.”

For the first time, Esther felt that this petite girl in front of her had the same terrifying smile as her brother.