Mei Gui and I sat in our rooms patiently, after I prepared the perfect bait - the calm before the storm. We waited, and waited. Until at last, I heard a beeping noise coming from the door. Someone, had unlocked it from the outside. Currently, it was about midnight. Anyone who enters your room without permission at midnight is undoubtedly an unfriendly visitor. But instead of cowering in fear like they expected, I smirked.

I had been waiting for this, after all. I'm not the type to purposely hurt others, but if you started it, then...well, I won't hold back. Revenge can feel pretty damn good sometimes. And this, was one of those times.

The door slowly creaked open, and ten people stepped inside - just as my Third Eye had told me. Dong Zhu, his three lackeys, along with six Advanced Mage level helpers. They stepped lightly, careful not to wake me up...well, they thought I was still sleeping peacefully inside the bed. But what they didn't know, was that the figure they saw lying beneath the covers was in fact just a pillow. The darkness helped me here, since they indeed fell for the trick As for Mei Gui and I...we merely silently laughed at their foolishness while sitting in safety from the shadows.

Vanishing Shadows was an extremely powerful spell in enclosed spaces like this at night. After all, shadows were everywhere, and the more shaded areas there were, the more powerful and versatile the spell became. Hence why I chose to use this spell to hide ourselves in for this particular operation.

Hm...I didn't come up with a name for this operation, now that I think of it. It doesn't really matter, per se, but hey, why not? Eh...since this is happening at night, and we're watching them like hawks stalking their prey...hm, let's call this Operation: Nighthawk.

It had a pretty nice ring to it, so I just settled with that. As the ten people slowly got closer to the bed, however, I realized it was time to move. After all, as soon as they flipped open the blanket, they would know they had been tricked. Which was why...better to remain on the initiative.

I slowly rose out of the shadow realm and slammed the door shut all of a sudden. This caused the ten of them to jump up in surprise, and spin around to look at me.

"Hey there...you need something from me?" I asked, in a fake polite tone. Of course, I knew what they were here for. But I still needed to play dumb, in order to buy some time for Mei Gui...

"Hmph...so you knew we were coming," Dong Zhu muttered.

I shrugged. "Well, of course. You made sure to emphasize that to me numerous times throughout today, after all."

"Well, no matter...so what if you knew we were going to come? You're still going to be dying here today, anyway," the short lackey said.

I grinned. "Hey, a little tip?"

The ten of them frowned in confusion, and I continued.

"When someone anticipates you coming...chances are, they've set up traps beforehand."

Right as I said this, Mei Gui leapt out from the shadows behind the ten of them, and impaled two Advanced Mages with her flaming Chaos-borne spear before they could even react. Well, I said impale, but really all she did was hit the two of them's Stomach 9 pressure point1 with the blunt side of her spear, causing them to both faint instantly. Since I didn't want to cause too big of a deal, I decided against killing anyone here, as long as it could be avoided. I didn't really mind outright killing them, but that would ruin this hotel's reputation, and I didn't want to bring any negative impacts to innocent people. Therefore, I settled with just knocking them out.

By this time, the remaining eight invaders had finally come to their senses. They immediately split into two teams - Dong Zhu and his lackeys against me, the Advanced Mages against Mei Gui - since they were closer to her. However, Dong Zhu, quickly realizing this wasn't right, grabbed the shoulder of one of the Advanced Mages.

"Idiot! I can't fight that guy!" he yelled, before switching places with the poor Advanced Mage. The lackeys did the same with the other Advanced Mages, leaving me to face the Advanced Mages while Mei Gui faced Dong Zhu and his lackeys.

I sighed. "Just saying, that was a pretty bad decision. Mei Gui...let's just say you shouldn't underestimate her."

In fact...she's even stronger than me. But hey, why tell them that? I'm going to just kick back and enjoy the show.

"Hmph, boy, you better worry about yourself first...you got us good there with that surprise attack, but now it's all over for you," one of the Advanced Mages said. He looked to be about 50 years old.

I snorted. "Imagine still being an Advanced Mage at your age...senior, when was the last time you broke through?"

"Y-You-!" the man began, clenching his fists in fury.

I smirked. "What's the matter? Not convinced? Then show me what you got."

The four Advanced Mages activated their mana at the same time, and each launched a different spell at me.

"Level Two Fire Magic - Ember Barrage!"

"Level Two Sky Magic - Lightning Blitz!"

"Level Two Shadow Magic - Umbra Blades!"

"Level Two Ice Magic - Withering Shuriken."

Faced with a barrage of flaming projectiles, a concentrated electricity blast, six deadly shadow-borne blades, and a boomerang-like ice shuriken, I merely sighed and shrugged.

"Now now...using Level Two Magic in such a small room, and against a mere Intermediate Mage, no less?" I taunted. "How weak...and foolish."

I raised my hand, and activated my Chaos energy. With ease, all of the incoming projectiles were sucked into my body, granting me a bunch of newfound mana. I rotated my neck a little, then cracked my knuckles.

"I was just in need of mana, too," I said. "So I guess I gotta say thanks, huh?"

"Wha..." the Advanced Mages were taken aback. They had never seen something like this before, after all. They were stunned speechless after witnessing their own attacks being sucked into my body harmlessly, as if my very existence was a black hole.

One of them shook their heads. "No...I don't believe this! There must be a trick somewhere...there's no way this kid just neutralized all of our spells at once! Level Two Poison Magic - Intoxication Cloud!"

"Fool," I muttered, before sucking the cloud of poison into my body with ease. The Chaos energy within me converted the poison into my own mana, and I grinned.

"Is that all you have? Keep the attacks coming...I'm not full yet."

They obliged - sending attack after attack at me. But none of them hit their target. Instead, they were all sucked into my body, one after another.

While this was going on, on the other side of the room, Mei Gui was also playing with Dong Zhu and his lackeys with ease. She kept jumping around, and the four of them couldn't land a single attack on her.

I hollered over. "Mei Gui, enough fun, it's time to end this."

She landed on the ground gracefully. "Understood, Master."

Then, dashing at inhuman speeds, she instantly appeared behind two of Dong Zhu's lackeys, and knocked them out using the same Stomach 9 pressure point as before. Then, before Dong Zhu and the last remaining lackey could even react to her insane speed, they were also lying on the floor, unconscious. Mei Gui dusted off her hands, and dematerialized her spear.

"Good stuff, Mei Gui," I said, before promptly blinking behind the Advanced Mages, and knocking one out with a palm strike on the Stomach 9 pressure point. "I'm just finishing up here as well."

The remaining Advanced Mages spun around, surprised to see me there when I hadn't even chanted. But by the time they were looking at me, I was behind them again. I had so much mana now thanks to them spoon feeding me, so I could use Space - Eliminate many times in a row without rest. Taking them down one by one by the same method, I didn't even give them a chance to come up with a plan before they were all knocked out on the floor, unconscious.

"Tie up everyone, then wake up Dong Zhu and his lackeys," I instructed to Mei Gui.

"Understood, Master."

She used some rope I gave her from my Space Locket, and tied the ten people in two groups - one, Dong Zhu and his lackeys, and two, all six Advanced Mages. Then, Mei Gui went into the bathroom, filled up a bucket full of ice cold water, then came back out and emptied the entire thing onto Dong Zhu's group.

Yeesh...I said wake them up, but this is quite the method. Not that I pity them or anything, but today I found out Mei Gui is unexpectedly cruel.

"B-Bwah?!" Dong Zhu shook his head, getting the water off his face. His lackeys also blinked a few times, confused.

"Finally awake?" I asked, sitting on a chair in front of them, who were tied up together in the corner, leaning against the door.

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