Hostile Gazes?

Jackson looked at Kirou with an appreciative smile and gave him a thumbs-up before he entered the stone cottage himself. While Jackson did this, other members of his squad that were now on their break decided to check out the cottage as well.

Seeing all of those NPCs being curious, a small smile formed on Kirou's face as he went over to another large dirt pile. Although he still had a few piles of bricks left, Kirou decided to make some more for another project.

This time, Kirou summoned out his other pets to help. When both Tank and Shadow Arachne materialized next to him, both admittedly looked at Kirou with slightly confused expressions.

Besides them, both Navi and Reya were now looking at Kirou with curiosity written over both of their faces. Kirou caught a glimpse of this from the corner of his eyes but he acted ignorant of the fact as he spoke to both of his pets.

Kirou gave Tank a shovel and told him to go help out Asura in creating the normal earthen blocks. As for Shadow Arachne, Kirou had the spider travel with one of his clones into the forest to collect some wood. This time, Kirou was going to make a few pieces of furniture to be used inside the stone cottage.

Like that, everyone got busy with their own work, completely forgetting about the passage of time.

*******

Removing the gaming helmet from his head, Wang Xu was once again in his bedroom. He had been gaming for quite a long time and it was now a few minutes after five on Monday morning. Although he could lie down in bed and get another hour or two of sleep, Wang Xu decided against that thought and got up from his bed.

Maybe it was because he decided to log in while in a meditative pose, Wang Xu's legs were admittedly asleep when he tried to get off the bed and it took a bit of effort to wake them up. After a good minute of flexing them, Wang Xu finally walked out of his bedroom and entered the bathroom to take care of his morning rituals. Following this, he entered the kitchen and made himself a snack.

By the time he was done, it was now ten minutes to six and Wang Xu was standing on his balcony, looking into the sky. The first rays of light had changed the originally midnight blue colored sky to light blue and Wang Xu could see the faint halo of the sun coming from the east. Besides this, Wang Xu also noticed that the image of the moon was still very much visible in the sky.

At first, he was just going to stand there and enjoy the short moment of the two heavenly bodies sharing the sky at the same time, but halfway through, a strange thought entered his mind. This strange thought didn't stay as such as Wang Xu's body backed away from the balcony railing and got into a strange stance.

As if his body wasn't his own, Wang Xu was lost in thought as his body went through the physical movements and breathing techniques of the <Energy Flow Absorption Technique> all on its own. It wasn't until he felt the strands of both energies entering his body that Wang Xu woke up from his stupor. He carefully tracked the energy as if flowed over his skin and entered his various pores.

The harsh heat energy that came with the strands of solar energy being absorbed was still strong, but maybe it was because he was absorbing a lot less or that he was simultaneous absorbing lunar energy as well, but the energy wasn't as harsh on his blood vessels now as it was days before. in fact, the feeling of the energy traveling through his veins and arteries felt somewhat euphoric with how nice it felt to him.

Wang Xu kept the technique running for a few more minutes until the image of the moon in the sky finally grew faint. He could feel that the longer he practiced, the weaker the lunar energy he absorbed got and the stronger the solar energy was in return. Naturally, since he didn't want a repeat of what happened days before, Wang Xu stopped with plenty of time to spare and just went through movement techniques, allowing the energy to flow around internally.

As the process went on, Wang Xu watched and felt his body become slightly stronger, prompting a smile to form on his face. By the time all the energy was safely used up and nestled into his various organs, it was now a quarter to seven.

As he walked back into the apartment to prepare a proper meal, Wang Xu spoke up under his breath, "Although absorbing solar energy alone is too dangerous, as long I run into situations like today, I'll be able to take advantage of both sources. This method is a lot faster than just absorbing lunar energy all night and safer than just absorbing solar energy at the moment. Although this method is better, it's a shame that I can only take advantage of it for a few minutes without the risk of destroying my body. That old bastard master of mine would be shocked to realize that there existed such a perfect time to absorb such a strong energy source without major backlash. On second thought, it's best that we never had it on that side, else he would have been much crueler to us."

After speaking up to that point, Wang Xu's body shook violently as memories of his time training under his former master flashed through his mind. Those were times truly horrible for him and he would never want to experience such things again.

He allowed those memories to flow through his mind quickly before heading back to the kitchen to fix a quick breakfast, which he enjoyed while taking a look at the news. As he watched the news, he zoned out most of it, only paying attention to a string of strange robberies going on in the city and a few murders that took place over the weekend.

Out of everything that played on the news, only those two struck a chord with Wang Xu. In terms of the robberies, this attracted his attention because they happened in congested areas and all the stolen items always turned up at a nearby security post without anyone discovering the culprit. As for the murder cases, this was because they all took place in crowded areas as well but no one saw anything as each victim died. It was as if they died of natural causes, except that there were always a few strange bruises on the victims' torsos.

To Wang Xu, these were things that piqued his interest. If the robberies could be described as someone practicing their craft, the murders were done by truly skilled, maybe veteran killers. Wang Xu just finished his tea and got dressed as he mulled over both incidents. This continued even after Wang Xu locked up his apartment and steadily made his way towards the subway station.

*******

After getting to the subway station, Wang Xu was brought out of his musings as he felt that he was being watched. Considering where he was, he would have just glanced around and find the usual suspect, but this time he felt that he was being watched by a few sets of eyes and none of them belonged to the usual person.

In this situation, Wang Xu pretended to be ignorant of the eyes on him while releasing a fake yawn. As he did this, from the corner of his eyes during each movement, he searched the entire area around him for those eyes. With this, he managed to spot four of them but he frowned slightly as he felt two more eyes on him but they were very well hidden.

He could tell that these two that eluded his initial search were true experts, or at the very least skilled in the art of surveillance. it's as if they were able to tell that he was searching for them earlier, hence why they hid their presence until he was no longer checking. That being said, the slight frown on his face disappeared as quickly as it came and his expression was now back to its usually casual state.

As for finding the remaining two individuals, Wang Xu decided to ignore them for now. Unlike the other four that he found earlier, the last two didn't have any hostility laced in their gazes so he wouldn't bother them for now if all they were interested in doing was just looking at him.

As for the group of people watching him, they were split into two groups; one group having four people, each with a hostile gaze on Wang Xu while the next group contained the two with no emotion behind their gazes. Eventually, both groups watched as Wang Xu got on his train and left the station. With their target now gone, both groups left the subway station at different paces and rendezvoused at a nearby family restaurant.

*******

Although they entered separately and at different times, they each went and sat at the same table without so much as a word to each other. This continued until everyone ordered their meals and the waitress walked away to retrieve their orders.

The group consisted of six persons; two women and four men. Besides the one man that looked to be in his forties, the other three were between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-two. As for the two women, one was in her mid-twenties while the other was in her late twenties to early thirties.

The entire group ate their respective meals in silence after it was delivered and after they were done, each had a cup or glass sitting on the table before them. At this point, the man in his forties chose to address the others.

"So..... what do you think of him?" When the senior man asked this, there was a slightly ambiguous tone in his voice but no one besides the woman in her mid-twenties with a cup of coffee in her hands.

"He's only so-so. Are you really sure he's someone from our side and not just a really good fighter?" This was spoken by the youngest male in the group. This man had shoulder-length blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail, light blue eyes, and an angular chin.

"I agree with Sean. If his mannerisms are anything to go by, he's just a skilled fighter with a few years of experience under his belt. I don't see how someone like him can be someone from our side." This time, it was a short brown-haired man with hazel eyes that spoke up.

The senior man turned towards the final man who's yet to speak and asked, "And you, Daniel? Are your thoughts the same as Sean and Maxwell's?"

The one identified as Daniel, the second oldest man of the group adjusted his spectacles before speaking, "It doesn't matter whether he's someone from our side or not. I think he's someone that we need to keep an eye on for the time being. I don't know why, but he just gives me a dangerous feeling."

To those words, the eldest man in the group nodded as he spoke up, "And we rightly should, but the four of you need to reign in your hostility while staring at him in the future. Otherwise, it won't matter how well hidden you are, he'll be able to spot you a mile away."

At those words, the three men looked at the eldest man with slight shock in their eyes at the implications of his words. The blonde hair man in a ponytail spoke up hesitantly, "He couldn't have noticed our presence, right?"

Instead of it being the eldest man that answered him, it was the girl with the cup of coffee in her hands that spoke up, "Not only did he notice our presence, he even had enough time to pinpoint the four of you, you included Sister Gwen."

At those words, the other three men were shocked while Sister Gwen, a woman with dark red hair flowing over her shoulders narrowed her eyes as she spoke up, "What makes you so sure of this?"

As if she had already expected these reactions from the four, the young woman just went ahead and demonstrated Wang Xu's previous actions from the station earlier. This prompted all four to think back on the event that happened and realized exactly what happened.

Seeing that the four had now come to a realization, the elder man spoke up after taking a sip of his own coffee, "Now that you know what happened, go back and check out the other targets. For now, all of you are on standby until further notice."

The four people nodded at the man's words before each finished the drink before them and left the restaurant. After they were all gone, the girl with the cup of coffee in her hands spoke up, "Are you sure it's a good idea to have those four operating in this city after what just happened? While I'm sure Sister Gwen and Daniel can handle and hold themselves back, Sean and Maxwell aren't the best at ignoring provocations. Especially after what just happened at the station."

The man just took a sip of his coffee before speaking, "It's fine. If your previous words and my observations of him are correct, so long as they aren't dumb enough to straight-up pick a fight with Wang Xu, they'll be fine."

"I only hope you're right." Following those words, both sank into silence and finished their respective blends before paying for breakfast and leaving the family restaurant. For now, they had their own work to handle.

If Wang Xu was nearby to see the duo that had just left the family restaurant, he would have recognized them as Carlos and Jane, the father-daughter bartenders from the Dragon Lounge Club.

Well...let's not say (innocent smile)