Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 360 - 71 Enter the Scene _1

Chapter 360: Chapter 71 Enter the Scene _1

"Click, click." In a corner of the venue largely ignored, the sharp taps of high-heeled shoes echoed. Slowly, from the shadows at the edge of the room, two tall figures emerged. They leaned into each other, arms linked, and walked step by step into the light.

"Passion and Indulgence." All the guests recognized the recent arrivals. Among the Shadow Hand’s seven captains, only two dared to engage in such open, close contact. There was no third in their pair.

The appearance of Passion and Indulgence did not particularly surprise or frighten the audience, given the consecutive appearances of others earlier weakening the impact. Furthermore, their previous ’achievements’ among the Shadow Hand’s seven captains did not particularly stand out. Plus, they were two beautiful girls, making it hard to feel afraid. Of course, this was only relative.

Passion had no notable past. It seemed she had appeared out of nowhere. By the time her name surfaced, she was already a Gold Rank assassin. For some unknown reason, Passion seemed to particularly despise men. Apart from a few who had her approval, any man who touched her skin would be killed on the spot. Besides this, her biggest achievement was killing a man every two days, picking victims randomly, with no discernible pattern or reasoning.

The more people she killed, the higher her bounty rose. But catching a Gold Rank assassin who intentionally hid herself was quite a task. Passion never paid special attention to those trying to capture her. If they happened to cross her path and she was in the mood, she’d kill them instantly. If not, she wouldn’t spare them a second glance. This habit made it extremely difficult for bounty hunters to even set a trap for her. This cycle of hunt and counter-hunt continued for four years until Passion met Indulgence.

Indulgence was a devil who feasted on people, so the common judgment held at the time. Unlike Passion, when Indulgence first emerged in the professionals’ circles, she began as an Iron Rank thief. But her talents were frighteningly excellent. In just three years, she leaped to Upper Gold Rank with a frightening speed of a rank per year. She seldom killed, but she had two rather hated hobbies, which were the reasons she was hunted.

Her first hobby was playing with men. Blessed with natural seductiveness, she relished enthralling men with her beauty, then tossing them aside and trampling on their hearts, regardless of their status or power. Over the years, countless men were broken-hearted because of her.

While this could just about be tolerated, her second hobby was far worse. She loved stealing. For a thief, this was expected. But her purpose for stealing was distinctive. She researched her targets thoroughly to discover their most cherished possessions. She would then steal it and, whenever possible, let the victim witness the item’s destruction. If she couldn’t make them witness it, she would break the item and give the remnants back to the owner.

These exceptional hobbies made Indulgence even more detested. Her bounty began to significantly exceed Passion’s during the same period. However, a thief could prove more difficult to deal with than an assassin when determined to hide. She was an expert in disguise and intelligence manipulation, and was good at setting traps and deceiving. For two consecutive years, people pursued her without break, yet none of the pursuers had truly seen her. Perhaps they had seen her but were unable to recognize her.

Two years later, the duo met. None knows what happened between them, only that they both disappeared for three months. When they emerged, they were extremely intimate and were almost inseparable in the days that followed. Indulgence would entice and exploit men before ruthlessly trampling on them, and Passion would casually kill them - as if they were always in sync. Their increased bounties even drew the attention of some Legendary Rank adventurers. Their entry into the chase put Passion and Indulgence under huge pressure. After more than twenty significant battles, they surprisingly counter-killed their Legendary Rank pursuers with Gold rank strength, leaving the world stunned. It was clear that they had been severely hurt in this process and had to flee to the City of Innocence to join the Shadow Hand. To everyone’s astonishment, they both advanced to Legendary Rank just three months after they entered the City of Innocence, demonstrating how impactful their previous battles were.

However, after that, both seemed to have toned down quite a bit. Passion rarely killed for no reason, and Indulgence stopped destroying others’ cherished possessions at a whim. Outside of their assignments, they would spend their days together, leaving people guessing about their relationship.

After joining the Shadow Hand, they would often disguise themselves and wait in the men’s quarters for men to fall into their scheme, with Indulgence taking the lead. Following a night’s affairs, Indulgence would cruelly ridicule her bedmate’s abilities in the morning. Men, already humiliated by their failure the previous night, were often left with lasting scars from her taunts, most never recovering.

If Cruelty and Madness destroyed the body, then Indulgence was masterful at crushing one’s spirit - Passion her accomplice. It’s hard to determine which of the two was worse, but their actions, at least, didn’t directly harm lives. Furthermore, unless they were enemies, they never attacked those of the same sex, thus attracting a fair number of female supporters. Therefore, their reputation among the attendees of the gathering was much better than that of Cruelty and Madness.

However, some people didn’t agree. A few men of different ages went pale, bowing their heads deep in prayer, hoping that the demon in the nightmare wouldn’t notice them. Yet, Indulgence did see them, his face adorned with a mocking grin. He air-kissed them with his forefinger, then casually wiggled his finger with a regretful sigh. These actions made the already ashen faces of these men go even whiter. They felt shameful to the point of deciding they probably could never face their friends again. The harsh reality was that everyone understood what had transpired. For the affluent and the aristocrats, this was the best gossip material. They bet that within a month, the stories about these few men’s lack of battle prowess would spread throughout the human world.

The guests watched the two women arm-in-arm, casually strolling towards the oval dining table as if it were their backyard. The women chuckled at the seat arrangements, dragging over a chair to sit directly across the head of the table.

The guests who had witnessed all this reflexively took a step back, feeling the hairs on their bodies stand up. For right before their eyes, on the chair to the left of the cruel one, a person materialized like a ghost.

The sudden appearance of this long-limbed person gave off a monkey-like impression, squatting on the chair, picking up some unfamiliar exotic fruit from the table, and examining it with a curious look. He occasionally sniffed or took a bite, exhibiting more interest in the fruit than in the other captains.

Almost none of the guests recognized this sudden intruder, but they all had a gut feeling. At a time like this, the only person with such a burning curiosity could only be Curiosity himself.

True to his name, Curiosity was born curious, showing a fascination with all the strange things around him from an early age. He dismantled countless machinery and gadgets, much to the distress of those around him. He was very smart though, always finding answers to the strange things that piqued his interest. Combined with his physical talents, Curiosity quickly rose to the status of a Silver Rank professional. Despite being a generally disliked thief, he received quite a bit of praise. Many were convinced that this child had a bright future ahead. Their assumptions were not wrong, but they seemed to overlook the chilling look in his eyes when he brutally destroyed items out of curiosity, and his willingness to take any means necessary to find answers.

So, on a certain day when Curiosity became intrigued with life, it all became irreparable. The intellectual and knowledgeable Curiosity had read countless books about life but failed to find the answers. He stubbornly believed that life must have a concrete form, hidden somewhere in the living body, playing hide-and-seek with him. Therefore, to validate his hypothesis, he started murdering. Each time he killed a person, he would dissect the corpse immediately to find that thing called ’life’ but after dissecting hundreds of corpses, he realized he could not find this particular entity.

At last, he had an epiphany; dead people do not possess life. Searching for life within a murdered body was exceedingly foolish. Then, he began dissecting the living, causing the first digit of his victim count to shift from one to two. Each time he performed a dissection, ensuring that the victim was alive, he completely dissected the victim - skin, muscle, bone, organs, he would meticulously inspect everything.

This sadistic behavior sent shockwaves through the academic world, but by that time, Curiosity had already secretly sneaked into the City of Innocence. To him, this city had an inexhaustible supply of material and was the best city in the world.

Curiosity was nibbling away at the fruit, once he had understood its characteristics, taste, and texture, he would toss it aside and proceed to the next. Cruel and Insane closed their eyes in meditation, expressionless. Indulgence and Passion huddle together, shoulder to shoulder, heads against each other; the five of them sit in silence, letting it reign.

Ten minutes later, Cruel finally opened his eyes and said lazily, "It seems, Suspicion won’t be joining us for a while."

"Elegance also doesn’t plan to show up either," Passion snorted through her nose as Indulgence spoke, "Right, Elegance never shows up at private gatherings."

"So..." Cruel drew out the word, then spoke softly, "Let’s begin."(To be continued. If you like this work, I welcome you to cast recommendation votes and monthly tickets at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users can read on m.qidian.com.)