The Deceitful One

Grace was slightly taken aback at Bryan's sudden cold demeanor. But on second thought, it more than made sense.

After all, he was nearly killed for something so trivial. She decided to change the topic and asked him, "When will you help me with the first mind rune?"

"We can do it now if you want." Bryan smiled.

Grace shook her head, "No, Detective Watson is here. I want to keep this a secret as much as possible."

"Then do you wanna come over to mine on Monday? I'll be staying here for the weekend, after all." Bryan asked.

"Nuh-uh. You come over to my house tomorrow morning. My parents have gone back to Nadir already. So I'm alone at home with only my personal maid and a few other maids." Grace suggested.

Bryan looked at Grace and said teasingly, "Oh? My dear Grace, aren't you afraid I'll do some hanky-panky business with you when it'll just be the two of us?"

Grace rolled her eyes and snorted, "You can try if you don't value your balls."

"Hehe, fine fine. I'll come by your place tomorrow. What time?" Bryan chuckled as he subconsciously squeezed his legs together a little.

"11 am. I'll see you tomorrow then." Grace said as she got up. Bryan nodded and escorted her out of Detective Watson's house. He helped her get in the carriage and bid her farewell.

Bryan saw the carriage depart and had a smile on his face. He was really happy that Grace had come to visit him and ask about his well-being. He turned around and headed back into the villa after he saw Grace's carriage make a left turn in the distance.

He went back to his room and started meditating. Bryan was much more determined now after what had happened to him. He would start increasing the intensity of his combat training with Detective Watson once he fully recovered.

The Myriad Martial Technique was truly a marvelous combat technique. Bryan had witnessed its efficiency firsthand.

After all, he was able to land a fatal blow on Johnny at the beginning when they exchanged moves even though he was more than twice as stronger as Bryan.

Therefore Bryan set two short-term goals for himself. One, he would try to master the Myriad Martial Technique.

Second, he would try to get a gun permit from the police station as soon as possible. This way, he would have some sort of security measures for himself.

…

The majority of the people in Damascus City lived in houses and apartments on 1st to 20th Street. This was also the area where all middle-class families and individuals resided in.

The demography of Damascus was such that low-class individuals that constituted 30% of the population, resided in and around the slum areas. Middle-class individuals and families consisted of more than 60% of the population.

Finally, only less than 10% of the total population which consisted of nobles, wealthy merchants, bankers, and people in other high-paying professions lived in and around Augustus Street.

In a slightly dilapidated, red-colored, two-storied building on 98 West 10th Street, a man was sitting on the bed in a lotus position and meditating. He had a head of black hair neatly combed, parting from the middle, and a neatly trimmed mustache.

Energy particles swirled around him and gradually entered his body. However, the intensity and amount of energy particles circulating around and entering his body were much more than when Bryan meditated. This man was a Transcendent!

After a long time, the man opened his eyes and his brown pupils shone with brilliance. A faint smile appeared on his handsome face. He then got up from the bed and headed to the kitchen on the ground floor.

He approached the cool clay container in the corner of the kitchen, opened the lid, and took out a heart, a pair of kidneys, and a liver. He put them in another clay pot and thoroughly washed them.

After washing and rinsing them, he put them on the chopping board and diced them into small cubes. He took vegetables from another container, diced them, and mixed it with the already diced organs.

He then proceeded to put all the ingredients in a metal pot and put it on the gas stove. After another ten minutes, a delicious-looking meat soup was made by the man.

The man then put it in a bowl, took a piece of baguette from the cupboard, and went to the dining table to eat his meal.

After finishing his meal, the man smiled in satisfaction. Right at that moment, there was a knock on his door. The man immediately tensed up as he approached the door. He was already holding onto a kitchen knife in his right hand, behind his back.

After opening the door, a middle-aged woman with brown hair greeted him with a smile, "Mr. Kenny, I hope you haven't forgotten the tea party in the evening at my house."

The man named Kenny replied with a smile, "Of course, Mrs. Jones. I'll be there on time."

"Good. There will also be quite a few single ladies. I will introduce you to them." Mrs. Jones teased him and then bid him farewell.

Seeing her leave, Kenny shut the door to his house and visibly sighed in relief. Then he kept the kitchen knife back on the table and went back upstairs to his bedroom.

Meanwhile, in an alley somewhere near 12th Street, a group of police officers had barricaded an area. The reason was, they had found a dead body of a young girl in her teens in this secluded alley.

The young girl's neck as well as the veins on both her wrists were slit. Both her eyeballs were gouged out.

And the most gruesome of them all, her torso was cut open and her organs were taken out by the killer, more precisely, the heart, both the kidneys and the liver.

A young police officer at the scene saw the state of the body and couldn't help but retch. After puking, he asked in a trembling voice, "Who could have possibly done this?"

An older police officer replied with a horrified expression, "Only the devil!"