My wife is the stand-in.

"Hey! Watch out, my cookie fell on the floor."

William raised his coffee cup before Allen threw a punch, but because he was holding a book in one hand, he couldn't save all the cookies on the table.

Before the café waiter could further provoke Allen, he stood up and stuffed a wad of cash into the waiter's hand, saying, "My friend is a bit agitated, so please don't bother him right now. This is compensation, and I'll also buy the other customers in the café a Blue Mountain coffee. Thank you."

His gentlemanly manners, gentle tone, and most importantly, his generous spending left the waiters and the owner speechless.

"I wish your friend a speedy recovery." The waiter said sincerely, clutching the thick wad of cash.

“You should tone it down and be more careful. This is China, not America or Britain,” William said, picking up the book with displeasure.

"What does it matter? I can buy this coffee shop with half a year's salary, not to mention we have funding from the organization this time." Allen shrugged, indicating that he didn't care.

He stood up, ready to go out and teach those people a lesson, but William immediately grabbed him, his relaxed expression vanishing instantly.

“There are animal rights demonstrations in several major cities in Dongting Province, which should have attracted the attention of the government, but no one has come forward to appease them or announce the time for a press conference. The local government and the Knights may have gotten some information.”

Allen brushed his hand away. "William, you're always so cautious. How many opportunities have you missed because of that? That's how Elisa got chased away by other men."

“This has nothing to do with Elisa. We’re abroad, Allen. This is another sovereign nation!” William’s eyes were unusually stern.

“…Fine, fine, fxxk!” Allen cursed, pulling out his phone. “Can I call them, okay?”

The call connected quickly, and Allen yelled into the phone, "You bunch of sons of bitches, get over here!"

He hung up immediately after speaking, giving William no chance to react.

Seeing William's pained expression as he covered his face, Allen spread his hands: "What? Why are you looking at me like that? I did not go out as you asked."

“…” William sighed and downed his coffee in one gulp.

The rest of the story is simple: the city's association leader came in, was berated by Allen, who then offered him money as a reward, urging him to work harder and hire more actors to make up the numbers. After that, Allen impatiently kicked him out.

As expected, more demonstrators wearing T-shirts and holding signs poured into front of the administration building, and the demonstration grew increasingly large. It even disrupted traffic, forcing a passing tour bus to stop on the side of the road, unable to move forward.

Several civil servants came out of the administration building and began trying to calm the crowd.

"See, I told you these people are all scoundrels. They won't work hard unless they're taught a lesson, just like the wheeled hamsters at home."

Allen, his burly frame nestled in the sofa, raised his middle finger, blocking the bus from his view of the commotion:

"Get out of here, you bunch of..."

With a whooshing sound, a large, silver spear, adorned with mysterious Damascus steel patterns and shaped like a fork, easily pierced through tempered glass, smashed through the coffee table, and shattered into countless pieces of glass!

Allen's dynamic vision was better, and he discovered that the source of the attack was the tour bus!

A handsome, tall, and athletic man of Asian descent stood on the bus window pierced by a large gun and waved to the two people from afar.

It was Amanosaki!

"Damn it! How could it be so fast?! Shouldn't he be by the river?!"

Allen's expression changed drastically as he stared at the incredulous William beside him: "They lied to us?!"

"Impossible! Mr. Fan was dismissed from all his posts because of him, and he was the one who approached us. It can't be fake!"

William suddenly realized something, "It must have been when you called people in that the detectives or their mole discovered it!"

"That shouldn't be this fast!" Allen roared. "It takes an hour to get here from the Yangtze River, how could it be this fast!"

"What are you two discussing? May I listen in?"

Just as the two were exchanging words, Amanosaki had already walked to the broken window of the cafe, holding two gems in his naturally hanging hands, and magical patterns wrapped around his body like a spider web under his influence.

"We really did become friends through a fight, and look, we've run into each other again."

Amanosaki watched the two with a grin, while Li Junzi crossed his arms and entered the coffee shop to prevent them from taking hostages.

“Mr. Tian, ​​I don’t know what we have done that requires your esteemed knightly order to intervene…” William said with a forced smile.

"It's the Mountain of Heroes, not a knightly order. We don't do that kind of feudal system," Amanosaki slowly corrected.

Just then, William reached out and grabbed Allen's shoulder, and the two of them twisted in front of Amanosaki.

Amanosaki grabbed the gun handle and flicked it, creating a cloud of blood mist. Blood droplets dripped from the Spear of Longchinus, and the two figures were nowhere to be seen in the café.

"Instant teleportation?" Amanosaki looked at the two who had disappeared. Even with his five senses heightened to their maximum, he couldn't find any trace of them.

"Big brother, he got away."

Li Junzi's eyes transformed into those of a mantis shrimp, and even with his special vision, he couldn't detect anything.

"Run? You can run away, but you can't hide. I don't believe that a knight who's not even at the branch level can just leave China on his own. There are surveillance cameras everywhere on the road."

Amanosaki spat dismissively.

Chapter 126: The Death-Devouring Warlock

In a low-rise guesthouse by Dongting Lake, a burst of intense light appeared in the bedroom, causing the bed sheets, vases, paintings, and bookshelves to be blown over by the wind in the narrow room.

A pair of leather shoes stepped on the books that their former owner once cherished, showing no pity whatsoever.

The leather shoe lifted up, leaving two bright red shoe prints.

"William!"

The first thing Allen did after emerging from the ball of light was to take out the first-aid kit he had prepared beforehand from under the desk in the room, and quickly put out alcohol, cotton wool, gauze, and antibiotics.

"Hang in there, William! We only teleported eight kilometers this time! We'll be fine!"

Allen's throat gurgled, and he squeezed out words of comfort in a dog-like voice, but you could tell from his sweaty face that he was not at ease.

According to the information on supernatural abilities collected and exchanged between government agencies of various countries, the manifestations of supernatural abilities in each country actually highly overlap with local myths and legends.

In China, this manifests as the creation of sword energy that even talented mortals can learn, such as the [Karmic Fire Bhikkhuni] who cultivates her flames through Buddhist practice, and the [Ghost King] Liu Nu's [Ten Kings of Hell].

In Japan, these are related to Onmyōdō (yin-yang arts) and Tengu (a type of Japanese dog).

In Western countries, there are also supernatural abilities that incorporate local legends.

For example, there are physical beings like werewolves and vampires, and sorcerers and wizards who are skilled at manipulating what they call "magic".

William was a sorcerer. Unlike wizards who had to learn herbalism and alchemy, his supernatural abilities did not need to be learned; they were innate powers.

The only cost is one's own life force.

The more you use it, the more prematurely it ages.

Therefore, warlocks often possess exceptionally powerful abilities, because their strength comes at the cost of their lives.

William's superpower was called "teleportation" in ancient times, which allows him to take any target he comes into contact with and teleport them to another location.

It is said that in Britain, King Arthur once used the teleportation magic of the great sorcerer Merlin to form an elite small-scale knightly order, which would suddenly appear next to the enemy commander on the battlefield, draw their swords and kill him, and then leave.

All the leaders who opposed King Arthur fell victim to this ancient, surgically precise decapitation tactic.

The great sorcerer Merlin's teleportation spell can carry hundreds of elite knights at once, teleporting them two kilometers away, allowing elite troops to instantly move from the edge of the battlefield to any location.

But times have changed.

The scale of the war is no longer what it was a thousand years ago, and the size of towns has also expanded with the progress of the times.

In Yueyang, the capital of Dongting Province where Allen and his companion lived, the buildings and streets stretched for more than ten kilometers.

With the full cooperation of the Wudang branch, Amanosaki can reach any location in a complex urban area in less than an hour.

But William couldn't do it.

As Amanosaki said, his superpower was below the branch level according to the Chinese rating, and originally, taking Allen with him was still within the range of costs.

However, he underestimated Amanosaki's reaction speed and was slashed by Amanosaki with the Spear of Longchinus a second before he teleported away.

The gentlemanly-looking Briton was now lying on a soft Simmons mattress, his fingers futilely pressing on a wound a dozen centimeters long. Although it wasn't deep, it was still difficult to stop the bleeding naturally.

He could only watch as his blood slowly drained away.

Even Allen was somewhat flustered by the amount of bleeding.

William's ability is not focused on physical enhancement, so such a large amount of bleeding could very well kill him.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and Allen's pupils instantly turned apricot yellow, his canine teeth grew, and his body hair began to thicken.

"Who?"

His voice was quite deep, as if mixed with some kind of wild beast.

"Guests, I hear the sound of things being smashed in the room. Are you arguing?"

She's the proprietress.

"No, I just tripped and fell, and bled a little."

The heartbeat indicated that there was only one person outside, but Allen still dared not be careless.

"Oh dear! I was wondering why I could smell blood outside. I'll go get the first-aid kit. Is it serious? Should we call an ambulance?"

“No, no need.” Allen quickly refused. “Hospitals are places for sissies.”

"Alright, alright, you're a tough guy." The proprietress laughed and left, reminding Allen to go to the hospital if he felt feverish.

Allen kept pressing on William's wound, and he noticed that a tuft of William's hair had turned white, the price a sorcerer pays for using his powers.

Even so, he didn't rush to treat William's wounds. He only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that no one was around.

William had just sacrificed a portion of his life force to complete the teleportation, and was already weakened. The blood loss further exacerbated his exhaustion, and at this point, William no longer had the strength to walk.

Worse still, the mysterious, unnamed gun not only injured William's body but also touched his soul.

Having used his superpowers, he was weaker than ever before. He felt as if a branding iron had been inserted into his brain, which was bubbling and about to boil. The pain made him struggle constantly, and the struggle itself accelerated the bleeding from the wound.

“Elisa…Elisa.”

William, with a face as pale as a vampire activating superpowers, began to ramble on.

Allen checked his temperature and muttered nervously, "He doesn't have a fever... so why does it feel like his brain is fried?"

He took out a syringe and injected half a syringe into William. Then he took out a tranquilizer gun and injected six shots of local anesthesia along the wound. He poured alcohol directly onto a large wad of cotton and began to wipe the wound and suture it.

After the surgery, Allen took another 600cc blood bag to give William a transfusion, changed the sheets, cleaned the floor, and wiped every inch of the floor with alcohol until all the work was done. He then changed out of his blood-stained clothes, and William, who had received the blood transfusion, slowly woke up.

The next moment, William raised his head and tried to get up, then groaned and lay back down.

“Your injury isn’t serious, but your skin’s integrity has been compromised. Every time you make a movement that involves your whole body, the wound could reopen.”

Allen, standing to the side, had a cigarette dangling from his lips, exhaling a strong cigar aroma.