Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

Qianyuan Mingzi had been well-prepared.

After a night of treatment and rest, not only had her fever subsided, but she also regained much of her strength. At the moment, she was lying on the roof of a flat house to the north, with a 26-type sniper rifle in her hands. Zhou Zhi was squatting beside her, providing vigilance.

The slowly moving crowd was less than four hundred meters away, and even without a scope, Qianyuan Mingzi could clearly see those gunmen mingling among the residents. Their attention was entirely drawn by the quiet beach, completely unaware of the trap laid out on the side. Or perhaps in their recognition, the "flanks" were merely a street and two rows of flat houses; as for four hundred meters away... it was debatable whether a bullet could even fly that far, let alone make an effective shot.

But for Qianyuan Mingzi, this distance was just a bit further than face-to-face.

She was not a professional sniper, she just happened to have studied shooting and archery for a few years. After centering the crosshair on an unattended target to the side, she steadily pulled the trigger.

The rifle trembled slightly.

The bullet passed through the silencer, then after soaring over five streets and alleys, it accurately entered the left ear of a gangster and exited through the right side of his neck, hitting the sandy ground at his feet. Without as much as a peep, he fell to the ground like a log, blood trickling out and reddening the ground around him within a few seconds.

Apart from the people being jostled behind him, not even his companions noticed that their numbers had decreased.

Qianyuan Mingzi loaded another round, aimed, and continued firing.

By the time the third person’s blood splattered into the air, finally, the gangsters realized something was amiss.

"Damn it, we’ve been ambushed!"

"Where are the shots coming from?"

Some instinctively stepped back two paces, completely overlapping themselves with the "meat shields," as if this would ensure their safety. But in Mingzi’s perspective, the gangsters became even more separated from the ordinary residents. Plus, since they were driving hundreds of locals, moving at less than one meter per second, they weren’t much different from static targets under the aim of a sniper rifle.

In the span of three minutes, Qianyuan Mingzi fired thirty bullets, and each one eliminated a gangster. Even the locals who were forced to be tied up became dumbfounded; they watched as the enemies beside them were knocked down one by one, despite being right next to them, yet they themselves suffered no collateral damage. What was more astonishing was that throughout the ordeal, they hadn’t heard a single gunshot, and the nearby beach remained calm with not a single person in sight.

The gangsters couldn’t hold it together any longer. Even though they were scattered among the crowd and couldn’t see the specific casualties, the undeniable fact was the dwindling number of their companions within naked eye range. When another spray of blood soared into the air, this ghost-like assault completely broke their will.

"There’s a ghost!"

"I’m, I’m outta here!"

Those who were still alive threw down their firearms and ran— even if fleeing would result in severe punishment by the Governor, it was still better than losing their lives in confusion.

"This is truly... miraculous!" Potland was stunned by the scene unfolding before him.

The other worker warriors were equally amazed.

Even though they hadn’t done anything, the enemies were falling one by one, leaving behind a group of civilians in place. If this wasn’t a miracle, what was?

"Did you anticipate this all along?" he asked Zhang Zhiyuan excitedly.

The latter nodded and humbly replied, "The Paradise Master is watching over us; He would not let His followers fall into a dilemma."

"The divinities are too great!"

"Praise Paradise!"

Everyone chanted excitedly.

"Don’t celebrate too early; that was just the enemy’s first wave of attack," Zhang Zhiyuan hurriedly said, "Let’s take this opportunity to bring all the residents back... I hope there’s still enough food collected in the camp."

...

At that moment, Ailuodi had also found Franwick Yuss, who was busy at the bottom of the cave.

He was directing the fishermen to tidy up the spoils of the previous battle—more than ten barrels of freshly caught fish.

"Keep one barrel for tonight’s dinner; gut the rest, half go into the salt pool, and the rest to be smoked!" The man, nearly sixty, had changed into a waterproof leather garment and showed no signs of fatigue in his voice. The people around him were also willing to follow his orders, and the work of cleaning the nets and killing the fish was carried out in an orderly fashion.

"Mr. Franwick," Ailuodi called out to him, "I would like to talk to you alone."

"Ah... Your Excellency the Divine Envoy, please give me a moment." He pulled out the towel from his waist and wiped his hands, which smelled of fish, then led her aside to a nearby broken cave, "What’s the matter, is the situation outside unfavorable to us?"

His expression seemed genuinely worried and not feigned.

"No, the plan is going well. The defensive line on the beach has deterred them from acting rashly, and the first wave of attack has been repelled," she said, receiving real-time updates from Chaoyang’s messages, "I want to ask you about some local issues."

"Ask away."

"By the way, is this yours?" Ailuodi pretended to remember something on the spot, taking out the Magic Hourglass from her waist pouch and handing it over—it was slightly different from the style Kokomoqi handcrafted, the ends of the funnel were more refined, and it had a golden luster to it, obviously something only nobility could afford. "There’s your name on the base."

Franwick was a bit surprised to receive the hourglass, "No, I don’t own such an item, where did you find it?"

"On the execution platform, a Paradise believer found it. The nobles and merchants fled so quickly that they couldn’t take many of their belongings, and this was in one of the bags... I thought they might have taken it from you."

"It is indeed my name, but I don’t have such a fine piece of equipment at home," Franwick said, shaking his head with a laugh after inspecting it, and handed the hourglass back, "There must be some mistake."

"Well then, keep it for yourself; it’s no use to me," Ailuodi waved her hand, "It’s hard to see the sun down in the cave, so having something to keep track of time isn’t bad."

"...You have a point," Franwick raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue further.

Obviously, tables and cabinets were rare in the cave, with nowhere to place the hourglass, he simply held it in his hand—this was precisely what the Angel wanted to see, "If your family has been here for so long, how did the guild and the gangs become the dominant forces in the City of Defense?"

She started tossing out questions progressively, beginning with the conflicts in the City of Defense, and gradually moving to Franwick’s background. During this process, she kept an eye on the hourglass in his hand; according to Chaoyang, if Franwick lied, the sand in the hourglass would accelerate dramatically.

Franwick Yuss gave quite detailed answers, with hardly any questions requiring much thought. When he talked about the Yuss Family, a touch of sorrow flashed across his face, but he still cooperated with the response, and the flow of sand remained steady.

’At least he isn’t someone pretending to be him,’ Ailuodi thought, ’This man really is the head of the Yuss Family as everyone says, and he has a deep blood feud with the company. But saying that it was his advocacy for resistance that led to the clash between the fishermen and the Ransu Company, culminating in the City of Defense running red with blood and the arrival of the Heretical Cult forces... makes sense too. It’s obvious he wants vengeance,’

’Indeed,’ Chaoyang agreed, ’Finally, ask him about his family being slaughtered... Just ask him what to do if it wasn’t Dead Gun Ziegler who instigated it.’