Dimensional Storekeeper

Chapter 176: Shadow Realm Is Her Love Language

Flinter froze.

His breath caught in his throat, limbs stiff as stone.

The leader, an iron-skinned body cultivator, someone who could crush bone with a single blow, hadn’t even reached the cat.

Four step.

That was all he took.

He managed only four steps before collapsing, limbs folding into themselves, a broken sack with his mouth agape in disbelief.

And that sound.

Krrsh.

Sharp. Sudden. The air being torn apart.

Flinter’s gaze shot to the cat.

No glow. No fire. No array. Not even a ripple of qi.

What was that?

No, not a technique.

A tool? A weapon?

He had seen something small – metal, gleaming in her paw.

Then nothing.

Just the leader collapsing in a blink.

His stomach turned.

The others had vanished. And now the strongest among them had been flattened like a worm on the road.

“I… I didn’t even see it.” Flinter muttered.

His heart slammed against his ribs.

He was only at the Fifth Stage of the Saint Apprentice Realm. Barely a speck in the grand scheme of cultivation.

What could he possibly do?

If even the boss were here…

No, the boss would –

His throat dried up.

The cat hadn’t looked at him yet.

If he stayed still…

If he didn’t breathe…

Maybe –

The cat’s head turned.

And in that gaze, there was no anger.

Only certainty.

Flinter knew.

He was next.

He wanted to run. He really wanted to run.

But his legs?

They felt as if they’d turned to damp noodles – wobbly and numb, pinned down beneath the weight of terror. His qi refused to circulate. His dantian shrank into itself, retreating in cowardice.

A wet sound echoed beneath him.

He looked down.

“…Oh no.”

Even his bladder had abandoned him.

But fear… fear was a powerful thing.

The moment his legs regained a sliver of strength, Flinter moved.

Stumbled. Rolled. Crawled.

Then – he yanked out his flying sword and leapt onto it in one desperate motion.

City rules be damned!

Using flying tools in populated areas was taboo, especially within the inner rings of any cultivation city. Most sects enforced it to prevent panic, injuries, or stray duels in midair.

But Flinter didn’t care anymore.

The leader was down. His brothers were gone. The cat was a monster.

What good were rules to a dead man?

“Fly! Fly, damn you!” he howled, kicking the blade to life.

Wind howled past his ears. His heart pounded. Freedom – just over the city wall.

Kurome watched in silence. A gentle swish ran through the tip of her tail.

Her shadow slithered across the bricks, creeping fast beneath the surface.

Flinter didn’t notice. He was already fifteen feet in the air.

Almost there.

Almost –

Whrrsssht!

Dark tendrils flew from the ground, twisting around his ankles and dragging him downward.

“No! No no no no no – !”

He flailed wildly as the shadows bound him, yanking him from the air and slamming him against the cobbled street. His flying sword clattered beside him, blade flickering before it dimmed out.

“Mngh…!”

From her warmed spot, Kurome lazily rolled onto her side.

‘Hmm… should I have let him go?’

Her whiskers twitched.

‘But really now… throwing those loud papers at me, and now trying to fly in a city? No respect at all.’

This wasn’t one of those novels where you let someone go just to have them yell for backup, only for the next batch of villains to get the same treatment. Nope. That tired routine didn’t work here.

Some nearby folks in Scorching Soul City glanced at Flinter, puzzled. Did he faint from the heat? Maybe.

But as usual in the city, interest quickly faded. Someone should help the poor guy, sure, but he looked like a member of some rogue gang cultivator crew.

No respect, no sympathy. Most wouldn’t risk getting tangled in their mess or stepping into their dangerous circle.

Better to just keep walking.

Then, without anyone noticing, Flinter jerked twice as Kurome calmly fired off two more shots. Her baton had already shifted back into Desert Eagle.

She fired, purely out of caution.

The thug might have been planning a last-second escape!

Absolutely not because she found the faint “pew pew” sound weirdly satisfying.

And certainly not because she wanted an excuse to use the tool again.

He vanished, melting into a slick puddle of shadow on the ground.

Seconds later, the leader’s body followed the same fate.

Inside the Dimensional Convenience Store, the air had gone still.

Hao knelt on the floor, his knees stained with a smear of blood.

Right in front of him was a boy barely in his early teens, collapsed at the entrance of the store.

His clothes were torn, skin bruised and shredded in too many places to count. Blood clung to his hair, dried and dark as rust.

Clinging to his back was a little girl.

Smaller than Mo Xixi. Maybe by half a head. Her breathing was shallow.

So faint, it seemed she wasn’t even moving. Her lips had gone pale, her skin waxy, and even the thin arms around the boy’s back shook with weak spasms.

Hao could barely process what he was seeing.

“…Little Xixi?” Hao murmured.

Mo Xixi had already crouched beside him without a word.

She didn’t answer.

Her expression wasn’t her usual puffed-up pride. Her eyes were focused, calm in a way that made Hao pause.

The blood didn’t even seem to bother her.

He turned inward, calling out in his mind.

‘System, what should I do? How do I save these two?’

He wasn’t an expert. He wasn’t a doctor. Hell, this was the first time in his life he’d seen someone this injured in front of him.

Back on Earth, even small cuts used to make him dizzy. Now?

Now there was blood soaking the floor tiles.

And strangely, he didn’t feel fear.

Was it because he had become a cultivator?

He didn’t know. It didn’t matter. All that mattered now was saving these two.

It couldn’t be coincidence. There was no way this boy and girl, both so close to death, just happened to stumble into the store.

It had to be some kind of fate. And if this store was under his watch, Hao wasn’t going to let anyone die inside it.

No chance.

Not even one.

Mo Xixi raised her hand.

Her voice was quiet. “Boss, the boy still has time. But the girl… she’s right at the edge.”

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