75: Advance

A rapid, drum-like knocking jolted Xiang Yan from his tender slumber.

Irritated, he threw on his outer robe and opened the door, his expressionless gaze fixed on the one who had disturbed his enjoyment. The Monster outside, poised to knock again, froze mid-motion.

In the silent stare-down, Xiang Yan's eyes clearly conveyed a message: If you don't have a damn good reason for this, next year today will be your death anniversary.

"Boss! There's a group saying they were sent by His Majesty the Monster Emperor to find you!" the knocking Monster blurted out quickly, terrified that speaking a moment later would lead to his demise at the hands of his immediate superior. After all, there were plenty of cautionary tales!

After dismissing his subordinate, Xiang Yan dressed with Meng Yu's assistance and headed to his usual office. There, he found a gathering of grotesquely shaped Monsters, resembling some bizarre sacrificial ritual.

"Lord Yin!" The lead Monster saluted and continued, "We have been dispatched by His Majesty the Monster Emperor to assist you with your plan!"

Xiang Yan glanced over the group. Their strength could only be described as the best of a bad lot.

But given the overall standard of the Country of Monsters, he couldn't expect much.

"I see."

"Have you all memorized your lines and scripts?" Xiang Yan's voice betrayed neither pleasure nor anger.

"Yes, Lord! Down pat!" the Monsters chorused in surprisingly unified voices.

Xiang Yan randomly quizzed them on a few points. Only after confirming they had indeed put in the effort did he pull out a handful of glittering trinkets from his sleeve—necklaces, rings, earrings...

Without another word, he stuffed the entire group into them, transforming them into so-called holy relics.

Xiang Yan wasted no time and rushed to the temporary capital, intending to deliver these "masterpieces" to Mizuno Hiroshi.

To his surprise, the brat had gone missing!

"His Majesty is not in the palace. We are unaware of his specific whereabouts," a guard replied, head bowed, his tone perfunctory.

Xiang Yan understood immediately. Mizuno Hiroshi was clearly trying to force him into overtime work!

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

He went straight to find the Monster director Mizuno Hiroshi had designated, planning to dump the holy relics on him.

The Monster director, upon hearing from a subordinate that someone had come to deliver holy relics from His Majesty the Monster Emperor, recalled His Majesty's previous instructions. Not daring to delay, he immediately went out.

After a friendly conversation with Xiang Yan, the Monster director confirmed this was indeed the person His Majesty had mentioned earlier. After further inquiring about Xiang Yan's position, the director, convinced he now understood everything, promptly switched his demeanor, becoming imperious and overbearing. In response, Xiang Yan directly relieved them of their six limbs and returned to continue enjoying his beauties.

A few days after returning to his own territory, a Monster rushed in frantically and knelt before Xiang Yan. "Boss, His Majesty the Monster Emperor has sent someone to find you."

Truth be told, before this, while these Monsters feared Xiang Yan, they hadn't stooped to kneeling. But seeing His Majesty the Monster Emperor repeatedly sending people for their boss, both last time and now, indicated a bright future for the boss. If they weren't going to grovel now, when would they?

Xiang Yan soon met the Monster sent by Mizuno Hiroshi and received a letter from him.

The dispatched Monster left after completing his task, and Xiang Yan returned to his room with the letter.

After reading it once, Xiang Yan burned the letter to ashes. He now deeply realized he had been played by Mizuno Hiroshi.

The letter stated that because he had previously killed a series of personnel including the director, supervisors, and planners, the plan now lacked anyone in charge. Therefore, he was to take over the plan.

Xiang Yan had wondered at the time why that director changed his attitude so quickly. Turns out he was just a pawn Mizuno Hiroshi pushed out to set him up.

Seeing no alternative, Xiang Yan could only admit his bad luck and went to see Mizuno Hiroshi again. This time, Mizuno Hiroshi didn't hide, allowing Xiang Yan to meet him smoothly.

Meeting again, Xiang Yan outright refused to cooperate fully. He told Mizuno Hiroshi he would, at most, follow the entire process and occasionally give it a push at key junctures. Anything more depended on his mood.

Seeing Xiang Yan's stance, Mizuno Hiroshi didn't stir up any more trouble on the matter.

Over the next few days, Xiang Yan traveled between various cities, searching for suitable "main party members."

However, these individuals weren't as fortunate as Sato Shinsui. Xiang Yan planned to force-feed them a mouthful of bitter melon juice, followed by a can of fermented herring.

Especially a few girls pre-assigned for Sato Shinsui. Their plotlines were entirely arranged based on Sato Shinsui's personality.

After assembling the team, Xiang Yan headed to Jingtai City to advance Sato Shinsui's plotline.

In a dimly lit alley, the sounds of punches and kicks echoed. Soon after, several yellow-haired delinquents clutched their stomachs, howling on the ground before scrambling away in disarray.

Sato Shinsui finally couldn't hold back and sat down on the ground, grimacing in pain.

"Brother!" A tearful cry interrupted Sato Shinsui's thoughts. Sato Sakurako, who had been hiding behind him, timidly peeked out, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked at him.

"Brother, you're hurt!"

Sato Sakurako hurried forward to support Sato Shinsui, carefully wiping his wounds with her handkerchief.

"It's nothing, just a minor injury." Sato Shinsui forced a smile through the pain and patted his sister's head.

Suddenly, Sato Shinsui stiffened. His gaze once again fell upon the majestic abyss. He subtly shifted his eyes and continued patting his adorable sister's head.

After Sato Shinsui averted his gaze, he failed to see Sato Sakurako's slightly flushed cheeks and earlobes.

Supported home by his sister, Sato Shinsui sat on the sofa. Sato Sakurako was disinfecting his wounds with alcohol, the stinging pain making him suck in a sharp breath.

"Hiss..." Sato Shinsui winced as she applied medicine, his mind wandering back to the various incidents he'd encountered recently.

Ever since that Xiang Yan left last time, he couldn't feel at ease. Although he had developed a slight amount of goodwill and trust towards him, he couldn't guarantee the guy wasn't secretly plotting something nasty.

Just in case, Sato Shinsui took leave and tried every possible method to investigate Xiang Yan's whereabouts.

Through various channels, he finally obtained some surveillance footage of the city Xiang Yan had gone to after leaving. Although it cost him a considerable sum of hard-earned money, forcing him to tighten his belt and live on "grass" for a while, he only truly relaxed after confirming the other party had genuinely left and truly didn't care about him anymore.

After confirming Xiang Yan's departure, he enjoyed a period of peaceful days.

Then, bizarre things started happening.

First, the frequency of Monster attack incidents skyrocketed, which was still within his expectations.

What truly gave him a headache was that his three sisters, whether due to a second growth spurt or something else, underwent daily changes in height, curves, and appearance. They transformed from ordinary girls into stunning beauties capable of making any male creature stop and stare.

Seeing them every day, even Sato Shinsui's 'little brother' couldn't help but salute.

Let alone others. Troubles swarmed around them like flies.

His elder sister, Sato Yoko, working part-time at a café, occasionally faced workplace harassment and even encountered perverts on the subway.

His two younger sisters at school were constantly pursued and surrounded by hordes of hormone-fueled boys. They even experienced scenarios straight out of the novels he read late at night.

And the most bizarre part was that every time these incidents occurred, he was coincidentally present.

Even if he wasn't there initially, he always managed to arrive at the critical moment to resolve the crisis.

Like today. His store manager had a family matter, so he got off work early. Thinking to pick up his younger sister Sato Sakurako from school, he ended up witnessing a group of delinquents, driven by bestial urges, cornering her in an alley, ready to lay their filthy hands on the innocent girl.

Without a second thought, he charged in and beat those punks until they cried for their parents.

If this happened once or twice, it could be called a coincidence. But after dozens of times, unless he was an idiot, he knew something was off.

But here lay the problem. No matter how he investigated, searched for clues, or even transformed into the Monster Hundred Skeletons, he couldn't find anything suspicious.

Everything was unnervingly normal, as if the harassment and attacks were merely simple accidents.

Helpless, after ultimately failing to find the problem, he could only attribute it to the Hundred Skeletons he possessed.

How did the name 'Hundred Skeletons' come about? After he once repelled Monsters to protect citizens, a fearless reporter suddenly rushed out to interview him.

And thus, the name 'Hundred Skeletons' was born.

But then again, if it truly was the doing of Hundred Skeletons...