Chapter 72

"He wasn't Mr. Lee?" Joseph's voice was stunned. Olivia was flabbergasted. The entire Lee family stared at the old man in Stellar's hands. Who else could he be?

Stellar reached behind Mr. Lee's ear, fumbling for the human-skin mask's seal, but found nothing. He grew nervous. It didn't seem like a mask… Could this be Mr. Lee himself?

Just as panic threatened to overwhelm Stellar, Nash weakly gasped, "Rip his clothes off…"

"Stop!" Joseph's sharp cry halted Stellar, who had already placed Mr. Lee's body on the ground, ready to comply. His father had been his idol, the anchor of his life. He had only just witnessed his father's murder. The warden's presence, Stellar's identity—none of it mattered now. Glaring at Stellar, he spat, "My father is dead. Are you going to strip him of his dignity?"

Meanwhile, Olivia learned from the Lee family's bodyguards that a killer had been sighted moments before. "A killer from the West?" she whispered.

The bodyguard nodded. "Yes, killed by the masked man."

Olivia's heart pounded. A killer had targeted the warden; the masked man, the warden's bodyguard, had killed her grandfather. Something about her grandfather's death was deeply wrong.

Stellar then declared, "I, Stellar Orwell, colonel of the Northern Territory's Ninth Army, swear on my life: if this is Mr. Lee, I will atone for this offense with my own life!"

The revelation stunned everyone. A colonel! Even Joseph recoiled, momentarily regaining his composure.

Olivia approached her father, whispering, "Dad, a killer tried to assassinate the warden just now, and this masked man saved him!"

Joseph stared at his daughter, speechless, his lips trembling. An assassination attempt on the warden would trigger a war. If it happened at the Lee estate, the public backlash would be devastating.

Olivia approached Stellar. "Colonel, please verify this person's identity."

With the Lee family's permission, Stellar removed Mr. Lee's clothing. His body was remarkably wrinkle-free, his physique so defined that some younger heirs blushed. A faint white line was visible on his chest. Stellar carefully peeled away an incredibly thin layer of synthetic skin—a sophisticated disguise.

Mr. Lee's true face was revealed: a middle-aged man of mixed race.

The warden knelt beside Nash, concerned. "How are you feeling? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Nash silently produced seven gold snake-shaped needles, channeling his energy as he swiftly inserted them around his wound. The needles' toxins neutralized the venom, restoring his clotting factors. After three minutes, the bleeding stopped.

Before Nash could stand, six murderous auras descended. Everyone shuddered. Six figures in black, masked, dropped silently from the mansion's upper floor.

Their leader, speaking with a heavy accent, said, "Smiling Grim Reaper… I didn't expect to see you here…"

"Shawn!" Nash gasped, stunned. "You're still alive…"

Shawn, a Balarian killer who had once ranked third on the Dark Web Killer Leaderboard, was a figure from Nash's past. Six years ago, they had shared a mission.