A small alley, one street away from the ramen shop.
“Boss Chuan, we’re back.”
“How did the scouting go, Xiao?”
“They did get off the plane, but for some reason, they didn’t return to the Lu Family Residence right away. Instead, they’ve been lingering at a ramen place all this time.”
The leader of the assassins grunted at these words, blinking twice.
“They didn’t hurry back?”
“No, and Lu Yunze isn’t with them either.”
Upon hearing this, the assassins present all showed grave expressions.
They had all been lying in ambush nearby, just waiting for Young Master Lu Yunze and his group to get in the car, so they could blow both people and car to pieces.
But so much time had passed, and the targets still hadn’t left. It was just too strange.
Their carefully laid plans were rendered useless, and they had no way of knowing what Young Master Lu Yunze’s next move would be.
“Could it be that they’ve discovered us and are deliberately stalling for time?” one of the assassins asked.
“Not sure, but can we really take care of them with just our group? I heard two teams have already failed, and both had Secret Arts Practitioners. We only have guns and grenades…”
“You’re not thinking of backing out, are you?” The assassin leader pressed his tobacco pipe hard. “If you run, what are we supposed to do? Don’t think that Budaoshi will let us off.”
“N-no, Boss, I’m not thinking of running.”
“Instead of worrying, why don’t we think of another way?”
At those words, the group fell silent. The leader swept his gaze over his subordinates, then had no choice but to hang his head.
Expecting them to come up with a new plan was wishful thinking. Might as well go with the simplest method.
“No matter how strong a Secret Arts Practitioner is, we all have guns. Damn it, Lu Yunze isn’t a god! No matter how skilled he is, he’s still afraid of bullets. I refuse to believe he can dodge them all!”
“Of course Lu Yunze will take bullets.”
A sudden female voice rang out, startling everyone present.
“Not only does he take bullets, even a key organ hit may not be enough to kill him.”
All eyes snapped toward the entrance, bodies tensing.
A figure in a gray-white robe strolled in through the sunlight. That clear, crisp voice was hers.
“You—”
“Hello, everyone. I heard you’ve been planning for a while to deal with Lu Yunze. Mind if I join the discussion?”
Jiang Sui pulled back her hood, revealing her long violet hair and a gentle, smiling expression.
“I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? I’m the Negotiator. I know Young Master Lu Yunze very well, know what he likes and what he fears…”
Bang!
Almost simultaneously, countless gun muzzles were leveled at her. The overwhelming aura interrupted Jiang Sui’s speech.
“You’re one of them, aren’t you? Don’t even think about leaving alive!”
Facing the assassin leader’s threat, Jiang Sui scratched the back of her head with a smile. “Didn’t I just say my name’s Negotiator? I just came to ask you—why do you want to target Lu Yunze?”
Facing off with this young woman, the assassin leader felt a chill run up his spine. He gritted his teeth, and after the first shot rang out, the rest of the group pulled their triggers together.
All their guns were fitted with suppressors, so the volley made little sound.
Just as the assassin leader expected the woman before him to be riddled with bullets, his vision suddenly went dark.
He instantly realized something was wrong. Around the young woman, a strange black lightning spread, shrouding her in darkness. The sunlit alley turned pitch black in an instant.
Secret Arts?
Sensing the gravity of the situation, the assassin leader quickly pulled out a peculiar-looking Pendant from his coat.
Hanging from the Pendant was a rhombus-shaped Green Crystal. Without hesitation, he crushed it in his palm.
The sharp edges of the crystal drew blood, and a faint green mist wafted into the air.
That should do it…
Just as the assassin leader was about to let out a laugh, a ringing exploded in his skull, and he was struck down by a heavy blow, collapsing to the ground.
The gun in his hand was kicked away and, still in midair, was sliced into fragments by several flashes of cold light.
The darkness finally receded. The assassin leader found himself back in the alley, but the surroundings had completely changed.
His subordinates, who had been standing moments before, now lay sprawled on the ground, all unconscious. It looked like they wouldn’t be waking anytime soon. Their weapons, just like his, had been smashed to pieces—no craftsman in the world could fix them now.
How long had passed? Yet everyone was already down?
Licking his dry lips, the assassin leader suddenly felt a fierce chill and hurriedly raised his hands in surrender.
“Heroine, let’s talk this over—”
“I tried to talk to you just now, but you didn’t give me a chance. Now that I’m not giving you a chance, you want to talk?”
“For the sake of my life, I’ll do anything.”
She didn’t expect this guy to be so quick to admit defeat. It was a little outside Jiang Sui’s expectations.
She propped the Remnant Moon’s Edge on the ground, lifted her foot, and stepped hard on his back.
The assassin leader let out a miserable scream, his face slamming into the earth.
“All right, spill everything you know.”
“Heroine, there’s something I must tell you to avoid any misunderstandings.”
“Speak.”
“All ten of us have been cursed. If we so much as reveal a sliver of the employer’s information, we’ll be executed on the spot. So, I’ll have to use another method to tell you what I know.”
“Fine. Tell me as much as you can.”
“We’re just a bunch of poor mercenaries doing a job for money. Our mission was to take out Young Master Lu Yunze’s group and keep them from returning to the Lu Family Residence. I swear that’s all I know. We were hired through a Mercenary Company. You can check our company’s website.”
According to him, a Client suddenly commissioned their company to send a lot of people—apparently, aiming for a big score. The assassins were split into several teams, not allowed to contact each other, and only a handler acted as a go-between.
“The handler—can you reveal their identity?”
The assassin leader shook his head.
“How many other teams are there?”
Again, a shake of the head.
“Anything else you know?”
Another shake.
“Useless.”
Jiang Sui pressed down with her foot again, but as if remembering something, she let up, then tapped his chin with her Mirror Blade, forcing him to raise his head.
“What was that Pendant you just used for?”
“What Pendant? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’ll give you one chance. Will you talk or not?”
“Really, I don’t know.”
Jiang Sui took a deep breath. So he wouldn’t talk? There were ways to make him open his mouth.
She felt around her bracelet, pulling out a small bottle of potion. Twisting the cap, she held it to the assassin leader’s nose and made him inhale a big whiff.
By the time the assassin leader could breathe again, his face had grown stiff, and then he suddenly collapsed to the ground, squirming and scratching himself, laughing uncontrollably.
“Haha… why… why can’t I stop laughing—haha!”
Seeing his state, Jiang Sui calmly recapped the bottle, the corners of her mouth lifting.
“Special Laughing Potion. Just one sniff, and you’ll keep laughing for half a day.”
Ever since she’d awakened her ability, Jiang Sui had opened the door to a new world, dabbling in strange little gadgets now and then. This potion was one of her proud works.
In the distance, the assassin leader, still laughing, crawled over with tears streaming down his face, clutching at Jiang Sui’s robe.
“Heroine, I’ll talk, I’ll talk, please!”
“Talk, and I’ll give you the antidote.”
“That Pendant… it’s for contacting the handler. It means the mission has failed, and we request to be dealt with…”
As soon as he finished speaking, the assassin leader froze in place.
Jiang Sui’s guard shot up. She saw something glowing deep inside his gaping mouth.
The next second, all the assassins in the alley, just like their leader, suddenly burst apart like over-inflated balloons.
Blood sprayed across the alley, even splattering Jiang Sui’s robe.
After the deadly silence lingered for a while, Jiang Sui finally sheathed her Mirror Blade.
“So, was he executed for revealing the Pendant’s purpose, or did using the Pendant trigger their deaths?”
The handler… so there was still someone else nearby, probably the boss of these people.
And that Budaoshi they’d mentioned earlier—what was that?
Too many mysteries and unanswered questions—Jiang Sui’s head was starting to spin.
In any case, she needed to regroup at the ramen shop with Lu Yunze and the others as soon as possible.
Without her help, Lu Yunze’s group probably wouldn’t last much longer.
She used a potion from her bracelet to wash the blood off her robe, then walked out of the alley, planning to remove her disguise once she got closer to the ramen shop.
Just as she placed her hand on her collar, she suddenly sensed suspicious footsteps behind her.
She slowed her steps, and the person behind slowed as well. She quickened her pace, and they sped up too.
Did they really think that, just because it was on the street, they wouldn’t be discovered? Clearly, they didn’t know Jiang Sui’s senses were far keener than ordinary people’s.
Coming straight for me, huh?
Jiang Sui narrowed her eyes slightly.
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