by A Sick Frog
The action department sent out two members of their party–Zhuo Xiao Xuan and another male she’d never seen before. Even if they had met before, they wouldn’t recognise each for they went on missions either lathered with thick layers of makeup or wear a face mask that covered everything save for the eyes.
The two of them silently boarded the plane, not speaking. Zhuo Xiao Xuan rubbed her handgun in boredom, her mind drifting to Yin Xu Dong over in City B. She wondered how he would react after receiving her email?
Yin Xu Dong opened his email and checked the email he’d just received. The sender was anonymous. At that, he clicked it open in suspicion.
“If I make it back, let’s get married.”
The content was short and random. He wondered if it was someone who emailed him wrongly, or if it was some sort of game. Another possibly suddenly appeared in his head; it couldn’t be from Xuan Xuan, could it? He read the message again, marry? Yin Xu Dong looked at the word, his face flushing slightly. Wasn’t it a little too early? He’d just entered college, they haven’t even hit the legal age to get married. And shouldn’t matters about marriage and the likes be figured out after one graduated from college? He grinned foolishly and reread the email. The sentence was a little strange, make it back, make it back… his face immediately paled. She definitely went on a very dangerous mission, else she wouldn’t phrase it that way! Didn’t he tell her to run if she met with danger? She’d agreed on that with him! Look at this now, she’s sending herself in the direction of a gun nozzle before her wounds even healed properly!
Yin Xu Dong was furious but terribly worried. The layers of emotions had him very uneasy; he gripped his collar and paced up and down his house. His anxiety affected Ke Ke, the golden retriever lying on the floor. It stood and pounced in the direction of Yin Xu Dong. The golden retriever was a grown dog now so the strength of that pounce wasn’t light. Yin Xu Dong was pushed onto the sofa by the golden retriever; the dog stuck out its tongue and licked his face. Yin Xu Dong pushed Ke Ke away, grumbling: “What the heck are you licking for! This mister I’m boiling! Move it and go lick your own fur!”
Ke Ke the golden retriever felt very wronged. It whined as it shifted from him and returned to curling on the ground, before raising its eyes and looking at Yin Xu Dong pacing around nervously.
The helicopter brought Zhuo Xiao Xuan and company to an empty space in a city near the northwest frontier, placed them down before flying off. Zhuo Xiao Xuan switched to boarding a jeep into the woodland in the outskirts. As the two of them walked in the snow, sweeping the snow behind them to cover their footprints, Zhuo Xiao Xuan said to the man when they were about to receive information on the location where Gao Zheng Ye was meeting up with the arms dealer: “I will lure the bodyguard beside Gao Zheng Ye away; you handle Gao Zheng Ye. Remember to only make your move at Gao Zheng Ye after I lure the bodyguard away.”
“Okay.” The man agreed quickly without comments.
The two of them each selected a location to hide before tugging a white piece of material over themselves as they laid on their bellies on the snow, revealing only a tiny crack to survey the situation outside.
The two of them knew that the state’s SF would be coming so they selected their location to conceal themselves with utmost care. After eliminating all the prime locations to ambush someone, they slowly inched forward and picked out the ambush-able locations to prevent clashing into them. It was fine for them as they knew the people were from SF. The SF however wouldn’t know who they were, so they might just finish the two of them off as though they were the enemies the moment they saw them. To prevent unnecessary trouble, they tried their best to evade all the locations where they could bump into the SF. Not long after they laid in ambush, another batch of people came before splitting up to lie in wait. The two of them could tell that they were the SF the state sent from their attire.
After a long period of time, a soft male voice sounded in Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s earpiece. “They’re here.”
They were able to hear the sounds of vehicles in the distance in the quiet woodland. Zhuo Xiao Xuan looked in the direction of the sound from the crack, catching sight of a few jeeps travelling in this direction.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan carefully exercised her limbs frozen from the prolonged lying in the snow; she stretched her fingers one by one, fisting them again before repeating the process. A few jeeps drove over from the other side of the mountain road as she did so. There were people standing on both sides of the jeep; both of them were holding a machine rifle each as they surveyed the surroundings, alert.
Their ambush point was a little far. It was hard for them to see on top of the reflection by the snow. However, they weren’t able to retrieve their telescope to look as the reflection by the lens would reveal their position.
Fortunately, Zhuo Xiao Xuan was someone who cultivated; she had sharp hearing and sight, so she was able to make out the person who appeared first was the firearms dealer who was supplying Gao Zheng Ye foreign firearms. The batch that arrived later was Gao Zheng Ye and company.
Their vehicle was parked on an empty ground. Both of them alighted from their vehicles. Gao Zheng Ye, flanked by his bodyguards, greeted the other person and shook his hand. Both of them signalled for their bodyguards to raise their alertness before they started discussing their terms.
Naturally, Zhuo Xiao Xuan spotted You Ming who was standing beside Gao Zheng Ye. She inhaled deeply to smother the burning rage in her chest that ignited when she saw him. She must remain calm! She buried her entire face into the snow, trying to suppress the surging anger with the burning chill of the snow.
She and her Sniper Team member was waiting, waiting for the SF team to break the silence before the storm. Once the SF moved, they would be able to move.
When Gao Zheng Ye and the firearms dealer boss was getting into a dispute, the SF soldiers buried in their ambush just a little ahead of Zhuo Xiao Xuan aimed their sniper rifle at the two of them and shot.
The load of people froze before immediately reacting. They rushed to cover their heads and scattered to look for places to hide at. Some picked up their guns and retaliated. Pity the majority of the arms they had were machine rifles; the shooting distance wasn’t as far as that of a sniper rifle. The SF soldier were also well hidden in the snow so it was hard to locate them as well. They only discovered this issue after shooting for a while. At that, they stopped and resorted to hiding. As long as they don’t appear, they wouldn’t be discovered, so you can’t do anything ‘bout it even if you’ve got a sniper rifle.
The SF soldiers too realised their sniping wasn’t very useful, and so, both sides ended up in a deadlock; I won’t move if my enemies didn’t move. And so, the battle of patience drew open between two parties.
After dragging the time, Gao Zheng Ye and the firearms arms dealer—as though having agreed on something—started rushing for their vehicles madly as though they’d given up on their deal this time and decided to make it out alive before anything else.
When the bunch of them were dashing for their vehicles, the SF soldiers, owing to their small numbers, weren’t able to shoot them all. And so, they gave up on the sniper attacks, pulled off the camouflage material on them and dashed in their direction armed with their machine rifles.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan and her comrade shouted lowly: “Move out!” At that, they pulled the camouflage material off. If the SF soldier rushing ahead turned behind them to look, they’d get a scare themselves as there were actually more people behind him. If the people behind them had been their enemies, and had a little more number of people, the batch of SF support would be sacrificed here today.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan rounded the SF soldiers ahead of them and quietly circled over to behind Gao Zheng Ye. The man found an appropriate location and set up his sniper stand, laid on the ground and looked through his scope in search for Gao Zheng Ye’s figure.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan following tightly behind him however speedily covered him in the camouflage material from
previously. To prevent him from being discovered, she leapt off the snowy hill, sliding down lightly on the snow.
When her feet touched the ground, she shouted at You Ming among the bunch of people not far off: “I am unparalleled—supreme!”
The bunch of people, including the frozen You Ming, with their backs to her immediately turned around in shock to look at her.
Upon hearing her shout, the man on the hill, before he could even begin reprimanding her of her location-revealing action, was struck crispy by her embarrassing words, the heck! D’you think you’re some beautiful warrior? You even have a code phrase when you go to battle—I shall exterminate you in the name of the moon*? And the poop was “I am unparalleled”? The heck was “supreme”? Don’t you think you’re too impudent and overestimating yourself a little too much?
Chapter 65 - Trust
* * *
Zhuo Xiao Xuan knew the codewords she yelled worked the moment she looked at You Ming because it came from the killer organisation the both of them were from in their previous life—Realm*; the founder of the organisation was called Du Bu**, and was an extremely arrogant person, else they wouldn’t have a code phrase as conceited as “I am unparalleled—supreme”.
* 天下 = tian xia; all of Earth under the sky—the entire mortal realm
** 独步 = du bu; walks alone, as the person is unrivalled/unparalleled
You Ming stared at Zhuo Xiao Xuan donned in white cap with only her eyes and mouth revealed. Pausing in suspicion, he chose to stand still by Gao Zheng Ye, unmoving. When he saw her mouthing two words silently, he leapt over to her, ignoring Gao Zheng Ye’s bellows behind him.
“You Ming.” He read her lips. That was his code name from the organisation before he came to this world, one which he neither used, nor spoke of after coming to this world. However, this person knew their code phrase from Realm, and knew his code name from Realm; she was definitely someone from the Lille organisation as well!
When Zhuo Xiao Xuan saw him dashing at her, she immediately jumped backwards. There were too many people around here, as especially so as she was being watched by the Z organisation; she didn’t want to reveal the fact that she knew martial arts, so she had to bring him to a secluded location.
The man lying on his belly on the slope didn’t think that Zhuo Xiao Xuan would be able to lure out the skilled bodyguard beside Gao Zheng Ye with such a shocking code phrase. He knew that it was much more dangerous luring the skilled bodyguard away as compared to sniping Gao Zheng Ye, so he mentally saluted in the direction Zhuo Xiao Xuan left before speedily searching for Gao Zheng Ye’s location. Gao Zheng Ye’s shouts from previously had revealed his location, so all he had to do now was to finish him off in the shortest amount of time possible and give his comrade a hand in defeating that bodyguard.
After removing themselves from the masses’ field of sight, Zhuo Xiao Xuan used her qinggong and shot off of the snow as though a meteor. The moment You Ming behind her saw the faint, almost non-existent footprint she left in her wake on the snow, his expression fell and his steps quickened.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan only stopped after the two of them was a long distance away from the masses, then she turned to look at You Ming.
You Ming asked lowly: “Who are you exactly?! What do you seek luring me all the way out?” When he was being chased by the other underworld organisation a few days before, the person that had fought him till he received internal injuries was also dressed as such, revealing only the eyes, and was as skilled. Even the figure of both person were very similar. When he gave more thought into get similar moves, he figured that both person were the same person. If it hadn’t been the difference in figure, he’d have thought this person was her when he saw this person’s similar moves.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan stretched to take off her hat, revealing her icy expression, “It’s me.”
When You Ming saw Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s face, he was shocked beyond words. He stuttered: “Xiao… Xiao Ye… you…” How was this possible?! Though her face was the same, her figure was different! He’d never seen anything that could change a person’s height or size. Was this perhaps the legendary art of rejuvenating one’s youth?! How did she learn it?!
“Didn’t think I was still alive?” Zhuo Xiao Xuan sighed in melancholy. Following that, her gaze hardened as she sent a cold gaze in the direction of You Ming, who was still wound flabbergasted upon seeing the revived An Ye. “Since I didn’t die don’t you think I living either!”
“Xiao Ye, I didn’t…” You Ming looked at Zhuo Xiao Xuan with a crestfallen expression.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan bent and drew the two handguns tucked by the sides of her legs, aimed it at You Ming and fired continuously, not giving him any chance to continue. As she fired, she dashed forward with light footsteps in the direction where the bullets zipped out towards him. Too occupied trying to block the bullets zipping his way, You Ming naturally was unable to block Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s attacks.
You Ming swiftly retreated, dodged to evade a bullet before clashing head on with Zhuo Xiao Xuan who was dealing damage at him. His arm waved and he blocked the claw Zhuo Xiao Xuan had sent at him; he spoke urgently: “Xiao Ye, listen to me…”
Zhuo Xiao Xuan minced her lips. Her hand-claw gripping You Ming’s arms instead before twisting it outwards. At that, You Ming flipped outwards, pivoting with his arms to prevent his arm from being broken by Zhuo Xiao Xuan.
“Xiao Ye! Listen to my explanation! I didn’t have a choice then!”
Zhuo Xiao Uan snorted coldly. “No choice? I no longer am interested in the reason for your betrayal, and you killing me. All I want, s for you to die!” She leant forward, her hands grasping at Uou Ming’s throat.
You Ming turned his head, his hand raising to sweep aside her nearing claw. He however broke two of his fingers as he did so; she was really going all out. At that, he frowned. She did not give him any chance to explain himself; she really did seem to want him to die. He sighed mentally before both his hands reached out to catch both of Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s arms.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan was unable to shake free from his grip no matter how she tried; she was still weaker than You Ming in the end. Gritting her teeth, she raised her leg to sweep at You Ming. Who knew You Ming would welcome her move instead of evading, and caught both her legs as well.
As such, Zhuo Xiao Xuan was caught. Unable to keep her balance, she fell backwards. She’d never pulled such a dirty move before, but both her hands and legs were tied. She slammed her forehead against You Ming who was lying on her in anger. You Ming however was as though he’d long anticipated she would make such a move, hence he immediately dodged when he saw her moving.
When she was not hitting him after slamming several times, she clenched her teeth: “Let me go!”
“If I let you go, will you not make a move at me?”
“Dream on!”
“Then I won’t release you. I’ll release when you’ve thought things through.” You Ming smiled slightly as he said gently.
Zhuo Xiao Xuan had never loathed her body as she did now. Her thin limbs were in no way comparable to her strong body from previously. She tried to twist around trying to fling You Ming off her and catch him with her moves instead, but You Ming came from a killer organisation as well, so he could read her moves like the back of his hand. And so, his grip on her revealed no flaws for her to break free.
“Xiao Ye, will you listen to me?”
“Are you going to tell me the person who killed me then wasn’t you but someone who’d changed his face to yours, lied his way to get near me before stabbing me while I was in my weakest state?”
“No…” You Ming’s gaze lowered. That’s right, he was the one who’d done all that then.
Their killer organisation, similar to other organisations, have its own ongoing politics—both open and in the dark. Though An Ye was ranked as the number one killer in their organisation then, there were many who were extremely unhappy with her and wanted her gone. However An Ye’s title as Realm’s n
umber one killer wasn’t just for show; all those who had wanted to exterminate her would silently disappear. And so, no matter how they loathed her, they were unable to do anything to her for they lacked the abilities to do so.
Ultimately however, she was a female, and it was hard to guard against secret conspiracies. There were countless skilled persons, but at the same time, there were innumerable vile ones.
She was summoned into the inner courtyard by the custodian who said the leader wanted to see her. She’d never entered this part of the inner courtyard, as this was where their leader stayed in; killers with lowly status as themselves were not allowed to enter as they wished.
As she puzzled over in suspicion as to why the leader suddenly wanted to see her today, she silently surveyed the surroundings. Though the scenery was beautiful, there were lots of skilled individuals, as expected, hidden from sight—it was where the leader dwelled, so naturally the place would be well guarded.
After waiting for a long time, when she started to suspect if she was sent in wrongly, a few people walked over from the other side of the pond. Amidst them stood a middle-aged man; he was the master of Realm—Du Bu.