Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 53: Middleman
The lady in black apparel smiled and said, “Of course, I’m only responsible for bringing you here. Now, I must return to the casino.”
Qianye nodded and reached out to open the door. The door bolt, apparently lacking lubrication, let out a shrill screech which added a bit of eeriness to this dark night. He didn’t head in immediately—instead, he suddenly turned around, caught the lady in black, and pushed her inside.
Bang!
The muffled sound of an apparently suppressed firearm rang out. The lady in black let out a miserable scream as a flower of blood bloomed on her thigh. But the shrill cry was almost immediately suppressed and then followed closely by the sound of someone rolling and stumbling in the darkness, only stopping when the subject was firmly pressed against the wall.
Qianye stood at his original position and revealed a cold smile.
His origin power flowed into the lady and directly penetrated her defenses during that moment of grabbing and pushing. But this lady who had only revealed a strength of rank two or three along the way was actually rank six. It wasn’t surprising then that she still had the strength left to find a hiding place after suffering a shot and having her defenses broken.
At that same moment, the shooter behind the door cursed, “Goddammit!”
For a long time afterwards, there was only deathly silence both inside and outside of the building.
However, a pair of eyes blinked within the pitch-darkness behind the crack in the partially opened door. Apparently, the shooter couldn’t hold back and had arrived near the door to see if there was still anyone outside.
Qianye, with his Dark Vision, had a clear view of this shooter’s every stealthy move. He then sighed silently at how foolish the latter’s method was.
The actions of the man didn’t frighten Qianye at all, but he was quite astonished that the person waiting for him was such an unpresentable trash.
The shooter had just poked his head out when a black muzzle was pressed against his face.
Qianye had one of the Twin Flowers pointed at the shooter. However, he didn’t say anything and only gazed at the latter in silence. The shooter’s expression fluctuated wildly—he didn’t dare make a reckless move nor let out the slightest sound. He froze there with bean-sized beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.
Someone else in the depths of the hall couldn’t wait any longer and let out two soft whistles.
The Twin Flower in Qianye’s right hand was still pointed at the shooter’s face while his left hand drew its counterpart and fired towards the source of the sound. On the second blast, he shifted the muzzle about thirty degrees.
Something heavy fell to the ground with a loud bang. With his night vision, Qianye saw a middle-aged man tumble down from a height of about thirty meters with a bloody hole in his chest, right where the heart was.
As expected, it was an assassin with a special ability—the place where the first shot landed was only a sound refraction. Unfortunately, Qianye’s firing speed was much faster than that of a normal person. Not only did the assassin not succeed in misleading the enemy, but the small movement of activating his origin gun had instead revealed his true position.
Qianye’s right hand suddenly withdrew and then smashed down on the shooter’s head with the gun handle, knocking him out cold. After this, Qianye didn’t advance but instead withdrew. He flashed out of the main door, leapt onto the second floor, and silently climbed in through the window.
A half-naked man with bulging muscles was currently pressed against the wall with his gun aimed at the stairwell, waiting for the person downstairs to rush up. Another neatly-dressed middle-aged man with a dagger stood silently while leaking virtually no aura at all. He was comparable to a motionless desert viper waiting to deliver that single coup de grace.
Qianye leapt through the window and immediately fired a shot with a flick of his hand. The burly man stationed near the stairwell let out a miserable scream after his back was struck and tumbled down the stairs. Immediately afterwards, Qianye drew his dagger and pounced at the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man grinned nastily as he strode forth to engage Qianye. Thus, the two begun a blade fight within the small space. The middle-aged man had reached rank seven—his attacks were as swift as lightning and his sword techniques were quite exquisite.
Apparently, the middle-aged man’s origin power capacity also surpassed that of a standard rank-seven fighter. The dagger in his hand hummed and trembled with every thrust—this was an extremely powerful type of assassination ability. If one were to carelessly suffer a strike, the wound would be rapidly expanded by the high-frequency vibrations.
Qianye didn’t want to prolong this fight. He chose not to evade the incoming dagger and only raised his hand to catch the opponent’s arm, thereby reducing the greater half of the incoming force. He then stabbed at the middle-aged man with his dagger in a backhand grip.
The middle-aged man increased the force in his hand and ruthlessly pushed the blade tip towards Qianye’s abdomen. Being an experienced veteran, the man decided to take advantage of the situation after seeing that Qianye wanted to trade injuries. He planned to stab the opponent first and then flash away. That way, even if they had to trade injuries, Qianye would inevitably be weaker after being badly wounded in the abdomen while his own wounds would be much lighter.
But when the blade pierced Qianye’s abdomen, the middle-aged man felt as if he were stabbing into a dense tree trunk—it was difficult to go even slightly deeper. He was shocked and wanted to extricate himself by backing away, but Qianye’s dagger had already entered his flank, all the way up to the hilt.
The blade had just entered his body when the middle-aged man immediately felt all of his origin power and essence blood rushing towards the blade and pouring out of his body. It felt as if there was a bottomless black hole on the other side of the blade sapping away his strength.
He suddenly cried out, “A blood absorption blade! You’re a vampire!”
Qianye gripped the middle-aged man’s neck and stifled his cries. The blade he was currently using was the Scarlet Edge he had obtained from Zalen. Qianye held the dagger’s hilt tightly for several moments and only withdrew it after he had drawn out the greater half of the middle-aged man’s essence blood.
The middle-aged man fell to the ground like a deflated balloon.
Qianye went around every floor of the building and only returned to the main hall after finding no other enemies.
As expected, the lady in black had already moved herself to one side and was leaning against the wall. There was an exquisite palm-sized dagger in her hands with which she had cut off her long skirt and wrapped it tightly around the wound on her thigh.
This origin gunshot wound was sustained after her origin power defenses had been crippled by Qianye, and as such, the injury was especially severe. It was fortunate that the shooter had planned to capture the target alive and had only aimed at the leg. Otherwise, this shot would’ve killed her on the spot if it struck a vital area.
The black-dressed lady had already dressed her wounds, but her head was drenched in sweat from the pain. She was just about to clamber up, but her movements halted when Qianye’s military boots appeared in her line of sight.
Qianye pulled out a first-aid drug and waved it in front of her eyes before tossing it over.
The woman in black caught the medicine and immediately injected it into her arm, sending all the fluids into her body. This type of first-aid drug possessed anesthetic properties and greatly eased her expression within moments.
Qianye crouched in front of her, then raised her chin with the Scarlet Edge and asked, “Where’s the person I’m supposed to see?”
The lady in black forced a smile and said, “Give up. If you’ve heard of the name Lone Ghosts, you should know that a single person can’t go against us. Perhaps if you leave right away and hide yourself, we might not be able to find you. That ought to allow you to live a few more years.”
Qianye smiled and gently pushed the blade tip forwards, breaking a small part of her fair skin. He then repeated the question, “Where is the person I’m supposed to see?”
Her gaze followed the blade in Qianye’s hand. As the blade pressed against her face and drew out a drop of blood, she could no longer resist crying out, “In the basement!”
“The basement here?” Qianye watched the lady in black nod with some difficulty and felt somewhat surprised. Although this matter had gotten off quite terribly, the developments seemed rather smooth.
He patted the lady’s face with the blade and said, “Bring me there.”
The lady in black ground her teeth and clambered up before limping towards the back of the building. The entrance to the basement was in the storage room. After opening it, she clenched her jaw and actually jumped down. Although the first-aid drug possessed an anesthetic effect, the impact still affected her wounds and caused her vision to darken from the intense pain.
Qianye immediately jumped down after her and supported her in passing.
It was no longer completely dark from this point onwards as a minimal level of illumination was maintained along the short corridor. There was a room at its end, likely a cellar which had been converted into a prison cell.
There was a man in his forties locked within the room. He was pinned against the prison wall with steel nails through his wrists while numerous wounds marred his body. Apparently, he had suffered cruel torture and was barely breathing.
Qianye frowned after seeing the man in the prison. “Wake him up!”
The lady in black pulled open the simple bars of the prison door and fed the man some medicine taken from the pile of items nearby.
Moments later, the man finally woke up and began to tremble after seeing the lady in black. He shouted loudly, “I’ve told you everything! I really don’t know anything else! I’m only responsible for receiving the goods and have no clue about the messenger’s identity!”
Qianye sighed and interrupted, “Have you truly told us everything?”
The man wasn't completely sober and said deliriously, “It’s absolutely true! You’ll definitely be able to find the courier with the method I gave you! Besides, haven’t you already found my coordinator?”
Qianye’s expression became cold when he turned towards the lady in black. “I’m guessing I’m this so-called courier. Who’s this coordinator then? So this person is just a middleman?”
The black-dressed lady turned pale and immediately recited an address. “There are about a dozen people there, but over half of them were killed during our raid and the remainder have been sent to our regional headquarters in Hill City. It’s possible that they’ve already been dealt with and are being sent out of the Western Continent.”
Qianye narrowed his eyes, sensing something wrong with this statement.
The information given to him described the recipient as a champion from the Zhao clan. It was just that he didn’t know who it was exactly. That champion clearly wouldn’t appear to receive the goods, so he only needed to find the agent according to the provided method and hand the boulderheart jade letter to him.
It was possible to kill a couple of people in Zhao clan territory, but a battle involving dozens of people could hardly be disguised. After exchanging moves with the Lone Ghosts members just now, he could only say that their combat strength might gain them an advantage against the local gangs but was far from being comparable to the private army or elite corps of the aristocracy.
“Who are they?”
The lady in black smiled wryly. “Us Lone Ghosts were also hired. The commissioner requested that we capture both parties involved in this matter and deliver them to a designated location. As for the details, I was not told. Those at my level know nothing about it.”
The man nailed to the wall became quite excited after hearing the conversation between Qianye and the lady in black. “You… did you come to save me? Did master Lin send you? I’m Ma Zhong! Why haven’t you released me yet?!”