“Boss, I’ve just managed to get into the Arts Society through some connections,” Gao Yang whispered on the phone, speaking from his newly rented apartment in the Big Dipper Building.
“Hmm, tell me about the progress.”
“Nothing new really. It just feels a bit…odd. They seem genuinely committed to doing good, no tricks involved,” Gao Yang said.
Chen Yidong sneered, “A small club trying to play at charity? This afternoon, even the Eighth and Seventh Districts heard about the pigeon coop incident. I heard some people want to protest against me. Doing charity right to my doorstep is laughable.”
“Judging by their current actions, they have big ambitions, but they don’t seem connected to the higher-ups. What should I do next?” Gao Yang asked.
“Good, they’re not connected to the higher-ups. I was worried it was some bigwig playing games. Keep being an undercover agent. Once you confirm they have no connection with the higher-ups, find out where the Arts Society boss, Zhang Qinghuan, is, and then I’ll arrange for someone to kill him,” Chen Yidong chuckled, “Societies need to have their methods. If you don’t like it, eliminate it.”
“Understood. I’ve been assigned to his side by someone named Luo Wanya. That guy says he sees potential in me and wants to let me get a good understanding of the Arts Society,” Gao Yang said, “I might not be able to get Zhang Qinghuan’s whereabouts in the next few days, but it won’t take more than three.”
Gao Yang made a promise.
Chen Yidong said, “Three days then. It’s not hard to kill that Zhang Qinghuan. Quickly find out his whereabouts, kill him, the Arts Society will fall apart, and then you can come back.”
……
Qing Chen walked out of the Black Swan Restaurant at midnight, pulled his collar tighter, and exhaled a thick plume of white mist.
The winter in City 22 was very cold, especially after the curfew, the deserted streets felt even colder.
He no longer needed to take care of those drunkards he and Shendai Yunluo had jointly intoxicated. He’d told Manager Wang to leave two people at the reception desk to clean up the mess.
He was the cash cow of the Black Swan, so his words carried significant weight.
Qing Chen walked towards the Light Rail station, taking the empty intercity Light Rail back to the Ninth District.
In the past, the Light Rail was always packed at night, carrying all the midnight workers from Lower Three Districts returning home.
But now there was a curfew, and many residents of Lower Three Districts had lost their jobs.
The Light Rail was much more desolate.
The surveillance cameras on this Light Rail had been damaged by thieves; it was a famous underground trading place in the Lower Three Districts.
Just as the Light Rail was about to enter the Ninth District, Zhang Mengqian came from the next carriage, threw a black bag at his feet, and walked on.
Qing Chen picked up the bag and, as the Light Rail slowed down before entering the station, opened the window and jumped out.
He held the bag in his teeth, clinging tightly to the outer wall of the building where the Light Rail station was located, like a gecko, climbing down backward.
He changed his clothes in the shadows, his attire resembling that of the Wildlanders, starkly different from his image in the Black Swan Restaurant.
Twenty minutes later, Qing Chen, sticking to the shadows of the city, arrived at a bar in the Sixth District called “Under the Neon Lights, We Drop Our Pants and Fart,” a name that screamed punk style.
Qing Chen muttered softly, “That’s quite a name.”
He slowly pushed open the door, then clicked the bar door shut from the inside.
At that moment, over thirty Shendai Consortium Time Travelers were laughing and chatting, watching a stripper gyrate on stage.
They hadn’t even noticed anyone coming in from outside.
Qing Chen walked past someone, his palm lightly resting on the neck of a Time Traveler, manipulating it.
With a click, the Time Traveler tilted his head and fell into the deafening music.
Qing Chen walked through the crowd without restraint. By the time anyone noticed him, he had already killed more than a dozen people.
“Baka!” Someone saw the corpses stretching from the door to the inside, and immediately panicked. He tried to draw his pistol from his armpit holster, but Qing Chen was already in front of him.
The boy struck him horizontally on the temple with a punch, his thumb joint pressing against the temple, the instantaneous shock shattering countless blood vessels inside the other person’s brain.
When the Time Traveler lay on the ground, both his eyeballs had been seeped red with blood.
A Time Traveler, unarmed, charged at Qing Chen with a chair.
But as he approached Qing Chen, Qing Chen crouched down and struck him on the inside of his knee with a punch. With a crack, his knee instantly fractured, protruding outwards, and bone fragments pierced through his skin.
Qing Chen moved through the bar like a ghost, striking each person’s joints and vital points with punches, steady and precise.
But as he killed his way to the edge of the stage, the stage where the stripper stood suddenly cracked, and two people emerged from below.
Experts!
Drawing swords!
Sword light!
The bar’s lights shone on the blades, seemingly condensed, splashing back towards Qing Chen along with the katana.
Qing Chen’s pupils constricted sharply, two Ittō-ryū warriors!
These two didn’t know how long they had been ambushing here. While others were drinking and reveling, they had remained calm and patient, hidden here waiting for their prey to appear.
Ever since the Time Travelers began disappearing frequently, it had caught the attention of the Shendai Consortium. They dispersed the hundreds of Time Travelers, forbidding them from staying home alone.
They set up this ambush to catch whoever was killing the Time Travelers.
They had waited.
But what they waited for wasn’t an opportunity for capture, but the fate of death.
They waited well, next time, don’t wait.
Qing Chen sneered, as if he had foreseen the sudden appearance of the sword light, skillfully dodging the two katanas by moving sideways.
The sword light was like a waterfall. When it slashed past, two deep cracks appeared on the bar’s ceiling.
He didn’t use all his trump cards, but instead charged forward in a head-on collision, charging like a divine ox on a snowy mountain, his posture ancient, simple yet filled with explosive power.
Seeing that their first strike had missed, the two Ittō-ryū immediately retracted their stance, “Iaijutsu”.
But before the crescent-moon-like sword light could turn, it stopped abruptly.
Qing Chen had somehow grabbed both their wrists, and with a slight twist of his thumbs, he dislocated the wrists of the two Ittō-ryū!
With a clang, two long katanas fell to the ground.
The two Ittō-ryū warriors were astonished: “A-Class?!”
When Qing Chen and Zhang Mengqian cooperated to kill, they always lured and killed one at a time, giving people the illusion that the killer might not be that strong.
But what they didn’t know was that the reason Qing Chen only lured one at a time was not because he couldn’t kill more, but because Xiao Mengqian was still an ordinary person, and could only Face[-] one Shendai Time Traveler at a time.
Besides, the Shendai Consortium’s Time Travelers were at most D-Class. What organization would use an A-Class to deal with such ants? Which A-Class would be so shameless?
But the speed Qing Chen had just displayed was definitely the speed of an A-Class!
Otherwise, the two B-Class Ittō-ryū would never have been so easily controlled!
The two were also ruthless. They both stepped forward, using their arms and ribs to clamp Qing Chen’s left and right hands.
At this moment, the two Ittō-ryū simultaneously drew short swords from their waists, slashing upwards diagonally, the two flanking Qing Chen.
But at this moment, they felt a numbness in their bodies.
It was as if thunder had come from the killer between them. There was nothing outwardly apparent, but golden electric arcs ran through their bodies and blood, causing them to tremble involuntarily.
It was the power of thunder.
Ordinary Awakened Ones who have mastered thunder tend to use it in the most explosive way, but Qing Chen preferred to explore more delicate methods, such as along the way, he only needed to burst out invisible thunder in his body, and the surveillance footage would become disordered due to changes in the magnetic field. Similarly, in close-quarters combat, he used thunder to cause paralysis and stiffness in his opponent.
Qing Chen smiled, breaking free from the two, and slashing at their necks.
In this battle, Qing Chen was becoming more adept at dealing with battles at his level.
He didn’t linger on the battlefield, but after using Marionette to sacrifice the bodies of the two B-Class, he turned and left.
When he reopened the bar door, he retracted and released the thunder in his body several times in quick succession, a huge electromagnetic pulse suddenly forming, destroying all the electronic components in the bar.
There were several bangs, and the bar was filled with the smell of burnt electronic components.
Ten minutes later, dozens of Off-road Vehicles arrived.
Shendai Yunhe, wearing a thick black military cloak, walked into the bar with a cold expression.
He crouched down to examine the injuries of all the Time Travelers, frowning: “The savage blows to the joints and vital points are like the handiwork of Fire Pit and Black Spade?”
“Sir, besides Fire Pit and Black Spade, the Federation also has many experts who are skilled in joint techniques and close-quarters combat,” said a military officer. “This place is too far from the base of Fire Pit and Black Spade. It shouldn’t be them.”
“The Fire Pit’s Grand Elder has gone north, anything is possible,” Shendai Yunhe said coldly. “One of the Ittō-ryū has a feud with Black Spade. Previously, that Ittō-ryū led a raid on the Wildlanders settlement in the west, and Black Spade has vowed to kill him.”
A soldier ran out from the back of the bar: “Sir, all the electrical appliances here have been destroyed by an EMP bomb, and nothing can be seen on the surveillance cameras.”
Shendai Yunhe sneered: “Check, check all the surveillance cameras within a ten-kilometer radius, I don’t believe he can avoid all of them!”
Half an hour later, someone brought over an LCD screen, showing a holographic projection of a figure in Wilderness Hunters clothing walking alone in the shadows of a long street.
Vaguely, Shendai Yunhe could still see the black totem on the other person’s Face[-], mysterious and magnificent.
“Blackheart A?” Shendai Yunhe frowned: “He actually made a personal appearance.”
At this moment, Shendai Yunhe felt something strange. First it was the mysterious earth element expert from the Qing Family, then Daybreak, then Black Spade.
It’s as if the whole world is targeting the Shendai Consortium, and they’ve all come to City 22!
“Issue a wanted notice for Xu Linsen, a reward of 30 million for anyone who provides clues!” Shendai Yunhe said coldly.