Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
A couple of rope ladders rolled down from the helicopters, allowing everyone in them to descend to the ground.
A man stepped out from the crowd of people who had gathered beneath the helicopters and approached Gao Peng. “What are your orders, young master?”
All of them were wearing black battle armor and visored helmets. Though their heights were uneven, they looked sharp and cool, like unsheathed blades ready for battle.
Gao Peng looked them over.
“There’s only twelve of you. Will that be enough?” The Southern Sky Group’s security team was a few times bigger than this.
The man who had approached him took off his helmet, revealing the face of a thirty-year-old man with bushy brows, sunken eyes, and dark skin. Though he wasn’t overly attractive, the man exuded an air of maturity.
“I think you’ll find that we’re more than enough to help you resolve whatever issue you might be having with the utmost discretion,” said the man. He added, “Twenty years ago, it was Chairman Ji who saved my life. All of us here are indebted to him in some way. Now we help him handle his less… scrupulous affairs.”
Gao Peng nodded. “After helping my friends with something, I got into a bit of trouble with someone from a shady organization. I’m just an ordinary university student. This might be a bit out of my capability…”
“I understand,” said the man named Huang Ya.
Gao Peng then walked towards the taxi. “I managed to subdue him.” He opened the trunk and pulled out the taxi driver.
The driver, who had been lying unconscious inside the taxi’s trunk all this time, groggily woke up when his face hit the ground. He felt himself being dragged away.
Huang Ya began interrogating the driver in a corner. Ten minutes later, he walked back to Gao Peng, his face serene. “Young master, I have the information you want. He’s a member of a Xiangxi-based criminal group. He was going to take you back to their meeting spot. He didn’t count on you catching on to his true nature so soon. There are seven members in his group. Their strongest familiars are a mid-stage Commander-tier Night Terror Ghost and an early-stage Commander-tier Ghost Child.”
Only two Commander-tier monsters? thought Gao Peng.
He had thought that he was being targeted by a huge shadowy organization with hundreds of members under its command. He hadn’t expected to be nearly kidnapped by mere thugs.
Then again, large-scale criminal organizations, which usually kept a tighter leash on all their members, wouldn’t have been so bold as to commit their crimes out in the open.
Gao Peng looked at Huang Ya and the others and asked, “Do all of you have your familiars with you?”
“Of course we do. You can rest easy, young master. You’re only dealing with street thugs,” Huang Ya said, nodding.
After receiving Gao Peng’s orders, Huang Ya and the others climbed back into their helicopters. Gao Peng said, “Capture those two Commander-tier familiars alive if possible.”
Huang Ya looked back down from the side of his helicopter and flashed Gao Peng the okay symbol.
Then he adjusted his earpiece and spoke into the microphone. “Our target is the Xingmao building in Yuzhou’s old city area.”
…
A woman and a bald man were lying on a bed in a small room. There was a bookshelf beside the bed and an LCD television on the wall.
The occupants of the bed were a couple from Xiangxi.
The man was called Yuan Peng, and he was beginning to feel anxious. Two hours earlier, Brother Qi had been arrested by the police. It had been an hour since Brother Si had gone out, and Yuan Peng still hadn’t heard anything from him.
“Let’s go,” said Yuan Peng, sitting up and slapping the back of the woman beside him.
The woman was called Ah Li. Stray strands of hair had fallen across her beautiful face. The left side of her face had turned red after lying on her pillow for a bit too long. “Brother Peng, what’s wrong?”
Yuan Peng rubbed his bald head restlessly. “Something’s wrong. Brother Si sent me a message earlier saying that he had picked up a university student. But there hasn’t been a single message from him since then. I couldn’t even get through to him on the phone.”
Yuan Peng put on his jacket and said to the woman, “Get dressed, we’re leaving.”
“Aren’t you going to call Bin Zi and the others?” asked Ah Li.
“Brother Si might have bitten off more than he could chew. Let’s hit the road now before the cops find us,” said Yuan Peng. He had come to Yuzhou with a couple of his friends after a job back in Xiangxi. He had amassed a small fortune since arriving at Yuzhou and had already been considering ditching his friends. This was the perfect chance to do so.
Yuan Peng opened a drawer and took out a black bag that contained stacks of cash and assorted jewelry.
After putting on his running shoes, Yuan Peng pulled out a porcelain vase. A white smoke emerged from it and settled into the shape of a two-foot-tall white creature with long, delicate limbs and a pair of red eyes. It somewhat resembled the Green Haunt.
When the creature popped out of its container, it happily clung to Yuan Peng’s leg and began rubbing its oversized skull against his pants.
Yuan Peng extracted a piece of bone from his pocket and gave it to the Night Terror Ghost, which nibbled on it contentedly.
Yuan Peng was able to calm himself down considerably at the sight of his familiar, then he opened the wooden door and walked out into the corridor.
Outside, Yuan Peng could see a couple of monsters lazing about in the dark courtyard, including Bin Zi’s familiar.
When they reached the first floor, Ah Li beckoned at a wolf-like monster in the courtyard. The monster got to its feet and happily ran towards Ah Li with its tongue hanging out of its mouth.
Just when the two were about to exit the courtyard, a voice called out from behind them.
“Where you going, boss?” asked Wang Bin, curiously looking at Yuan Peng and his wife.
Yuan Peng froze, then he said, “I’m going out for dinner with Ah Li.”
“Are you thinking of running away?” asked Wang Bin.
“Run? Where could I possibly run off to? Oh, Brother Bin, you and your imagination,” said Yuan Peng, chuckling. “How about this? Why don’t you come along with us?”
Bin Zi was the master of the other Commander-tier familiar in their group.
Wang Bin asked, “If you’re just going out for dinner, why are you bringing luggage with you?”
An awkward silence fell over the courtyard at that moment.
Before Yuan Peng could speak, he suddenly began to feel his entire body going numb. Immediately after, he fell to the ground with a thump.
His wife Ah Li also collapsed to the ground beside him.
After realizing what had happened, the Night Terror Ghost let out an unearthly howl and stirred up a terrible wind in the courtyard.
Soon, dark shadows began circling in the air above the courtyard. The trees around them shook violently in the wind.
Suddenly, a horse neighed somewhere, breaking the silence of the night.
A burning red silhouette leapt over the fence into the courtyard. The sounds of knives clanging against one another filled the air, completely drowning out the wail of the ghostly wind.
The ghost-like creature behind Wang Bin hugged its master’s leg as it warily eyed the burning red horse standing in the middle of the courtyard.
