Volume 3, Chapter 80 – Bloodshed (Two-in-One)

Alai’s reasoning was very clear. He had made the decision on the spur of the moment; it was sudden, which meant excellent secrecy. And his home was in Diming Garden, an Upper City residential estate that was a genuine high-end family district and very safe.

Not only did local tycoons and politicians house their relatives there, many gang bosses’ families lived there as well. Order in that area was maintained jointly by all the upper strata, and anyone who broke the rules would face their combined fury.

“The gang in charge of Diming City right now is the Fire Serpent Gang?” Bai Xiang asked.

Alai nodded. “Yes.”

He had already mentioned this to her on the way.

“Who ran things before the Fire Serpent Gang?”

“…The Iron Hand Gang.”

“And when those two gangs traded places, Diming Garden came through unscathed too?”

Alai fell silent.

He had to admit that the quality of the so-called upper class here wasn’t actually that high. It wasn’t as if people were killing each other and still caring about rules.

But Diming Garden was still the best option he could think of. At least there were no roaming thugs there trying to pry at people’s windows in the middle of the night.

“So you plan to leave tonight?” Alai asked.

He thought Bai Xiang was angry and dissatisfied with his arrangements.

“That was my original plan,” Bai Xiang said. “But now I’ve changed my mind.”

Alai: ?

He couldn’t figure out what the connection between those two sentences was.

But Bai Xiang had already gotten in the car, so Alai had no choice but to return to the driver’s seat. He also told the other security staff to get into their respective vehicles, keeping the convoy in formation as they drove on.

Leaning back against the seat, Bai Xiang tugged her mask down a little and closed her eyes, as if dozing.

Alai didn’t dare disturb her. Then halfway there, she suddenly spoke. “Do you trust your family?”

“…Of course I do,” Alai frowned.

For some reason, he had a bad feeling.

“Do you think everything that happened today was a coincidence?” Bai Xiang opened her eyes and looked straight ahead. “The fact that you went to the airport to pick someone up was never going to stay secret. They just didn’t know who you were picking up. Yet at that exact moment, someone let a Demon Pool loose…do you still think a decision you made on the fly could stay confidential?”

Her tone was very flat, so flat that the sentence seemed born to end with a period.

Alai’s brow was deeply furrowed now. He followed her logic through and realized it really did add up.

“Someone sold the information,” Bai Xiang said, turning her head to look at him. “The whole incident at the company was to force you to make a choice. They knew you would choose this. All of it was within certain people’s expectations.”

Alai’s mouth twitched. The veins stood out on the back of his hand where it gripped the steering wheel.

He didn’t dare follow that line of thought all the way, because he knew that once “those people” started plotting against a target, every link of their plan would be tightly connected, leaving no room to breathe.

If they had calculated that I would bring Miss Bai back home, that means my home situation is probably already…

At that, Alai immediately took out his phone and tried calling home.

His mother picked up. The elderly woman answered a few questions and proved that nothing had happened there yet.

Alai finally let out a breath.

But that wasn’t enough.

He frowned even more tightly.

There was also that kid Fei Ming. His ma had said the boy hadn’t stayed at home the past two nights. It was hard to say whether he’d been taken.

“I’m the one who dragged your family into this,” Bai Xiang said, turning her head back. “You can pull over if you want.”

Rеαԁ oո KаtRеαⅾiոgСаfe

But Alai didn’t.

“I’m already tied to you…” he said quietly. “It’s too late to cut things off now…”

They had done their best to cover her up, but Bai Xiang’s features were still far too distinctive. If someone wanted to move against her, he believed there was no way they could hide the group’s movements. Even if he put her out of the car and let her leave Diming City, what difference would it make?

Once there was a crack, it would never fully close again.

Facing people they had already offended, the gangs’ standard practice was to pull up the roots. Nobody would be smiling and saying it had all been a misunderstanding.

“First tell me who’s after you,” Alai said, taking a deep breath.

“I still have some resources here. If we’re clear about what’s going on, maybe we can still smooth things over.”

“There’s no smoothing this over,” Bai Xiang shook her head.

She couldn’t guess whose order it was exactly, but she could roughly understand that the pull of strings was coming from Yujing.

Guo Rongzhi had put it very well. It wasn’t just the Federal nations who wanted to capture her for research. Those imperial relatives and nobles hiding in the court’s shadow were also eager for her to die abroad.

Especially after she had crossed swords with Qin Wuyang.

The ambition that had been simmering under the surface probably couldn’t be held back any longer.

Alai could read the subtext. He shot Bai Xiang a deep look, then took another long breath and did his best to keep his driving steady.

From start to finish, only Bolu in the backseat was completely lost.

He had found the trip boring and fallen asleep, only to wake up and hear all this explosive content.

What are they talking about?

Bolu stared.

Why did it sound like something big was about to happen?

“Do you have bulletproof vests in the car?” Bai Xiang continued, pushing the topic further.

“Yes…under the seats. And some basic weapons as well.”

“Tell your people to put them on.”

“Oh, right.” Bai Xiang glanced back at Bolu.

“If you have anything in his size, give him one too.”

Bolu: ???

Wait, I just took a nap in the car. How did that turn into me needing a bulletproof vest?

“I’ve told them,” Alai said after making the call, then asked Bai Xiang, “Next…should I turn around and head for the airport now?”

He really was loyal.

Bai Xiang was finally completely sure.

A normal retainer, at this point, would first be consumed by anxiety over their family’s safety and future. Once they knew the conflict couldn’t be resolved, they would firmly choose to go home and collect their people.

But Alai had been thinking only of this side the whole time.

He was even willing to take huge risks in order to escort her back to Great Yu on that plane.

“I don’t like being the one to take a loss,” Bai Xiang said, closing her eyes again as if to nap. “Go home first. Get your people out, then we’ll talk.”

With tension hanging over them, the convoy turned onto a wide road lined with coconut trees. Villas stood neatly along the sides, and army patrols marched by.

Of course they were stopped and checked. Alai presented the relevant documents, slipped a roll of cash into the officer’s hand, and only then were they allowed into the estate, where they pulled up in front of one of the villas.

Rеαd οո КatRеαdiոgCαfе

“Fei Ming!”

A hard brake brought the car to a stop. Alai shouted in fury as he jumped out and grabbed the boy standing at the door.

“Look at you…tell me! What did they do to you?”

Huh?

Fei Ming had been agonizing over whether to tell him what had happened. The question stunned him.

This…this isn’t how this is supposed to go, is it?

Still, with the tension already wound this high and given how much he trusted this older brother in normal times, he stiffened his neck and said with difficulty, “I won’t make things hard for you!”

With that, he pulled a small pill bottle from his pocket and tipped his head back, about to pour the contents into his mouth.

Smack.

Alai slapped the bottle away, grabbed him by the collar, and roared, “Didn’t I tell you that you can always trust me?”

Fei Ming pursed his lips and nodded.

“Then what did you think you were doing just now?”

Alai was livid, raising his hand to slap him.

But just then, he heard a harsh metallic screech, as if massive iron blocks were grinding against each other, followed by a thunderous boom. He turned and saw an armored vehicle on the street outside the estate split cleanly in two.

The dark-skinned soldiers who had been patrolling earlier were thrown into chaos. Led by their officer, they shouted in Wetnu dialect and rushed toward them, guns in hand.

Alai stared. He was just about to order the security team to return fire when he saw Bai Xiang rise into the air from the rear of the car, sword hanging down in her hand, pure white ponytail trailing behind her.

“Help him get his people,”

she said, half turning and lowering her head to give Bolu the order. Then she became a streak of afterimage, crossing more than ten meters in a flash and slashing out a strand of sword-Qi with a casual stroke.

The sword-Qi passed straight through the two frontmost soldiers, cutting them diagonally in half, then exploded among the rest.

Shhhk, shhhk, shhhk—

The backdrafting storm carved the whole group into minced flesh, grinding their guns to scrap along with them.

Bai Xiang still wasn’t satisfied. She jumped down into the street, picked up a rocket launcher, aimed at the armored vehicle swinging its turret toward them in the distance, and fired, turning it into a blooming fireball.

Th-this…

Even with his big, sturdy frame, Bolu had never seen anyone go head-on with the army like this. His jaw hung slack, and the way he looked at Bai Xiang was like he was looking at a ghost.

This wasn’t me starting it.

Emptying every rocket launcher she could find and indulging her FPS cravings, Bai Xiang grumbled inwardly.

Her soul strength surpassed that of Divine Fetus sword cultivators many times over. Details that a normal earth-master could never perceive couldn’t slip past her.

She had noticed long ago that the officer who took the bribe had never stopped staring at her.

Especially after the convoy entered the estate, the patrols outside had been reinforced by two more squads. The new arrivals all checked their weapons, and they kept glancing this way.

When Alai’s little brother, that boy, had raised his hand to take the pill, those people had reacted. The officer at the head had clearly shouted something into his radio while pointing in this direction, and the armored vehicle’s turret had rotated in line with his gesture.

So this was self-defense.

Bai Xiang tossed the rocket launcher aside and slid her sword back into its sheath.

Noon sunlight spilled down onto her black trench coat, glinting faintly.

Every one of Mingfei Airlines’ security guards was staring with their mouths agape, just like Bolu. At last someone’s nerves snapped, and they sat down hard on the ground.

Read оn KаtRеαⅾіոɡCаfе

They… Most of them were never meant to be deathsworn. When Guo Rongzhi had built up these businesses, it had only been for convenient travel. He had never intended for the company to develop in this direction.

So of course they were terrified and afraid.

This was the army.

So many soldiers had just been slaughtered, and the armored unit destroyed. None of them dared think too hard about how Diming City’s regime would settle accounts with them.

“There won’t be a Diming City anymore.”

Bai Xiang murmured the words under her breath.

The army’s movements had already made it clear that this incident involved more than just gangs.

Since the authorities weren’t clean, they couldn’t blame her for hitting too hard.

She took out her phone, opened the Demon Kite suit’s control app, quickly selected the Demon King mecha, confirmed that its weapons and power were all green, and hit the “Deploy” button.

“Boom!!!”

At Diming City Airport, a steel arm punched straight through a plane’s fuselage, tearing open the metal shell and exposing the machine beneath to the sky.

It was a beast. Its upper body was humanoid, its lower body folded up, the treads on its legs forming a tank chassis. Both arms and its back bristled with rocket pods and electromagnetic cannon tubes.

Bai Xiang remote-controlled it, choosing “Advance” and “Identify and Attack.”

Whoosh!!!

The Demon King mecha’s eyes lit a bright red. It plunged into the terminal building, tearing a gap open by brute force, then burst out onto the street amid the staff’s screams, targeting soldiers and police exclusively.

Those troops had been sent there to seal off the airport. They all had pictures of Bai Xiang, Alai, and Bolu, and had orders to open fire on sight.

But they had never imagined the attack would come from their rear.

The cannons on every tank and military vehicle were pointed forward. When the Demon King mecha broke through the terminal, they were all caught completely off guard.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

A volley of rockets poured from the Demon King mecha, falling like rain into the enemy’s formation and raising a sea of fire.

As soon as an armored vehicle swung its turret around, the mecha raised an arm and fired an electromagnetic cannon shot, punching through and shredding the armor, tearing up a chunk of the street with it.

Boom, boom, boom, boom—

It was total, overwhelming firepower. Compared to the havoc the Demon King mecha was wreaking at the airport, what Bai Xiang had done earlier barely counted as a warm-up.

At Diming City Hall, Mayor Walker was waiting for news.

He was a middle-aged man with a face full of jowls, apparently fat but actually strong, his skin the same dusky shade as the others and his hair in tight curls. It was worth noting that even for a formal occasion like this, he insisted on wearing the Luohou army uniform.

And in truth, that was what he was. Compared to the soft title of “mayor,” he much preferred his subordinates to call him “general.”

“General!”

A messenger shoved the door open.

“The airport is under attack!”

“We believe they had hidden heavy weaponry!”

How did it jump to the airport?

Walker frowned.

Hadn’t they just said everything was going according to plan, that the boy would slip the poison into the food?

“Get support over there immediately!”

Rеαd oո КаtRеаdіոɡСаfe

General Walker swept his arm in a commanding gesture.

“Send the 36th Division and the 17th Division!”

“And what about Xibo’s people? Make him do his part!”

“I want to see just how much firepower they’ve got!”

That should do it.

Bai Xiang locked in the “Identify and Attack” mode, turned the screen off, and pocketed her phone.

She had thought she wouldn’t need this beast. Now that she’d brought it out, it was only to divert attention and make them think she had fled back to the airport.

With all the witnesses here eliminated, things should stay muddled for a while, long enough for her to find whoever was pulling the strings.

Dropping back into the front yard, she saw that most of the guards had already scattered.

Bolu and Alai were helping an elderly woman down the steps, carefully settling her into a car. Only then did the two of them look at Bai Xiang with the wide-eyed awe of people seeing her for the first time.

“Mr. Guo did warn me that you were prone to extraordinary acts,” Alai said with some difficulty.

“I just never imagined this kind of extraordinary.”

Bai Xiang didn’t think much of it.

After grilling Alai for information, she had learned that Luohou was currently ruled by warring warlords, barely a real country at all.

Half of Luohou was ablaze with war. Prince Saiwei was tied up commanding his elite troops against the armies of Qinghuai and Stansa, with no time to worry about the home front—that is, about changes in Diming City’s regime.

It was an obvious gap in their defenses. It was easy to predict that no matter how much chaos she stirred up here, as long as she didn’t publicly reveal her identity, the official government of Luohou would have no capacity to punish her.

So what was there to be afraid of?

Besides, Senior Brother Guo had said as much. With him hinting that heavily, wouldn’t it be letting him down if she didn’t make a proper mess of things?

Having lived two lives, Bai Xiang understood one truth very clearly: temporary concessions never solved anything.

You had to avenge, to hit back hard, to make the other side fear you. Only then could a conflict truly be settled.

As for tactical nukes, space-based weapons…

Hmm.

She could always run a hot-imaging lock-on test later.

In theory, by using a qi membrane to block the heat from escaping, she could make all of those lock-on systems fail.

But she hadn’t actually tested it. She made a mental note to try.

“You. Come here.”

Pointing at Fei Ming, Bai Xiang ordered him to step forward.

Fei Ming obeyed, looking at her like he was staring at the devil.

“Who put you up to this?” Bai Xiang asked, looking down at him.

“It…it was the Fire Serpent Gang’s boss…Xibo!” Fei Ming stammered.

Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes. “Where is he?”

“At Xueli Bar.” Fei Ming pressed his lips together hard and glanced at Alai, his attitude growing steadier.

“I can only tell you that an hour ago, he was still there.”