This Is the Limit of the Sky

On the "Those Who Pierce the Clouds" leaderboard, there was no sign of Han Qingyu's name or code name, nor could he find Wu Xu or Rusty Sister further down. Temporarily setting aside his curiosity and not rushing to study the rest of the list, Han Qingyu turned his head to glance at the foreign girl beside him, who had a brown braid and snow-white skin. She seemed to belong to the category of people who lived quite well here. If he believed she was genuinely grieving—and her current state did seem genuine—it was something that made Han Qingyu feel rather awkward. In this city he had come to for the very first time, a complete stranger—apparently more than one—was grieving and feeling sorrow over his death. What the hell was this?! "So, just because his name isn't on the list, it means he's dead?" Han Qingyu asked once more. Lynne seemed stung by the repeated question, but she still slowly nodded once, then twice, before saying, "On last year's third-quarter list, he was ranked first, and by the fourth quarter, he was still second... So even if he didn't have any battle records after that, he should have stayed on it, do you understand? But this time, for the first-quarter list, they took him off completely." Lynne explained that this only happened when all the intelligence and information agencies responsible for compiling the leaderboards in the City of Iniquity confirmed that The King was truly dead. She sniffled; there was real snot running from her nose. But Han Qingyu was not the type of person to pass someone a tissue. He merely turned his head away and said, "But none of you even knew him. Why do you care so much?" "Hmm?" Seeming to have never faced this question before, Lynne thought it over seriously for a moment before speaking. "Because we live and grew up here—the place in the world that relies on martial force the most, and reveres it the most." "People here follow the strong. We long to become strong too." "When we were young, we trained hard, and every one of us fantasized about becoming a legend." "His rise over the past year was the very legend of our fantasies." "Can you understand? He represented our dreams. It was all so brilliant..." Lynne's hands gestured erratically in the air, sloshing alcohol from her glass. She stopped, staring blankly, and said, "Yet it was also so brief." "Oh." Han Qingyu's response made Lynne feel like choking on a mouthful of blood. *You're from Huaxia! Aren't you moved to tears? Even just a little melancholy? Don't you want to become him? Or follow in his footsteps?* "Still, he was Azure. Shouldn't you hate him?" Han Qingyu continued to ask out of curiosity. "Who told you we have to hate Azure?! Who told you that?!" Lynne finally couldn't help getting agitated and said, "Fine, no matter who told you that, let me tell you right now: it isn't like that. Even Slog—your big boss, Slog—he once went to Huaxia to assassinate The King... But do you think he hated Azure? No! He went to assassinate him to carry out his mission, and to challenge himself. But in reality, Slog has said more than once how much he admired him." Han Qingyu: "Oh." *What the hell kind of logic is that?! And am I supposed to keep working here or not?!* "There are indeed people in the City of Iniquity who hate Azure, just as there are people here who hate Snow Lotus, Pure Purgatory, Voyage, and Earth's Core... But you have to understand, the vast majority of us only want to survive." "Especially since we face the Great Spikes most frequently and fight most frequently, we understand that cruelty and hardship even better. We long so desperately to survive..." "So we don't hate Azure. Why would we hate it?! When the day comes that the full-scale invasion truly arrives, I believe most of us would be willing to stand with Azure. As long as they're willing too." The girl's impassioned defense sounded like a speech. "Understood." Han Qingyu nodded thoughtfully, then looked down at his watch. He hadn't touched his drink. Lynne stared at him blankly, her eyes filled with disbelief. Han Qingyu kept his head down, continuing to count down the time. *Thunk!* A heavy sound. Three source energy blocks were slammed down in front of Han Qingyu by a hand with red nails. Waiting for him to turn his head, Lynne said in all seriousness, "You are the most obnoxious person I've ever met, bar none." Han Qingyu: "Oh." "I swear I'll never give you money again," Lynne said. "I'm sorry," Han Qingyu said. "..." The sudden turnaround caught Lynne completely off guard. Lynne let out a whimper... tears and snot streaming down as she laughed. Smiling through her tears, she felt a mixture of irritation and helplessness—the kind of feeling where she was so thoroughly enraged that she couldn't stay angry anymore. "I'm not so childish as to think someone who looks a bit like him is actually him. I'm not a brainless bimbo like Jenna. I'm never talking to you again." "I'm sorry." "It's fine," Lynne replied. Then her mind wandered for a moment: *If he had surgery to erase the scar on his face, there'd probably be plenty of girls here willing to date him, wouldn't there?* Jenna had just told her to hire him to stand behind the curtain... She had even prepared the combat uniform of the Huaxia Sole Witness Legion, a major's dress uniform, and two sabers... The King's iconic loadout, twin sabers, one high and one low, both extending from the right shoulder. Unlike Jenna, Lynne truly disliked the idea, so she hadn't mentioned it. She didn't want The King to be appropriated in such a way; it was sickening. "Have you ever been in love?" But considering that he could actually lead a different kind of life this way, Lynne asked anyway. Han Qingyu paused. "No." "Really? Neither have I," Lynne said offhandedly. "Oh. I'm not dating you. I still have to go home for blind dates." "...Get lost!" "There are twenty-two seconds left." "Get out, right now!" "All right." Han Qingyu set down his glass, took the source energy blocks, and left, taking the paper with the leaderboards with him as he went. Lynne got out of the car, crying as she kicked her white sports car until it was covered in footprints. ... "What's that? That paper you brought back last night?" When they were having breakfast back home, waiting until Ao Yong and Qian Daofeng left, Rusty Sister couldn't help asking. "Oh, a leaderboard compiled by the City of Iniquity," Han Qingyu mumbled around a mouthful of egg. He pulled the paper from his pocket and smoothed it out on the table. At the top of the page: [This Is the Limit of the Sky] 1. Chen Buer (Commander of the Huaxia Sole Witness Legion) (Needs no discussion). 2. Ne (Leader of Snow Lotus) (We must assume so). 3. Bochen (Strongest expert of the Americas, Azure General). 4. Christine (Star of the Mediterranean) (Strongest woman in the world). 5. Alphonse (Azure's first-generation Star of Azure) (Scarce information; perhaps very strong). 5. Unnamed (The loner who appeared in Antarctica) (Suspected to be the missing famous general of Xiongzhanli, Butcher Ivan). 7. Shu You (Rank 1 on the City of Iniquity assassin rankings). 7. Ye Jian (From Azure to Snow Lotus) (Behind the complexity, perhaps he is even stronger than we imagine). 9. Amugulang (Deep Sea organization's top combatant) (From a place with no sea). 10. Jiang Longchi (When he is lucid, his ranking probably should be higher) (When he is muddled, his ranking... forget it, in that state we can't find him at all).