From the beach toward the city, Shu You walked alone with a silver blade slung across his back, the sea behind him and what seemed like an ocean ahead of him as well.
Beneath the night sky, the crowd parted to both sides like an ebbing tide, watching in silent regard.
"When a man strides forward in silence, the people of an entire city quietly, instinctively make way for him."
"Who would ever guess he just went into debt..."
Walking down through the crowd from high to low ground, that was roughly the sight He Tangtang took in. It filled him with envy and admiration, making him feel that this was how a true hero of the mortal realm ought to be.
Still, being a prominent figure naturally came with the shackles of maintaining one's image. Moreover, Shu You had been the city's foremost figure for the past ten-odd years; bearing, flair, mystery, and distance were all things he had to possess.
Upon stepping ashore, Shu You quickly noticed that Black Hand's men had completely vacated the scene. The battlefield had been swept clean, harvested down to the very last scrap.
It was not hard to deduce what had happened. This was a matter he was supposed to handle, yet the Azure Dragon Gang had moved faster than expected. These fellows, who had only cropped up a little over half a year ago, felt just like bandits.
Without lingering or saying a word, Shu You simply walked alone through the crowd, departing from the seashore.
Then, from deep within the flanking beaches and the desert, a thousand whistles rose, receding into the night...
This was the most formidable faction in the City of Iniquity, its name poetically rendered by Huaxians as "White Hair Born."
In this mortal ambush, they ultimately had not waited long enough for Alphonse to disembark.
***
Shu You and his people had left, yet the spectating crowd still showed no signs of dispersing.
As the battle finally drew to a close and emotions began to settle, they started piecing things together from the beginning, only then realizing how grand a scheme they had witnessed in the flesh tonight.
The most glaring event within the scheme was Black Hand's ambush of A'jing and the others from the Azure Dragon Gang.
Tonight's entire fireworks display had been part of the setup, even the direction of the display, which had guided the crowd toward the shore.
Extending from that, it revealed the ties between Black Hand and Alphonse, the arrival of Azure's first-generation Starlight... Black Hand had actually intended to leave the City of Iniquity for good.
Looking back now, Shu You's side must have known about all of Black Hand's moves and preparations well in advance.
It was just that they had not notified or warned anyone. Instead, they had used the opportunity to set a plot within a plot, lying in wait for Alphonse's arrival.
In this web of schemes woven by the big shots, the seven from the Azure Dragon Gang led by A'jing had originally been the prey or the bait.
So, in simple terms, this battle had been a rebellion by the prey and bait.
The key factors in breaking the scheme included the surprisingly formidable combat strength of the Azure Dragon Gang's seven-member squad, the arrival of that lone Huaxian ship, Second Lieutenant Wen's rifle and his dazzling performance...
Yet the most fundamental, core factor still rested on the Azure Dragon Gang's A'jing.
The rumors were confirmed: A'jing was *that* Major Qing. On this Huaxian Lunar New Year's Eve, The King had advanced to super combat power, and in his very first battle as a super, he had slain a super on the field.
"So at the end of the day, it's still strength that calls the shots in this world. 'One part strength overcomes ten parts skill,' as the old Huaxian saying goes, I think." Murmurs rippled through the crowd, and their gazes turned.
For at that moment, Major Qing had finally come ashore as well.
Without any deliberation, he was instantly accorded virtually the same treatment as Shu You. As Major Qing strode forward, the crowd on the beach silently and automatically parted to both sides.
"This... whoa!" He Tangtang let out a low gasp at the sight... As one of the people closest to him, only now did he truly realize:
Qingzi had just become Han Qingyu again, and he was now a super. In this city, he possessed a legend of his own and a name that had once been spoken of in whispers: The King! Even if, among their group, he could still turn into Han Qingqing, Han Qinglou, Han Qingshe, or Han Qinghuaci at any given moment...
By the beach, aside from Zhe Qiuhong who had headed back early, the remaining five were all present. That included Wu Xu, the most heavily injured, supported by the Little Prince and He Tangtang, standing there waiting for Qingzi together.
A welcome for a comrade-in-arms, so to speak.
Wen Jifei smiled without a word, tossing a pack of cigarettes and a lighter across to him.
Qingzi was a super now, and they had survived yet again. Once more...
*Things will probably be a bit easier from now on, won't they?* Plague Chicken thought. Right now, he had nothing else on him.
So there was likely an element of celebration and congratulations in the gesture.
Just like on Han Qingyu's birthday back in their sophomore year of high school, when Wen Jifei had given him an imported fountain pen, pretending to be utterly casual as he tossed it over box and all.
That time, the fountain pen had slipped from the box, ruining the nib.
Han Qingyu hurriedly reached out and caught the cigarettes and lighter. He had no daily smoking habit, but at some point—likely corrupted by Plague Chicken—he had started smoking one after a fight.
The very first cigarette of his life had apparently been after the final exam of the gaokao, also given to him by Wen Jifei.
His white shirt was filthy beyond recognition, stained with both blood and dirt. Han Qingyu tugged at a torn sleeve, flicked a cigarette out, and caught it between his lips... Cupping his hands around the flame with his head bowed, he lit it, then handed the pack and lighter back to Wen Jifei.
"Everything sorted? Then let's head back."
Visually speaking, it looked rather cool.
*Who would ever guess he almost got hacked to death by Shu You just now for extortion...*
He Tangtang puffed out his chest, and the six of them walked forward together, their soles crunching in the sand as they moved through the crowd parted on either side.
***
"What's the deal with Old Crab? I saw him standing on the beach, and people were saying he was suppressing Alphonse. I was completely bewildered... Is he really the super we were promised?" Wen Jifei asked in a low voice using their hometown dialect as they walked.
"Yeah, he is," Han Qingyu answered in dialect.
"A super?!"
"The promised super."
Han Qingyu continued, "The Council thought he was one and hid him away like a treasure. He thought so himself, too. It's actually quite touching—he volunteered to come help us this time, and he even flipped a table at the Council people over it."
"Really? Impressive that he remembered us after becoming a super. You bullied him so badly in the past, yet he became a super and didn't even think about getting revenge on you first," Wen Jifei said with a grin.
"Right?!" Han Qingyu chuckled as well, pondered for a moment, and added, "As for his actual strength... he has made some progress. His treatment over the past year or so must have been pretty good, and he's gotten very confident. But if it came to a real fight, Tangtang could chuck him into the sea."
"Excuse me, show your lord and master a little respect, please. In the future, when you're explaining that someone is weak, try not to use me as the benchmark. Running around with you guys is humiliating enough as it is!" He Tangtang interjected discontentedly in a low voice.
"Alright."
"Understood."
Both Wen Jifei and Han Qingyu agreed before suddenly doing a double take. They turned their heads and asked in shock, "How can you understand our dialect?"
"Why? Because I've heard it way too much," He Tangtang rolled his eyes, taking it completely for granted.
In truth, because Qingzi and Plague Chicken used their hometown dialect far too often—discussing plans, even teaming up to cheat at cards—He Tangtang, Wu Xu, and Rusty Sister could all understand the general gist of it by now.
"No wonder I started losing at cards lately... Well, this has its perks, actually. Saves us from having to keep using Azure's tactical hand signs and classified codes in the future," Wen Jifei muttered.
Meanwhile, He Tangtang asked, "So what are we going to do with Old Pang now?"
"For now, I plan to treat him as the real deal—a super from Huaxia—and stash him away," Han Qingyu said. "We can just keep him with Boss Dao."
That way... the Azure Dragon Gang would have "two supers." The deterrence of being the only dual-super faction in the City of Iniquity, plus so many top-tiers under the Azure Dragon Gang's banner, and Boss Dao whom nobody could read... Tsk tsk, all of a sudden, quite the terrifying lineup.
"What about Shu You? What's his deal exactly?" Wen Jifei asked next.
"He seems like a pretty good guy," Han Qingyu explained with a chuckle. "Just now, I was courting death so hard that even I wanted to hack myself to death, yet he still honored his promise to Old Chen and insisted on waiting until next year before hacking me to death."
"Oh, then he's far better than us..." Wen Jifei didn't find anything odd about the statement at all. "That's good, then. After all, we share a mortal enemy with him."
Han Qingyu nodded. "Yeah, but there's a problem."
"What is it?" Wen Jifei asked.
"He knows we're looking for the Bones of Eternal Life. He has six of them in his possession. So he can definitely guess that we have some too," Han Qingyu said, his brow furrowing.
Wen Jifei's brow promptly furrowed as well. "No wonder the people we dug up from the Little Prince's list didn't have any bones on them, and when it came to where the bones went, they refused to talk even if it killed them... Turns out they didn't dare say."
The Bones of Eternal Life had fallen into Shu You's hands—this was perhaps the most difficult and troublesome possibility of all.
Because with his strength, even if he couldn't directly fuse and absorb the bones like Qingzi, he was bound to gain considerable benefits from them.
Shu You was hardly on the level of Yu Yindou, who possessed a treasure to no use and could only worship it. Above Yu Yindou, members of the hidden clans like the Qu brothers had undoubtedly derived benefits and advancements from the Bones of Eternal Life.
"How are we going to pull this off?" Wen Jifei muttered.
Under the current circumstances, fighting him was definitely out of the question.
As for swindling him... he probably wouldn't be easy to fool either.
Chapter 507