An old house, a modest room on the second floor, a bare lightbulb lit. Above was the ceiling, already punched through with a hole; the walls were a mix of mud and brick, and beneath their feet was a wooden floor.
The young girl in the school uniform lay unconscious on the floor, scared out of her wits, her backpack beside her.
Liu Shiheng went over to untie the ropes binding her hands and feet.
Leaving her tied up would have actually made her easier to carry out, but it didn't look right, so he untied her anyway, then picked up the red backpack and slung it over his right shoulder.
He Tangtang knelt on one knee, inspecting beneath the bed. Blood pooled beside his knee.
With his apparatus running, Han Qingyu stood there listening to the footsteps, both near and far, on the rooftops and in the street. There were at least a dozen people, definitely.
He switched on the communicator.
"Squad compromised. Requesting backup and scene cleanup." This was his call to the base.
"We might have to fight our way out." This was for the van.
The calls ended. In their current situation, whether it was a trap or an accident no longer mattered much; what mattered was their predicament.
"The person... is already dead," He Tangtang said, turning back. "Hands still tied, clothes intact. Judging by the head wound, looks like she refused to yield and smashed her own head to commit suicide... Stubborn girl."
He stood up as he spoke, walked over, kicked one of the three scumbags on the floor, and asked, "What do we do with them?"
"...Find some water and wake them up."
Amidst the drawing-near footsteps, Han Qingyu spoke coldly, bending down to pick up the bloodstained school bag from the floor.
He opened it and flipped through, finding twelfth-grade textbooks, homework notebooks, a lyric book, a notebook of corrected exam mistakes... and then a small booklet with a plastic cover.
It was a crude photo album containing pictures of the girl with her classmates and family, as well as solo shots of herself, her youthful face smiling brilliantly.
Han Qingyu flipped to the end, then flipped back, pulling out a solo photo showing the girl with a stubborn expression. Propping it up with something, he set it upright on the small table by the window.
He Tangtang brought over a white tin thermos and poured boiling water over the faces of the three men on the floor.
The three scumbags awoke with agonizing screams.
Squirming on the floor, they spotted their enemies and looked toward Han Qingyu's trio in panic.
"Who are you? What are you—" they asked.
"The ones who are going to chop off your goddamn heads," He Tangtang said.
Han Qingyu said nothing. Reaching out, he hauled over the one wearing an apparatus, forced him to kneel facing the table, and made him raise his head to look at the girl's photo on the surface.
He Tangtang forced another one down.
Liu Shiheng did the same with the third.
Seeming to foresee their impending fate, the three scumbags began to wail, beg for mercy, and plead their case. One of them said, "We didn't kill her! It was suicide! Suicide! If you don't believe us, you can—"
"But we aren't the police."
The moment Han Qingyu finished speaking, he released his grip and turned around.
The thug tried to seize the chance to flee.
*Schrrk.*
The dead iron straight sword Han Qingyu swept upward slashed across the man's neck.
*Schrrk.*
"...*Schrrk.*"
He Tangtang and Liu Shiheng had done the exact same thing.
Not dead just yet, all three scumbags were in identical postures, foreheads pressed against the floor as they twitched and struggled like three maggots—twisting, groaning, and screaming under the watchful gaze of the photograph.
"To be honest, I never had a clear impression of the Cleansing Faction before; I only knew they were enemies." Without turning back to look at the girl's photo, Han Qingyu paused, then said, "From now on, whenever we encounter them: kill on sight. No quarter."
By this time, the dense footsteps outside had drawn very close.
Han Qingyu cast his gaze around, quickly analyzing the situation.
"We can't stay here. We have to get out."
The small room they were in was cramped. Under the impact of three-dimensional apparatuses, neither the surrounding walls nor the floorboards would offer any real protection; instead, they would merely obstruct vision and make it easier for those outside to launch sneak attacks.
Furthermore, they had to wait for Wen Jifei and Shen Yixiu to drive in to their rescue. Given the situation, they couldn't arrange a rendezvous point beforehand, leaving them with only two options:
Go up to the roof to expand their field of view, or go downstairs into the street.
Considering they had a young girl with them, Han Qingyu decided to head downstairs.
"This might be a pocket trap designed to avenge that undercover Snow Lotus operative... Right now we don't know how many of them there are, or if they have top experts," he said. "Run first. Downstairs, toward the van."
S-19 was over there.
With that, Han Qingyu stripped off the oversized coat he wore as a disguise, revealing the Sole Witness Legion combat uniform beneath, and took his twin swords in hand.
He Tangtang did the same.
Liu Shiheng did likewise.
To fight as soldiers of the Sole Witness Legion.
...
The footsteps across the rooftops and alleys no longer bothered to hide themselves...
The three stepped out of the building and stood in the street...
Han Qingyu led the way in front.
Carrying the unconscious girl, Liu Shiheng walked in the middle, having thoughtfully covered her face. Naturally, with the strength granted by activating his three-dimensional apparatus, he was fully capable of drawing his sword one-handed at any time to defend himself to a degree.
He Tangtang brought up the rear with his sword in hand, facing sideways and turned half away, practically walking crabwise.
The three formed a rough line, but it was not parallel to the street. Han Qingyu up front leaned to the left, while He Tangtang at the rear leaned to the right, forming a diagonal line. This made it easier to protect the center and also allowed the person in the rear to step up and deliver follow-up strikes.
*Whoosh.*
Four in front and two behind, six people charged out from the alleyways at both ends, trapping Han Qingyu's trio in the middle.
Then came *crack, crack*—the sound of tiles breaking on the roof.
*Clap, clap, clap, clap.*
Bizarre applause came from the rooftop.
Han Qingyu turned his head to see an officer wearing an Azure Coalition major's uniform, strapped into a three-dimensional apparatus, standing on the roof. Beside him stood a slightly plump middle-aged man.
"Tsk, tsk. Azure really spares no expense, haha. Killing a once-in-a-decade Eraser prodigy to accompany Old Wu to the grave—he should be satisfied." After saying this, the officer turned to explain to the middle-aged man beside him, "You wouldn't know, Mr. Zhu, but one of them is hailed as a once-in-a-decade, or even once-in-two-decades prodigy of the Ninth Army."
"Oh?" Mr. Zhu narrowed his eyes with great interest. "If we capture him, how much source energy could we demand from Azure?"
"Dumbass," He Tangtang cursed impatiently, looking up.
The officer wasn't offended. Smiling with complete confidence, he said, "I know you aren't in a hurry and are stalling for time. You've got another one hidden in your vehicle, don't you?... Too bad he probably won't be able to make it."
Han Qingyu didn't bother responding.
Among the four men standing before him, another wore an Azure uniform—a bearded, burly man in his thirties who appeared to be a lieutenant by his rank insignia.
Their eyes met.
"You're that once-in-a-decade strongest..." The lieutenant raised his sword, pointing it at Han Qingyu.
*Whoosh!*
Han Qingyu didn't answer. He surged straight at him. In mid-dash, his left sword swung horizontally toward the man's head while his right sword leveled out at waist height, trailing into a horizontal slash aimed at his right abdomen.
Combat with three-dimensional apparatuses was lightning fast. In a single instant, with two strikes executed, Han Qingyu had already brushed past the right side of the lieutenant's body and shot behind him.
*Clang!*
The lieutenant parried the slash aimed at his head with his sword.
At the same time, he leaped to the left, evading Han Qingyu's waist slice.
Then, he prepared to turn around...
With a twist of his torso, the lieutenant froze in shock—his waist wasn't obeying his commands.
Blankly, he looked down.
*Pfft.*
*Pfft.*
Gashes burst open with blood.
Across the left side of the lieutenant's waist and abdomen, from back to front, two dead iron straight swords had simultaneously sliced through.
Han Qingyu had already returned before him.
In that brief exchange spanning just two or three seconds, Han Qingyu had executed an inverted V-shaped charge.
He had first rushed past the lieutenant's right side to his rear, then, without even turning around, kicked off the ground to bounce back past his left side. As he rebounded, he leaned his body and held both swords level, one high and one low, completing the slash across the man's left flank.
Blood gushed out. With difficulty and confusion, the lieutenant looked up at Han Qingyu.
"Yeah," Han Qingyu finally spoke, answering the question the man had left half-finished. "The once-in-a-decade strongest recruit. You knew, yet you still asked... and still weren't careful."
*Thud.*
The lieutenant collapsed into a pool of his own blood, his uniform instantly soaked through.
"That's much better... I really hate the way you look in a legion combat uniform."
Dead silence.
No one had imagined that a recruit, even one hailed as the strongest in a decade, would be... this strong.
In fact, even Han Qingyu himself was somewhat surprised that sparring with Shen Yixiu had brought about such tremendous progress.
"Hahaha!" Han Qingyu had stunned them all and didn't laugh, but He Tangtang burst into a hearty roar of laughter. Raising his sword toward the roof, he shouted, "Come on then!... Hahahaha! Granddaddy will—*whoosh!*"
A sneak attack.
While everyone was frozen by the previous spectacle and listening to him laugh, he had already charged out and flashed back.
Of the two Cleansing Faction operatives blocking the rear, one was dead and the other wounded.
He Tangtang took a blade across his chest as well, bleeding, but it was nothing serious.
"..." On the roof, the major's expression darkened. Turning to the middle-aged man beside him, he said, "Mr. Zhu, this fight can't drag on. Let's just use what you brought."
The middle-aged man looked at Han Qingyu and nodded.
*Skree!* A bizarre screech rang out.
Then, three grotesque creatures, resembling both humans and monkeys, appeared along the roof ridge, leaning half their bodies forward.
Their entire bodies were hunched over. They wore apparatuses on their backs but wielded no blades; instead, each hand was fitted with long, triangular hooked claws.
"Are these... modified humans?" Liu Shiheng asked in a slight panic. "Qingzi, look at their apparatuses. They're completely different from any generation of ours."
Han Qingyu nodded. He knew he was about to face Snow Lotus.
The legendary Snow Lotus, who were rumored to surpass Azure in certain areas...
Chapter 86