All right, that was utter nonsense.
He wasn't so kindhearted as to point out to an opponent where they had slipped up. Even if he couldn't beat them, watching the other party rack their brains in bafflement without finding a single flaw suited his taste much better.
True enough, the height, looks, spiritus fluctuations, and even the aura were all flawless.
No, it was practically the person himself.
But even if Xiao An stopped watching streamer guides and shifted his taste to variety shows and TV dramas, or switched his usual body wash and soap... you still couldn't just switch out a matrix, could you?
And ever since the mission began, he hadn't seen Xiao An use a matrix once.
The House of An's Pitch-Pot technique was indeed formidable, with endless variations.
However, right up until a short while ago, after Ji Jue combed through all the surviving video footage in the villa, he finally confirmed—Xiao An had never once used a matrix!
Sword Qi Transmutation?
Never heard of it, knew nothing about it.
Sure, maybe it was real, but... did he have to believe it just because they said so?
At this moment, outside the villa, Xiao Jiu, transformed into a hummingbird, shared its field of vision with Ji Jue. Piercing through the darkness and stripping away the fog, it effortlessly locked onto the corpse bobbing in the pond.
Cross-referencing with the Security Bureau database access Ji Jue had scrounged from Tong Hua, the identity was already determined—a renowned assassin of the Chaocheng Wild Gathering.
White Stag Celestial Chosen: Bloodslaughter!
As early as four years ago, he had already broken through the Metamorphosis rank and stepped into the Regeneration stage.
A Celestial Chosen of at least tier six had died silently in the pond. A gaping hole pierced right through his heart, yet his face showed not the slightest trace of fear or despair; instead, it wore a contented smile.
As if, right before dying, he had witnessed some magnificent miracle.
The victor between hunter and prey had long been decided.
Yet for such an astonishing hunt, why hadn't the White Stag bestowed any favor upon you?
Unless... in the eyes of the White Stag, such an opponent couldn't even be called an opponent to the "Xiao An" before him, but merely something to be dealt with offhandedly.
Nothing more!
"Remember what I said?"
In the dead silence, Ji Jue sighed softly. "Trust can sometimes be a fragile thing, but suspicion is immensely powerful. Besides, after all this time, no matter how foolish I might be, I wouldn't mistake my own friend."
Habits? Body wash? Matrices? Or the outcome of a battle?
All of those were mere clues.
At most, they were triggers for suspicion.
Habits could change, body wash could be swapped, and a matrix could malfunction.
Besides, even if Xiao An had truly tortured Bloodslaughter to death right in front of Ji Jue, Ji Jue would only have marveled while clapping his hands, congratulating his friend on taking another step forward and growing so strong.
The evidence that truly settled the matter—allowing all suspicions and hypotheses to settle like dust—was the very "proof" the other party had just revealed before him.
The nail.
Although he had never spoken of it, he had secretly studied it in the shadows...
Back when he helped install the prosthetic limb, he had taken the chance to feel it—just once. Then later, under the pretext of version upgrades or calibration, he had thoroughly mapped out its exact condition and structure.
For so long, aside from grinding relentlessly in the workshop, he had been constantly pondering how to remove that damn thing without triggering the alarm. From cracking the alarm module to surgical extraction methods, he had practically drafted an entire damn academic paper!
And the result?!
You fucking pull out a superficial knockoff to fool me?
Who do you think you're kidding?!
"What happened? What happened? What happened?!"
Only now did heavy footsteps echo from the end of the hallway as Old Tom came sprinting over, poking his head in. "Internal strife over splitting the loot?"
More work!
He had originally wanted to shout that he could fight as a substitute for extra pay, but after seeing the situation in the room clearly, his jaw dropped, and he couldn't hold back a "Holy shit!": "Good heavens! Bro, you've got some serious guts! You even dare embezzle money from the White Stag Hunter House of An?!"
It was true that once the birds were gone the bow was put away, but you really couldn't stash this bow away at all, alright?!
If you stabbed a young hunter tonight, before daybreak the House of An would spawn a whole swarm to take care of you, you believe me?
In under a single second, he had already begun considering how to cut ties with Ji Jue.
Don't know him, don't understand, have no clue.
Fuck it, I don't even want the final payment!
Leaving right now.
Whether regrettable or fortunate, the two people in the room didn't spare him a single glance, treating him like thin air as they stared at each other.
"Since when?" Ji Jue asked curiously. "Tonight? Or after entering the villa? No, it must have been earlier—much earlier. Not just when we ran into the corrupted mercenaries, but way before that... Ah, I see..."
He sighed in sudden realization. "Ever since we met that afternoon, you were never Xiao An, were you?"
The sound of applause and cheers rang out.
"Every bit of it correct."
"Xiao An" smiled. "As expected of Brother Ji Jue."
"I told you, stop calling me that."
Ji Jue exhaled what remained of his patience and raised his right hand. His hand was empty, but in the ceiling, the walls, and the darkness beneath the floorboards, red indicator lights of plastic explosives lit up one after another.
The entire room had long since been turned into Ji Jue's trap, a lethal, inescapable death ground.
Yet among the countless scenarios he had envisioned, he had never imagined it would be used in a situation like this.
"You have only one chance to answer, so think carefully before you speak—"
Ji Jue issued his final question, no longer concealing the chill and killing intent in his eyes. "My friend, Xiao An—where did he go?!"
"Hm? But I told you, I *am* Xiao An."
The youth tilted his head, looking at him with admiration and appreciation, clapping with a soft sigh. "As expected of Brother Ji Jue. Now I understand why A-Ran likes you so much."
Ji Jue froze in place.
Because before that sentence even finished, his opponent had vanished from before his eyes, yet the words drifted from right beside his ear, inches away.
Right in front of Ji Jue.
Just like that, standing on tiptoe, something soft and carrying a faint coolness brushed against Ji Jue's cheek.
It was a pair of lips.
"Because—"
The gentle breath brushed against his ear as the voice whispered: "I think I'm starting to like you too."
In the dead silence, everything seemed to freeze.
Only the stiffened Ji Jue turned his head with great difficulty, looking at the smiling figure with hands behind their back. He stumbled back a step—panicked, bewildered, stunned, despondent, suffocated.
"What are you doing?! What the hell are you doing?!"
The moment he came to his senses, he frantically raised his sleeve, scrubbing violently at his cheek. His heart had plunged completely to rock bottom, dead as dead could be, feeling that from now on there would be no joy or sorrow left in his life.
Was this the ultimate humiliation?!
Ji Jue's tears were almost flowing.
Nineteen or twenty years of purity, gone in a single night...
*I'm defiled!*
What the hell? What is this?!
When did this world turn so insane that it was completely beyond comprehension?
Ji Jue's gaze lost focus. Utterly baffled, his mind was filled with the urge to bash his head against a wall.
He couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on.
Finally, he demanded in despair:
"Who the hell are you?!"
"Eh? Still haven't figured it out, Brother Ji Jue? Or are you just unwilling to think in that direction?"
Xiao An tilted their head in puzzlement and blinked, an increasingly mischievous look appearing. "I'm that black-hearted, wicked older sister you promised you'd help A-Ran beat up—guaranteeing a win, no less."
With that, she raised her hand, took off the headband from behind her head, and tossed it aside.
Black hair cascaded and spread in the breeze. The neat, crisp, ear-length layered hair carried a charm entirely different from Xiao An's.
With the stretching of muscle and bone, she grew half a head taller out of thin air, becoming noticeably more slender and statuesque.
As her brows relaxed, the originally androgynous face subtly shifted, revealing the unmistakable features of a young woman, possessing a gorgeous allure that surpassed even Xiao An's.
Just like that, the girl named An Ning looked up once more, her smile sly. "You spoke ill of me behind my back so much, yet failed to recognize me face-to-face. Isn't that a bit too much?"
"..."
In the silence, a long and dragging silence, Ji Jue stood dumbfounded, practically hearing the sound of his brains boiling.
CPU overload.
Unable to comprehend the situation and transformation before his eyes, he tried to open his mouth several times, but no words came out.
He was utterly lost.
"What a pity..."
An Ning offered a wistful smile. "Now that I've been exposed, there's nothing for it."
Amid a boring assignment to pass the time and the tedious, endless waiting, she had decided to pay a long-overdue visit to her runaway little brother and treat him to some harsh, straightforward home discipline.
On a whim, she had taken over her brother's identity, walking freely through this city under the guise of An Ran.
She had originally intended to mock the boring life he had chosen, never expecting that behind his sister's back, he was hiding such a pleasant surprise...
"Goodbye, Brother Ji Jue."
The girl looked back with a smile, her sparkling eyes seemingly reflecting the light of the bright moon and stars as she gave her final farewell:
"Will you miss me?"
Like a phantom that had never existed here, she dropped into the bright moonlight outside the window, like a kite drifting away with the blowing sea breeze, disappearing between the night sky and the stars.
Leaving behind only a stunned Ji Jue.
Utterly bewildered.
After a long time, the flabbergasted Old Tom finally reacted, staring at him in disbelief: "You..."
"I..." Ji Jue nodded blankly.
"He... she..."
Old Tom choked on his words, gesturing with both hands, having no idea what he wanted to say, only to see Ji Jue wave a hand. "Say no more. As long as you keep your mouth shut, one hundred percent positive rating on the mission, and I'll have Uncle Lin give you a bonus."
He turned and walked away. "Let me have some peace and quiet."
And so, Old Tom was left all alone in the room, exchanging silent glances with a bunch of blinking explosives.
After being dazed for roughly half an hour, sitting by the pond, Ji Jue finally came back to his senses. Recalling what she had said before—that the first person to discover her had been Lao Zhang—he immediately pulled out his phone. Disregarding whether the old man was sleeping early for his health in the middle of the night, he sent a message straight away:
[?]
Soon, the message showed "Read."
After waiting for quite a while, an emoji arrived.
—An old auntie making a finger heart at the screen, with a line of big red text drifting out of roses: *Wishing you a wonderful day!*
Ji Jue's vision went black.
Without even needing Deus Ex Machina to peek through Lao Zhang's camera, he could guess how merrily the old man was laughing right now!
Beishan District really was fucking full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers!
What was Tong Hua compared to this? Lao Zhang, when it came to watching drama, you really devoured the melon whole!
To watch the show in total silence for so long!
No wonder the old man had smiled so joyfully when Sister Wen assigned Xiao An to stick with him—turns out he was waiting for this all along, wasn't he?
Ji Jue sighed. At this point, complaining about "Why didn't you tell me?" was completely pointless.
Besides, with Xiao An's sister acting as his personal bodyguard, even if the entire villa had blown up, he probably wouldn't have lost a single hair. What could possibly have happened to him?
Thinking of this, he ultimately sent Xiao An a message as well:
[Are you alright?]
It quickly showed "Read," but after "Typing..." lingered for a long time, a weeping cat emoji finally arrived.
Then came a rapid flurry of explanations:
[Sister forced me to do it!]
[I can't beat her!]
[Brother Ji Jue, believe me, I didn't trick you on purpose!]
[I'm sorry, please don't be mad!]
Ji Jue smiled. Having confirmed Xiao An's safety, he replied: [It's fine, I was just startled. As long as you're okay. I almost pulled the tripwires and blew up with your sister. Later on, thank her on my behalf for sparing my life.]
Xiao An went silent. After a long while, another weeping cat emoji arrived.
He had no idea what to say.
Instead, Ji Jue felt a wave of relief.
After a long time, once the screen went dark, Ji Jue felt completely exhausted in body and mind. Leaning back in the recliner, he finally couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
"So it wasn't a guy..."
He gazed up at the bright moon and starlight in the night sky, yet inexplicably recalled the figure of the girl as she departed.
And that pair of eyes, seemingly reflecting the stars...
Chapter 136