"He sure has some fucking nerve, that bastard!"
Aboard a helicopter over the high seas, Lu Feng drew on a cigarette, staring down at a speedboat hurtling through the waves below—a smuggler's craft heavily loaded with fuel, slicing across the foam.
Its stern was crammed with five outboard engines, rocketing and soaring through the raging storm like a tweaker on a bender.
It was lucky that bastard Yin Zhaoyang could even handle the thing.
If they hadn't put in some real effort, they would have lost him completely.
"At that speed, if he island-hops through a few deserted rocks to refuel, the fucker will make it to Ludao by tomorrow."
The burly pilot glanced up. "There are two high-threat targets on board, likely hired muscle. Think you can handle it with just the few guys you brought?"
"Heh, want to make a bet?"
Lu Feng grinned. "Eight hundred bucks?"
The pilot gave him the middle finger without looking back. "Fuck off. It took me enough blood and sweat to scrape together this little bit of cash. Scram, scram, scram!"
"All right, time to get to work."
Lu Feng spat, discarding the cigarette butt that had burned down to the filter, racked the bolt of his weapon, and flashed hand signals to both sides. Inside the cabin, several 'security guards' with camo paint on their faces silently bared their teeth in grins and pulled down their balaclavas.
With a booming whoosh, the helicopter door slid open, and the howling gale rushed in.
A searchlight beamed down without the slightest pretense of stealth, locking right onto the frantically fleeing speedboat.
Evidently having noticed the pursuing helicopter long ago, the speedboat accelerated again, tearing across the water at a manic clip.
"Okay, let's serve an appetizer to whet our guests' appetite."
Lu Feng reached back. Taking the shoulder-mounted rocket launcher handed over by his teammate, he deftly primed it, tilted his head, acquired the heat signature, and locked on.
"Off you go!"
Amid the howling winds came an abrupt, muffled pop, sounding almost like a fart.
Right after, flames burst forth, streaking away.
A rocket descended from the sky!
Watching the incoming projectile scream downward, the Celestial Chosen aboard the speedboat sneered. He raised a hand from afar, instantly churning up countless sheets of water that surged backward into a towering wall before him.
Amid a deafening blast and blinding flash, crimson fire billowed outward.
Only then did the Celestial Chosen hear it... screaming out from the flames and thunder was a streak of bloody crimson iron!
Countless fragments of corrupted metal burst through the shockwave, shattering the layers of aquatic defense and restraint with crushing momentum, pouring down like torrential rain.
The sounds of shattering echoed relentlessly.
Amid agonizing shrieks, the Celestial Chosen blew apart on the spot. The speedboat was flipped in the blast as well, rolling violently across the churning sea until it completely lost power.
"Oho, now that's the stuff!"
Lu Feng beamed. "Old Two actually cooked up something decent this time... Give me another, another!"
"Just that one! We're out!"
"Tch..."
Lu Feng shook his head, muttering complaints about stinginess under his breath. He grabbed the machine gun mounted beside the door, put on his night-vision goggles, and started playing a game of Pictionary with another Celestial Chosen skimming across the waves.
To be precise: I'll draw a heart with machine-gun fire, let's see if you can recognize it.
Unfortunately, the guy couldn't.
Under an onslaught of alchemical rounds pouring down at a hundred and sixty rounds per second, two ammo belts were spent, and whatever small fry had been down there was unrecognizable.
Blown straight to pieces.
"That's it?" Lu Feng fired off a few lingering bursts, sighing with disappointment. "No challenge at all. What's wrong with these guys nowadays?"
"Can you fucking cut it out?!"
Unable to stand it any longer, Layla drove an elbow into him. "Dammit, I busted my ass to make a little miserable cash, your brother sucked it all dry, and whatever's left gets wrecked by a dog like you! Do either of you brothers ever do a single damn thing that resembles a human being?!"
"Then why don't you get me a suit of power armor? It doesn't even have to be a Pojun—a Xinghuo will do! That's why I say, when the boss is useless, everything is useless... Fuck, put that grenade down! Expensed! We'll expense it! I'll have him pay you back later!"
"Get lost!"
Before Layla could finish cussing, the entire helicopter abruptly lost lift, spiraling into a steep plunge through the air.
"Waizui, what the fuck—"
Before the words finished leaving his mouth, an eerie streak of light shot up from the horizon, grazing the helicopter's tail rotor before vanishing into the night. Immediately following it, another beam of light soared upward, looping through midair like a living creature to pounce straight at the banking, descending, and climbing chopper.
"High threat!" Waizui bellowed. "Another one, there's another high threat!"
He yanked back on the control stick, veins bulging along his forearms, but it was already too late to maneuver out of the way. Having completed its turn, the blistering flame locked onto the cabin, shrieking inward!
*BOOM!!!*
Without warning, it detonated in midair into a crimson burst of brilliance.
A furious shockwave expanded outward, the scorching draft lashing their faces with a stinging heat.
"Nice shot!" Waizui hollered in ecstasy.
"Shut up—!"
Layla didn't dare lower her weapon. Her sniper scope swept over the sea, but through the dark, churning waves, she couldn't see a thing. "Where is he?! Thermal isn't picking him up."
"He's hiding underwater. Of course thermal won't pick him up... The guy's holding his breath, playing hide-and-seek with you."
Only when Lu Feng's voice came over the comms did Layla abruptly realize the space beside her was empty—that son of a bitch was gone!
*BANG!*
A gunshot erupted from beneath the helicopter.
Outside the open cabin door, a figure hung from the landing gear with one hand in the howling wind, like a leaf drifting on the gale, swaying unstably amid the sharp maneuvers and turns.
Streaks of fiery light rose from the sea in rapid succession, shrieking toward them.
Amid the detonations, firelight flared and died. Through it all, the handgun aimed at the sea below remained rock-steady, not wavering in the slightest despite the violent turbulence and turns.
Inch by inch, the muzzle swept across the rolling waves.
He pulled the trigger casually, a shot here, a shot there. The bullets plunged into the sea like headless flies, swallowed up without a sound. Meanwhile, scorching beams of light kept shooting upward toward the helicopter at ever-increasing speeds, coming too fast for Layla to intercept.
Yet for a fraction of a second, the light beams firing from beneath the surface hitched.
In that near-frozen moment, separated by water and night, the Celestial Chosen concealed beneath the waves froze in shock—in just a few seconds, he had been spotted...
Amid the scattering flashes of fire, those pitch-black eyes had actually locked onto the source of the ambush.
There was no killing intent, no ferocity, not even a trace of carelessness or mockery.
It was as casual as eating, drinking, yawning, or farting.
A calm so profound it sent shivers down the spine.
Lu Feng said, "Found you."
Then, he pulled the trigger.
*BANG!*
From the chamber, the final specialized silver bullet burst forth.
It pierced straight through the plumes of light rising from the water, like a straight silver thread driving through red cotton and bloody wisps, sinking into the dark and vanishing without a trace.
After that, the sea fell deathly quiet, devoid of all sound.
"Target eliminated."
"Descend, make it quick!" Layla looked through her binoculars at the distant horizon. "A patrol boat has been drawn over, probably the joint border defense from the Six Cities."
An inflatable dinghy was tossed down from the helicopter. Soon, several men slid down the ropes, expertly pulling the oars as they rowed toward the wreckage of the speedboat.
Lu Feng raised a hand and knocked on the overturned hull floating in the water.
"Anybody home?" he asked curiously. "If not, I'm gonna open—"
*BANG!*
Without warning, he pulled the trigger, blasting a gaping hole in the hull to reveal a face bleached pale by the freezing seawater.
Seeing Lu Feng's face, the man went numb, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks, trembling with terror.
"Yin Zhaoyang, Mr. Yin, right?"
Lu Feng poked his head in to take a look, comparing the man to the photo on his phone. "Recognize me?"
"S-Spare me, wait..."
Yin Zhaoyang's lips quivered, shivering so hard he could barely speak.
Even so, with Lu Feng's muzzle pointed right at him, he still tried desperately to shrink back, almost submerging himself beneath the water, coughing and choking, terrified of sticking his head out.
Until Lu Feng shattered the hull with a single chop of an axe, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, and hauled him onto the dinghy.
"Wait, I have money! Money, I—"
*SLAP!*
Layla backhanded him across the face, then shoved a jagged piece of wooden planking straight into his mouth. "Bite down. Drop it, and you're dead!"
Then she took out a roll of duct tape, wrapped it around his head several times, and sealed him shut.
The others had already frisked him, pulling out quite a few knickknacks before producing zip ties to bind him tightly, trussing him up like a hog.
Yin Zhaoyang continued to squirm in terror, letting out muffled grunts.
Unfortunately, drenched as he was, there was no telling whether he had pissed himself.
Fleeing all the way, bouncing from place to place, he had finally managed to escape the Federation and was right on the doorstep of Ludao in the Thousand Islands—only to be intercepted right before the finish line.
Just a little further, just a tiny bit!
*FLASH!*
A blinding searchlight swept over from the distant sea.
"Everyone, lay down your weapons! Lay down your weapons!!!"
From the vessel in the distance, someone shouted several times through a megaphone in both the Federation and Imperial tongues: "This is the Six Islands Patrol, submit to inspection!"
Layla expressionlessly racked her bolt and raised her barrel.
Lu Feng pressed it down.
He cocked his head, listening suspiciously.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Hearing that, Yin Zhaoyang's eyes went wide, and he thrashed wildly, tears nearly streaming down his face. If not for the tape over his mouth, he would have screamed for help by now.
The patrol vessel soon drew near, lowering two motorboats that sped over.
The soldiers on board raised their weapons and aimed them right at the group, on high alert.
Amid the dead silence and chilling dread, Yin Zhaoyang struggled all the harder.
The leader pointed a flashlight, shining the beam right into Lu Feng's face.
"Where are you from? What are you doing here?"
A cold voice demanded abrasively, "Do you know who your daddy is?!"
"Fuck your mother!"
Lu Feng rolled his eyes and raised a middle finger.
"Old Lu? It really is you, you bastard... damn, long time no see!"
The newcomer burst out laughing and lowered the flashlight, revealing an ugly face scarred by shrapnel. With major's insignia on his shoulders, he grinned widely. "I heard people say you retired to fix cars, and I almost believed them... Back in the business, are you?"
"Just helping someone catch an absconding deadbeat who skipped on his debts, nothing fancy."
Lu Feng patted his pockets, found them empty, and didn't care in the slightest about the guns aimed at him as he held out a hand. "Got a smoke?"
The major shook his head, not believing him for a second. Still, he pulled a brass tube from his pocket and tossed it over. "Lucky you, you bastard. Top-shelf Mid-Continent cigar, confiscated just yesterday."
Lu Feng bit off the end, lit it, and smoothly pocketed the man's lighter in one seamless, natural motion before waving his hand.
"All right, nothing for you to see here. Get back to work."
"Drink sometime?"
"Maybe next time, maybe never!"
Before leaving, the major handed over a business card and remarked, "Times are tough. If there's business, let's do it together—don't hog the whole bowl for yourself." Then he turned and led his men away.
From beginning to end... he hadn't spared Yin Zhaoyang a single glance!
"Mmph! Mmph—!"
Yin Zhaoyang looked up in despair, watching the patrol boats vanish into the darkness, his heart sinking entirely to the ocean floor.
"All right, let's go, Mr. Yin. I still have plenty of friends to introduce you to."
With the cigar dangling from his lips, Lu Feng grabbed the rope with one hand, hoisted the trussed-up hog with the other, and looked down at him with a 'tender' smile. "Let's go somewhere real fun together!"
The helicopter surged into the sky, disappearing into the dark clouds.
Behind it, only the wreckage on the sea remained, slowly sinking into the foam and tide until it was seen no more.
*
Ten minutes later, Ji Jue received a message:
[Meimei Supermarket, new shipment just arrived. Valued customers are welcome to come browse and buy.]
Chapter 340