I'm Going to Kill You!

Shortly before Blondie boarded the ship and departed with his bewildered subordinates, aboard a cargo vessel arriving at Luo Island, a youth carrying a suitcase looked up and took in the novel scenery all around him. As he brushed past a Riot Cat, he couldn't resist reaching out to tap its metal shell. The Riot Cat paused in its tracks, turned back to look at him, and after a smiling kaomoji flashed on the display atop its head, pointed toward the exit. A car had long been waiting by the docks. It carried him past the beach and through the city, coming to a stop halfway up the mountainside. When the car door opened, the youth spotted that long-unseen figure standing on the steps. "We're all working for the Association—there's no trouble at all. As a master, I should set an example. It's just a trifling matter, so please don't take it to heart." With a warm smile, Ji Jue saw off the guest who had come to visit. When he turned back toward the youth waiting nearby, the deliberate warmth and cheer in his smile vanished in an instant. All that remained was the purest smile, free of polite formalities and pretense. "You've grown taller, Xiao An." Seeing that smile again, Xiao An blinked in surprise. The slight tension and unfamiliarity he had felt throughout the journey vanished into thin air, and a smile broke across his own face. "Long time no see, Brother Ji Jue." "It's only been two months—what do you mean, a long time?" He reached out and ruffled Xiao An's hair. "What's with the formalities? Come on in. Hungry?" "I've eaten." "Eat a little more. I've already got everything ready." Ji Jue rolled up his sleeves, full of enthusiasm. "Braised pork noodles, hold the greens—I didn't remember wrong, did I? Want shrimp?" "Mhm, yes please!" Xiao An's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly. "I can help!" "The time I'll need your help comes later. Go sit down. Pour yourself some tea." "Brother Ji Jue, where's the TV remote?" "On the table. Take a look." "Found it! Can I eat the snacks?" "Not before dinner." "...Okay." A few minutes later, the freshly cooked bowl of noodles was served. Ji Jue sat opposite him, watching Xiao An slurp noodles with his head down—delicate, well-mannered, just as he had always been. Though completely different, for a fleeting moment, he seemed to see another shadow. Resting her chin on her hand, looking toward him. And noticing his gaze, she would look back with a faint, knowing smirk. "Brother Ji Jue, what are you looking at?" Unfortunately, he could only imagine it; there was no way she could ever be this well-behaved. "Brother Ji Jue?" Xiao An looked up and asked again. Startled from his daze, Ji Jue gave an awkward chuckle. "Nothing. Just worried I didn't prepare enough." "I'm full now." Having finished eating, Xiao An set down his chopsticks, sat up straight, and asked solemnly, "Do you need my help?" "Yeah, pretty much. I have some tricky matters on my hands lately and can't be in two places at once. After thinking it over, I still need someone reliable to keep an eye on things for me." Ji Jue added, "Coincidentally, it'll also help you get plenty of spoils." "Okay." An Ran nodded without a second thought, drawing a chuckle from Ji Jue. "You aren't even going to ask what it is?" "Doesn't matter. Whatever Brother Ji Jue arranges for me to do can't be wrong anyway." Xiao An's matter-of-fact expression actually made Ji Jue feel a twinge of shame. Motioning for the boy to wait a moment, he headed toward the workshop. When he emerged, he carried two boxes in his hands. "These are for you." Ji Jue told him, "I was originally going to gather more and wait until I had the complete set, but unfortunately, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find the rest. Make do with this for now. If there's a chance later, I'll search for more." When the first box opened, a pungent smell of aged paper and ink washed over them. Nestled amid layers of padding were four ancient volumes. Sadly, they were far too old and poorly preserved; ravaged by insects, gnawed by rodents, and weathered by time, many of the pages were fragmented and incomplete. Unlike a certain someone who got a headache and wanted to run the moment she saw books, Xiao An picked up the volumes with proper care. After flipping through two pages, he froze where he stood. "This is..." "The Saber-Tooth lineage's inheritance. If I remember correctly, your Sword Resonance is from the Saber-Tooth Gu family, right?" Ji Jue said, "Although the House of Gu is gone, they once had a branch in the Mid-Continent. I invested in some local industries there, and the locals were quite enthusiastic, insisting on doing me a small favor... It was easy to get, barely took any effort." Ni Lin was an honest fellow at heart, always carrying out the Wolf Lord's orders with utmost dedication. Old Dabite and his crew of old codgers finally had something to look forward to now, so the moment they heard Ji Jue had a need, they considered it their bounden duty to ransack their own family heirlooms. No matter how dilapidated the White Nation had become, their ancestors had once been wealthy. As a bona fide orthodox White Stag lineage, their collection was boundless. After digging through the Priest-King's secret storehouse and pooling whatever they had on hand, they managed to scrape together quite a lot. Feeling that the result wasn't quite impressive enough, Dabite mobilized all the old geezers to quietly make several sweeps across the Mid-Continent, tracing history and excavating who knew how many desolate graves. They patched up a substantial portion of the missing pieces and attached numerous speculations, conjectures, and closely guarded secrets of the Scale lineage. All to ensure that the Saber-Tooth lineage's core secret art, the Four Seasons Sword, could be restored to its original glory as much as possible. "Unfortunately, Qingyang and Baizang have been lost, leaving only a few fragments. The only parts that can be considered complete are Zhuming and Xuanying. Try studying them first. If you run into problems, don't force it—I'll take you back to those old geezers for after-sales support." "Thank you, Brother Ji Jue." Xiao An didn't decline, formally accepting the inheritance before him. This pleased Ji Jue even more. He placed the second, elongated case in front of him and clapped his hands with mock gravity: "Look at this!" He said with anticipation, "For the Sword Resonance lineage, the most important thing is still to have a sword, isn't it?" In the silence, a faint, ethereal chiming suddenly rang out. The instant Xiao An reached out. The pitch-black case trembled faintly. Several specks of dust that had just settled on it leaped into the air, fluttering in alarm. The spiritus circuits sealed on the case materialized out of thin air, suppressing the disturbance within, yet failing to halt the deep, distant hum radiating outward. The chime within the case was like a song of joy. As if sensing its wielder right beside it, the newly forged, never-unsheathed blade sang with excitement, actually triggering a resonance within An Ran's own matrix. It was as if they were born as one, indivisible. This weapon had originally been crafted according to the design and specifications passed down by the Sword Resonance lineage. Now facing its true master, how could it possibly feel awkward or distant? The afternoon sunlight slanted in through the window, striking the blade as if severed by the edge, shattering into thousands of brilliant, fractured gleams. Amid the infusion and flow of spiritus, the sword's chime resounded without pause. Inch by inch, the metallic sheen melted away, turning clear and ethereal as colored glaze, vibrant and resplendent. When the blade came before the youth's eyes, the flowing glimmer seemed to sink into his dark pupils, causing the ferocity and ruthlessness hidden within that darkness to surge like rising flames, hard to restrain. "Hello," the youth whispered, gazing at it with a light chuckle as he introduced himself. "My name is An Ran." The blade chimed continuously, ringing without end. Like a cheer. "Brother Ji Jue, can I name it?" Xiao An looked up in excitement. Ji Jue nodded. This step had been reserved for him all along. To have the wielder name it in person was what unlocked the spiritual shackles, marking the true beginning of sword and wielder becoming one. "..." In a brief silence, Xiao An stared entranced at the flowing light upon the blade, murmuring softly, "Grandpa once told me that the Four Seasons Sword is boundlessly profound. When drawn, it is like the mighty river flowing east, never to return. With a single strike, all lingering hatred in the world is washed away. "Such a realm is too distant; I wouldn't dare dream of it. But since Brother Ji Jue thinks I'm worthy of such a gift, I'd like to try—" He raised the sword, as if asking for its opinion. "From today on, your name shall be 'Lihen.' How about it?" A ringing chime rang out once more, like a joyous song! At that moment, the sword Lihen in the youth's hand trembled fiercely. On the once clear and ethereal blade, phantasmal lights of azure, crimson, white, and black shifted intricately, merging into one until, finally, it vanished entirely. Only a faint, barely perceptible silhouette manifested in An Ran's grip along with the rising breeze, shifting ceaselessly! With a casual sweep, it passed through tables, chairs, and surrounding furnishings without leaving a single nick or crack. Yet wherever the blade crossed, every speck of dust was cleanly cleaved in two. Even stripped of physical form, its fierce aura grew all the more piercing and torrential—untethered by substance, yet transcending substance! "Wait, hold on..." Ji Jue froze. He scooped up the summary notes penned by the old geezers in the ancient manuals, examined them closely, and then looked back up at An Ran's hand. He even doubted his own eyes. From being into nothingness, and from nothingness into being—this exquisite transition between presence and absence was unmistakably the core secret art of the Sword Resonance lineage, the foundation of the Four Seasons Sword: Sword Qi Phase-Transformation! A technique that had been obscure and fragmented even in the ancient texts, barely patched together through the conjectures and deductions of numerous old codgers, had actually been mastered so effortlessly in An Ran's hands! As a fellow inheritor of the White Stag lineage, although An Ran, having run away from home, was not qualified to touch Flying Light, the An family had long since carved all the fundamentals shared by the White Stag into his flesh and bone through brutal training and tempering. Years of honing and wielding Sword Resonance had already perfected his control over this matrix. It was only due to a lack of matching techniques and conditions that he had previously been forced to emulate Hunting Finger using the Saber-Tooth matrix, which, apart from augmenting sword qi, inevitably fell short in other aspects. Now, the instant this sword—custom-forged for him by Ji Jue according to the Saber-Tooth heritage—fell into his hands, that final barrier was breached and crossed with ease. Relying on nothing more than a fragmentary outline and vague descriptions, Sword Qi Phase-Transformation came to him as naturally as water flowing into a channel! No longer like the stray White Stag of the past, even if he had only mastered the most basic foundation of the secret art, An Ran was now fully entitled to call himself "Saber-Tooth"! If he achieved great things along this path in the future, he might even revive the legacy of the old House of Gu and establish a new branch within the Wild Gathering, becoming a founding ancestor in his own right. However, having just accomplished this divine feat, An Ran showed no excitement at all. When reality sank in, his expression suddenly stiffened, terror creeping onto his face: "If Sister finds out..." A runaway, rebellious little brother who, instead of thinking about returning home promptly, had gone and actually learned another clan's inheritance without looking back... This was no longer something a single brutal beating could settle! It would take several beatings at least! "Don't worry. If she dares show up, I'll beat her up for you!" Ji Jue thumped his chest, giving a resolute guarantee. "You have no idea—in front of me, she doesn't even dare raise her voice!" "Really?" An Ran was overjoyed. "Really, really!" Ji Jue nodded repeatedly, deeply guilty and forcing a smile. Compared to his own troubles, his little brother's aggro didn't even rank on the chart. If the two of them fell into a river and she had a gun with one magazine, chances were his sister would empty the entire clip into Ji Jue. Xiao An harbored no doubts whatsoever, nodding repeatedly with heartfelt sincerity: "Brother Ji Jue, you're amazing!" "Of course! Let me tell you..." Ji Jue was just about to brag a little more when, for some reason, a chill ran down the back of his neck. He subconsciously craned his neck and glanced around with paranoid suspicion. Realizing he had only spooked himself, he gave an awkward cough. He couldn't let this topic continue! He hurriedly asked: "Ahem... So, how much leave did you take for this trip?" "I don't know." Xiao An blinked in confusion. "I used up all the annual leave I've saved over the past few years in one go... Probably around thirty or forty days?" Mentioning this made him look distressed. "I left in such a hurry that I didn't even get to tell Sister Huahua. Won't she be overwhelmed on her own? Should I head back early?" "Don't worry. Relax and enjoy yourself in the Seven Cities; treat it like a vacation." Ji Jue looked down at a message on his phone and smiled faintly. "As for Yacheng, I have other arrangements!" Earlier that morning, in Yacheng, at the Security Bureau branch. With a crisp chime from the elevator, a line of burly figures armed to the teeth filed out one after another, a dark, imposing mass filling the corridor. A knock sounded at the door. The moment the utterly bewildered "left-behind child" pushed open the door, she froze in her tracks. Holy crap... What is this? The burly woman leading them grinned. "Excuse me, are you Miss Tong Hua?" "...Yes, that's me." Tong Hua shrank back a bit, eyeing them suspiciously. "And you are?" *Smack!* With a crisp, synchronized snap, those burly figures stood at attention, stomped their feet, and saluted. The coordinated movement shook the entire floor. Blood flames of the Path of the Swarm flared up as their deafening shouts echoed: "—Haian Industries Security Department Yacheng Special Operations Team, at your service!" "What the hell?!" Tong Hua blurted out in utter shock. The leading woman's smile grew even warmer. Raising both hands, she respectfully presented a slip of paper. [I've borrowed Xiao An. Don't worry, I'll definitely return him before Sister Wen gets back!] At the end of the scribbled handwriting was an absurdly abstract smiley face, followed by a reminder: [Look after the house, okay?~] "That guy surnamed Ji really has given up on being human, hasn't he?!" Confronted with this brazen insolence, Tong Hua flared with anger, and then flared again. Once her fury peaked, like the heroine of a tragic melodrama, grief welled up from deep within: "First Sister Wen, now Xiao An! A perfectly good family is about to be torn apart by you!" At the thought that he might even poach Lao Zhang later on, leaving only her behind, she grew all the more grief-stricken and indignant, erupting in fury once more: "—I'm going to kill you!!" A few hours later, Ling Shuo finally finished his long, rambling explanation. In the dead silence, Xiao An looked down blankly at the lengthy list of names in his hand. He pondered hard, and before long, as if struck by sudden enlightenment, realization dawned: "I don't really get it, but all I have to do is kill them all, right?"