In truth, whether it was upper Eagle-rank Scott or upper Wolf-rank Nightwing, both were battle-hardened powerhouses.
The Transcendents who had died by their hands numbered at least eight hundred if not a thousand, and their tacit cooperation was forged from that vast wealth of killing experience.
The main reason Yu Xian had played them like fiddles was simply that he was concealed in the shadows while they were out in the open.
Now Nightwing intended to flip the tables: conceal himself in the dark and wait for Yu Xian to expose himself. Once he locked onto his foe, his extensive slaughtering experience offered a thousand ways to kill him.
Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye...
Nightwing failed to spot Yu Xian lurking in the sky, and he also realized that his enemy seemed to have zero intention of seeking him out.
A surge of intense murderous intent welled up inside him, his hands gripping the hilts of his sabers tightly. Just as he was about to abandon his disguise and step out, however, a powerful aura streaked rapidly across the sky.
"Jin Dajun!"
Nightwing's heart tightened. He immediately shrank back into his camouflage, not daring to make a move.
Although he was confident in his strength—even possessing a weapon capable of inflicting massive damage on a Dragon-rank—that was an item meant for the perfect creature. The tools meant to counter Qilin were on Scott.
After Jin Dajun departed, Nightwing lay dormant for a full ten minutes. When he rose, intending to leave once more, a giant seagull flew overhead.
"..."
Nightwing shrank back again. That seagull was Senior Colonel Ou Huchen of the Navy, another formidable opponent who possessed Tiger-rank strength.
Now, Nightwing began to worry about Scott's situation. If Scott ran into the powerhouses Qilin had mobilized, he would certainly die unless he played his trump card ahead of time.
He felt the likelihood of completing the mission slipping further and further away.
According to the original plan, he and Scott were supposed to launch a surprise assault. Scott would deploy a treasure capable of suppressing a Dragon-rank, while Nightwing would use a Dragon-rank weapon that dealt massive damage to the perfect creature. After crippling the creature, they would eliminate Qilin's personnel as swiftly as possible and retreat with the target.
Yet before they could even reach their objective, they had been ambushed and pinned down in an awkward bind. If they unleashed the treasure, the mission would fail; if they didn't, they couldn't quickly overcome their assailant.
In the end, their entire plan had fallen into complete disarray.
Another five minutes elapsed. After confirming that no further Qilin reinforcements seemed to be arriving, Nightwing prepared to break out of his camouflage.
At that moment, the giant seagull soared back. He froze once more. Before he could react, a fist plummeted from the heavens, instantly smashing him deep into the ground.
Next, water arrows pierced through his body, pinning him firmly to the earth. The entire sequence happened so fast that he didn't even get the chance to draw his blades.
A bubble appeared beside the seagull. Looking down at Nightwing on the ground, Yu Xian said, "That's right, Senior Colonel Jin, Senior Colonel Ou. That's him. Don't let him die too easily!"
"Don't worry, Old Ou and I are professionals at this," Jin Dajun chuckled.
The two worked together, unleashing a flurry of attacks on Nightwing. With crisp efficiency, they shattered his spine, pelvis, and various joints, completely stripping him of any ability to resist.
Only after confirming that Nightwing's regenerative abilities were not exceptionally strong—and that re-breaking his bones every hour would suffice—did Yu Xian slowly descend to the ground.
Nightwing glared fiercely at Yu Xian, longing to tear him to shreds with his teeth. He had never imagined he would fall at the hands of a mere brat.
In the face of Nightwing's venomous glare, Yu Xian only flashed a cheerful smile. He had originally intended to wait for his prey to show itself, only for Jin Dajun and Ou Huchen to arrive one after the other.
With such heavyweights in his corner, he had wasted no time sharing the enemy's intelligence with them.
As it happened, when Ou Huchen flew past as a seagull, he had actually noticed Nightwing's presence. At the time, he had assumed it was one of their own, but upon learning it was likely an enemy, he circled back with Jin Dajun in tow.
It had to be said, it was nice to enjoy the cool shade under a great tree.
An enemy Yu Xian had to tread carefully against had been settled by Jin Dajun and Ou Huchen in a couple of strokes.
"Where's Scott?" Nightwing asked hoarsely.
Stepping closer to Nightwing, Yu Xian smiled. "If you mean the other guy, he's dead, of course. You didn't think he stood a chance of surviving, did you?"
Although he stepped very close, he remained prepared to teleport at any moment; he had only approached to test whether Nightwing still possessed any ability to retaliate.
Once he confirmed Nightwing was truly immobilized, Yu Xian bared his fangs and sank his teeth into the man's neck under his incredulous gaze, greedily guzzling blood.
"That kid finally looks a bit like a vampire now," Jin Dajun couldn't help but chuckle.
During their previous meetings, Yu Xian had essentially spent all his time sunbathing. Rather than a vampire, he had resembled Superman, growing stronger just by soaking up the sun.
At that point, Yu Xian released Nightwing of his own accord, frowning slightly. "Nightwing seems to be on Qilin's bounty list. Capturing him brings a reward of a hundred thousand merit from headquarters."
"He's the assassin Nightwing?" Jin Dajun asked, somewhat surprised.
Although the three had captured Nightwing, they hadn't actually known his identity—only that he was an enemy attempting to disrupt their operation.
Now, however, Yu Xian had extracted a vast wealth of information from Nightwing's memories, giving him an exhaustive understanding of the man's background.
Nightwing had originally been a martial artist, though not a transcendent one; he was simply an ordinary person who had honed a saber technique to an extraordinarily profound level.
Upon realizing that no matter how hard he trained, he could never defeat even an Insect-rank Transcendent in this lifetime, he had succumbed to the temptations of foreign forces and become a genetically modified human.
After obtaining physical capabilities far exceeding those of normal humans, his saber techniques gained terrifying lethality backed by that newfound strength, to the point where even Transcendents with special abilities rarely got the better of him.
From then on, he began risking his life in service to foreign powers. To hone his bladecraft, he also moonlighted as an assassin, taking on various assassination contracts for money while carrying out missions for his foreign backers.
Yu Xian recounted Nightwing's background detail by detail. Jin Dajun immediately stepped up and delivered two harsh slaps across Nightwing's face, cursing, "Damn it, turns out he's a foreign lapdog!"
"Take him back. We happen to be researching gene-enhancement technology as well, an area where foreign nations are far ahead of us. We might be able to gather some solid samples from him," Ou Huchen said indifferently.
With that, he stepped forward and pressed a hand against Nightwing. The next moment, he activated his ability.
Nightwing's body shrank slowly, transforming into a pig amidst a glow of green light. A look of terror washed over him, but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was frantic grunting and snorting.
"This is the Pangu Transmutation Divine Ability!" Yu Xian said in astonishment.
Jin Dajun nodded. "Yeah, Old Ou is one of the lucky few who awakened the Pangu Transmutation Divine Ability. That power makes me green with envy."
"This divine ability isn't as formidable as you think. Even turning a target weaker than myself into another animal expends a huge amount of physical energy. In truth, its real utility lies in altering one's own form, granting myriad transformations—and best of all, changing yourself consumes very, very little stamina," Ou Huchen said with a smile, dangling Nightwing by his pig tail.
His usual practice of transforming into a giant seagull was in fact accomplished through this very power.
Chapter 67