The sports car roared into the entrance of the underground black market, rain hammering against the windows and quickly merging into a solid curtain of water.
By the time the four of them opened the doors, the downpour was already drenching them from head to toe.
Their rain capes were practically useless.
Jiang Nuan looked up toward the dome. Countless holographic billboards hung between the overlapping layers of the structure, flickering on and off in midair.
Illegal drugs, modified weapons, forbidden ability enhancers—wares that could never see the light of day cycled across the displays in an endless loop.
Most of the shops had already pulled down their shutters. Only a few deep in the alleys still glowed with dim yellow light.
But the moment Jiang Ce, Shen Wu, and the others stepped into the area, the shopkeepers’ keen instincts seemed to sense danger all at once.
Clatter—
Clatter-clatter—
One after another, the metal roller shutters slammed down. The grating sound of metal scraping against metal echoed through the empty black market.
In an instant, the entire passage held nothing but the sound of rain and the footsteps of the four people.
Shen Wu swept his gaze across the suddenly deserted street. “There’s a strong sense of malice here.”
The team did not stop. They advanced quickly toward the coordinates Ye Que had sent them.
The location was an alley behind an abandoned terminal repair shop.
There were no lights in the alley.
Only the faint neon glow from the entrance barely illuminated the wreckage scattered across the ground.
The place had been completely abandoned, leaving behind only the brutal traces of a fierce battle.
The rain mercilessly washed over the pavement. Dark red blood mixed with muddy runoff and spiraled away into the drains.
Shen Wu crouched and pinched up a brass-colored shell casing. He turned it over beneath the flickering light of the billboard.
“It’s Ye Que’s,” he said. “Four sniper rounds. Three kills—”
His gaze shifted to the centers of three scorched marks.
“One missed.”
Jiang Ce walked over to the wall, his broad back shielding Jiang Nuan from the wind and rain.
He reached out and touched the bullet hole sunk deep into the wall. His voice was low and solemn. “Ye Que never misses. The trajectory shows signs of being forcibly diverted. The enemy wasn’t just numerous—they also had a high-level ability user capable of interfering with bullet trajectories.”
Jiang Nuan was startled.
A high-level ability user who could interfere with bullet trajectories? Wasn’t that someone specifically brought in to counter Ye Que?
And under those circumstances, Ye Que had only missed one shot…
Shen Wu stood and brushed the dust from his fingertips. “Ye Que ran into an opponent capable of throwing off his aim… His situation doesn’t look good.”
“Damn that guy!”
Qinian cursed under his breath.
He irritably wiped the rain from his face, a violent darkness burning in his eyes.
Jiang Nuan’s heart lurched.
Her right hand unconsciously reached for the silver bracelet around her left wrist. Her fingertips rubbed over the delicate links and the pendant set with a gray-blue stone.
He had said it could block one fatal attack.
…But what about him?
“Was Ye Que injured?” she asked.
Jiang Ce was examining the bullet holes. At her question, he paused. His eyes fell on the way she was clutching the bracelet before he answered steadily.
“There are no signs of secondary impact or deviation around the bullet holes, which means his position was stable when he fired.”
“The blood spatter on the ground came from the direction of the opposite wall. It most likely isn’t his.”
Jiang Nuan breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
“But—”
Jiang Ce’s gaze settled on another trail farther away, almost washed away by the rain and barely visible.
“We can’t rule out that he was injured in close combat. There are signs here that something was dragged during a struggle. And there were a lot of enemies.”
Jiang Nuan’s fingers tightened, the chain biting into her palm.
No matter how powerful Ye Que was, he had been facing so many people alone… They had advanced weapons, and possibly ability users as well.
“There’s this, too.”
Shen Wu’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
He lifted a broken section of metal mesh from a pile of debris half-scattered by the rain.
A dim blue sheen ran along the edges of the mesh. Its wiring was exposed, and the break had clearly been made by a sharp blade.
“An ability-suppression net,” Shen Wu said, running his fingers over the mesh. “The same model the people who ambushed us on the way used.”
The Cleaners.
The same words flashed through everyone’s mind.
Qi Sui’s disappearance and Ye Que’s ambush were both the work of this organization.
From deep within the dark ruins, the almost imperceptible sound of weapons being cocked pierced through the rain.
“Watch out!” Jiang Ce roared.
He suddenly stepped forward, and a massive shield instantly condensed in his hands, covering all four of them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A dense web of gunfire poured down from every direction. More than a dozen figures leaped from the abandoned buildings.
The Cleaners!
And Jiang Nuan noticed it during the very first volley.
Those ability-suppression nets glowing with an eerie blue light, the trajectories of the armor-piercing rounds—all of them were aimed almost exclusively at Shen Wu, Qinian, and Jiang Ce.
Not a single shot was directed at her.
Again!
The thought sent a chill down Jiang Nuan’s back.
Qinian was already cursing as he surged forward. Flames sprang to life in his palms, their crimson light dyeing the rain a boiling red.
But the rain was too heavy. The moment his ability condensed, its power was weakened by nearly a third.
Grinding his teeth, he forcibly condensed the flames into a whip and lashed it out. Scalding white vapor exploded into a curtain of mist. The two black-clad men at the front were sent flying, slamming into the wall with heavy thuds.
Shen Wu’s mental power surged outward like a tide, only to be forcibly blocked by another force.
The enemy had come prepared. At least three of the dozen attackers were mental ability users. Holding special devices, they had erected a mental defense shield that was extremely difficult to break through.
Jiang Ce maintained the shield covering all four of them, sweat sliding down his forehead. Through a gap, his gaze briefly swept over Jiang Nuan to confirm that she remained within the safe zone before locking once more onto the sources of the attacks coming from every direction.
Why were these people so familiar with their abilities?
So familiar that they could prepare targeted personnel and tactics in advance?
Why were the attacks deliberately avoiding her?
Who, exactly, was manipulating all of this from the shadows?!
Jiang Nuan clenched her teeth and temporarily forced the questions roiling inside her back down.
She condensed a moon blade. Its silver arc cut through the rain, slashing at every shadow that tried to approach them.
The battle entered its fiercest phase.
Just as Qinian’s flaming whip sent another attacker flying, the iron grate over a sewer suddenly exploded.
A massive black shadow burst through the water.
It was the same kind of creature she had encountered at the barbecue restaurant—but this one was even larger.
It opened a cavernous maw bristling with fangs and lunged straight at Shen Wu, who was standing in the rear and concentrating on breaking through the defensive shield.
Jiang Nuan suddenly took a step forward and brought both hands together before her chest.
Within her mental domain, the river of ability energy instantly began to boil.
A massive, crescent-shaped silver moon blade condensed in midair.
The blade transformed into a streak of silver light and severed the monster’s head cleanly from its body.
The creature’s body toppled over and twitched twice on the ground before going still.
It was only after the monster fell that Jiang Nuan belatedly realized she had not hesitated for even a second.
The battle finally ended when Shen Wu broke through the enemy’s mental defense shield and successfully disrupted them, followed by Qinian lashing out once more and collapsing the entire wall opposite them.
The gunfire died away.
The monster’s corpse lay scattered in the rain, its features washed beyond recognition.
Like phantoms, the Cleaners vanished into the underground city’s black market. They had arrived swiftly and retreated even faster.
Jiang Nuan had killed one monster and three Cleaners.
Shen Wu lowered his gaze to the wreckage on the ground, then looked up at Jiang Nuan.
Rain slid down his hair, and his amber eyes shone with unusual brightness amid the multicolored glow of the holographic advertisements that had yet to go dark.
At that moment, the psychic link connected silently.
[Looks like our lessons have paid off.]
His voice echoed in her mind, carrying its usual cool, understated tone.
At the same time, an exceedingly faint strand of psychic energy curled around her wrist.
Jiang Nuan could tell that it was not an attempt at seduction, but reassurance.
Her fingers brushed lightly against that cool layer of psychic energy. [As long as you're all right.]
Jiang Ce withdrew the defensive shield that had been protecting the four of them and panted heavily, sweat mingling with rainwater as it trickled down his cheeks.
“These anomalous energies didn’t appear here naturally,” he said in a low voice. “The Sweepers don’t just have sophisticated weapons. They can manipulate anomalous energy as well.”
The sound of rain filled the silence.
“They have monsters.” The fire whip in Qinian’s hand had already gone out, but a dangerous, dark-red glow still smoldered in his eyes. “Fuck! Is this really a human organization?”
Shen Wu’s voice remained calm. “Sophisticated weapons, tactics specifically designed to counter our coordination, and the ability to command anomalous energy creatures… This organization is far more complicated than we anticipated.”
Jiang Nuan stood where she was, her heart still pounding wildly.
Thoughts tumbled through her mind one after another. What kind of power was behind all this?
“Stop thinking about it. We need to find them first.” Shen Wu spoke, his psychic energy gently curling around Jiang Nuan’s wrist.
He closed his eyes.
Psychic energy rippled out from him, spreading in all directions as he searched. Rain struck his face, but he remained utterly still, a slight crease forming between his brows.
Ten seconds. Twenty seconds.
“They went that way.” He raised his arm and pointed into the deepest darkness of the passage, toward an abandoned cold-storage facility. “Two life signs. One of them is extremely faint.”
Everyone’s heart sank.
Qinian was already moving. The others immediately followed, their footsteps splashing countless droplets from the standing water.
The rain grew heavier.
They were less than five hundred meters from the cold-storage facility when—
“Boom—!”
A deafening explosion tore through the night, and a massive blaze surged into the sky.
The tremendous shock wave instantly flattened several abandoned buildings ahead.
The ground shook violently.
“Qi Sui!!!”
Qinian let out a furious, anguished roar and made a mad dash toward the sea of fire.
“Don’t be reckless!”
Jiang Ce grabbed him tightly around the waist.
“Let go of me! My brother’s in there! Let go!” Qinian struggled with all his might, but Jiang Ce’s strength was frighteningly immense, leaving him unable to move.
“We need to figure out whether this is a trap first!” Jiang Ce snarled, the veins bulging on his forehead.
“That energy level…” Shen Wu’s voice held a gravity it had never carried before. “That wasn’t an ordinary explosive.”
Jiang Nuan stood frozen in place.
Rain soaked every part of her not covered by the poncho, yet she could no longer feel the cold.
The tension and anxiety that had accompanied them all along suddenly seemed so thin and insignificant.
Fear clutched her heart like an icy hand.
She slowly tilted her face upward and stared toward the explosion as the flames spread farther and farther.
Her lips parted, but not a single word came out.
Rain slid down Jiang Nuan’s cheeks.
She gripped the silver bracelet around her wrist with all her strength.
After an explosion of that magnitude, could Ye Que and Qi Sui still be alive?
