"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"No, nothing. We should hurry."

"Agreed. I won"t allow Lian Rou to come to any harm!" Tong Xue growled determinedly. The two of us immediately ran off in the direction of wherever Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou went. However, before we got very far, Elder Zhao appeared.

"Where do you two think you"re going?"

The both of us skidded to a stop as he stared at us sternly, and bowed respectfully. Elder Zhao studied us for a moment, and then sighed.

"I received instructions from Sect Lady Da Ji. You two are to return to your dorm and rest."

"But…but…Lian Rou and the others…!" Tong Xue blurted out.

"They"ll be fine," Elder Zhao a.s.sured him. "They have Blood Blades protecting them. And they"re just helping out, they are not actually fighting."

"I see." Tong Xue breathed a sigh of relief. Then he frowned. "Wait, isn"t their location being attacked by Blood Shadow right now?"

"Your information is out of date," Elder Zhao informed him, but just to be sure, he retrieved his smartphone to confirm. "Seems like Lang Xie and Hai Rong arrived to drive him away in time before we took any casualties."

"That"s good." Tong Xue looked extremely relieved. I was sure my current expression mirrored his, but I didn"t say anything.

"In fact, they should be heading back about now." Elder Zhao glanced at his smartphone. "They were only supposed to hand over supplies and fresh Spirit Armaments to the Blood Blades fighting on the frontlines. They should have finished their job a while ago by now. Shen Cha and the intelligence department should be tracking Blood Shadow down right now."

"Divine Shadow Sect"s Blood Shadow…one of the three Shadow Guards…" Tong Xue sighed heavily. "He"s the most powerful of the three. For someone of his strength to sneak inside Tushan City, we"re in pretty deep trouble."

"You know them too?" Elder Zhao was surprised. Tong Xue looked annoyed.

"Intelligence is my speciality, remember? Of course I would know them. And we even defeated Gray Shadow and Black Shadow, didn"t we?"

"Um, wasn"t Fei Wu the one who killed both Gray Shadow and Black Shadow?" Elder Zhao glanced at me. I merely lowered my head humbly.

"We did it as a team. All of Blood Blades deserve the credit."

"Liar! You fought Black Shadow when he invaded your cell in Fire Prison Cliff and killed him by yourself!" Tong Xue snapped.

"Then why were you taking the credit for killing them earlier?" Elder Zhao asked dryly, which caused him to stammer uncertainly.

In any case, there was little point in sticking around, so the both of us bowed shortly to Elder Zhao and made our way toward the dormitory for a well-needed rest. Fortunately, as I mentioned earlier, Ling Qing Zhu did not go all out, so I didn"t expend as much qi as I thought I would have. Even so, I appreciated the rest.

Unfortunately, we had barely taken a few steps before we heard a cry from Elder Zhao. The both of us quickly spun around.

"Elder Zhao? What happened?" I demanded.

Elder Zhao was looking pretty pale as he stared at the screen of his smartphone. He raised his head to look at us, his complexion ghastly.

"Qi Hong and Lian Rou…when they were on their way back to the sect grounds…they were attacked and abducted."

"…what?" Tong Xue"s normally gentle expression turned sharp. Elder Zhao scowled as he read the tactical update on his screen again.

"Hu Mei Er was escorting them back to the sect…or she was supposed to, but she led them elsewhere. The Blood Blades stationed nearby reported that they heard a battle, but by the time they rushed over, all three girls were missing."

The name Hu Mei Er provoked something at the back of my mind, but for the life of me, I couldn"t place my finger on what was bothering me.

Right, Hu Mei Er was Liang Shao Yang"s lover, and the two of them were pretty intimate. She was also Tang Qi Hong"s rival, but after she got into a relationship with Liang Shao Yang, she rarely tried to compete against Tang Qi Hong. However, she had kept a low profile after my duel with Liang Shao Yang, which resulted in his death. I hadn"t paid much attention to her after that, but from what I knew, she was grieving heavily for that b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

Well, considering they were lovers, it was only natural. Even so, she was still a fellow sect member. If she was in danger, I should help her. Of course I was going to priotize Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou over her, but I couldn"t just abandon Hu Mei Er as well.

"The two of you, go inform Sect Leader. I"ll arrange a squad of Blood Blades and dispatch them to look for the three girls." Elder Zhao"s scowl deepened. "I bet this has something to do with Blood Shadow. But why kidnap them instead…?"

Elder Zhao had a point. Blood Shadow was a top a.s.sa.s.sin. He specialized in killing and murder. Why would he kidnap the three girls? Maybe Tang Qi Hong, especially since she was the adopted daughter of Sect Leader Zi and Sect Lady Da Ji – he might want to demand a ransom in the form of someone"s life. Even then, it made no sense. Was he going to demand for my life or something? While I would be more than happy to trade my life for Tang Qi Hong"s, it struck me as odd that he would resort to such a roundabout manner.

No, there was something amiss about this whole thing.

"Understood." Tong Xue gritted his teeth and rushed off toward the peak of Flame Volcano. I made to follow him, but Elder Zhao called out to me.

"Fei Wu, follow Tong Xue. Make sure he doesn"t do anything reckless."

"Understood."

Nodding my head to show my compliance, I then followed Tong Xue while Elder Zhao dashed off in the opposite direction, probably to a.s.semble a squad.

The guards in front of the main pavilion at the peak, upon recognizing us, withdrew to allow us to enter. We then proceeded to the main hall where Sect Leader Zi was monitoring the battle through an array of monitors and pict-screens.

"The two of you…" Sect Leader Zi glanced up, but he did not seem surprised to see us. "What"s up?"

"Lian Rou and Tang Qi Hong!" Tong Xue gasped. "They"ve gone missing!"

"Hu Mei Er too," I added.

Sect Leader Zi"s shoulders sagged, and he nodded. Evidently he had already received the latest news through the tactical updates and such. He glanced at one of the monitors, his expression severe, before turning back to us.

"So I have heard."

"Your orders, Sect Leader?" Tong Xue pressed.

Sect Leader Zi pursed his lips as he glanced back at the monitor. I noticed that it was displaying a text message, which was presumably sent straight to his phone or email.

"Blood Shadow has sent us an ultimatum," he said. "He calls for Nine-Tailed Fox Sect to surrender to the Martial Arts Alliance. If we do not comply, then he will kill Qi Hong and Lian Rou."

I raised my eyebrow when I noticed that Hu Mei Er"s name was missing. Was she able to escape, or had Blood Shadow already killed her as a demonstration? I was sure Sect Leader Zi didn"t just forget about her or dismiss her presence.

"That"s…"

"Unacceptable," Sect Leader Zi cut Tong Xue off. "Their terms of surrender are unacceptable. If we surrender, they will kill every member of Blood Blades and imprison the blacksmiths, so as to divide them among the Alliance later. It"s as good as allowing our sect to be destroyed."

"Even then, we"ve to do something!" Tong Xue insisted.

"We will." Sect Leader Zi took a deep breath. "You"re both part of Blood Blades, correct?"

I nodded.

"All right. Head to the back of Flame Volcano and notify Lang Xie about this matter. He should be overseeing the battle from there. Ask him to personally handle this matter." Sect Leader Zi clenched his fists tightly. "Right now, he and Hai Rong are probably the only ones able to fight on par with Blood Shadow. Tell him to kill Blood Shadow, and this is a direct order from me."

"Understood." Tong Xue was determined.

"What about Sect Lady Da Ji?" I asked. "Does she know about this?"

Being Tang Qi Hong"s adopted mother, I was sure Sect Lady Da Ji would literally fly into a rage, dive down the mountain, track Blood Shadow down and tear him apart with her two hands. Or burn him into ash.

"No, not yet. Currently my wife is resting." Sect Leader Zi stared at us sternly. "I would like to keep it that way. The both of you should be aware of how heavily injured she is after fighting someone of the Golden G.o.d of Fire"s caliber. I don"t want her to overexert herself and worsen her wounds. We need her to recover for the real battle. Besides, Lang Xie and Hai Rong are most familiar with Blood Shadow"s tactics. I would rather leave it to them."

"Understood." The both of us nodded.

"All right. Hurry!" Sect Leader Zi glanced at the screen worriedly. "There"s no telling what Blood Shadow will do if we keep him waiting for too long."

"How do we know where he is?" I asked.

Sect Leader Zi smiled wryly and indicated the screen. "He gave us a venue, a place where he wants us to declare our surrender. I"m pretty sure he will be lurking nearby."

I frowned. There was something else Sect Leader Zi was not telling us, but I wasn"t sure what it was. Nonetheless, he was right. There was no time to waste, and we had to hurry before that b.a.s.t.a.r.d harm a hair on Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou.

While we hurried toward the Will"O Wisp Forest – or more accurately, the base camp set beside the Will"O Wisp Forest – Tong Xue clenched his fists angrily.

"I won"t allow anyone to hurt my Lian Rou!"

"Yeah, yeah." I sighed tiredly. "I don"t get it, though. I don"t mean to sound…callous, but I"m surprised Blood Shadow took the girls as hostages instead of killing them. Surely he doesn"t really believe that the sect will surrender just because he has the adopted daughter of the sect leader in his hands? Something"s not right."

Tong Xue paused for a second, his brow furrowing. "No, you"re right. What you say makes sense. Even if he took hostages, while would he take Lian Rou and Hu Mei Er along? They"re useless to him. He would have killed them and take only Qi Hong as a hostage. She"s the only important one – the others aren"t worth much to the sect."

Of course Lian Rou was worth a lot to him, but he was being objective. He was the only one who valued Lian Rou over everything, but the sect wouldn"t destroy itself just for a few girls. h.e.l.l, even if I was the one who got captured, I highly doubted the sect would just roll over and surrender to its demise in exchange for my life.

None of us was worth that much.

Pushing my gla.s.ses up as we ran, I chewed on my lip.

"The only recourse for us is revenge. If he kills them, he must be aware that we will do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths. Nothing will be able to hide him from the sect"s wrath. Even if we get destroyed by the Martial Arts Alliance, we"ll definitely take him down with us. He has to know that."

"Then what is this whole thing about?" Tong Xue demanded uneasily. "You"re right, this just seems way too strange."

"Well, maybe Vice-Commander Lang Xie will know what to do." I sighed. It was best to leave this in the hands of an adult. Technically I was an adult in a kid"s body, but even when I was in the military, I was only a rifleman. I wasn"t even a NCO, having stayed at a low rank throughout my years. "He"ll provide us with orders."

Tong Xue nodded in agreement. Seeing his worried expression, I forced a rea.s.suring smile and tried to cheer him up.

"Don"t worry. Blood Shadow is one of the three Shadow Guards of Divine Shadow Sect, right? I"ve already killed Gray Shadow and Black Shadow. It"ll be fun if I can claim credit for killing all three Shadow Guards."

Not only that, I would end up dealing a huge blow to the morale of Divine Shadow Sect, which might be immense in allowing Nine-Tailed Fox Sect to survive.

It didn"t take us more than a few minutes to reach the base camp set up at Will"O Wisp Forest. We bundled down the stairs, flashed our ID to the Blood Blades guards serving as sentries, and waited for them to allow us inside. Upon entering the command center, we found Lang Xie and Hai Rong monitoring the battlefield through an impressive array of screens and holograms.

"You"re both here." Lang Xie didn"t even look up as we entered. "I"ve got the gist of it from Sect Leader Zi."

"Yeah…Blood Shadow." Hai Rong"s normally beautiful face was filled with worry. "That guy is an elder-level expert, a top a.s.sa.s.sin trained by the prevous Divine Shadow Sect lord, and a true monster. He"s known for being a bloodthirsty berserker who goes crazy over the sight of blood, and leaves countless victims in his wake."

"So either he"s a Khornate cultist screaming, "blood for the blood G.o.d!" or he"s an Eversor a.s.sa.s.sin," I muttered. No one paid any attention to that, so I gathered my courage and tried to look as confident as possible. "Well, I"ve killed his comrades, Gay Shadow…I mean, Gray Shadow and Black Shadow. I"m sure I"ll be able to fight him…"

"No!" Hai Rong raised her voice unconsciously. She turned to glare at me. "Gray Shadow and Black Shadow are nothing compared to Blood Shadow. They"re practically just there to fill the numbers. He"s much more powerful than the both of them combined. In fact, Blood Shadow might be more difficult to deal with than even Liang Yang Zu."

"Nonetheless, Sect Leader has ordered us to kill Blood Shadow," Lang Xie said calmly. "And we"ll do that."

"How?" Hai Rong rolled her eyes. "Easier said than done."

Lang Xie smiled coldly. "Since when has there existed a person who the Blood Blades is unable to kill?"

"…true," Hai Rong conceded. She sighed wearily, and then turned to stare at us. "All right, you two. Leave this to us. You both should get some rest, because we"re going to deploy you in section 4 tomorrow."

Section 4 was a part of the wall that overseeing the mountains to the north. A small but presumably powerful detachment from the Martial Arts Alliance were approaching from that direction, but they wouldn"t be here for the next few days even though they were traveling in a mechanized convoy. The mountain path was treacherous and hard to navigate, after all.

"No."

Hai Rong looked at Tong Xue in shock, as if he had suddenly transformed into Yi Yuan or something.

"What do you mean, no? Are you going against your superior"s orders?"

"Please allow me to partic.i.p.ate in this mission to rescue Lian Rou!" Tong Xue bowed deeply as he pleaded.

"The opponent this time is too powerful," Hai Rong reminded him. "You"ll only be in danger if you come along."

"That"s fine!" Tong Xue insisted. "To me, Lian Rou"s life is more important than anything else. I am willing to sacrifice anything for Lian Rou, even my life."

Hai Rong looked moved. "Kid, you"re not too impressive in other aspects, but the fact that you can throw away everything for the woman you love, I admire you for that."

"Thank you for the praise, Instructor Hai," Tong Xue responded as he kept his head bowed. Hai Rong then nodded before she turned to me.

"What about you?"

"I would like to partic.i.p.ate as well," I replied stoically. It wasn"t that I didn"t want to be outdone by Tong Xue, but I was truly concerned for Tang Qi Hong"s wellbeing.

"Seems like you also have a close relationship with Qi Hong." Hai Rong sighed and nodded. "I don"t think we"ll be able to stop you. Even if we order you to keep out of this, the both of you will come in secret anyway."

She gave me far too much credit for that. Honestly, if she and Lang Xie ordered me to stay away, I would have obeyed and left it to them. I believed in my two superiors and was confident that they would be able to rescue Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou and was aware that they wouldn"t want me tagging along for a good reason. There was no reason to undermine the adults.

Perhaps that had something to do with me mentally being an adult and not as p.r.o.ne to reckless proclamations and actions.

In the end, however, everything was up to Lang Xie. Hai Rong, Tong Xue and I couldn"t help but turn to look at him.

We knew that Lang Xie"s response would be of utmost importance. As the vice-commander of Blood Blades and second only to Sect Lady Da Ji, he had overall authority over the military arm.

"Lang Xie…" Hai Rong whispered softly.

"Please save Lian Rou"s life, sire!" Tong Xue dropped to his knee and begged.

For some reason, Lang Xie turned to me, his expression unreadable. I wasn"t sure what he wanted, but I felt as if I had to say something.

"Please save Qi Hong and Lian Rou, sire," I requested him, also dropping to a knee and lowering my head humbly. Then rage surged forth from within and my eyes blazed behind the lenses of my gla.s.ses. "As for Blood Shadow and his Divine Shadow Sect comrades…I want them dead."

Lang Xie actually curled his lips slightly at that.

"That"s a given," he replied. Then his brow furrowed a little. "But as Hai Rong says, this will be extremely dangerous. I cannot guarantee the safety of you two if you insist on tagging along. Given Blood Shadow"s strength, he"ll be able to kill you with on hit."

"It doesn"t matter. I"ll risk it!" Tong Xue a.s.sured him.

"I survived a direct attack from the Golden G.o.d of Fire," I said half-truthfully. To be honest, if Sect Lady Da Ji hadn"t infused me with her qi, I would have been completely obliterated by his immense fireball. Then again, he wouldn"t have that amount of firepower if he hadn"t ingested the Flaming Red Pill, but that was all academic in any case. "I"m sure I"ll be able to survive an attack from Blood Shadow, who is clearly not as strong."

Neither Lang Xie nor Hai Rong looked shocked at my declaration, presumably because they had already learned of it through the tactical udpates, or were informed of it by Sect Lady Da Ji herself. Either way, I was relieved to see that they did not question my claim.

"Very good." Lang Xie rose from his command console, and gestured for a high-ranking Blood Blade to take his place. "Then let"s move out immediately." He glanced at the screen one last time. "We wouldn"t want to keep Blood Shadow waiting, would we?"