Dawn’s faint light pierced the gray horizon in the distance, disrupted by a streak of orange that gradually kindled brighter hues.
Beneath the vast, lonely sky lay no open wilderness or plains. Steel-and-concrete towers rose rigidly from this land steeped in thousands of years of history, the city’s every motion calibrated with unerring precision.
It was at this hour that Ye Jingqiu and Shi Zui reached their destination.
The vehicle sped into the courtyard, its tires hissing softly against the pavement. Shi Zui brought it to a steady halt and glanced at her soundly sleeping teammate in the passenger seat, a rare flicker of helplessness crossing her face.
She now had a pretty good idea where her new teammate’s boundless daytime energy came from.
Twelve hours of solid sleep every night.
She roused Ye Jingqiu with a quiet murmur, then left her the remaining moments as a buffer. Turning briskly, she swung open the door and stepped out, the double-edged blade at her waist chiming crisply against it.
Her movements stayed sharp and unhesitating.
Members of the Beijing Branch had been waiting for some time. Aether had already vetted the arrivals’ identities as the vehicle passed through the gate, confirming everything was in order.
For whatever reason, though, that intel hadn’t been shared. So when Qin Zhimiao made out the faces of the newcomers, the smile just starting to bloom on her own froze solid.
“Shi… Captain Shi?!”
Qin Zhimiao looked as if she’d spotted a ghost, rooted to the spot, rigid as a statue.
Shi Zui nodded, her response brief.
“Team One, Shi Zui.”
Qin Zhimiao let out an “ah,” her brain rebooting from its stall. She offered a cautious handshake, light and fleeting, her voice tentative.
“Beijing Branch, Qin Zhimiao. Rough trip, Captain Shi.”
Captain Shi’s unexpected death was a bombshell. Ever since the Candle Dragon had surfaced, the base had enjoyed four full years without a single mission fatality—a stretch of calm waters.
Yet last night, the Mourning Bell had tolled its final knell. And Captain Shi Wen was a battle-hardened A-level specialist, to boot.
The shock had come out of nowhere. Qin Zhimiao had braced herself for two specialists of Shi Wen’s caliber to arrive within twelve hours.
At twenty-four, the ever-energetic Classmate Xiao Qiu had made her sacrifices for the welcome committee, skipping her usual morning routine of two rounds of Five Animals Play topped off with Eight Pieces of Brocade to keep her wellness regimen on track.
But it was Shi Zui who’d shown up.
Which meant this business loomed far larger in the base’s eyes than Qin Zhimiao had figured.
Captain Shi’s history tugged at nagging suspicions in her mind, but Qin Zhimiao kept them off her face, her words and gestures growing only more careful.
No time for chit-chat. She took the car keys and a brass key from Shi Zui’s hand. Just as she turned to summon a teammate to handle the vehicle, her peripheral vision caught a wobbly silhouette in the passenger window’s reflection.
Qin Zhimiao hinted delicately, “Captain Shi, you handling this mission solo?”
Subtext clear: Maybe go fetch your dear teammate, Captain?
Word was Team One’s rookie was some high school kid still in class.
Qin Zhimiao felt a twinge of pity. How did someone that age even sleep through all this?
Captain Shi’s first year at the base, she’d conquered Snow Mountain and plumbed ocean depths like it was nothing!
Shi Zui paused mid-reply when a thunderous engine roar exploded from the entrance, derailing every conversation in an instant and yanking every eye in the courtyard like a magnet.
Tires with killer grip shrieked against the rough ground. A jet-black luxury beast, all aggressive lines, blasted into the yard at breakneck speed—flying more than driving.
Brakes slammed without warning, killing the engine roar. Momentum slung the modified car into a drift, carving twin black skid marks in its wake.
In the next heartbeat, the doors burst open like wings unfurling. Framed by the over-the-top hinges was a face everyone there knew all too well.
Xie Pingzhi, hefting two bulging bags of steamed buns and egg pancakes, boomed with cheer, “Up early and no breakfast yet? Dig in—the eleventh batch, hot off the press from the shop next door!”
Qin Zhimiao’s mouth twitched.
Who in their right mind would touch the eleventh batch right now?
But no sooner had Xie Pingzhi spoken than someone vaulted from the off-roader’s passenger side, bolting straight for her the instant their feet hit dirt.
Qin Zhimiao could just make out the bubbly stream of gratitude:
“Thank you, thank you…”
She shot a look at the stone-faced Captain Shi and heaved a heavy sigh.
Team One had itself another loose cannon.
~~~
After parting ways with Qin Zhimiao, Ye Jingqiu and Shi Zui linked up properly with Xie Pingzhi.
Ye Jingqiu was now sprawled blissfully across the modified car’s back seat, savoring its massage feature. Any lingering aches from last night’s lumpy perch had vanished.
Flashy outside, the ride was pure opulence within. Ye Jingqiu had planned to perk up, get the lay of the land, and flex her training gains on mission one. Instead, luxury claimed her in seconds flat. She went full salted fish, lounging lazy and content.
Xie Pingzhi swung around a bend, chuckling. “Classmate Xiao Qiu, you look wiped—like you pulled a few all-nighters. No spark at all.”
Ye Jingqiu savored a sip of ice water. “Blame your comfy ride for that, thank you very much!”
Shi Zui checked the rearview, pondered a beat, then spoke evenly by way of reminder to Xiao Qiu. “Today’s the twenty-third.”
Ye Jingqiu went “oh,” crunched her last ice cube in a hurry, chucked the cup aside, and even garbled out a thank-you to the captain for her concern.
Obedient as could be—twice as good as she treated her homeroom teacher.
Xie Pingzhi clocked the shift in Xiao Qiu’s vibe around the captain and teased, “Xiao Qiu, how come you’re so angelic with the boss?”
Ye Jingqiu shot back righteously, “Orders from the organization!”
Their banter flowed easy as time ticked into full morning. Dazzling golden sunlight blazed; crowds thickened at subway mouths and bus stops.
The modified car cut through Haidian District, tracking east along the Third Ring Road. Elevated spans whipped past clusters of towers, their glass flashing cold white like honed blades.
“Captain Shi went down sudden-like, and Aether couldn’t pin her last spot before it happened,” Xie Pingzhi filled in while driving, guilt plain on her face.
She and Shi Wen had been the executors of task C20200701, but the origins of the whole affair dated back a full month.
Aether had repeatedly picked up traces of wolf-dog-like animals in Beijing’s East Suburbs—swift-moving creatures with tall, elongated bodies and forms so bizarre they couldn’t possibly be passed off as mere large dogs.
These things vanished as quickly as they appeared. It took the Instinct and Exotic Beast Department endless cross-referencing of records to confirm they were a pack of He Ju Beasts, the vicious creatures described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas as dwelling on North Howl Mountain.
The Base followed the trail, tracing the He Ju Beasts’ movements, until they uncovered an irregularly held trade fair in the East Suburbs.
The trade fair operated in a highly peculiar fashion. It had no fixed schedule or public transaction terms. Invitees were escorted into a hall to meet the “Divine Messenger.” Only those the Divine Messenger deemed fated earned the right to buy the goods on offer—and according to intelligence, no one who entered the inner hall ever emerged again.
“What kind of trade goods demand a qualification just to shell out money for them?” Ye Jingqiu clicked her tongue.
Xie Pingzhi let out a sigh. “Dragon scales.”
“To be precise, dragon scales from the Candle Dragon. The exact thing in the last photo Captain Shi uploaded to the Base before she died.”
Dragons carried immense cultural weight in China, serving as emblems of the imperial house and the Son of Heaven in ancient times. The fervor some Dao Worshippers felt for such legendary beings bordered on outright mania.
The organizers seemed to have an uncanny knack for targeting their audience for the dragon scales. Even with their constant warnings, the leads on the trade fair had come straight from the He Ju Beasts—and these people had truly kept their silence.
The Base conducted a quiet sweep, selecting two invitees who would be easy to impersonate. They had Shi Wen directly replace one, while the other…
“Was my boss. She’s got deep pockets and a real taste for this sort of thing. She happened to be hiring a bodyguard, so the Base turned me into the unlucky fall guy.”
Xie Pingzhi sighed with deep regret, her tone laced with unfulfilled ambition. “After twenty-six years weathering storms and hardships, my grand dreams lie in tatters!”
Ye Jingqiu, however, ran her hand along the modified car, her curiosity sharpening. “Does your boss have some major insecurity issues? This thing’s armored like a tank.”
“Yeah, she must’ve run into He Ju Beasts on the way to a trade fair,” Xie Pingzhi replied. She hadn’t expected Xiao Qiu to pick up on that. Nodding, she went on.
“I suspect Captain Shi’s death is tied closely to the He Ju Beasts. She had A-rank wind instinct. Unless it was a wind-mastering exotic beast like them, nothing could’ve stopped her from getting away.”
Shi Wen’s death had been the surprise within a surprise.
There had been two trade fairs in the past fortnight, but oddly enough, neither had produced a “fated one.”
Just as the Base began to worry their infiltration had spooked the organizers and prepared to pull the pair out, Shi Wen was suddenly chosen as the fated one at that evening’s trade fair on the 22nd. She entered the inner hall.
Half an hour later, the Base received a crystal-clear photo from her. The dragon scale in the image burned crimson like fire, its curve flawless, as if the work of a divine hand.
At that precise moment, the Will Ring registered the loss of Shi Wen’s vital signs. Death was officially confirmed.
The three of them conversed in hushed tones inside the car. It was then that Xie Pingzhi’s phone buzzed a few times, the screen lighting up with “Boss.”
Xie Pingzhi arched a brow and picked up without a second thought, switching it to speaker.
An excited female voice burst through:
“A-Xie, don’t forget to pick me up this afternoon! They’ve added an extra trade fair tonight!”
