Shen Yaoyao and Zi Yue felt Bai Jinghong’s burning gaze on them, and their hearts both skipped a beat.
That look—both of them knew it all too well.
“Is this guy thinking about… a group activity?” Zi Yue wondered inwardly.
“By the way, Gu Tianming’s cultivation should be a bit higher than Chen Lin’s, right?”
Bai Jinghong figured Gu Tianming had at least eaten a few more years’ worth of rice than Chen Lin, so his cultivation had to be somewhat higher.
If it turned out to be higher than his own, he could use the Copy Ring to steal it.
Finding a martial arts master in the city wasn’t easy.
Great masters hid among the common folk. Those martial arts experts were all concealed—those out in the open were truly rare.
Shen Yaoyao nodded. “He’s a Mystic Rank—Late Stage warrior. Chen Lin is only Mid-Stage. A whole minor realm higher.”
Bai Jinghong immediately lost interest. He was at the Late Stage himself—what was there to copy?
But for protagonists like them, cultivation realm didn’t equal everything.
Crossing realms in battle was basic operation. That Protagonist Halo of theirs still held true.
“Fine. Go make preparations. Do exactly as I said. Don’t get drawn into a prolonged fight.”
The two women nodded and went off to get ready.
That night, in a hotel suite somewhere in Dragon Sea City.
Gu Tianming had just finished a “battle.”
His opponent: the hotel’s little “calling cards.”
He was leaning against the headboard, smoking a post-coital cigarette.
The last couple of days had been mentally stressful. He needed to release some tension.
“Phew… domestics really do taste better than those big dark horses.”
“Smooth~”
But as far as he was concerned, this was just blowing off steam.
During the whole “fight,” he had been imagining those wild “cock-a-doodle-doos” as Xu Sixin.
Too bad Xu Sixin was still furious, and getting to home base with her was impossible for now.
Finishing his cigarette, Gu Tianming got up, threw on a simple change of clothes, and headed to the hotel restaurant to eat.
He hadn’t eaten anything for the past two days and was absolutely starving.
His three trusted confidants had already been dispatched to investigate every scrap of information on Chen Lin.
That left Gu Tianming alone to eat in a private booth.
Gu Tianming knew how to enjoy life.
Even dining alone, he ordered a considerable spread.
He even set out two bottles of fine liquor.
Just then, the booth’s door was pushed open, and a waitress pushing a serving cart walked in.
She set a bowl of bird’s nest sweet soup from the cart onto the table in front of Gu Tianming, then made to leave with the cart.
In that instant, the waitress suddenly exploded into motion. A dagger slipped from her sleeve, and she thrust it viciously toward the back of Gu Tianming’s neck.
If that strike had landed, Gu Tianming would have been dead without a doubt!
But a Death God was still a Death God. His reaction speed was terrifyingly fast.
He sensed the killing intent and reacted in a split second, jerking his entire body to the side.
Even so, the side of his neck was sliced—a thin line of blood opened up.
“Seeking death!”
Gu Tianming roared in fury. He planted both hands on the table, spun around, and launched a punch at the waitress behind him.
But the attacker had come prepared. She had no intention of clashing head-on.
She grabbed a bowl of hot soup from the cart and hurled it at Gu Tianming.
Gu Tianming dodged aside again.
But that gap was all she needed. She bolted out the door with incredible speed.
Gu Tianming couldn’t possibly swallow this kind of insult. He pushed his speed to the absolute limit and charged after her.
If she got away, it would be a complete humiliation.
Chasing her outside, he caught a glimpse of the waitress darting around a corner.
“Rat! You’re dead for sure!”
Gu Tianming stomped down, and cracks spiderwebbed across the floor.
His speed was blistering—like a mad cheetah.
But when he rounded the corner, she had vanished as if by magic.
The only person there was a waitress who looked completely different, pushing a serving cart and walking right past him.
But it wasn’t the same waitress from before.
Gu Tianming was about to explode when he spotted something on the floor nearby—a piece of skin.
He picked it up, and his pupils instantly dilated.
“A Human Skin Mask? The Enchantress?”
He immediately thought of Shen Yaoyao.
That kind of craftsmanship—uncannily lifelike, nearly indistinguishable from real human skin—was incredibly difficult to produce. Yet it was precisely the Enchantress’s specialty.
Shen Yaoyao could practically be called the Thousand-Faced Enchantress, because she could be anyone around you. She was a deeply troublesome existence.
But a flicker of doubt rose in Gu Tianming’s mind.
The Enchantress would never carelessly discard her disguise mid-escape.
That meant she hadn’t just dropped it in panic—she had left it behind deliberately.
If that was the case…
Gu Tianming’s mind flashed to the other waitress who had walked past him moments ago as he was chasing her.
Without a doubt, that was the Enchantress.
She had deliberately shed one layer of her mask, instantly transformed into someone else, and then swaggered right past him.
“Playing me!”
Gu Tianming was seething. He spun around and raced back the way he had come.
Sure enough, everything was exactly as he’d deduced. The serving cart had been abandoned in the middle of the corridor, and a nearby utility room door was wide open.
Gu Tianming charged straight in!
“Swish, swish, swish!”
Three short daggers shot directly at him.
At the same moment, a figure used a pulley-and-cable mechanism by the window to rapidly descend toward the ground below.
Gu Tianming’s eyes flashed with vigilance. He swept his arm out, deflecting two of the daggers.
But caught off guard, his arm was grazed and cut yet again.
“Die!”
Gu Tianming roared and charged toward the window.
When he leaned out, the figure had already reached the ground.
The restaurant was only four floors up from ground level—an extremely fast descent.
The fury in Gu Tianming’s heart had climbed to its peak. He vaulted out the window, landing on an air conditioning unit one floor down.
Then he leaped straight to the ground.
A three-story drop was no challenge for a Profound Level warrior.
But the moment Gu Tianming hit the ground, more “whooshing” sounds rang out.
A series of needles shot toward him at high speed.
And along with the needles came a dense cloud of powder.
“Crap!” Gu Tianming cursed inwardly.
Even the boldest feared toxic substances.
The poisoned needles were too small, and under the cover of night, they were almost impossible to track.
Gu Tianming threw himself flat to avoid the needles, then covered his mouth and nose as he scrambled backward.
“Damn it… Datura…”
Gu Tianming was utterly furious and humiliated.
The mighty Death God—reduced to this.
In a direct fight, he could have taken both of them down within three moves.
But those two bastards were too insidious, their coordination far too cunning.
While Zi Yue shot her flying needles and scattered poison, Shen Yaoyao had already driven up in a car and picked Zi Yue up.
Neither of them had been caught.
Gu Tianming stood up, touching his neck and arm, where traces of blood still lingered.
“Chen Lin… you’ve pushed me too far! If I don’t kill you, I swear I’m less than human!”
Gu Tianming gritted his teeth and bellowed.
There was no one else who could have ordered both the Enchantress and Datura to strike at the same time. Only Chen Lin had that authority.
It couldn’t possibly be anyone else.
It seemed Chen Lin thought that here in the city, with his own forces limited, he was easy prey.
As Gu Tianming’s mind churned, he couldn’t help but feel a grudging respect for Chen Lin’s far-sighted scheming.
He must have discovered traces of my movements long ago and started planning ever since.
First, he went to great lengths to bring people across the border, then found my daughter and captured her.
And knowing I would bring men with me, he must have found a special channel to tip off the Chinese authorities, leading to my forces being intercepted at the border.
The result: only I and a few trusted confidants managed to sneak in.
That left me like a tiger with its fangs pulled, while Chen Lin himself is also a tiger—but one with Shen Yaoyao and Zi Yue as its wings.
Even that phone call from Duo Duo… maybe even that was part of his plan, all to force me to enter the country.
But that bastard surnamed Bai ruined it, exposing everything.
That’s why he decided to strike openly—because he figured he had me cornered.
