Torture had been a mandatory course for every Silver Wing Assassin back in the day.
Grape simply stood there in silence, the dagger in her hand hovering as it was manipulated by her energy. It plunged into the Summoner on the ground again and again. Pain runes amplified his suffering. In just over ten seconds, the Summoner spat out the answer.
“The Nether Emperor awakened Silver Fiend, Martial Venerable, and Calamity Fighter… for the plan…” He managed only a few words before his eyes suddenly bulged wide. Blood began seeping unbidden from his nostrils and lips.
It was obvious that the Summoner’s words had triggered the mental seed in his brain. Some things simply could not be spoken aloud. Once they were… death followed. But perhaps, compared to death, those preceding ten seconds of agony had been even more terrifying.
Lin Cheng glanced at the corpse on the ground, a faint sense of unease stirring in his mind.
He was familiar with all three names. Silver Fiend had been the former leader of Silver Wing, crippled by him before dying at Grape’s hands. Martial Venerable was the battle maniac slain by a catastrophe. Calamity Fighter was the lunatic who, three years prior, had unleashed utter terror, trapping a thousand people in nightmares that drove them to suicide—until the Alliance put an end to him.
Awakened?
The word’s implications were murky, but Lin Cheng had never heard of any method to bring the dead back to life. If the dead truly could be revived… His gaze shifted abruptly to Litchi. Her eyes had grown complicated as well.
The three of them stood rooted in place. The sunlight that day burned with unusual ferocity, yet Lin Cheng inexplicably felt a chill creep down his spine.
Alliance personnel arrived at breakneck speed. Litchi handed over their current intelligence to them before driving back with Grape. Lin Cheng trailed behind in his own car. For the first time in a while, the Fruit Shop convened a full staff meeting.
The discussion centered on those three names—figures who had died, only to return.
Xu Wanyue and Jiang Lingxue were both in attendance. They were staying temporarily in the Fruit Shop’s building. Jiang Lingxue’s abilities could safeguard Grape, while Xu Wanyue’s luck served to round out the numbers.
Meanwhile, the tiny bugs Lin Cheng had created had scoured one-sixth of the city without detecting so much as a whiff of Silver Fiend’s presence.
Silver Fiend had been an SS-rank powerhouse with energy exceeding two hundred thousand even before her death. Lin Cheng had poured considerable effort into killing her back then. Her ability—simple metal manipulation—became utterly horrifying once one’s energy reserves hit that threshold.
But she had been thoroughly, irrefutably dead. How had she been awakened?
Lin Cheng rode his motorcycle alone to [Tian Yuan] in South City. The fight arena inside was still operating. The instant he stepped through the door, every eye in the place turned toward him. They remembered Lin Cheng all too well, and their stares brimmed with hostility.
“I want to see Green Hair,” Lin Cheng said, cutting straight to the point.
“Green Hair isn’t here,” the spokesman replied.
“Call him back. Now.”
The spokesman wavered for a few seconds before finally dialing Green Hair’s number. Moments later, the phone was held to Lin Cheng’s ear. Green Hair’s voice drifted out, lazy as ever. “You needed me?”
“I want to see your leader.”
“About the Nether River business?”
“Yes.”
“The leader says he’s not bothering with it. That’s the Alliance’s job, not us Abyss Walkers’.”
Evidently, the Abyss Walkers under Green Hair’s affiliation had caught wind of the situation. Lin Cheng paused for a beat. “How much do you know?”
“I can sell you the intel—personally.”
“What do you want in return?”
“Nothing much. Just a small favor owed. Could come in handy someday.”
“Deal.”
“Let’s meet face-to-face. Fifteen minutes, booth six in the coffee shop downstairs.”
Lin Cheng returned the phone to the spokesman and made his way down to the coffee shop.
Booth six in the coffee shop.
Green Hair arrived right on time. He looked just as he had during their last encounter: a head of eye-catching green hair, gold-rimmed glasses, and two cups of coffee in hand. He passed one to Lin Cheng, even asking solicitously if he wanted sugar or milk.
Lin Cheng shook his head.
Green Hair tapped his left shoulder. From the alchemy space inscription there, he withdrew a stack of printed documents and handed them over.
As Lin Cheng leafed through the pages, Green Hair began explaining the intelligence they contained.
“The Nether Emperor leads Nether River. The group emerged thirty years ago, obsessed with drawing power from the Abyss. They control certain alchemy technologies deeply tied to the Abyss—their primary focus being the transformation of humans into Abyss Creatures.”
“Their crowning achievement so far is a potion called K-99. Ingest it, and within four hours, you’ll morph into an Abyss Tyrant. The side effects are severe, though—it corrupts the energy crystal core in your body.”
“A few days back, they deployed their alchemy tech to revive Martial Venerable and Calamity Fighter. Well, ‘revive’ isn’t quite right; they just capitalized on some leftovers. The Dream Mire Clan recently rebelled against the Abyss Empress deep in the Abyss and got all but wiped out. Nether River scooped up a haul of Dream Mire corpses. By briefly fusing those unique energy cores with the resilience traits of human SS-rank energy cores, they roused the two. It’ll last them seven to fifteen days at most before death claims them again.”
“And that’s not even complete; Dream Mire beast energy cores alone aren’t sufficient. They also needed the blood of hundreds of newborn infants. I have to point out—squandering Dream Mire beast cores like that is an absolute crime against nature.”
“As for Nether River’s latest scheme: he struck a sacrificial bargain with some grand entity in the Abyss to secure those Dream Mire beast cores. Word is, this plan has him wagering everything Nether River has. He aims to trade the lifeblood and flesh of an entire city’s inhabitants for a body of Golden Mire.”
“How does he plan to pull it off?”
Green Hair spread his hands. “Fastest way to wipe out a city’s population? Plague, naturally. Rain’s coming tomorrow.”
Lin Cheng checked the weather app. It forecasted clear skies. Green Hair gave a wry smile. “The New Lord’s power could quash a plague like that with ease, so the main event isn’t here. It’s over in neighboring C City. A City might see some minor disruptions tomorrow—just to throw off the scent.”
“Thanks.” Lin Cheng rose, documents in hand, ready to go. Green Hair merely took a light sip of his coffee and offered a simple smile, saying nothing more. Only after Lin Cheng had vanished from the room did Green Hair tap the table lightly with a fingertip. He waited a moment, and then golden particles coalesced in the empty seat across from him, gradually shaping into a woman’s form.
“The intel’s been passed along,” Green Hair said, his tone deferential.
The woman nodded faintly, her gaze drifting to the sky beyond the window. She said nothing. Green Hair couldn’t suppress his curiosity. “Why doesn’t the leader want to meet him?”
“Doesn’t want to help him.”
“Those revived ones—Martial Venerable and Calamity Fighter—are both SS-rank with energy over two hundred thousand. His current strength… he can’t possibly deal with them alone, can he? Does the leader want me to funnel the info to the Alliance through him?”
“You don’t know him.” The woman shook her head. “Everything you see is mere surface. He’s one of three people in this world who could kill me right now. If he chose to, he could reach the far shore more effortlessly than I—or perhaps he already has, only to turn away from it, choosing an ordinary life instead.”
“What a madman.”
“Maybe compared to him, we’re the real mad ones.” Her voice remained impassive.
On the road back to the Fruit Shop, Lin Cheng relayed all the intelligence to Lu Lingling—she’d know what to do with it. Upon arrival, he briefed the rest of the group.
Lemon proposed retreating to the villa. If Silver Fiend dared show her face, she could rig the place with alchemy tech by nightfall. Everyone else agreed. That evening, Lin Cheng cooked dinner. Throughout, he watched Grape quietly. Afterward, she sat by the pool’s edge, staring absently at the silver coin in her hand.
Grape had no idea who her parents were. As long as she could remember, Silver Fiend had been her foster mother. Training to kill began at age six. Her exceptional talent led Silver Fiend to groom her as Silver Wing’s next in line. Yet it was that very favoritism that allowed Grape, as a child, to glimpse a wider world online—one at odds with all she’d been taught.
In Silver Fiend’s lessons, killing was trivial. Obeying orders gave life purpose. The pain inflicted upon her was simply a mother’s love. Grape accepted it all naively, growing up in that haze, convinced it would last forever—until the mission when Lin Cheng captured her alive and brought her home.
Night had deepened. Lemon’s alchemy little birds patrolled a hundred meters around the villa’s perimeter. The moment they spotted danger, they’d self-destruct, alerting those inside.
Late into the night, Lin Cheng approached the door to Grape’s room.
He knocked softly. She answered wearing a deep purple spaghetti-strap nightgown—sexy and alluring against her dazzling snow-white skin. Lin Cheng met her eyes; they held a distant vacancy.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked gently.
“Silver Fiend.”
The entire Fruit Shop crew was on high alert for good reason. Beyond her two hundred thousand energy, Silver Fiend had been Silver Wing’s pinnacle assassin. They might hold their own in open battle, but assassination? No one there could match her.
“If she was bold enough to leave that coin ahead of time, she won’t walk away once she shows.”
Grape murmured a soft acknowledgment before whispering, “The reason she… left that coin was to make me afraid.”
“Afraid?”
“Yeah. That’s her real aim. Otherwise, she could’ve killed me right then, when she planted it.”
Lin Cheng grasped the implication in her words.
She was vengeance incarnate from the depths of hell. Slaying her betrayer in sleep wouldn’t sate her. No—the coin was meant to dredge up fear once more, letting it fester.
Lin Cheng drew Grape gently into his arms, his hand stroking the hair at the nape of her neck. “I’ve got you.”
