The Third Gun

Yuezheng Qiong quickly recalled what had happened before she lost consciousness, and her mind snapped awake. She tried to move, only to find herself tightly bound to a chair. Her legs were tied to its legs with hemp rope, while her arms had been pulled behind her back and handcuffed. In that position, she could barely exert any strength, much less stand up.

A man in blue who looked like the leader spoke. "Miss Yuezheng, you're a big star, and we don't want to make things too difficult for you. Just hand over the Cloud Gate Yellow Bell Clasp, and we'll untie you and let you go."

Yuezheng Qiong asked, "Did Fifth Uncle hire you? He finally couldn't restrain himself and decided to go after his own family. What a heartless bastard."

The man in blue said leisurely, "We wouldn't know about that. In our line of work, we take people's money and settle their troubles. As for who our employer is, we never ask. Perhaps someone deliberately framed him. You can take your time investigating after you get back, Miss Yuezheng."

"It doesn't matter. Even if he wasn't the mastermind, I'll pin every charge on him and leave him unable to clear his name, no matter how many mouths he has!"

Yuezheng Qiong's unreasonable declaration left the man in blue speechless. He naturally knew their employer was Fifth Uncle of the Yuezheng family, but as a member of the Tiger and Wolf Death School, concealing the employer's identity was one of his duties. That was why he had deliberately suggested that a third party might have framed him. Who could have known she would insist on blaming their employer regardless of the truth? It caught him completely off guard.

When dealing with someone who had no intention of considering evidence, destroying every trace of it was useless.

But her sharp, decisive manner was utterly different from the quiet, gentle temperament of a refined young lady described in the intelligence. They were nothing alike. A possibility immediately occurred to the man in blue.

"You're not Yuezheng Yao. You're her older sister, Yuezheng Qiong!"

Yuezheng Qiong burst out laughing. "That's right. My younger sister caught a cold a few days ago, and her throat wasn't feeling well, so she asked me to perform in her place. Though my musical skill is nowhere near hers, it was enough to fool ordinary people. I never expected this coincidence to make your kidnapping plan strike the wrong carriage. My sister is the next head of the Yuezheng family, and the Cloud Gate Yellow Bell Clasp is the symbol of the family head. Naturally, there's no way I would have it."

The man in blue fell silent for a while, then said, "I hear the second young miss is kindhearted and compassionate. I doubt she would stand by and watch her own sister die. If we take you hostage, eldest young miss, I doubt she would leave you to die. Looked at that way, capturing you is even more effective than capturing her."

Yuezheng Qiong was left speechless. Given her sister's outwardly gentle but inwardly resolute nature, she would likely choose death over submission if she were kidnapped. But if the hostage were a family member, she would instead choose to compromise and make a deal.

"We have professional ethics too. Since you aren't the person involved and know nothing about the treasure, we won't threaten to strip you naked or anything of the sort." The man in blue made a gesture, and the others immediately put away their lecherous looks. "Now please cooperate and don't try to resist. It'll be better for both sides."

Yuezheng Qiong said in a low voice, "I'm a public figure. Even if I'm pretending to be someone else, thousands upon thousands of eyes are watching my movements. Once people discover I've vanished, it's bound to cause a public sensation. Do you think you can escape the Mohist Knight Guard's pursuit?"

"You needn't worry about that. As professionals, we have our own backup plans."

The man in blue was about to have his subordinates cover the hostage with a sack again when a toy car suddenly slipped through the gap beneath the warehouse doors. It then blared out a loud, rough-sounding song.

"The great river flows eastward, the stars in the sky join the Big Dipper! Hey, hey, join the Big Dipper, a bowl of wine for friends through life and death!"

The song's melody was played on a drum kit. The moment it started, it was deafening, its rhythm strong enough to draw everyone's attention.

A kidnapper skilled with throwing knives instinctively hurled a hidden weapon. A flash of cold light struck the car.

"Don't..."

The man in blue realized something was wrong, but he was far too late to stop it. The instant the throwing knife struck the toy car, an intense light erupted from within. A flashbang had clearly been hidden inside.

The brilliant light robbed everyone of their sight and shocked their central nervous systems. Even someone with internal cultivation as powerful as Jiang Zhengtai's would have been dazed, and this group was no exception.

With a sharp crash, Si Ming forced his way in through a window above. Using the footage previously captured by the little spider camera, he had learned where the kidnappers were standing. He swept both guns across them, sending bullets pouring toward them.

All twenty-four rounds were spent in the blink of an eye. Every shot hit; not a single one missed. Caught by surprise, even an expert in lightness skills could not dodge gunfire, especially when the attacker was a sharpshooter.

Yet the twenty-four bullets killed only five people and gravely wounded three. The remaining two suffered only minor injuries. Unless a vital spot was hit, bullets could not inflict fatal wounds on martial artists. They could control their muscles to trap the bullets, seal their acupoints, stop the bleeding, and prevent their injuries from worsening, preserving their combat strength for a short time.

Fortunately, Si Ming had loaded dumdum bullets into one psionic revolver beforehand. They burst open on impact, tearing muscle and preventing those shot from controlling their injuries. Otherwise, all three of the gravely wounded would have suffered only minor injuries.

His ambush had succeeded, but the moment Si Ming landed, he suddenly felt an intense sense of danger. Remembering his earlier fight with Ying Zhou, he forcibly suppressed his instinct to turn and look, using Sparrowhawk Turns Over to dodge to the side. A streak of cold light barely skimmed past his forehead, cutting off a few strands of his bangs.

His attacker was the dwarf. He was incredibly fast, at least two realms above Si Ming. His movements were too quick for the naked eye to capture clearly, comparable to the DOTA skill Blink. He had located Si Ming purely by sound.

In a fair fight, Si Ming would not last two exchanges against him. Never mind winning, even staying alive would be difficult.

"Too bad fighting doesn't depend on martial strength alone. There's also intelligence."

Si Ming performed a backflip. The instant his hands swung upward, two grenades flew from his sleeves, one toward the dwarf and the other toward the spot where the other nine were clustered. He used the motion to duck behind a group of obstacles.

As for Yuezheng Qiong's safety, he could not spare it any thought for the moment. In any case, with the Mohist School's level of medicine, they could bring her back as long as she still had a breath left.

Had his vision been normal, the dwarf might have tried to find cover. But his sight was still blurry, and all he could tell from the sound was that a hidden weapon had been thrown toward him at a less than rapid speed.

Firearms and explosives were a novelty to the people of this world; even the Mohist School rarely used them. Ordinary martial artists had no concept of grenades at all. He thought it was another thing that would emit a bright light like before, so he squeezed his eyes shut and dodged far to the side.

Two booms rang out, and countless pieces of iron and stone fragments blasted from the grenades. For all the dwarf's skill in lightness techniques, he could not dodge an attack that scattered like a heavenly maiden strewing flowers. In an instant, he was turned into a hedgehog and fell motionless to the ground, blood spreading across the floor.

Si Ming had changed magazines by then. Listening to the successive screams of agony in the warehouse, he thought:

You have divine arts. I have science.

Chapter 32: The Third Gun

Knowing the disparity in their strength all too well, Si Ming understood that he had no chance of winning a head-on fight against any one of them. So, even though he was very confident in the grenades' power, he did not swagger out and proclaim victory. Instead, he stayed behind the clutter, suppressed his breathing, and observed the results through a gap.

Two of the three who had been gravely wounded had fallen. An iron nail had pierced one man's eye socket, while an iron fragment had shattered the other's throat. Though neither had breathed his last, they clearly did not have long to live.

But two people were still capable of fighting. One was a short, round fat man. Although he had already taken a dumdum bullet that had blasted a large chunk of flesh from his chest, and had then been caught in the grenade blast, the formidable vitality of his meat-shield physique left him with the strength to fight.

The other was the man in blue, who had the highest cultivation among those present. He had clearly trained in body-hardening martial arts. With one hand protecting his head and the other his groin, he had faced the grenade blast without dodging. The flying iron and stone fragments had struck his body, but at most they had penetrated half an inch and gouged bloody holes before stopping.

Yuezheng Qiong had not escaped unharmed, but she was at the very back, with nine people standing in front of her as meat shields. She had therefore suffered the fewest hits. Only her left arm and right leg had been pierced by iron fragments, and her injuries were not serious.

The man in blue sent his True Qi surging outward, shaking loose every iron and stone fragment embedded in his flesh. Looking at his brothers lying all over the floor, his eyes instantly turned red. So many had died without even seeing the enemy's face. He had never encountered anything like this before, and they had suffered this defeat at the hands of a young man with low cultivation.

"You rat! Die!"

With a shout, the man in blue summoned the mighty force throughout his body and unleashed a wave-splitting punch force at Si Ming's hiding place. The violent force howled through the air and erupted with an explosive boom, blasting the assorted clutter to pieces. Its power was no weaker than an ordinary grenade's.

Si Ming had spotted what his opponent was about to do and leaped aside as the man threw his punch. While still in midair, he fired both guns in succession, then ducked behind another pile of clutter.

Faced with the "unknown hidden weapons," the man in blue thrust both fists forward. Force surged, and the air in front of him actually warped, as though a distortion field had appeared, deflecting every bullet fired at him.

"Little bastard, all you do is hide here and there and use hidden weapons to hurt people. Come out if you've got the guts!"

Si Ming sneered. "A kidnapper calling someone else a rat? Don't you think that's enough to make people die laughing? You accuse me of hiding here and there, but why didn't I see you seize your hostage openly and honorably? Instead, you played tricks, making noise in the east while striking in the west and swapping beams for pillars. You're the ones who don't dare walk in the light, just like rats!"