Cooperation

Cooperation

"The noise has stopped."

Beneath the old residential building.

Ning Wu's figure was hidden in the shadows of a corner. Her eyes were closed as she sensed what was happening upstairs. However, the distance was too great for her spiritual perception to reach, so she could only distinguish the general situation through the various sounds and disturbances.

Judging from the screams and sounds of fighting just now, she could roughly tell what had happened.

A fierce battle had broken out between Old Crow's group of seven and Li Yi, and the battle had gone very badly for them. The losses on their side should have been considerable.

But everything had happened too quickly—and ended too quickly.

From the moment they had started until the fighting ceased, barely a minute or so should have passed.

"Had they succeeded or failed? So many people dealing with one Li Yi—there shouldn't have been any chance of failure. That Li Yi had only been cultivating for a month, while Old Crow and the others were all highly experienced cultivators. There was no reason they couldn't take down a fledgling." Ning Wu slowly opened her eyes and frowned slightly.

She wanted to go upstairs and take a look, but held herself back.

Because she did not want to become directly involved in this matter.

Otherwise, when people from the Investigation Bureau came, she would have no way to clear herself of responsibility. Besides, someone needed to take away the extraordinary item. If Ning Wu got involved, the extraordinary item would become stolen property and might well attract the investigators' attention. That would create another headache.

"I'll go take a look."

Suddenly, a cultivator emerged from another alley. His name was Kong Sheng, and he had been responsible for watching the outermost perimeter in case anything unexpected happened.

"Why did you suddenly come over? Forget it, the matter is over anyway. Go check the situation, and report back immediately if there's a problem." Ning Wu thought for a moment, then nodded and agreed to Kong Sheng's request.

Kong Sheng said nothing more. He immediately rushed into the stairwell and headed upward along the stairs.

Soon.

As he climbed, he saw two Spirit Medium Realm cultivators lying in the passage ahead. Their bodies were soaked in pools of blood, and they were no longer moving.

"Dead?"

Kong Sheng's heart clenched. He cautiously approached the doorway.

The dim room was a complete wreck, filled with deathly silence.

He leaned in slightly, and the horrific scene inside stunned him. Corpses lay strewn everywhere across the room. They were all cultivators who had taken part in the operation. Old Crow was slumped against the wall beside the window, his head hanging low and his body limp and motionless. One of his arms appeared to have been broken, twisted into a grotesque shape.

"They're all finished? How is that possible? Is that Li Yi really that fierce?"

Kong Sheng was utterly shocked.

But at that moment, he suddenly sensed danger, and every hair on his body stood on end.

A figure shot out in a flash and reached him in an instant.

Kong Sheng saw only a pair of eyes glowing with murderous intent amid the enormous shadow before him. The sight made his heart tremble with fear.

"Don't attack! I'm a friend of Lu Jue's!" he hurriedly shouted.

The next moment.

A fist accompanied by a terrifying explosion stopped right in front of his eyes.

The howling force of the punch blew so fiercely that he could barely keep his eyelids open.

"A friend of Lu Jue's? You were the one who tipped him off earlier, telling him someone was coming to kill me?" As Li Yi's voice rang out, the fist hovering before Kong Sheng slowly lowered.

Kong Sheng felt the heart that had just contracted violently begin beating again. His back was already drenched in cold sweat. If that punch had not stopped, his head would probably have been blown apart.

Too savage.

Li Yi was this ferocious—how had Old Crow and the others found the courage to come kill someone?

Without time to calm himself, Kong Sheng quickly said, "That's right. I was the one who tipped Lu Jue off. He told me about you. You two are friends, and I'd heard him mention you before. Since we're all acquaintances, I chose to betray this assignment. But I only received the specific mission details ten minutes ago. Before that, I didn't know the person we were supposed to kill was you."

"I see. Looks like I owe you thanks. Without your information, I wouldn't have had time to react. Old Crow and his group might really have killed me." Li Yi stared at Kong Sheng for a moment, then gradually reined in his boiling killing intent.

"But Old Crow certainly wasn't the only one involved. There was also that woman. She and Old Crow are working together."

Kong Sheng nodded. "You mean Ning Wu? That's right. She hired everyone for this operation, and she's downstairs right now."

"She's downstairs? Good. Very good. After carrying so many lives on her back, adding one more won't make a difference." The moment Li Yi heard this, the killing intent he had just suppressed ignited again. He immediately headed for the door.

"Wait—wait!" Kong Sheng suddenly called out.

"What is it?" Li Yi stopped and glanced back.

Kong Sheng lowered his voice. "Ning Wu is a cultivator in the Spirit Insight Realm. Her strength is extraordinary. She didn't take part this time because she didn't want blood on her hands and didn't want to attract an investigator's attention. If you go looking for her now, you may be in danger."

"Spirit Insight Realm? So what? Whether I can beat her or not, I'll know after I fight her. Besides, if I don't kill her today, she'll kill me. There's no avoiding it." Li Yi's expression remained calm, without the slightest trace of fear.

A cultivator one realm higher was certainly formidable, but so long as Ning Wu had not mastered an art, he was confident he could fight her.

"That's not all. To guard against the unexpected, Ning Wu also hired a wanted criminal named Wang Kui. Wang Kui is only in the Spirit Medium Realm, but he has a sniper rifle. The Investigation Bureau originally developed that rifle to deal with cultivators and extraordinary creatures. Later, he killed an investigator, stole the rifle, and fled to the Ruined City. With that rifle, he's killed at least six cultivators, including one in the Spirit Insight Realm."

Kong Sheng revealed an extremely important piece of information.

A sniper rifle?

Good grief, Ning Wu was just as ruthless as ever. She had even brought out a gun to deal with him.

Li Yi's expression immediately changed. "Where is Wang Kui now? Why didn't he act earlier?"

"I don't know. Wang Kui is a wanted criminal, so he can't show himself easily. I suspect he's hiding somewhere in this Old Town District. As for why he didn't act just now, I think Ning Wu believed Old Crow could take you down, so she didn't want Wang Kui involved. She hired Wang Kui only as insurance. After all, once a gun goes off, the situation changes completely."

Kong Sheng said in a low voice, "Besides, when I was keeping watch nearby just now, I deliberately searched for traces of Wang Kui, but unfortunately I didn't find him. However, I suspect he's in the residential building behind Ning Wu, because that's the only place I didn't search."

"I'll go kill Wang Kui. Find a way to keep Ning Wu occupied. Once I succeed, I'll come back and deal with her." Li Yi thought for a moment, then spoke seriously.

Kong Sheng immediately panicked. "I—I can't do that."

"At this point, neither of us has a choice. Either you kill me and report back to Ning Wu, or we join forces and wipe them out. Isn't Wang Kui a wanted criminal? After I kill him, I'll give you the bounty. On top of that, I'll personally give you ten million. And when the people from the Investigation Bureau arrive, I can testify that you're my friend and innocent, that none of this has anything to do with you. You'll be able to walk away completely clean."

Li Yi continued, "Besides, I'm not asking you to fight Ning Wu. Just find a way to stall her and maneuver around her for a while. Buy me enough time to kill Wang Kui."

He was offering a very high price, because at a time like this, money was no longer important.

After hearing him out, Kong Sheng's expression shifted repeatedly as he fell into hesitation.

There was risk, but the reward was enormous.

Wang Kui's personal bounty was already as high as eight million. Adding Li Yi's ten million, Kong Sheng could indeed make a fortune.

And if he succeeded, he would not only obtain two clean sums of money, but could also cast off the crime of murder in one stroke. It would serve two purposes at once.

If he refused—

Putting aside whether Li Yi would kill him, he would have no way to answer to Ning Wu. On top of that, he would bear the charge of attempted murder.

"Fine. I've thought it through. I accept." Kong Sheng took a deep breath and immediately made his choice.

Since he was betraying them, he might as well betray them thoroughly.

Hesitating, wavering, and trying to please both sides would only offend everyone.

Besides, he trusted the judgment of his friend Lu Jue. Li Yi was worth befriending.

"Good. I know this Old Town District very well. I'll go drag Wang Kui out. Be careful. If you really can't keep Ning Wu occupied, make some noise. I'll show myself."

After saying this, Li Yi did not hesitate any longer. He went straight back home, ignored the corpses covering the floor, vaulted through the window, and vanished from Kong Sheng's sight.

Kong Sheng did not hesitate either. He immediately went downstairs and returned the way he had come.

Soon.

He walked out of the old residential building.

Ning Wu was still waiting in the shadows not far away. She looked at Kong Sheng suspiciously. "How is the situation upstairs? And who were you talking to just now?"

Kong Sheng's mind raced, and he immediately said, "The situation upstairs was horrific. Several people are dead, and some others are seriously injured and unconscious. The intelligence was wrong. Li Yi's strength is beyond the ordinary. He's no longer someone an ordinary Spirit Medium Realm cultivator can stand against. I examined the corpses, and every one of them had a Fist Print."

"Those Fist Prints were terrifying. They seemed to be a kind of Fist Technique. Old Crow's condition is also terrible—one of his arms is crippled. I was talking to him just now."

"Ning Wu, I suggest you call for emergency assistance immediately and save them first. As for Li Yi, I advise you to leave him alone. I didn't see him when I went upstairs just now. He probably fled after being injured."

"Impossible. How could this happen?" Upon hearing this, Ning Wu's expression changed dramatically.

She had thought Li Yi had been successfully killed and that Old Crow was currently searching his home for the extraordinary item. She had never imagined things would turn out like this.

Not only had the operation failed and suffered heavy casualties, but Li Yi had escaped as well.

"That's how it is. If you don't believe me, you can go upstairs and see for yourself. I'm not lying to you. Besides, Old Crow is barely hanging on. It's hard to say whether he'll make it." Kong Sheng spoke.

"Damn it."

At that moment, Ning Wu could no longer restrain herself. She stopped worrying about whether she would become entangled in this major case. With one step, she shot out of the shadows. After several echoes of footsteps, she had already entered the stairwell and reached the third floor in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that his ruse of luring the tiger away from the mountain had succeeded, Kong Sheng quietly let out a breath of relief. Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a figure flicker and disappear into the residential building opposite.

"Li Yi has made his move," he thought.