A pistol was drawn, and the trigger was pulled repeatedly at the people inside.
The people in the house reacted almost at the same time.
After a brief fight, two of them were killed, leaving only the earlier captain, covered in wounds and crouching on the ground.
The tall, thin man stepped forward, grabbed his collar, and asked coldly, "Tell me where the other hideouts are."
"I... don't know."
Bang!
A fist slammed viciously into the man's abdomen.
"Talk!"
"Cough, cough."
Amid his repeated coughing, the captain gritted his teeth and said nothing.
Alice's main body, which was controlling the yellow dog to observe the area, had already spotted the returning Chief. He was heading toward the attacked house.
"Tsk, they're going to be discovered. Should I warn them?"
After thinking it over for a moment at home, Ye Qian decided to lend the other side a hand. She controlled Ye Xin to quicken her pace, found a nearby scrap of paper, wrote a few words on it, and used silk threads to nail it thirty meters away.
Clang—
A crisp sound rang out as the metal fruit tray on the table trembled.
The people at the scene were all startled. The tall, thin man hurriedly looked over and discovered that a note had somehow appeared beside them.
There was a small hole in the note. Beneath it, the iron fruit tray had also been pierced through by an invisible force.
His expression changed slightly. He flung the captain to the floor and picked up the note.
A line of tiny words was written on it: The Chief is approaching.
"The Chief... Who threw this?"
The man raised his head and looked out the window, but saw nothing.
After releasing the silk threads, Ye Xin had already run away.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, the man and woman shot the captain dead, then immediately climbed out the window and fled into the distance.
Before they had run far, the man turned into an alley and happened to catch sight of the returning Chief in the corner of his eye.
His expression shifted as he realized the warning on the note had indeed been accurate.
"Who is warning us?" Leaning against the wall, the man furrowed his brows.
"Maybe they're a force that has a conflict with the Insect Blood Society, just like us," the woman guessed.
The man was holding the note when his peripheral vision swept over the ground. He discovered that another new piece of paper had somehow appeared by his feet.
His expression changed slightly as he crouched down and picked it up.
There was also a line of tiny words on this note:
I hope to meet with you. Please walk two hundred meters into the alley, to the house on the left.
"Interesting. Who could it be? An Insect Blood Society mole?"
He looked into the distance. There really was a house over there.
"There doesn't seem to be any obvious hostility. Let's go meet them," the woman said after a moment of thought.
"Fine."
The two cautiously walked along the alley and soon arrived in front of the house.
It was an abandoned building. The entire alley it stood in had long since been deserted and would soon be demolished and rebuilt. Otherwise, the place would not have been so empty.
As they entered through the door, a blond girl came into view.
The man was stunned.
The child in black stockings and a skirt stood quietly in the darkness, looking exceptionally lovely.
"Who are you? Were you the one who threw those notes?" he asked first.
He actually found it hard to believe. The force behind those thrown notes clearly belonged to no ordinary expert. Yet this girl looked no older than twelve or thirteen, perhaps even younger. How could she have done something like that?
"Who I am isn't important. What matters is that we face the same enemy, so I don't mind helping you," the blond girl said calmly.
Borrowing Influence
"The same enemy?"
Upon hearing that, the man believed that she had thrown the notes.
Although the girl before him had an unknown background, she had indeed saved them.
"Looks like the Insect Blood Society has made plenty of enemies. How did you end up provoking those people?" the man asked seriously.
"They came looking for me themselves," Alice replied.
"Alright, that certainly fits their style." The man smiled bitterly and shook his head. "No matter what, thank you for warning us. If we had faced that Chief directly, it would have been difficult for just the two of us to escape."
"Is that Chief very strong?"
"Very strong. He has already reached the peak of what an ordinary person can achieve and is stuck before the threshold of a profession. In order to break through his limits, he has spent nearly three months preparing. Once he completes his advancement, the consequences will be unimaginable."
"..."
The man's words made Alice's eyelids twitch.
The threshold of a profession? Advancement?
What was that supposed to mean?
She had never heard of it.
To avoid being treated like a clueless novice, Alice did not reveal her confusion. Instead, she murmured, "That really is troublesome."
"Yes. Our original plan was to take advantage of the times when the Chief was separated from his subordinates and eliminate those lackeys one by one. That way, we could later gather all our strength and get rid of the Chief himself. But his strength has been growing too quickly lately, and it is becoming harder and harder to pull off. If we still can't defeat him, we may have no choice but to report him to the Shadow Bureau and borrow the government's power. But I don't want to do that, because it would put us on the government's radar."
The man's words stirred Alice's interest.
The government?
So the Shadow Bureau referred to an official force? No wonder those people had sounded so wary whenever they mentioned it.
It seemed this world really was vastly different from her previous life. Alice felt that she should seriously look into this world's social and historical conditions to confirm how it differed from the Earth she had known.
"When are you planning to make your move?" she asked tentatively.
"Now." The man's answer was decisive. "That Chief has returned. We left traces of ourselves at the scene, and he will probably use special methods to investigate us soon. He may even report it to the Insect Blood Society's higher-ups. We have to kill him before that happens, or things will become extremely troublesome."
Alice's heart skipped a beat. "In that case, could you wait a few minutes? I need to make more thorough preparations."
"Alright. We'll monitor the target from a distance first. This area is very close to a Shadow Bureau branch, only three kilometers away. We should still be as careful as possible when we act."
Alice temporarily parted ways with them.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, her main body at home prepared two small bottles of Water of Purification. When Alice came close, she handed them to her.
Should I endure the weakness and have my main body split again?
Her strongest combat force was undoubtedly Ye Xin.
But after Proliferation, Ye Xin's strength had actually been reduced.
Her own situation was also dangerous. Based on what those two had said, the Insect Blood Society likely had methods of using the scene to locate hostile targets.
Ye Qian was not afraid of the other side's lackeys coming to her door. What she truly feared was that Chief.
He should be able to lock onto her location quite easily.
That meant that even if she did nothing from now on, the Chief might still come looking for her.
If he was too strong, she would most likely be unable to defeat him.
Not to mention that he still had the possibility of breaking through.
"I still have to take a gamble."
Her main body had no combat ability anyway. If she got lucky and split off a new wife with a decent ability—no, that was not what she meant—she might even win easily.
"Let's try again. At worst, I'll be stuck in bed for a few more days."
She raised a finger and directly consumed twenty points of Life Energy.
Her arm began to split apart.
As flesh and blood fell to the ground, an unprecedented sense of dizziness and weakness flooded Ye Qian's body.
The next second, her adorable main body collapsed helplessly.
Ye Xin immediately rushed over and caught her.
"So dizzy."
Holding her tiny, fragrant self in her arms and carrying her to the bed, Ye Xin felt oddly conflicted.
"It really is dizzy."
Her body was completely powerless, and even her breathing had become a little rapid.
"But these side effects are still within my estimates."
Already mentally prepared, Ye Xin took the initiative to remove the main body's coat and cover her with a blanket.
She squeezed the little white-stockinged foot, feeling its soft touch. Ye Xin swallowed and reminded herself not to have any strange thoughts.
A few seconds later, a newborn girl appeared.
"Black hair again? Well, from a genetic perspective, it's perfectly normal for black hair to produce black hair. By that logic, Alice is the exception."
Although Ye Qian had always hoped for an older-sister type, this was undoubtedly another standard girl.
Long, straight black hair.
She looked like the younger-sister type at a glance.
She had probably inherited the main body's genetic state.
However, Ye Qian was still somewhat speechless when she saw the new body's attributes.
Body: Unnamed LV: 1 Experience: 0/10 Attributes: Strength 0.3, Constitution 0.4, Agility 0.3, Spirit 0.9, Intelligence 0.3, Resistance 0.1 Skills: None Talent Ability: Soul Projection (White)
"Did all that Strength and Constitution get allocated to Spirit?"
She was even more lopsided than expected.
Ye Xin walked over and tried to pick her up.
"Mmm, she's still heavier than the main body."
Ye Xin paid particular attention to her ability.
Soul Projection (White): A secret ability. Lock onto a target whose strength is not too far from your own. As long as they are within a ten-kilometer radius, you can project your soul into their body, seize the target's memories, and completely control them. After the ability is activated, the activating body can survive using Water of Purification. The soul must recover for at least one month before returning to its original body. After returning, the target will forget all memories from the period of Soul Projection.
Note: The owner of this ability will be more likely to notice "supernatural people."
"This ability..."
After carefully reading the long description and closing her eyes to sense it, Ye Qian roughly understood what she had obtained.
"It doesn't seem very helpful in combat."
Although the ability looked quite special, it really could not provide effective combat power.
"No, maybe not."
Before you continue