Return to Smiling, Proud Wanderer

Cross Residence

Hao Shuai sat in the Cross room, staring at the dense strategy materials on the table about the Mutual Aid Society's base, and suddenly fell into deep thought.

It had been over two months since he arrived in the Assassin's Alliance world.

During this time, Hao Shuai had learned to spin-shoot and perform long-range sniping. Cross's crazy sniping had also forced Sloan to recall assassins from out of town and find Wesley to begin his training. It wouldn't be long before father and son would turn on each other.

But Sloan wouldn't have the chance, because tomorrow Hao Shuai and Cross were going to storm their headquarters.

The next morning, Hao Shuai and Cross drove to a location 500 meters away from the Syndicate's headquarters—Weaving Mill No. 17. Cross got out first; his role in this operation was to deal with any assassins trying to escape from the outside. Hao Shuai continued driving towards the weaving mill.

Hao Shuai had no intention of using rats for an attack like Wesley did. Setting aside the hassle, the thought of attaching explosives to rats made him feel sick.

Hao Shuai decided to charge straight in. After all, strength was king.

Soon, the car arrived at a factory building over twenty meters high with five floors. Hao Shuai shifted gears and stepped on the accelerator, the car speeding towards the main entrance of the weaving mill.

Slamming the accelerator, the car directly smashed into the main gate of the weaving mill.

With a "Boom!", the main gate of the weaving mill was knocked open, and the car smoothly drove into the courtyard of the weaving mill and stopped in the center.

Numerous assassins also noticed the intruders and began to shoot from the upper floors and the courtyard.

Hao Shuai got out of the car nonchalantly, two handguns instantly appearing in his hands. He walked forward, spinning and firing his guns.

Honestly, Hao Shuai loved this feeling of being invulnerable to their attacks while being able to strike them down.

In the movie, Wesley first used rat bombs for a surprise attack and then fought his way to the fifth floor. Hao Shuai, on the other hand, walked as if on a stroll, reaping lives one by one as he ascended. Hao Shuai wondered if Wesley would cry himself to sleep if he knew.

When Hao Shuai reached the recovery room and saw the injured Russian, he remembered a good thing in the Assassin's Alliance world: the wax bath from the movie that could quickly heal injuries. Although Hao Shuai himself might not need it, he could use it for his subordinates if he were to conquer ancient lands!

So, Hao Shuai began to interrogate the Russian for the wax bath formula, promising to spare his life.

Under the threat of death, the Russian didn't pretend to be a hero and directly handed over a paper with the formula to Hao Shuai. Hao Shuai made him recite it again. Once he was sure it was correct, he took the formula and collected all the wax baths in the recovery room. He then signaled the Russian to wait there and not go out, lest he be killed by Cross.

Third floor, meat storage room.

This was the Butcher's territory. The room was filled with hanging pork, and the scarlet floor gave it a strong bloody appearance!

Facing the Butcher, who stood in the middle with two cleavers, Hao Shuai couldn't help but laugh at his audacity!

A foreigner daring to challenge a Hua Jin Grandmaster like him in swordsmanship!

Hao Shuai took out his dual blades and used Wing Chun's Eight-Cutting Blades to inflict a full three hundred and sixty-five cuts on the Butcher, teaching him a harsh lesson in humility and caution.

On the fourth floor, Hao Shuai encountered Fox and Wesley. After a fierce and exhilarating battle (the kind where they couldn't kill him, but he could kill them), Hao Shuai injured both Wesley and Fox's hands and revealed the truth about the Loom of Fate to them.

Fifth floor, Sloan's office.

Sloan truly lived up to his reputation as the big boss. Even though all his subordinates were dead, his expression remained calm.

Seeing Hao Shuai enter, Sloan raised his hands and tempted him, "If you let me go, I can give you a lot of money, more money than you could ever spend in a lifetime!"

"Sorry! You old scoundrel are truly wicked, so you might as well die!"

"Bang!"

Knowing that villains die from talking too much, Hao Shuai showed no mercy and rewarded Sloan with a bullet, blowing his head into a pulpy mess. As for why Sloan didn't dodge? He couldn't even move!

Weaving Mill No. 17.

After a spree of killing, only three members of the Syndicate remained. The already quiet factory castle fell into an even deeper silence.

Hao Shuai strolled out of the main gate and happened to meet Cross, who had come to pick up his son. After informing him of his son's location, Hao Shuai drove back alone.

He mainly didn't want to witness the melodramatic reunion scene between father and son.

In the following days, Hao Shuai practiced long-range sniping while having Cross help him sell gold and buy large quantities of guns and ammunition.

When Cross told him that Hao Shuai's sniping skills were ready for graduation, Hao Shuai knew it was time for him to leave.

After bidding farewell to Cross, Hao Shuai disappeared from the assassin world as soon as he reached a secluded spot.

Morning in the Night Shift World.

In this world, Japan had already entered August, the hottest time of the year. Most pedestrians wore very light clothing, and the fashion-conscious girls wore even shorter miniskirts.

Hao Shuai lay on the bed, bored. The air conditioner was on in the room. Although Hao Shuai's resistance to heat and cold had increased, no one would voluntarily seek hardship if they could live comfortably. The path of a martial fanatic or a cultivation maniac who didn't care about their environment wasn't suitable for Hao Shuai.

It had been over a week since he returned from the assassin world. During this time, apart from occasionally accompanying Thirteenth Aunt and returning to the real world to check on the villa's renovation progress, Hao Shuai had spent all his time at the villa, enjoying a blissful life playing Dou Dizhu with three girls, Mahjong with four, basketball with five, and soccer with six.

If Hao Shuai hadn't maintained his pursuit of beautiful women and treasures, and his obsession with eternal life, he might have planned to live like this forever.

This book also announces its completion.

--- A --- Separator --- Line ---

Within the Great Ming dynasty, Huayin County was a rather prosperous county town at the foot of Mount Hua.

At this moment, a young man dressed in a blue and white daoist robe, with a precious sword tied to his waist, and an air of extraordinary talent, was leisurely walking through the bustling streets of Huayin City.

A gentle breeze blew, causing his robe sleeves to flutter, making him look like an immortal, exceptionally dashing. He attracted countless admiring and envious glances from people on the street.

Any gamer would know Hao Shuai was cosplaying Murong Ziying from his outfit. Hao Shuai had many such game costumes in his personal space, all custom-made in the Night Shift World, purely for the sake of looking cool.

This was Hao Shuai's first day in the Smiling, Proud Wanderer world. He had been teleported into a barren mountain. It took Hao Shuai quite some time to find a populated area and learn that he was in the territory of Mount Hua. He finally arrived at Huayin County to gather information.

Hao Shuai came to the Smiling, Proud Wanderer world this time simply to experience what the jianghu was like. After all, what Huaxia person didn't have a wuxia dream!

As a child, Hao Shuai also yearned to become a reclusive master who could fly through the sky and burrow through the earth, cultivating peerless martial arts, then ride the battlefield with his sword and roam the world.

He chose Smiling, Proud Wanderer because it was a relatively pure jianghu world with not-so-high power levels. It wasn't like Gu Long's jianghu filled with omnipresent schemes and all sorts of strange poisons, nor was it like the worlds of The Deer and the Cauldron, The Return of the Condor Heroes, or The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, which were mixed with court politics and dynastic changes. For the death-fearing Hao Shuai, it was relatively safe.

As for the magical internal energy in the Smiling, Proud Wanderer world, Hao Shuai had no intention of learning it.

As everyone knows, the later the time period in Jin Yong's wuxia novels, the lower the power level. The Smiling, Proud Wanderer world was considered mid to low-tier. There weren't many internal energy techniques in the entire jianghu, with only the Yi Jin Jing being relatively famous.

The book mentioned that Fang Zheng's Yi Jin Jing had reached the Hua Jin realm, capable of withstanding Ren Woxing's Star Absorbing Great Method. Unfortunately, it was simply not suitable for Hao Shuai.

Cultivating the Yi Jin Jing not only required a profound understanding of Buddhism but also the ability to see through concepts like 'human form' and 'self-form'!

How could Hao Shuai possibly understand that!

He could take photos, though! And he was pretty good at it! His ex-girlfriend had trained him!

The Star Absorbing Great Method could only absorb others' internal energy and had immense hidden dangers. Compared to other techniques that absorbed internal energy, wasn't the Northern Darkness Divine Skill much better!

The Purple Haze Divine Skill and Wudang Internal Energy took too much time. By the time Hao Shuai spent that much time cultivating them to mastery, he would probably have become an immortal.

Although Dongfang Bubai, the foremost expert, could hold her own against four opponents, she only relied on her speed.

The experts in the entire Smiling, Proud Wanderer world won by using exquisite techniques. Lin Pingzhi, who had castrated himself, killed Yu Canghai using sword techniques from the Bixie Sword Manual. In terms of internal energy alone, Yu Canghai could easily defeat Lin Pingzhi.

This showed that exquisite sword techniques in the jianghu were the wisdom of this era, the pinnacle of the age of skill.

However, no matter how exquisite the sword techniques were, they held no appeal for Hao Shuai, who advocated for "internal energy above all, one force overcomes ten thousand forces, one force defeats ten thousand forces."

But even though Hao Shuai didn't practice them, it didn't stop him from collecting them. Hao Shuai planned to create a scripture repository in the future, filled with famous martial arts from all the myriad realms. He imagined it would be quite fulfilling.