Hong?

"Friends in the shadows, please come out and show yourselves." After seeing both of his opponents dead, Lu Hong did not lower his guard; instead, he shouted loudly in English first, then repeated it in Chinese.

Within the borders of China.

This powerhouse hidden in the shadows was very likely Chinese.

"Your strength is decent, but you aren't careful enough."

Sure enough, a familiar voice in Chinese rang out.

Hearing the tone, which sounded like someone lecturing a junior, Lu Hong suddenly felt a sense of relief.

This meant that the other party, at the very least, harbored no malice.

Under the moonlight, Teng Qingshan stepped out from the shadows nearby.

The eyesight of a Xingyi Fist master is always excellent, and Lu Hong was no exception; with the help of the faint moonlight, he easily made out Teng Qingshan's appearance.

"So young!" Lu Hong was shocked, He seems to be about the same age as me.

Although Lu Hong had walked in the dark world for many years, his actual age was quite young; he was still a few months shy of turning eighteen...

Seeing Teng Qingshan, who was around his age but clearly stronger than himself, he was naturally filled with immense shock.

Likewise, observing him at close range, Lu Hong's age also gave Teng Qingshan a secret start.

After all, the distance had been too great earlier, and with the constant fighting, Teng Qingshan hadn't seen Lu Hong's face clearly.

Seeing him now.

He gained an understanding of Lu Hong's talent.

This child will surely be extraordinary in the future! Teng Qingshan evaluated him inwardly.

Such a genius, if born on the Nine Provinces Continent, would find it simple to reach the realm of a Xingyi Grandmaster by further cultivating his Gang Energy, and there would even be a high probability of him becoming a Void Realm expert like a "Heavenly God."

Originally, Teng Qingshan simply couldn't bear to watch a Xingyi Fist master die under gunfire, and he wanted to find out about the mysterious map the other party had obtained.

But now, Teng Qingshan truly felt a desire to cherish such talent.

Such a young Xingyi master truly had a limitless future.

"This isn't the place to talk. Let's dispose of the bodies first, then find a place to chat," Teng Qingshan said indifferently.

"Right!"

As he spoke, Lu Hong walked over to the corpses of White Bear and Monkey. He first stripped them of all their equipment, then patted down their backpacks, taking out all the cash they were carrying.

Only then did he take a small, unmarked glass bottle from his pocket and dripped a drop of the transparent, unknown liquid onto each of the bodies.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle~

As soon as the mysterious liquid touched the corpses, a violent reaction occurred, and the bodies were rapidly corroded into a pile of ash.

What potent Corpse-Dissolving Water, Teng Qingshan marveled to himself.

It seems the assassin organizations of this world are well-equipped with all sorts of gear.

"Senior, it's taken care of," Lu Hong said with a smile.

This time, not only had he survived, but he had also obtained quite a bit of loot.

The pair of gloves White Bear used, crafted from special metal, were worth far more than their weight in gold.

Then there were the specialized firearms on Monkey, which were not only easy to conceal but also quite powerful.

On top of that, the two had actually been carrying 200,000 in Chinese currency and over 100,000 in US dollars.

This was quite a significant haul.

"Let's go."

Seeing Lu Hong looting and destroying the evidence with such practiced ease, Teng Qingshan felt a bit speechless.

It seemed the lad had done this sort of thing more than a few times.

Taking Lu Hong with him, Teng Qingshan leaped a few times and arrived at Nanshan Park, several kilometers away.

After finding a secluded pavilion.

The two sat opposite each other.

Teng Qingshan watched him quietly.

After holding it in for ten minutes, Lu Hong finally couldn't contain his impatience. "May I ask for your name and your lineage, Senior? So that I may repay you in the future."

Judging by the agile footwork Teng Qingshan had displayed earlier, Lu Hong was certain it was all from the Xingyi Fist school.

But since his own strength was clearly still far behind the other man's, Teng Qingshan was undoubtedly a Grandmaster!

That was why he spoke of future repayment.

Lu Hong had always yearned for the legendary realm of a Grandmaster and was confident he would reach it one day.

But for now, he was indeed still lacking.

"My name is Teng Qingshan, but you can just call me 'Wolf'." Looking at the young assassin before him, Teng Qingshan felt as if he were looking at his own past self from his first life, so he gave the young man his old assassin codename.

"As for my lineage, I am a successor of the Teng Bolei school, though you likely haven't heard of it."

"Thank you for saving my life, Senior Wolf!" Upon hearing this, Lu Hong felt a surge of deep affinity for Teng Qingshan, though he didn't know why; perhaps it was because, aside from his real name, he also had a codename as an assassin.

"I truly don't know about the lineage of Senior Teng Bolei, but it must be the most powerful and prosperous branch of the Xingyi Fist."

Lu Hong praised.

To be able to cultivate a Grandmaster under the age of 20, it naturally had to be an incredibly prosperous and powerful Xingyi Sect.

The Xingyi Fist had developed for over a thousand years, naturally forming many different schools.

It was perfectly normal for there to be many he didn't know about.

After all, apart from his early childhood at the Huaxia Orphanage, Lu Hong had spent all these years elsewhere.

At the age of ten, he was sold abroad and subjected to brutal assassin training.

After surviving the initial cruel elimination process, the Dark Hand organization saw his ruthless streak and promising talent, so they sent him to train at an overseas Xingyi Fist martial arts gym.

His talent was indeed excellent.

This overseas Xingyi gym, which collaborated with the Dark Hand, would take in a few people sent by the organization every year, though they generally chose those of Chinese descent.

That time was no exception; among the five Chinese youths admitted, Lu Hong was indeed the most talented.

He was even the most talented among all the many disciples taught by that gym master.

Thus, in secret, Lu Hong became the personal disciple of this gym master and received the true teachings.

After completing his training at sixteen, Lu Hong returned to the Dark Hand organization and began carrying out various missions.

This time, it was also by a stroke of luck that he had come to Yangzhou.

"Our lineage was indeed very prosperous once." Teng Qingshan thought of the hundreds of millions of Xingyi Fist practitioners and countless disciples across the Nine Provinces Continent. "But as of now, I am the only one left in our branch."

"I see." Lu Hong looked at the extremely youthful-looking Teng Qingshan and sighed inwardly, It seems Senior Wolf is also a man with a story.

Although most Internal Martial Arts Grandmasters were skilled in the art of longevity, and many grandmasters in their thirties or forties looked as if they were only twenty, judging by Teng Qingshan's appearance, he was at most in his early twenties. He had never even dared to imagine such a young grandmaster before.

He gained a deeper understanding of the strength of Huaxia.

Regarding the mysterious land of Huaxia, whether it was the major international assassin organizations or top-tier assassins like Lu Hong, they had always held it in awe.

Masters and Grandmaster-level powerhouses, who were incredibly rare in the outside world, could pop up every now and then on the land of Huaxia.

"By the way, Senior. My real name is Lu Hong, but I prefer people to call me by my codename, 'Hong'," Lu Hong suddenly said.

"Hong?" Teng Qingshan nodded upon hearing this. At this moment, the Little Cauldron in his mind suddenly trembled, and an image was transmitted into his consciousness.

It was a scene from several years in the future, showing this youth before him sweeping away countless powerful Monsters single-handedly.

It seems that after the great upheaval next year, this youth will grow at an incredible speed. Saving him was indeed the right choice. Teng Qingshan trusted the ability of the Little Cauldron deeply.

"A good codename. Then from now on, I will call you 'Hong'," Teng Qingshan said with a smile. "By the way, can you tell me the origin of this codename?"