Codes and Letters

At night, the only sounds were the clanking of armor from the soldiers patrolling outside the tent, along with the chirping of insects and birds. It was clearly a perfect night for sleeping.

But Zheng Yutong couldn't sleep!

Ever since she noticed the "code" in the letter, she had been wide awake. What did "neve" mean? In fact, the answer was simple.

Taken literally, it meant "ice field" or "ice pellet"!

But what did those words mean? Zheng Yutong couldn't make heads or tails of it. Her woman's intuition told her the code was important, and that Li Wei had deliberately left it for her.

Ice field, ice pellet—no matter how she looked at it, neither phrase seemed to have any real significance.

She reread the letter, but there was nothing unusual about it. It was all apologies, saying he had some urgent matters to take care of and had to leave first, followed by a detailed plan for completing the mission. It was only a few thousand words, less than three pages, and utterly straightforward.

But the sudden appearance of the code had to mean something.

All night long, Zheng Yutong tossed and turned, reading the letter over a dozen times, but found nothing. She even picked out every sentence that contained "ice field" or "ice pellet," yet still found no clue.

It was already dawn. With dark circles under her eyes, Zheng Yutong angrily tossed the letter aside and lay down on her bed.

"Damn it. Maybe that bastard deliberately made up this stupid code just to mess with me!"

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. After all, she didn't really know Li Wei. That explanation made sense—a pointless prank that had wasted an entire night.

"You rotten, despicable bastard! The next time I see you, I'll beat you so badly even your own mother won't recognize you!" After venting, Zheng Yutong decided to catch up on some sleep.

Almost without thinking, she glanced at the letter again. Suddenly, she seemed to notice something, and sprang to her feet.

She picked up the letter and examined it again. A smile crept across Zheng Yutong's face. "I'm such an idiot! How could I have missed such a simple code? Hahaha! What does that guy want to tell me that he had to make it so complicated?"

Had Zheng Yutong cracked the code?

Indeed. If she looked only at the word "neve," its literal meaning was "ice field" or "ice pellet." But if she reversed the letters, it became "even," meaning "even number."

"So that guy wants me to read backward and take only the even-numbered characters!" Grinning despite her dark circles, Zheng Yutong was like a child who had just learned basic arithmetic. She went through the letter from back to front, pulling out every character in an even-numbered position.

Once she had finished, Zheng Yutong was surprised to find that when she put the selected characters in order, they formed another letter. But what it said made her feel cold from head to toe.

After spending more than ten minutes reading it, Zheng Yutong sank into a chair, her delicate brows tightly furrowed.

A long while later, she let out a deep breath, tore the reconstructed letter to shreds, put on her leather armor, and walked out of the tent.

Unlike before, she was now radiating a murderous aura!

What exactly had Li Wei written in his letter? Only the man who wrote it and Zheng Yutong herself knew!

Time flew by. The seven-day mission had only one day left, and the human kingdom's army, sent to exterminate the Undead, had already reached the Knight Training Ground.

It was an army made up entirely of Griffins.

Griffins were a third-tier unit and creatures of legend. They had the body and claws of a lion, along with the head and wings of an eagle, and inherited the ferocity and dominance of both. No one knew where or when these creatures had originated. The sages believed they were the result of a magical experiment in an ancient civilization.

And yet, Griffins were the symbol of the human kingdom. When Zheng Yutong saw their army filling the sky, she was completely awestruck.

She joined the army on its grand march toward Dawn City. Zheng Yutong kept Bai Jie by her side, and even Wang Kai, who had originally wanted to lead a group of creatures into battle, was forced to stay behind.

"Miss Zheng, what do you mean by forcing me to stay here?" Wang Kai asked. He still wore his usual smiling expression behind his gold-rimmed glasses, but now he was clearly voicing his discontent.

Zheng Yutong didn't respond. She simply ordered a large group of knights to surround the area, then sat leisurely on her horse, fixing Wang Kai with a gaze that sent chills down his spine.

Strangely, a hint of panic appeared in Wang Kai's eyes under her stare.

"At this point, if you still don't make your move, you won't get another chance, will you?" Zheng Yutong's words struck Wang Kai's heart like an iron hammer.

"What are you talking about? We're teammates!" Wang Kai's smile had vanished completely. A closer look revealed sweat beading on his forehead.

Zheng Yutong snorted and glanced at Bai Jie behind her. Under that gaze, Bai Jie collapsed to the ground.

"Wang Kai, I've told her everything. Miss Zheng promised to let us live. It's not too late for us to change our minds!"

At those words, Wang Kai looked as though he had aged a dozen years. He had never imagined Zheng Yutong would discover his plan.

It had been foolproof. How had things gone wrong?

Where had he slipped up?

He and Bai Jie had known each other since their time on Shadow Street. The missions there grew more dangerous each time, and people would do anything to survive. The two of them had made a living by "robbing" others.

By robbery, they didn't mean simply taking things by force. Neither of them was particularly experienced in terms of skills or ranking, so they had targeted their "teammates" in missions instead.

Bai Jie had an item that could force the two of them to appear in the same mission scenario. They would pretend not to know each other, then use their acting skills and abilities to earn their teammates' goodwill and trust. Once the mission was complete, they would strike without warning, poison their teammates, and steal their points.

They had planned to do the same this time, but some unexpected events had thrown things off.

First, Wang Kai had been buried beneath rubble. Though he had a physique enhanced by the T-Virus, he couldn't regenerate in a short time. Bai Jie was also trapped beneath a boulder. At that point, they had already assumed the mission was doomed to fail.

Then Li Wei rescued Bai Jie.

Afterward, Wang Kai showed up at just the right time and saved Li Wei's group. He had thought their plan could go ahead, but Li Wei's decision to split up the group threw them off balance.

He and Bai Jie had been separated!

Later, Li Wei's abrupt departure, followed by Bai Jie's return, had rekindled Wang Kai's hope. If Zheng Yutong was left alone, she would be much easier to deal with.

Over the next few days, they had been building up their forces while also improving a strain of T-Virus bacteria that could paralyze people. All they had to do was launch a surprise attack when the mission was complete. Even an experienced veteran as powerful as Zheng Yutong would have her nerves paralyzed by the T-Virus. Then she would be at their mercy.

Wang Kai had planned everything out, only to fail at the last moment.

Did that mean this woman, Zheng Yutong, had seen through their plan all along?

"Impossible! You couldn't have figured it out!" Wang Kai screamed hysterically. At the same time, both his arms mutated, and a pair of huge, sharp claws appeared, covered in jagged bone spurs. The spurs were clearly coated with deadly T-Virus.

"Wang Kai, don't!" Bai Jie shrieked. After spending the past few days with him, she knew how formidable Zheng Yutong was. If they caught her off guard, they might have succeeded in a sneak attack, but a reckless assault now would only get them killed.

Zheng Yutong took the bow from her back and nocked an arrow. Blinding lightning crackled along its shaft.

"I'll say this once. Stand down! Otherwise, I won't hesitate to kill you!"

By any measure, Zheng Yutong was far stronger than her opponent—not just by a little.

By then, Wang Kai seemed to realize that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't defeat Zheng Yutong. Utterly despairing, he let his hands return to normal and slumped to the ground.

"Can you tell me how you figured it out?" Wang Kai raised a hand to straighten his slightly crooked glasses, his eyes bloodshot.

"Yes, how did I figure it out?" Zheng Yutong murmured to herself. Only now did she truly believe everything Li Wei had written in the coded letter.

That man had noticed something was wrong with Bai Jie and Wang Kai long ago. Combined with her own quiet observations over the past few days, she had confirmed what they were plotting. The absurd thing was, if Li Wei hadn't warned her, she might really have fallen for it.

Li Wei, who exactly are you?

As for Wang Kai's question, Zheng Yutong didn't answer. She saw no need to. The army had already set out for Dawn City, and if nothing went wrong, they would complete the mission, "Reclaim Dawn City," today and return to Shadow Street.

She just didn't know if she would ever get to see that guy again.

A trace of melancholy flickered in Zheng Yutong's eyes.

Outside Dawn City, the human kingdom's army stood ready for battle. Its commander was a middle-aged male knight. He drew his gleaming longsword and gave the order to attack.

Inside the city, the Undead were also building their defenses. Guo Jian stood atop the wall, gazing at the human army opposite him, his eyes filled with a savage gleam. He knew the other reincarnators had to be somewhere among them. Once the Undead won, their enemies would be like fish on a chopping board, ripe for the taking.

Thinking of the magical traps the Undead had laid outside the city and the Bone Dragons hidden within, the corners of Guo Jian's mouth curled upward.

The brutal battle began on the open ground before the city gates.