Debiao

"Tu... tu..."

Yang Chunsha's feet dangled off the ground, her face purple with terror.

Light shone from her chest as the leather-bound book flipped through its pages at high speed.

But Endless Summer calmly snatched the book away with his other hand.

"..." Yang Chunsha was in despair. She struggled desperately, her eyes pleading.

Wu Zhong ran over. "Brother Xia, don't..."

Endless Summer threw her to the ground. "Lead the way properly. Don't try anything."

Yang Chunsha collapsed on the ground, coughing, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. "I know your secret. You won't let me go. I understand."

"Once I've finished leading the way and sent you out, that'll be my death sentence."

Endless Summer replied flatly, "You don't know shit."

Seeing this, Wu Zhong added, "Stop letting your imagination run wild. Brother Xia isn't that kind of person."

Yang Chunsha pursed her lips. "What kind of person isn't he? People have wiped out entire countries over a single calamity item."

"Endless Summer can teleport. That information alone is worth a fortune."

"And once people become wary of that ability, the danger he faces on future missions will skyrocket."

"People in the Calamity Realm aren't afraid of having weak abilities. They're afraid of being countered!"

She had a point. Wu Zhong knew full well what happened when someone was specifically targeted.

Take Endless Summer, for example. If 985 knew he could teleport, would he still be able to act so calmly?

They would definitely make targeted preparations, or simply kill him the moment they saw him.

The reason Endless Summer had been so bold, barging straight into 985's base while all the other factions were still watching, was precisely because no one knew he could teleport.

"If you don't lead the way, this will be your death sentence," Endless Summer said blandly.

Yang Chunsha's tone turned agitated. "Then we'll die here together! Without me to lead the way, you can teleport out, but he'll die here."

Wu Zhong frowned. "Enough. Don't say things like that. They don't help at all. They only make things worse."

"Brother Xia doesn't actually want to kill you. Say something practical, something that can guarantee you won't leak this matter. That would be more useful than this nonsense."

Yang Chunsha opened her mouth. "I... my big brother is the gemstone mercenary, Six-path Wood."

"..." Endless Summer's hand trembled, and his face filled with shock.

Wu Zhong had never seen him look so solemn and grave. This Six-path Wood was clearly someone extraordinary.

Seeing that her words had worked, Yang Chunsha hurriedly said, "This tunnel actually belongs to him. There are tunnels like this all over the world. I'm just hired help."

Endless Summer raised a brow. "Who else is in your group?"

Yang Chunsha got to her feet and declared proudly, "There's also the platinum mercenary White Angelica, the gold mercenaries Underground Orchid, Corpse Flower, Spruce..."

"I may be a nobody, but if you kill me, they won't let you off. They know I died while carrying out the mission to receive you."

Endless Summer had been very serious, but the moment he heard Spruce's name, he burst out laughing.

"What a load of bullshit. You know Spruce too?"

Yang Chunsha did not know where she had slipped up. Raising her chin, she said, "What's wrong with that? We aren't close, but I know Underground Orchid, and he's brothers with Underground Orchid..."

Endless Summer pulled a banana from his pocket and held it to his mouth. "Spruce, Spruce, this is Endless Summer."

Yang Chunsha's pupils contracted.

"Oh, it's nothing. Some woman says you're buddies with Underground Orchid."

"Ha, quit yelling, quit yelling. You're giving me a headache."

"This woman's codename is Yang Chunsha, a bronze. Know her? She says you look after her."

Endless Summer talked to the banana as if speaking to himself, leaving Wu Zhong utterly baffled. What was he doing?

Yet Yang Chunsha broke out in a cold sweat, her lips turning pale.

"You can tell her yourself." Endless Summer tossed the banana to Yang Chunsha.

Yang Chunsha immediately threw it away. "N-No need..."

Endless Summer sneered. "Do you know that Spruce and Underground Orchid are mortal enemies? Underground Orchid stole the twenty drops of Fountain of Youth Spruce had worked so hard to obtain, along with thirty kilograms of Cinnabar Wood."

Yang Chunsha shuddered. That was an enormous fortune to her.

"No way? Weren't they..."

Endless Summer interrupted her. "You mean they called each other brothers on the forum?"

"That was last year. Underground Orchid got close to him just to trick him and steal his things."

"It's not even a secret. Anyone above silver rank on the platform knows about it."

"Don't tell me all your information on higher-ranking mercenaries came from the forums?"

Yang Chunsha's eyelashes trembled, and she fell silent.

Even Wu Zhong found it funny. This woman had painstakingly made up a story to intimidate Endless Summer, only to expose herself the moment she opened her mouth.

People in the Calamity Realm made up stories as easily as breathing, but they needed real substance to back them up.

Clearly, at this woman's level, fabricating stories involving gold rank and above was far too difficult.

The information cocoon was too large, especially in the Calamity Realm, where it was even worse.

Misunderstandings were everywhere.

Endless Summer looked down at her. "Even if you hadn't exposed yourself, I still wouldn't believe you're one of Six-path Wood's people."

"Do you know who he is? People even call him the Six God!"

"Gemstone mercenary is merely his least important identity. He has never done a single platform mission. He was gemstone rank the moment he registered, and he never logged onto the platform again."

This was beyond Yang Chunsha's understanding. She said incredulously, "How could someone be gemstone rank as soon as they register?"

Endless Summer laughed. "Why not? The entire Free Mercenaries' Club is merely a subsidiary institution of the organization he belongs to. Six-path Wood is one of the founders of the Free Alliance. He beat the Multiverse Academy into submission."

"What?" Yang Chunsha was dumbfounded. She had known nothing about this.

As far as she knew, the major organizations in the Calamity Realm were mainly the containment forces of the five great nations, along with the Free Alliance.

The Free Alliance consisted of the Mercenary Club and the Multiverse Academy.

It was the largest force outside the official containment forces, without question. It even outnumbered all official forces combined! Even members of the five great nations' official organizations registered mercenary accounts to keep up with developments in the Calamity Realm.

It could be said that ninety-nine percent of people in the Calamity Realm registered as mercenaries for one reason or another.

Some even said that the mercenary circle was the Calamity Realm itself.

She had thought it was a platform jointly created by the major powers of the Calamity Realm. She had never heard that there was another organization above the Club.

"Six-path Wood was the one who beat the Multiverse Academy into submission?" Wu Zhong asked in surprise.

Endless Summer had previously told him that someone had beaten the Multiverse Academy into submission, and that was why it had changed to its current name.

Endless Summer nodded gravely. "That's right. Also, remember this. Never mention that name in front of a mirror again. He'll know."

"Holy shit..." Wu Zhong was stunned.

This was a true big shot of the Calamity Realm. Yang Chunsha really had guts, making up stories about him right from the start. No wonder she had immediately scared Endless Summer stiff.

Endless Summer had probably been stunned too, wondering whether he had run into one of Six-path Wood's hidden networks of influence.

Perhaps the stronger someone was, the more intimidating that name became.

Wu Zhong looked at Yang Chunsha. "Seriously, stop making things up. Can't you just behave yourself?"

Yang Chunsha gave a bitter, self-mocking smile. "Then what do you want me to do?"

"I can't do anything, and I have no backing. All I know is how to dig. I finally got a big job, only for something like this to happen."

"I know Endless Summer's secret. He'll definitely kill me. What the hell would a civilian like you know?"

Endless Summer asked, "If you have nothing, how did you become an Awakened?"

Yang Chunsha choked back a sob. "I don't know. I had amnesia. I don't remember anything from before I was twenty."

"When I woke up, I was by Poyang Lake, with no clothes on. The local police couldn't find out who I was either. I only remembered that my name was Debiao."

Wu Zhong was astonished. Her name really was Debiao?

How could a girl like her have a name like that?

"You must have mixed it up because of your amnesia."

Yang Chunsha shook her head. "I don't know. All I know is that whenever I think of my name, the only thing that comes to mind is Debiao."

Endless Summer eyed her suspiciously. "What a story. Now you're trying to package yourself as some amnesiac expert, or maybe a human-shaped calamity item that fell from the sky?"

Yang Chunsha said bitterly, "I know you don't believe me, but it's true."

"The local authorities got me a new ID. I thought that would be it. Even though I often dreamed about a... well, a magician back then, I didn't think much of it. I lived in a muddle for three years."

"Then one day, I went to eat at an internet-famous restaurant that was supposedly amazing, and I tasted a very strange bitterness."

"It was so bitter that my mouth went numb. I asked the waiter to replace it, but he said there was nothing wrong with it. I even asked other people to judge, but they all said they couldn't taste any bitterness."

"Then that night, I had a strange dream. I dreamed of the Mercenary Club... you know about that."

Wu Zhong was dumbfounded. She dreamed of a Mercenary Club?

Endless Summer nodded instead. "That's the standard process for independent Awakened entering the circle. The food had been mixed with the blood of some body-strengthening Awakened, containing a trace of Multiversal Force."

"And for Multiversal Awakened, each level enhances one way of perceiving Multiversal Force."

"Level one is taste, level two is smell, level three is touch, level four is hearing... ordinary people can't sense Multiversal Force. Only Awakened can. So after tasting it, even though you were only level one, you would have been especially sensitive to that flavor."

Wu Zhong asked in surprise, "What about the dream?"

Endless Summer sneered. "That's a special method of the Mercenary Club. Their platform headquarters is built in a dream world. You can only reach it through dreams."

"First, they cast a wide net through restaurants spread everywhere, testing for hidden Awakened. After this woman tasted the bitterness and even asked the waiter to replace the food, she naturally caught the attention of the relevant people. Once they confirmed she was an unaffiliated Awakened, they guided her into that place through a dream that night."

"Once you register as a mercenary, you can dream your way there whenever you sleep afterward. You no longer need anyone to guide you."

Wu Zhong suddenly understood. "I see. That's really amazing."

"But having to sleep every time you want to browse the platform sounds inconvenient, doesn't it?"

Endless Summer shook his head. "That's just one of their sites, a place where people can meet in person. After all, many people never show themselves in reality or interact with one another there."

"The Club also has real-world sites and even a web portal. The drawback is that things in the real world are easily destroyed. A malicious attack would cause too much trouble."

"So most of the time, people access the platform through the real world. Only during special times, or in spaces without a signal, do they rely solely on the Dream Network."

Wu Zhong understood. They had both options.

They built their platform in the real world during ordinary times, with a dream world as a backup in critical moments.

No wonder they had grown so large and powerful. An organization needed all kinds of suitable calamity item properties as structural support to build a platform like this and keep it standing.

"Everything I'm saying is true. Ever since I learned about the Calamity Realm, I've suspected that I might have been toyed with by some Angel..."

"Then he didn't want to take responsibility, so he erased my memories and threw me by the lake."

"As for why the police couldn't find my identity, maybe I remembered the name wrong. Debiao... perhaps that was the name the man called himself in front of me."

"Believe me. I'm really harmless. If you don't trust me, then... then take me with you too. I'm willing to follow you. I don't have anything I'm attached to anyway."

Yang Chunsha laid bare the thing she least wanted to talk about, hoping only to survive.

And sure enough, she had found a solution.

She needed to show that she was harmless, then... follow Brother Xia.

Wu Zhong could not help speaking up for her. "I think that works... She's at least more capable than I am. Why not let her join Brother Xia's organization too?"

Endless Summer said, "I don't have an organization. I'm just a free mercenary."

Wu Zhong froze. "Didn't you say you were taking me into a church?"

Endless Summer shot him a glare. "A church? What church? I never said that."

"Huh?" Wu Zhong stiffened.

Then he realized it. Could this church be so strict that it could not even be mentioned to outsiders?

Brother Xia had only mentioned it because he trusted him. How could he casually bring it up here?

Wu Zhong immediately said, "Oh, I remembered wrong. I meant, since you don't trust her, just keep her by your side."

Endless Summer sneered. "If she wants to run, how can you guard against her every day forever?"

"I won't, I won't! I'm so weak, how would I dare? As long as you don't kill me, I'm willing to join any organization." Yang Chunsha hurriedly declared her loyalty.

She had always wanted to find someone to rely on, which was why she had been so clingy toward a high-ranking mercenary like Endless Summer along the way.

Now that she knew his secret, there was no other way to survive except for him to take her with him.

Endless Summer neither agreed nor disagreed. He said coldly, "Lead the way. Stop wasting words."

"Night Wanderer is still nearby. I don't want to take another bath."