Clash in the Dark Alley

The rotten air was like viscous liquid, carrying the sour stench of fermenting garbage and cheap alcohol as it weighed heavily on Xiang Yi's slight body. The smell bored into his nostrils like countless tiny needles, making his already throbbing temples swim. Wrapped in a filthy, moldy blanket, he kept the brim of his hat pulled low, revealing only half a small face caked with grime and dried blood. Yet beneath the shadows, his eyes were as calm and sharp as an icy pool.

Deep in the alley, the man known as Old K abruptly raised his head. His hawk-like gaze beneath the brim of his hat instantly locked onto the uninvited visitor. The edge of a tattoo peeking out from his jacket collar resembled a venomous snake lying in wait in the gloom. The thick calluses on the fingers that crushed out his cigarette silently spoke of a bloody past. With his toe, he subtly nudged the black duffel bag at his feet farther inward.

"Get lost, brat!" Old K's voice was hoarse and low, carrying undisguised menace and dismissal. "This ain't a place for begging!"

Xiang Yi's body shrank back at just the right moment. His steps staggered as though the vicious voice had frightened him, and he instinctively tried to retreat—only for his left foot to trip over his right out of "weakness" and "fear"!

"Ah!" A cry edged with tears rang out.

The small figure lunged forward like a rag doll with its strings cut! His trajectory was perfectly aimed at Old K and the duffel bag by his feet!

"Fuck!" Old K cursed under his breath. On instinct, he leaned slightly forward and reached out with his right hand—not to help, but to shove or brush aside the filthy nuisance before it crashed into him or the important bag.

Just as Old K's hand was about to touch Xiang Yi's shoulder—

Xiang Yi's right hand, which seemed to be flailing wildly in an attempt to steady himself, moved like a nimble venomous snake. At a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow, it brushed "naturally" across the edge of the lower pocket of Old K's wrinkled leather jacket!

His fingertips felt the faint touch of hard plastic! Got it! The familiar outline of cheap plastic was cold in his hand!

At the same time, Xiang Yi's body slammed heavily into the filthy water by Old K's feet, splashing up foul droplets. He curled into himself and let out muffled, pained sobs, his small body trembling in the dirty water. One hand hung "weakly" in the puddle beside the duffel bag, inevitably leaving a grimy handprint behind.

"Damn it!" Old K was thoroughly enraged. Seeing the stains splashed across his pant leg and the dirty handprint on the duffel bag, a vicious glint flashed in his eyes. No longer holding back, he raised his foot and viciously kicked the troublesome "trash" on the ground. "You're asking to die!"

Bang!

A dull impact echoed.

Xiang Yi's body was sent rolling away by the kick, crashing into the cold base of the wall. His blanket slipped off, exposing equally filthy, worn-out clothes beneath. He curled up there as if he had lost all strength, leaving only faint, intermittent groans.

Old K spat in disgust. Bad luck. That nearly screwed things up! He quickly checked his jacket pocket—the cheap plastic lighter bearing a faded bar logo was still safely inside. Then he warily glanced at the duffel bag that had been brushed against. Its zipper was intact. Thank god... He breathed a sigh of relief, only for an even greater irritation to replace it. He raised his wrist to check the time again. The agreed handoff time had already passed, yet the other party still had not arrived! Damn it, would that accident just now draw unwanted attention?

Irritably, he lit another cigarette. The crimson ember flickered in the darkness as his gaze vigilantly swept across the mouth of the alley. He had completely lost interest in the street urchin who seemed to have passed out by the wall. An insignificant accident, nothing more than a stinking bug he could crush whenever he wanted.

Beneath the wall, Xiang Yi buried his face deep in the shadow of his arms, and all his pained groans vanished in an instant. The eyes hidden beneath the grime were now as cold as abyssal iron. His right hand was clenched into a fist beneath the folds of the tattered blanket, tightly gripping the cheap plastic lighter he had just "lifted," still carrying Old K's body heat.

Within the mental link, fragments of imagery shared by Guiguzi poured in wildly:

A close-up of the lighter: the faded logo of the "Rosemary" bar, with an inconspicuous scratch on its side.

Deep in Old K's jacket lining pocket, the edge of a folded slip of paper was exposed. There seemed to be blurred words on it: "port... No. 7... urgent..."

Old K's left pinky, resting on the duffel bag, wore an inconspicuous black iron ring. On the inside of the ring seemed to be an extremely faint engraving—a miniature pattern of overlapping circles! The Ten Rings insignia!

It was him! A key link in the Zhang family's silencing operation! He might even have a direct connection to the Ten Rings Syndicate!

The information was in hand! Xiang Yi had no intention of lingering. Every additional second increased the danger exponentially. Maintaining his curled posture, he began to wriggle ever so slightly toward the alley entrance, like the spasms of someone near death. His movements were slow and "natural," as though they were merely unconscious struggling.

However, just as he was about to reach the edge of the shadows at the alley mouth—

A bone-piercing chill, as though he had been locked onto by an invisible colossal beast, seized his heart without warning!

"My lord! S.H.I.E.L.D.! High-frequency scanning beam! This area is locked! Intensity surging! This old one... can barely interfere!" Guiguzi's mental voice exploded in his mind with an unprecedentedly shrill warning and an exhausted tremor! Maintaining the suppression of Lanling King's injuries while remotely interfering with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s scans had already pushed him to his limit!

At the same time, in the shared vision, a pale green energy beam far more condensed and dazzling than before pierced through the layers of clouds and buildings from some point high above the city. Like an invisible probe, it swept straight toward this filthy back alley with an air of seeing through everything! The core of the beam had unmistakably locked onto Old K in the alley and... Xiang Yi beneath the wall! The instant that cold core settled on his back, it felt as though even his marrow had been seen through. The skin beneath his disguise immediately erupted in shivers!

S.H.I.E.L.D.! They were getting serious! Coulson, or whoever stood behind him, had clearly become deeply suspicious of the earlier "accident" and interference! If that beam swept over him, his identity would be exposed!

"Do it!" Guiguzi's aged voice rang in Xiang Yi's mind with determined hoarseness. "Xuan Weizi... overload! Simulate an 'energy contamination source'! Draw it away!"

Bzzzz—!

An invisible, violent surge of energy instantly came from the direction of the distant villa! Xiang Yi felt even his exhausted sea of mental power tremble! Guiguzi had clearly used some method that drained his very essence! From the other end of the mental link came Guiguzi's suppressed groan, as if his soul were being torn apart!

The pale green high-energy scanning beam, which was about to descend, suddenly shuddered less than ten meters above the alley entrance! As though it had been strongly disrupted and drawn away, the beam's core instantly shifted. Like iron filings pulled by a magnet, it abandoned the targets in the alley and shot fiercely toward the south of the city—the false, high-intensity "energy contamination source" coordinates simulated by Guiguzi!

[Warning! Guiguzi's mental power is overdrawn! Status: Severely weakened! Suppression of the Ten Rings corrosion on Lanling King's wound has fallen to 35%!]

The cold system notification struck Xiang Yi's heart like a sledgehammer!

"Argh—!" Immediately afterward, Lanling King's utterly suppressed cry of agony suddenly rang out, more harrowing than ever before! The scream was like a red-hot branding iron searing Xiang Yi's taut nerves! The sharp drop in Guiguzi's suppression allowed the Ten Rings corrosion, clinging to the bone like maggots, to lash back at once!

A double crisis! A moment of life and death!

Using the less than one-second opening Guiguzi had bought at enormous cost, Xiang Yi sprang up from beneath the wall like an arrow loosed from a bow! His muscle fibers groaned under unbearable strain, and his lungs burned and tore like broken bellows—this was an explosion born from overdrawn life potential! He burst forth with the speed and agility of a cheetah, far beyond what his age should allow! Without another glance at Old K in the alley, his small body became a blurred gray shadow, sprinting at full speed toward the deeper darkness beyond the alley entrance!

"Hm?" Old K was stunned by the sudden change. One second, the street urchin had been sprawled on the ground like a dead dog. The next, he had erupted with such shocking speed? Old K instantly realized something was wrong! This was no ordinary street urchin! Was he after him? Or was he... here to silence him?

A chill shot up his spine! Without hesitation, he abandoned the wait, grabbed the duffel bag at his feet, and turned to run wildly toward the other end of the alley! Whoever the other party was, he had to get out of this dangerous place first!

Just as Old K turned and Xiang Yi was about to rush out of the alley, in that split-second flash—

"Stop! S.H.I.E.L.D.! Drop your weapon!"

A crisp feminine shout filled with unquestionable authority exploded at the alley entrance like thunder!

A petite figure seemed to tear through the shadows at the mouth of the alley, materializing without warning and blocking Xiang Yi's only escape route while also cutting off Old K's path of flight!

She wore fitted dark athletic clothes and had her hair tied in a neat ponytail. Though her face retained a trace of childishness, her gaze was sharp as a blade. She held an oddly shaped silver pistol steady in her hand. Her eyes swept over the two figures locked in a strange standoff in the alley like a scanner—a criminal and a... victim? No, that movement when he got up had been too fast! Her gun barrel glinted dangerously in the dim light before finally settling on the filthy little street urchin charging toward her.

Su Rui!

That young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent! Why was she here?!

The instant Xiang Yi recognized the person blocking his way, he forcefully skidded to a stop! His heart felt as if it had been fiercely gripped by an icy iron hand! Su Rui blocked him ahead, the startled Old K was behind him, and above them was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s high-energy scan, which could turn back at any moment!

A dead end!

Su Rui's gaze paused for half a second on Xiang Yi's small face, caked in grime yet still faintly bearing the outline of the "math genius" she had once investigated. Extreme shock and disbelief flashed through her eyes before being replaced by deeper wariness and scrutiny. The muzzle of her gun lowered slightly as though she wanted to identify the "street urchin" more carefully, but professional instinct kept her from relaxing her guard in the slightest.

It was in that half-second of shock, the instant her gun lowered!

Identity! I have to hide my identity! The thought struck through the chaos like thunder. Explain? Charge through? Both were dead ends! The only way... was to completely become him! Xiang Yi moved!

He did not try to explain, nor did he charge toward Su Rui or Old K. Under Su Rui's gun and suspicious gaze, he made a move no one could have expected—

He abruptly turned around!

Using every ounce of strength remaining in his body, even overdrawn life potential, he slammed his head and shoulder viciously into the cold, hard brick wall in the middle of the alley, covered in stains and graffiti!

Bang!

A horrifyingly dull impact rang out, enough to make hearts tremble!

The world instantly plunged into darkness and chaos amid agony as though his skull had shattered! Blood burst from Xiang Yi's grime-covered temple, winding down his dirty little face like tiny snakes, a shocking sight in the dimness! The thick scent of rust instantly overwhelmed the alley's rot and spread through the air. His small body, as though all its bones had been pulled out, slid limply down the wall and collapsed between the dirty water and garbage without moving. The blood from his temple quickly spread into a small dark-red patch across the filthy ground, mixing with the dried blood he had deliberately smeared on earlier, making truth and falsehood impossible to distinguish.

Before his consciousness completely sank into cold darkness, the only thought he had "set" was: I am... a nameless... street urchin...

The entire filthy back alley instantly fell into dead silence.

Only the faint drip... drip... of blood falling from Xiang Yi's temple remained, as though it were striking against frozen time.