The queen's battle, unrivaled under heaven

Black Caesar was tall and bald, dressed in a black suit with a red bow tie.

He sat in front of a computer in a black basement, watching warning characters flash across the screen. A cold smile curled his lips.

He placed his fingers on the keyboard and hammered out the code. "Sister Huo, you're meddling too much! Take my advice: if you don't want to die, get lost!"

"Hehe, I'm so scared. Do you dare stake all your honor and reputation as a killer and battle me?"

Ye Huo shot back.

Her interest was piqued.

As the queen of international mercenaries, she had never had anyone dare to challenge her position.

Here came another one who wasn't afraid to die!

She gladly issued a challenge.

Black Caesar was displeased. He clicked a button and accepted the challenge. "No one can stay on top forever. Within seven days, I'll kill that guy. Just wait to be buried with him!"

"If you've got the guts, give it a try."

Ye Huo raised an eyebrow, every move and gesture radiating bloodlust and coldness.

She hadn't been this excited in a long time.

In the past, she had only been responsible for assassinating her prey. This time, she had to protect her prey instead, which was ten times harder than assassination.

After she finished speaking, her mother, Jian Yan, knocked and came in, bringing her a nourishing late-night snack.

Ye Huo logged off and closed her computer.

She declined. "Mom, I'm not hungry."

"I know, Huohuo. Mom simmered this rock sugar and snow pear paste all night. It clears internal heat and helps digestion."

Jian Yan was a doctor herself, and she had heard that her eldest had taken her precious darling out to eat a lot of late-night snacks.

They had eaten things like barbecue, crayfish and cotton candy, all foods that were hard to digest.

She had made rock sugar and snow pear soup especially to clear her precious daughter's internal heat and cut through the richness.

"This is good for your complexion too. Sit up and eat it with Mom."

Wearing pajamas, Jian Yan brought over two bowls of the snowy-white, throat-soothing soup to share with Ye Huo.

Ye Huo sat at the head of the bed with a faint smile on her face. She and her mother happily ate the sweet late-night snack, taking turns feeding each other.

"My precious girl is so pretty. Mom loves Huohuo most of all."

Jian Yan gazed at her precious daughter dotingly and spoke in a sweet voice.

Eating the rock sugar and snow pear soup her mother had made, Ye Huo felt warmth in her heart and smiled.

On the mercenary and killer website, Black Caesar had been planning to fire a few more retorts at Sister Huo when he saw that her avatar had gone dark. She had obviously logged off.

Unable to let it go, he took screenshots of their conversation and copied and pasted them onto the homepage of the official mercenary website.

News of a battle between Black Caesar, the tenth-ranked killer on the official mercenary website, and the number one boss, Sister Huo, instantly flooded the entire underground world.

The showdown between kings drew countless underlings to watch.

Overnight, the entire killer community was talking about it.

Would Sister Huo, whose record stood at 9.99 million and kept climbing without limit, win, or would the cold-blooded killer Black Caesar, whose record stood at 100,000? Everyone picked sides in the comments.

Most people supported Sister Huo. Only a small minority supported Black Caesar, eager to watch the excitement and stir up trouble.

After all, the difference in strength was plain to see. No matter how formidable a hotheaded rookie was, he couldn't beat a veteran.

Trying to go up against the number one Sister Huo? Black Caesar wouldn't even know how he died.

As he watched the post's popularity instantly soar to first place on the entire site, a playful smile appeared at the corner of Black Caesar's lips.

Ambition burned fiercely in his heart. With his authority just challenged, he could hardly wait to harvest Sister Huo's bloody head and upload it to the official website, letting the killers revel in bloodlust.

Capital, the top floor of the Dark Dragon Organization's headquarters.

In the presidential suite, a man who had just bathed sat at a desk in the study, wearing a long set of black pajamas.

He opened his computer, his eyes icy as his gaze swept over the latest news on the dark web.

His subordinate Mu Lan reported respectfully, "Master, someone has offered a hundred million for your life."

The man remained unmoved.

Over the years, countless people had tried to buy his life, but none had ever succeeded.

He had a stern, extraordinarily handsome face, its sharply defined features as though carved by supernatural craftsmanship.

Dressed in custom-made ink-black loungewear, he gave off a steady, understated air from head to toe, without a trace of ostentation.

His fingers tapped lightly on the keyboard, and he spotted the challenge post displayed prominently on the official mercenary website at a glance.

"Master, something very unexpected has happened. Sister Huo, the mercenary king of the underground world, is willing to stake all her honor to keep you safe."

Mu Lan spoke curiously.

He noticed that his master's hand tapping on the computer was clean, slender and well defined at the knuckles.

Hearing this, Li Zeyuan lifted his chin slightly. Every contour and detail of his face was perfectly flawless.

A young girl's figure flashed through his mind.

He should have noticed long ago: that girl's frighteningly good marksmanship, and the thick calluses worn into her fingertips.

Only a mercenary tempered countless times on battlefields of blood and carnage could possess skills like that.

She handled a gun with extraordinary proficiency, her every movement masterful, the intervals between every shot exactly the same.

Only someone rigorously trained on the battlefield could bring their marksmanship to such a steady, accurate and ruthless level.

But the moment he realized Ye Huo's identity, Li Zeyuan's heart ached for her beyond measure.

A young girl who should have been enjoying a princess's treatment at home had instead been thrown onto foreign battlefields, living a life of killing without knowing whether she would see the next day.

She must have been lonely, afraid, terrified and desperate too!

But she had overcome it all through sheer determination and become the cold, proud queen she was now.

He both ached for her and admired her.

That was why, in the car, he hadn't been able to stop himself from treating her well.

Li Zeyuan curled his lips and smiled. "Since she's willing to stake everything to protect me, I certainly won't let her down. From now on, I'll treat her very, very, very well!"

His master had said "very" three times in a row.

Mu Lan was somewhat shocked.

It seemed this mercenary queen held no small place in his master's heart.

"Master, no matter what, please be more careful lately."

"Mm."

Li Zeyuan wore loungewear, the study light falling on his profile and making him look especially aloof and handsome.

He merely sat there, yet his upright back gave off an invisible sense of absolute pressure.

He was Li Zeyuan, the man in control of the Li Group.

At only twenty-seven, he already controlled an empire worth hundreds of billions.

His martial skills were even more unfathomable.

Despite the Dark Dragon Organization's protection, Li Zeyuan had faced countless assassination attempts over the years.

There had been business rivals, traitors within the family and enemies of all kinds.

But no one had ever succeeded in assassinating him.

Because he himself was a terrifying boss who hid his strength and kept an extremely low profile.

Anyone who wanted to kill him could try again in their next life!

Li Zeyuan pressed his lips together in a soft smile, his voice cool and magnetic. "Tomorrow, pick the strawberries and both kinds of cherries growing in the greenhouse and send them to the Ye family's young girl."

"Yes, Master."

Mu Lan didn't know when his master had started treating the Ye family's young girl so well.

But the cherries and strawberries... his master had grown them all himself.

His master's grandmother was old, and she needed fresh fruit every day to supplement her vitamins.

Li Zeyuan was extremely filial.

He thought fruit bought outside wasn't clean, so whenever he finished handling the group's business, he would personally go to the greenhouse in the villa garden to remove pests from the fruit trees, fertilize them and water them.

It could be said that the fruit trees he had painstakingly cultivated for seven or eight years were the most precious things in the entire Li family.

That girl Ye Huo was in for a real treat.

Early the next morning, Li Zeyuan sent someone over with two baskets of cherries, red as roses, round and super sweet.

They were wonderfully fresh.

Dad personally cooked a whole tableful of breakfast. He warmed milk, fried eggs, stewed abalone and sea cucumber, fried steak and cake, and even roasted a duck, one of his specialties.

"Huohuo, you're still growing! Come and eat!"

Dad wore an apron, holding milk in one hand and a spatula in the other, his face full of affection as he spoke.

He was completely devoted to his daughter.

Ever since his precious daughter had come home, he had never taken his eyes off her for a moment.

Ye Huo sat at the dining table, gnawing on a duck leg and enjoying the care of her esteemed father.

Jian Yan wore a purple dress, her long, slightly curled hair tied behind her head.

She also brought out the washed cherries, big and bright red, and placed them in front of her precious daughter.

She said proudly, "Huohuo, the cherries that boy from the Li family grew really are different from the ones sold outside. Thin skins, small pits, red fruit and sweet flesh-they're so delicious!"

"I heard it took three years just to select the saplings for these imported cherry trees."

Ye Mo's voice was deep, magnetic and pleasant to hear.

When the brothers Ye Chen and Ye Fan heard their eldest brother say that, their interest was piqued. They reached out for the cherries on their sister's fruit plate.

"Don't touch them. These are all for our precious Huohuo."

Their parents stopped them in unison.

In their hearts, the three older brothers ought to give way to their younger sister.

Besides, there was no telling how much Huohuo had suffered out there over the years.

Let alone a few cherries-even if Huohuo wanted dragon meat, her parents would do everything they could to get it.

The three brothers were also happy to see their parents lavish all their affection on their sister.

They left the tastiest duck legs and wings for their sister and happily ate other things themselves.