Something More Ridiculous Than Bullshit (4)

In the open-air park, the moonlight was cool.

Su Bai lowered his gaze, a faint smile playing on his lips.

"Twenty minutes ago, Boss Lin went so far as to offer his daughter as a bargaining chip to invite me to join the Hunter Guild. I think... if I'd agreed then, Boss Lin would definitely have kept his word and given me an important role. After all, with the Grave Keepers as a protective umbrella, the Hunter Guild's future development would certainly have gone more smoothly.

"But I didn't agree, so naturally, I would become the Hunter Guild's greatest threat. As for Boss Lin, I haven't had much contact with him, but I can tell he's a ruthless man.

"Let me make a bold guess. After I made it clear that I refused, Boss Lin would try every way he could to get rid of me. But before he did, he'd first have to make sure the information I gave you was genuine.

"So, once your people reached the Summer Hotel and destroyed the information, they'd send you a message telling you to kill me. The evidence is that, on the way to this park with me, you checked your phone twenty-three times in just ten minutes.

"Jiang Long, you were waiting for a call, weren't you?"

Ring, ring, ring-

A melodious phone ringtone suddenly sounded.

Su Bai's gaze remained calm. He raised his head slightly. "Go on, answer it."

Jiang Long silently took the phone from his left pocket and saw the contact's name-Lin Acheng.

He pressed the answer button and heard an unfamiliar voice on the other end.

"Hunter Guild A-rank member 'Bear' has been eliminated."

Beep-beep-

After that brief sentence, the person on the other end promptly hung up.

A deathly silence fell.

Jiang Long lowered his phone.

He wasn't angry, just somewhat puzzled.

He didn't understand, truly didn't understand, how this young man before him, not even twenty years old, could have silently laid such a brilliant trap. Yes, a trap.

A mere ninth-tier bloodline, a mere ninth-tier Transcendent.

How could a youngster who had only just pushed open the door to the extraordinary possess such terrifying methods?

Jiang Long thought about it for a long time but still couldn't figure it out, so he decided to ask.

"Since you'd set a trap and were waiting for us all along, and since you'd been watching us all along, why didn't you make your move and arrest us sooner? Why insist on waiting until today?"

It was a good question.

Su Bai thought for a moment, then patiently explained:

"You're all small fry. Codenames like Red, Bear, and Dragon sound impressive, but we've never taken you seriously. We could arrest you whenever we wanted. Boss Lin, though, is a big fish, and one whose hands and eyes reach the heavens, with sources everywhere. If we acted rashly, he might hear the news and flee a moment before we made our move.

"So we had to make Boss Lin show his true face, we had to pin down his actual whereabouts, and we had to make him a turtle trapped in a jar. Only then could we be completely certain of capturing him and bringing him to justice, and only then could we destroy the Hunter Guild in one stroke.

"Am I right, Gu Jiuge?"

Su Bai took a knockoff phone with four or five buttons missing from his pocket. The call had lasted 79 minutes and 42 seconds.

A lazy voice came over the phone. "What a bother."

Three Dragons Road.

A black car without license plates blended into the night as it drove slowly at forty kilometers per hour.

Lin Yue, seated in the back, tightened his grip on his cane. "Have the boat tickets been booked?"

The man in sunglasses at the wheel said, "It leaves Yangshan Port at three tomorrow afternoon, taking a freight route. All the connections have been taken care of. Customs will only inspect the cargo on board; they won't verify your identity."

Lin Yue closed his eyes and nodded slowly. "After I leave, put the company's foreign trade on hold for a while."

The man in sunglasses was stunned. "Suspend trade? How are we supposed to explain that to Quark? We've already signed the contract!"

"The death of a Grave Keeper is no small matter. The Grave Keepers' headquarters in Tianjing will definitely send a special operations team to investigate," Lin Yue said, rubbing his brow. He continued:

"So, for the time being, try not to walk into their line of fire. Breaching the contract will cost us a pound of flesh at most; we'll just have to pay more in compensation for the goods. But if our trade contracts with overseas guilds are uncovered, no matter how many connections we have, we'll only be headed for dea-"

Lin Yue's words cut off abruptly, and his brows knotted.

Through the car window, Lin Yue saw a man sitting on a stone bollard at the corner twenty meters ahead, smoking with his legs crossed.

The man appeared to be in his twenties. He had long hair and wore a trench coat, held a phone to his ear with his right hand, and loosely rested a saber against the ground with his left. Half of a cheap cigarette hung from his mouth, still burning.

"What a bother."

After saying those words, Gu Jiuge hung up and tossed the phone into his pocket.

The scarlet saber, its blade seeming to burn with crimson flames, slowly traced a path across the ground, scattering sparks. Then he raised it into the air and pointed it straight at the unlicensed black car.

"Han Zhe, thirty-two years old, A-rank member of the Hunter Guild, seventh-tier Transcendent, Divine Oracle Sequence 115, codename 'Wolf.'

"Lin Yue, forty-seven years old, A-rank member and president of the Hunter Guild, legal representative of Heavenly River International, sixth-tier Transcendent, Divine Oracle Sequence 92, codename 'Mountain.'

"Let me introduce myself. Gu Jiuge, a Grave Keeper from Suzhou.

"This road is closed."

The cold, black night was thick with oppression.

The unlicensed black car slowly came to a stop.

The man in sunglasses narrowed his eyes slightly as he gazed at Gu Jiuge from afar. He felt a terrifying pressure from Gu Jiuge that nearly drove him to his knees, his head bowed.

This was the crushing supremacy of bloodline rank, a shudder from the depths of his soul.

Without further thought, the man in sunglasses moved his right hand in a blur, swiftly shifted into reverse, and slammed down on the accelerator.

Gu Jiuge grinned and took a deep drag from the cigarette butt between his fingers. Then he dropped it on the ground, stood up, and stamped it out.

As a great cloud of hazy smoke poured from Gu Jiuge's mouth, crimson flames burst from the road in clusters and spread rapidly to either side. In an instant, two lines of fire passed the black car, then quickly joined together.

Flames completely sealed off this stretch of road, illuminating it as brightly as day.

The unlicensed black car's engine died again.

Though trapped in such a desperate situation, Lin Yue felt no uncertainty, only a little melancholy. He had suddenly realized that the moment he saw Gu Jiuge, he hadn't had the slightest thought of fighting to the death. His only thought had been to flee, to flee with all his might.

The pride of his youth had long since dissipated in his gradually decaying body. He had truly become a merchant reeking of money from head to toe.

Lin Yue's gaze lingered on the scorching wall of fire for a long time. He let out a long breath and sighed softly. "That kid was right. I really am old."

The man in sunglasses stepped out of the driver's seat, calmly opened the trunk, and took out two sabers. He walked to the front of the car and met Gu Jiuge's gaze calmly. "Boss, I can't hold him off for long. Go on ahead."

Lin Yue shook his head. He first took out his phone and sent a text, then climbed out of the car with his cane and stood beside the man in sunglasses. At that moment, his hunched back seemed to straighten a little.

"Forget it. I'm not running."