Something Even More Ridiculous Than Bullshit (Part Two)

The park lawn.

Jiang Long suddenly sprang to his feet, staring fixedly at the knockoff phone in Su Bai's hand. "Where did you get that phone?"

Su Bai weighed the knockoff phone in his hand and said calmly, "There was a short-haired waitress at Fanghua Hotel who wore a baseball cap. There's also a short-haired girl among the Suzhou Grave Keepers who likes wearing one. What a coincidence, don't you think?"

By the swimming pool at Fanghua Hotel.

Lin Xue was chatting with a few classmates.

Sister Hong hurried over and whispered in her ear, "Miss Lin Xue, the boss just sent word. He told me to get you out of here as soon as possible."

"Huh?"

Lin Xue was momentarily stunned, but before she could ask anything, Sister Hong took her hand and led her away.

"There's no time to explain. Come with me, quickly."

Lin Xue had no choice but to hurry down the tree-lined path with Sister Hong, her heart full of unease.

As far as she could remember, Sister Hong had always been composed. No matter what happened, she wore an untroubled expression and dealt with problems in an orderly manner.

That was why Sister Hong had been chosen to manage the Lin household.

But today, Sister Hong looked so panicked that even the hand gripping Lin Xue's was trembling slightly.

A storm surged in Lin Xue's heart. Dimly realizing that something disastrous had happened to her family, she thought back to Heavenly River International's involvement in gambling a few days earlier and blurted out, "My father... was he taken away by the police?"

Sister Hong's heart tightened, but she forced a faint smile onto her panic-stricken face. "No, it wasn't the police. Some petty villains have their eyes on the Lin family's business and used a few underhanded tricks. The master told me to take you abroad until things blow over."

If the police had taken him away, that would have been manageable. With the Lin family's influence in Suzhou, he could have been released in two hours. But this time, it was the Grave Keepers who had come.

The Grave Keepers-the Grave Keepers of Great Xia.

The first rule of the Grave Keepers: all spoils belonged to the individual who claimed them.

This rule meant that whenever Grave Keepers encountered a supernatural incident, their first thought would be how to kill their opponent, not how to capture them.

They were a pack of madmen, and more than that, a pack of killers.

In their eyes, there was no difference between lawbreaking Transcendents and monsters that threw the social order into chaos.

As long as they had the strength to kill you, they would never take you alive. You would die, with no margin for error.

Lin Acheng, Han Zhe, and Lin Yue had already been intercepted by the Grave Keepers, so their chances of survival were likely slim. There was no telling how much longer Jiang Long could keep his identity hidden.

Sister Hong's thoughts were tangled as she raced through them, her steps quickening. Just as she walked out of the hotel entrance, she accidentally bumped into a short-haired waitress pushing a drinks cart.

Sister Hong had no time to blame the waitress for blocking her path. She was about to slip past when she heard a voice that sent a chill through her entire body.

"Chen Ziyan, age twenty-three, B-rank member of the Hunter Guild, eighth-tier Transcendent, Divine Oracle Sequence 121, codename 'Red.'"

The waitress lifted her baseball cap slightly, her icy gaze fixed on Sister Hong. "I didn't catch you last time. This time... where do you think you're going?"

Puzzled, Lin Xue turned to look and saw Sister Hong trembling all over.

What Hunter Guild? What Oracle? And what was that codename?

Clinging to her last sliver of hope, Sister Hong asked in a trembling voice, "Who... who are you?"

The waitress unhurriedly pulled an elegant longsword from beneath the cart, its cold gleam piercing to the eye. Her voice grew colder. "I'm Chu Ning, your Grave Keeper!"

"Miss, run!"

Sister Hong's last sliver of hope shattered in an instant. She grabbed Lin Xue's arm and desperately rushed for the exit.

Squelch!

An elegant longsword arrived in an instant, piercing Sister Hong through the torso and spraying a burst of vivid, glaring scarlet blood.

Lin Xue stared blankly. She shakily reached up and touched the blood spattered across her face. "S-Sister Hong?"

Chu Ning abruptly withdrew her sword, sending another brilliant spray of blood into the air.

The two burly men guarding the entrance heard the commotion and strode through the hotel doors, only to see the bloody scene. Their scalps prickled, and they were about to raise their guns when two bolts of dark purple lightning fell from the sky with a crack, piercing their gun arms. The two men clutched their arms and rolled wildly on the ground, screaming in agony.

"Aah!!"

Chu Ning glanced at Lin Xue, who had collapsed limply on the ground. After thinking for a moment, she took off her baseball cap, put it on Lin Xue's head, and gently pulled it down to block her view.

After that, Chu Ning strode forward and planted her foot heavily on Sister Hong's bloodstained back. Gripping her sword in both hands, she drove it down mercilessly, piercing straight through her heart.

Sister Hong coughed up a large mouthful of blood. Her hands fell limply, and the light gradually faded from her eyes as she left the world with one final whisper. "Miss... run."

Why were Grave Keepers called Grave Keepers?

It was actually very simple.

Find you, kill you, take your bloodline, remember your name, and become your Grave Keeper.

Blood trickled and pooled beneath the moonlight, forming a terrifying stream. As Sister Hong died, the Transcendent power within her slowly seeped out, gradually forming a small, exquisite jade token.

A Bloodline Mark!

Chu Ning pulled out her sword, picked up the Bloodline Mark, and said softly to Lin Xue, "I'm sorry."

The second rule of the Grave Keepers: unless special circumstances applied, attacking ordinary people was strictly forbidden.

Chu Ning would never attack Lin Xue. She even felt that the young girl was somewhat pitiful.

For the sake of Great Xia's social order, we must kill all evil.

If... ordinary people are inevitably hurt in the process of killing evil, then we will not regret it. We will only say: sorry.

"Hunter Guild B-rank member 'Red' has been eliminated!"

"Jiang Long, do you know why you lost so badly?"

On the park lawn, Su Bai looked Jiang Long in the eye and continued:

"It's because you were too arrogant, and you underestimated us. Just a few dozen minutes ago, after I'd made it clear to Lin Yue that I refused, that guy in sunglasses actually mocked me. I couldn't be bothered with him, because in my eyes, he was already dead.

"Although I was the one who lured you into the trap, you actually thought you could win me over with money and resources. You actually thought you could use 'Chameleon' to disguise yourself as my brother Shen Fei and pull the wool over my eyes. That in itself is bullshit-complete bullshit."

Jiang Long remained silent, his eyes lowered, without saying a word.

Su Bai felt in his pocket and pulled out a Reaper Desert Eagle, weighing it in his hand. "My original plan was to ambush you after we got to the park. Within ten meters, this gun could easily kill you.

"In other words, you were already a dead man in my eyes. I had no need to waste words on you. But when I saw your damn face, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That's fucking more ridiculous than bullshit.

"Even though I know you're not Shen Fei, even though I know your hand's reaching for the dagger hidden at your waist, even though I know you might suddenly jump up and kill me in a few seconds, what the hell can I do? Am I supposed to attack a guy who looks exactly like my brother and has that same dumbass air about him, huh!?"

Su Bai hurled the Desert Eagle away, his gaze utterly vicious.

Jiang Long's hand, reaching for the dagger, stiffened slightly. After a moment's silence, he seized the dagger anyway, suddenly sprang to his feet, and thrust its cold, gleaming blade at Su Bai's neck.

When Su Bai threw the pistol away, Jiang Long had been moved, but that was all.

The Hunter Guild had lost, and lost terribly.

It was foreseeable that after tonight, the entire Hunter Guild would be eliminated, and Heavenly River International, Suzhou's largest trading company, would be shut down.

And the chief culprit behind the Hunter Guild's defeat was the young man before him, not even twenty years old.

There was no way Jiang Long could let Su Bai go.

Bang!!

A gunshot suddenly rang out.

Jiang Long's clothes were instantly stained red, and the flesh on his chest twisted into a spiral.

Swept up by an enormous force, he was flung through the air like a pedestrian hit by a truck traveling at 180 kilometers per hour. He turned a full half circle in the air before crashing to the ground.

In the distance, beneath the pitch-black night sky.

A petite girl walked slowly toward them, carrying a heavy Barrett sniper rifle that was even taller than she was.

Jiang Long's body twitched as he coughed up blood again and again, no longer able to stand.

His features gradually changed, and a few seconds later, his original appearance finally returned.

Su Bai picked up the pistol and walked over to Jiang Long, a cold smile on his face.

"Actually, the gap between our bloodline ranks is too large. Even if I ambushed you with a pistol from within ten meters, I'd only have a fifty-fifty chance of killing you. If I missed, you might turn around and kill me instead.

"So, all that crap I just said was only to distract you. That was my fucking plan from the start. Tell me, you're in your twenties already, so why the fuck are you still so naive?

"You need to use your brain when you're out in the world, got it?"

Su Bai raised the gun, chambered a round, and aimed at Jiang Long's head before pulling the trigger without mercy.

Bang!

Bang, bang, bang!

After emptying the magazine, Su Bai blew on the black smoke rising from the barrel and said to the mangled Jiang Long:

"Oh, look at my memory. I forgot to introduce you. The girl who just ambushed you with the heavy sniper rifle is our long-range sniper, Qingxue. I called her over an hour ago and told her to lie in ambush here. Otherwise, why the fuck would I bring you here to chat? Did you really think I had nothing better to do?"