The Priceless Treasure Was Me All Along!?

"Brother Su Bai, you're amazing!!"

Qingxue's face was alight with excitement, and she couldn't contain her delight. It was as if she were the one who had received an S rating.

Lin Luo looked slightly startled, but quickly returned to normal and gave Su Bai a slight nod. "Congratulations."

Even Chu Ning's perpetually icy face showed a flicker of emotion.

Joining the Special Operations Squad had always been her goal, yet Su Bai had become a reserve member of the squad within just a few days of joining the Grave Keepers.

She would have been lying if she said she wasn't envious.

Su Bai, on the other hand, had benefited the most from the operation, yet he felt no joy at all.

His brow remained tightly furrowed for a long time.

"This doesn't add up." Su Bai picked up the document again and reread it. "There are all sorts of categories here, a bewildering jumble of them, but I think the four that ultimately determine a Grave Keeper's real capabilities are 'Divine Oracle Sequence, bloodline level, combat power, and execution.'"

After a brief pause, Su Bai continued:

"Of those four, my Divine Oracle Sequence ranks near the bottom, my bloodline level is extremely low, and my combat power is barely better than nothing. Only my execution score is high. Taking all four into account, I think... the most I could get is a B+."

Li Ming gave Su Bai a long look. After a moment's silence, he said, "Qingxue, Chu Ning, Lin Luo, you three go outside first."

After the three left, Li Ming patted Gu Jiuge on the shoulder.

Gu Jiuge raised an eyebrow, paused the game he was playing, and pulled a new document out from under his butt, handing it to Su Bai.

Grave Keeper No. 740 (intern)

Name: Su Bai

Divine Oracle Sequence: 138 (Red Tassel)

Bloodline level: tier 9

Professional knowledge: D

Combat power: F

Judgment: S+

Communication and coordination: S+

Adaptability: S+

Systematic thinking: S+

Creative thinking: S+

Execution: S+

Overall rating: B+

Su Bai placed the document beside the previous one.

"You guessed right." Li Ming tapped the desk and said thoughtfully, "The document Old Gu gave you is headquarters' actual assessment of you, but I called the person in charge, so your rating became an S."

Su Bai said nothing, waiting for a reasonable explanation.

"All right, stop keeping the kid in suspense." Gu Jiuge tucked his phone into his pocket and said bluntly, "We didn't do this to play favorites. We did it to protect you."

Protect me?

Su Bai suddenly had a bad feeling.

Li Ming nodded and picked up where Gu Jiuge had left off. "You've looked through the files on Heavenly River International, so you should know its biggest trading partner is Quark, a company in the United States of America.

"Ten years ago, the age of Transcendents arrived, and the Italian Mafia gradually came under the control of Transcendents. They then founded Quark.

"The company has three main lines of business. The first is buying and selling Bloodline Marks, the second is the mercenary business, and the third is running the Assassins' Association.

"I won't say much about the first two. You'll learn about them in time. The third is the important one. A few years ago, to make it easier to manage the funds from his domestic and overseas trade, Lin Yue set up a fund company in Bangkok's financial district in Thailand and deposited one billion US dollars in it.

"A few days ago, before Lin Yue died, he gave two orders. One of them was to put you on the bounty list through Quark's Assassins' Association. Any Transcendent, whether domestic or foreign, who kills you can claim ownership of the fund company under his name. In other words, whoever kills you gets a full billion US dollars!

"Do you know what that means?

"A billion US dollars is enough to send a mercenary squad made up of Transcendents on a hundred missions! It's not just the overseas Transcendent associations that will be green with envy. Even the illegal Transcendent organizations in Great Xia will put you on their must-kill lists.

"Kid, one of your arms alone is worth hundreds of millions now!

"To deter those forces, I decided to raise your rating to S. It's the same as telling them that Su Bai is a core member of the Grave Keepers, and if anyone dares lay a hand on him, we won't let them off!"

Su Bai stared blankly for a long while. When he came back to his senses, he silently pinched his arm.

Fuck.

In eighteen years of life, this was the first time Su Bai had learned that he was the one with a fucking body worth a thousand pieces of gold.

Right now, he even wanted to chop off an arm and send it over to Quark.

Gu Jiuge crossed his legs and drawled:

"What are you afraid of, kid? Great Xia has a policy barring overseas Transcendent associations from entering the country. As long as you don't go abroad, you don't have to worry about a mercenary squad ambushing you. No, wait... hard to say, actually. Transcendents and ordinary people are hard to tell apart. Maybe they've already slipped in and are lying in wait on your route home, just waiting for you to get off work, and then... 'Bang!' A bullet right through your head!"

Li Ming nodded gravely. "Yeah. Even though we made the first move to deter them, there are plenty of people these days who'd risk their lives for money. If you weren't on my team, even I would want to... ahem, what I mean is, with Old Gu and me here, you don't need to worry. Not at all!"

Gu Jiuge patted Su Bai on the shoulder. "Oh, right, Captain Li said you did an outstanding job this time, so he's giving you a few days off. You can clock out now. Oh, and remember to check under the bed when you get back to your rental. Watch out for bombs. And whatever you do, don't sleep too soundly at night. Someone might sneak in and slit your throat."

Su Bai nearly spat out a mouthful of blood aged since '82. He was numb from the inside out.

"Old Gu, what kind of thing is that to say?" Li Ming glared at Gu Jiuge, then looked at Su Bai with a smile and reassured him, "He's just trying to scare you. It's not that bad. If anything really does happen, just call Old Gu and me. Don't worry! As long as you're no more than ten kilometers away, we'll definitely be there within two hours!"

Two hours?

Why the hell don't you just say two years?

If someone really tries to assassinate me, I'll be fucking ashes by the time two hours are up!

Su Bai completely despaired of the two unreliable guys before him.

After walking out the door, Su Bai saw three teammates eavesdropping through the crack.

Lin Luo heaved a deep sigh, patted Su Bai heavily on the shoulder, and shook his head as he walked away. He hadn't said a word, yet it was as if he had said everything.

Qingxue wiped away her tears. "Brother Su Bai, is there anything you want to eat? I'll go buy it for you."

Chu Ning shrugged. "All right, I admit it. My attitude toward you wasn't very good before. I'll treat you better from now on. There isn't much time left anyway."

Hey, hey, hey, why are you all looking at me like I'm terminally ill?

The corner of Su Bai's mouth twitched. "Ever since I joined the Grave Keepers, I've realized that, wow, there's warmth in this world after all. I'm truly touched. Thank you, my good teammates."