Chapter 351: Assassination in the Stairwell

From the moment Xiao Yu and Wu Hanran started talking until they ended the call, neither of them mentioned the bomb. They knew each other’s methods far too well.

After hanging up, Xiao Yu looked at Zhou Lie. “Give me the blade.”

Zhou Lie took the Yushin-to blade out of the box and handed it to his younger comrade.

“You’re going alone?” Shen Mei frowned.

“Yes.” Xiao Yu nodded. “No need to have anyone follow me.”

Both group leaders nodded, though worry lingered on their faces.

“You’re well aware of my abilities,” Xiao Yu said with a slight smile. “If I can’t handle it, no number of people will make a difference.”

In National Security, his prowess wasn’t a secret. Wang Dong and Zhou Lie—who had worked with Xiao Yu before—had told the other group leaders that this younger man could single-handedly take on an entire mercenary squad, or even a special forces unit. In fact, he could probably take on all of Group Nine at once.

As to why he was so ridiculously strong and so terrifying and monstrous, the nine group leaders had simply chosen not to dwell on it. Everyone had their own secrets, and prying into another’s was a sure way to get yourself in trouble.

All they knew was that this person, favored by both the head of the Police Department and the head of the National Security Department, had impeccable moral principles and would never stand against his country. That was enough.

Did people truly think just anyone could become a National Security group leader, stand on equal footing with them, or even have the right to command them? 

Without the required talent, intelligence, eight first-class merit awards, a top-tier honorary title, and the legendary prowess of the so-called Police King, who would ever qualify?

It was only because Xiao Yu usually kept himself so well disguised, often appearing as nothing more than a sunny, joking young man, that people tended to forget how formidable he really was.

Watching him get into a police car with the Yushin-to blade in hand and speed off, Zhou Lie and Shen Mei exchanged a glance. The worry on their faces faded.

Would he be able to bring the target back alive?

Yes. He most certainly would.

***

A drive that should have taken fifteen minutes was done in nine. Xiao Yu was cursing inwardly—if not for his Driving Expert agility, he might not have managed it.

He slammed on the brakes, got out of the car, and sprinted toward the mall entrance. The building had eleven floors. Entering the first-floor atrium, Xiao Yu stopped in place, right at the ten-minute mark.

Activating his Falcon’s Eyes, he scanned the bustling crowd. Suddenly, his phone rang.

“Hello?” Xiao Yu answered immediately.

“Go forward about ten meters. There’s an emergency exit. Go up to the fifth floor,” Wu Hanran said breathlessly, then hung up.

‘How does he know exactly where I am?’ Xiao Yu wondered, heading to the emergency exit. 

Sweeping a glance across the atrium, he saw no suspicious individuals. Which likely meant Wu Hanran was in the mall’s security control room.

Reaching the fire exit, Xiao Yu pushed the door open and went into the stairwell. It was dark, lit only by motion sensors that activated when someone moved. He climbed up to the fifth floor and stopped on the landing. Wu Hanran’s instructions had been only to go that far.

He recalled that the mall looked to be ten or eleven floors from the outside. The sensor light went out, plunging the stairwell into darkness. Suddenly, a door opened somewhere below—someone came in. Probably from the first floor?

Xiao Yu glanced upward, around the ninth or tenth floor, and noticed the light flick on again.

That was unusual. Generally, very few people took the emergency stairs in a mall. For the sensor lights to come on, someone there must have moved and yet he heard no footsteps.

He switched on his Moth’s Ear skill. Instantly, he caught faint footsteps descending from above. Someone was coming down quietly, trying not to be heard. Xiao Yu narrowed his eyes.

Meanwhile, the person who had entered below was already at the second floor. Xiao Yu tried the door on the fifth floor. It was locked. 

‘Did they do that just for me?’

In the faint light, Xiao Yu glanced down at the Yushin-to blade in his hand. 

‘Or is it the blade they’re after?’

Either way, it no longer mattered. In a split second, he activated a flurry of system skills and stood waiting. 

Just then, his phone rang again. Xiao Yu’s gaze flicked up and down: one person on the third floor, one on the seventh… but no sign of Wu Hanran. If Wu Hanran were that close, Xiao Yu would hear him speaking.

“Hello?” he said coldly.

“You’re in the stairwell, fifth floor?” Wu Hanran’s voice sounded anxious, almost out of breath. “Find a way out of the mall. Someone wants to kill you and take the blade. Remember, you mustn’t die, and you can’t lose the blade.” 

Then came the dial tone—cut off abruptly.

Xiao Yu lowered his phone, frowning. Something had happened on Wu Hanran’s end?

Click. The sensor light on the fifth-floor landing lit up. A stylish young woman in trendy, form-fitting clothes and heavy makeup walked up, her high heels clicking on the steps.

Xiao Yu looked directly at her. Most men, upon seeing an attractive woman, can’t help giving her a few more glances—unless their girlfriend is right beside them. It’s just human nature.

While Xiao Yu seemed to focus on the woman, he caught sight of a man descending behind him from the corner of his eye. That man was now on the fifth-floor landing, pulling a knife from the back of his waistband.

At that moment, the woman reached Xiao Yu. Her high heel appeared to catch on a step. 

“Ah…” She stumbled toward him.

Normally, anyone would instinctively reach out to help her. Xiao Yu did exactly that. Meanwhile, he noticed the man behind him raising his arm, a blade aimed at Xiao Yu’s lower back. The woman’s hand, too, flashed with a butterfly knife going for his abdomen.

Two knives glinted in unison—yet the Yushin-to blade flared with a silver arc. In a single slash, both attackers lost their weapon hands at the wrist.

“What a blade,” Xiao Yu said, noting how not a drop of blood clung to the sword.

“Aaagh!” 

The man and woman howled in pain. Sliding the blade back into its scabbard, Xiao Yu flicked it up in the air and stretched out his hands like lightning.

One hand clutched the man’s neck, the other the woman’s. He swung them together, colliding their heads with a thud. They collapsed unconscious to the floor. Only then did Xiao Yu calmly reach out to catch the falling Yushin-to Blade, his gaze cold as he studied the two attackers sprawled before him.

Their skills were mediocre. Another pair of disposable pawns?