Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

Chapter 686: Levelling the mountains and seas (3)

Most of the forces that Zhou Yuandai had used to threaten the others by Xu Tingsheng’s side with came from those mercenary squads that were close with her.

Naturally, they had long since knew what they were doing, who they were targeting.

All this was not a problem when Zhou Yuandai was still powerful and unrivalled. They were willing to take this risk for her, seeking gain while protecting the relationship between them.

Still, the situation had changed afterwards. Working for a Zhou Yuandai who was already bankrupt and was being targeted by countless people, inviting trouble and becoming Xu Tingsheng’s sworn enemy? In an era of profit, for organisations whose goals were profit and survival, it was impossible that they did not know the best choice to make.

They decisively retreated.

There were actually not many Zhou Yuandai could still use. Her biggest principle in this post-rebirth life was not to rely on or trust anyone. So, those around her who had received professional training had mostly been moulded. Many were deaf-mutes and had no minds of their own.

Even Cen Xishan in that initial decade had never actually seen Zhou Yuandai herself. More recently, after Zhou Yuandai had finished her plastic surgery and killed the other her, taking back her identity, they had no longer been close.

There were naturally still exceptions. There were actually a few who had still had a chance to see Zhou Yuandai from time to time in the years she had been doing plastic surgery non-stop. These people had been personally moulded by her.

Such people were very valuable. After having confirmed Xu Tingsheng’s situation, Zhou Yuandai had placed two of them around him, one in the shadows and the other in direct contact.

After Xu Tingsheng had been directly subjugated, these two had been responsible for Xiang Ning instead.

Therefore, it was actually not just Du Jin who received Zhou Yuandai’s final text.

This day had ultimately still come.

Du Jin had once prayed that this situation would never occur. Yet, the order on the screen of her phone right now was incomparably clear.

She was different from those mercenaries. Ever since the age of ten, Du Jin had been unceasingly brainwashed and strictly moulded everyday. At the same time, she was grateful to and fearful of Zhou Yuandai…also possessing blind faith and worship towards her.

This sort of habitual subservience made it such that Du Jin would definitely not even think of sending a reply to ask for confirmation. She did not know that Zhou Yuandai was actually already dead at this moment. In truth, even if someone told her this, she would not believe it.

“Big Sis Du Jin.”

As Du Jin was looking at her phone in a daze, Xiang Ning who was sitting cross-legged on the living room sofa turned and called her.

“Huh…yes?” Du Jin was rather flustered but more at a loss.

“I’ve found that you’ve been very strange lately,” Xiang Ning smiled.

Du Jin’s mind spun as she unconsciously grew all nervous…could she have been discovered?

In truth, even if Xiang Ning had really discovered something, she would still not pose a threat to Du Jin whatsoever.

“What am I afraid of then?” Du Jin asked herself.

The answer was actually very clear and very simple. People are emotional creatures at the end of the day. In this life, the person Du Jin had been closest to in the truest sense of the word was actually Xiang Ning…the two had already interacted for very long. Also, it was simply not like an employer’s relationship with an employee between them at all. Xiang Ning never acted superior in front of Du Jin, with no inauthenticity mixed in whatsoever.

They were just like sisters and the best of friends.

If she had been seen through, Du Jin might be able to kill Xiang Ning in a second. Still, in this short second, she did not know how she should meet Xiang Ning’s gaze.

“She’ll definitely be very upset,” Du Jin thought.

“Heh, look at how nervous you are,” The oblivious Xiang Ning was still smiling innocently a short distance away as she said mysteriously, “I just wanted to say that I’ll be attending university soon. You won’t have to accompany me everyday anymore, Big Sis. You’ll have a lot of time…so, you should properly date someone for once.”

So she had been concerned about this! Because of this sentence, Du Jin’s chest ached again.

“Big Sis,” Xiang Ning called again.

“Yes?” Du Jin barely regained her wits and raised her head.

Xiang Ning’s eyes contained a knowing look as she smiled craftily, “Actually, if you really like someone, it’s not like the girl cannot take the initiative…do you get what I mean, Big Sis? That person seems to be interested in Big Sis too. I’ve never seen him coming to our house so often and liking to chat with any girl so much before.”

Xiang Ning was encouraging Du Jin. Her meaning could not be any more obvious. As for ‘that person’, it was naturally referring to Huang Yaming.

Huang Yaming was special to Du Jin. For a woman like Du Jin to like someone, that person definitely had to cause her to feel a sense of worship to some extent. Xu Tingsheng was too underwhelming and did not cut it. Still, Huang Yaming had achieved it. His confidence and decisiveness, smarts and composure, ambition and heroism, was able to conquer Du Jin.

As they had interacted over this period of time, Du Jin had already unknowingly fallen for him. Also, just as Xiang Ning had said, Huang Yaming seemed to be a little interested in her too.

For how many nights, lying alone on her bed, the female killer had thought about it and smiled secretly on her bed, feeling shy and conflicted. This originally should not have happened, also being abnormal.

“Well, say something,” Xiang Ning urged.

“I…” Du Jin walked behind Xiang Ning.

A speck of light flickered on the glass window.

“Sorry,” Du Jin said softly as she swiftly chopped Xiang Ning at the back of her neck with her hand…

Xiang Ning fainted without uttering a sound, collapsing on the sofa.

Whether or not she was able to do it in the end, Du Jin had no way of directly facing a conscious Xiang Ning.

At the same time, as Xiang Ning fell, the other person who had received Zhou Yuandai’s order in a certain room of the opposite building had just discovered from his sniping scope that…he had suddenly lost his target.

He had been able to observe the situation here all throughout. Seeing that Du Jin had failed to act despite quite some time having passed, he had just raised his sniper rifle…preparing to take care of it himself.

“Huh?”

Just as he was feeling perplexed, a blade flashed past…a face that looked very much like a construction site uncle’s appeared in the sniping scope.

Next, there was nothing…

That person leapt out from beneath the balcony, his knife so swift that he did not even have the time to pull the trigger.

As the person swooped over, his blade that was merely the length of an arm slashed diagonally upward…slicing the wrist, cutting into the chest, slitting the throat…

Dead!

……

Once, Old Jin had given Huang Yaming three people to help him take revenge for Tan Yao. One was an old rascally lawyer, another a woman with a snake tattoo on her back and the last one a terrifying blade-wielding assassin who left countless bigwigs in the Bingzhou mining district unable to sleep well at night.

Of the three, Huang Yaming had used the first two before. It was only this man whom he had never used.

This was a deadly weapon. Huang Yaming had always treasured him, preparing to use him for offence as necessary. Still, after Xu Tingsheng had left, he had just one mission left, which was to protect Xiang Ning in secret…

To be honest, Huang Yaming did not like Xiang Ning at all. He definitely did not think that it was a good choice for Xu Tingsheng to be together with Xiang Ning.

Yet, he had still made such a decision…only because Xu Tingsheng cared.