"Hahaha, that story you told was hilarious!"
Fu Yafang and Hui Ye Aili strolled out of a luxuriously decorated hotel, arm in arm, like old friends.
"You know, Commander Xingchen really dislikes it when people cough in front of him. He's very sensitive. I suspect he had some serious psychological trauma as a child," Fu Yafang whispered, chuckling mysteriously.
Aili covered her mouth, asking in surprise, "Ah! Really? I always wondered why he'd make such strange faces sometimes when he was perfectly fine. I thought he was just thinking about war."
"And also, they say Commander Xingchen is quite… powerful in that regard," Fu Yafang said with a playful, hushed tone.
Aili's face flushed instantly. She playfully nudged Fu Yafang's waist with her thumb, shyly saying, "Oh, what are you talking about? I don't understand at all."
Due to the ongoing war, Shanhai City enforced a curfew at night, but it only applied to civilians. For high-ranking officials like Fu Yafang and Aili, the patrolling soldiers, upon seeing their glowing identification badges, did not stop them. They walked past with confidence.
Aside from the distant patrol guards, the street was empty except for the two of them. Their laughter echoed in the vast street.
The bases of the towering skyscrapers, built from gray-white rock, receded behind them. The ink-black sky was shrouded in dark clouds, and the bright moon showed only half its face.
Unlike Xianxia's chaotic, jumbled architecture, its rainbow-like aerial traffic, its dazzling, full-spectrum advertisements, and its perpetually bustling crowds, Shanhai City's streets and buildings were built straight, exuding order, solemnity, monotony, and dullness.
Even with a tall streetlamp every five meters, the streets still lacked vitality.
The two chatted and laughed, turning into a dark alley where the streetlights could not reach.
Aili deliberately lagged behind, smiling, "It's so much fun talking to you. I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time. Thank you, my dear sister Dailian."
"Not at all, who says we aren't good sisters?" Fu Yafang walked back and linked her arm with Aili's.
Aili lowered her head, giggled, and said with ease, "Well, that's as far as I can escort you. She's waiting inside."
Fu Yafang's smile froze instantly. Her palms grew cold, and her heart lurched.
Aili pulled Fu Yafang's hand away, stepped back two paces, and looked up, revealing a kind smile.
But in Fu Yafang's eyes, the smile was eerily dark and strange.
"Let's begin," Aili said softly, her smile still cheerful.
With almost no time to think, Fu Yafang drew her weapon with a swift backhand!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three gunshots pierced the night sky. Aili maintained her eerie smile as she fell backward, black and red blood flowing from three fatal wounds on her body.
Fu Yafang quickly scanned her surroundings, then bolted out of the alley, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Help!!!"
"Hee hee hee… where do you think you're going?"
Aili's voice suddenly came from behind her. Immediately, Fu Yafang felt a strong gust of wind from behind her, and a dark shadow flashed, blocking her path.
Fu Yafang looked in horror. Aili's head, chest, and waist were indeed bleeding from three fatal wounds, yet she was standing perfectly fine in front of her!
Without thinking, Fu Yafang quickly drew her gun and fired three shots at Aili's head. The latter took all three shots directly without toppling backward from the impact.
Aili, her head now a mangled mess, one eye blown out and the other dangling by flesh, looked terrifyingly grotesque!
"Our Hui Ye family is indeed very proficient in technology," Aili said, grinning with her blood-splattered, crooked mouth.
Suddenly, her clothes ripped open, revealing her shapely figure. Beneath the incredibly lifelike body, she had male genitalia. "Oh, right, wait a moment~"
The male appendage suddenly retracted into Aili's abdomen, and after a brief transformation, even hair grew.
She had become female.
"See! Already scared?" Aili said with a laugh.
"Bang bang bang bang…"
Fu Yafang emptied her magazine, firing over a dozen rounds. Aili still didn't fall. More fluid, like thick blood, streamed from her body onto the ground.
"Hee hee hee hee…" Aili spread her arms and charged forward with her broken body!
Fu Yafang calmly reholstered her gun. The automatic blade device on her arm activated rapidly, and a fifteen-centimeter-long hand blade sprang from her sleeve.
With a slight electric hum, the razor-thin edge of the hand blade heated up to over a thousand degrees Celsius. Facing the charging Aili, Fu Yafang calmly bent down, thrust upwards, then powerfully kicked off the ground, spinning behind Aili.
Aili's mangled head was cleanly severed.
Before the other party could react, Fu Yafang's hand blade sliced upwards and then downwards, dismembering her arms. Finally, with a powerful swing to the abdomen, Aili's lower body was neatly sliced by the searing hot hand blade.
Her upper and lower halves, propelled by inertia, crashed to the ground. Aili became a human stump, severed in the middle, blood blooming like flowers all over the ground.
Even the five severed pieces of Aili's body seemed to have a will of their own, wriggling slowly in all directions, as if trying to escape.
Having dealt with the immediate danger, Fu Yafang coldly eyed the still-squirming corpse on the ground. She calmly pulled out her wristband and sent a message through a secure channel to Mu Ye Xingchen: [Aili is a traitor. I discovered and killed her.]
Within minutes, two squads of patrol guards, drawn by the gunshots, stormed into the alley with their weapons. The dozen or so guards didn't even glance at Fu Yafang. They quickly gathered Aili's dismembered body parts and retreated.
Only after the guards' footsteps had completely disappeared did Fu Yafang slowly turn her head to look behind her and whisper, "It's safe now. Let's go."
From the darkness beyond the reach of light, a woman slowly emerged. She looked exactly like the dismembered Aili.
The two stopped at the alley entrance. As Fu Yafang's hovercar automatically flew in and landed steadily at the intersection, they quickly got into the car and left.
"Thank you for drawing away the patrols," Aili said softly.
Fu Yafang calmly wiped the blood from her face and said lightly, "It's nothing. I hope you'll put in a good word for me with Commander Fana."
"Heh heh…" Aili hid her face in the shadows and said triumphantly, "Our Commander Xingchen never expected us to put on such a show. The moment he lifted my hair that day, I knew I was exposed."
Fu Yafang smiled faintly and whispered, "A wise person knows when to adapt to circumstances…"
Back at her residence, Fu Yafang meticulously washed off all the bloodstains and then threw the bloodied clothes into the incinerator to destroy them.
Once she was naked and tucked into bed, she took out her secure wristband and sent a communication to Mu Ye Xingchen: [First step towards approaching Commander Lai Jing Fana, completed.]
Within minutes, Mu Ye Xingchen replied: [Learn how to operate the fusion instrument as soon as possible. If the experimental subject reaches fusion standards in my absence, I want you to perform the fusion operation yourself.]
Fu Yafang put down the wristband and sighed softly.
A few days ago, when she received the badge from Xingchen, she could sense his abnormality from the grip of his hand.
After returning from the underground laboratory to her resting room that day, Fu Yafang repeatedly pondered its meaning, eventually obtaining Xingchen's initial plan from the badge: [Eliminate Hui Ye Aili through a series of stratagems and begin approaching Lai Jing Fana.]
It had to be said that Mu Ye Xingchen was indeed brilliant, and Fu Yafang had executed it flawlessly.
Not only had she removed the tumor from the Black Dove plan, but she had also paved the way for deeper infiltration into the enemy's ranks.
However, Mu Ye Xingchen had underestimated Fu Yafang, and her true objective.
Fu Yafang's left index finger traced circles on the back of her right hand, her mind constantly working.
"The most urgent of the next few tasks is to find my former handler and report Gu Ya's location in Shanhai City. Secondly, I need to learn how to stop the experimental instrument procedures as soon as possible to prepare for Gu Ya's rescue. Thirdly, the timing for leaving Shanhai City and heading to Lai Jing Fana's city must be precise, neither too early nor too late, to avoid suspicion."
"Fourth, find an opportunity to deliver a message to Liu Feng. I wonder how that foolish boy is doing now…"
"Fifth… if Mu Ye Xingchen's major election fails, he will inevitably recall some troops from Xianxia for self-preservation. This will cause internal turmoil within the Black Star Empire, and the two factions will fight to the death. As an intermediary and observer, I must protect myself. Relying on anyone is not as good as relying on oneself."
As her plan continued to be refined, Fu Yafang's drowsiness gradually took hold. It was already two in the morning. This long night would soon welcome the dawn.