The periter of the Tulip Garden was sealed by high walls and an Alchemy Matrix. A frontal assault was out of the question. Triggering an alarm would bring security Ascenders within two minutes, and that commotion would draw Oga's assassins right along with them.
Even if they were fast, it wouldn't matter. The Cyan Mountain before them was the private property of Li's Flower Group. The entire way up was surely guarded by nurous Alchemy Matrices and countless Ascender bodyguards. Forcing their way in was too risky, and besides, there was no reason to provoke such a behemoth.
Zhou Chen carefully studied the navigation map in his Spiritual World. He then pulled out his phone and opened the satellite map in the Star Association app to compare. He discovered the cursor was located sowhere on this mountain... 'Is it at the summit of one of the peaks?'
He looked up. The stairs leading up the mountain weren't in this direction. From his position, all he could see were endless flowers and flowering trees covering the mountainside, blooming unseasonably in the winter. 'Considering Li's Flower Group is a titan in the field of botany,' he thought, 'developing this kind of out-of-season plant probably wasn't too difficult for them.'
At the summit, there was a vast grove of exotic, pinkish-blue flowering trees. The morning sun cast its rays upon them, refracting an iridescent, glass-like hue that spread out like a shimring sea. These storybook colors made the entire mountain peak breathtakingly beautiful. And at the very top, nestled among the dense layers of branches and leaves, he could vaguely make out an elegant villa.
"You're not thinking of going to that place, are you?" Yang raised an eyebrow as he saw Zhou Chen looking up. "That place looks for all the world like a Li Group villa. Whoever lives inside must hold a high position."
"Look," Zhou Chen reasoned, "the wax seal on the letter has a tulip emblem, and its shape is very similar to the layout of this Tulip Garden. This garden is a tourist attraction owned by the Li Group... This is probably no coincidence. I think the person who wrote the letter is from the Li Group."
Coupled with the location his wish had guided him to, he was quite certain of this. 'But I don't know anyone from the Li Group,' he wondered. 'Why would soone send a letter?'
"Have you figured out how to get there?" Yang asked.
"Sneaking in is out of the question," Zhou Chen said. "The Li Group's security asures aren't just for show. If we get caught, it'll be hard to explain ourselves. We could even disgrace the Golden Bamboo Star Association. If Jiang Che found out, he'd kill ... Let's just walk up the mountain path and pay them a formal visit. With our status as mbers of the Star Association, they should at least grant us an audience."
The two were just about to leave the Tulip Garden when, suddenly, sothing strange happened. Not far away, a stranger in a hat forcefully plunged a sign into the soil.
A strange Alchemy symbol was drawn on the sign—it represented so kind of "Barrier."
In an instant, the space occupied by Zhou Chen and Yang was cut off from reality. The tourists who had been there a mont before vanished without a trace, leaving the two of them alone in a field of vibrant, fiery red tulips.
They could still see the distant tourists and scenery when they looked out, but a hazy film now separated them from the outside world.
"They've found us!" Yang said, his voice grim.
"How did they find us...?" Zhou Chen frowned. He had used a wish to interfere with any attempts to track their location, yet Oga had still found them.
"A Forbidden Object, an Alchemy Tool, a Mystical Divination Technique, surveillance, Essence Tracking... even our scent, the way we walk, the look in our eyes..." Yang pulled a pistol from his bag and chambered a round. "Whatever thod they used, they've found us. We need to shatter this Barrier and fight our way out, fast. It'll get dangerous if their main force shows up."
The sign was clearly the source of the Barrier. If they destroyed it, the Barrier would collapse.
Four figures slowly erged from beyond the hazy film. Each of them held a Weapon, and they were clearly hostile.
Yang fired first, quickly emptying an entire magazine. Every Alchemy Bullet was aid at their heads.
With a flash of steel, a short Oga assassin unsheathed the Tachi at his waist. The razor-sharp blade instantly sliced through all the whistling bullets.
One bullet lagged just behind the others. The mont the Tachi's blade swung down, the Essence imbued in the round erupted!
A visible current of white energy swirled around the bullet. It curved in midair, dodging the Tachi's slash, then accelerated a second ti. With a wet THUNK, it struck a nearby attacker in the head. Blood sprayed as a grisly hole appeared in the man's temple. His body slumped to the ground, twitched a few tis, and then fell silent.
'Holy shit, Gun Fighting Skill!' Zhou Chen was gobsmacked. 'Old Yang actually knows this kind of god-tier gunplay you only see in action flicks!'
Obvious shock flashed across the faces of the other three Oga assassins. They hadn't expected to lose a teammate the mont the fight began. They quickly composed themselves and charged toward the pair, Weapons held with grim resolve.
"Good news. These guys are all rookies, not a single tough, experienced veteran in the bunch," Old Yang said, deftly swapping magazines with a smile. "But that short one with the Tachi is strong. He must be in the top five of the current training camp batch. If he survives, he'll make captain one day. He's all yours." He added, "I'll handle the other two. Ti to let them see what an old pro can do."
"Going that hard on rookies?"
"You wouldn't be asking that if you knew how Oga trains its recruits," Yang said with a self-deprecating smile.
"Fair enough."
Zhou Chen pulled the Bloodthirsty Chainsaw from his backpack and beckoned to the Oga assassin with the Tachi. "Who goes there? State your na. I don't kill nobodies."
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