Chapter 99: Swallows of Yore Before the Halls of Wang and Xie

Bang, bang, bang...

Inside Yinghong Billiards Club, chaos reigned.

One silhouette after another was hurled down from upstairs, piling up in the first-floor lobby into a small hill.

Lu Ye had already fought his way up to the fourth floor and kept peering down from time to time.

If anyone in that heap below was still capable of moving, he would kick another billiard table down on top of them.

He Bin was trembling all over, retreating slowly up the staircase...

Lu Ye followed at an unhurried pace. Each time he reached a new floor, he made He Bin summon every last man in sight.

By the time they reached the fifth floor, He Bin had run out of room to retreat. Beyond that was only the rooftop.

Lu Ye snorted. “Anyone else?”

He Bin shook his head frantically. “No, no more. It’s just me now!”

“Then do me a favor.”

“What favor?”

Lu Ye grinned. “Help me give your boys a taste of a mountain crushing down on them. Are you jumping on your own, or should I help?”

“Damn it, no way! I don’t want that!”

“Looks like I’ll have to help you after all.”

Thud!

Lu Ye aimed at He Bin’s rear and sent him flying with a savage kick.

“Aaah!”

The corpulent body, three or four hundred pounds of it, plummeted from the fifth floor.

Crash!

With a deafening boom, the little mountain of Yinghong Society members caved in several more meters, forming a crater like a volcanic mouth.

A miserable sight.

Lu Ye looked at his handiwork with satisfaction, nodded, patted his backside, and turned to leave.

Just as he reached the entrance and was about to get in the car—

“Sir, please wait.”

A man and a woman spoke at once, their voices overlapping.

He turned and saw a young couple.

The man carried a Tang saber; the woman held a pair of Emei darts, one in each hand...

Lu Ye frowned. “The Twin Fiends?”

“That’s right.”

The Twin Fiends was the couple’s nickname.

The man was named Tian Yang, the woman Xu Xuan, ranked fourth and fifth on the assassin list.

Their ranking seemed slightly below Meng Meiren’s, but that was only because the two of them split the points between them.

If their points were added together, they could even threaten the top spot on the assassin list.

Tian Yang and Xu Xuan never acted alone. Whenever they appeared, they did so as husband and wife fighting side by side.

If Meng Meiren were to face them alone, she would have almost no chance of winning...

Lu Ye asked with a smile, “You’ve joined the Yinghong Society?”

Tian Yang shook his head. “Only hired for a month.”

Xu Xuan said, “Within that month, we’ll clear every obstacle in Yinghong Society’s path.”

Lu Ye nodded. “Then let’s fight.”

Whoosh!

Without warning, Tian Yang drew his saber and struck. The speed of his blade made even Lu Ye feel a flicker of alarm.

Lu Ye shifted his footing, turned his body slightly, and dodged the slash. But Xu Xuan’s Emei darts immediately followed from behind Tian Yang.

They nearly sealed off all of Lu Ye’s retreat paths, leaving nowhere to evade.

Clang!

A black dagger flashed like lightning, parrying two successive strikes and knocking Xu Xuan’s Emei darts aside.

In the same instant, Tian Yang’s Tang saber swept back toward Lu Ye’s lower body...

If that blade landed cleanly, both legs would likely be severed on the spot!

Lu Ye sprang lightly upward into a midair split, and Tian Yang’s razor-sharp saber narrowly skimmed past his thighs and calves.

The couple’s combined style was truly elusive and hard to defend against.

But Lu Ye had always preferred offense over defense.

His counterattack was fierce. Holding the black dagger in a reverse grip, he drove it straight toward Tian Yang’s head.

Clang!

At the critical moment, Xu Xuan’s Emei dart came横 across and shifted the dagger’s point of impact by a few inches. In the end, the tip drove into Tian Yang’s shoulder instead.

Tian Yang gritted his teeth through the pain and forced the black dagger in place with his own collarbone. Lu Ye could not even pull it back immediately.

Then Xu Xuan’s pair of Emei darts whirled so fast they blurred into a storm, converging on Lu Ye’s head.

Bang!

Lu Ye simply took hold of the dagger and, with brute force, lifted Tian Yang bodily off the ground, using him as a shield between himself and Xu Xuan.

Splurt!

Xu Xuan failed to stop in time and stabbed a bloody hole straight through her husband’s back.

For a split second, she froze in shock.

Lu Ye seized the moment, kicked Tian Yang hard, yanked his dagger free, and sent him flying backward. Tian Yang’s body then smashed Xu Xuan to the ground.

Only then did they finally realize they had underestimated this target.

In speed, strength, agility... this young Y6 envoy before them far surpassed the two of them. Within just a few exchanges, their defeat was already obvious.

Tian Yang looked puzzled. “Xu Xuan and I have been on the assassin list for years. We’ve hunted down plenty of martial artists and consider ourselves seasoned killers forged through countless battles.”

“Why does your combat experience seem even more polished than ours, Envoy?”

Lu Ye smiled faintly. “You two have spent years on the assassin list, mostly relying on ambushes and sneak attacks.”

“I’ve fought hundreds of battles of every size in the Middle East. Every single one was a life-or-death frontal assault.”

Hiss!

Tian Yang and Xu Xuan exchanged glances. This Y6 envoy was actually a war god who had survived the Middle Eastern battlefield?

This time, they had truly been overconfident.

If they had set an ambush from the start and caught Lu Ye off guard, they might still have had a better chance.

But in a straight fight now, the two of them were clearly no match for him.

Tian Yang and Xu Xuan looked at each other and said with regret, “Looks like we have no choice but to use that move.”

Lu Ye paused slightly. Did they still have a trump card?

As soon as the Twin Fiends finished speaking, Xu Xuan suddenly grabbed her Emei darts and charged at Lu Ye again. She had completely abandoned defense, attacking with the reckless ferocity of someone willing to trade her life for victory.

Pfft!

Lu Ye showed her no mercy. His black dagger thrust forward and sank into Xu Xuan’s chest. At the same time, a blade suddenly pierced out through her abdomen and shot straight at Lu Ye.

It was Tian Yang’s Tang saber!

Lu Ye had never imagined that he would sacrifice his wife as a shield. The saber had passed directly through her body, and he intended to trade her life for Lu Ye’s.

Lu Ye retreated repeatedly, while Tian Yang kept driving the hilt forward, pressing in relentlessly.

Xu Xuan remained wedged between them. With her last breath, she raised her Emei darts and hammered them down toward Lu Ye’s head.

Just as Lu Ye was about to turn the tables and kill her, a streak of silver light flashed by...

The next second, a gleaming swallow dart was pinned to Xu Xuan’s temple. She was dead beyond any doubt.

Whoosh!

Another streak of silver light sliced through the air, precisely severing Tian Yang’s wrist tendons.

The Tang saber slipped from his hand, remaining lodged in Xu Xuan’s body as it fell to the ground with her.

The silver light swept back and, with one clean stroke, cut Tian Yang’s throat.

Clutching his neck, Tian Yang tried to follow the return path of the swallow dart and managed only a weak murmur: “Tang Qianyan...?”

Thud.

The Twin Fiends dropped together.

It was a mischievous, lively young girl, and from her appearance alone no one would have guessed she was the famed number-one assassin, Tang Qianyan.

Retrieving the swallow dart, Tang Qianyan skipped up to Lu Ye and laughed, “Brother Lu, say thank you already!”

Lu Ye glared at her. “You stole my kill, and you still want me to thank you?”

“You’re getting more and more shameless, Little Swallow!”

Tang Qianyan toyed with her shoulder-length hair and grinned. “Where’s my master? She didn’t come to Capital City with you?”

“She didn’t. Since she rarely gets a vacation, she went traveling.”

“By the way, why are you here?”

Tang Qianyan answered with perfect confidence, “To make money, of course!”

Lu Ye blinked. “You’re here hunting Yinghong Society members to earn Xu family’s dirty bounty?”

Tang Qianyan nodded and counted on her fingers. “Since the Xu family posted the reward, I’ve already taken out over a hundred ordinary members, more than a dozen lieutenants, and three chairmen.”

Lu Ye widened his eyes. “Damn, that’s a better kill count than S.H.I.E.L.D.!”

Tang Qianyan complained, “If you hadn’t stirred up the snakes in Licheng and scared them half to death, I might have bankrupted the Xu family by now!”

“Come on, Auntie, leave me a few scraps to work with. Otherwise, I’m going to have a hard time hitting my quota this month.”

Tang Qianyan smiled lightly. “Then you’d better cover my pocket money.”

Lu Ye said, “Oh, please. I’ve already fallen so low I’m practically living off a woman!”

“Still, if you can help me wipe out every Yinghong Society member in Capital City, then the mission bonus S.H.I.E.L.D. gave me will all be yours.”

Tang Qianyan nodded decisively. “Deal.”

Lu Ye drove back to the hotel alone and received a call from Chen Xiaoting on the way.

The moment he picked up, he was met with a furious scolding. “You little brat, I told you over and over not to make such a huge scene, and what do you do? You go and wipe out their whole line in one shot?”