Proofreader & Editor: Peter Pan

Fighting together?

When Song Ci heard this, he almost laughed out loud.

"Do you know that when the fight starts later, the aftermath of the battle may shake you to death? I don't have time to take care of you..." The Crow said coldly, "If you want to be a hero, now is not the time for you to step forward."

He knew.

Gu Shen's talent is very high.

But... Gu Shen has not grown up yet, and fighting with a transcendent like Chen Wu is likely to cause a great deal of damage. Transcendents of Gu Shen's level are too easily injured.

"Don't worry, I value my life, and I am very self-aware, so I never show off." Gu Shen lay on the ice, expressionless, "Please stay away from me when the fight starts later, because I want to live a little longer. There's just one thing I have to tell you... I won't go anywhere tonight, I'll just stay here."

The Crow frowned.

He couldn't understand Gu Shen's choice at the moment.

"What you just said reminded me that since Cui Zhongcheng has been eyeing the battle on the riverbank... then it's too slow for me to go find him..." Gu Shen's voice was very light, "We've known each other for so long, it seems like you still don't know my identity."

"Is your identity important?"

The Crow felt a little amused. This guy is so young, what kind of identity could he have?

Could it be that Mr. Cui will send someone to protect him tonight?

No time to think.

He clenched his fist, and his bones made a crackling sound.

Chen Wu rushed over from a distance, and a series of water columns exploded on the river surface.

The Crow also started to run, and the two of them collided in an instant, both delivering extremely powerful attacks as transcendent beings. Their bodies were still as strong as steel, and each punch collided with a faint air burst, and the sound of metal and iron reverberated with each impact. At a slightly closer distance, their eardrums would shatter.

"Is all of this your plan?"

At that moment of the punch.

Chen Wu's lazy voice was mixed with anger, "You deliberately arranged a battle on the riverbank to attract the transcendent beings from the South Hall, and then secretly sent someone to sneak into the South Bay Building?"

"I completely don't understand what you're trying to say." The Crow's expression remained unchanged as he said lightly, "Don't think of me as too clever, I'm just a brute, can a brute come up with such a clever plan?"

"You are sheltering a criminal." Chen Wu said coldly, "Do you know what the consequences will be?"

"Criminal? What criminal?" The Crow laughed, "I don't know him at all, I just can't stand what you guys are doing... as for what you said about sneaking into the building, where's the evidence?"

Chen Wu was speechless.

Yes.

He really had no evidence...

And, Chen Wu couldn't explain how he was able to lock down the building and lift the alarm given by Deep Sea, and insist that the boy was a suspect.

"No evidence, I'll sue you for defamation on his behalf."

The Crow knew all too well what this expression meant.

It seems... the people at South Bay Building really have no evidence.

***

Chu Ling's voice sounded again: "Cui Zhongcheng's permissions cannot be captured... Lu Nanzhi's permissions cannot be captured... just now, I tried to confirm their locations, but both failed. However, it can be confirmed that a considerable number of transcendent beings are approaching the South Bay area of the riverbank. They are expected to arrive within fifteen minutes."

Gu Shen lay on the ice, half of his body immersed in the river water, he didn't feel cold, the fire was burning in his mind, and white hot mist rose around him, the river water evaporated close to him.

"Fifteen minutes..." he listened to Chu Ling's words and fell into thought.

The reason he said they should fight together.

Find the original at "pawread.com".

It's not because Gu Shen is not rational, quite the opposite... this is his decision after careful consideration.

Tonight, he wants to stay on the riverbank.

To stay away from this battle would certainly avoid danger, but that's not what he wants.

Obviously, Cui Zhongcheng has been keeping an eye on him all along. From the moment he landed in the city, Gu Shen has wanted to explore the true face of this old man behind the glasses. He wants to know how Cui Zhongcheng really sees him...

Since from the moment Cui Zhongcheng arranged for himself to land in the city, he has set up a big net, trying to catch the mastermind behind the Longevity Foundation, so he, with the compass, is currently the most important pawn.

Gu Shen staying on the riverbank this time is his "assessment" of Cui Zhongcheng.

Perhaps Cui Zhongcheng doesn't care about the Crow, doesn't care about sincerity, doesn't care about many things.

But he cares about himself.

If he doesn't want to be held accountable for this...

then end it all quickly!

And the important thing is, with this "assessment" , Gu Shen wants to see... how many eyes are watching him, and where do these eyes come from?

"How long will it take to decipher the message from the closed-circuit host?" Gu Shen asked.

"Unknown."Chu Ling answered, "Without any information, using brute force to crack the encryption key, no one can give a precise timeline for decryption... If we're lucky, it could be done in the next second, but if we're not, it could take days, and that's not impossible."

This answer was not good news.

As for the information stored within the thirty-ninth layer of the closed-circuit mainframe, the sooner it was decrypted, the better.

"There's another question..." Gu Shen said, "Based on the residual messages from Nanwan Building, can we identify the intruder?"

After breaching the building, he had maintained contact with Chu Ling throughout.

When you're involved, it's easy to lose perspective.

He had done his best, but what he feared most was leaving behind traces that could become a problem for future investigations.

Previously, Chen Wu's pursuit had put the greatest pressure on Gu Shen, mainly due to that guy's irrational and overwhelming murderous intent... If caught, Gu Shen would be killed instantly.

Chen Wu wouldn't even give him a chance to speak.

Like a lamb to the slaughter.

But fifteen minutes later, the situation was different.

Without evidence.

All suspicions from Nanwan Building against him would be baseless; Chen Wu had no evidence, no reason, and no justification to lay a hand on him.

"Gu Shen, be careful of Qi Lin—"

Chu Ling's sudden, loud warning interrupted Gu Shen's thoughts.

Gu Shen looked up.

The distant river fog was shattered and reformed, with all sight beyond a hundred meters obscured by mist and fierce winds.

He couldn't see anything, just a mass of fragmented mist.

These shattered mists and the sweeping winds were the handiwork of Chen Wu and Song Ci... Two top-tier Transcendent attackers, even when holding back their blows, still caused unrest in half the river.

In such a situation, approaching the battlefield was foolish.

Anyone insufficiently powerful would risk injury from a mere close approach!

This was also why Gu Shen, on the other side of the river from the battlefield, was not in a hurry to leave.

In Gu Shen's view, the Transcendents from the Sincere Meeting couldn't cross the main battlefield to attack him, so he still had plenty of time.

Be careful of Qi Lin...

The moment Chu Ling's voice rang out.

Gu Shen's pupils constricted.

***

Qi Lin activated his "Eagle Eye" for the third time, and this time, his target was no longer Song Ci... The Eagle Eye looked towards the river, where hundreds of afterimages densely covered the surface, with two equally matched top-tier offensive Transcendents occupying most of the Eagle Eye's field of vision. At the edge of his sight, between the gaps of those afterimages, one could vaguely see a piece of solidified ice floe.

On that ice floe lay a young man.

Chen Wu had just mentioned it.

When they headed to the riverbank, Nanwan Building had been invaded, and this unknown young man... was very likely the intruder.

Qi Lin had a hunch about how the night would unfold.

Soon, people would come, more and more of them.

And with more people... simple matters would become complicated.

While he still could fire his gun—

He decided to simplify a complex matter.

Qi Lin activated Eagle Eye, loading an ordinary red-silver bullet into the chamber. Eagle Eye revealed that the young man's strength was very ordinary, not worth using a purple-silver bullet.

With the loading action, he silently set up a sniper rifle by the riverbank and aimed the muzzle at Gu Shen on the ice floe.

Without any hesitation.

From loading the bullet to setting up the rifle and pulling the trigger, the entire process was incredibly swift and without warning, with no one aware of his sudden action.

Then, in the long night, there was a "bang" !

The gunshot.

On the wind-swept river, amidst the noise, the gunshot was not intense.

The whistling of the bullet, breaking through droplets and creating a sound, was almost negligible.

But it was the quietest, the most deadly.

In an instant.

The red-silver bullet traversed over a hundred meters.

From one end to the other.

From Qi Lin to Gu Shen.

The trajectory lingered in the air, perfect and dazzling, as if someone had drawn a straight, solemn line, a meticulously crafted piece of art.

After the gunshot, the ice floe shattered.

A spray of fresh red blood mist burst forth.