In the eyes of the people in the Dark World, Shinjuku was undoubtedly the most famous place in Dongdu.
The munic.i.p.al government of Dongdu was located in Shinjuku. Furthermore, Shinjuku was also home to the headquarters or all-important divisions of the yakuza within East Island.
It was also the site of the greatest concentration of the special warfare agencies of East Island. In this small area, there were nearly 60 special warfare agencies cl.u.s.tered together and appeared in front of everyone with the name of the company or the a.s.sociation.
It was also interesting to note that Shinjuku was home to Kabukicho, known as Asia’s largest red-light district. Nearly 6,000 bars, clubs and ma.s.sage parlors were crammed together, making it a dream paradise for all men.
Good and evil people mixed up here.
This was the current state of Shinjuku.
When walking the streets of Shinjuku, one most likely met five kinds of people; tourists from all over the world, government personnel in East Island, members of yakuza, prost.i.tutes, and agents of East Island.
This was Shinjuku, mixed but not chaotic, a comical and somewhat magical place.
From morning to night, it had been raining heavily in Dongdu, and there was even a tendency for the rain to get heavier.
Although there were few people on the streets of Shinjuku, the streets were crowded with vehicles. With neon lights flashing in the streets, the entire Shinjuku looked like a place full of temptation.
In the rainstorm, a young man holding an umbrella stepped into a roadside restaurant hurriedly. He folded up his umbrella and sat down at a table casually.
The young man was plain. To put it mildly, his comely and clean face was utterly unremarkable in the crowd, but his eyes were bright. Calm and gentle, he sat with a long silver metal box on his back.
Perhaps because of the weather, the restaurant had few visitors. Seeing a visitor come, a comely waitress with faint freckles on her face came over quickly and said something gently and deferentially in j.a.panese.
The young man, who looked less than twenty years old, opened his mouth and pointed to it with an apologetic smile. His eyes were clear and he seemed dumb.
The waitress was surprised and felt sorry for him from the depth of her heart for no reason. She bowed and handed the menu to the young mute in front of her.
The mute opened the menu without perusing it, pointing to the j.a.panese-style hot pot on the menu. He didn’t seem to think it was enough, but he just couldn’t afford more meat because of his lack of money. So he simply asked for more rice b.a.l.l.s and then handed the menu back to the waitress.
The waitress silently wrote down what he had ordered and said in a crisp voice, “Wait a moment.” Then she turned and entered the kitchen.
The young man seemed to be dumb, but not deaf. After nodding his head, he took out a neatly folded doc.u.ment from his pocket and looked at it silently.
“Sanlun Tengjing, male, 39 years old, is a former worshiper of Amaterasu Shrine and a standard militarist. As the inc.u.mbent leader of Spirit Moon Special Operations Group, he’s at the Peak of the Fire-flaming Realm. He’s cruel, capricious and fond of womanizing. He once tortured and killed many women in the name of sacrifice. He is a complete psychopath.”
A short summary was written at the top of the file and below that was a picture less than two inches in size. A middle-aged man with a cloudy expression appeared in the photo with his eyes squinted, which made people feel uncomfortable.
At the bottom of the photo was the recent intelligence on Sanlun Tengjing and where he now lived.
The young “mute” squinted at it in silence and didn’t talk for a long time.
“Tianlan, are you in Shinjuku?
There was a rustling in his ear, and then Bai Youming’s voice came straight into his ear through a tiny communication device.
The young “mute” swept around with composure. Since it was raining cats and dogs outside, he was the only eater in the restaurant. A man from East Island, who looked to be in his 40s or 50s, was doing accounts behind the counter, and he seemed to be the owner of the restaurant.
“Hmm,” he lowered his eyelids and answered placidly.
“Sanlun Tengjing?”
Bai Youming’s voice came again. The communication device in Li Tianlan’s ear was actually a translator with the addition of remote telephony and a location device. Li Tianlan didn’t speak j.a.panese, so when he went hunting alone in East Island, the language was always a big problem. This translation device was arguably what he needed most in East Island.
It was small and he could stick it into his ear directly. However, its signals were extremely sharp and clear, and it could work within 20 meters. Within 10 meters, the translator basically could collect all the information and fed it back, as long as it was not whispering. It was even more convenient than real ears. Since Li Tianlan acted alone, he didn’t need to talk at all and just needed to listen. This little thing fitted him well.
“Hmm,” Li Tianlan answered again.
“Sanlun Tengjing…”
Bai Youming said softly, hesitating a little, “That’s the power of the shrine… Now…”
The young waitress had brought the hot pot to the table, and Li Tianlan was eating silently without speaking.
He was not surprised why Bai Youming knew the object of his trip. During the hunting operation, Ye Fengcheng distributed 90 a.s.sa.s.sination targets to them. That was half of the total number.
w.a.n.g Shengxiao, Gu Hanshan, and Li Tianlan each got 30 people. The people were different, but the difficulty of the tasks was about the same. Intentionally or unintentionally, Ye Fengcheng did not consider the strength gap between Li Tianlan and the first two people. If it was not because of Director Ye’s expectation to Li Tianlan, the meaning behind it was meaningful.
A list of ninety people was a.s.signed to the three of them. People on this list were far more important than the remaining ninety people, because they were masters and powerful. If the hunting of all the former ninety people were successful, and as the nodes disappeared one after another, the web weaved by the government of East Island would be largely paralyzed. As for the other ninety people, they may be of great importance, but their strength was relatively ordinary and their backgrounds were more complicated. It would be most appropriate to leave these people to the other students to hunt, and it would not take any more effort from the three of them.
There were now thirteen people in Dongdu on the list that Li Tianlan got. The rest were scattered in Ninghu, Changdao, Sendai, Mingwu and other cities. Of the 13 people in Dongdu, four were in Shinjuku, one in each direction. Sanlun Tengjing was in the north of Shinjuku. Since Bai Youming could see Li Tianlan’s locating information, it was not difficult for her to guess who he was going to attack.
“It’s okay.”
He took a bite of the meat and said in a low voice.
The shrines were extremely powerful in East Island, because this was a country where theocracy mattered. Although the theocracy in East Island was under the regime and imperial power, it was definitely a force that could not be ignored.
Shinto, Amaterasu Shrine, Ise Grand Shrine, Isonokami Shrine and various other shrines stood in great numbers. The shrines were a force to be reckoned with in the Special Warfare System of East Island. Numerous shrines in East Island were very closely a.s.sociated with the Yasukuni Shrine, the gathering place of militarists representing the right-wing forces. Over the years, they had even joined forces with the right-wing forces, becoming the most radical force within East Island.
At present, with the fall of Night Spirit, the voice of East Island in the Dark World had also suffered a major or even disastrous blow. The government of East Island was likely to select a number of people and sent them to other countries after integrating the foundation of Night Spirit in East Island.
The right-wing and shrine forces were too radical to a.s.sume any important public positions. But the Dark World was definitely the stage where they could make the most of their power.
The Spirit Moon Special Operations Group controlled by Sanlun Tengjing was a signal.
Spirit Moon Special Operations Group was not a monster, and its level was not too high. To put it seriously, it was at most equivalent to a department level agency in Zhongzhou State. It was, however, very special, because it was a semi-official organization. To put it simply, it was one of the local dark forces in East Island.
What was the Dark World?
It was not the real world. To be precise, where there were people from the Dark World, there was the Dark World. It was true for the saying “where there are people, there is Jianghu”.
In the hearts of ordinary people, the world was ordinary, peaceful and bright.
But in the eyes of some killers, agents, and mercenaries, the Dark World was everywhere.
Spirit Moon Special Operations Group existed for the purpose of dealing with the masters harboring evil intentions from the Dark World in East Island.
Under normal circ.u.mstances, Spirit Moon Special Operations Group had only a hundred or so members of staff, including the elite. But whenever needed, a myriad of masters from the Special Warfare System of East Island could enter these quasi-official agencies and contribute to the country in their own name. Even an Invincible Realm expert had done so through Spirit Moon Special Operations Group. The importance of such an agency was self-evident.
Li Tianlan put Sanlun Tengjing at the top of the hunting list. He did so not just because that Sanlun Tengjing’s strength and position together were worth 200 credits. After taking a close look at all the thirteen prey in Dongdu, he had a rough plan in mind.
Of the thirteen people, one was a master at the peak of the Thunder-shocking Realm and two were experts at the stabilization phase of the Thunder-shocking Realm.
And there were two experts at the Fulfilment Stage of the Fire-flaming Realm.
Four Fire-flaming Realm experts.
Of the remaining four people, one was at the Ice-condensing Realm, while the other three were ordinary people who did not know anything about Martial Arts.
Not to mention the prey in Dongdu, there were even few masters at the Thunder-shocking Realm or Fire-flaming Realm among all the 30 people on his hunting list. Li Tianlan chose to kill Sanlun Tengjing first simply because he was powerful enough. This was a tricky task and he’d better do it early. Otherwise, when he and the other two went hunting all over East Island, this country would be shocked and the smart ones would figure out their purpose. If he were to a.s.sa.s.sinate the experts on the hunting list at that time, it would be hard.
Fire-flaming Realm and Thunder-shocking Realm.
Li Tianlan thought about the two realms in which any man was an expert, his eyes calm.
At the beginning of the hunt, he had taken the Surge that Qin Weibai brought him through Horsewoman. For the rest time that the potion took effect, he would have the strength at the stabilization phase of the Fire-flaming Realm. Although compared with his previous peak strength, it was still a small realm or two lower, before he left the Sky Academy, he also made a major breakthrough in the Qi-controlling Realm.
Now the potion was still effective. If Li Tianlan exerted all his strength to fight, perhaps even he himself didn’t know for sure how horrible his combat strength was.
Sanlun Tengjing…
Looking at the photo on the file in his hand, Li Tianlan narrowed his eyes and smiled.
Not only Sanlun Tengjing, but the entire theocratic power of East Island would be his preferred hunting target this time. It would be of great benefit to the following operation to extinguish the influence of this powerful and deep-rooted superpower in East Island.
“Anyway… Be careful yourself. Ye Fengcheng is an old fox, and w.a.n.g Shengxiao from the w.a.n.g family of Beihai is a young fox. Together, they pushed you to where you are now. If you cannot do it, just retreat. The two harbor ulterior motives.”
Bai Youming continued.
Li Tianlan again made a small noise in approval.
Bai Youming suddenly changed the subject and bantered with him. “Oh, I forgot to tell you that someone from the Deep-sea Academy is here. Well, Rushi is right here by my side. She wants to talk to you. Would you like to have a chat? You’re an unmarried couple. Although you haven’t met, it’s good to nurture your relationship first.”
Li Tianlan stopped breathing for a moment and the look in his eyes was complicated.
The other end of the communication device fell silent, and then a cold, soft, low voice sounded. There seemed to be some mixed feelings within it.
Qin Weibai’s voice was cold, too, but it was different from this one.
Qin Weibai was really cold and indifferent, with a kind of superior holiness and ethereality.
And this voice was cold as well, but it showed an aura of ineffable pride. The speaker seemed to have deliberately softened her voice, but the pride in it remained clear.
“You… Pay attention to safety, be careful.”
Dongcheng Rushi enjoined Li Tianlan. She seemed to feel as if she had done her duty as a fiancee. So the next second, she cut off the communication directly.
Ah, Dongcheng Rushi…
The corners of Li Tianlan’s mouth lifted, and he ate the food on the table in silence.