"Leave the ring!"
Gu Chen leaped from the roof, his white robes fluttering as he shot across the fifty or so metre gap with terrifying speed, drawing his sword to strike the thief down.
He did not care about Chen Long. He only cared about the Ring he had.
But Gu Fan was prepared. He had already prepared for the unknown. What if Chen Long was not alone? He had to prepare for the contingency. And he did.
Without breaking stride, Gu Fan flicked his wrist, tossing a small, tightly packed ball towards Gu Chen.
The little ball sailed through the air, sparking faintly.
Gu Chen saw the tiny projectile approaching, and smirked as his handsome face filled with haughty disdain.
A mere trick? This assassin thinks so lightly of him.
Gu Chen didn't even bother to dodge, simply raising his empty left hand to casually swat the crude toy away.
But just as the ball was just about a feet or so away from his face, Gu Chen felt something as the smirk on his face stiffened.
BOOM!
The explosion was deafening. A massive concussive blast of highly compressed, toxic energy detonated right in the Golden Boy's face.
The shockwave caught Gu Chen completely off guard. He was sent rocketing backward like a cannonball, blasting straight through the wooden wall of Chen Long's suite.
CRASH!
Splinters rained down as Gu Chen tumbled violently across the white jade floor inside, crashing into the shattered remnants of the ironwood table.
Gu Fan paused in the alleyway, looking back through the massive, splintered hole Gu Chen's body had just created in the wall.
Inside the ruined room, Gu Chen lay on his stomach, his face planted on the floor.
"Cough! Cough!" Gu Chen tried to push himself up onto his knees.
He looked absolutely pathetic, and his pristine white robes were scorched black and shredded. His immaculate hair was a wild, singed mess, and a thick stream of blood poured down from a gash on his forehead, mixing with the ash on his handsome face.
Through the hole in the wall, Gu Chen looked through the smoke and dust in the direction of where the assassin was running away.
Their, the "assassin" Gu Fan raised his free hand, extended his middle finger perfectly into Gu Chen's line of sight, and thrust it toward the bleeding 'Hero'.
"How do you like it 'Hero'?"
"I would give you one more, but I am in a rush."
"So for now it is just a one time thing."
"But don't be disheartened, I might come back and give you more!"
And with that he vanished into the night, carrying his bloody prize.
"You...!" Gu Chen coughed violently, forcing himself to his feet amidst the wreckage of the room. He hastily formed a Qi barrier to keep the lingering purple, acrid fog away from his open wounds.
"Cousin Long!" he called out, his voice shaking with a mix of fury and pain as he wiped the blood from his eyes, "Are you unharmed?"
Silence.
Gu Chen gritted his teeth. He waved his sleeve, releasing a powerful gust of wind to clear the room.
The fog swirled and dissipated out the skylight, revealing the sheer carnage.
The room was destroyed. Blood was splattered across the white jade walls. Smashed teeth littered the floor amidst puddles of spilled wine.
But the room was empty.
Chen Long... Chen Long was completely gone.
Gu Chen stood alone in the wreckage. His Heavenly Eyes frantically scanned every corner, looking for a clue, a trace of Qi, anything.
He found nothing. The lingering, foul stench of the corrosive smoke had completely masked any subtle Qi trails, leaving only the faint residue of brute force.
"He was carrying Chen Long with him!" Gu Chen frowned.
"Who was he?!"
Gu Chen's composure finally cracked. He slammed his fist onto the broken floorboards, splintering them further.
"Who dares snatch food from the tiger's mouth?!"
He had waited in the cold. He had planned everything. He was going to let Chen Long drug Gu Ling, then intervene at the last second, cripple Chen Long in a "fit of righteous rage," take the ring, and claim the girl's absolute gratitude.
It was a perfect script.
And someone had ripped it up right in front of him, blowing him through a wall in the process.
He walked to the open back window and looked out into the dark alley. There were no footprints. No trail. It was as if a ghost had come, beaten the fat young master to a pulp, and evaporated.
"This level of stealth... a Spirit Realm assassin?" Gu Chen gritted his teeth, his handsome face twisting into a mask of ugly frustration, "Or is there a third party in the clan I don't know about?"
He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning stark white.
"I need to find him," he whispered to the shadows, "Whoever did this... I will find him, and I will skin him alive."
~~~~~
On the other hand, Gu Fan was running away as fast and silently as possible.
He stuck to the deep shadows, moving with a speed that defied logic for someone carrying a full-grown, bleeding 300 pound man.
He reached a secluded area near the clan's waste disposal chutes, a place no patrol ever checked because of the overwhelming smell.
He dumped Chen Long onto the dirty ground.
Oof!
The fat cousin groaned weakly, blood bubbling from his caved-in mouth, but didn't wake up. His jelly-like limbs flopped unnaturally against the dirt.
Gu Fan stood over him, panting slightly. He checked the loot in his hand. The ring. The drug.
[Quest Complete: The Midnight Heist]
[Objective: Steal Chen Long's Storage Ring and sabotage his plot to sleep with Gu Ling.]
[Reward Triggered: 50000 Yin Cultivation Units, 2x Random Spins, 1 King-Tier crate.]
[Plunder Reward Triggered: 10x Enhancement of Stolen Loot.]
[Processing...]
The ring in his hand glowed with a blinding golden light. The rusty metal band dissolved, reforming into sleek, black jade.
[Item Evolved: Low-Grade Storage Ring -> High-Grade Storage Band.]
[Capacity: 10 cubic metres -> 100 cubic metres. Feature: Soul-Bound (Cannot be stolen or opened by others).]
Gu Fan's jaw dropped, ignoring the throbbing pain in his chest, "Soul-bound? That alone is worth at least 10,000 Medium-Grade Spirit Crystals ."
He looked at the contents automatically transferring to his new band.
[Spirit Crystals: 5,000 Low-Grade -> 50,000 Low-Grade.]
[Spirit Crystals: 150 Medium-Grade -> 1,500 Medium-Grade.]
[Weapon: Earth-Tier Spirit Sword -> King-Tier 'Blood-Drinker' Spirit Sword.]
[Weapon: Spirit-Tier Meteor Hammer -> Earth Tier 'Skull-Crusher' Meteor Hammer.]
[Item: Aphrodisiac Potions (3 Vials) -> 'Heavenly Bliss' Aphrodisiac (Large Gourd).]
Gu Fan held up the heavy gourd that materialised in his hand. It was filled to the brim with high-grade aphrodisiac.
"Okay," he muttered, shaking his head, "At least I am no longer poor."
"And Heavenly Bliss Aphrodisiac, that's a terrifying amount of drugs. I guess I am starting a business."
He looked down at Chen Long.
The fat man was bleeding out, completely oblivious to the fact that he was now penniless and almost lifeless.
"Now for you," Gu Fan said, his voice dropping to a sinister whisper.
He remembered the layout of the clan entrance. He remembered the insult at the banquet.
"In the book, you hung a servant at the gate for spilling tea. It's only fair I return the favour."
He grabbed a coil of heavy rope from a nearby supply shed.
"Wakey wakey, cousin. We are going to make you an art installation."
** ** ** ** **