Chapter 178: Showdown (1)
Five turned to look at the old man and said, "She only woke up half hour earlier, it does not make much of a difference. In that mansion, I felt as if I was being stared at by monsters."
Four said, "This reminds me, today when I was in the office of Thunder Technologies, Two and I shook hands with the target. That man is not easy to deal with, his gaze seemed to have peeked into my soul."
Three chuckled and said, "Do you even have a soul left, old four?"
They were talking about the issue without any stress on their faces. One raised his hand and the banter stopped. He said, "Make a video, and have it delivered at his home. Threaten him that if he did not come to surrender by the evening tomorrow, we will dispose of the kid and leak the video to the media houses, blaming him for abandoning her because she was not his real family.
Either way, Thunder Technologies will not stay afloat."
The plan was simple, they were going to use Agni as a bait, if Hao Ren took the bait then he would die for being a loving human and along with him the company will die as well. If he did not come, then the people will boycott him for being a shallow person.
Even if the company had ways to revive itself, the damage will be significant, and when Hao Ren gets to his weakest, they will get a chance to kill him.
...
Han Lingshi was gazing at Hao Ren on the screen. She asked, "Where is he headed?"
Xiao Mei replied, "The eastern district, they have taken shelter inside an abandoned villa."
Han Lingshi pressed the button on the screen and asked, "Ren, are you sure that is the correct place?"
Hao Ren replied, "Even with all the tech these people can evade the world, so, even if Xiao Mei could locate them, I not sure if I will find them there. However, they must have left something behind, everyone does. That is what I am looking for."
He was not a fool to think that catching the enemy would be this easy when the group of people before him were all trained soldiers and assassins. The only reason he did not act rashly was because he did not wish to startle the snake.
After a few minutes, Hao Ren parked his car a few blocks away from the place inside an alley, and got down from the car. He jumped up high and used the terrace to dart straight to his destination. It was a common neighborhood. The security was laggard, and this house was abandoned because the owner had passed away recently.
This place was used by the government to provide homes for the old officials who retire and seek peace while being close to the city. Since the government was a bit late, the Alpha Blade decided to come over and use it.
Hao Ren reached the location and used his Yin & Yang eyes to check for traps and anything else. He did not find any of those, and moved inside the villa with soft steps and cautious nerves. He even held a suppressed gun in his hand to shoot.
Infiltration was simple and smooth. He came to see the situation and found the place empty, however, his nerves did not calm down. He began to comb every inch of the place. The place appeared be empty, after an hour, when Hao Ren did not find anything useful, he was disappointed and a bit annoyed.
At this moment Han Lingshi\'s voice sounded through his ear piece, "Ren, just now, David bough over a disc, it has a video recording, they did not tell where they are holding Agni, but they did say that you should go and meet one of them at the north east suspension bridge in one hour, that is all the time we have before they release the footage to the media."
Hao Ren replied, "Good, I will be there."
Han Lingshi could sense the sudden calm in his voice. This was a painful thing because it sounded so sharp to her that she doubted if the young man was still the man she had fallen in love with or was he someone else?
Xiao Mei said, "Madam, the voice pattern analysis shows that Boss is very calm. In situations like this, it is not an idol state of mind."
Han Lingshi nodded and replied, "I know what you mean, Xiao Mei, but it is not as simple as calm. Often when there is a storm about to hit the world, you get to see the nature calm down. Hao Ren is facing something similar as well, he is about to become the storm and that is why he is calm. Do not worry about him."
...
North East Suspension Bridge was declared unclear for transport usage by the government as it was made over a joint of two tectonic plates. Even the slightest of tremor, and it would go down.
Hao Ren drove at the fastest speed possible and he parked his car on the side. He made his way to the bridge and said, "Xiao Mei, there is a person who graced the world and is called the Devil\'s Violinist, can you play his music."
Xiao Mei did not question and played the music as commanded. Hao Ren stopped in the middle of the road and scanned the place with his Yin and Yang eyes. Sure enough, he found a man laying in the dark shadow of the side walls with a sniper rifle aimed toward him.
He turned himself and faced the person squarely. This shocked the enemy, and Hao Ren said, "If they are communicating with each other, block it."
Xiao Mei said, "They are not communicating."
As soon as she stopped, the person squeezed the trigger and the bullet flew. Hao Ren raised his hand and caught the bullet between his two fingers. The person was shocked, and Hao Ren was somewhat surprised to see that he was holding a tranquilizer.
The other person mumbled, "Practitioner."
Hao Ren caught the sound, after all, it was all so quite around them that even a pin drop could be heard and they were cultivators. The young man nodded and said, "Yes, I can see, you are also a yellow level cultivator. This just became very interesting."
The man quickly got up to his feet and fired multiple shots. This time he was using actual bullets, he did not wish to take Hao Ren captive. The bullets were accurate, every shot covered not only the vital organs, but they even blocked Hao Ren\'s route to evade.
The attacker was smart, he did not dare to underestimate Hao Ren, and made sure that even if the man was capable of catching bullets, he would not be able to catch them all. The distance between them was just twenty meters.
What he did not expect was for Hao Ren to flicker around. The young man used his movement technique. The skill that he got from his parents covered the basics of movement, breathing, and muscle control. He had mastered them over the months.
After evading the bullets, Hao Ren appeared next to the burly man, and the latter took out his knife to attack him. In response, Hao Ren just raised his hand and held Two\'s arm from his elbow, and said, "There is a big difference between us."
Then he clenched his grip harder and a series of cracking sounds echoed in the dark night. Hao Ren had crushed the elbow joint of the enemy with such ease that along with the bone, even the confidence Two had in his skills was broken as well.
Hao Ren let go of the arm and snatched the black mask off Two\'s face. Then he spun on his feet and a round house kick sent the screaming man flying across the road, hitting the side wall with an impact that left cracks on the surface.
He was knocked out cold. Hao Ren did not bother with him, but inspected the mask and found that this wooden mask had a word carved inside it. A smile appeared on his cold face, as he said, "The heart of a lover, it turns out you all are not that indifferent from each other."
The words inside the mask were, from five for two, till death do us apart.
It was clear that the mask belonged to Five and not Two himself. Hao Ren looked at the man and thought if he should interrogate him, but then he shook his head, it would be a waste of time, because this man won\'t say anything quickly and he did not wish to waste time.
Even if the mercenary group had given him time in the video, they had asked him to meet over at this place, so they did intend to kill him. Had he not come over, they would not follow the time agreement and the video would have been delivered to the media outlets.
Hao Ren took out the location talisman, and held it together with the mask, as he channeled his spiritual energy through the two objects. The paper caught fire, and the yellow radiance caused Hao Ren to close his eyes.
After a few minutes, when he opened his eyes, the ball of yellow radiance condensed into a small firefly, which shot off into distance. Hao Ren was surprised, and he quickly picked up two and flung him over his shoulder as he dashed behind the firefly at a high speed.
He was sure that Two will not wake up any soon, the impact of his kick was held back, but it was still enough to knock out a bull. Hao Ren dashed at the fastest speed possible. The dragon fly was moving in a straight line, it did not take turn.
After thirty minutes, Hao Ren arrived in the center of the city. He only knew how difficult it was for him to avoid the gazes that longed to see something strange. The young man was standing on top of a building and the dragonfly had just vanished into a puff of flames.
He could sense that the location of the enemy had been reached, but what shocked him was the fact that they were hiding inside a bank. Yes, this place was a bank called the International Commercial Bank.
Hao Ren sighed and asked, "Xiao Mei, ICB is owned by the Rose Family?"
Xiao Mei replied, "Yes."
Han Lingshi asked, "Ren, what do you wish to do now?"
Hao Ren replied calmly, "Just going to have a showdown with these people and bring Agni back home for some cheesecake, can you order some hamburgers and fries for her? I doubt she had anything to eat since noon."
As he said that, he flung Two off his shoulder. The man woke up from the sudden impact, and when he looked up in a daze, all his saw was a foot that stomped on him, sending his consciousness into the embrace of eternal darkness.
Hao Ren initially had the idea of taming these people, but now, his mind had changed. Any enemy who dared to stand in his way shall die.
He then walked over to the door on the terrace that led to the floors below. He said, "Xiao Mei, I want all the doors and surveillance dismantled."
Xiao Mei replied in positive, and Hao Ren opened the door by yanking the door hard. Xiao Mei had shut down the entire security system and none of the alarms were going to work anymore.
...
Han Lingshi was watching the entire thing on the screen through satellite monitoring. Xiao Mei asked, "Madam, why are you watching this with such a focus?"
Han Lingshi replied, "Future reference."
Xiao Mei did not understand this, but this footage was all great lessons for her. She knew that her future would not be easy and would need to act in certain situations so this will help her navigate a bit.
Hao Ren would not be by her side always. Even if he was to stay beside her, she wanted to carve a path of her own and not become his dead weight. She wanted to be called an expert because of her skills and not because her husband was an expert.