Chapter Forty-Nine: The Grandson of the Qingcheng Sect Leader
Liu Bin called out to Li Yunfei, who was about to continue upstairs, “Wait! Did you see someone in black armor run down just now?”
Li Yunfei looked completely baffled. “Someone in black armor? No, I didn’t see anyone like that. I only ran into you.”
Liu Bin frowned, giving Li Yunfei a suspicious once-over. “Where did you come from? What were you doing upstairs?”
Li Yunfei answered calmly, “I came up from the third floor. My friend is up there. She’s a police officer.”
“We were having dinner here when something happened upstairs. She went up to check, and asked the rest of us to help keep the area clear and stop people from crowding up to watch the commotion.”
“I heard a lot of noise up there and got worried about her, so I came up to see how things were.”
Liu Bin pressed on, “What’s your friend’s name?”
“Zhang Ziying,” Li Yunfei replied.
With that, Liu Bin’s doubts vanished. He nodded and hurriedly continued downstairs.
He hadn’t really suspected Li Yunfei—it was just that he happened to be in the stairwell, so Liu Bin had instinctively questioned him.
After all, although his speed was far inferior to that mysterious man’s, he had been in pursuit the entire time.
Shedding such armor wouldn’t be easy, and would likely require assistance. There was no way someone could silently take off that armor in so short a time, then turn and run back upstairs.
Even if they could remove it instantly, where would the armor be? It would have to be left in the stairwell.
If Li Yunfei really were that person, there would be no way for him to deny it.
Li Yunfei’s impeccable demeanor had steered Liu Bin completely off track.
A faint smile curved Liu Bin’s lips as he turned and continued upstairs.
Back on the eighth floor, Li Yunfei quickly walked over to Zhang Ziying.
Hearing footsteps, Zhang Ziying turned and asked in surprise, “Why did you come up here?”
Li Yunfei replied nonchalantly, “I heard a lot of noise up here and was worried about you. Are you alright?”
He deliberately glanced at the shattered section of wall and clicked his tongue. “Wow, this is intense.”
Zhang Ziying smiled, her lips pressed together. “I’m fine.”
Suddenly realizing something, she exclaimed, “You came up this way—did you run into anyone in the stairwell?”
Li Yunfei nodded, “Yeah! I ran into Chen Zhen, the guy with the knife.”
“Chen Zhen?” Zhang Ziying was momentarily confused, then laughed. “He’s with Zixiao. Never mind him. Besides him, did you see anyone else?”
Li Yunfei looked puzzled. “No. And you’re asking, too—someone else seemed to be chasing after someone. Who are you all after?”
“A strange person,” Zhang Ziying replied offhandedly, her brow furrowed as she mused aloud, “Could he not have gone downstairs, but headed to the rooftop instead? Who is he really?”
As Zhang Ziying sank into thought, Li Yunfei glanced down at the pistol in her hand, his eyes lighting up.
His gaze flickered. He sidled up to Zhang Ziying, grinning shamelessly, “It’s been a while since I held your gun. Mind if I take a look?”
Preoccupied, Zhang Ziying absentmindedly handed it over, reminding him, “It’s loaded—be careful not to fire it accidentally.”
“How could I? I’m a scout, you know. I’m more professional with guns than you are.”
Because of that, even though it wasn’t by the book, Zhang Ziying didn’t think much of it.
From childhood, the two of them had shared everything except for the most private things between men and women. What was hers was his.
Li Yunfei took the pistol, keeping his finger straight and outside the trigger guard as he fiddled with it, putting Zhang Ziying at ease.
He feigned interest, aiming the gun around as if inspecting it.
But Zhang Ziying didn’t notice that, when Li Yunfei turned his back to her and the gun was out of her line of sight, the weapon vanished from his hand for an instant, then reappeared just as quickly.
In that instant, a new pistol appeared for sale in the system mall, and all it cost Li Yunfei was a little over three thousand yuan in price difference.
QSZ42 automatic pistol: The latest standard-issue sidearm of Daxia, designed and developed independently in 2042.
It holds twenty rounds, using a 5.4mm cartridge. More powerful than the older 5.8mm rounds, with less recoil and greater reliability.
In the system mall, it sells for 860 yuan each, purchases for 4,650 yuan, and bullets cost 1.2 yuan each to sell, 6.5 to buy.
After playing with it for a moment, Li Yunfei handed the pistol back to Zhang Ziying, mindful not to make things awkward for her.
Before long, Liu Bin returned to the eighth floor. Zhang Ziying stepped forward and asked, “Brother Bin, how did it go?”
Liu Bin shook his head gravely. “I chased from the eighth floor all the way down to the first and met up with Jiang Rui. We didn’t see him. Then I ran up to the rooftop via the fire escape—still no sign. I asked around on each floor. No one saw this person.”
He looked at Li Yunfei. “You really didn’t see anyone else when you came up?”
Li Yunfei shook his head. “Really, no one.”
Liu Bin asked, “Did you hear any metal scraping? Like the sound armor makes in old costume dramas?”
“Nothing like that,” Li Yunfei replied.
Liu Bin sighed and said to Zhang Ziying, “It’s as if this person can teleport—shows up out of nowhere and vanishes into thin air. I’m afraid it won’t be easy to find him.”
Zhang Ziying said, “From the way he acted, he probably isn’t a bad person. Even if we can’t find him, I don’t think he poses any threat.”
Liu Bin shrugged. “Who can say?”
Leaving the matter aside, Liu Bin glanced at Zhang Ziying and nodded toward Li Yunfei, smiling. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
Zhang Ziying smiled and did so. “This is Li Yunfei, my childhood friend, just discharged from service as a scout. And this is Brother Bin, Liu Bin—a team leader in Zixiao, and a Green Second Ring martial arts expert.”
In Daxia, cultivators and awakened individuals are ranked by combat strength using the colors of the rainbow.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet—each level divided into five sub-levels.
The instrument used to measure combat strength has seven lights and five rings. The light that comes on indicates the level, and the number of rings shows the sub-level.
Though also a seven-rank system, it gives a much clearer picture of one’s power than the crude SABCDEF rankings used abroad.
Li Yunfei extended his right hand to Liu Bin, smiling. “Hello, Brother Bin. My friends all call me Da Fei.”
Liu Bin shook his hand, then winked at Zhang Ziying playfully, “Childhood sweethearts, huh? No wonder you were so worried about her safety. Da Fei, have you completed your combat assessment yet?”
Li Yunfei replied, “Not yet. I’ve been back in my hometown in the mountains, no cell signal. I didn’t get the notice. Yingzi just came out to fetch me today.”
Liu Bin, half joking and half serious, said, “You’d better go get your assessment at the Armaments Bureau soon! I hope your cultivation aptitude isn’t too bad, or you won’t be worthy of our Yingzi—she’s destined for the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.”
Both Zhang Ziying and Li Yunfei paused.
Li Yunfei said awkwardly, “Cultivation aptitude is a matter of luck. If I don’t have it, there’s nothing I can do.”
Zhang Ziying gave him a complicated look, unsure what to say.
In truth, she didn’t care whether Li Yunfei had the aptitude, but he was a man—and sometimes, men’s pride can be inexplicably fragile.
Sensing the awkwardness, Li Yunfei changed the subject. “Brother Bin, you’re not with the military, are you?”
Liu Bin nodded. “No, I’m from the martial world. The head of the Qingcheng Sect is my grandfather.”
Li Yunfei looked at him in surprise, not expecting such a distinguished background.
The Qingcheng Sect Master, Liu Suibin, was a giant in the martial arts world—on par with Abbot Yunsin of Shaolin, Daoist Sihang of Wudang, Sect Leader He Weiqi of Emei, Bai Yihai of Kongtong, and Zhou Jinshen of Kunlun.
Even though Li Yunfei rarely paid attention to contemporary martial arts affairs, he’d heard the name Liu Suibin.
What Li Yunfei didn’t know was that Liu Suibin was not only the head of Qingcheng, but also one of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches of Zixiao.
He was one of the top ten Heavenly Stems, representing “Jia Wood,” with the code name “Yanfeng,” and a combat rating of Blue Fourth Ring.