“Little girl! Little girl! Are you okay?!”
The sudden collapse of the house pinned Leng Qiongling and the little girl under the iron sheet that had been used as a roof.
But fortunately, this impact was nothing to a Madman, and the little girl was protected in Leng Qiongling’s arms, so she was also unharmed—just unconscious from the shock.
After confirming the little girl was fine, Leng Qiongling pushed the iron sheet aside and poked her head out to look around.
Suddenly, rapid footsteps transmitted through the ground to Leng Qiongling’s body.
The vigilance honed by Wu Yin was instantly triggered, and she leaped out of the pile of iron sheets with the little girl in her arms.
The moment her feet touched the ground, a squad of about thirty soldiers surrounded her.
Each was fully armed with loaded rifles, their black muzzles aimed at Leng Qiongling with ruthless cruelty.
“Who are you?”
Leng Qiongling hugged the little girl to her chest, using her arms to shield any vital spots that might prove fatal if the girl were injured.
None of the soldiers surrounding her replied.
They were extremely nervous themselves—after all, this was a person who could easily destroy an entire city, someone they couldn’t possibly handle.
Their only breakthrough was the little girl Leng Qiongling was protecting.
“Are you from the Saint Assembly? What exactly…”
“Ahem, miss, I’m afraid I’ll have to explain this to you.”
A slightly plump figure slowly walked through the encirclement from behind the squad and stopped less than two meters from Leng Qiongling with an air of ease.
Leng Qiongling warily observed the man.
He looked like an ordinary middle-aged man, yet he gave off an inexplicably unsettling feeling.
“Who are you?”
The man blinked, then burst into laughter.
“Ah, how foolish of me! Hello, Miss Leng Qiongling. I am the Fifth Seat of the Saint Assembly’s ‘Saints’—actually the Last Seat. Please forgive me, I’m not very fond of that title. You may call me ‘Xiongzu.’”
The middle-aged man, Xiongzu, bowed politely to Leng Qiongling, but this only made her more averse to being so close to him.
She quickly stepped back, but the Saint Assembly soldiers behind her tensed at her movement.
Without control, one soldier’s finger twitched against the trigger.
rat-a-tat-tat
Several bullets were fired.
Though a Madman’s hearing far exceeded an ordinary person’s, the bullets left the barrel faster than sound, so Leng Qiongling only reacted after being hit.
Being struck by rifle bullets at such close range—even a Madman would feel a sharp pain.
This nearly enraged Leng Qiongling.
She spun around, dug a hole in the ground with her foot, and in an instant, was right in the soldier’s face.
‘I need to break through this encirclement while everyone else is stunned!’
Thinking this, Leng Qiongling reached out her free hand to grab the soldier.
But unexpectedly, her arm stopped in midair.
‘Someone can actually match a Madman’s strength!?’
Leng Qiongling looked squarely at the person blocking her path—the greasy man who called himself Xiongzu.
Objectively, Xiongzu had indeed managed to stop a Madman’s attack.
But on one hand, Leng Qiongling hadn’t applied much force—that could have torn the soldier apart.
On the other hand, Xiongzu was already struggling, his face flushed red, sweat streaming from his scalp down his back, and veins bulging almost to bursting from his arms.
“Miss Leng Qiongling! I apologize for my subordinate’s rudeness! Please forgive us!”
Xiongzu roared with all his might.
Leng Qiongling withdrew her hand and stepped back, but the original encirclement tightened even more, trapping the two of them in a small circle.
“Hey, hey, all of you, disperse. Did you see? If this young lady wanted to break through our encirclement, it would be easy. I only brought you here to show you.”
Xiongzu signaled his men to bring a chair, then unceremoniously plopped down on the ground, wiping sweat with his sleeve.
Leng Qiongling watched the soldiers bring her a stool before timidly lining up behind Xiongzu, and she couldn’t help but find it amusing.
“Miss Leng Qiongling, please have a seat. I’ll come straight to the point. That little girl in your arms—or more precisely, what she’s holding—is very important to us. So we hope you… will conduct a trade with us.”
“A trade?”
“Yes. Recently, we’ve found someone frequently infiltrating our Saint Assembly camp, and today we finally caught them. This person.”
A soldier behind Xiongzu handed a photo to Leng Qiongling.
She glanced at it and immediately sat up straight in shock.
In the photo was Mora, tied up tightly.
The surroundings were too dark to identify where she was imprisoned.
Though Leng Qiongling didn’t know Mora well, the fact that she received orders directly from the Commander-in-Chief meant she held a position in Bola City’s military hierarchy.
For someone like her to be captured…
“What do you want to do?”
“No, no, no need to be so cautious. We only want to borrow what’s in that little girl’s box for a while. After the time is up, we’ll return it. And if you agree, we’ll release your person. How about it?”
Leng Qiongling listened to Xiongzu’s words, a bit puzzled.
‘Borrow something from this box? What could be so precious in this box?’
Just then, the little girl woke up.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a bunch of real soldiers with real guns in front of her and instinctively leaned back into the warmth behind her.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Big sister will protect you.”
Leng Qiongling gently soothed her, finally calming the girl down.
“Little girl, what’s inside this box?”
“Huh? This box?”
The little girl looked at the box in her hands and instinctively tightened her grip.
Then, seeming to relax a little, she slowly said, “This is… before Mom and Dad left… a family photo of us. The only one.”
‘A family photo? What use could the Saint Assembly have for that?’
“What do you want that for?”
“Very sorry, but that’s classified information. I cannot answer.”
“Then what if we don’t agree since you won’t answer?”
“Then your person here will suffer some… hmm… rather painful punishment.”
“Tsk…”
Leng Qiongling bit her lower lip, her mind racing for a countermeasure.
But she couldn’t represent all of Bola City on her own; she had to report this to Wu Yin.
“I can’t decide this alone. I need to report it to the Commander-in-Chief.”
“Of course, of course. We understand. Then we’ll set the location at the oasis outside the city. As for the time, you may decide among yourselves.”
Xiongzu stood up, brushed the sand off his pants, and prepared to leave with his people.
“Oh, right, right.”
But he suddenly turned back, a sly grin spreading across his face.
“If you don’t hurry, the flames of war in the city might spread.”
“You!”
Leng Qiongling glared at Xiongzu, but he just waved his hand casually and left.
Just as Leng Qiongling was about to take the little girl and head to the Defense Building, a young voice came from behind.
The little girl immediately reacted and ran over, shouting, “Big brother!”
Leng Qiongling looked back and saw Wu Yin standing there.
Beside him was the little boy she had told to hide earlier.
“Captain! How did you get here?”
“Ahaha… That’s a long story. Anyway… here, the flatbread you bought. I held back my hunger and didn’t eat it just to bring it to you, so make sure to eat it with gratitude.”
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