True Solution of the Sword Dao

Chapter 40: Chapter 36

Chapter 40 -36

(There’s more today since it’s the weekend, each chapter 7k)

Zhou Ting hurriedly pulled her head back, a nervous expression as she fiddled with the strands of hair that had fallen onto her forehead.

“Could this be the real-life version of Xing Shilang from the legends? He looks just like him! This temperament!” As a dedicated and ambitious standard female otaku, Miss Zhou Tingting’s greatest wish in life had been to find a man who met the perfect standards of her favorite 2D characters to be her future romantic partner.

It was a grand ideal, but also a challenging one. However, she now seemed to see a glimmer of hope.

“But what is that thing he’s holding in his hand? And I don’t think I’ve seen this person in this building before. Could he be a relative of another tenant here?” she wondered as she opened her own apartment door, but ultimately couldn’t help but look back one more time.

“The man hasn’t come up yet. But I can hear footsteps,” she said softly as she closed the door and walked into the living room, glancing around to confirm her parents weren’t home today. She quickly stood by the front door and looked through the peephole.

“A real-life perfect guy like this is too good to miss!” Zhou Tingting chuckled softly, tiptoeing to get a better view through the peephole.

Through the slightly distorted peephole, just right, the boy she saw earlier was slowly walking up the stairs.

“Is he going to the top floor? Could he be a relative of the rooftop residents?” Zhou Ting wondered.

Her apartment was on the fifth floor, and the floor above housed only one apartment on the rooftop. Since this was a newly constructed residential area, many of the units were still unsold, so, in fact, only the apartment on the left was occupied; the one on the right remained unsold.

“The top floor of this building, that family is rarely seen and shrouded in mystery. I wonder who they are.”

Zhou Ting quietly peered through the peephole outside.

Just then, she saw the young man walking while casually pulling out a longsword over one meter long from a black bag, hanging the black sword bag on the stairway’s handrail with ease. With the sword sheath in his left hand and the longsword in his right, the silver blade reflected a bright sheen even in the somewhat dim stairwell.

Zhou Ting’s mouth instantly formed an ‘O’ shape.

Then, with a blank look, she watched through the peephole as the young man smiled and walked up to the top floor. The slight curve of his lips gave off a hint of coldness, sending a shiver through her. Even a fool wouldn’t believe he was just visiting relatives.

“What is going on????” Miss Zhou Tingting was completely baffled. “Could this actually be the legendary urban adventure I’ve been dreaming of? My long-awaited thrilling and fantastic journey filled with handsome men is about to start today? No way! I’m not even mentally prepared!”

After regaining some clarity, Zhou Ting just managed to snap out of her continuous fantasies. When she looked through the peephole again, all that was left was the black sword bag hanging on the staircase handrail.

“Should I go out and take a look?” This thought suddenly flashed through her mind. “Perhaps if I step out now, my life will completely change from what it was before. What should I do?” She had a strange premonition that once she stepped out, her previous peaceful life would completely leave her behind.

Memories flashed through her mind like movie scenes.

Blundering through nineteen years of numb existence. Growing up without many friends, with parents who were often away, seeing them only occasionally each month, the only company she had was her grandmother. But after her grandmother passed away last year, there was no one left at home, and her parents’ visits became more irregular. Nobody taught her how to use makeup, dress fashionably, or how a lady should behave. In her loneliness, large volumes of anime purchased with her money filled the void. But then stepping out dressed in the style of those anime characters and receiving stares like a clown from everyone around made her realize: the gap between 2D and 3D was real, and 2D was not accepted by most people. Thus, she became even more isolated, hiding at home, flipping through different genres of anime and playing various kinds of games every day.

“Is this life really worth continuing?” Zhou Ting asked herself. “Does this life truly hold any value going forward?”

Determination flickered in her eyes.

“Click.” The security door made an opening noise.

************

Lin Fei, carrying his longsword, stood in front of the top-floor security door. His right hand held the sword sheath while his left hand, holding the master key, delicately inserted it into the keyhole with a gentle twist.

“Click!” A faint sound.

The security door opened.

“Who’s there?!” Suddenly, a loud shout came from inside. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Lin Fei’s expression changed, and he violently pulled open the security door, leaving the master key in the keyhole. He propelled himself into the room like an arrow released from its bow.

In the living room, a burly man with a green tiger tattoo on his arm was standing up in shock. Upon seeing Lin Fei bursting through the door, he quickly reached for the long dagger on the coffee table.

“Bang!” Lin Fei exploded forward instantaneously, his movements spring-like. The blade in his hand transformed into a streak of silver light, slicing through the burly man’s throat with a hiss. Then, springing off the sofa, he turned to check the other rooms.

The bedroom door had just opened, and a bald man, shirtless, charged out with a watermelon knife. Additionally, around the corner of the upstairs staircase, two people dashed down – a man and a woman, the latter holding a black handgun.

A chill ran down Lin Fei’s spine; his worst fear had materialized. The enemies indeed had a gun.

Without hesitation, he recalled the Basic Sword Technique footwork, spun his body around, traced an arc close to the wall, and fiercely kicked off the wall. Leveraging this force, he sprang up.

This display revealed the effects of his Qi Cultivation from the Second Diagram. All these movements made the three adversaries only glimpse a shadow flicking off the wall before he pounced on the man emerging from the bedroom. After a muffled grunt, both men tumbled into the bedroom, and all went quiet.

The man and woman started sweating. The prowess of their opponent had exceeded their expectations. Two competent close-combat fighters were neutralized instantly, and they barely had time to react.

“Quick, call the boss!” the man shouted to the woman urgently.

As if awakening from a dream, she clumsily tipped the gun and was about to pull out her phone.

Suddenly, a silver streak flashed from the bedroom, followed closely by a blurry figure. The man had just raised his knife when a sword chopped at his forehead. The blade’s tip then slid past the woman’s gun-wielding right hand, severing her wrist with a crisp sound.

“Ah!!” The woman screamed instantly.

At that moment, Lin Fei was precisely behind her; the man’s blood sprayed, blocked entirely by the woman. Lin Fei gently pierced with the Black Bear Claw in his hand.

The fight was resolved in an instant.

“Ten seconds.” Lin Fei, sweating from his forehead, watched as the woman collapsed onto the man with a thud. The Bear Claw’s final strike targeted the heart from the back, ensuring a rapid death.

In those short ten seconds, Lin Fei had exerted every tactic he knew, from the initial fierce charge to using the wall for a rebound killing. All these required a tremendous amount of strength and any minor error could have resulted in several fatal bullet holes in his body. The speed of bullets is not to be underestimated.

And the biggest drain was not physical but mental due to the intense concentration required.

“We must search for the ledger immediately.” Lin Fei kicked the handgun on the floor into the innermost study, then followed it in. According to the intelligence, he found a thin notebook sandwiched inside a Spanish language dictionary on the bookshelf.

“This is it.” Although he did not understand why, with such detailed intelligence, they hadn’t just had the person who obtained it bring it back. However, these were clearly not things he should be concerned about. His only job was to act.

Glancing through it, Lin Fei easily opened the safe in the corner using the password recorded in the notebook. Inside was a silver handgun, a box of bullets—marked entirely in English—, a bankbook, and a note.

Lin Fei picked up the note, pulled out a black plastic bag he had prepared earlier, and stuffed everything into it before sealing it. He briefly scanned the note.

It contained a string of numbers, likely the password for some account. He casually crumpled it and stuffed it into his pocket.

Only then did Lin Fei sheathe his longsword and exit the study.

But just as he stepped out of the study, an indescribable sense of danger suddenly surged in his heart.

“Bang!”

Lin Fei recoiled like lightning, as a burst of fire and a clang sounded from the metal doorframe beside him.

“It’s a gun!!”

“Alright, alright, alright! A betrayal within the underworld, huh! So it was Hu San! Tough guy! You managed to kill a fugitive like Hu San with ease. If it wasn’t for my brother’s advice to bring a gun today, you might have really gotten me,” a sinister voice came from the living room outside the study.

“Drop your weapon and come out quietly. I’ve already called the police, and they’re on their way here. You best surrender peacefully,” the voice continued.

Lin Fei’s expression shifted. From a fleeting glimpse earlier, he had also roughly seen the police uniform on the person’s body.

“It’s the public security! Didn’t the organization have everything prearranged? How could this happen?”

“Drop your weapons, no matter how skilled you are, you’re no match for a gun!” The policeman said sternly, though he also didn’t dare make any rash moves, knowing Lin Fei’s lethal capability could easily turn the tables.

Lin Fei was extremely conflicted at this point. “Before setting off, the organization had explicitly forbidden involvement of non-mission individuals, a baseline rule, and now, not only is the opponent a non-mission person, he is also a policeman. If I actually acted, the consequences of assaulting an officer would be severe.”

He quickly pulled out the contact phone and sent a message to his contact.

“Police unexpectedly involved, what should I do?”

The response came quickly.

“Can you avoid him?”

“No.”

*********

Rainbow Hotel, General Manager’s Office.

Lu Jun sat at his desk, fingers interlaced, with Lin Fei’s text displayed on his phone.

“How do we handle this, Sir?” a middle-aged woman in a professional skirt asked softly standing in front of him.

Lu Jun was silent for a while until the phone vibrated again with another urgent message from Lin Fei.

*********

Right after Lin Fei sent the message, another shot rang out, ricocheting off the doorframe and hitting his sword scabbard with a clang.

“Damn it!” If it hadn’t been for the scabbard, he would have definitely been shot. And now, with the faint wail of police sirens below, Lin Fei knew he could not delay any longer.

An unusual feeling abruptly surged into his heart.

“Sword Heart Chain!”

“Hiss!”

A silver ring fluttered open instantly. Lin Fei vanished on the spot.

The silver ring rippled out hastily, and a figure, ethereal as if made of smoke, slowly walked out of the study. He was a man with sharply defined features, dressed in black, with a longsword at his waist. His lips parted slightly as if he was about to say something, but his form completely dissipated in an instant.

The beautiful silver ring instantly bridged the spatial distance, with numerous rings slowly converging behind the overweight policeman. A blurry figure gradually became visible.

Lin Fei calmly turned his body sideways, his longsword softly sheathing.

“Snap.”

The body neatly split in two from the waist.

He pulled out his phone again.

“The man is dead, what now?”

Rainbow Hotel

Lu Jun silently stared at the message on his phone.

“Let it be recorded as death in the line of duty,” he sighed.