Shang Xuan only recovered from his mental shock an hour after the three fire spirits had fled into their cars and departed from the mansion hidden in the dense forest.
The Flame Ancestor's hands bloomed into a spectral flame as his countenance warped in discomfort, but gradually calmed himself under Na-er's earnest and gentle coaxing.
"Na-er, what time is it right now?"
The youth's voice was detached from reality and despondent as his eyes were covered by a pair of enchanting palms. The young girl softly leaning against his body curled up and extended her hand to grab the mobile smartphone casually chucked on the edge of the sofa, her timid voice replying after a brief moment.
"Almost nine in the evening."
"Nine, huh?" Shang Xuan muttered, his lips puckering to release a sigh.
"Looks like I won't be able to return home tonight…"
This identity's parent would become enraged if he returned later than eight in the evening, thus it was rather pointless to receive the brunt of the lecture in the night, than to toil through a milder rendition in the morning of the following day.
Furthermore, staying in the cramped Xi Family's residence with a pair of mortal siblings… was too suffocating for the hermit of a Flame Ancestor.
Satisfying himself with such an explanation, Shang Xuan lightly pushed away Na-er's soft and delicate palms, his gaze flitting over towards the suitcase placed on top of the table.
"Something to assist me with repaying off my absurd debt, hm?"
The suitcase was constructed from a black metallic structure, and the locks had been removed for Shang Xuan to easily access its contents. The rectangular box was half the size of Na-er's height, prompting the two youths to ponder regarding the mystery of its contents.
The youth tapped his chin in silence for a few breaths, then decided to open the suitcase. As his fingers pried away the simplistic pins keeping the suitcase closed to reveal what was hidden inside, Shang Xuan's lips twitched with an unearthly grimace.
Stowed away in a secure sea of foam were two handguns, submachine gun, the disassembled parts of a sniper rifle, and a military-issued bowie knife. On the upper compartment of the suitcase, the youth spotted box upon box of ammunition, with labels referencing their specified caliber of rounds.
After Na-er had removed all of the components from the suitcase, Shang Xuan discovered a neatly folded combat uniform, a partial facial mask in the form of butterfly eyeshadows, and a small
smartphone – of which he recognized as the Samsung series… the Note 8?
That series was heavily advertised in the streets of Tianxing each night, with the commercial advertisement displaying on every billboard after eight in the evening.
However, Shang Xuan was of the impression that the phone would enter the commercial market in August, hence why…
"However, making me into an assassin?"
The Flame Ancestor chuckled as he patted the top of the suitcase, uncertain as to whether he should praise Ah Hu for his insight, or berate him for adding another risk to his vacation life. In the end, a light tug at his left arm revealed an overly excited Na-er gesturing towards the arrangement of the weapons displayed on the ground.
"Ah Xuan, take a look!" the young girl hopped on the balls of her heels as she pointed at each gun with her finger.
"A Beretta 90two, a Cold M1911, then a B&T APC9 Pro-K – the limited edition model as well, not the one issued to the western military, and even a PGM 338. Ah Hu must have strained his resources to obtain such high quality issues as well…"
Ah, there was his Na-er.
Addicted to the notion of violence for a reason he refused to disclose even if Meng Po offered to wipe away his debt, as well as functioning as his source of common sense. The young girl bobbed her head from side to side, her voice reduced to a drone as she recited the effects and specialties of each gun without pause.
"Na-er… you do know that I've never shot a gun before?"
The clueless and completely disinterested Flame Ancestor could only reach his hands for the knife, only to watch a delicate hand snatch it away and shove a black handgun into his palms. Observing the young girl play around with the sheath of the knife, Shang Xuan could only absentmindedly finger the grip of the gun forced into his possession.
"Say, Na-er…" the youth fumbled his words as he awkwardly gazed at the metallic weapon resting against his palm.
"What did you say the name of this pistol was again?"
"Beretta 90two!"
And how did you know that, in the first place?
The reply was instantaneous and cutting, causing Shang Xuan to gaze in silence. Na-er then released a box from the top of the suitcase to empty its contents onto the ground, her azure eyes twinkling with satisfaction.
The box was filled with several ammunition clips built for a handgun's usage, and Shang Xuan found the handgun grasped away from his palms without a sound.
Soon after, the clicking of soft metallic shells brushing against the firing line of the chamber echoed in the silent living room, accompanied by the melodious humming of the young girl.
The youth was reduced to a spectator until he found the sleek and metallic handgun shoved in his grip by Na-er.
"All Ah Xuan needs to do is aim and shoot!"
Na-er gently coaxed the completely confused and ignorant Flame Ancestor who had become addicted to the taste of silent peace and stagnation. The young girl pointed towards various parts on the handgun as she explained, her timid voice pricking at the strings of Shang Xuan's heart.
"It seems that Ah Hu knew that you've never shot a gun before. Thus, to ease the process, he modified this Beretta 90two – by adding a semi-automatic initializer for the slide, preparing the chamber so that Ah Xuan can fire it the instant a new clip is inserted."
"O-oh…"
"Other than that, the trigger should be squeezed, not yanked – well, the principles are similar to that of the bow we have back at home. Ah Xuan, for us immortals, shooting a gun is not different than utilizing a bow, ah. Just aim and shoot, nothing too difficult."
"I see…" the youth absentmindedly nodded his head, his mind snapping back to reality a short moment afterwards.
"Wait, Na-er, how do you know how to shoot a gun? We've never gone to a firing range, nor have we come into contact with any firearms, not even that of the police…"
The young girl remained silent, an obscure smile on her countenance as she leaned against Shang Xuan's chest. Immersing himself in the warm and soft sensation spreading throughout his body, the Flame Ancestor didn't know whether to grieve or exude with joy.
If even Na-er was fooling around with others' lives, then he was definitely going to be sanctioned!
"Who knows? Only mortals need to manually memorize techniques to utilize them. Ah, then regarding this PGM 338, the main feature of this gun is to…"
-
"Ah, to think that there would be a day that I would actually work for my subordinate…"
Shang Xuan grumbled in annoyance as he leaned against the roof of an apartment compound in a neighboring city by the name of Sanzhou, the night wind brushing against his hair with a light caress.
The youth leaned his head towards the right – into the scope of the sniper rifle, his view aimed directly towards the municipal building at the center of the city.
The Heaven and Earth Association founded by Ah Hu was on the surface, a bodyguard and security enterprise with a private elite clientele, but was in fact an assassin's organization. The number of targets they had eliminated since their founding was equivalent to the number of clients protected from harm – which was Ah Hu's estimate, and not one the youth was necessarily willing to believe wholeheartedly.
The Note 8 smartphone in his pocket was clear evidence of the hidden side of the Heaven and Earth Association.
The smartphone provided by the fire spirit had been modified, supposed by Na-er's estimate, to possess military grade counter-tracking technology as well as prohibiting wiretapping by even the government's security agencies.
The smartphone's appearance had not been touched to allow it to resemble and mimic a standard edition model, but the contents were elevated to a bizarre extent.
For instance, the obtuse app disguised as a simple calculator.
Upon clicking the seemingly harmless application as per the instructions displayed on the screen the moment the device finished charging, Shang Xuan discovered that the application was akin to that of the web forums that he had seen while browsing the online websites in his free time.
The application supported free-range searching of terms and information, with an overwhelmingly large userbase that caused the Flame Ancestor to balk for a brief moment.
The application, which was tenderly named as 'Shadow' by its faithful users, was the mainstream utility of the Heaven and Earth Association's members.
A user-moderated bulletin board system integrated with a forum to exchange meaningless banter and information, a rewards services that awarded the members upon completion of a task assigned by the association's tasklist, and a direct messaging functionality.
The tasklist, in particular, arranged missions for its members with varying degrees of difficulty and rewards. The tasks issued differed on numerous aspects, from simple infiltration and moniteering, to sabotage and assassination of an individual.
Such was the reason of which Shang Xuan was leaning atop the roof of an apartment complex at near midnight staring through a sniper rifle's scope, instead of exploring the futuristic mansion with Na-er.