"What are you doing here? I still need to eat!" The person in front of me was Zhong Guan. If it came to a fight, I wouldn't stand a chance, not to mention this was a public place, and it wasn't appropriate to start something here.
Zhong Guan looked at me expressionlessly, her eerie voice breaking the darkness. "Come with me. I have some questions for you."
"What do you want?" I shot her a glare, already having a pretty good idea of what this was about.
"I'm not going. I want to eat!" I threw that sentence over my shoulder as I turned and walked away, having zero intention of dealing with this woman.
But before I could take more than two steps, a pale hand landed on my shoulder. I scoffed inwardly and spun around, aiming a right hook at her face. Just as I swung, I felt a gust of wind behind me, and the figure in front of me vanished. Alarmed, I suddenly felt as if something had grabbed me and was pulling me up into the sky, transforming me into a beam of light shooting upwards.
Damn it, we haven't met in a while, and she's gotten even stronger...
In the woods behind the school, Zhong Guan casually dropped me from mid-air. Although I had some supernatural powers, hunger had drained my strength, and the sheer force of the landing nearly made me cough up blood.
"What the hell do you want?" I shouted before I had even gotten to my feet, my voice rising several notches.
Deep down, I really wanted to show her the respect she deserved as a superior, but I just couldn't stand that frosty face she always wore, like she didn't care about anyone. Sure, she was my leader, but I had been using this tone with her for a long time.
Zhong Guan spoke calmly, "Where have you been these past few days?"
"I already told you, didn't I? I went to see Ling Xuan..." I wasn't lying—at least, that had been my original intention.
"Why? You'd better tell me the truth." Zhong Guan cut off any chance of preparing an excuse, her words sharp and unrelenting. I began to feel a bit nervous.
"There was… a small misunderstanding between us, so I went to explain things to her. That's all..." I mumbled, struggling under the weight of her overwhelming aura.
"And From Lei? Who is she?" After all this, Zhong Guan finally got to the point.
"She's from the Maya tribe. I just happened to run into her, so... it delayed my return."
"Just happened?" Zhong Guan sneered, her tone filled with disbelief. "When did you realize?"
"About a week ago... I noticed something was off about her." My voice grew quieter and quieter.
"Then why didn't you report back to me?"
"I... I just thought I could catch her sooner if I acted on my own, so I... forgot..." I looked up, meeting Zhong Guan's gaze, but quickly looked away again. My body was frozen, locked by her overwhelming energy.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" Zhong Guan's voice was icy.
I didn't respond. To be honest, I couldn't even if I wanted to. Zhong Guan's strength far surpassed mine, and I could barely breathe. Inwardly, I had already cursed her a dozen times over.
"This is a critical time. I don't want your failure to doom the entire organization. You'd better listen closely: tomorrow, everyone will be back. When that happens, you'll give me a satisfactory explanation in front of them all!" Zhong Guan's eyes were like bolts of lightning, piercing through me.
Everyone? Damn, did Zhong Guan recall all of them? This was bad...
I could only grunt in response. Once she had finished, I suddenly felt the pressure lift from my body, and inertia sent me tumbling to the ground.
When I looked up, Zhong Guan was gone. From the sky, her cold, emotionless voice drifted down, "You'd better behave yourself. Be at the meeting tomorrow at noon, sharp."
No matter how much I cursed her after that, there was no response. With an empty stomach and a mountain of grievances, I dragged my exhausted and injured body toward the cafeteria.
The next day, the sun was already high in the sky, but I was still dreaming. Around ten o'clock, a phone call woke me up.
I'd suffered some serious internal injuries the day before, and after all the humiliation, I had collapsed in bed without even changing clothes. I was sound asleep when the phone rang. Even though I didn't want to answer it, it kept ringing, so I reluctantly hit the answer button.
It was Ling Xuan. I immediately perked up and sat up in bed, hurriedly putting the phone to my ear.
"Not awake yet? Did I disturb you?" Ling Xuan's lazy voice came through, sounding like she had just woken up herself.
"No, I just got up too..." I tried to make my voice sound less tired to come across better.
"Okay..." Ling Xuan seemed like she had something to say, but hesitated.
"What's up? Just say it. There's nothing we can't talk about." I was a bit puzzled, my lingering drowsiness quickly fading.
"Hongkeng... I want to visit you. What do you think?" Ling Xuan must have summoned a lot of courage to say that. After she spoke, she fell silent, probably worried I would be upset or refuse. After all, it was a long journey for a girl to take alone.
"Are you worried I—"
"No!" Ling Xuan interrupted firmly, "It has nothing to do with that. I'm just curious... about the place you always talk about and... the organization."
I understood. She was curious about what I had been hiding from her. I'd hinted at things before—about my friends, about the people behind us who weren't ordinary—but I had always kept her in the dark, afraid that knowing too much would put her in danger. I knew she would eventually ask me about it directly, especially about Qingcheng. I just hadn't expected her to want to come in person.
Qingcheng, the very place I was about to head to, our base of operations.