Thirty minutes ago.
"Tell me, should I call you Nightingale or Jiang Li?" Holding an MSG-90 sniper rifle, the girl murmured to herself. Her waist-length hair, her pretty face, and her perfect figure fulfilled anyone's fantasy of a girl with long black straight hair. Her eyes were clear and seemed to be able to see through people's hearts.
Looking at the familiar figure in the scope, a slight change appeared on her delicate face.
"I think I should be more polite. Also... should I call you 'Flying Rainbow' or Su Xilan?"
Suddenly, a young man appeared. It could be seen that his face was slightly tanned due to years of exposure to the elements, yet this couldn't conceal the sunny temperament all over him. The windbreaker he wore further enhanced his sharp-edged aura. Just standing there, he was like a sharp blade drawn out of its sheath, with its sharpness pressing right in front of people's eyes.
"According to what you said—" Su Xilan raised her eyebrows and turned around. The muzzle of her gun seemed to be lifted casually. "Should I call you 'Yang Yan' Pang Yang or Freelancer Pang Yang?"
Her tone began to soften. "Isn't a peaceful life good? Why do you have to get involved in this mess?"
Su Xilan's long eyelashes trembled slightly, as if she were on the verge of crying.
"I can't go back to that kind of life, so—"
With a smile on his face, Pang Yang pointed his CZ805 assault rifle at Su Xilan. "Tell me where BBM and the others are."
"I won't." Su Xilan seemed to be acting coquettishly.
Pang Yang let out a sigh. "What a pity."
Su Xilan raised the muzzle of her gun like lightning. Pang Yang, who had been prepared for it, pulled the trigger. The former dodged the attack in a backward-leaning posture and didn't stop her movements, firing three consecutive bullets at Pang Yang's upper, middle, and lower body.
The young man reacted promptly and did a tactical roll to avoid the attack. When he got up, he found that his opponent had flipped down through the windowsill and escaped, leaving only a neat and agile figure disappearing from sight.
Chasing to the window, Su Xilan's figure had already entered the alley.
The afternoon sunlight cast flexible shadows on the rooftops. Pang Yang exerted strength with his arms and climbed onto the roof. He ran and jumped in the air, gradually catching up with Su Xilan. With a final somersault, the young man landed steadily in front of the girl with long black straight hair and held the rifle with one hand horizontally: "Stop right there."
"This rifle of yours came from the east."
"Yes, our Pakistani friends are really helpful."
"You don't even belong to the ED anymore, yet they still helped you."
"Who doesn't have a few old friends?"
"I should say it's just like you. Even after being kicked out for a year, you can still maintain such combat effectiveness." Su Xilan's smile was as bright as the sun in the sky. "You haven't become decadent and are still the same as before. That's really nice."
"But you're not the same as before."
"Do you have the heart to shoot me?" Su Xilan smiled slightly and deliberately put her hands behind her back, swaying from side to side.
"Right." Pang Yang sighed softly, with a melancholy expression on his face. He raised his gun as if to fire. "I really can't bring myself to do it—"
The rifle suddenly fired, and the stream of flames from the continuous shooting hit the girl's delicate body like a willow branch. Su Xilan's face turned pale in an instant. Hit, severely wounded, and powerless, she fell to the ground, her charming pupils filled with disbelief.
After a while, Su Xilan spoke with a trembling voice: "Why... why did you..."
"That was for you, not for a traitor." Pang Yang's eyes were filled with an indescribable sadness that rose and fell. Was it sympathy, sorrow, anger, or loneliness? Su Xilan tried to read him as she watched him walking towards her step by step.
"You've lost weight," she muttered.
"I avoided your vital parts." Pang Yang lowered his eyebrows and squatted down, reaching out his hands, trying to pick her up. "Come back with me."
"I won't."
The dying girl suddenly burst out with energy. Using the ground as a pivot, she nimbly twisted her waist and wrapped her upper body around Pang Yang, giving the young man an over-the-shoulder throw. Years of battlefield experience had made Pang Yang instinctively vigilant about everything, but in the face of that familiar embrace, he ultimately couldn't make a move.
Su Xilan was right... he had softened his heart. A year of peaceful life hadn't had a huge impact on his combat skills, but it still made his once resolute and decisive heart waver.
A flood can't destroy a huge rock, but constant dripping wears away the stone.
Falling, hitting, twisting, entwining... With the same fighting style, the two of them almost left afterimages in the air. The long-standing Chinese martial arts, after being tested on the battlefield, had evolved into deadly killing moves that collided with each other. They were overly familiar with each other, and this had instead become the biggest obstacle for them to defeat their opponent.
"Huh!" "Ha!"
They punched each other and both took a step back. The intense fighting in the heat made fine beads of sweat cover their foreheads.
"Dragonscale Armor?" Pang Yang said.
"Yes."
That explained why the girl was unharmed. It was the bulletproof vest with the best protective performance in the world, and it was simply not something that an ordinary rifle could penetrate.
Taking the initiative, the Night Demon slid down from the young man's sleeve naturally, drawing a black arc of light. Su Xilan tilted her body backward to dodge the slash and looked back. Her long black hair cascaded down like a waterfall and swirled. Between the movements of her slender fingers, only a wolf claw knife appeared. The shadows of the two on the ground intertwined and separated. Su Xilan was like a dancer in broad daylight, spinning and hovering around Pang Yang, waiting for the opportunity to launch a fatal surprise attack.
With a standard backflip like that of a gymnast, the girl landed gracefully two meters away and bowed elegantly. Pang Yang held the knife in a reverse grip, glaring coldly at her.
"It seems that Anubis thinks highly of you." Pang Yang bent his knees slightly, ready to charge forward again at any time.
"No, no, no. My position isn't as low as you think." Su Xilan smiled charmingly. "In your eyes, my code name is Flying Rainbow. But let me introduce myself again. I'm Su Xilan, the Fallen Angel, directly under the combat detachment of the World Revolutionary Army Headquarters."
"One of the Twelve Angels?" Pang Yang remained calm. "Then you shouldn't be here. The Holy Church doesn't have the power to command someone like you."
"Then will you come or not? If the famous Yang Yan joins, you'll surely become one of the Twelve Angels too. There are still six vacancies among the angels."
"Thanks, but no thanks."
Time seemed to flash by. Su Xilan blocked Pang Yang in time and dodged the tragic fate of having her neck slashed. A powerful roundhouse kick hit the young man. After taking this hit hard, Pang Yang didn't feel good either. Their eyes met, like meteors shining brightly.
At this moment, a strong murderous aura surged from both of them, and their male and female voices combined to form the same sentence:
"Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie, Zhen, Lie, Zhen, Xing!" (The incantation from Taoist magic often associated with enhancing combat prowess in some martial arts or fictional settings.)
The battle reached a white-hot stage. Pang Yang waved his right hand, and three throwing knives flew towards Su Xilan in a triangular formation. These three throwing knives were unremarkable, but for the old mercenaries, drug dealers, and even terrorists who had been active in Southeast Asia, South Africa, and Central Africa, these throwing knives would never bring them any good memories. Some of them would even wake up startled in the middle of the night... The reason was that they represented a legend in mountain and jungle warfare, the Chinese "Yellow Spring" special operations team, Yang Yan!
One of Yang Yan's famous skills was these deadly throwing knives. The blade tip was modeled after military arrows, so under aerodynamics, it could cause wounds that could reach the depth of the main artery. Meanwhile, the barbs on the head would also force the victim to remove them by cutting the flesh.
Three gunshots almost merged into one. Su Xilan drew out a Colt revolver, quickly pressed the hammer with her left hand, and swung her right hand. The 9-millimeter bullets collided with the throwing knives. The gun-fighting technique originating from the American Western cowboys achieved the purpose of firing through manual operation instead of relying on machinery. In the hands of a master, the firing rate of this small revolver could even exceed that of a Gatling gun.
Back in the day, part of the reason why Yang Yan had such a fearsome reputation was his outstanding individual combat ability, and the other part was his inseparable partner—back then it was Flying Rainbow, and now it's the Fallen Angel, Su Xilan!
The last three bullets of the Fallen Angel aimed straight at Yang Yan. Pang Yang twisted his body into a strange and distorted posture to avoid the attack. Then he exerted strength with his legs and leaped in front of the girl.
From his windbreaker, he actually pulled out a Tang sword and slashed diagonally upward from bottom to top! The girl turned around in time, and only the hem of her clothes was torn.
"Your fighting style is so sneaky," the girl said angrily.
"Black cat or white cat, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat. Let me guess what else you have. Another revolver or a POKER?"
"Actually, there's no point in us fighting like this. You can't kill me, and I can't kill you either."
"How can we know without trying?" Pang Yang held the sword horizontally, bent his knees, and slightly leaned forward to assume a starting stance, with the cold light of the sword fully exposed.
"Since you've said that, then I have no choice but to... MAGIC!" Su Xilan smiled slightly.
Realizing something, the young man charged forward with his sword raised. The tip of the raised sword reflected the aurora of the sun, and on it was reflected the girl's elegant snap of her fingers. A large cloud of smoke burst out vigorously, turning around and enveloping everything in an instant. When the smoke dissipated completely, there was no longer the figure that had been there before.
Pang Yang's face darkened. "Tunnels... How could someone build such things in this godforsaken place?!"
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Currently, four hidden plotlines have been revealed.