Should he leave for Siberia?
This wasn’t a trip he could take without consequences.
If he didn’t, his chance to capture Dark Mona would be lost.
If he did, there were just too many uncertainties.
The night was getting dark, but Xia Lei was still in his bed pondering back and forth about this.
He just couldn’t make up his mind.
“Had I been making lots of money to the point of living too comfortably that I’m starting to become a coward?” The thought surfaced in Xia Lei’s heart. A bitter smile soon accompanied it.
When faced with difficult times, one would try their best to remain tough and fight for themselves. But once life became fruitful and peaceful, that person would lose all their will to fight. Often, one would be more cowardly after tasting the sweetness of a stable life. Xia Lei may be no normal civilian, but he was still human. This was one of the most inevitable flaws of mankind.
Suddenly, the lights on the ceiling went out.
“A power failure? Impossible. The Peace Mansion gets its electric supply from Thunder Horse Military Factory’s special circuit directly.” Abruptly, a thought flashed through Xia Lei’s mind. He tensed up, quickly leaping off his bed.
Perhaps it was that odd presence that he saw in Paris via his X-ray vision. He was in such a tight spot back then. He was actually afraid of engaging said person in close combat!
He stood on the carpet, the first thing he had thought of was to retrieve his pistol. But again, he was reminded that he had never hidden his weapons in the house.
A gust of wind blew in through the window, it lifted the curtains.
The fabric danced with the breeze, the moonlight was deceivingly beautiful.
As the curtains flew to obstruct the moon, a black shadow suddenly entered through the opening.
The black ghastly mass felt like a supernatural phenomenon!
Xia Lei tensed up abruptly, quickly moving backwards in loud steps.
The black mass raised its arm to reveal three shimmering objects.
Xia Lei quickly switched his retreating stance to dodge the incoming attacks.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Three shurikens landed on the door.
The black mass appeared again, this time brandishing a three-blade boomerang. The weapon flew with such an astonishing speed towards Xia Lei.
Xia Lei quickly moved horizontally and successfully dodged the incoming attack.
The boomerang flew past Xia Lei’s body before it made a sharp turn to return to the black mass.
Two seconds ago, he panicked and was desperate to run away. He had really thought that the odd presence in Paris had tracked him back to China. But as the black mass directed two continuous attacks to him, it didn’t take long for him to make out its face and body size. The black mass was female. Her body may be petite and firm but her chest size was impressively huge. Just with that two features alone, he had only needed one second to piece things together.
He activated his X-ray vision to reveal her face. She was Asian.
Certainly, she wasn’t the odd presence that he feared. Why should he continue to run?
Gathering his energy, he charged towards her at an explosive speed. He aimed a heavy punch towards the front of her head. It was terrifyingly fast like a missile!
She quickly crossed her arms to defend her head.
Slam! Xia Lei’s fist landed loudly on her arms.
The strong impact threw her off balance. She quickly arched her waist backwards, then kicked the floor to lift her legs up to Xia Lei’s chest. Taking advantage of Xia Lei’s surprise, she stomped his chest twice.
Her attack strategy was to utilize its leverage. She was agile and light as if gravity had no control over her mass.
But Xia Lei was just as fast. Just as she was about to complete her mid-air tumble, his right hand got ahold of the tube of her pants. He then pulled it back with force!
Rrrrrriiiiippppp…
The sound of fabric ripping filled the air.
The black mass finally planted both feet on the floor. Her pants were ripped apart to expose a large span of her pale leg.
She was taken aback by his response. She wasn’t expecting Xia Lei to be so fast!
Xia Lei wasn’t about to give her more time to breathe. In her dazed state, he inclined his body abruptly to send a hard kick over.
The black mass quickly retreated. “Wait!”
She spoke in Japanese.
Xia Lei halted his movement. His foot was mere inches from caving in her head.
“I’m the rat, Tsukino Kyoko.” This time she conversed in Chinese albeit rather rough.
Xia Lei put his leg down. It wasn’t difficult to guess her identity as soon as she spoke her first sentence. She was Japanese and Xia Lei was certain that the members of the Hattori clan had no courage to break into his quarters like that. Aside from that, the quietness of the Peace Mansion was deceiving. This was almost like a secret base camp for the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team. His father, Yelena, E’er Demutu and Alessio were all here. It was essentially impossible for a highly-skilled assassin to make it past them to reach Xia Lei’s room. Her bold entrance had indicated that none of the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team had deemed her actions a threat.
“What are you trying to say?” questioned Xia Lei.
Tsukino Kyoko replied, “They said you were strong but I thought they were just exaggerating so I challenged Sa’im to a bet. He said that if I defeat you, he’ll pay me a hundred USD.”
“We’re even,” uttered Xia Lei.
“No, I lost.” The female glanced down to look at the large rip Xia Lei made. Then, she took off her black mask.
The lights in the room returned.
Under the light’s illumination, a delicate face with rosy cheeks and big, puppy eyes were presented to Xia Lei. She resembled Fukuhara Ai, though admittedly much cuter.
.
Though so, her cute little doll-like features were a mere facade. Her eyes were filled with darkness and Xia Lei knew what it was. Despite looking like a doll, if she had received orders to kill, she would kill with no hesitation.
“Are you a ninja?”
Tsukino Kyoko nodded lightly. “Yeah, Iga-ryu.”
Xia Lei smiled. “Wow, ninjas really do exist in Japan.”
She replied, “We shouldn’t abandon our traditions. You too are an expert of Wing Chun, right?”
“You mentioned Sa’im just now. Who else do you know? Where are they?” asked Xia Lei.
Suddenly, footsteps could be heard outside his door.
Xia Lei looked in its direction. Abruptly, the door disappeared to reveal two approaching figures. One of them was a young man with dark skin and the other was a man with a full beard. The dark young male had a tall and thin physique. His head was adorned with a crown of tight raven curls and his eyes were unusually light too. His overall appearance gave off an unearthly feeling. On the other hand, the man with the impressive beard had green eyes, his body was strong and buff.
The dark young male had Indian features while the full-bearded man had Arabian features.
Their facial structure alone had told Xia Lei much of their identity. The young male with dark skin was the monkey of the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team, Anjum Khan. The one with the green eyes was the dog of the team, Sa’im from Iraq.
“They’re here,” said Tsukino Kyoko. She passed Xia Lei to reach the door to remove the shurikens stuck on it. In the ninja world, shurikens were one of the most typical weapons one could own.
Looking at Tsukino Kyoko, Xia Lei couldn’t help but draw a comparison between her and Tang Yuyan. The conclusion he got was that Tsukino Kyoko’s dart skills might be on par with Tang Yuyan.
Tsukino Kyoko proceeded to open the door.
Anjum Khan and Sa’im were waiting outside.
They neatly lowered their heads as a sign of respect to Xia Lei.
“I’m the monkey, Anjum Khan,” introduced Anjum Khan.
“I’m the dog, Sa’im,” Sa’im followed.
They both spoke in Chinese but with the accents of their respective countries.
“Hello, I’m Xia Lei.” It was Xia Lei’s turn to introduce himself. Though the three new faces were already aware of his identity, the introduction was an act of courtesy and shouldn’t be forgone.
Anjum Khan stared at Tsukino Kyoko’s pants, he grinned. “Looks like I won myself a hundred USD.”
Tsukino Kyoko gave a wry smile in return. But she had willingly accepted her defeat, Xia Lei’s capabilities were truly superior to hers.
“Boss.” Sa’im continued, “The death of Amanda, Park Taeyong, Bagu and Marcus shouldn’t be in vain. We’d like to go to Siberia to take Dark Mona’s life personally.”
“How did you find out that Dark Mona was in Siberia?” Xia Lei was a little surprised.
Sa’im smirked. “Boss, the four ladies living in the Peace Mansion were easy opponents. It wasn’t difficult to extract information from them.”
Xia Lei smiled faintly. Sa’im was the team’s dog. He was Xia Changhe’s eyes and ears. Plus, he was also the core of the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team’s intel system. It shouldn’t occur as a surprise for him to find out this much.
Xia Lei was hesitant to go to Siberia at first but Sa’im’s proposition had helped him make his decision. “Let’s all go to Siberia. Let’s go kill Dark Mona!”
“We’re coming with you.” It was Alessio’s voice.
Behind Alessio was Yelena and E’er Demutu.
Everyone in the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team was here, save for Liang Siyao and the mysterious snake.
“Where is the snake?” Xia Lei could no longer suppress his curiosity.
There was no answer because no one knew.
His father must’ve known something about the snake’s identity, but the old man refused to reveal anything no matter how hard they probed. It was only natural for Xia Lei to be suspicious. Why was his father so secretive about it? To make it weirder, none of the members had any knowledge about it too. What good would keeping a secret as this do?
“Boss, we’re running out of time. We need to move,” urged Sa’im.
Xia Lei nodded. “I’ll go inform the four ladies to have them relay a message to Arthur. Then, we’ll start our journey to Siberia.”
“I’ve already contacted a Russian cargo plane. We just need to pay him ten thousand USD to change his route from a direct flight to Moscow to pass by our destination. We’ll leap off the plane near the spot,” informed Sa’im.
“No problem,” confirmed Xia Lei.
A few minutes later, Xia Lei found himself at the door of Giovanna and Stella’s room. He knocked on the door.
Giovanna answered the door after a minute.
“You… It’s late, what’s the matter?” The pyjama-clad Giovanna consciously shielded her large bosom.
“I’m getting ready to leave for Siberia. Please inform Arthur immediately,” uttered Xia Lei.
“We thought you wouldn’t go,” said Giovanna.
Stella’s head peeked from behind the door. “When are you leaving?”
“Tonight.”
“We want to come with you,” said Stella.
Xia Lei frowned. “This is not a trip, okay?”
“Hmph!” huffed Giovanna coldly. “Don’t underestimate us. We’re all legitimate knights!”
Xia Lei shrugged. “Point made, female knights. Well then, I’d like to witness the noble spirit of a knight.”