Chapter 54 FIFTY-FOUR

Chapter 54: Chapter FIFTY-FOUR

"You cleared the rift, didn’t you?"

Gao Shi steps forward, his expression is hidden behind his glasses.

Xin Linhua blocks his path. He pulls Rong Yizhan behind him, his eyes lock onto Gao Shi.

"So protective of him, aren’t you?" Gao Shi frowns "But I’m not trying to pick a fight. I’m genuinely curious. A triple S-Rank with no abilities, yet he’s considered dangerous. Now I know why."

Rong Yizhan’s expression doesn’t change in the least. Instead, he walks out from behind Xin Linhua, stepping in front of him.

"Being curious isn’t always a good thing."

"Oh, but I am. How did you clear the rift? We nearly died just facing a few Nikuras, but you cleared the whole place within a few hours. Phantom, you’re just as your name implies."

Gao Shi tilts his head upward. Despite being the same height, there’s this feeling– like he’s being looked down upon by Rong Yizhan. He can’t seem to shake it off.

"You want to know?"

"Yes."

"Those who figured it never lived to tell the tale." Rong Yizhan says calmly "If you’re willing to die, I’ll tell you what you want to know."

"Okay, that’s enough." Naka drags Gao Shi back "We’re not curious, not curious. No need for a funeral anytime soon."

"Good." Rong Yizhan turns away from them "Let’s get out here before he loses that shoulder."

Only then did they remember how gravely injured they are. Especially Gao Shi and Naka. One has a shoulder injury and the other still has a large gash in his stomach.

The crew supports one another, walking towards the mountain that almost became their resting place when they first arrived here.

This time, without any interference and with great difficulty, Hirano and Rong Yufei are able to take them to the rift entrance.

"Remember." Xin Linhua turns to them "When we get out, we act neutral. One slip up and it’s end game."

"We know."

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Outside the rift, a very worried Director Chen can be seen pacing back and forth.

The man has bitten through his fingernails, almost nibbling on flesh now.

"Director." Xin Linge walks out.

The man stops his pacing and turns towards Xin Linge.

"Where’s Xin Linhua?"

"He’s alive." Xin Linhai walks out of the rift "His Sentinel is alive as well. They’ll be out soon."

Director Chen exhales visibly. He had no idea he had been holding his breath all this while.

"We have work to do, so we’ll leave now." Xin Linhai nods "But seeing the condition they’re in, I hope this doesn’t repeat itself."

"Never."

"Good."

Once again, Xin Linhai drags his younger brother away.

They’ve been stalking the rift for days now, ignoring the workload they left behind at the company. Xin Linhua is obviously more important. Now they have to go back.

Director Chen turns towards the back up team.

"Clear the area." He instructs "We can’t have any of this going public."

The Sentinels quickly get to work. They clear the place of any irrelevant personnels.

The team’s existence is still a secret at the moment and their faces are not to be seen by civilians or even their fellow Sentinels.

To ensure this, a blue van is parked not far away from the entrance. The side door is wide open. The moment they step out, they’ll be taken away from the scene.

Director Chen is seated inside already. The van is big enough to occupy the entire team and even leave room for supplies.

Truth be told, he had prepare for the worse. Maybe a death count. It’s a high risk rift after all, and they’re not equipped to venture into one at the moment.

"They’re out!" Someone yells amongst the back up team.

A few figures walk out of the rift, bruised and battered, but alive. All ten of them, no more, no less.

Xin Linhua is the first to step into the van. His grin grows wider when he sights the nerve wrecked Director who’s seated inside.

"Director!" He plops beside the man "Missed me?"

"I’m just glad you’re not dead." The man’s razor sharp gaze scans him from head to toe "Are you injured?"

"No, I’m alright." Xin Linhua waves his hand "My teammates are the broken ones."

The man averts his gaze. His expression changes subtlety when he sees the rest of the team.

Only the two Aeromancers are walking without needing support since they didn’t fight or anything. The others? Not so much.

Gao Shi and Naka will need a full check up, rehab and definitely a few weeks to recuperate. If anything’s broken, that’ll make it 8-12 weeks of bed rest and healing.

"To the institute!" The man yells at the driver upfront "Step on it!"

The van cuts through traffic and heads straight for the institute.

Inside the van, the Director watches with a aching heart as his newly formed team helps one another with their wounds.

He had prepare for death, but nothing had prepared him for this. A wrecked team. His eyes darts to Rong Yufei. The scar on her neck.

"The Research Division has a way to heal such scars." The Director assures her.

"Will it...fully heal?" The youth asks hesitantly.

"It will. I’ll ensure it."

"Back to business." Xin Linhua cuts through their little sentimental reunion "Director, if I didn’t know you well, I’d think you were out to kill us."

"What!?" The man almost falls off his seat "What kind of accusation is that!?"

"Accusations? Director, you sent us to a D-Rank rift, but we stumbled upon a C-Rank rift instead."

"I really had no idea..." The man rubs his temple "You’ve already gone inside when Kov informed me about the rift’s actual level."

Director Chen pulls out a tablet from one of the bags resting at his feet. He pulls up a report and passes it to Xin Linhua.

Xin Linhua takes the tablet from him. He skims through the report, his brows creasing slightly. He passes the tablet to the others.

"Wait, the radars and the detectors all picked up a D-Rank level rift?" An Aeromancer mutters "But it was clearly a C-Rank?"

"Are those old things broken? This has never happened before."

"That’s exactly why we’re worried. This is the second times this is happening."

"Second? What do you mean, second? What was the first?" Gao Shi raises an eyebrow.

"The rift your brother encountered." The Director stares straight at him "It gave us a D-Rank signal but it was actually a C-Rank level rift."

The van falls into silence. Just like Kov said, once is a mistake, twice is a pattern.

"Director, what’s going on?"

"I won’t hide it from you. I don’t know what’s going on either." The man exhales "The radars are fine, the detectors are working well. But somehow, the rifts gives us a low level signal and end up being a high level rift. We can’t make sense of it."

"What are you saying?"

"Are you trying to tell us that rifts now have the ability to cloak themselves?"