The First Order

there were many ways to write a secret letter, such as using a mixture of aminophenazone tablets dissolved in water. through a special process, handwriting written with that mixture could be displayed. another example was to write with a mixture of starch water with rice water. after lightly wiping the paper with an iodine solution, the hidden message would also be revealed.

but yang xiaojin had chosen to use onion juice this time only because this method was relatively simpler. besides, if someone wiped the piece of paper with an iodine solution first, they would not be able to see the handwriting clearly even if they heated it over an open flame afterwards.

when the onion juice was absorbed by the paper, it would start burning at a lower temperature than the paper. therefore, the writing would turn brown when slightly heated.

as yang xiaojin watched the paper crane fly away slowly, it was as though the expectations in her heart were carried off with it. she hoped it would bring good news to her the next time it flew back.

…

ren xiaosu and zhou yingxue were trekking in the wilderness. as the wang consortium had begun arresting suspicious people recently, they thought that traveling in a car would make them too noticeable, so they decided against using one.

the two of them could have gotten their hands on two motorcycles, but they did not know how to ride them…

ren xiaosu’s quest of taking in zhou yingxue had been completed. but to his disappointment, he was only rewarded with the basic skill duplication scroll and not the perfect skill duplication scroll. in other words, he still did not have a scroll that could allow him to copy another’s superpowers.

however, that was not a big problem. there would be other quests in the future, and a perfect skill duplication scroll would surely appear again.

the black market zhou yingxue had talked about was located at the intersection between the wang consortium, the kong consortium, and the zhou consortium. it was situated in a ravine not too far away from luoyang city.

luoyang city was under the control of the qinghe group. in fact, this was the only stronghold the qinghe group possessed.

the organizer of the black market chose to be located near luoyang city as it was convenient for the criminal underworld in the three consortiums to travel there to make purchases. it was close to everywhere.

on top of that, the qinghe group had never cared about such activities as long as nothing too serious arose in the black market.

ren xiaosu asked, “then can anyone get into the black market as they wish?”

“of course!” zhou yingxue said, “this black market is really big as it occupies the size of an entire county from before the cataclysm. it also gets very lively there. many fugitives who are wanted by the various consortiums usually end up hiding there. the rich can also go and hire them to do their dirty work.”

ren xiaosu nodded and said, “alright then, you’ll pretend to be my subordinate after we get there.”

zhou yingxue refused to accept this. “why have i become a follower all of a sudden? i’m a supernatural being for goodness’ sake!”

ren xiaosu turned around and looked at her calmly. zhou yingxue’s tone grew meek. “alright, alright, so be it if i have to act as your subordinate… wait, that won’t do. a lot of people in the black market have seen me before. when we had to work in groups to complete the a-rank missions, we even had to declare our superpowers to each other. if i get recognized by others and it turns out that i’m your subordinate, how powerful would you have to be?”

ren xiaosu thought that it sounded quite logical. he glanced at zhou yingxue and said, “then i guess you can tell others that i’m your assistant.”

with that, zhou yingxue said happily, “in that case, you should behave like an assistant. you can’t order me around again.”

“whatever!” ren xiaosu waved her off impatiently. “you can rest easy.”

when the two of them were about to reach the periphery of the black market, someone from the black market organization came over to ask them something. they did not ask about their identities and only asked what they were here for. they even checked to see if they needed help to book a hotel room.

zhou yingxue said with an arrogant look, “i want to book two hotel rooms.”

“then do you want to rent a car or schedule a massage?”

“not for the time being.”

“alright.”

after saying that, the people from the black market organization left politely. before departing, they even wished them an enjoyable time here.

ren xiaosu smacked his lips. “the service in this black market feels really good.”

zhou yingxue said, “i wonder who’s controlling the black market behind the scenes. they’ve not only made this into a place to trade prohibited goods but also created a solid spending economy. if you spend enough money here, they’ll even send you an invitation to an organized vacation by the beach come every spring. there’s even a massive casino here, and the dealers inside are all dressed…”

ren xiaosu asked, “dressed even more revealing than what you wore in the library back then?”

zhou yingxue’s expression darkened immediately. “must you bring that up?”

ever since zhou yingxue left the yang consortium, she seemed to have turned into a different person. in the past, she had to do certain things because of her job. but now, she was living more for herself.

a supernatural being leaving a consortium was like a bird flying out of a cage.

of course, zhou yingxue was still willing to dress sexily. however, she did not need to deliberately show herself to other men now.

as soon as they entered the black market, sure enough, someone immediately recognized zhou yingxue and came forward to greet her cordially.

some things were different from what ren xiaosu had expected. he thought the previous mission carried out in stronghold 61 was a failure, but many people at the black market were saying that zhou yingxue and the others had completed their mission really well by wiping out all the members of the pyro company at stronghold 61.

however, ren xiaosu realized there was some uncertainty in zhou yingxue’s eyes. he decided he would get to the bottom of it when he had a chance to clarify.

when someone saw ren xiaosu, they said curiously, “this is…”

zhou yingxue coldly waved it off. “he’s just my assistant. you don’t have to care about him.”

ren xiaosu was speechless.

in an instant, ren xiaosu was completely ignored by the group of snobs in front of him. meanwhile, zhou yingxue was enthusiastically surrounded by a crowd who asked her for details of the battle.

most of these people made a living by trading intel. if they could receive any vital information by saying something nice to zhou yingxue, why not?

however, ren xiaosu found that zhou yingxue was not stupid either. she spoke flawlessly without revealing any useful information at all.

all of a sudden, he saw someone lead a group in from outside the black market. the person at the very front was quite strange, and their faces were even covered with red scarves. some of the followers looked very young, and they might even be students who were still attending school.

when those people who had surrounded zhou yingxue in the black market realized they could not get any useful information out of her, they left. they started crowding around the young man whose face was covered with a red scarf instead. ren xiaosu asked in a low voice, “who is that person?”

“he is a member of the riders.” zhou yingxue whispered, “since this place is very close to the qinghe group, we often get to see them around.”

“then who’re those people behind him? they look really young,” ren xiaosu wondered.

“i heard that they’re the students of qinghe university. qinghe university has a rule that students must travel the world, but they can only do so under the protection of the riders.”