The First Order

All of the others who were sleeping were awoken by the outbreak of a sudden fight. As the thunderous gunshot echoed through the hollow, everyone felt like an explosive had gone off beside them.

While these people who had just been awoken were still clueless about what was going on, Xu Xianchu’s gray shadow clone appeared and stayed put by his side.

The temperature at Yang Xiaojin’s gun barrel rapidly cooled as her opponent’s body quickly turned cold. This was actually the first time Yang Xiaojin had fired her gun during the expedition. It seemed no one had expected that she would be so firm and decisive in her actions.

Moreover, she looked exceedingly calm while killing someone. It looked as normal as drinking a glass of water.

But actually, what left the deepest impression on the others was not Yang Xiaojin’s actions, but Ren Xiaosu’s.

It only took a moment for the gun to go off and the bullet to enter the soldier’s body. The huge kinetic energy of the rotating bullet then tore through the muscles and organs inside of him and only came to a stop after the kinetic energy was fully expended. But neither anyone on the outside nor the victim himself could see the internal effects.

But it was different for Ren Xiaosu’s side. The sight of an adult man being forcefully lifted up with one hand was too violent.

Ren Xiaosu was only 1.78 meters tall, and his body was still not fully developed at the age of 17. So whether it was Xu Xianchu, Liu Bu, or Yang Xiaojin, they had never thought about Ren Xiaosu’s “combat prowess” before.

They thought, ‘How much strength could a malnourished young refugee from town have?’ At most, he would have some survival skills that he honed from living in the wilderness.

Ren Xiaosu had never revealed his true power, and Yang Xiaojin had not fired her gun before this, so it led everyone to have only a very vague idea of their combat strength. This was the why the assailants dared to attack them.

However, no one could have expected that this vague idea they had turned out to be extremely wrong.

Ren Xiaosu’s fingers were locked around the assailant’s neck like a pair of pincers. The assailant could immediately feel the blood flow to his brain stopping. In fact, he could have kicked at Ren Xiaosu’s vital regions with his legs, but his mind had already turned blank while his hands and feet convulsed in spasms.

Yang Xiaojin did not look at the soldier who had fallen in front of her but looked quietly at Ren Xiaosu instead. She was already holding up two guns and pointing them at everyone else in the hollow.

However, she was also a little puzzled. Earlier, Ren Xiaosu was clearly asleep. He could have faked his snoring, but it was impossible to disguise the movement of his eyelids.

She had even been trained to judge whether someone was sleeping for real. A person could pretend to be asleep, but the mind would subconsciously cause the eyelids to move. A person who was not fast asleep would find it impossible to control their eyelid movements for an extended duration.

So she knew that Ren Xiaosu had really fallen asleep just now. But the moment the assailants got up, Ren Xiaosu’s snoring stopped, which proved that he was awake at that point.

How could a person in deep sleep constantly remain alert like he had? A refugee like Ren Xiaosu couldn’t possibly have received the same kind of training she had!

Back in town, Yan Liuyuan was actually the happiest when he could keep watch during the night for Ren Xiaosu. It made him feel like Ren Xiaosu needed him the most at such a time and he was able to do something for him.

Although he couldn’t go hunting with Ren Xiaosu as a result of having to keep watch at night, he still felt that being a “night watchman” was extremely meaningful.

But what Yan Liuyuan didn’t know was that Ren Xiaosu actually didn’t need anyone to keep watch at night for him ever since the palace came into existence.

And at this moment, the Ren Xiaosu in Yang Xiaojin’s eyes was displaying a supernatural strength. How could a thin young man like him possess a strength like that? Even Yang Xiaojin couldn’t have expected this.

The soldier, who was soaking in a pool of his own blood on the ground, struggled to spit out, “Sun Junzheng, get them!”

But the soldier named Sun Junzheng was currently curled up inside the hollow. He was so afraid that he didn’t dare say a thing.

Xu Xianchu frowned and asked, “What’s going on here?”

Ren Xiaosu ignored him and continued to glare at the assailant. He had found those pine cones and pine needles for these people and even let them have the water source in the hollow. Although his motivation was to get their gratitude tokens, the overall outcome was still a good one.

Ren Xiaosu had realized long ago that these people were plotting something. He initially thought that these people would have a bottom line or at least show a little restraint.

He didn’t even try to ask the assailants what they were after. Water? Guns? Luo Xinyu? Ren Xiaosu thought that there wasn’t a need to ask them like he was being betrayed and feeling anguished since he did not need an answer from them.

Without any trust in the first place, there was naturally no sense of betrayal. In Ren Xiaosu’s eyes, there was no difference between these teammates and the wild beasts.

Ren Xiaosu did not immediately snap the assailant’s neck only because he wanted to see how Xu Xianchu would react.

But at this moment, the voice from his palace said, “Quest: Give the enemy a swift death.”

Ren Xiaosu was really stunned this time. Wasn’t this a palace that advocated doing good? Why did it suddenly become so straightforward and decisive then?

In the past, Ren Xiaosu would always try to take the easy way out to complete his quests by taking advantage of any loopholes. But this time, it was so direct that he couldn’t get used to it.

Or perhaps to the palace, not torturing the enemy was considered a good deed? ‘Damn, aren’t you bending your principles a little too quickly?’ But Ren Xiaosu knew that the palace did not have a mind of its own. It must have its own judgment mechanisms for it to assign a quest like this.

With a muffled crack, Ren Xiaosu snapped the assailant’s neck. When Sun Junzheng, who was in the hollow, heard the sound, he trembled. “It’s got nothing to do with me…. I didn’t even tell them that you had great strength!”

Bang!

Yang Xiaojin shot Sun Junzheng right between his eyes before he could finish speaking.

Ren Xiaosu turned his head to Yang Xiaojin. Yang Xiaojin calmly said, “Hiding a crime is the same as committing one.”

Ren Xiaosu sucked in a breath. Yang Xiaojin was implying that even though Sun Junzheng did not tell Ren Xiaosu’s strength to the assailants, he did not give any prior warning about their intention to attack them either. Therefore, to rid themselves of any further threats, Sun Junzheng had to die as well.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt that even though he had repeatedly updated his understanding of Yang Xiaojin, her ruthlessness and decisiveness still exceeded his expectations.

But he did not feel that she was wrong.

A team that originally consisted of 11 people was now left with six people in the matter of a night. Only Xu Xianchu, Ren Xiaosu, Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, Wang Lei, and Yang Xiaojin were left.

“Quest complete. Awarded Master Skill Duplication Scroll.”

Without pausing to think, Ren Xiaosu used the Master Skill Duplication Scroll on Xu Xianchu. Using Yang Xiaojin’s firearms skill as a comparison, there wasn’t much significance in upgrading his Advanced Firearms Proficiency to the master level. So at this moment, he needed Xu Xianchu’s power more!

“About to copy the target’s master-level skill or superpower. If you do not have the corresponding advanced-level skill after copying a master-level skill, you will not be able to learn it. The target does not have a master-level skill. Randomly copied target’s superpower, ‘Shadow Clone.’ Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu was overjoyed. So if the target had no master-level skills, he could directly copy their superpowers?

He had thought the chances would be very slim!

“Yes!”

“You have learned ‘Shadow Clone.’”

Ren Xiaosu could feel the new power in him that he had just copied and learned. He was surprised to discover a shadow clone of himself standing quietly within the palace.

But what left Ren Xiaosu a little surprised was that, while Xu Xianchu’s shadow clone was gray in color, his was black. ‘What’s with this? Is it darker because I don’t wash my face?’