The dead man tightly hugged the suitcase in his arms.
Ivy tried to pull it out.
He tried twice and, finding it wouldn't budge, scratched his head in embarrassment.
"You can't even take a simple item; what use are you to me?"
"And this damn perfume smells awful."
Tiger Tail Orchid gave a huff, then kicked Xue Ming directly onto the seat and snatched the suitcase from his embrace.
"To hell with you, little bean sprout. Still trying to take advantage of me?"
If one looked closely, they would find that time on the plane was flowing extremely slowly.
The passengers' expressions were frozen, and only the water vapor in the air was shifting in subtle currents.
With a complete lack of morality, Tiger Tail Orchid flipped the suitcase open and gave its contents a cursory glance.
Ivy stood silently by her side, checking the watch in his hand.
"We have three minutes."
"I don't need you to remind me. I'm keeping track myself."
Tiger Tail Orchid stuffed the manuscript papers back into the suitcase and then shoved it into Ivy's arms.
She walked over to the cabin door on her own.
With a loud laugh, she leaped out into the dark night.
Ivy let out a soft sigh.
With a solemn and grave expression, he straightened Xue Ming, who was slumped on the seat.
He adjusted the body into a posture of someone sleeping soundly with arms folded and closed the man's eyes.
Perhaps no one would discover his death until the plane landed.
After finishing this, he took the suitcase to the cabin door.
Monitoring the time on his watch, he pressed it to stop the moment the second hand returned to its peak.
He leaned his body forward, letting himself fall downward.
In the final instant, he pulled the cabin door shut and snapped his fingers.
Inside the cabin, everything returned to how it was.
The gale howled in his ears, making his black hair fly about.
Ivy watched the passenger plane fly into the distance, its red navigation lights blinking at a fixed frequency until it vanished into the clouds.
He closed his eyes, turned around, and opened his arms to embrace the violent wind.
He allowed his meticulously groomed collar to be blown into disarray as he dove rapidly.
Clouds flashed past his vision at hundreds of meters per second.
Finally, his gaze settled on the rapidly falling woman.
Meeting that flamboyant gaze, he tightly gripped her hand.
The plane landed.
Members of the Mountain Crow family, who had been lying in wait at the airport for a long time, rushed out simultaneously.
However, they received news of Xue Ming's bizarre death.
The vital suitcase had also vanished into thin air.
The Mountain Crow rumbled and cursed as he reported to the main house.
Little did he know, a pair of eyes was watching him with indifference through a floor-to-ceiling window.
"Yes, Xue Ming is dead," the youth replied with a nod.
"The Assassin Duo did it. That has always been their style."
"Patriarch, there seems to be a commotion outside. Someone is spreading rumors in the airport. I suspect those people are organized. Do we need to take men to handle it?"
The Cloud Magpie patriarch turned his head.
The subordinate immediately lowered his gaze, not daring to meet his eyes.
"There is no need to make things difficult for them. These people are by no means villains, just ignorant civilians hired by someone. Disperse them, and just catch the leader for interrogation."
"Understood!" the subordinate responded loudly.
Suddenly, a massive boom tore through the silence of the night.
Flames soared into the sky at the center of the airport, erupting in every direction.
A scorching wave swept outward with the passenger plane as its center.
It surged, swarmed, and roared, slamming into the floor-to-ceiling windows.
"It's an enemy attack!!"
The subordinate wanted to go down to provide support in shock.
The Mountain Crow patriarch was still down there; could this be an attack targeted specifically at the Mountain Crow patriarch himself?
His expression suddenly froze.
In his eyes, the area behind Cloud Magpie was dyed fiery red.
The flames flickered within those indifferent eyes before being extinguished.
His vision turned into total darkness as the light died out.
"A pity, you're too late."
The following morning.
Dragonfly Town, Mint Green Leaf Bar.
"I say, how long do you two plan to stare at me like this? If you have something to say, just be direct," Xu Xiaoyou sighed.
Before her, Tiger Tail Orchid and Ivy, who had returned not long ago covered in the dust of travel, sat motionless.
They looked like they were scrutinizing her, but in reality, they hadn't thought of how to start, so the atmosphere had fallen into a bizarre deadlock.
"Queen of Hearts, you are currently participating in 'Visiting Battle by Overstepping Authority', right?" Ivy asked.
"Mm." Xu Xiaoyou yawned and answered casually.
The two watched her quietly.
With tired eyes, she poured ground coffee powder into a cup.
With her fingertip resting on a long coffee spoon, she stirred slowly.
Before the league began, Dark Gold Rose's popularity had already radiated from Oasis to the whole world.
Her every move was watched by countless people.
Xu Xiaoyou was not surprised that these two knew about it.
"Your goal is the Sovereign Key, right? Are you interested in joining our team? We can guarantee winning the league championship."
Hearing this, Xu Xiaoyou chuckled softly.
She had heard this kind of talk so often her ears had grown calluses.
Every large guild tried to pull her into their team.
They would solemnly promise her the world, list a bunch of perks for joining, and ramble about how high the probability of winning the league was.
They talked about what benefits she would get afterward, acting as if winning the championship was already a foregone conclusion.
Putting aside the Queen's Arms, could they even get past her Light-Chaser Garden?
"I already have my own teammates."
Out of politeness to her colleagues, Xu Xiaoyou still responded to the question.
The two looked at each other, seemingly deciding who should speak next.
Ivy cleared his throat. "I know, but I think you can still consider us because..."
"So, what's your guild called?" Xu Xiaoyou asked suddenly.
She had already thought of a subtle and polite response for after they answered.
She would say that the Queen's Arms had also invited her not long ago.
She was currently facing a difficult choice between the 'Sovereign Key' and 'friendship' and was deeply troubled by it, so she needed to consider it more carefully.
"Queen's Arms," Ivy replied.
A desolate wind blew between them.
Seeing that Xu Xiaoyou didn't respond and seemed completely uninterested in their conditions, Ivy hurriedly added:
"Excellency Dark Gold Rose, you should have heard of our guild. My player name in Oasis is 'Killing God Changqing'."
"Our chairman, 'Wu Shen Lu', is the current acting president, Jian Liu..."
"Enough, stop." Xu Xiaoyou covered her face, her pupils trembling.
Damn it, she should have realized sooner.
Lu = Jian Liu.
Changqing = Changqing.
Tao Shier had emphasized to her before that the Dawn Society had significant influence in Oasis.
Because the King of Clubs was the chairman of the King's Clan, Schultz, she had originally thought the "significant" influence meant just the King's Clan.
She hadn't expected the entire Queen's Arms to be a massive front for the Dawn Society.
You call this "significant"?
Just as Ivy looked at the girl's expression and thought there might be a chance, he saw Xu Xiaoyou suddenly pick up her coffee with a solemn air and take a light sip.
"Sorry, I refuse."
"Why?" Tiger Tail Orchid immediately frowned. "You should know our conditions, Queen of Hearts."
No matter what, the other party should have no reason to refuse them.
As long as she joined them, both the glory and the ownership of the Sovereign Key would become a certainty.
Xu Xiaoyou's gaze lingered on the notification boxes that popped up: 【Observer of a Pitiful Civilization】 and 【Treading Alone on the Path of Thorns and Poison】.
She admitted that she had felt a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of wavering in the difficult choice between the 'Sovereign Key' and 'friendship'.
However, winning the league championship together with Light-Chaser Garden was a prerequisite for completing the favorability storylines.
"There's no other reason." After a moment of silence, Xu Xiaoyou gave her answer with a smile.
"No matter what we have to experience next, I want to walk to the very end with them."
Rate on N.U.
