On the cliff

Yu Tian's complexity now seems terrible, below his eyes are two black bags as if he hasn't slept a wink.His skin was slightly dark and his fingertips were dark.

The same went for the other mercenaries, their faces were dark, a few minutes after eating the meal, the mercenaries dropped down to the ground.

"w-what"They were confused and terrified, they couldn't move their bodies or utilise their spiritual strength.

Fear overcame them, their hearts felt dread as they fell to the ground.

"Who poisoned us!"The dragon rank was also affected, his complexity was much better than the others and could still stand.

"hehehe, we expected no less from Guan Ye, you were born with little resources yet you're still able to become a revered dragon ranked mercenary, if you were at your prime, we would be no match for you"A laughter filled the ship

Guan Ye began to grind his teeth, his eyes glared at three people who stood up effortlessly, their complexity was just fine and showed no signs of poisoning.

The three then turned to Lan Du

"Brat, you were an abnormality, the previous two were easily taken care of by you, but now you're in our hands"They laughed as one of them kicked Lan Du's stomach.

pwa

Lan Du coughed and fell back

Guan Ye gritted his teeth as he ran up, attempting to attack them

"Even when poisoned you show such ferocity, no wonder you became a dragon ranked"They smiled and took out a sword

Guan Ye wore steel gloves and armguards, he was a close combat type so he wanted to close up the gap as soon as possible.

He held off the three of them for a few minutes before the poison started to kick in with greater force

"hehehe, Guan Ye, give it up"One of them walked up and was about to cut down when Guan Ye suddenly burst out with greater strength, he slammed his arm at the man's throat, sending him flying out.

But right after, his body collapsed

"a last ditch effort, being able to take out one of us, you deserve your title as the crazed fist fighter"he other two didn't care about their colleague, they just smirked and walked over to Yu Tian.

"Old man, you gave us quite a bargain, who would have thought it would be so easy to-"As soon as he raised his weapon, he felt a heavy impact land on his head

"shut the hell up, your kick was quite painful"A cold voice came from behind them, the mercenaries on teh ground stared at the figure in shock.

The other one turned his head and saw Lan Du staring at him as if he was a dead man.

"h-how!"As soon as he spoke, he felt his stomach twist as he fell to his knees

"All this big talk and you two can't even withstand a single hit, useless"Lan Du stomped his back viciously, causing him to fall flat on his front.

As for the other one, he felt dizzy, he shook his head and stared at Lan Du in disbelief

"What are you looking at?"Lan Du raised her foot and kicked him on the face, a crack sound was heard which was followed by a scream.

"b-broken!My nose!"He cried out

Lan Du sneered

"Shut up, your scream sounds detestable"Lan Du growled and kicked him again on the stomach

"You gave me quite a hard kick earlier, where's your previous arrogance?Where's your viciousness?"Lan Du placed her foot on his head and looked down upon him

"s-spare me...please"

Lan Du lifted her brows

"You still have the will to live, well, I hate it"Lan Du raised her foot and stomped heavily upon his wrist.

"AHHHHH!"

He felt his wrist bone break, he couldn't even move his fingers anymore.Lan Du turned to the one who was knocked down earlier.

"Don't pretend to be dead, keep acting and I'll slit your wrist and let you bleed to death"

The man immediately got up and kneeled in front of her

"spare us, we were just following orders!"

He cried

He glanced at his colleague who had his wrist broken and shivered.

"I hate cowards the most"Lan Du grabbed his hair and slammed his face into the ground, his consciousness was lost the moment the impact occurred.

Even the mercenaries were frightened by Lan Du's vicious actions, Lan Du glanced at Yu Tian and snorted

"Stop acting already, the danger is averted, help me feed the canon fodders antidotes, I still prefer meat shields at bullet blocking distance, not dead"Lan Du said as she took out several bottles of antidote, she used a hefty sum of money to buy these in case she was poisoned.

Yu Tian nodded and stood up

The mercenaries were once again shocked, why were they fine?Did Lan Du give him an antidote and not them?

"Who's canon fodder!"A mercenary to felt indignant shouted at her

Lan Du glared at him, she walked over and kicked him in the face

"I am the one who decides who lives and who dies, even Yu Tian would need to be careful around me, if not for the fact that he was my employer, I wouldn't have given him the antidote"Lan Du said coldly

Yu Tian began to wonder, who was hiring who again?Why did it feel like he was the one thats escorting her?The way Lan Du spoke didn't show any respect towards him!He was the owner of one of the largest companies in the civilisation!

Lan Du tossed a bottle over to Yu Tian

"Start feeding, the poison isn't life threatening, but they would feel weak for a small amount of time because they were not fed with the antidote soon enough"

Liu Bu received one from Lan Du first since he was an acquaintance

"hahaha, brother Devil, you really are vicious, why didn't you give me the antidote earlier?"He chuckled and asked

"Because I'm vicious"Lan Du replied

Liu Bu laughed awkwardly

"I walked into that one"He shook his head and sighed

Lan Du passed the antidote to all the mercenaries as sighed to herself, she turned to Yu Tian and began grumbling

"I expect extra wages for this, as the employer you didn't prepare for poisoning, disappointing"Lan Du shook her head and said

Yu Tian nodded

'Is he really a mercenary?He came way too prepared, didn't he?And these medicine aren't cheap either'

Guan Ye later received his medicine, he gave Lan Du a bow and thanked her

"I Guan Ye owe you one, if you weren't prepared for poisoning, I would have died"He said respectfully

Lan Du waved her hands, but she found Guan Ye somewhat familiar.

"Do you have a sibling or son?"She asked

Guan Ye gave her a surprised look

"Indeed I do, he goes to the academy just near the mercenary guild"He replied

Lan Du rubbed her chin

"ah, I think I remember, Guan Ya"Lan Du remembered, it was number 29 of her subordinates

Guan Ye was once again surprised

"You know my younger brother?"He asked

Lan Du nodded

"He's a hard working meat ba-cough*, he's a commendable lad, he is one of the toughest few who completes my training"Lan Du said

"oh?Are you a teacher at the academy?"He asked curiously, but looking at Lan DU's height, he rethought his options.

"no, I would like to say that he's one of my people, but him and the others wouldn't stop calling me boss which got on my nerves, anyways, your brother is hard working but he lacks attentiveness, I hope you can tell him that some day, he rather takes things head on rather than thinking it through"Lan Du shook her head and sighed

Guan Ya looked at her strangely

"So he's your subordinate?I heard him talk about a demon like boss recently, so you were the rumoured demon"He chuckled to himself

Lan Du lifted her brows

"oh ho?Looks like he needs to be taught a lesson, calling his trainer a demon"Lan Du smirked and mumbled to herself

Guan Ya laughed

"I feel at ease with you being his boss"He patted Lan Du's back and laughed

Lan Du knocked his hand away

"I don't like people touching me, I'm going to take a break, these hired mercenaries are too useless, can't even take care of a few assassins"Lan Du grumbled on as she sat down and began reading a book.

Guan Ya chuckled, Lan Du may seem arrogant, but she has the ability to back up the arrogance.He looked around and realised that some mercenaries didn't even dare look up when Lan Du walked past them, they all put their heads down like timid sheep in front of a wolf.

"He's an interesting lad"He smiled and went to Yu Tian who was heading to his room

"Sir, should I stand guard from now on?"He asked

Yu Tian shook his head

"No need, as the kid said, the poison may be removed but you are all still under affect of the residue, that kid should be able to handle most the things"Yu Tian replied, Lan Du was the kid he was referring to and he seems to show great respect for her.

Guan Ya nodded and glanced at Lan Du, the moment his eyes landed on her, she shot a glance back, after realising it was Guan Ya, she turned back to reading.

"He's sharp, to even feel my gaze from this distance, why isn't he in tiger rank?"He wondered and shook his head

After a few hours, the ship landed.Lan Du looked out the window and realised the scenery was completely different.

"How did we arrive so fast?It doesn't sound theoretically possible to arrive in just one and a half days"Lan Du turned to Yu Tian who came out and asked

Yu Tian chuckled

"It seems you don't know since this is a secret kept amongst the higher ups, near each planet, there is actually a special gate, in reality its a type of wormhole, even now we cannot fully identify it, but we recently found out we could travel between each wormhole, soon we were able to find out which one goes where, every time a new wormhole is discovered, we dispatch a small team to identify the place before we officially allow access to it"Yu Tian replied

"Is it really okay to reveal this secret?"Lan Du asked

"Of course, its only a secret because it was very recently discovered by Colonel Yuan Min, it hasn't even been 10 years since it was discovered, but soon the higher ups are deciding to publicise the news"

Lan Du stroked her chin

"Alright"Lan Du clenched her fists slightly and walked away

'Is that what he was doing for the past years?No wonder he decided to leave for so long...'

A cold smile crept onto her face

'This will be fun, looks like over taking his position will be a little tougher than planned'

The ship stabilised and everyone got off, the air was fresh and the plants around them were strange.It was completely different from Earth's plants, the leaves and grass were blue while the soil was slightly green.

"How far away are we from the escort point?"Lan Du asked

"hm, this is a bit annoying, the escort point is almost a moth's trip away"Yu Tian frowned and replied

Lan Du furrowed her brows, if it's almost a month, then she would definitely be staying longer than her leave, and that was also not including troubles they may encounter on the trip.

The group of mercenaries all gathered around Yu Tian when the set off, Lan DU however was quite far from the group, she traveled through the trees and bushes nearby rather than the main road.Few people realised she was gone since no one paid attention to where she went.

Guan Ya noticed she wasn't with the group but didn't speak up about it, for him, Lan Du has her own plans in everything she does so he didn't want to disrupt her.

After a few hours of traveling, the group stopped to rest.

'Now's a good time...they're all tired from traveling, from the intel, only Guan Ya is a major threat to the plan, as long as I get rid of him first...'

A figure crouched in the trees, he watched from afar and slowly pulled out a sniper.The barrel pointed at Guan Ya's head and his finger slowly approached the trigger.

Sha

When he was about to click, he felt liquid flowing down his throat, when he placed his hand there and looked, his hand was stained with blood.

But by the time he registered what the liquid was, his brain already stopped functioning.

"This place is annoying, hasn't even been a day and already an assassin"Lan Du mumbled as she cleaned the bloodied knife in her hands.

She tossed the body to the ground and poured a strange green liquid over it.In matter of seconds, the body decomposed and not even the clothes were left.

Lan Du sat in the tree and watched out for any threats.

'I want to finish this as soon as possible, meaning the group mustn't be slowed down, as long as I remove all threats without them noticing, they will keep going'

Lan Du smiled coldly as she then dipped the knife into a poisoned bottle before placing it back into her sheath.She then sat on the tree, waiting for the group to start moving.

"Lets move out"Yu Tian stood up and called out

The group then began heading back onto track, Lan Du also got up and silently jumped from tree to tree, to her, this was better than walking since it was more convenient and faster.

On the way, she eliminated two other assassins in silence, not a sound was made and all evidence was removed by her quickly.

'How much bounty is on that guys head!They are like swarms of never ending insects'Lan Du began to grind her teeth in frustration

Currently, on a mountain cliff, a man held a long barrelled sniper in hand, his eyes focused in the scope, staring down upon the group.

"Why has the unit below not reported back, and no assassination attempts has been made so far"He grumbled and picked up his phone

"Unite 3 leader, what the hell happened to your group!Why are all the mercenaries still 

alive!"He shouted

An unfamiliar voice came out the phone

"oh, from your tone, you should be either another squadron or the leader, listening to the nearby sound, you're quite high up, and since you know our current condition, you can see us...oh, there's a cliff nearby, how about I drop in to say hello?"

"Who are you!What happened to the third unit!"

"Third unit?How much are there, if there is only five people, then they're dead"A cheerful giggle was then heard

"No wait, this little guy is still alive"

The man then heard a shout

"Boss!Help us!H-He's a demon!Demon!Argh!"It was followed by a stab sound and the man's scream'

"Was he someone you know?Please tell me he was, if not, I killed him for nothing, but even if he wasn't, I would have still killed him"The voice giggled and hung up the phone.

The man on the cliff gritted his teeth as he crushed the phone in his hand, the then took out another phone

"Unite 2, report the situation from inside!"He said silently

But the moment the call picked up, he heard a familiar voice

"Yo ho, wow, you must miss, you called me twice in a row, aiya, you'll make me blush"He heard the taunting giggle from the other side of the phone once again

"You again!What happened to the second squadron!"

"You mean the idiots that infiltrated the group as mercenaries?They were so busy talking big that I ended up having to use the universal mute button"The tone grew happier and more cheerful

"Universal mute button?"

"It's called death"The sound of the giggle was soon embedded in the man's mind, veins popped out his forehead as he felt humiliated.

"I will remember you, but don't get happy too soon, unit 2 and 3 are merely part of our full strength"The man said in a threatening manner

"Thanks for the information, also, did you know, if the vena cava is shot, you won't die immediately but death from bleed is guarantee?"The voice asked in a curious manner

"I'm an assassin, why would I not kno-" Before he could finish, he heard a gunshot, he looked down and saw red liquid dripping down his chest.

"Did you like my present?Well...you probably won't be alive to answer"The phone then hung up, the cliff became desolate and silent.

After a while, a figure approached the body on the cliff side.It was Lan Du, she held a sniper in her hand and walked up slowly.

"The snipers from the assassins are so high quality, it could even deliver my tranquilliser dart along with red pain without being affected by the wind much"Lan Du said in amusement as she tied up the body.

"hehehe, bet he was scared out of his mind when I shot him"Lan Du grinned and carried the body down the mountain.To make sure she didn't get left behind, she snuck a tracker on Liu 

Bu when they were talking on the ship.

She picked up her phone and a small map appeared.

"Good, they seemed to have stopped to take a break, I should be able to run there within 1 hour"Lan Du flung the body over her back and held it by the rope as she dashed off.

On the trip, the man's eyelids trembled, he let out a painful groaned before opening his eyes completely.

"Oh, you're awake, now thats troublesome, go back to sleep"He heard that traumatic voice and before he knew it, his felt his consciousness fade when a light impact landed on the back of his neck.

Before he fell completely unconscious, one thought ran through his mind:

'sh-should I give up being an assassin?'