Back to the Apocalypse Chapter 123

translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Bai Jing's expression was full of disdain. He only felt the soreness of his teeth from gritting them too hard, and his stomach was full of anger. He Yong was completely fearless at this point. Was he so certain that he would agree? Bai Jing stretched out two fingers and wagged them, looking like he didn't care at all. "Twenty percent." In any case, he should set the starting point low for the negotiations. As long as others were uncomfortable, he would still feel great.
“No.” He Yong couldn't keep his smile up as his gentle and elegant façade cracked. He was very certain that Bai Jing's narrow mindedness had begun to show. Faced with this situation, he could only sigh and laugh bitterly, "Thirty percent is already the best deal."
Bai Jing raised his eyebrows and looked indifferently at He Yong without saying a word. In any case, he wasn't the anxious one.
He Yong helplessly turned his gaze to Xiao Sa and said sincerely, "At least 30 percent. I also have to support my own people here. There's no point if I drop the percentage any further, but I can pass on some information for free…"
Xiao Sa’s eyes flashed, and he was silent for a moment. He could tell that He Yong was telling the truth, and he was also interested in what news He Yong might have. He believed that He Yong wouldn't say such things without a reason, so something must have happened. Only, looking at Little Jing's angry appearance, he felt that it was still better to make He Yong suffer a little longer. In the current situation, it was the other party who was requesting something of them, so he wasn't afraid that He Yong might renege.
He Yong choked. He was clearly giving away benefits to others, but he still needed to beg! What kind of world was this!! However, he could also tell that the two men were simply toying with him and calmed himself; it was fine as long as there was still a chance. In truth, it wasn't that he couldn't find anyone else, but in comparison, Bai Jing and Xiao Sa's position was more advantageous to him. This was also why he had kept the information in his hands without passing it out. If the business wasn't profitable for him, he would rather nobody got it at all than to have someone else take advantage. However, he really couldn't understand what he'd done wrong and how he'd offended Young Master Jing. He could sense that Bai Jing really didn't like him, but it wasn't as simple as hatred. He felt that it was very unjustified, hadn't they always cooperated well together?
In fact, He Yong didn't realize that what Bai Jing found most intolerable was his distant, enigmatic appearance. In fact, he couldn't really be considered to have been wronged - the only thing he could blame was that he looked too smart. In other words, he had been shot at while lying down.
Despite his discontent, He Yong still offered up all the information he had learned. After that, he added some extra commentary on the Zhou Family as well as some of their more shameful plots.
After hearing this, Bai Jing was very angry. He didn't doubt He Yong's words because it was indeed believable that the Zhou Family could do those shameful things. He glared angrily at He Yong and asked, "How do you know these things?"
He Yong laughed indifferently, his expression calm. He didn't answer the question.
Bai Jing wasn't surprised, and he didn't continue to ask. He could tell at a glance that He Yong was ambitious, and since he wanted to get ahead in the Capital, how could he reveal all his cards? Bai Jing was only angry because he indeed hadn't considered that the Zhou Family would be so bold that they would even dare to make a move in the Capital Base. Every time he thought about the Zhou Family's scheme to lure the tiger out of its den, and the fact that he and Xiao Sa might not have come out of his space in time, he couldn't help but think that although he and Xiao Sa wouldn't be harmed, what about everyone else in the villa who were powerless to fight back? They would all have ended up slaughtered.
The Zhou Family acted in secret and would definitely leave nobody alive to tell the story. If that happened, it wouldn't matter even if they obtained revenge; the dead couldn't come back. Moreover, the Zhou Family had also made arrangements for the team that was heading to the military factory. Regardless of whether they succeeded, as long as they were able to harm the people in the villa, it would be a great blow to their team.
Bai Jing was filled with hatred. If he only wanted to punish the Zhou Family a little before, it had now transformed into a relentless enmity. Death would be too cheap for them. Bai Jing swore that they had to grind the Zhou Family into the dust. Weren't they most fond of making use of their rights? Bai Jing sneered coldly, and a ray of dark light flashed across his eyes. He really wanted to see what would happen to that group of people if they lost their precious rights.
After some bargaining, Xiao Sa and He Yong reached an agreement and established a good working relationship.
He Yong’s expression was constantly shifting, from his original smile to a bitter one, then helpless, then sadly determined, and finally brave and righteous as he tossed down a USB and ran away as if ghosts were pursuing him, uncaring of the cracks that had appeared in his gentle and elegant image. He took a deep breath when he finally reached the outside and wiped off some cold sweat. He felt excitement, nervousness, and distress in his heart, but his first and foremost feeling was an inexplicable type of excitement.
He Yong could feel the blood in his entire body heating up. Although the negotiation process had been depressing, he couldn't deny that he was satisfied with the result. Only, if it happened again, he really didn't want to deal with those two men again. He could only regret as he thought about how he had mistaken a poisonous snake for a leopard. Not only were those two genuinely powerful, their hearts were also pitch black.
He Yong seemed to see a bright avenue filled with sunlight up ahead. The agreement he had reached with Xiao Sa covered not only the current situation, but also involved cooperation with Jing Sa City in the future. The two sides had temporarily reached an alliance and would sort out the detailed plans after the military factory mission was complete.
He Yong kept his mouth shut the entire way back. He felt no guilt about providing the information he had. He had a vague guess that Bai Jing would come up with some plan to take revenge against the Zhou Family, but so what? The Capital had four major factions, and the top tiers were already saturated. If he wanted to rise up in power, he would have to pull one of them down. Wasn't the Zhou Family the best choice?
Bai Jing turned on the computer, looked at the information contained within, and laughed in satisfaction. He was very satisfied with He Yong's knowledge of current affairs. There was a detailed map regarding the distribution of forces in the Capital Base that also covered the residential areas. The location of where all the cameras were installed as well as a table detailing all the interpersonal relationships between key figures of the Capital Base was also provided. Not only did it contain information on the Zhou Family, there was also information on the Qi Family, the Bai Family, and Song Family. It stated who worked in what department, who their subordinates were, and who their family members were; everything was clear at a glance. Other than that, the information He Yong had given also contained a map of the military factory base and the digital passwords that would be required. Presumably this was prepared for the mission they had taken this time.
Bai Jing couldn’t help but admire him. It seemed that this time, He Yong had really invested a lot into this.
Xiao Sa disagreed. It was obvious that He Yong had already prepared the information, but he didn’t bring it out until the end. That man had to be forced into a corner before he would know what was best for him and submitted.
That night, after midnight, the two of them made used the map and Bai Jing's teleportation to successfully avoid the cameras on the base and arrive at the Zhou Family's conference hall.
It was clearly late at night, but the Zhou Family's hall was ablaze with light, and many people were gathered inside. Bai Jing didn't make a precise count and merely used his spiritual powers to make a sweep, but there were around thirty people present, and they were all ability users.
They were careful to hide their figures. Xiao Sa's gaze swept across the power supply; although electricity was limited at the Capital base, each major faction and family had their own generators. Dark, windy nights were best for assassination. If they wanted to attack by stealth, it was better for them to do so in the dark. Although they were powerful, they didn't have plans to attack the Capital head on.
Xiao Sa was very glad that the high level ability users had a kind of forced power suppression against lower level ability users. Otherwise, it wouldn't be easy for them to pick out their targets from a group of over thirty people.
As darkness swept in, Xiao Sa didn't kill Zhou Yuanheng directly. After having cultivated, Xiao Sa was now much more knowledgeable about how human meridians worked. He attacked several of Zhou Yuanheng's key meridian points, and after he made his move, Bai Jing pulled Xiao Sa with him and teleported away from the room. The entire process took no more than thirty seconds.
Next, they went to the Zhou Family's mansion. In the blink of an eye, they had appeared in front of the Zhou Family's most promising grandson, Zhou Jin. He was also the one who the most likely first to advance to a level five ability user.
“Who?”
As soon as Bai Jing stood still, he sent out a sharp spacial blade.
Zhou Jin's eyes flashed open in the darkness as he suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis.
He rolled to dodge and had no time to think any further when he felt pain in the nape of his neck and passed out. At the end of the day, the gap between different power levels was impossible to overcome.
Bai Jing very simply knocked him unconscious. He felt some sympathy, but that was all. He didn't like anyone in the Zhou Family, but Zhou Jin was a good seedling. In his previous life, Zhou Jin had really stirred up the wind and waves. In the present, alarms began to ring out within the base. Xiao Sa quickly gathered his powers and used them to penetrate Zhou Jin's body.
Lights lit up upstairs, and Bai Jing looked towards the door that led to the next room with some regret. Following the sound of footsteps coming over from outside, Bai Jing decisively pulled Xiao Sa with him and disappeared from the spot once again. After reaching level five, he could now take people with him as he liked when teleporting.
The next day, news came that there had been an attack on the Zhou Family, and martial law was enforced in the base as people became panic-stricken. The number of guards on patrol increased, and checks were made everywhere as they investigated everyone from the leaders at the top all the way down to the refugees in the slums. They were particularly strict at the entrance and exit to the base; a large number of guards were assembled there, and the mercenaries were checked closely one by one.
By then, Bai Jing and Xiao Sa were already dozens of kilometres away.
Bai Jingcheng felt a little nervous when he learned that the Zhou Family had been attacked. He was reminded of his talk with Bai Jing yesterday and intuitively knew that this matter was absolutely related to his son, but hurriedly kept his mouth shut when He Yong came over explicitly to remind him not to leak any information. Everyone knew that his son had gone missing, and even if the Zhou Family suspected him, they wouldn't think of Little Jing. What Bai Jingcheng needed to now was to simply keep hidden what he knew.
He Yong naturally nodded and agreed. When he heard the alarms sound out in the middle of the night last night, he knew that Bai Jing and Xiao Sa had begun to act. Saying that he hadn't been nervous would be a lie, and it was only when he received news that no suspicious persons were caught this morning that he had relaxed. After all, he had provided the map and quite a lot of assistance. If problems arose with the two of them, he would end up more miserable than before. Fortunately, his luck had always been good, and his ability to judge people wasn't bad. By now, He Yong had forgotten how depressed he was during their negotiations and only wanted to find out more news about the situation. The Zhou Family had locked everything up tight, and other than the news that an attack had occurred, no other information was to be found at all. However, the more it was like that, the more certain He Yong could be that the Zhou Family had suffered heavy losses this time.
Wasn't that just nonsense? The Zhou Family had lost two of their level four ability users. They had no choice but to conceal the matter as the strength of their ability users also represented the power their faction held. Zhou Yuanheng and Zhou Jin were not only powerhouses in the Zhou Family, they also sat in important positions. After losing both of them, the Zhou Family's influence had effectively been weakened. If this matter became known to others, it was obvious what the consequences would be. They couldn't disclose anything before a successor was decided upon. Not only did they have to keep it secret, they had to keep it a tight secret.