Extra Chapter - Ji Lu Wushuang - Purgatory

Ji Wushuang's voice was icy, filled with an undeniable force.

Lu Qianqian's mind went completely blank.

Her ears were filled only with the drumbeat of her own heart.

And, the gunshots and screams that were terrifyingly close.

Through a gap in the stones, she saw the young mother who sold fruit.

She was huddled under her stall, clutching her two children, trembling.

A bandit had spotted them.

He sneered and walked over.

He grabbed the four- or five-year-old boy.

The mother screamed, clinging desperately to the bandit's leg, pleading.

The bandit impatiently lifted his foot and kicked her away.

Then he raised the dark muzzle of his gun, aiming it at the child's head.

Lu Qianqian's pupils contracted violently.

Fear, like a cold hand, gripped her throat.

She wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

The next second.

She sensed Ji Wushuang beside her move.

Ji Wushuang was like a leopard poised to strike.

She didn't charge out. Instead, using the stone stall as cover, she moved silently to the other side.

A dagger appeared in her hand.

She didn't charge at the bandit tormenting the mother and child.

She charged towards the nearest bandit, one who was looting jewelry.

That bandit had his back to her, completely unaware of death's approach.

Ji Wushuang closed in on his back like a ghost.

Her left hand shot out, lightning-fast, to cover his mouth.

The dagger in her right hand plunged upward from an impossible angle into his lower back, precisely piercing a kidney.

The bandit's body stiffened, then went limp before he could even cry out.

Ji Wushuang caught his falling body, preventing any sound.

Simultaneously, she pulled a pistol from the bandit's waist.

And swiftly took the spare magazine from his body, stuffing it into her own pocket.

The entire process was fluid.

So fast Lu Qianqian almost thought it was a hallucination.

Ji Wushuang didn't pause.

Using the bandit's corpse as cover, she calmly raised the pistol and took aim.

"Bang!"

A crisp gunshot.

The back of the head of the bandit about to pull the trigger and shoot the child exploded in a spray of blood.

His body pitched forward, collapsing the flimsy fruit stall.

This gunshot instantly alerted the remaining bandits.

They swung their guns around, firing wildly in Ji Wushuang's direction.

Bullets struck the stone stall, sparking.

Ji Wushuang had already rolled away the moment she fired, changing position.

She glanced towards where Lu Qianqian and Annie were, confirming they were still safe.

Then, she made a gesture towards the car where Jacob was hiding.

Jacob understood immediately.

He suddenly started the car.

The engine roared.

The vehicle, like a crazed rhinoceros, charged towards the market's other exit.

The bandits' attention was instantly diverted.

They swung their guns around, firing at the car.

Then, in that moment of distraction.

Ji Wushuang moved again.

She shot out from behind cover like a black phantom.

The pistol in her hand fired a series of well-spaced shots.

Bang! Bang!

Two bandits fell.

The final bandit finally reacted.

In panic, he swung his gun around, trying to aim at Ji Wushuang.

But it was too late.

Ji Wushuang was faster.

She raised the muzzle slightly and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"Bang!"

The bullet pierced his forehead with precision.

His gun-raising motion froze mid-air, then he toppled like a felled tree.

The entire market fell into a deathly silence.

Then, gradually, crying began.

First suppressed, then wailing.

Ji Wushuang stood amidst the chaotic scene of corpses.

A few drops of warm blood were spattered on her.

Her expression showed no change.

Lu Qianqian lay on the ground, motionless.

Her eyes were wide open.

Staring at the hellish scene before her.

At the young mother who had just been smiling at her, now lying in a pool of blood.

She had been shot in the chest.

Probably hit by a stray bullet during the bandits' wild shooting.

Her eyes were still open, gazing towards the sky, but all light had left them.

In her arms, she still held the infant tightly.

The four- or five-year-old boy was unharmed.

He stared blankly at his dead mother.

Not crying, not making a sound.

As if he didn't yet understand what had happened.

Lu Qianqian's stomach could no longer hold back.

She rolled over violently and began to vomit.

She threw up the bread and water she had eaten that morning.

Finally, only yellow bile remained.

Annie's face was also pale.

But clearly, Annie was no stranger to this kind of situation.

She took out her walkie-talkie and called the aid station in a trembling voice.

"Center, center, this is Annie! We're at the market, under attack! Multiple casualties! Requesting backup! Repeat, requesting backup!"

Ji Wushuang walked over.

She glanced at Lu Qianqian, who was vomiting, her face ashen.

She didn't comfort Lu Qianqian.

She simply handed her a bottle of water.

"Rinse your mouth."

She said calmly.

"Then, stand up."

"This place isn't safe."

Lu Qianqian didn't take the water.

She just looked at Ji Wushuang with an indescribable expression.

In that look was fear, shock, confusion.

And a dependence she herself hadn't even realized.

"You... you killed them."

Her voice was like a mosquito's, tiny and trembling.

"Yes."

Ji Wushuang answered with a single word.

Lu Qianqian fell silent.

She looked at the bodies lying on the ground.

At the dead mother.

At the boy who had become an orphan.

Her mind flashed to words her elder brother, Lu Chenyuan, had once said to her.

"A person's nobility never lies in how much they possess, but in how much they understand, and how much they take on."

She hadn't understood before.

She thought taking on responsibility meant doing volunteer work in the community.

Was donating some money and supplies.

Now, she seemed to understand a little.

True responsibility is what you choose to do when faced with darkness like this.

Is it, like Annie, tending to the wounded?

Or, like Ji Wushuang, using killing to stop killing.

Or, like herself, capable of nothing but vomiting and fear.

An overwhelming sense of powerlessness washed over her.

She pushed herself up from the ground, swaying unsteadily.

She didn't look at the bodies again.

She walked over to the stunned boy.

She took off her own jacket and laid it over the young mother, who was already cold.

Then, she crouched down.

Reached out, wanting to hug the boy.

But the boy shrank back like a frightened rabbit.

His eyes were filled with fear and distrust of this world.