Ji Wushuang's few short sentences were like a beam of light.
It illuminated all the confusion and fear in Lu Qianqian's heart.
She seemed to understand a little.
Where Ji Wushuang's extraordinary calm and strength came from.
It wasn't numbness or indifference.
It was a will of steel, tempered through countless instances of coexisting with fear.
"What do we do after daybreak?"
Lu Qianqian asked.
"Xia's peacekeeping forces will come for us,"
Ji Wushuang replied.
She took a satellite phone from her backpack.
"I've already sent a distress signal."
Lu Qianqian was stunned.
"When did you..."
"While you were crying."
Ji Wushuang's answer remained terse and to the point.
Lu Qianqian looked at her, feeling an indescribable warmth surge in her heart.
Sister Wushuang always thinks further and does more than you.
She arranges everything meticulously.
That night, Lu Qianqian slept deeply.
She lay beside Ji Wushuang inside this abandoned church.
She had no more nightmares.
The next morning.
The roar of helicopter blades woke them.
A helicopter painted with the flag of Xia was circling above the church.
The rescue had arrived.
The helicopter landed on the open ground in front of the church.
After the hatch opened, several fully armed peacekeeping soldiers jumped out.
Leading them was a major with dark skin and sharp eyes.
He saw Ji Wushuang and paused.
Then, an expression of disbelief spread across his face.
"Wushuang?"
"Black Wolf."
Ji Wushuang nodded slightly in acknowledgment.
The major called Black Wolf walked over quickly.
He seemed to want to give Ji Wushuang a hug.
But seeing her cool gaze, he awkwardly lowered his arms.
"You... what are you doing here?"
"Mission."
Ji Wushuang pointed at Lu Qianqian.
"This is my protectee."
"We need support to rescue two people from the Walu tribe."
Black Wolf glanced at Lu Qianqian, then back at Ji Wushuang.
His eyes held some confusion, but he didn't ask further, simply nodding decisively.
"Get on the aircraft."
"Team Four, with me!"
With the peacekeeping forces joining, the rescue operation became straightforward.
When they returned to the Walu tribe,
the conflict was over, leaving only devastation in its wake.
Uncle Zhao, Lin Ke, and the black man were all still alive.
Seeing the rescue troops, they were all moved to tears.
Lu Qianqian watched this scene.
She watched those well-equipped, highly trained soldiers.
She watched the food, medicine, and sense of security they brought.
For the first time, a clear and powerful thought sprouted in her heart.
Kindness and courage are not enough.
Compassion and a sense of duty are also not enough.
To protect the people you want to protect in a world like this.
To change this goddamn reality.
You must possess power of your own.
Real, formidable, unrivaled power.
This thought, like a seed, quietly took root and began to sprout in Lu Qianqian's heart.
...
The peacekeeping soldiers secured the area.
They were clearing the bodies and treating the wounded.
The air was thick with the foul stench of death and the smell of disinfectant.
Uncle Zhao and Lin Ke had already been stabilized and were waiting to return to the city.
Their injuries weren't serious; they were not in life-threatening danger.
The major called Black Wolf walked over to Ji Wushuang.
His real name was Li Feng.
"We've examined the bodies," Li Feng said, his voice heavy.
"Most are civilians from the Walu tribe."
"The others are from the neighboring Kutu tribe."
"Initial assessment points to tribal conflict."
Ji Wushuang looked at the body of one of the raiders.
"Tribal conflicts use new M4 rifles?" Ji Wushuang asked.
"Their tactical coordination didn't seem like a ragtag mob."
Li Feng fell silent.
He had noticed it too.
These men's equipment and tactical discipline were too good.
They didn't seem like ordinary tribal militia.
More like... well-trained mercenaries.
"Nothing was left on-site that could prove their identity,"
Li Feng said.
"People from the Walu tribe say the Kutu tribe recently received a batch of mysterious weapon supplies."
"The supplier is untraceable."
"This matter is complicated. We will continue investigating."
Ji Wushuang asked no more.
She knew that without evidence, everything was just speculation.
But in her mind, she already had a vague direction.
To be able to quietly arm a tribal force here,
and meticulously erase all traces...
behind it, there must be a powerful faction.
Lu Qianqian walked over.
Her face was still pale, but her eyes were unusually calm.
She just watched everything quietly.
Watched the soldiers load cold bodies onto trucks.
Watched the surviving villagers search numbly through the rubble for their families.
An old man from the Walu tribe held his grandson's body and wept bitterly.
...
The next day.
On the ruins of the Walu tribe, Xia's peacekeeping forces set up a temporary mediation center.
Li Feng invited elders from the Walu tribe and the neighboring Kutu tribe, who had launched the attack, for talks.
The atmosphere in the mediation center was tense, like drawn bows.
The enmity between the two tribes ran deep.
This massacre had pushed the hatred to its peak.
The Walu elder denounced the other side's atrocities.
The Kutu elder argued that the Walu people had stolen their water source first.
Representatives from both tribes argued incessantly.
Lu Qianqian was on the other side, responsible for distributing relief supplies.
Food, medicine, clean drinking water.
Lu Qianqian was no longer just an observer.
She began trying to communicate with the women and children using the rudimentary local language she had learned from materials.
Her pronunciation was strange, but her smile and eyes were sincere.
The children weren't afraid of this outsider at all.
One little girl even tugged gently on her clothes.
She offered half of the biscuit she had just received to Lu Qianqian.
Looking into the little girl's eyes, still clear despite the suffering,
Lu Qianqian felt that everything she was doing was worthwhile.
Ji Wushuang stood not far away.
Her mission was to protect Lu Qianqian.
But her gaze remained fixed on a man among the Kutu tribe representatives.
That man was named Tarik.
He was the Kutu chieftain's brother.
Throughout the mediation process, he behaved with abnormal agitation.
He constantly incited hateful rhetoric.
Accused the Xia peacekeeping forces of being "hypocritical invaders."
His eyes burned with a fanatical, reckless fire.
Moreover, he kept glancing involuntarily in Lu Qianqian's direction.
His hand would subconsciously touch his waist and abdomen.
These were all extremely dangerous signals.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
