Outside the mining district, yellow sand filled the sky.
Gu Xiao sat high upon his horse, staring with sinister eyes at the "transformed" Situ Jing atop the lookout. He had risked offending the Situ family because the Fourth Prince of Western Yan had promised him the position of Minister of War in exchange for Chu Yuning.
"Situ Jing, do not refuse a face offered to you!" Gu Xiao brandished a military tally. "That boy is a general from Great Qi holding heavy secrets. Harboring him is treason! The Fourth Prince has decreed: anyone who interferes shall be executed without mercy!"
Blue Five (Situ Jing) stood by a massive iron gear, letting out a cold laugh. "Treason? I only know that whoever is on my land belongs to me. You want him? Trade your life for his!"
"Situ Jing! You harbor a fugitive; the evidence is irrefutable!" Gu Xiao barked at the mine entrance, greed flashing in his eyes. "Surrender your mining rights and beg for my forgiveness, and perhaps I can intercede for you before the Prince..."
"Intercede?"
A woman's mocking voice drifted from the high ridge behind them.
Gu Xiao spun around. A man and a woman stood upon the ridge, silhouetted against the sky. The man, though dressed as a guard, carried an aura of cold, noble authority. The woman, Crimson Nine, had shed her maid's disguise. Her gaze was as sharp as a blade, locking onto Gu Xiao as if appraising a corpse.
"Where did this lowly wench come from?" Gu Xiao roared.
Crimson Nine ignored him. She reached into her vest, pulled out a specialized signal flare, and pulled the cord.
BOOM—!
A streak of red light pierced the clouds.
"That signal..." Inside the mine, Blue Five snapped her head up, her eyes burning with fanaticism. "Dammit! That crazy Captain is actually here!"
Three days ago, her bracer had pulsed with blue light; the system had warned her that Crimson Nine was approaching.
"Yuning, my Captain is here." Blue Five turned and grabbed two black spheres from her lab table, tossing them to Chu Yuning. "Go. Give that scumbag a proper welcoming gift."
Before Gu Xiao could react, a soot-covered youth charged out of the mine, hurling a black object that landed precisely beneath the hooves of the Black Cavalry's horses.
"What is that? A hidden weapon?" Gu Xiao began to sneer.
KABOOM—!!
An earth-shattering explosion erupted. Flames roared toward the sky. Warhorses shrieked in terror as the arrogant Black Cavalry was tossed aside like ragdolls by the massive shockwave. This wasn't the internal energy of a martial arts master; this was pure, destructive chemical detonation.
"Blue Five, still as fast as ever." Crimson Nine blurred into motion, leaping from the high ridge. She drew the Chu family's longsword mid-air, leaving a trail of blood across the throats of the soldiers struggling to stand.
"The Fourth Prince of Western Yan has reached out quite far, hasn't he?"
Xiao Zhan, dressed in black combat gear, stepped out from the shadows. Even in the chaos of the mines, the suffocating pressure of Great Qi royalty emanated from him.
"Who are you? How dare you interfere in the affairs of Western Yan!" Gu Xiao stammered, his heart sinking.
Xiao Zhan didn't answer. He raised his hand, his sword flashing like a rainbow as he moved through the enemy ranks like a ghost. Even as he reaped lives, he was secretly stunned by the deep craters left by the explosions. He finally understood what kind of terrifying existences Crimson Nine's "companions" were.
"Captain, don't waste words on this pretty boy—try this!"
Blue Five threw a strangely shaped bow from the platform. It was covered in intricate pulleys and steel cables, looking more like a piece of precision metal art than a weapon.
Crimson Nine caught it. As her fingers gripped the string, the mechanical pulleys engaged with a soft click, allowing her to draw the heavy bow to full mast with zero effort.
"You dared to bully my people? Let's see if your body can stop my arrow!"
"What kind of weapon is that? She barely pulled the string—what power could it—" Gu Xiao's mockery was cut short.
THWIP—!
The arrow tore through the air, creating a piercing sonic boom!
The projectile moved too fast for the eye to track. Gu Xiao felt an overwhelming force slam into his shoulder, tearing him from his saddle like a broken doll and pinning him to the ground.
"AAAGH!" Gu Xiao screamed, blood staining his fine official robes.
"This is...?" Xiao Zhan's eyes widened. He had never seen a bow of such complex construction.
"It's called a Compound Bow," Crimson Nine said coldly, aiming at the distance. "Its power can pierce the hardest armor in the world."
The Western Yan soldiers watched their commander pinned to the dirt and stared at the dark, "giant weapons" atop the mining platforms. Fear took hold.
"Go back and tell your Fourth Prince," Crimson Nine walked to Gu Xiao, stepping on his face, her voice like ice. "He wants people from Great Qi? Tell him to come find me in Zhanchuan personally."
In the lingering smoke, the two women's bracers glowed in synchronization.
Blue Five glanced at her orange-glowing bracer, then at Crimson Nine's blue one, her lip twitching. Back in the Organization, this was called "Counter-Intelligence Aesthetics." It was a rule set by Crimson Nine: Code Crimson Nine flashes Blue; Code Blue Five flashes Yellow (Orange); and poor Yellow Five in the south was forced to flash Red.
Blue Five had once protested this "visual pollution," but Crimson Nine had simply smirked: "If an enemy tries to identify us by the color of our lights, in that half-second he spends wondering why the 'Red Captain' is flashing Blue, I've already sent him to his next life." It seemed this lunatic had brought her entire logic system across time intact.
"Captain," Blue Five approached, pointing at her wrist. "If we can change the colors, I'd really like my signature blue back. This orange makes my skin look dark. You're Crimson Nine flashing Blue; I'm Blue Five flashing Orange... won't we confuse our own people?"
Crimson Nine ignored the grumbling, flicking the blood off her blade. "Code: Crimson Nine. Reporting to the unit."
"Code: Blue Five. Supplies are ready; we can evac at any time." Blue Five gestured to the stunned Chu Yuning. "Captain, this kid is a genius with gunpowder."
Xiao Zhan watched the two women converse in their strange, unheard-of vocabulary, feeling a sudden, sharp sense of being "excluded."
"Little Sister..." Chu Yuning stared at the familiar face, his sword clattering to the ground. This was the youngest daughter of the Chu family. His eyes reddened as he rushed forward.
Crimson Nine searched her host's memories. Chu Yuning, the youngest son of the Chu family—her third elder brother.
"Third Brother, you're alive." Crimson Nine whispered in disbelief. The reports in the capital said Chu Zheng and all his sons had perished. "What really happened on the battlefield?"
Meanwhile, in the Manor, Situ Jin was frightened out of his wits by the explosions, hugging his wife tightly. "Wife! Are you hurt? Is that Gu boy making trouble again?"
Madam Jiang Cailing simply smiled. "Don't panic, dear. It's just Jingjing playing with her 'blasting' again."
Blue Five had once thought her host was a love-brain, but she realized it was genetic! In this patriarchal world, her "cheap" father was a total "wife-doting maniac."
"Let's go," Blue Five said, looking coldly at the shivering Gu Xiao. "The Captain is here. Let's head to the Manor and sync our intel!"