two minutes ago

The flying small drone passed through the closed window and fell into the driver's seat of the car. Lena quickly put away the drone and threw it into the passenger seat.

Then she raised her head and glanced at the rearview mirror. Not far behind her car, a man dressed in casual clothes and holding a walkie-talkie was walking out of a corner. He was standing at a somewhat shabby intersection and looking around, seemingly looking for someone.

What.

On his chest, a pendant emitting a faint golden light could be vaguely seen hanging.

Raising her hand again and glancing at the time on her bracelet, Lena leaned against the driver's seat of the vehicle, her chest rising and falling.

The man in casual clothes in the rearview mirror has turned around and is walking towards this side cautiously and slowly.

Lena's hands tightly grasped the steering wheel in her hands, and she turned her head and glanced deep into the alleyway.

Bright lights illuminated the dark alleyway, and a dark, obviously heavily modified off-road vehicle covered with thick armor plates slowly drove towards the end of the alleyway.

The off-road vehicle stopped when it was still about twenty meters away from the entrance of the alley.

Immediately afterwards, a muscular, bald man with bandaged arms jumped out of the driver's seat of an off-road vehicle, took out a flashlight, and shined it from the depths of the alleyway.

The bright light of the flashlight shone through the exposed front of the dark car, and also faintly shone through the closed window of the passenger car.

In the next second, Lena, who was sitting in the car, tightened her grip on the steering wheel and stepped on the accelerator.

The originally silent car seemed to be pushed by a huge force, and rushed out of the darkness like an ejection.

"Go after that car!"

The bald man immediately ran back and jumped on the SUV, shouting loudly.

Bright lights rushed out of the dark corridor, but as soon as they rushed out of the corridor, there was a soft "bang" sound.

A blurry figure was hit by an off-road vehicle, flew across the old street, and hit the building on the other side of the street.

"What the hell,"

The bald man hung on the outside of the off-road vehicle, looked at the figure who fell from the wall, and then shouted without hesitation, "Leave him alone and continue chasing the car."

"Dirty unbeliever, do you want to die?"

At this moment, the figure who was knocked away staggered to his feet, roared, rushed out like a gust of wind, and punched the bald man.

"What an idiot."

The bald man rolled his eyes, raised his fist, and punched the figure in the heart with a roaring wind.

At this moment, golden light instantly covered the figure's chest, blocking the fist.

The figure was smashed and flew out again.

This time, he seemed to finally wake up. He glanced at the man in front of him and seemed to realize something. He immediately picked up the walkie-talkie hanging on his chest and said, "Heretics found! Please support immediately! Heretics found..."

He just came to chase a suspicious drone, but he didn't expect to get a big harvest here. The photos of every wanted heretic were sent to their bracelets.

But before he could finish speaking, a cold sword light struck him.

The golden light once again covered his whole body, forming a simple armor, but the body of the attacking figure was also covered with fine lines in an instant.

The sharp sword cut through the golden armor easily, and with a splash of blood splashing on the wall, the figure on the walkie-talkie instantly split into two pieces.

"Hey, are you still there? If you hear me, please answer me! If you hear me, please answer me!"

A vague human voice came from the intercom.

boom--

The hard leather shoes crushed the white walkie-talkie to pieces. The bald man swung away the torn bandage and put away the big knife, "What the hell, trouble, this Lena has something."

He jumped into the off-road vehicle again and looked at the driver, "Hurry up and call out all the brothers who are ambushing around. She can't run far. We have to find her before those heretics."

Shortly after the off-road vehicle left, several men in white robes quickly rushed out from behind the intersection and stopped in front of the figure that was split into two.

The leading man in white robes glanced at the blood flowing along the shattered street, and then at the two newly left ruts, picked up the walkie-talkie, and said quickly,

"The heretics are found. They are running away to the northwest. They seem to be chasing something. There is a suspected danger of Class C among the heretics. Please ask for support."

——

Bright lights shine in the quiet living room

The old man standing at the door seemed to hear the commotion in the distance. He raised his head and glanced at the window of the living room. He walked slowly to the sofa and sat opposite He Ao. He glanced at the hot coffee in front of him and revealed a hint of

gentle smile,

"It seems that my 'companions' from the church who may be able to provide me with help have been discovered by people from the Esoteric Cult? Am I now 'isolated and helpless'?"

"Just creating some quiet time for us to talk, isn't it?"

He Ao opened a small white ceramic jar with a plastic clip on the coffee table, revealing the crystal-clear sugar cubes inside, "Do you need some sugar?"

"Then I'd like to thank you for the hospitality first,"

The old man stretched out his hand, picked up three sugar cubes with tongs and put them into the coffee. Then he picked up the ceramic spoon next to the coffee cup and slowly stirred it.

"When I was young, I liked drinking bitter coffee and felt that life was always bitter. As I got older, I wanted to drink something sweet. As I got older, my friends around me passed away one by one, and I realized that things that I thought were bitter in the past were actually sweet.

Tasty."

He picked up the coffee and took a sip.

"If the person in charge of the secret sect here is a smart person, after seeing the strength I just showed, he will most likely focus on my church companions outside, while I will only send people to monitor

, waiting for reinforcements from their secret cult headquarters.

“In a two-front battle, those who have strong surveillance but do not act rashly, and those who deal with the weak can easily achieve results, can effectively maximize their own interests.

"And if this is the case, then there should be no Tantric people in this building now. It is indeed much cleaner, and you only need to face me alone.

"Originally, I wanted to choose this place so that I could search the house and pick up the mercenary lady at the same time.

“My high-profile appearance can also help attract attention from my fellow church members.

"But now it seems that this has made me passive."

The old man put the coffee in his hand back on the table, smiled and looked at He Ao who slowly took out the sugar cubes from the jar, "Little guy, the coffee is good, and the strategy is also good."

"but,"

He paused for a moment and asked in a low voice, "You seem confident that you can deal with this bad old man like me?"

"I don't have that much confidence,"

He Ao calmly picked up the spoon and stirred the coffee, his tone was calm, as if he was chatting with an old friend for many years, "But it depends on the person."

"The saying 'it all depends on human effort' is true,"

The old man carefully looked at the young boy in front of him, "I haven't met a child as smart and courageous as you for a long time. Are you interested in joining us? Maybe a hundred years from now, this position will be yours."

"Normally, I don't have any desire to believe in a god,"

He Ao picked up the coffee and brought it to his mouth, "It can easily affect the relationship between friends."

"Do you still have friends who firmly don't believe in gods?"

The old man shook his head regretfully, "It seems that he doesn't know much about the greatness of gods."

"Maybe, I don't know if my friends understand the greatness of gods."

He Ao took a sip of coffee.

Too little sugar was added, making it a bit bitter.

He didn't add milk, and the pure coffee still had a pungent astringency.

"Speaking of which, I have been thinking about it since just now,"

The old man stretched out his hand, picked up a piece of candy again, and put it into the cup, "So how did you know that I was the leader of the church? Through the mercenary lady? But I don't think I provided any more information to the mercenary.

Miss Bing is the right one."

"oh,"

He Ao held the warm coffee cup and responded softly.

The jacket was a bit too wide, and he held the cup with his slender fingers, while his palms were hidden in his sleeves. He looked at the old man's face, which clearly showed curiosity. After a brief pause, he said calmly, "Guess."

The old man's expression froze.

In fact, the process of He Ao's reasoning is not complicated.

The 'client' who assigned Lena the task seems to have a lot to do with the Eternal Old Church, but the extraordinary person from the Eternal Old Church who entered the inner church last night obviously did not recognize Lena.

The extraordinary person who can enter the inner church with a powerful extraordinary item like the Glory Sun Crown and can exert B-level strength cannot have a low status in the Eternal Old Church, and is very likely to be the top figure here in Winter City.

And none of them knew that someone had 'hired' Lena alone, and there was no clause in Lena's mission description to cooperate with their actions.

This proves that the 'client' who hired Lena is most likely someone of the same level as them, or even higher than them, and at least a B-level strongman, so that he can bypass them in assigning tasks.

Back to Lena's mission itself, the 'client' arranged for her to 'retrieve' the remains of Iroh's parents, but gave her a 'prop disk' that would make her almost certain to die and unable to complete the mission. This seemed a bit weird.

But if you think about it differently, what if the 'client' hopes that Lena's 'mission' is not to 'bring back the body'?

The 'client' never wanted Lena to come back alive from the beginning. His purpose from beginning to end was to have Lena activate the disc and then turn into a monster polluted by the eternal light.
To be continued...