47: Chapter 47 Severing All Worldly Ties

Pei Duo gently clutched the black jade pendant at her chest and silently commanded 'Receive' in her heart. The cold, gloomy mist in the stairwell seemed to respond to her call, condensing into a dark green bead in her palm.

Taiwan Novel Network is super practical, choose whatever you want.

She casually stuffed the bead into her hoodie pocket, just like tucking away a mint candy.

The security door slammed shut, completely sealing off all the noise and filth outside.

Inside the apartment, the shaken Pei Father and Mother Pei were frantically packing their luggage.

"Oh my, Mom, stop stuffing things in! The zipper is going to burst!"

Pei Duo walked over, helplessly yet affectionately pressing down on her mother's trembling hand. Her tone finally revealed the innocent charm and dependence appropriate for her age: "The place we're going is arranged by the state. What good things could we possibly lack? If you bring an electric rice cooker you've used for ten years, even the state banquet chefs will be out of a job."

"Then... then what should we bring?" Pei Father still held two thermoses, looking bewildered. "We can't go empty-handed, can we? Once we leave, how are we supposed to live from now on?"

Looking at her father's appearance, Pei Duo's eyes grew hot.

She sniffled, went forward, and linked arms with her father, smiling: "We'll live, of course we'll live, and we'll live better than anyone else!"

Pei Duo let go of his arm and proactively helped her mother put away a yellowed family photo album, then walked straight to the offering table in the center of the living room.

She picked up the dark wooden memorial tablet—

"Spirit Tablet of Beloved Son Pei Fei"

She gently wiped away a bit of dust from the tablet, her gaze as tender as if she were looking at the older brother who always patted her head.

"We'll take Brother with us." Pei Duo turned back and gave her parents a brilliant smile.

This was the Pei family's only, and most priceless, core asset now.

...

Five minutes later.

Outside the old residential building, neighbors were gathered around, pointing.

Their eyes were a mixture of curiosity, fear, and unconcealed envy.

Pei Duo held her mother's arm with one hand and tightly clutched the black memorial tablet in her embrace with the other.

Four fully armed plainclothes officers from the Special Operations Bureau, wearing sunglasses, escorted the three in a 'box' formation. Their intimidating aura made Aunt Wang next door, who usually loved gossiping, shrink her neck.

Even more dazzling was the motorcade of Hongqi cars by the roadside.

Zhao Guobang, standing next to the lead car, straightened the collar of his Zhongshan suit and quickly walked over to greet them.

Under the gaze of hundreds of eyes, this top leader in charge of the nation's special forces actually bowed slightly, personally opened the rear car door, and thoughtfully extended his hand to block the top frame of the door.

"Miss Pei, Elders, please watch your heads. Please get in the car."

His tone was gentle and his posture humble, as if he were welcoming not a sophomore student, but a visiting dignitary.

This scene was seen precisely by a face pressed against the window of a police car slowly driving away at the street corner.

It was Pei Dongsheng.

His face was pressed against the cold car window glass, his features distorted and ferocious due to extreme shock and compression, resembling a mutated toad stuck to the glass.

Hongqi motorcade! The Director opening the door! Special police escort!

Zhao Guobang's mind exploded with a 'boom'.

He had originally thought Pei Duo had only managed to snag some petty wealth in the instance. He figured that by throwing a tantrum, he could still get a share.

But now he understood: what he had just done was swinging a plastic hammer at a towering mountain.

This wasn't about money! This was about power that reached the heavens! It was a chasm of class!

If... If he had sincerely come to congratulate her just now, if he had treated his older brother's family a little more like a human being over the past two years... wouldn't he also have a seat in that Hongqi car, enjoying state guest treatment?

That was wealth that allowed one to converse with the nation!

"Ah—!!"

A bone-piercing regret rushed straight to his scalp. Pei Dongsheng violently slammed his head against the car window, letting out a pig-slaughtering wail.

Inside the Hongqi car.

The soundproof glass completely isolated the noise from the outside world.

Pei Duo glanced one last time through the one-way glass at the dilapidated neighborhood where she had lived for twenty years.

Her heart felt only relief.

She looked down, gently caressing the memorial tablet in her arms, murmuring in her heart: Brother, I protected Mom and Dad.

...

West Suburbs of Jiang City, Cloud Top Manor.

This was the highest-level safe house established by the state to settle special talents, with a defense level comparable to a nuclear arsenal.

The motorcade drove deep inside, and the butler respectfully led Pei Father and Mother Pei to rest in the main building. The elderly couple's legs were trembling as they looked at the palace-like house, but to avoid embarrassing their children, they forced themselves to stand up straight.

After settling her parents, Pei Duo walked to the umbrella shade on the other side of the lawn.

Xu Mo had changed into a casual linen shirt, leaning back with one leg crossed over the other, scrolling on a tablet. The way he pushed up his glasses remained as refinedly villainous as ever.

Nearby, on the special operations training ground, the atmosphere was somewhat tense.

Or rather, it was a one-sided crushing defeat.

"Is this your limit?"

Lin Sa, wearing a tight black training suit, tied her long hair up with one hand, looking like a leopard that had just finished warming up. She stood in the center of the field, with seven or eight burly men lying scattered at her feet.

These were the elite soldiers of the Special Operations Bureau's 'Sharp Sword Squad', but now they were all dusty and disheveled.

A captain who could still stand gritted his teeth, his eyes full of defiance, and roared once more, charging forward like a tank. A military martial arts punch, capable of piercing wooden boards, shot straight for Lin Sa's face!

Lin Sa didn't even adopt a defensive stance. Her body twisted into an inhuman angle, like a boneless snake, instantly closing the distance into the opponent's embrace.

"Down."

Lin Sa's slender fingers lightly gripped the burly man's wrist and gave a seemingly gentle flick.

Boom!

The soldier felt the world spin, as if he had been swung up by a crane, crashing heavily onto the special shock-absorbing mat with a 'bang'.

Dozens of special police officers watching around almost popped their eyeballs out.

What the hell was that grappling technique? It was too unscientific! That was a two-hundred-pound muscular man, and this girl looked like she didn't even have a thigh as thick as his, how did she do it?

Lin Sa clapped her hands, shook her arm with a hint of disdain, and said lightly to Zhao Guobang and the stunned special police officers:

"On Luofeng Mountain, gravity is three times that of here. You guys are too light."

"Alright, alright, Sister Lin Sa, stop bullying the honest folks. Hurry up and come over!"

Under the umbrella shade, Pei Duo called out indistinctly while biting on a straw, "Strategist Xu is calling for assembly. The spoils-sharing meeting is starting! This is the life-buying money the old vampire gave us, we need to figure out how to split it."

As soon as she heard 'sharing the spoils,' Lin Sa's aloof demeanor instantly crumbled. She arrived at the table as if teleporting.

On the table sat three black-gold treasure chests emitting a scent of blood. Although Pei Duo was curious, she knew her place and yielded the center position, casually grabbing a handful of sunflower seeds, adopting the posture of 'I'm just the mascot, you guys do as you please.'

"Then I won't be polite."

Xu Mo pushed up his glasses and lightly tapped the first box with his fingertip.

Inside the box lay a pair of sharp fangs, about half a foot long, crystal clear like rubies.

"S-rank material, the Fang of the Vampire Progenitor." Xu Mo needed only a glance before precise data analysis appeared in his mind. "It has extremely high hardness and carries the 'Blood Poison' curse. Wounds inflicted by it cannot heal and it has extra critical hit bonuses against spiritual entities."

He turned to Lin Sa and pushed the box over: "Lin Sa, your attack methods lean towards close-quarters bursts. Take this to the Special Operations Bureau's Equipment Department and have them forge it into a pair of daggers. Paired with your Ghost Step, your lethality can double."

Lin Sa's eyes lit up, and she quickly took it, caressing the terrifying fangs with adoration: "Good stuff! This malevolence is fiercer than an S-rank fierce ghost!"

Next was the second box.

Inside was a scroll emitting a void fluctuation.

"'Cain's Shelter,' a single-use consumable item." Xu Mo frowned slightly as he read the description. "Crushing it grants three seconds of 'Absolute Invincibility,' immune to all physical and magical damage."

He pondered for a moment, about to hand the scroll to Pei Duo, but Pei Duo waved her hand, spitting a sunflower seed shell into the trash can: "Don't look at me. I have the jade pendant Brother gave me; this thing clashes with me. Strategist Xu, you keep this."

"Me?" Xu Mo was stunned.

"Yeah," Pei Duo said matter-of-factly. "You're the frailest in our team. You're the Strategist; if you die, who will lead me into instances later?"

Xu Mo looked at Pei Duo's clear eyes, and a warmth flowed through him.

He didn't pretentiously refuse and solemnly tucked the scroll into his chest: "Then I thank Your Highness for the bestowal."

The third box was a piece of parchment—the [Blood River Contract].

"This can forcibly enslave a vampire below the Count level." Xu Mo looked a bit troubled. "This thing is somewhat useless; we don't have anywhere to catch vampires right now."

Pei Duo thought for a moment and pushed the contract towards Xu Mo's side:

"Take it for now. Maybe we'll run into a nice-looking little vampire in a future instance? Capturing one to be a butler or a laborer wouldn't be bad. I thought that Count's butler had pretty good service."