After being chosen by the Ice Queen

Kinshicho is a chaotic area comprised of old shops and cheap apartments. By day, it is rife with shady dealings, and by night, it becomes a buffer zone where gangs intertwine.

The underground money exchange "Kinmaru-ya," controlled by Kito Go, is hidden inside a seemingly ordinary three-story machiya building, its exterior indistinguishable from the pachinko parlor next door. Only the two seemingly idle guards at the entrance, whose eyes are sharp as eagles, hint at the unusual nature of this place.

As dawn broke, a somber gray shrouded the chaotic city.

Chiba Rin and Gu Yan moved like two shadows along the wall, sneaking into the abandoned material yard opposite the Kinmaru House.

"There are two visible sentries in front, a hidden stake in the alley to the left, and a reflection behind a second-floor window on the right, which may be an observation post or a sniper position." Gu Yan lowered his voice, his sense of danger making him particularly sensitive to potential threats.

Chiba Rin nodded. "Leave the hidden stakes and observation posts to me. You handle the two at the main entrance, be quick, don't let them raise the alarm. Then we'll go up to the second floor through the side drainpipe, that should be their core area."

The two exchanged a glance, and without saying a word, acted simultaneously.

Chiba Rin darted out and vanished instantly into the shadows of the alley to the left. A very faint groan escaped her lips, followed by the sound of her body collapsing. The hidden stake was eliminated.

Almost simultaneously, Gu Yan moved. Instead of stealthily approaching, he instantly increased his speed to the maximum, leaping across the narrow street in a few steps. Just as the two guards at the main gate noticed something amiss and reached for their weapons, he had already moved in like a ghost.

Without drawing his longsword, Gu Yan used the hilt as a hammer, channeling his strength into it, and ruthlessly struck the left guard in the temple, causing him to fall to the ground. The right guard was terrified; he had only halfway to draw his gun when Gu Yan spun around and closed in. His left hand gripped the guard's wrist like an iron clamp, twisting it violently, while his right elbow slammed heavily into the guard's throat.

The guard's eyes bulged out, and he collapsed.

In less than five seconds, Gu Yan's movements were clean and efficient, quickly dragging the two bodies to a corner in the shadows. Looking up at the second-floor window, the faint reflection that had been there had disappeared—Chiba Rin had also succeeded.

Quickly circling around to the side of the building, Gu Yan found a reasonably sturdy drainpipe. Chiba Rin, standing above, leaned out and threw down a piece of strong paracord. Gu Yan grabbed it, used it for leverage, and climbed up to the open window on the second floor, vaulting inside.

The room was a mess. A man in a suit lay slumped in front of the monitor, his neck twisted at an odd angle. The screen was black, and Chiba Rin was rapidly searching through the documents and hard drives on the table.

"There are fewer guards than expected, and the key personnel may have been transferred..." Before Chiba Rin could finish speaking, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded downstairs, and the lights inside and outside the building were turned on.

"There's a hidden vibration or heat alarm!" Chiba Rin's expression changed. "Let's go!"

The two rushed toward the door. However, they could hear hurried, heavy footsteps coming from the other end of the corridor. There were at least five or six men, armed with shotguns and submachine guns, clearly elite guards stationed on the inner floor.

Gu Yan kicked open a half-closed door next to him. "This way." Inside was a storage room with an access panel leading to the ventilation ducts.

As soon as they crawled inside, deafening gunfire erupted behind them, shattering the wooden door into countless pieces.

The narrow ventilation duct was filled with dust and cobwebs, forcing the two to crawl forward.

"The plan has been exposed. This might be part of a trap." Chiba Rin stopped at the corner of the pipe, listening intently to the sounds outside. "Kito Go guessed I would retaliate, so he might have deliberately left bait here, or... the main force of the Dark Crows is nearby."

Gu Yan also felt an increasingly intense sense of crisis. The sense of danger was constantly sounding alarms, not only from the pursuers below, but also from the perimeter of the building, where a presence was rapidly approaching.

"We can't stay here, let's go down!" Chiba Rin said decisively. "Go to the first floor and rush out through the back alley."

They found a shaft leading to the pipes below, carefully slid down, and found themselves in the kitchen on the first floor. Faint footsteps echoed in the hallway outside the back door. The Crow?

With pursuers in front and assassins behind, the two were trapped and died inside the building.

Chiba Rin's eyes flashed, and she suddenly pulled open the door of a nearby refrigerator, which was completely empty.

Together, the two pushed the heavy metal refrigerator over, placing it across the back door to temporarily block the pursuers' view and firing range. At the same time, Chiba Rin drew his pistol and fired two shots at the lock of another door leading into the building.

"Go this way, to the basement. There might be another exit there; we can create chaos there."

The two men burst through the door and rushed down the steep stairs. The basement was dark and damp, piled high with old ledgers, abandoned gambling machines, and electronic devices of unknown purpose. The air was thick and murky, with only a few emergency lights casting a faint green glow.

Just then, a dark shadow, like a weightless bat, fell from the ceiling vent and pounced straight at Chiba Rin's back! The blade flashed with an eerie blue light under the eerie green glow.

Chiba Rin's senses were equally sharp. She twisted and dodged just before the blade reached her body, the poisoned blade grazing her ribs and leaving a trail of blood and fabric fragments. She grunted, drew her short sword with a backhand motion, and parried the second attack that followed, sparks flying.

The attacker was completely shrouded in black night clothes, with only a pair of emotionless eyes visible. His movements were swift and unpredictable, and his knife strikes were ruthless and cunning. He was none other than the elite assassin of the Dark Raven.

Just as Gu Yan was about to step forward to help, two more dark figures emerged from the shadows to the side, attacking from the left and right. They were perfectly coordinated; one wielded a short knife and thrust it straight at Gu Yan's throat, while the other swung out a barbed iron chain, wrapping it around his calves and immobilizing him.

Gu Yan drew his longsword, its light cascading like mercury. He parried the short knife aimed at his throat, his footwork shifting swiftly to avoid the chains. Then, with a swift movement, he aimed his sword at the wrist of the chain-wielder. The chain-wielder withdrew his hand with lightning speed, but the chains, as if alive, coiled back and wrapped around the sword. At the same time, another assassin lunged forward, his short knife never leaving Gu Yan's vital areas of the chest and abdomen.

These elites were far more powerful than ordinary Dark Raven assassins, possessing not only exceptional individual skills but also expertise in combined attacks. Gu Yan was forced to push his swordsmanship to its limits, maneuvering and dodging within the cramped basement space. The flashes of swords, blades, and chains clashed fiercely, creating a constant clanging sound.

Meanwhile, Chiba Rin's battle with the assassin leader was even more perilous. Her opponent seemed to know her moves, always able to predict her counterattacks, forcing her into dire straits. A burning pain and a slight numbness shot through the wound in her ribs—the knife was poisoned!

"You... are the people who were with Kito Go on the day my mother died?" Chiba Rin gritted her teeth, parrying a heavy blow, staring intently into the other man's cold eyes, trying to find a trace of familiarity. Although she was young when her mother was killed, she had a deep fear of those black-clad men with an exceptionally chilling aura who followed Kito Go.

The assassin leader did not falter in the slightest; on the contrary, his attacks became even more ferocious.

It was him! At least an accomplice. Chiba Rin's hatred surged forth, overpowering the numbness and pain of her wounds. Ignoring her own defenses, her swordsmanship suddenly became frenzied, a desperate attack aimed at mutual destruction, forcing her opponent back two steps for a moment.

But this left her vulnerable at the ribs. A cold glint flashed in the assassin leader's eyes, and his poisoned blade, like a viper's tongue, swiftly pierced her rib wound.

At this critical moment.

A streak of grayish-white sword light, imbued with a chilling aura, suddenly emerged from the side, like the River Styx cutting through the dark depths of hell. Its target was not the assassin leader, but the poisoned blade he was about to thrust at Chiba Rin.

It was Gu Yan. Yu Guangzhong sensed the danger emanating from Chiba Rin. He took a blow from the chain, forcefully broke through the combined attack, and attached the still unstable Yin Corrosion power to the sword's edge, thrusting it diagonally.

The sword and the poisoned blade clashed, and instead of sparks, a small cloud of grayish-white mist suddenly spread out. The assassin leader felt a strange, chilling power travel along the blade, instantly spreading to his arm, causing his entire right arm to stiffen and go numb briefly. The blue light on the poisoned blade also dimmed slightly.

He was terrified and quickly retreated.

Gu Yan was also suffering. Forcibly mobilizing the power of Yin Corruption, especially during a fierce battle, had caused his mind to surge. The sealed core of the Eight-Headed Serpent within his body vibrated violently, generating a powerful force that assaulted his mind—violent, bloodthirsty, and filled with resentment… Gu Yan even hallucinated the distorted phantom of the eight-headed serpent and a raging sea of ​​blood. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he forcibly suppressed his surging blood and qi. His eyes momentarily glazed over, and his face contorted in a ferocious expression.

"Gu Yan!" Taking advantage of the opportunity, Chiba Rin forced the assassin leader back with a single slash, flashed to Gu Yan's side, and supported his slightly swaying body. The ground beneath her hand was icy cold.

"I...I'm fine." Gu Yan shook his head, forcibly concentrating his mind and suppressing the violent intent back into the depths of the seal, but his face paled slightly. He knew that he couldn't easily use Yin Erosion again for a while, otherwise there was a risk of losing control.

The three assassins from the Dark Crows huddled together, facing off briefly. The leader of the assassins moved his right arm, which was gradually regaining sensation, and looked at Gu Yan with a mixture of surprise and apprehension. The power he had just witnessed was far beyond the reach of ordinary swordsmanship; it was eerie.

The footsteps of the pursuers upstairs grew closer, and the pressure from the back door had not eased.

Chiba Rin's gaze swept over the mountain of ledgers and electronic devices piled up in the basement, then looked at the old main circuit box on the wall next to him, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes.

"Get out of there and move to that corner," she hissed, pulling Gu Yan quickly behind a pile of abandoned gambling machines.

At the same time, she drew her pistol, aimed it at the main circuit breaker box and several wooden shelves next to it piled with large amounts of paper documents, and pulled the trigger!

The bullet pierced the wooden crate, struck the power switch and the pile of documents, and sparks flew.

The dry paper documents ignited instantly, flames shooting up rapidly. A short circuit caused a large, bright burst of sparks, igniting more debris and electrical insulation.

Thick smoke billowed up, and the fire spread rapidly in the relatively enclosed and cluttered basement environment. The pungent smell of burning and thick smoke immediately filled the entire space.

"Fire!!"

"Put out the fire quickly!!"

The firelight and thick smoke obstructed their vision, causing chaos among the pursuers upstairs and the assassins outside.

"Now! From over there." Chiba Rin pointed towards the ventilation opening near the back of the building, where the fire was smaller. There was a small square iron gate there, half-covered by debris.

The two men used a knife to pry open the rusted iron gate and crawled inside one after the other. Below was an old brick sewer about waist-high; there wasn't much sewage, but the smell was nauseating.

They struggled to crawl forward along the sewers, the chaotic shouts and crackling sounds of burning coming from the direction of the Kanemaruya building behind them gradually fading away.

After climbing for an unknown amount of time, a glimmer of light appeared ahead, along with an upward-pointing iron ladder leading to a shaft. Chiba Rin was the first to climb up, carefully pushing open the cast iron manhole cover at the top to peer out.

Outside was a quiet back alley, and the sky in the distance was already showing the first hint of dawn. It was safe for now.

The two scrambled out of the sewer, leaning against the cold wall, panting heavily. Chiba Rin's rib wound was still bleeding, her face pale from blood loss and poisoning. Gu Yan's left shoulder was swollen and red, his internal energy churning.

Their surprise attack and decapitation strike had temporarily failed, nearly putting them in a desperate situation. The burning of Kanemaruya was a slap in the face to Kito Gou, but it also exposed their whereabouts.

"We have to move immediately, it's not safe here either." Chiba Rin tore off a piece of her clothes to hastily bandage her wound, her voice weary, "Kitou Gou... I will definitely kill him with my own hands."

Gu Yan looked at her blood-stained profile in the morning light. The Orochi core within her body was still stirring restlessly, and the hidden danger urgently needed to be completely eliminated.

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