Volume 1, Chapter 47: A Single Embrace, Almost Causing an Explosion!

"This won't stump me. If I were a professional agent facing an assassination, my very first move would be to turn off the lights and plunge the room into darkness. That way, it's fair for everyone."

"Moreover, I would immediately seek cover, draw my combat knife, and locate the enemy's position!!"

At this moment, Ling Yue chimed in with great interest, "What if the opponent uses night-vision goggles?!"

"They are in the dark while you are in the light. Besides, how could you possibly determine their position?"

A trace of inward astonishment flickered in Su Ming's mind as he asked the question. The scenarios he posed were drawn from his own lived experiences. More importantly, the answers Ling Yue provided mirrored his own initial contingency plans almost instinctively. This indicated that the young woman possessed a remarkably profound understanding of an agent's operational mindset. Yet, he knew that everything Ling Yue had mastered was purely theoretical rather than practical.

"Are you silly? I chose the combat knife precisely to conceal myself!!"

"And since the opponent is using night-vision goggles, they are bound to be using a firearm. The moment I toss out any random object to create the slightest commotion, their instinct will be to open fire, which instantly exposes their position."

Ling Yue spoke with the utmost solemnity. Hearing this, Su Ming gave a heavy nod of affirmation.

"Hehe, well? Am I impressive or what? There isn't a single thing I don't know."

"If we really encounter a hitman, I'll be the first one to protect you!"

Seeing Su Ming's expression of deep admiration, Ling Yue patted her chest with a look of utter pride. Her casual gesture caused a magnificent swell that nearly caused Su Ming to suffer a nosebleed. He hurriedly averted his gaze and looked out the window.

Suddenly.

A refracted ray of light flashed past, and Su Ming's expression shifted. A sense of crisis was closing in.

His gaze swept the room, locking onto the position of the light switch, and with a single stride—

"Get down! Find cover!!"

Su Ming shouted at the top of his lungs.

Hearing this, Ling Yue excitedly clapped her hands and said, "Are you still acting out your little role-play? Haha, it's perfectly safe here. My cousin's family employs over twenty professional bodyguards, you can just relax—"

Before Ling Yue could finish her sentence!

"Crack!"

The window glass shattered. Immediately following the sound, the sofa burst apart as a barrage of whistling bullets swept across the room.

The color drained entirely from Ling Yue's face, leaving her pale and frozen in absolute shock.

In an instant!

The lights went out, plunging the entire room into total, pitch-black darkness where one could not even see their own hand in front of their face.

At this moment, Ling Yue stood rigid, her legs turning to jelly. Having completely forgotten her surroundings, her mind went blank.

Then, with eyes filled with terror, she saw a figure vaulting in through the shattered window frame, closing in on her location with frightening speed.

Just as the intruder was about to discover her—

A strong arm suddenly wrapped around her waist, pulling her backward with great force.

Instinctively, Ling Yue opened her mouth to scream.

A large hand covered her mouth, and simultaneously, she was dragged down to the floor, taking refuge behind the sofa.

"Don't make a sound. It's me!!"

Su Ming leaned in close, catching a faint scent of milk, and whispered softly.

Trembling with intense tension, the terrified Ling Yue nodded repeatedly. Only then did Su Ming release his hand.

Instantly, Su Ming glanced upward and noticed that the intruder seemed to have sensed the movement. The figure began advancing in their direction, gripping a firearm in both hands.

Through the deep night, Su Ming's eyes encountered no obstruction whatsoever. His vision was razor-sharp and crystal clear.

A cold, arrogant curve formed at the corner of his lips. He picked up his mobile phone, turned on the flashlight feature, and hurled it forcefully outward.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!!"

Instinctively, the dark silhouette raised its arm and pulled the trigger toward mid-air.

With pinpoint accuracy, the phone was blasted to pieces, its fragments scattering across the air in a glittering shower.

Suddenly realizing he had been tricked, the shadow's gaze scanned the room rapidly.

The very next second!

Su Ming released Ling Yue, stamped his foot hard against the ground, and lunged forward like a striking black panther.

In that fraction of a second!

Bathed in the moonlight, Ling Yue watched as the figure before her shot forward like a cannonball! An overwhelming, majestic aura emanated from his entire body.

Covering her small mouth, her eyes sparkled with brilliant fascination. The very embodiment of a flawless hero materialized before her eyes.

Su Ming's movements were blindingly fast. He leaped into the air and unleashed a fierce, sweeping kick horizontally.

The next moment!

Before the intruder could even react, the man was sent flying sideways, smashing the other floor-to-ceiling glass window into smithereens and rolling out onto the lawn of the courtyard.

"Hmph, so fragile?"

Without even looking down, Su Ming raised his arm and casually opened his palm, catching the falling firearm out of mid-air.

Outside, the prone figure was struggling laboriously to push himself back up.

"Bang!"

Su Ming pulled the trigger. From a distance of over ten yards away, and amidst the pitch-black night, the shot struck true.

It pierced right through the enemy's ankle.

Instantly, the figure collapsed back to the ground.

With a single stride, Su Ming closed the distance, grabbed the dark silhouette by the collar, and hoisted him up from the earth.

However, the figure had already gone completely limp, expiring on the spot.

When Su Ming flipped the body over, he was met with a face resembling that of an Easterner, yet from the corpse, he caught the faint scent of raw fish.

"A Sakura ghost samurai!!"

"Heh, have they really grown this brazen?"

Su Ming muttered with a look of disdain. Tossing the corpse casually to the ground, he conducted a quick perimeter search. He found no traces of any bodyguards nearby, but sensing no further danger, he turned back toward the villa.

As soon as he stepped inside, the lights flickered back on to reveal Ling Yue staring at him with undisguised shock.

"Your... your martial arts skills are incredible!!"

"Was everything that just happened real?"

At this moment, adoration shimmered in Ling Yue's eyes. The way she looked at Su Ming had undergone a fundamental shift.

"Oh, just average. I simply followed the lessons you taught me, and they actually worked."

"Plus, the opponent wasn't professional enough. I just got lucky."

Su Ming spread his hands and offered a faint smile.

"But... you killed him, didn't you?"

With a skeptical gaze, Ling Yue pointed toward the corpse outside and asked once more.

"I didn't kill him. He took his own life by swallowing poison. Look closely—he already had a poison capsule concealed inside his mouth."

Su Ming replied with complete seriousness. He was speaking the truth; the man had indeed committed suicide by taking poison. This was the unwavering tradition and style of the Sakura Kingdom's ghost samurai—they were warriors bound to death! Should a mission fail, they would never cling to cowardly survival or afford their enemies the chance to humiliate them.

"Is that so? Regardless, you were amazing!!"

"My knowledge is all theory, but when it comes to practical execution, I'm completely useless!"

"Su Ming, thank you. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be in mortal danger right now."

With that, Ling Yue rushed forward eagerly and wrapped her arms around Su Ming in an affectionate embrace.

And it was precisely this embrace that nearly cost Su Ming his life.

He hastily took two steps back, his face flushing crimson as the blood within his veins began to boil and burn. A bizarre, volatile energy surged wildly through his body.

"Oh no, the malevolent Qi of the Dragon-Xuan Art has erupted!!"

Su Ming hurriedly retrieved a few prepared medicinal pills from his pockets, shoved them into his mouth, and chewed them down voraciously. Only then did he feel the raging malevolent energy gradually subside, the bloodshot redness in his eyes slowly fading away.

This was the crippling side effect caused by his forced practice of the Dragon-Xuan Art in the absence of its second half. The excess power accumulated within his body had coalesced into malevolent Qi, which could easily cause him to lose his sanity and plunge into violent frenzy.

It was extraordinarily dangerous!!