Chapter 22: Assassination Request (1)

Ayame left the hospital and stepped out into the bright sunlight, feeling a sense of relief as she made her way down the quiet road.

She decided to spend the rest of the day cultivating.

Ayame stands alone on a quiet, sun-dappled road, surrounded by rolling hills and fields of vibrant green grass.

Her eyes are calm and focused as she begins to draw in the qi that permeates the air around her with the Divine Origin Manual.

With each breath, she seems to reach out with her mind, channeling the energy into her body, where it courses through her veins like a powerful current.

The qi in the environment moved with grace and precision as if it were being led by a mysterious force.

When she had collected enough qi, she stopped using the Divine Origin Manual and instead used the Asura Warpath Sutra to refine the qi she had collected.

Her body felt scorchingly hot inside as if magma were flowing through her blood vessels, causing a burning sensation.

Her eyes felt like they were about to pop out of his eye sockets. Her nostrils felt like they were filled with nothing but blood.

With every deep breath Ayame takes, a noxious, metallic odor fills her mind.

Each passing second makes her feel as though her senses are on fire, her skin is tingling, and her nerves are screaming.

She struggles to keep her focus, pushing through the intense pain and forcing herself to keep going.

But despite the burning sensation coursing through her body, she is spurred on by an unshakeable determination.

Three days had passed since she started cultivating outside, and she alternated between gathering and refining techniques. She stuck to her routine of meditation.

However, her progress felt slow to her.

In the process of constructing her first spiritual core, she had only made 41 percent progress so far.

"Should I ask Lin Feng for advice?" She asked herself while looking down at her feet, where a few drops of sweat were falling on them. Her hair fell over one side of her face, which made it difficult to see what was happening around her.

Ayame went to the administrative building after she had an internal debate about whether or not she should ask Lin Feng, but in the end, she made the decision that it would be more efficient to ask Lin Feng than it would be for her to figure things out on her own.

Trying to be over-independent might backfire on her considering she's currently pressed for time.

Ayame located Lin Feng in the administrative building, where he was sitting behind the desk.

On his laptop, he was probably reading some work-related documents, but Ayame couldn't tell.

"Lin Feng." Ayame approached him slowly. Her voice was barely audible. "Can I ask you something?"

Lin Feng turned to look at her.

"What a surprise! There is also something I wanted to ask you as well." He closed his laptop with both hands, then stood up and walked in her direction. "What is it?" Ayame replied quietly.

"Where did you learn the Illusory Realm of Self-Perfection?" His expression became stern and serious. His tone was calm yet demanding.

Ayame did not immediately respond, but he waited patiently for a response.

"What is that? I've never heard of that before," Ayame said, staring curiously at him.

"That power you used to kill that golden-haired cultivator from the forest." He explained.

"Oh, that." Ayame nodded her head. "Well, I don't exactly know." She replied.

Lin Feng's expression changed yet again as he spoke to her, this time more annoyed and slightly threatening.

"How can you not know?" His tone of voice had become somewhat aggressive at this point. Ayame was unsure of the source of his anger and couldn't tell if it was directed at her or at something else.

"What makes you think that I would know that?" She responded, "All I know is that I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, I was already like that." She admitted the truth,

"All I know is that I lost consciousness, and then when I woke up, I was already like that." Ayame omitted the fact that she saw an old friend when she passed out

"So, you're saying that you learned it and activated it while you were sleeping? There's no way that's true." Lin Fen gave a light head shake.

"You have no idea how impossible what you're saying is!" He yelled at her.

Lin Feng deeply inhaled as if to calm himself.

"To begin with, even if I had given you the entirety of the Asura Warpath Sutra, you still would not have been able to successfully activate it in the first place because the user needs to be at the Spirit Sovereign Realm or higher!" He pointed out.

"Wait, you gave me an incomplete copy?" Ayame furrowed her eyebrows, and her voice sounded surprised as her face gave out an insulting expression.

She was caught off guard when Lin Feng presented her with a truncated version of the Asura Warpath Sutra.

"Of course! It was necessary; otherwise, you would have perished the moment you attempted to activate any of those techniques. He replied calmly.

Silence. They stopped talking for a couple of seconds.

"Oh, what was that you wanted to ask again?" Lin Feng changed his topic.

Ayame was aware of the fact that he attempted to change the subject, but she paid it no mind.

"What are some ways that I can speed up the development of my cultivation?" She asked.

"What?" The question caught Lin Feng off guard, "Why would you want to improve your cultivation speed?" he asked.

"My cultivation feels like it's slowing down." She admitted.

"Slowing down!?" Lin Feng asked her while staring at her as if she were insane.

"You do know that your speed is at least thrice as fast as other cultivators, right?" he asked while looking at her as if she was crazy.

"Yes, I am aware of that, but even so, it seems much slower than normal." She shrugged her shoulders.

Lin Feng heaved a sigh and said, "There's no need for you to be so greedy."

"Next month, the Zero Squad will return, and there will be an opportunity for you to hasten your cultivation since the Supreme Commander will open the Glorious Platform." He paused briefly, thinking of how to phrase his next words. "You should take the chance and train hard." He concluded.

"Thank you." She muttered.

"Oh, I also forgot to tell you, can you go to the ground floor of the administrative building and enter briefing room #7 at 1130?" Lin Feng instructed.

"Sure, no problem." She gave a slight nod of her head before leaving the building.

She made her way back to the barracks and entered the canteen once she was there. Ayame had another half an hour before she was required to enter the briefing room, so she made the decision to eat first, just in case whatever they were going to do in the briefing room would take a significant amount of time.

She placed her order and consumed it in a hurry. Taking into consideration the distance between the administrative building and the barracks, thirty minutes is a relatively short amount of time.

Ayame made her way back to the administrative building and started searching for briefing room number seven.

She was able to locate it once she had traversed the hallway and entered the room.

For a room that was supposed to be used for briefings, it was surprisingly cramped. It only had enough room for twelve people to sit comfortably inside.

The room was dimly lit due to all the blinds covering the windows.

Ayame sat in one of the chairs, waiting for the briefing to start.

She waited patiently until the time came.

The doors were opened, and five people stepped inside.

They walked past the rows of seats and stopped at their designated seat.

The sixth individual, an elderly lady who looked familiar, opened the doors.

"Good afternoon, everyone." the elderly lady greeted as she walked up to the desk in the front.

The five men stood up and saluted.

"Good afternoon, Supreme Commander!" They responded respectfully.

"You're probably wondering why I called you here," The elderly lady paused before continuing. "It's for a new job. An assassination mission."

Everyone remained silent.

"The target this time is a most wanted terrorist, a bomb specialist hiding in the south of the Arkland Archipelago." said the old lady.

A projector screen behind the old lady displayed information on a map of the city, "We believe that he is hiding somewhere nearby this area."

She took a momentary pause before turning her attention back to the audience and asking, "Any questions so far?"

The room was silent for several seconds.

Ayame stood up and asked, "Well, first of all, what is the Arkland Archipelago?"

The elderly lady laughed and said, "It would appear that you do not have very much knowledge with geographical studies, C137."

"The Arkland Archipelago is an island country located in the south-eastern part of Asia." The old lady replied while looking at Ayame.

"I've never heard of that country before-" was the answer Ayame wanted to say before she realized it must be another change in the new timeline.

The map of the city from the projector zoomed out to reveal a familiar-looking country.

"Other questions?" The old lady asked.

"If we catch him alive, will there be a bonus?" One of the men stood up and asked.