Inside The Black Mist

"Who the hell is yelling outside my door?" Han Shu finally lit the cigarette, blowing out a gray smoke dragon. "You guys stay put, let me see what's going on."

Without waiting for Tianyang and the others to respond, the Raven Captain had already shoved his hands in his pockets, swaggered over, and lifted the tent flap, walking out.

Outside the tent, someone had positioned a car’s headlights directly facing the tent, making Han Shu squint, unable to open his eyes. "Damn it! Turn off the lights, or I'll break your damn balls!"

From within the headlights, someone snickered. "I was wondering who it was, turns out it's you, Han, the brute. No wonder your subordinates are a mess with someone like you in charge."

Despite the taunt, the lights were turned off. After the headlights went out, a middle-aged man stood beside a military vehicle, wearing a dark purple coat with the Storm Legion insignia. His hands were behind his back, and his slicked-back hair shone. His clean-shaven face contrasted sharply with Han Shu's untrimmed stubble, which made him look barely better than a homeless man.

Han Shu squinted. "Xie Hong? Why aren't you staying in your own camp? What are you doing here?"

"Why don’t you ask your own men?" Xie Hong replied arrogantly, his lips curling into a sneer.

"Tianyang?" Han Shu scratched his messy hair. "What, did that kid sleep with one of the men in your Xie family too?"

Xie Hong’s arrogance and coldness immediately vanished, and his hands, previously hidden behind his back, flew forward as he pointed at Han Shu, yelling in fury, "Bullshit! That woman you slept with back then wasn’t even married to me yet. She wasn't my wife!"

Han Shu burst out laughing. "Xie Hong, I didn’t name any names. You were so quick to admit it; I don’t even know what to say."

Xie Hong’s expression changed again, and his private soldiers struggled to keep from laughing. Seeing this made Xie Hong’s face redden even more.

"I’m not wasting words with you. Hand over that kid, Tianyang, and I’ll leave!" Xie Hong demanded, spreading his palms.

Han Shu dug his pinky finger into his ear. "What a joke. Who do you think you are? Why should we Night Walkers hand over anyone to you Storm Legion folks? And you don’t even have a reason for it. Xie Hong, do you think I’m dead?"

Xie Hong clenched his teeth and shouted, "That subordinate of yours disobeyed orders, defied his superior, and even attacked someone! Don’t you think those are enough reasons?"

Han Shu shrugged. "So, the one who got hit is from your Xie family?"

Xie Hong snorted, turning slightly. "That’s none of your business!"

Han Shu chuckled dryly. "Let me guess, your Xie family only has one kid in the Night Walkers, Xie Miao, right? So, he and Tianyang had a fall-out?"

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"I know Tianyang too well. He wouldn’t disobey orders unless his superior was a complete jerk with garbage leadership skills. Only then would he snap."

"As for fighting—young guys getting into a scuffle, who cares? If your kid can’t handle it, he should come and settle it himself. If he loses and runs home to get his family involved, he’s better off leaving the Night Walkers altogether."

Xie Hong was fuming with rage, pointing at Han Shu and shouting, "Even if my nephew's command was bad, he's still a temporary commander, higher in rank than that subordinate of yours! What gives Tianyang the right to disobey and, worse, attack a superior officer? It’s insubordination of the highest order! I’ll ask you once, Han Shu, are you going to hand him over or not?"

"Not a damn chance!" Han Shu removed his cigarette, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it. "If you want to take someone from my camp, you'd better bring Commander Lingfeng here. Who do you think you are, Xie Hong? If you've got the guts, go report us to the military."

"I'm telling you now, I'm not handing anyone over today. So get lost. If you keep shouting here, I might come over to your house and sleep with a few more of your women. Try me."

"You… you’re impossible!" Xie Hong was furious, nearly calling in his family's guards to arrest Han Shu. Unfortunately, even in the fortress, he didn’t have the authority to do so, let alone here on the battlefield.

Han Shu had hit the nail on the head. Xie Hong was here to stand up for his nephew, Xie Miao.

An hour earlier, Xie Miao had returned to camp and poured out his grievances to Xie Hong, leaving him furious.

After all, allowing a kid with no family name to humiliate his nephew in front of others had brought great disgrace to the Xie family.

Xie Hong couldn’t swallow the insult, so he came to the Night Walker camp to demand the culprit. He thought that with the Xie family's influence, getting someone would be easy. But to his surprise, he ran into Han Shu.

Han Shu was as unreasonable and sharp-tongued as ever. Xie Hong had experienced his wrath in his younger days. And today, he had been humiliated by him again.

"Fine, Han Shu. Just wait. I’ll go to the command center and get justice!" Xie Hong spat his final threat, realizing he couldn’t win today. If he stayed any longer, he'd lose even more face. He quickly got in his vehicle and drove off.

Having stormed in with such arrogance, Xie Hong left utterly humiliated. The more he thought about it in the car, the angrier he became.

But going to the command center wouldn’t work either. If not for his nephew, Xie Hong would have agreed with Han Shu’s assessment. His nephew’s command skills… were best left unmentioned.

And there had been many witnesses to the incident. Going to the command center would only backfire. He also had to worry that the command might hold him accountable for his nephew abandoning the forward squad.

Xie Hong knew that, at least for this joint operation, he couldn't go after that kid Tianyang anymore.

He would have to wait for another chance to settle the score in the future.

The Xie family’s honor couldn’t be trampled on!

Back in the tent, Han Shu returned to find Tianyang already walking up to him.

Outside, Han Shu and Xie Hong had spoken loudly, and the tent wasn't soundproof. The boy had heard every word.

"Captain, will you be alright saying all that?" Tianyang was worried that his actions might cause trouble for Han Shu. After all, the Xie family, while not the biggest, wasn’t insignificant. If they wanted to do something, even Han Shu, the Raven Captain, might find himself in trouble.

Han Shu looked at the boy in front of him, placing a large hand on his shoulder. "I know what you’re thinking, but kid, us Night Walkers don’t fear trouble. Protecting our own is our tradition, passed down from Commander Chu. Of course, that’s only if you haven’t made any serious mistakes."

"I haven’t." Tianyang took this chance to explain what had happened with Xie Miao abandoning the forward squad.

"This bastard!" Han Shu cursed loudly. "I was right, his command skills are as shitty as they come. He's embarrassed the whole Night Walkers!"

He took out his communicator. "I’ll talk to Four-Eyes right now, and tell him to kick this guy out before he causes more trouble."

Han Shu ran out, presumably to contact Lingfeng, but his words still echoed in Tianyang's ears.

"Seems like I’ve joined a pretty decent organization," the young man muttered softly.

In one corner of the tent, Cang Du, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly sprang up like he’d been shocked, staring incredulously at the communicator in his hand. "What’s going on? Could there be a mistake in the battle rankings?"

He looked at Tianyang. "You, a rookie, are ranked third on the individual leaderboard!"

Ji Yu, who was wiping his face, let out a sound of surprise. "Has the battle ranking been updated?"

"It just updated. This kid is ranked third on the individual leaderboard, and our team’s ranking has also jumped into the top ten." Cang Du stared at the information on the communicator screen, mumbling, "This is going to cause a stir."

Cang Du wasn’t wrong. The newly updated battle rankings caused a commotion across the camp.

"Is it real? That white-haired kid, Tianyang, actually ranked third?"

In the Cerberus Squad's tent, Kunlan, with his exaggerated bright blue hair, threw down his communicator and rushed outside.

The Cerberus captain, confused, shouted, "Kunlan, where are you going?"

"To the battlefield! No way I’m letting that kid stay ahead of me! Not a chance!"

"Wait a minute…"

In the Silver Rose tent, a cheer rang out. Holding her communicator, Xiaoniao exclaimed, "The battle rankings are updated! Did you see it?"

This squad was made up entirely of women, and their captain, a mature and steady woman, responded dryly, "What, did you make the list, Xiaoniao?"

"Not me, but look at this, look!" Xiaoniao pointed to the third-place spot on the screen. "This is my friend. Look, he’s already ranked third!"

The girls gathered around, staring at the information on Xiaoniao’s screen.

"Tianyang… that name sounds familiar."

"Isn’t he the young guy who single-handedly took down the Qin family?"

"Oh, the white-haired boy, right? I remember at the assembly platform, Xiaoniao even confessed to him."

"Right, Xiaoniao, you fell into the abyss with him. Didn’t anything special happen?"

The girls all started talking at once, their discussion quickly drifting from the battle rankings to more personal matters.

Xiaoniao’s face flushed, her ears turning red. "Don’t talk nonsense! Nothing special happened!"

"Look at that! She’s blushing! Something definitely happened."

"Come on, spill it. We can help you figure it out."

"I… I’m not telling you anything!"

Amid the teasing laughter of the other girls, Xiaoniao bolted out of the tent like her life depended on it, running off to who knows where.

The uproar in the camp was only natural. After all, Tianyang was just a young lieutenant, and his sudden leap into the top three was bound to raise eyebrows.

However, when the battle rankings were updated with detailed merit information, it shut down all the doubters.

In Tianyang’s section, his merits were listed; solo kill of the Abyss Lurker — 20,000 merit points; assisted kill of the Death Tree — 500 merit points; kill of the Sorcerer — 4,000 merit points; retrieved intelligence on the underground dark citizens — 1,000 merit points. Total: 25,500 merit points.

Rank: Third!