Chapter 144: Aren't You Surprised?

Gu Changqing thought the people of the Qi Dynasty lacked situational awareness, but at least they knew how to accept the hard way when offered a choice.

Dragging that woman along and following the direction she pointed, he arrived at the target location: a spacious, abandoned factory.

Fighting in a place like this wouldn't damage city architecture. The enemy had deployed eight Tier 6 Awakened ones, fully intending to take down Gu Changqing right here.

Holding the woman by the collar as he walked in, Gu Changqing saw Gao Wenxin sitting on a chair. She looked relatively clean and her condition was passable.

It seemed she hadn't suffered much torture.

After all, she was a Tier 6 Awakened one. Back in the day, she would have been a high-ranking general or something similar, so she naturally received some preferential treatment.

"Department Head Gao, I thought you'd be in a much more miserable state!" Gu Changqing said with a grin.

"You've exceeded my expectations. Given your personality, I thought you wouldn't come. It looks like something has happened," Gao Wenxin said calmly. In truth, there were no ropes restraining her; the effects of the drug simply hadn't worn off yet.

"Indeed!" Gu Changqing nodded. If he hadn't broken through to Tier 7, he might not have bothered coming to rescue Gao Wenxin.

It wasn't that he was afraid of the Qi Dynasty. As long as he didn't run into a Swordsmaster or a Phantasmsmaster, everyone else was of little consequence.

The main issue was the sheer distance.

He would cross mountains and oceans to exact revenge, undertaking the journey without a second thought.

Rescuing someone was a different matter entirely. Even a drop of water's worth of kindness deserved a spring's return, but a favor this massive was simply too heavy to repay!

Fortunately, he could fly now.

"I've broken through. Surprised? Shocked?" Gu Changqing laughed heartily.

Gao Wenxin instinctively assumed Gu Changqing had broken through to Tier 6, but instantly realized something was amiss.

"Tier 7?"

Gu Changqing remained silent. A river of blood surged from his hand, instantly devouring the Daye Tier 6 Awakened one.

Gao Wenxin immediately understood what he meant.

"You actually reached it..." Gao Wenxin said after a brief silence. Although she had long guessed that Gu Changqing could reach Tier 7, she hadn't expected it to happen so soon.

"Also, you can put me down now. I can walk on my own!"

Gu Changqing already had Gao Wenxin tucked under his arm.

"Your pace is too slow, and I still have things to do! By the way, I forgot to mention earlier—I beat Chen Daoling to death!" Gu Changqing summoned his flying boat, leaped directly onto it, and set a straight course for the Qi Dynasty's capital, Xindu.

At the same time, he put on his sunglasses.

"I thought I'd been kidnapped for half a year!" Gao Wenxin sat on the flying boat, looking somewhat surprised by the contraption beneath her.

As for the death of Chen Daoling, it didn't cause any emotional ripples in her.

"Where are we going now?"

"To find the Swordsmaster and the Phantasmsmaster! We still need to settle your score!" Gu Changqing grinned, flashing a row of white teeth.

Gao Wenxin didn't think Gu Changqing was doing this for her sake, nor did she wish to become dead weight.

"I can go back by myself. You can go on alone."

"You're the victim here, the aggrieved party!" Gu Changqing laughed heartily.

Since he was already here, he was definitely going to find the Swordsmaster.

Besides, he still needed someone to cheer him on.

He didn't have many acquaintances left. Everyone else was far too weak; only Gao Wenxin barely possessed the value of being a cheerleader, though unfortunately, she had no desire for this new career.

She was much more interested in Gu Changqing's flying boat.

However, she hadn't asked about it when Gu Changqing was weak, and now that he had broken through to Tier 7, she was even less likely to ask.

The territory of the Qi Dynasty was ten times that of Southern Chu. The distance from Jiaoma Port to Xindu wasn't particularly long, measuring just over twelve hundred kilometers.

At Gu Changqing's speed, it would take less than two hours.

However, shortly after leaving Jiaoma, he was locked onto by radar. Yet, his altitude wasn't very high—only about 500 meters above the ground. The four-meter-long flying boat didn't look like an airplane; its shape made people more inclined to suspect it was some kind of anomalous entity.

While the radar station was in a flurry of chaotic confirmation, Gu Changqing flashed past in a blur.

After all, the Qi Dynasty's moles in Southern Chu had transmitted plenty of intelligence, but there was one piece of information they had failed to relay: Gu Changqing was flying here on a flying boat.

Even so, it wasn't long before the Qi Dynasty received word that Gu Changqing was heading straight for Xindu, forcing even the Swordsmaster to step out of his room.

In less than two hours, Gu Changqing appeared atop a skyscraper in Xindu, gazing down at the massive sprawling city below.

"So this is Xindu?" Gu Changqing found himself liking the place.

Prosperous and bustling, it far surpassed Chendu.

Compared to this, Angang Port felt like a massive rural village.

"Can we make a move now?" Gu Changqing asked.

"The drug has worn off." Gao Wenxin twisted her neck, producing a series of crisp cracking sounds.

However, both her blade and her empty pouch were gone.

This made her feel somewhat out of element.

"Let's find a place to eat something first. What do they have that's delicious around here?"

"Sweet and sour pork!" It was Gao Wenxin's first time here as well, but that was the first dish that popped into her mind, and she stated it with absolute certainty.

"Then let's go eat that!" Gu Changqing snapped his fingers.

Now that the power dynamics between the two had completely reversed, Gu Changqing had grown increasingly domineering.

Gao Wenxin didn't care much about this, however. She was a law unto herself, indifferent to everything except her blades.

She used to have an older brother named Gao Tianwu, but since Gao Tianwu had died at her own hands, her temperament had grown increasingly detached.

Yet, that detachment applied only to matters she considered irrelevant.

When it came to actual combat, the decisiveness and ruthlessness of her strikes were hardly inferior to Gu Changqing's.

Back then, because of her father's affairs, she had killed over thirty people, seventeen of whom were her blood relatives—wiping out entire branches of the family. Only Gao Tianwu had survived because he was studying abroad at the time.

It was her father's old friend who had shielded her, and later, due to the shortage of manpower in Chongming, she had spent a few years selling her life for the organization under someone's guarantee, leading to who she was today.

The two dropped down onto the street. Gu Changqing casually grabbed a passerby and asked, "Where's the best sweet and sour pork?"

"I don't know!" The person looked bewildered at the tall young man standing before him, dressed in a white shirt and white pants, wearing a pair of sunglasses.

"If you don't know, pull out your phone and ask. Are you mute?" Gu Changqing raised an eyebrow.

"Keep acting like this and I'm calling the police!" the person warned.

"Go ahead!" Gu Changqing stomped his foot, sending a series of cracks extending more than ten meters along the ground.

The man's eyes bulged, and sweat began to bead on his forehead.

Instantly recalling the content from the Awakened Era forums, he hurriedly fished out his phone, stammering, "I... I'll ask for you..."

"Never mind!" A voice directly interrupted him, staring at Gu Changqing with a gaze full of vigilance and lingering resentment. "Bullying an ordinary person—don't you feel you're losing your dignity? What are you doing here?"

The Daye Awakened ones had just learned about the incidents at Jiaoma Port: all eight Tier 6 Awakened ones were missing and most likely dead on the spot.

In addition, more than a dozen other Awakened individuals had been slain.

Therefore, upon realizing that Gu Changqing was rushing toward Xindu, they had scattered Awakened operatives everywhere to track his movements, with strict orders to exercise restraint: they only needed to report Gu Changqing's location and avoid conflicting with him.

Gu Changqing hadn't bothered to conceal his tracks, so he was spotted almost the moment he arrived in Xindu.

"Who gave you permission to talk to me like that? Didn't your family teach you what manners are? Even if your family failed to teach you, those people of yours that I beat to death should have warned you to be careful around me," Gu Changqing said with a smile.

"Still, I'm in a good mood right now... Take me to the best place for sweet and sour pork!" Gu Changqing flicked his fingernails as he spoke.

Resentment surged in the man's heart, yet he dared not vent it. Even the people behind him, listening through their earpieces, exchanged bewildered and awkward glances.

Sweet and sour pork?

"Don't argue with him. Don't provoke his anger. Take him to Ziyang No. 13 first," someone immediately ordered through the comms.

Ziyang No. 13 was a sizable club. Even if its sweet and sour pork wasn't the absolute best, at the very least, fighting there would minimize collateral damage.

"Follow me!" the man standing before Gu Changqing said, swallowing his anger.

"Lead the way!" Gu Changqing circulated his Wind-Riding Breath Art, his entire body floating slightly into the air.

This prompted gasps of astonishment from the surrounding ordinary citizens, who hurriedly whipped out their phones to frantically record videos.

Gu Changqing didn't care in the least about exposing himself to the entire world; he loved the idea of the whole world knowing who he was and chanting his name.