Chapter 77: Superior Components

On the other side of the corridor, in the "Fa Xin Ren’s" room.

Lao Lu’s face was already bruised and swollen from the beating. Both his nostrils were bleeding, and one of his fingers had been broken.

“Don’t, don’t hit me anymore…” Lao Lu begged for mercy. “If you beat me to death, no one will deliver messages for you… Please spare me…”

“You old dog!!” A Mu grabbed hold of Lao Lu’s sparse hair and snarled viciously, “Haven’t I treated you well?! Huh? I gave you the ‘Dao’ and the ‘Xin Ren,’ and you dare to smash my key?!”

“I’m truly sorry…” Lao Lu forced a bitter smile and said, “I only realized the key was still with me after I’d sent all the boxes. I wanted to deliver it right away, but the three-minute countdown was down to just three seconds. If I didn’t throw the key into the crusher, I would have died…”

“Do you think I’d believe you?!” A Mu yanked Lao Lu’s hair and slammed his head hard against the wall.

The impact hit Lao Lu’s eye socket, and blood began to flow nonstop from his eyebrow.

“Ouch… Stop hitting me…” Lao Lu clutched his forehead and wailed on the ground, “If you keep going, you’ll really kill me…”

A Mu steadied his breathing slightly and slowly released his grip.

“You old dog… Good thing I didn’t fully trust you.” He slowly stood up and pulled a letter from his pocket.

“What…” Lao Lu froze in place upon seeing the letter. “You didn’t put the letter in?!”

“These little tricks of yours are like child’s play in front of me.” A Mu crouched next to Lao Lu with an angry smile and said, “Old dog, I’ll give you one more chance. If this letter doesn’t get to the other side, I don’t care about any ‘Zhi Cai’ or not—I’ll rush into the corridor first thing and gouge out your eyes, tear out your throat. Do you understand?”

Lao Lu nodded shakily all over.

This A Mu was absolutely capable of it.

He was a true desperado; even if the game was lost, he wouldn’t let Lao Lu go.

“Qi Xia boy… I’ve helped you as much as this old bones can.” Lao Lu murmured to himself.

On the other side, Jiang Ruoxue was hugging the box and stalling for time.

She was out of options.

She hadn’t expected that young man to be unexpectedly clever.

It was only a matter of time before the box with the two locks in her hands was cracked. Now, all she could do was delay as much as possible, hoping her team could use that time to secure victory first.

As time ticked by, with only ten seconds left on the countdown, Jiang Ruoxue knocked on Lin Geng’s door.

Lin Geng seemed surprised to receive a “reply,” looking puzzled.

She had just sent the locked box, hoping Qi Xia would have the right tools to open it. But now, the box had returned intact, even with two locks on it.

“Take it quickly! I don’t have time!” Jiang Ruoxue said.

Fearing the “spy” might die and leave no one to deliver messages, Lin Geng hurriedly took the box.

She examined the two locks on the box and slowly widened her eyes.

“So that’s it… So he has a second lock? I get it now!”

Lin Geng quickly pulled out her golden key and unlocked the golden lock.

Now, only the silver lock remained on the box.

“Hurry!” Lin Geng handed the box back to Jiang Ruoxue. “Send it back to the ‘Shou Xin Ren’!”

Jiang Ruoxue gritted her teeth and looked at the box in her hands, knowing things were going badly.

This woman had seen through the tactic in just a few seconds—she was no ordinary opponent.

“Hey… Let me join you guys…” Jiang Ruoxue said awkwardly, “Let’s cooperate. Only by working together can you win.”

Lin Geng stared intently into Jiang Ruoxue’s eyes and soon smiled slightly. “How strange. If you really wanted to cooperate with us, Qi Xia wouldn’t have come up with this strategy.”

“Qi Xia…?”

“Things have progressed this far— even if you don’t cooperate, we won’t lose the game.” Lin Geng smiled apologetically. “Sorry, not this time.”

Jiang Ruoxue stared at Lin Geng, pondering something in her mind.

“Ruoxue, the only thing you can do now is stall for time.” Lin Geng slowly closed the door. “I’m sorry.”

Once in the corridor, Jiang Ruoxue no longer wore her previous expression. She walked slowly to the center and murmured softly.

“So he’s Qi Xia? This is even better than I expected.”

After a few seconds, she seemed to be conversing with someone, nodding repeatedly.

“Yes, I can die. But what about afterward?”

“Okay.” Jiang Ruoxue nodded. “Do you need me to leave a little surprise for him?”

“Got it.”

She hugged the iron box and stepped forward, heading straight to Qi Xia’s door.

Jiang Ruoxue closed her eyes slightly and knocked on the door.

When Qi Xia opened the door, he first glanced at the box in her hands and smiled contentedly.

Only the silver lock remained on the box.

This team was full of “superior parts”—there was no way they could make an “inferior fighter.”

“Why, are you giving me the box now? Or do you want to stall a bit longer?” Qi Xia asked.

Jiang Ruoxue slowly opened her eyes, but suddenly, a massive bell rang in the distance.

“Dong!!!”

Qi Xia froze, a sense of dread rising in his heart. He quickly looked around but saw nothing unusual.

“I’ll give it to you now.” Jiang Ruoxue said, “You should know that even with this, you can’t open the door right away, right?”

“Of course.” Qi Xia reached out cautiously to take the box, still watching her warily. “The ‘Fa Xin Ren’ on the other side, Lao Lu, should have delivered the letter by now. But we haven’t lost yet, which means even if the ‘Shou Xin Ren’ saw the letter, they couldn’t open the door immediately.”

“Let me see your skills.” Jiang Ruoxue said.

Qi Xia looked at her suspiciously. “If you see my skills, you might not survive.”

“It’s fine.” She smiled. “Who wins is still up in the air.”

“True.”

Qi Xia took out his silver key and smoothly unlocked the last lock on the box.

He pulled out the envelope, opened it, and glanced at it, his expression unchanging. Then he went to the large microwave and carefully read the prompts on the display screen.

It was a high-end touchscreen that supported handwriting input.

There were four spaces left for Qi Xia to enter the code, and the only uncertainty was whether it required four digits, letters, or Hanzi.

Qi Xia turned back and picked up the encrypted letter.

Next, he had to crack the code.

He unfolded the letter, revealing a single line of letters on it.

“MLGDRZDQVXL”.

Besides that line, there were no other hints on the letter.

Jiang Ruoxue saw the line of letters and looked puzzled, not quite understanding the code’s principle.

“Every game has a ‘Sheng Lu’.” Qi Xia murmured to himself, “Setting a code that’s too complex would deprive players of that ‘Sheng Lu,’ so cracking this code won’t be too difficult.”

“And among the simple code-cracking methods I know, the only one without numbers is one.”

“Kai Sa Mi Ma.”