SWNOVELS
Chapter 304: Paper Tiger
contemporary romance
War Tiger shouted, “What did you say? I can’t hear you!”
Azure Dragon paused and turned to Colorless. “What happened to him?”
Instead of answering immediately, Colorless took out the two syringes of Medicine C she carried with her and uncapped them, injecting the thigh she had stabbed with a dagger with one shot. She frowned before her expression gradually relaxed.
Then she threw the other syringe to War Tiger, smiling wryly. “He broke his own eardrums.”
Azure Dragon caught on immediately, gaining a newfound respect for War Tiger’s decisiveness and quick reaction.
Catching the syringe, War Tiger inserted the needle into the back of his ear, administering a third of the medicine before doing the same with his other ear.
Then he dropped the syringe and squatted down, covering his temples with both hands. “Ughhhh it’s so itchy...”
After thirty seconds, War Tiger shook his head, getting to his feet.
He turned back to Azure Dragon and said with his usual cadence. “What did you say earlier?”
“I said you saved me.” Azure Dragon gave him a grateful smile.
“And you me.” War Tiger waved a dismissive hand at him and walked away. “I’ll call us even.”
Colorless looked ashamed. “But I alone dragged you down.”
“I won’t say that.” War Tiger picked up his weapon. “If you hadn’t heard the wail before we did, I wouldn’t have known that I could defend against the effect by destroying my hearing.”
Colorless paused. The man was more considerate than she had expected.
War Tiger then sheathed his weapon and turned to Azure Dragon with a smirk. “Ha, I should’ve known that you are the ‘Superman on Paper’ people talk about. After all, you’ve been fighting on the frontline for the Qilin Guild, participating in missions of all scales.”
Azure Dragon stroked his beard and said self-deprecatingly, “And on paper my power stays. I’m nothing but a paper tiger.”
“You’re being way too humble. Sooner or later, you’re going to become invincible.”
“What do you mean by that?” Colorless was confused. She didn’t get what they were talking about at all.
“Haha.” War Tiger looked at Azure Dragon. “Can I tell her?”
“Go ahead since you’ve guessed it.” Azure Dragon didn’t hesitate.
War Tiger grinned at Colorless. “We’ve been through a life-and-death situation together. I’ll give you an S-class intel for free.”
He pointed at Azure Dragon. “This guy’s Talent is the rumored Greatest Evolution!”
“It’s Limitless Evolution,” Azure Dragon corrected. “But same difference.”
Colorless was still befuddled. Regarding the top ten Talents, the Hundred Rivers Union had failed to collect even snippets of information.
“Limitless Evolution, serial number 6, the top Buff-type Talent.” War Tiger explained further. “Basically, the more he fights, the more powerful he becomes.”
Azure Dragon smiled. “Whenever a Talent fails to kill me, I’ll gain a 60% immunity and resistance to it after I recover, as well as acquire a small part of the Talent owner’s energy for my own use.”
“At the moment, my Limitless Evolution is level 6, which allows me to extract 3% to 5% of the target’s energy. Of course, it can only be done once for each target.”
Colorless finally understood. “So you’ll sooner or later become unrivaled by fighting different people?”
“That’s why the Talent creates a theoretical superman,” said War Tiger.
“Ha, that fits.” Colorless felt a hint of dread.
It was no exaggeration to say that with enough preparation, Azure Dragon would be able to erase the entire Hundred Rivers Union on his own.
“I’ve never been hit by a psychic attack of the type before.” Azure Dragon looked at his right hand and slowly balled it into fist. “But now, the same trick won’t be able to stop me.”
“Old Dragon, you could’ve asked all the high-level awakeners to spar with you before your Talent is widely-known. Won’t it be awesome to become the most powerful being secretly?”
“First, would any of you be willing to spar with me?” Azure Dragon smiled wryly. “Second, my Talent only triggers when I’m fighting someone to the death. A spar where both parties are restraining themselves doesn’t work.”
War Tiger didn’t say anything. Good, I’ve learned something useful.
Azure Dragon had long seen through his intention.
“If you want to kill me, War Tiger, you only have one chance,” Azure Dragon said confidently with a half smile. “Otherwise, you’ll never be able to defeat me.”
“Why would an assassin like me duel you? Of course I’m gonna resort to schemes!” War Tiger didn’t sound ashamed at all.
Azure Dragon laughed. “You’re an interesting one, Brother Tiger.”
Standing between the two bigshots, Colorless suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. “I get that men like you love comparing sizes and exchanging barbs, but can we please get out of here first?”
Azure Dragon nodded and scanned the place. “We should look around a little more and see what we can find out.”
“Alright.” Colorless took out her phone and took pictures of the church. All these would be intel collected during the investigation, to be brought back to Li City when they returned.
...
Naldives, on a private beach near the F Island.
After the shower, the night sky was clear, providing the backdrop for the flickering stars. The sea was calm as well. Awash in the moonlight, the soft sandy beach looked like white jade.
A few jet skis were parked by the beach.
Under the parasols, twelve people sat on or stood by the beach loungers, including:
Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Seven Shadow, Scarlet Fox, Ronnie, and Can from the Qilin Guild.
White Rabbit, Green Snake, and Electric Mouse of the Twelve Zodiac Signs.
Chen Ying, Green Tea, and Joker of the Hundred Rivers Union.
They couldn’t afford to be late, so they gathered here half an hour early. Still, X was nowhere to be seen.
It was less than five minutes from the time they agreed on. And people were getting agitated.
“Is he coming?” White Rabbit turned to Vermilion Bird.
“I don’t know.” Vermilion Bird wasn’t feeling optimistic. She frowned at the vast ocean. “X is a strange and unpredictable man. It’s entirely possible for him to pull a trick on us.”
“Doesn’t matter. We aren’t gonna lose anything.” White Tiger was unfazed. He was holding a thermos filled with chrysanthemum and goji berry tea.
Sitting on a lounger, he opened the thermos and took a drink.
“Elder White Tiger,” Wu Dahai said with barely-suppressed laughter. “You’re drinking hot tea in such hot weather?”
“You brat,” White Tiger shot back without heat, his attitude down-to-earth. “You’ll know the importance of taking care of yourself once you’re my age.”
“Wait, I’ll be fine with anyone else saying this, but you’re Elder White Tiger, ranked ninth in the power ranking!” Wu Dahai still had trouble reconciling the image with the man. “That’s so uncool.”
“Cool?” White Tiger snorted and shot back a series of sharp questions. “Is being cool going to keep me fed? Support my livelihood? Allow me to stay healthy until the age of ninety?”
Keeping up a poker face, Gao Yang gave White Tiger a thumbs-up in his head. Well said!
“But...”
Wu Dahai was going to say something, but he shut up when the rumble of a jet ski’s engine came from a near distance.
They all looked up to see a white jet ski disturbing the calm water and the serene night, speeding toward the uninhabited island.
Half a minute later, X reached shore.
He was dressed in a patterned shirt and a pair of patterned shorts, his blonde hair pushed back with an alice band. On his neck was a necklace of heavy gold chains.
With his hands in his pockets, he sauntered toward them with a smile. “Ah, and here I was worrying if you’d come.”
Vermilion Bird said, “Twelve awakeners, no more, no less.”
“Good.” Satisfied, X snapped his fingers. “Let’s get going.”