Blood Queen

The afternoon was basically free time. For the simple shut-in Jiang Yao who just wanted to get some fresh air, no matter how beautiful the mountains and waters were, they were really just take-it-or-leave-it scenery.

Underground at the Hyacinth villa, there was also a small live-fire shooting training room hidden away, which gave Jiang Yao the perfect combination of entertainment and emotional outlet. She spent the entire afternoon in the shooting training room, either spacing out while watching others practice shooting, or trying it herself, completely ignoring whatever Zhong Jing was up to.

Jiang Yao herself didn't know why she had suddenly gotten so angry, but his repeated focus on her figure and appearance as important topics of conversation had indeed touched a long-hidden sensitive spot in Jiang Yao's heart.

The not-so-successful cleft lip surgery and finger webbing from her youth were always accompanied by looks of discrimination, cold treatment, and mockery. These negative memories would inappropriately surface in the details of her current life.

Over the past few months, the more she enjoyed the admiring and envious gazes of others, the more unreal Jiang Yao felt it all was. This feeling was especially strong and sensitive when she was with Zhong Jing.

Honestly speaking, Zhong Jing's personality and temperament were both fine, and his emotional intelligence wasn't bad either. He would always quietly bridge the gap between them through shared interests and hobbies, or humorously resolve awkward moments in their interactions. With the added filter of being Wan Yue's disciple, that whole spoiled rich kid's dissolute and unrestrained air seemed to be elevated into another kind of carefree, mysterious, righteous aura.

"As long as he doesn't always make my appearance and clothing the topic of conversation, we can still get along... it seems like besides him, there really aren't many people in Hyacinth who I click with. They're all secretly uncle and auntie-level characters...

"Whether he likes me or not is his business. Anyway, anyway, I won't..."

Jiang Yao muttered softly to herself in words only she could hear. Without aiming at the target, she just irritably pulled the trigger of her pistol, firing through her tenth magazine of the day.

Another series with more than half the shots missing the target. Jiang Yao's terrible marksmanship–high enthusiasm but low skill, completely embarrassing–made Zheng Shaolin, who was stealing glances from the side, twitch at the corners of his mouth. After all, Hyacinth had very few channels to obtain ammunition. Even ordinary training ammunition cost quite a bit of money.

Finally tired of playing, Jiang Yao dropped the pistol, took off her sound-dampening ear protection, and walked toward the elevator, her mind full of Zhong Jing's bewildered and helpless expression when she had thrown down her suitcase.

Dinner was the first major event of this team-building retreat, filling the cold and quiet Hyacinth villa with lively human warmth. Even Wan Yue, who usually looked like her ten fingers had never touched spring water, rolled up her sleeves and went into the kitchen courtyard to help with food preparation.

No one would have thought that the tower-like, powerfully built tough guy Zheng Shaolin was also a skilled chef. With the cooperation of a bunch of little Blood Servants, the Hyacinth villa's dinner was quite sumptuous. Chicken, duck, fish, meat, seafood, and mountain delicacies were all available, looking even higher class than the Golden River Club.

Two huge rectangular wooden tables seated four rows of people. Zheng Shaolin was busy in the back kitchen, with exquisite dishes constantly being brought to the tables. At this moment, there was no talk of realm levels, strength, weakness, or hierarchy. Everyone was chatting and laughing warmly, eating until their mouths were greasy, just like dozens of squirrels rushing to put on fat for autumn.

Jiang Yao roughly calculated that just this one dinner's ingredient costs were at least ten thousand yuan. For Wan Yue to feed this big family, just the food expenses alone were a huge sum of money throughout the year.

At the scene, there was only one ordinary person: Zhong Jing.

He sat composedly among a bunch of little Blood Servants, methodically eating seafood, completely ignoring the dozen or so strange looks around him. He would only occasionally look up in Jiang Yao's direction, wanting to speak but stopping himself.

They had expected there would be an internal Hyacinth senior-junior fellowship after this, but unexpectedly, as soon as dinner ended, Wan Yue announced the activity for this holiday team-building: a midnight strike to destroy a nest of Black Blood Clan in J City to the southeast.

Except for Jiang Yao being somewhat stunned, the vast majority of people, including the little Blood Servants, looked excited. Fighting Black Blood Clan to the death wasn't just about disgust or revenge, but more about collective identity recognition.

Zheng Shaolin announced the list of Hyacinth members for tonight's strike, divided into main force and support teams. Each team had one Knight and seven Attendants, with each Attendant also paired with a Blood Servant as assistance. This was Hyacinth's typical veteran-leading-rookie model.

Although Jiang Yao was the only Knight in the main force team, command authority was given to mid-tier Attendant Zhou Ping. Zheng Shaolin served as overall tactical director, commanding the support team and overall coordination, and would not directly participate in combat unless absolutely necessary.

The main force team members whose names were called all stood up, then all looked toward the highest-realm person in the group: Jiang Yao. Some were surprised, some curious, some fearful, and some anxious.

A trembling motor transmission sound echoed in the dining room. The wooden floor in the corner of the dining room slowly moved aside, revealing stairs leading to a basement. Zheng Shaolin walked down first, followed by the selected members.

Wan Yue herself seemed uninterested in such small skirmishes, staying behind at the Hyacinth villa with the remaining people to continue eating, drinking, and having fun.

The moment she stepped into the stairway, Jiang Yao turned her head to glance at Zhong Jing, who was still sitting dazed at the dining table, and happened to meet his gaze. Remembering the inexplicable anger she had directed at him in the parking lot at noon, Jiang Yao forced a smile, a trace of apology at the corner of her mouth.

Zhong Jing only looked at Jiang Yao's face for a second before turning his head away. He not only pulled out a cigarette and lit it, but also crossed his legs in a "I won't forgive you this time" pouty expression.

"What the hell... he really has no masculine grace... actually throwing a tantrum at me."

Jiang Yao clenched her fists, feeling a small surge of anger.

The basement space was much larger than imagined, even giving Jiang Yao a feeling of returning to the Xuan Jia Squad's garrison base. The walls all around were covered with firearms and crates of ammunition.

Probably due to the Blood Clan's inherent advantages, Hyacinth's weapon selection was quite similar to the Shadow Arrow Force's support companies, mainly consisting of various medium and long-range suppression firepower, especially the VSSM silenced sniper rifles with balanced performance in all aspects.

Close combat? Blood Clan never considered whether they might be at a disadvantage in close combat. That was something only the Shadow Arrow Force needed to worry about.

As for combat clothing, these were Hyacinth's unique gray-black tight-fitting combat suits, made of different elastic materials spliced to fit different parts of the body to minimize impact on mobility, while also providing some defensive capability.

After changing into combat gear, Jiang Yao realized she was surrounded by a variety of graceful youthful figures of different heights.

After enjoying the eye candy of the girls around her, Jiang Yao put on a women's long tactical overcoat, followed by bulletproof armor and various other auxiliary equipment.

Finally, she expertly grabbed a silenced pistol and magazines, beginning to load 9mm special silver-core pistol rounds. This type of ammunition for actual combat was truly expensive.

Probably because her marksmanship was generally poor to begin with, plus after becoming a Blood Clan, her first experience with Huang Gu had given her a taste of the thrill of ultra-close-range assault, so Jiang Yao's enthusiasm for firearms was decreasing. If not for tactical requirements, she probably would have given up pistols long ago.

She didn't know where Hyacinth had obtained these rebellion-level military supplies, but in Jiang Yao's view, the combat model Wan Yue had built for Hyacinth already combined the characteristics of both Shadow Arrow and Blood Clan.

"If you find Zhong Jing annoying, I can say one word and he'll never bother you again."

While Jiang Yao was focused on checking the weapon holsters on both thighs, a tall shadow appeared in front of her. Looking up, she saw Wan Yue's gently smiling face.

"I don't really dislike him. He's your disciple and handles important matters. Everyone trusts him..."

Jiang Yao blushed and quickly lowered her head, pretending to organize the emergency medical kit at her waist while adding two VSSM rifle magazines to her belt. "It's just that sometimes I can't tell if he's joking or being serious."

"Do you think that's what I'm referring to?"

Wan Yue reached out to touch Jiang Yao's beautiful long hair, a hint of playfulness in her eyes. "Normal people and Blood Clan actually have no difference when it comes to emotions. I've never opposed it either. Besides, what if he is being serious?"

Jiang Yao was stunned. Her ears began to heat up, and her face showed some panic, or perhaps more confusion, not knowing how to respond for a moment.

When everyone insisted Jiang Yao was a woman, maybe one day she would really think of herself as a woman... Wan Yue smiled as she looked at those confused but clear, bright eyes, sighing softly in her heart.

"However, he may not be able to see clearly what he really needs... and you probably don't know what you need right now either. Lastly, some girls have already told me that you like to peek at others undressing in the club's changing room. You must fix this bad habit for me!"

After saying this, Wan Yue flicked Jiang Yao's forehead with her finger.

"Sister Wan, you're an auntie of a certain age and you're teasing me too... Besides, the changing rooms clearly have curtains. It's their fault for not pulling them closed! They look at me often too!"

Jiang Yao was still being stubborn, turning her head away from Wan Yue's gaze and pretending to put on her ear-hook portable communicator, though her neck was already red. "There aren't many people in Hyacinth I can talk to anyway... As long as Zhong Jing doesn't tease people, being friends is still possible... Anyway, anyway… I'll listen to my sister..."

Wan Yue quietly listened to Jiang Yao's hesitant words, gently nodded, turned and walked away without comment.

The team set out before midnight. The commercial bus continued eastward on the Longquan Mountain road, climbing over the mountain pass and gradually crossing the entire Longquan Mountain range from west to east, then entering J City in S Province. The road beneath the bus transitioned from mountains and hills to plains.

This was the central area of S Province, also the new economic zone where C City would exert its provincial capital economic radiation effect eastward in the future, but for now it was still endless farmland.

The commercial bus had stopped shortly after leaving Longquan Mountain, and all Hyacinth combat members ran on foot toward their destination under cover of darkness.

For Blood Clan of Attendant level and above, maintaining a running speed of twenty kilometers per hour for half an hour was quite easy even without activating blood-boiling. The two teams of Hyacinth members quickly infiltrated around a remote village - an abandoned rural settlement that had been deserted for years after the village consolidation policy.

The time had passed one in the morning.

After collectively injecting external hormone suppressants, Zheng Shaolin made a gesture, and the dozen support team members dispersed, occupying advantageous positions and setting up long-range sniper rifles aimed at the moonless night's deserted village.

"I'll repeat this once more: the opponents have two mid-tier Knights. One is Caucasus Blood Clan. Their speed and agility are first-rate among all Blood Clan, and explosive power is second only to Altai Blood Clan. Especially their blood-boiling threshold and stability are higher than us Siberian Blood Clan! You need to take him out first, otherwise you'll be in trouble in a prolonged battle!"

Zheng Shaolin grabbed Jiang Yao, who was preparing to advance, repeatedly emphasizing the tactical focus of this operation.

With the VSSM silenced sniper rifle on her back and a dagger in hand, Jiang Yao just nodded lightly, then made a Shadow Arrow tactical gesture to Zhou Ping before disappearing into the darkness at extremely high speed.

She had long noticed that Hyacinth's tactical style was highly similar to Shadow Arrow, even using identical tactical gestures, making her even more curious about Wan Yue, who had single-handedly created Hyacinth.

"Is she really Siberian Blood Clan? She's that fast without even blood-boiling?"

Zheng Shaolin looked at Jiang Yao's retreating figure in surprise, seeming not to have reacted yet.

"Yeah, Brother Zheng is making a big deal of nothing. Sister Wan already calls her little monster. I'm used to it anyway..."

Zhou Ping curled her lip and led the remaining main force members to surround the area.

With a crushing overhead strike, the Black Blood Clan lower-tier Attendant in front of Jiang Yao had his neck snapped, with deep depressions appearing in his chest cavity. Only his body twitched under autonomic nervous system control, and even the pheromone leakage and aura fluctuations barely changed.

This Black Blood Clan small gang with the very middle-school name "Overlord Association" currently had only one Attendant standing guard outside, and he was half-asleep. Hyacinth had chosen an excellent time for their surprise attack–just past one in the morning, the time when everyone was in deep sleep.

Zhou Ping's people caught up and split into three groups, separately infiltrating three large, dilapidated farmhouses.

The puffing sounds of VSSM silenced rifles and silenced pistols continued as Black Blood Clan Attendants still sleeping soundly had their heads blown off one by one. Until this point, no one had activated blood-boiling.

Although Wan Yue had previously hinted to keep the corpses as intact as possible, Zhou Ping and the others clearly didn't count Black Blood Clan heads, though who knows what her expression would be when she learned that Blood Clan spinal fluid was more valuable than gold.

Next came the final basement. Not only the residence of Overlord Association's two leaders, but also where they kept their Blood Servants.

"Wait! Xiao Yao, something's not right. According to Brother Zheng's intelligence, there should be seven Attendants here. I’ve only counted six until now."

Zhou Ping suddenly felt something was wrong and stopped her hand that was touching the basement cover. Through the wooden gaps, she seemed to sense waves of wild aura, as if there were Blood Clan with blood-boiling activated in the basement, but the meaning contained in that aura was somewhat strange.

Jiang Yao froze. A second later, her whole body exploded with hurricane-like blood-boiling aura as she violently lifted the wooden cover and dropped like a cannonball into the basement.

The basement was luxuriously decorated, flickering with dim and seductive colored spotlights like a bar nightclub. For a moment, Jiang Yao thought she had entered the wrong set.

On a long sofa in the corner, two naked male and female bodies were entangled together, engaged in primitive lovemaking. For extra stimulation, both the man and woman had activated blood-boiling!

The woman wrapped around the male Knight like an octopus was the previously missing Attendant–a mature, charming middle-aged female lower-tier Attendant!

In the basement, the air seemed to freeze. The naked male Black Blood Clan Knight turned his head, his blood-red pupils ignited with desire showing a mixture of shock and fear.

"Ah!"

The naked Black Blood Clan female Attendant screamed and rolled to one side, simultaneously crouching low and lowering her center of gravity. Her facial muscles quickly twisted grotesquely as she recklessly pushed her blood-boiling past the threshold, her body beginning to show visible aberrations.

The male Black Blood Clan Knight, however, bounced his entire body into mid-air, spreading both arms front and back. His rear arm's forearm and palm had already mutated into bone claws, pressing down directly toward the red-faced Jiang Yao.

Jiang Yao crossed both daggers in front of her chest while quickly retreating. The heavy, powerful claw strike nearly knocked the daggers from the girl's hands, and the pressure forced her body back against the basement wall.

Jiang Yao's body heavily crashed into a row of wine cabinets. Various shattered wine bottle glass and fragrant liquor almost covered the girl's back.

"From the Deng family in Z City?"

Seeing he had the upper hand and his opponent was temporarily unable to build up strength, the Black Blood Clan Knight grinned menacingly. "A bunch of meddling old turtles. I was giving you face by not bothering you. Aren't you afraid I'll come sneak attack and get revenge on you one by one?

"No... you're Hyacinth!"

Probably having drunk too much earlier, the Black Blood Clan Knight's focus was somewhat affected. From the dim, colorful lighting of the basement, he slowly made out Jiang Yao's black tight combat suit and tactical overcoat. Immediately, a trace of fear appeared in his blood-red pupils. Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, he frantically ran toward a passage on the other side of the basement.

Jiang Yao directly drew the silenced pistol from her thigh and fired repeatedly. Even though she hit his lower back and shoulder blade, it didn't make him look back even once.

The previously naked Black Blood Clan female Attendant used this distraction to charge directly toward the stairs leading to the surface.

However, within a few seconds, amid a crackling burst of gunfire, the Black Blood Clan female Attendant fell back down like a charred, smoking broken doll covered in black smoke all over her body. She had obviously been focused fire by Zhou Ping and others waiting on the surface, dying quite miserably.

"Damn it, blood-boiling sex play in the middle of the night…Is it really that stimulating or something? Scared the hell out of me..."

Only now did Jiang Yao mutter this, then directly removed the cumbersome VSSM silenced rifle from her back and tossed it aside.

Dagger in left hand, pistol in right, Jiang Yao's body shot up again, chasing after the basement passage.