You're Strong But Now You're Mine-Chapter 56: No Need to Be Afraid Anymore

Le Yu’s heart stopped the instant he heard the knock at the door, but Yin Yinyin didn’t react at all.

"Light."

"Light."

"Light."

"Ding~"

The basement door was slowly pushed open, creaking with every inch, as a chilling entrance soundtrack played along, until with a crash someone flung it open,

"Hahaha, did we scare you, Little Yin?"

Standing in the doorway was an exceptionally tall woman—normally you wouldn’t call a woman "tall," but Le Yu’s first impression of her was just "tall" and "big."

Both Le Yu and Yin Yinyin could be considered tall and thin; Le Yu was even a little taller than Yin Yinyin, but compared to this woman, the two of them looked a head shorter. And the tall woman was evenly muscled, her thighs taut, sporting a breezy short haircut, bright black eyes, an all-smiles face, and a body lined with powerful curves. Her clothes stretched over her figure in a way that gave her a wild, almost predatory beauty.

When she saw Le Yu, her eyes lit up instantly. Before he could react, she strode across several meters and pulled him into a bear hug, rubbing against him delightedly, "I! Knew! It! When I saw you at the city gate, I just knew you were the mole!"

"What’s that supposed to mean—do I just look like a double agent or something?"

"Although I really wanted to complain, I was completely thrown off by this sudden facial wash. All I could do was gulp down big breaths of air—’don’t suffocate, don’t suffocate’—man, she’s really big."

"Sis Qian, you’re going to scare him like that," someone said, laughing,

The tall woman let go of Le Yu at that, blinked in apology, then stepped over and hugged Yin Yinyin, ruffling his hair and giggling, "Still, Little Yin’s white hair just feels so nice—so soft, so smooth. Must be washing his hair every day."

Getting his head petted like a cat, Yin Yinyin still made no move to resist. He just turned to glance at the basement door now being filled with people as they filed in, and calmly asked, "You all came?"

The cramped basement filled up with people. A middle-aged man with a scarred face nodded, "They wanted to meet their teammates before the operation."

Yin Yinyin just tilted his head in silent acknowledgment, then looked at Le Yu, "You must have a lot of questions right now, right? Actually, so do I. People who lack common sense are getting more and more common, and my work just keeps getting tougher."

He paused, "This is Qian Yuliu, codename Meteor. Her sponsor is ’Stargazer,’ and she officially joined White Night two years ago. She’s currently captain of the Statistical Department’s First Special Operations Team."

Then, gesturing at the group of variously aged, sized, and gendered people beside him, he said, "These eleven people are other White Night Walkers summoned from different branches, here to lead the armed rebellion in Star Engraving County. That’s all for introductions, you should all go rest—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Little Yin, it can’t go down like this," the tall woman said as she ruffled Yin Yinyin’s hair into a mess, "At least be a little more detailed about it! Right now, Little Qian here doesn’t even know who we are!"

Little—Little Qian?

Still, Le Yu took one look at the tall woman, then at Yin Yinyin now held in her arms like a child. "Whatever, guess I’ll just be ’Little’ then."

Yin Yinyin silently pulled out a notebook, flipping through its pages as he announced, "Starting from my left, over there is former Skyrim Storm Army Lieutenant Colonel, Qi Shihao."

The scar-faced middle-aged man nodded slightly.

"Yanjing Royal Academy graduate, Ling Yun."

The young, handsome guy flipped his bangs stylishly.

"Five-District joint most-wanted criminal, Wang Zongdao."

The round-faced man, who looked utterly honest, let out a chuckle.

...

"And former Youyun District Ta Bai Army Colonel, An Qian."

The tall woman clapped Yin Yinyin’s back with a smack so loud it echoed. She grumbled, "Ugh, stop telling everyone I was an officer—I’ll never get married like this."

Yin Yinyin deadpanned, "All eleven listed above are at the Thousand-Man Enemy level."

By now, Le Yu finally snapped out of it.

"Even though individual abilities varied wildly, there wasn’t really any standardized power ranking system in this world. After all, among Combat Technique users, you didn’t have ’Golden Core,’ ’Nascent Soul,’ or ’Supreme Conqueror’s Haki’ levels you could just eyeball to judge who’s stronger. You really only found out by fighting."

"Attainment, Integration and Mastery, Peak of Perfection—those were just Combat Technique realms. It didn’t necessarily mean that a high-level user was always stronger than a lower-level one. Like, I’d beaten the academy instructor Mu Feihong before, and Mu Feihong’s realm was higher, but still got beaten silly by my ’no-mercy’ fighting style."

But in the army, after countless battles and comparisons—basically old-school data science—the army condensed Combat Technique users’ rankings into five levels: Ten-Thousand-Man Enemy, Thousand-Man Enemy, Hundred-Man Enemy, Ten-Man Enemy, and Cannon Fodder.

The army didn’t care what realm you’d reached in Combat Technique, only your actual fighting power. If you were born strong, could recover quickly, and ran fast, all huge bonus points in the military system. If a Ten-Man Enemy was the threshold for a junior officer, and a Hundred-Man Enemy was the standard for senior officers who ruled by might, then Thousand-Man Enemy was the highest title the military could grant—the domain of true monsters only.

After all, Ten-Thousand-Man Enemy was an epic title given only during times of chaos, earned by someone who survived countless bloody battles with universal recognition. You couldn’t rack those up during peace, and no one slapped themselves with a title like that. "There are rules to bragging."

So basically, standing here in this basement—besides Le Yu and Yin Yinyin—everyone else was a first-tier Martial Artist of this era!

"No wonder Yin Yinyin was acting so meek here—turns out he really was low man on the totem pole."

An Qian asked, "Little Qian, is it okay if I call you that?"

Le Yu’s face changed, shame and irritation flushing up from his chest into his head. He cupped his fists and said firmly, "Of course you can, Sis Qian!"

"Haha," An Qian said, "You’re not what I imagined at all. I thought all you underground types wore a dead-fish look on your face like Little Yin here all the time."

"Damn, talk about straightforward," Le Yu thought, sneaking a glance at Yin Yinyin. To his surprise, that deathly pale face—always ready for a body viewing—had actually turned dark. "White turning to black—miracle of the century."

"Sis Qian, don’t go too far, Yin Yinyin’s mad already," Ling Yun said, half joking, half trying to smooth things over.

An Qian asked, "Little Yin, are you mad?"

Yin Yinyin remained placid, "What’s the use of getting angry? Anger won’t fix anything. Anger is just an emotion the powerless produce when faced with adversity—a way to hide your weakness through inflated feelings..."

"You’re totally mad though," An Qian replied, "Anyway, by the plan, we’re supposed to be lying low in the safehouse you prepared—resting, checking gear, discussing the op. But still, we really wanted to come meet Meteor."

"Meet me?" Le Yu blinked. "Why?"

"Maybe you don’t know this, but we all really admire you," An Qian said with a smile, "When we got the Star Engraving County files and the plan to get into town, we were shocked to learn someone had been inside the Statistical Department for over two years—and most of that time, totally solo, without support. That’s impressive."

"Huh? Is that really such a big deal?" Le Yu scratched his head.

"It really is," An Qian said sincerely, "Maybe this seems like nothing to you, but you’re wrong. Several of us used to have high-level posts too. In theory, we could go deep cover, lying low and waiting for a better opportunity in the future. But, most of the time, we just couldn’t take it anymore and would bail on the Imperial Court, defecting to White Night."

Ling Yun added poetically, "We could have endured the dark—if we had never seen the light."

"We understand better than anyone what being a spy feels like. Fear, no one to rely on, walking on thin ice..." An Qian shook her head gently. "For a day or two, sure, but if you have to stay in that kind of place for weeks, months—never even getting a good night’s sleep—it’d break us."

"That’s why we respect you so much, Meteor."

Le Yu blinked, thinking, "Is this some kind of next-level rainbow-flattering technique? I mean, it just felt like normal spy work to me, but having Sis Qian talk about it made it sound like some 24/7 endurance marathon. It was making me embarrassed."

But then Le Yu looked around, realizing everyone was honestly watching him with genuine respect. Suddenly, something clicked inside,

"Policies of vengeance, tribulations, Lin Jinyao’s death wish, Qian Yuya’s bleeding-heart, Chen Fu’s confusion, Ailili’s fanaticism..."

"I hadn’t really noticed before, but now that I thought about it, a lot of people I knew were super emotionally intense. Lin Jinyao, ready to die in a heartbeat. Chen Fu, always guilty about cashing in on jobs. Qian Yuya, so saintly she actually wanted to save her brother..."

"If it was just one or two people, fine. But with this many people acting so unreasonably, I finally started to feel something was off."

"Maybe, the one breaking common sense wasn’t all those other people—it was me."

"I’d always thought of ’Spiritual Power’ as just another blue bar, like Inner Strength, Chakra, or Spirit Pressure—never once thought about how Spiritual Power influenced people. But now I realized, thanks to everyone being awakened to their Spiritual Power, most people of Huiyao were actually hyper-emotional and extremely impatient."

"Add in their nearly invulnerable bodies, and you had a type who barely ever suffered any kind of hardship in daily life. No wonder Yin Yinyin could get rich just by treating toothaches and hemorrhoids."

"This effect came from their living environment, society, Spiritual Power, and tribulation all acting together. So, I hadn’t noticed for a while. Plus, the first underground worker I met was Yin Yinyin, that dead-fish face, which gave me the wrong impression."

"But honestly, a guy like Li Shijie—who spent a year in the Statistical Department before finally snapping, gathering allies to take out his boss—that kind of ’spy’ was probably what passed for normal."

"For all I know, Kui Zhao and Lan Yan have already become ’tribulations’ in Li Shijie’s mind. Get through one day without a mouth ulcer to kill."

"The fact that the White Night branch here in Star Engraving County had only just set up before starting to plan a takeover—moving this fast pointed straight at their inner desires."

"Huiyao people just couldn’t handle being undercover—they hated it, found it too dangerous and too stifling. Spiritual Power would just amplify that negativity until they either broke down or blew things up to break out."

"I guess someone like Qian Yuliu, who was naturally immune to negative emotions—a cold-blooded operator—well, Lin Jinyao knew how to pick ’em."

"Simply put, most Huiyao people were born heroes, full of song and drama. Only talents like Qian Yuliu or Yin Yinyin—born to sneak around—could really stand out."

"Thank you for the praise..."

"Cute!" An Qian squealed, sweeping Le Yu up in another fierce hug. No surprise there for a Thousand-Man Enemy—her arms closed on him like a vise, and Le Yu couldn’t move an inch, just let whatever happened, happen.

The scarred man, Qi Shihao, asked, "Are we interrupting any important talks?"

Yin Yinyin said, "No, it’s all taken care of. Meteor’s heading out to scout the Saint’s Relic’s security."

"Speaking of which, don’t we need to tweak our plan to account for the Saint’s Relic?" Ling Yun added, "That thing would be a huge asset. If we can factor it into our fighting strength, our odds of retaking the city go up by twenty percent."

Yin Yinyin nodded, "Yeah, we’ve got enough high-level combatants now to split off a team for the Saint’s Relic. Best way would be to hit the Relic at the same time the city operation starts—that way Ding Yi can’t spare any troops to chase us. If we’re lucky, maybe the Saint’s Relic will finish its unlocking ritual right when we act, and we can take it straight to the battlefield."

"Wang Zongdao, you and I will go after the Saint’s Relic, with you wielding the Extreme Divine Weapon."

The honest-faced, round man nodded with a smile, "Got it. I see what you’re planning."

An Qian promptly let go of Le Yu and cheered, "So we might have a Phantom Army on our side? We got this in the bag!"

Le Yu, face flushed from being squeezed, took a couple of deep breaths and asked curiously, "Phantom Army?"

"I was just going to tell you—the Saint’s Relic’s power is, it can simulate any object the user has ever touched—including powers," Yin Yinyin said, "Wang Zongdao once handled one of the Eight Illusion Divine Weapons, the Phantom Blade. If he wields the Relic, he can morph it into a Phantom Blade that’ll create a Phantom Army. Even if it’s not as strong as the original, it’s still a big game-changer tactically."

Someone laughed, "That’s also why he’s on the Five-District wanted list."

Wang Zongdao sighed, "Not that it mattered in the end—they stole it back anyway, and that Phantom Blade chose its own master. I just got to look at it..."

"Only because he claimed it right before you did! If you had gotten there first, you wouldn’t just be Five-District wanted, you’d be Huiyao’s number one most-wanted criminal." The mood in the basement instantly turned lively.

Suddenly, An Qian slapped Le Yu hard on the shoulder and asked, "Little Qian, are you still a virgin?"

"..."

"Wouldn’t it suck to die still a virgin?"

"...""That line really makes me think we’re about to have an explicit scene."

"So don’t die," An Qian said, laughing, "Once we retake Star Engraving County, you won’t have to play the villain any longer—won’t have to hide, lie, or suck up to anybody. You’ll be able to live openly under the sun, do what you want, chase the girls you like. Sure, your bloody spy record won’t be forgotten, but don’t let it weigh you down, either."

"For these next few days, you get to look forward to a new future. Count the days on your fingers before bed, mark them off on a calendar—whatever. Just, every morning when you wake up, remember: you’re one day closer to being free."

"What we really wanted to tell you is, you’re not alone anymore, because now you’ve got us."

An Qian gently patted Le Yu’s head and said warmly, "Next time you hear a knock at your door, you don’t have to be afraid anymore."