Chapter 3 The Assassin Arrives

Wendy's eyes turned icy cold in an instant. She blew a sharp whistle, and a gigantic pure-white wolf burst forth from a side alley in a flash. It planted itself firmly in front of Wendy, growling menacingly at Jean.

Wendy spoke in a frigid tone, "I'd love to see who dares take me away today! Snow, attack!"

Snow let out a long, resonant howl and lunged straight toward them.

"Ah! Wendy, you've lost your mind!"

Jean scrambled to dodge in blind terror. In her frantic rush, she stepped right into a puddle of filthy sewage and twisted her ankle badly.

"You're insane, completely insane—there's no saving you!"

Shouting nonstop, she hobbled out the door at the head of the group.

Before long, all noise outside faded into total silence.

Wendy closed the door and placed the bellflowers she had picked that day before her grandmother's portrait. "Grandma Violet, fate let you lay eyes on her today. I guess your lifelong wish has finally come true, hasn't it?"

"Please stop haunting my dreams to nag me from now on. Let me get a full night's sleep, okay?"

Grandma Violet still wore her gentle, warm smile in the photograph.

Wendy stared at the portrait for a long while without uttering a word.

She went to check on the unconscious man she had rescued earlier. Seeing he showed no signs of waking, she casually draped a blanket over him before heading off to rest.

Deep into the night.

A faint, practiced lock-picking sound drifted in from outside, jolting Wendy wide awake.

Click—

The lock snapped open. A dark figure stormed inside, marching straight for her room with a clear target. "Girl, you crossed people you ought not to have offended. Tonight I'll teach you a harsh lesson."

With that, he threw himself toward the bed.

Yet he grabbed nothing but thin air. Realizing something was wrong, the intruder spun around to flee.

All of a sudden, a cold glint cut through the darkness. A sharp blade sliced through the air and severed the tendons in his right hand. A shrill scream erupted as the lights flickered on all at once.

Wendy appeared beside the bed in a split second, watching the man clutch his bleeding right hand and roll painfully back and forth across the floor.

Scarlet blood quickly soaked the wooden planks beneath him.

The man jerked his head up, his eyes bloodshot with agony. "I'll kill you!"

He roared and charged at Wendy again, landing vicious blows all aimed straight at vital, fatal spots on her body.

"Save your energy. Your trivial skills can never hurt me," Wendy said coolly, dodging his strike sideways. She then lifted her leg and kicked him hard. He stumbled and crashed right in front of Grandma Violet's portrait. His bloodied right hand scraped across the photo by accident, smearing streaks of red all over her grandmother's face.

The air in the room turned bone-chillingly cold at once.

Wendy lost all interest in toying with him. She seized the man's wrist and twisted it brutally.

Crack—

A sickening crunch of breaking bone echoed out. The burly man collapsed to the ground instantly, unable to let out even a whimper.

Wendy moved far too fast; in the blink of an eye, she dislocated both his arms, legs and shattered his jaw.

He lay limp on the floor like a heap of mud, his body convulsing uncontrollably.

"Speak. Who sent you?" Wendy loomed over him, her voice ice-cold.

Terror flooded the man's eyes, and he could only mumble brokenly, "Someone… paid me to teach you a lesson… to make you know better than to cross powerful people…"

Powerful people I shouldn't cross?

Wendy's gaze turned hollow and indifferent. She flipped her grandmother's blood-stained portrait face-down, slowly bent over, and picked up a hammer that lay on the ground.

"Is that so? What a shame. There is no person alive in this world that Wendy dares not confront."

"No, wait! Don't—"

She raised the hammer high and brought it crashing down hard as the man stared at her in sheer terror.

A dull thud rang out, and his desperate pleas cut off abruptly. The room sank into complete silence once more.

Wendy tossed the hammer aside and dragged the lifeless corpse outside with a blank, emotionless expression.

"Boss."

The moment Wendy hauled the corpse over to the towering mountain of discarded trash at the slum's edge, several shadowed figures emerged silently from hidden corners of the surrounding alleyways, stepping forward to stand in a neat, respectful line before her.

Each of their faces bore a solemn, reverent expression as they delivered the information they had uncovered about the dead intruder. "We have fully investigated this man's identity. He is a foreign mercenary hired for violent contract work. Shall we dispose of his body following our usual long-standing rules?"

They cast cold, vicious glances at the motionless corpse sprawled atop the trash heap, their tones dripping with ruthless hostility as they outlined their proposed method of disposal. "Men like this, who dare to trespass and attempt to hurt you without remorse, are nothing but useless trash taking up valuable space here.

Coincidentally, the underground black market has been lacking fresh human biological materials for illegal trades recently. We can strip all usable organs and body parts from his remains and deliver them to the underground buyers for proper recycling."

Wendy released her grip on the corpse's shoulders, letting the lifeless body slump unceremoniously onto the pile of rotting rubbish beside her feet.

She pulled a tattered cloth from her pocket to wipe the smudges of blood off her palms and fingers, her voice remaining calm and neutral as she issued her instructions to the group standing before her. "I may need to leave this slum area for an extended period of time in the near future. You all keep close watch over this territory while I am gone, and reach out to me immediately via our secret channels the second any unexpected trouble arises."

"Yes, Boss."

All of them bowed their heads in unison.

Wendy lifted her eyes and gazed into the dark, endless night.

The Scott family. Jean Scott.

Since they were so desperate to drag me back to their mansion, I will go and face them myself.