Chapter 19, Joker!_2
"There is," Tang Fei said.
"Where?"
"My ass."
"Tang Fei..."
"Alright, alright, just kidding." Tang Fei stretched his limbs and said with a grin, "I don't feel any discomfort anymore, thanks to Miss Phoenix's life-saving grace."
Phoenix finally breathed a sigh of relief; she really thought Tang Fei's butt needed medicine...
"What kind of life-saving grace is this? The medicine is your own, and the recipe was taught by you... I just slapped it on carelessly..."
Phoenix didn't want to take credit, looking at his gaunt yet quite solid body with not an ounce of extra flesh, she said, "Even if I didn't save you, you wouldn't have been in any danger."
"Acid rain usually doesn't kill, but it sure is uncomfortable when it corrodes flesh," Tang Fei said.
He picked up his clothes from the ground and put them back on, one by one.
Phoenix turned away, finding the scene peculiar.
It was just like those action flicks she watched with her besties; after the deed, the heroine lays half-covered in bed, while the hero dresses one piece at a time... How similar?
Tang Fei walked to the entrance of the cave and looked outside, saying, "The rain has stopped; let's head back. Rain in Old Land comes quickly and leaves just as fast..."
"Okay." Phoenix stood up, picking up her two buckets.
Tang Fei gave her a glance and also picked up two water buckets, leading the way out.
After exiting the cave, Tang Fei walked ahead, with Phoenix following closely behind like before.
Tang Fei was still a refugee of Old Land, and Phoenix remained the delicate visitor from New Star.
Nothing had changed, yet it seemed something was different.
---
Whoosh!
A black Star Disc appeared at the speed of light above the peak of Henshan, its hatch opened, and a group of men and women of varied shapes and ages walked out.
A young man with a devious look and pockmarked face, as if he'd been shot point-blank with a shotgun, yet incongruously sporting a trendy ponytail at the back of his head, stood at the edge of the cliff. His white suit fluttered noisily in the wind as he surveyed the surroundings and asked, "Is this Henshan?"
"Yes, according to the flight path of the escape pod we traced, she should have fled to this place called Henshan," said the burly elder behind him.
The elder, dressed in black traditional attire with bulging muscles, clearly had martial training.
"Quite interesting," the ponytailed man said. "The lofty Star Sky and Bright Moon, fallen to such a godforsaken place. I wonder what those people from New Star would think if they knew?"
"They won't find out," the elder in the traditional outfit said sternly.
If they did, they would be dead.
"This is the fallen Phoenix, no better than a chicken," a voluptuous woman in a red leather outfit stepped forward, draping her half-exposed breast over the ponytailed man's arm, with one hand already slipping through his white shirt to caress his chest.
On her shoulder lay a small emerald snake, hissing at the man with the braids as if it were guarding its sacred object.
"That's not necessarily the case," the braided man offered his finger to the little snake, which bit him eagerly, then began to suck his blood desperately.
The braided man did not feel pain; on the contrary, he closed his eyes in extreme enjoyment and moaned, "Chickens are everywhere, but Phoenixes are hard to find. In heaven and earth, there's only this one. When I catch this little Phoenix, I'm going to have a taste of her flavor first."
The enchanting woman didn't get angry at being called an animal by the man with the braids; instead, she was excited and said, "That's great, I want to join in too. I also want to see if the haughty Phoenix is any different from ordinary women when doing that sort of thing."
"I will fulfill your wish," said the man with the braids.
"Both of you, don't get sidetracked," a man wrapped in black clothing with a black ghost face mask on his face said coldly from behind.
"Yo, yo, yo, seems like someone in the team is discontent…" The braided man turned and walked step by step toward the man with the ghost face mask. "Look at you, all of us are in the business of taking money to deal with disasters for others, it's either they die or we die… What's the use of hiding your face?"
"If you kill someone, others can't see your face. If others kill you, what does it matter if they see your face?" The braided man looked at the enchanting woman wrapped around his arm and asked, "Do you think there's a chance that he's uglier than me? Like the Devil?"
"Yes, he must be very ugly, uglier than you. Like the Devil, like an old, decrepit Mad Dog…"
"Ha ha ha…"
The two of them looked at each other and laughed out loud, then began to kiss frantically.
Chk!
The man with the mask drew his sword, while the kissing braided man raised his gun.
A unique and somewhat antique-looking double-barreled pistol.
"Joker… Shadowless, what are you two up to?" The robust elder shouted to stop them. "Don't forget, we are on a mission. If anything goes wrong, not one of us here will survive…"
"Alright, alright, since Mr. Shan He has spoken, I'll spare your life," Joker put away his double-barreled pistol and continued to kiss the enchanting woman passionately, the kisses growing more intense, as if intending to perform a sexual display upon the Earth itself.
Shadowless gave a cold snort and sheathed his sword again.
"Let's divide the work," Mr. Shan He spoke solemnly, "The Henshan Gathering Area is not small, we'll need to search one village at a time… Joker, you and Snake Woman start from the east, Shadowless and Wu Feng from the west…"
"The rest will follow me into the dense forest to look for clues, to see if we can find the escape pod… Once the escape pod is found, we can also basically determine the range of her location… After all, if she wants to wait for rescue, she has to stick close to the escape pod…"
"Yes," everyone responded.
"Remember, if any party discovers a clue, do not act rashly. Notify everyone with the communicator in code, and wait until all members gather before taking action."
"Why? Isn't that too much trouble? What if she escapes while we're waiting to assemble?" Joker said discontentedly.
He wanted to taste the Phoenix Soup before everyone else arrived.
Mr. Shan He glanced at Joker, his voice laden with threat, "Because, we must be flawless, leaving no trace."
"Don't worry, don't worry," Joker waved his hand dismissively and said, "Even if I leave a trace on her, I'll destroy it completely. No one will be able to track us."
"No," Mr. Shan He refused again, "We must handle it ourselves, witness with our own eyes, to be sure the problem is eliminated."
His expression was grave as he said, "Otherwise, we will never have peace. We can't return to New Star, there is no place for us to hide under heaven and earth."