The First Order

Old Li felt sad as he watched the flames burn everywhere in the stronghold. The Luoyang City they had lived in for so many years had become a hopeless mess overnight because of these invaders.

Right now, he wanted nothing more than to kill all the enemies in the stronghold. However, Old Li knew he was not capable of that.

The Riders’ combat prowess was far more powerful than average superhumans, but there were just too many enemies this time.

Moreover, the invading consortiums had become wary of the Riders due to their combat prowess and avoided them as they went around wreaking havoc in the stronghold over the past two days. Faced with so many troublemakers, Old Li and the others had been running around the stronghold like firefighters putting out fires everywhere.

At this moment, Old Li’s satellite phone rang. He heard Luo Yunxian say, “Xu Ke has gone missing. He probably wants to put an end to this mess by himself.”

When Old Li heard that, he kept quiet for a long time. Ren Xiaosu, who was standing next to him, asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Xu Ke suddenly left the Qinghe Building to go and face the enemy by himself,” Li Yingyun said with a sigh.

Ren Xiaosu was puzzled. “But why? Wasn’t everything going well? The enemies who came here have all been intercepted, and none of you Riders were killed, so why did he suddenly go out to face the enemy alone?”

Old Li did not answer his question. “Even Riders change.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. All this while, he had seen the Riders as a united group, even as a symbol of justice, unity, and courage.

But when Old Li suddenly said that even Riders change, he realized Xu Ke probably felt an unprecedented crisis approaching and did not want to further implicate anyone because of the Qinghe Group. Therefore, he chose to put an end to this mess by himself and die like a hero.

True, how could a utopia truly exist in this world? Ren Xiaosu should have understood this fact.

Ren Xiaosu frowned and asked, “Who is it? Do I know the person? You already knew about this?”

1

Old Li and the others must have already known. Otherwise, it wouldn’t only be Xu Ke, Zhang Qingxi, Qin Sheng, and Old Li turning up for that recent dinner party when there were clearly other Riders in the stronghold as well.

“You don’t know that person.” Old Li shook his head.

“Why did the Riders collude with those consortiums to overthrow the Qinghe Group?” Ren Xiaosu found it a little unbelievable.

“They didn’t collude with the consortiums.” Old Li said, “It’s just that the Riders and the Qinghe Group have become more and more tightly bound together after all these years. They often have to deal with many of the Qinghe Group’s affairs on their behalf, and that finally made some people unhappy. Someone thought Xu Ke no longer acted like a Rider. At a meeting two years ago, someone suggested the Riders should completely separate from the Qinghe Group. However, the matter was dropped in the end. So Xu Ke has been feeling quite remorseful for the past two years. He wanted to make changes, but the situation was already what it was, so introducing any changes would be very difficult unless the Qinghe Group were destroyed or someone trustworthy could take over the Qinghe Group from him.”

Ren Xiaosu said with a sigh, “Y’all are really weird.”

What normal person would not want money and authority?

But of course, normal people would not seek the boundaries of life and death by experiencing the high mountains or skies either.

“Then where’s Xu Ke now?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “Let’s go and help him. How can he possibly handle something so major all by himself?”

“Let’s split up and look for him.” Old Li sighed, “We might not be able to find him in this chaos at all. Also, he’ll definitely lead our enemies to someplace difficult to find.”

Flames were still burning everywhere in the stronghold. Many stronghold residents had been forced out onto the streets by the inferno. In this chaos, it would be very difficult to determine Xu Ke’s location.

After they split up, Ren Xiaosu immediately jumped onto the roof of a high-rise building and tried to quickly search for Xu Ke’s whereabouts. However, it was too difficult to find someone with the intent to hide inside a city that held hundreds of thousands of people.

An explosion boomed in the stronghold again. It sounded like someone had detonated another set of buried explosives.

Ren Xiaosu ignored this as he stood on the high-rise building. He was a little lost. Where should he go and find Xu Ke?

But then, Ren Xiaosu noticed someone leaping across the roofs and heading north. He increased his pace to catch up.

That person was flitting between buildings when he suddenly saw a figure catching up to him. Then Ren Xiaosu patted him on the shoulder and asked, “Are you looking for Xu Ke?”

1

This superhuman was stunned for a moment but ignored Ren Xiaosu. Instead, he picked up his pace again and tried to shake off Ren Xiaosu.

But when he increased his speed, Ren Xiaosu went faster as well.

Ren Xiaosu shouted next to him, “I’m asking you, are you looking for Xu Ke?”

The superhuman increased his speed again but realized he could not run anymore. When he turned around, he was surprised to see Ren Xiaosu grabbing hold of his clothes from behind. Ren Xiaosu said with a dark expression, “I’m asking you a question! Didn’t you hear me?”

The superhuman wondered, “Didn’t your superior tell you where to assemble? Who the fuck are you! Ah!”

While he was speaking, Ren Xiaosu lifted the superhuman and leaped into the air. Then he threw the other party down to the ground from high up in between two high-rise buildings. The superhuman was ruthlessly slammed to the ground like a cannonball, breaking many of his bones.

1

As he struggled and looked up, he saw Ren Xiaosu not stopping at all as he continued making his way northwards.

…

Xu Ke stood in the middle of Wangchunmen Boulevard and looked around with a smile. “Anyone else?”

Xu Ke was covered in blood, with eight superhumans’ corpses lying next to him.

1

The might of this Rider actually made the superhumans around him stop in their tracks. Everyone was waiting for further instructions from the higher-ups on how to proceed.

Some of the supernatural beings had rashly attacked just now, but not even eight of them could defeat Xu Ke.

Before this, everyone had speculated about Xu Ke’s combat prowess. However, they did not expect him to be this strong. They did not even know Xu Ke was also a Rider himself.

Seeing no movement from the supernatural beings, Xu Ke noticed more and more people were gathering on the boulevard. Supernatural beings and armed combatants had arrived.

Caught in the ambush, Xu Ke broke into hearty laughter and said, “You people are nothing but minions! Rider Xu Ke at your service! Who dares challenge me!”

At this moment, Xu Ke remembered when he first climbed up the cliff and saw the sunrise radiate brilliantly.

I turn my head startled, the sky three feet above me!

Like a thousand stallions, in full gallop in the heat of battle!¹

And just like Qin Sheng had done after him, he also carved his name clearly into the rock face after writing, “Only faith, the sun, and the moon are eternal.”

He suddenly remembered the words that didn’t have an autograph. “Forever young.”

Perhaps this was what it really meant to be a Rider. To be forever zealous, forever sincere, forever journeying, and forever young.

1

Ever since he became the leader of the Qinghe Group, he felt like he had not been this happy in a long time. Perhaps Huang Xiaoyu was right. The Riders should never have been embroiled in these matters. But it was too late to say that now.

It was time for him to accept his fate.

But at this moment, he saw the crowd of people at the end of the long street get sent flying into the air by an unstoppable force. Someone had forced open up a bloody path through the ambush.

1

As a result, the people who had surrounded Xu Ke subconsciously made way for the other party.

When Xu Ke saw who it was, he said calmly, “It’s not worth it.”

Ren Xiaosu killed his way through the crowd of several hundred and made his way towards him with a grin. “Do you believe in me?”

Xu Ke was taken aback for a second. Then he smiled as well. “Yes.”