Chapter 9: Assassination
After midnight, Ling Xiao's cultivation temporarily came to an end. He lightly performed the closing Cultivation Technique, exhaled, bowed respectfully to the god and demon list, and then stood up, leaving the third-floor quiet room.
At this time, Gan Jing was already asleep and resting. Ling Xiao did not disturb her. He casually took down the longsword hanging on the wall, tiptoed down to the second floor, walked directly into the basement, and then slammed his palm onto a brick in the street-facing wall of the basement.
With Ling Xiao's current cultivation, a palm strike filled with True Qi had at least nearly five hundred kilograms of force. With one strike, the brick was pushed into the wall.
Ling Xiao reached his hand into the wall and took out a black package from inside. The next moment, the brick sprang out, tightly concealing the secret within.
After leaving through the back door, Ling Xiao carefully moved through the alley. Wearing a gray hooded jacket, he circled a few times before disappearing into the crowd at the subway entrance.
Los Angeles is known as the 'City That Never Sleeps.' At this hour, the night was just beginning, and various crimes were unfolding in alley corners. There were too many people dressed like Ling Xiao, and no one could clearly see their Faces.
The Port of Long Beach, in Los Angeles, and even in all of America, is one of the largest container ports in the United States. Even globally, it ranks among the top ten. Furthermore, compared to the traffic congestion in the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, Long Beach has fewer problems in this regard.
In 2001, Hanjin Shipping operated and managed the international container terminal, converted from a former US Navy pier, under a twenty-year long-term lease contract. The rent was one billion US dollars. The terminal covered an area of three hundred and seventy-five acres, and the towering stacks of containers made the entire terminal quite dim.
Especially in the deep night, the container terminal appeared even more shadowy and somewhat eerie.
Under the pervasive night fog, distant cargo ships lay silently on the dark water. Along the riverbank, dozens of piers stretched out like arms, and hundreds of giant cranes swung back and forth day and night, neatly stacking containers on the piers.
Ling Xiao was currently hidden in a corner of the pier, on top of a seven-story stack of containers, coldly watching the continuous stream of people emerging from the containers below, his heart filled with murderous intent.
Several large buses, like monsters, were parked not far away. On either side of the buses, dozens of shadowy figures stood indistinctly, each holding an M16 assault rifle, intently watching the women continuously emerging from the containers. Everything was orderly, with almost no sound.
Standing apart from these people were a man and a woman. The woman had a Greek appearance, with blonde hair and blue eyes, a stern Face, and a red tight-fitting outfit that fully revealed her exquisite figure. The cutouts on her shoulders made her fair skin glow especially alluringly under the lights.
Standing not far from the woman in red was a bald middle-aged man who looked like he was of Irish descent. He wore a black trench coat, with a cross-shaped tattoo on his forehead. He stood there silently, but his expression was stern.
Upon seeing these two, Ling Xiao was instantly startled. Others might not know who these two were, but he, having watched several Marvel movies and TV shows, certainly recognized Kingpin's top assassin, Bullseye, and his arch-enemy, Elektra.
Why would they appear here? Tonight should have been just an ordinary human trafficking operation by the Japanese Mafia. Why would Kingpin's people be involved?
Ling Xiao carefully held his breath, intently watching all the movements below.
It wasn't long before all the women from the three containers emerged. Among them were Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, and more Southeast Asian women.
After all these people had exited, more than a dozen small Japanese men entered the containers, carried out several corpses, and then threw them into the nearby ocean.
From the other side of the Pacific Ocean, it would take at least more than ten days by sea. All this time was spent on the vast, boundless ocean. Although the Japanese carefully looked after these 'golden eggs,' many still died at sea.
Just as these Japanese were throwing the bodies of the dead women into the sea, a young Japanese man in a gold and white suit walked out with a stern expression. This young Japanese man was Yashida Jiro, the son of the boss of Nisshin-kai, the largest Japanese Mafia Gang in Los Angeles.
Yashida Jiro held a black box in his hand and, without speaking, handed it directly to Bullseye. Similarly, Bullseye also said nothing, handing a silver-white box to Yashida Jiro. Neither of them checked the contents inside, and they turned and walked away, back to back.
Due to his improved cultivation, Ling Xiao could clearly see the Stark Industries logo on the silver-white box.
Just as Ling Xiao was guessing what was inside the box, gunshots suddenly rang out.
Suddenly, a sniper bullet, carrying an endless spiral, rapidly shot towards Yashida Jiro's heart. At this moment, the distance between Bullseye and Yashida Jiro had not yet exceeded ten meters, but the bullet grazed Bullseye's body, and he made no movement whatsoever.
With Bullseye's ability, a bullet fired from a thousand meters away could not harm him at all; he had even predicted the bullet's trajectory long ago.
Yashida Jiro was different. Usually, in front of others, he always maintained a frivolous, pale playboy demeanor. When such a sniper bullet, carrying a whistling wind, shot towards his heart, he seemed to freeze, standing there motionless. The bullet simply pierced his heart, creating a large hole in his chest.
This was the power that only high-caliber sniper equipment could achieve. Hongmen (Hung Society) had truly made a big move this time, taking out Yashida Jiro with one shot. However, the consequences of such an action were equally severe. Although Yashida Jiro was not favored by his father, Shizhi Xuan, whether for Face or out of kinship, Shizhi Xuan would have to retaliate. Ling Xiao could imagine how many bloody incidents would occur on the streets of Los Angeles.
As gunshots rang out, before the surrounding Japanese Mafia members could react, countless bullets rained down like a downpour, instantly disorienting these exposed Japanese. More than half of them were shot dead or wounded before they could even react, with only a few managing to hide behind containers, temporarily dodging the bullets coming from the dark shadows.
The Chinese Gang hidden in the dark had not acted before out of concern for the women. Only after all the women had boarded the buses did they begin their attack, instantly taking out more than half of the Japanese.
A magazine of bullets was quickly expended, and countless Chinese Gang members swarmed out from all directions, beginning to clear out the remaining 'little Japanese' in the field.
Ling Xiao, hidden on top of the containers, finally let out a sigh of relief at this moment.
It turned out that most of the Chinese Gang in Los Angeles had acted this time, no wonder there was high-caliber sniper equipment involved earlier.
Ling Xiao had been worried earlier that the sniper rifle was obtained by the Si Hai Gang from somewhere. If they had killed Yashida Jiro, then Nisshin-kai's main target for retaliation would be the Si Hai Gang, and many people Ling Xiao knew would likely suffer casualties.
With the overall situation here decided, Ling Xiao instinctively began to search for Bullseye and Elektra, who had originally been present. However, they had disappeared from the pier at some unknown point, not participating in this firefight between the Chinese Gang and the Japanese Mafia.
Ling Xiao breathed another sigh of relief. Although with the strength of so many Chinese Gang members, they might not necessarily lose to those two, once they clashed, there would inevitably be casualties. Subconsciously, Ling Xiao's gaze swept towards Yashida Jiro, who was lying on the ground. However, he, who should have been lying there, had disappeared at some unknown point, with only a piece of wood broken in two on the ground.