Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

Chapter 939 - 807: Do You Have a Token of Allegiance?

The foppish man was precisely the Fourth Master. He had concealed his aura very well, and was stunned for a moment when he heard the words.Two seconds later, he finally reacted, let out a low laugh, and said, "So it’s you... scared the hell out of me."

Plenty of people knew he was the Fourth Master of the Zarif Star Thief, but those who could trace him through the Walking Dead were few and far between.

Considering the other party followed the Cleaner path, there was only one possibility.

The Fourth Master knew Black Heaven was Panda; the two had already had contact back on Star No. 4.

He naturally wasn’t worried Panda would be bad for him; his heart dropped back into his chest at once.

He said easily, "I heard someone spent big money to buy our info, and I was really surprised."

"But since it’s you, then no problem... You actually spent a million? Looks like you’ve been making bank lately."

"Attitude!" Qu Jianlei raised his hand and knocked on the table, and said lightly, "Watch your attitude!"

Since the other party had guessed his identity, he of course had to stress it a bit—get this straight, I’m already Supreme!

The Fourth Master curled his lip dismissively. So what if you’re Supreme—do you dare expose your identity right now?

Panda had turned Star No. 2 and the Star of Hope upside down not long ago; he was very clear on that.

Anyway, he felt no fear of the man, and even had a bit of envy.

So he smiled carelessly. "You’ve had a lot of trouble lately. Need me to do anything?"

"You can’t help," Qu Jianlei replied casually. That wasn’t looking down on him; it was simply the fact.

He had no intention of saying more. "What I’m about to say next, I hope you can keep it secret."

"Of course," the Fourth Master replied without hesitation, then gave a wry smile. "You’re making me a little nervous now."

He didn’t ask what the price of leaking the secret would be—with the iron-blooded methods the other side had shown, did he need to ask?

Qu Jianlei spoke in a low voice. "We got Youyou out. If you’re interested, come see her."

"If you don’t want to see her, just pretend I never mentioned it. You know exactly how dangerous what we’re doing is."

"Youyou?" The Fourth Master was taken aback, and his gaze turned a bit complicated.

Back then, his feelings for Youyou really had a sense of clinging together for warmth. It had been so long that the impression had indeed faded.

But people are different; once she was brought up, a thick longing suddenly rose in his heart.

Maybe it was sentiment. The Fourth Master nodded heavily. "I really want to see her... Is she joining you too?"

Qu Jianlei raised the glass in front of him and drained it in one go, then let out a long breath. "Otherwise? You think she has any other options?"

"That..." The Fourth Master hesitated, then shook his head with a bitter smile. "Then she really can’t turn back."

Qu Jianlei looked at him calmly. "Is that our problem? I’d like her to live a peaceful life too."

The Fourth Master tilted his head slightly and, intentionally or not, glanced at Bentley. So this was Youyou’s comrade? "Just one meeting?"

"You two can work out the details," Qu Jianlei answered in a deep voice. "She’s not in a position to contact her family. You’re the only one she can see."

"As for whether she goes with you, or you go with her... either is fine."

"All right then," the Fourth Master stood up and said very crisply, "just for the fact you spent a million to buy my info, I’ll go with you."

To soothe the emotions of his subordinates, Panda could actually offer such a high price. What was there for him to hesitate about?

Qu Jianlei also stood up, but a cold smile crossed his face. "For a Cleaner to collect info fees like this, isn’t that a bit shady?"

They’d agreed on one and a half million, but he only had to pay one million; on the surface, it looked like he’d saved himself some money.

But directly bringing the Fourth Master in front of him like this... however you looked at it, that wasn’t what you’d call friendly.

He had already given the Cleaners a thrashing long ago, to the point even Camille had backed down. He hadn’t expected them to pull the same stunt again now.

The Fourth Master paused, then answered in a low voice, "We count as external partners of the Cleaners now... can’t you cut them some slack?"

Qu Jianlei tilted his head and glanced at him. "I thought you wouldn’t pledge yourself to anyone again... What about that elder above you?"

If he remembered correctly, the other man had only been the deputy for the Walking Dead, and had once been taken in by an A-level peak.

"He’s gone into seclusion to break through to Supreme," the Fourth Master answered in a deep voice. "Right now in the organization, I have the final say."

"Supreme..." Qu Jianlei muttered softly. At this level now, he really didn’t see such people as worth noting.

"But you’re still the vice president, is that it?"

"I’m the president now," the Fourth Master answered gravely. "But I still respect the vice president’s advice a lot."

At first, Qu Jianlei didn’t think much of it, but after mulling it over, he felt there was more to those words.

"So the vice president is that elder’s man?"

The Fourth Master hesitated, then shook his head. "Not exactly what you’re thinking. He’s just been with the elder for a longer time."

"I don’t want people getting the wrong idea. After all, they were the ones who took me in back then."

"Wishy-washy," Bentley suddenly cut in.

He’d always been decisive, and couldn’t stand these indecisive types. "Then why didn’t you just stay as vice president?"

"I wanted to," the Fourth Master replied offhand, "but that guy’s ability is a bit lacking, not really suited to control the whole situation."

Bentley shook his head dismissively. "You’re not necessarily suited to control the whole situation either... What’s wrong with staying on the sidelines and assisting?"

The Fourth Master gave a wry smile. "I’ve commanded fleets before. How could I be incompetent? It’s just that they weren’t soldiers."

The military stresses strict obedience to orders, and his habits were all from that system.

Even after he defected to the Star Thieves, he still did things that way. You could see it from how he guarded the starship where Iron Hand was holding Qu Jianlei back then.

It was just that, within the Star Thieves, he practically never actually led any teams, so it was enough to just do his own job well.

But now that he was running the Living Dead organization, he’d finally realized that normal society didn’t work like that.

This organization was a mixed bag of all sorts, leaning more toward an underground force. There were many factors he had to consider, and managing it was much harder.

For now the organization was being run fairly smoothly, but he could already feel a huge difference.

His deputy still showed him a decent amount of respect, but he really did feel a bit out of his depth, with a vague sense of anxiety now and then.

As long as he himself understood these things, that was enough; there was no need to tell outsiders.

The Fourth Master drove an off-road vehicle and quickly brought the two of them to the outside of the guesthouse.

The women had already returned from their outing and had even eaten dinner.

Qu Jianlei and the other walked inside, called Youyou out, and let her go meet the Fourth Master.

The two of them talked in the car for nearly four hours and didn’t finish until after midnight.

When Youyou got out of the car, there were obvious tear tracks on her face.

Qu Jianlei had been watching the two with faint Perception all along, and couldn’t help secretly shaking his head when he saw this.

Heroes have a hard time resisting beauty; as for women, why would it be any different? Hopefully this wouldn’t affect her too much.

Unexpectedly, when Youyou saw that the light in his room was still on, she directly knocked and came in.

"Boss, can our team take in Mountain Fortress?"

Mountain Fortress was the Fourth Master’s nickname. As for what his real name was... who in this line of work uses their real name?

Qu Jianlei blinked; he really hadn’t expected something like this to pop up.

Then he frowned and asked, "Is this what he wants, or is it your idea? He already has an organization."

Not only did he have an organization, he was the leader of it. How could he just walk away?

"He doesn’t want to do it anymore," Youyou replied in a low voice. "His identity can never see the Light... either way he’s just running for his life forever."

"Hold on," Qu Jianlei raised a hand to scratch his head. An office romance, in my team...?

"Let me confirm one more time if this is really what he wants."

As he spoke, he released his Perception and found the Fourth Master’s car still parked outside the door. Sure enough, he hadn’t left.

"It’s what he wants," Youyou said, face solemn. "He says he just wants to fight and kill and doesn’t want to think about so much anymore."

This really was a bit sudden... Qu Jianlei pondered for a moment before raising his voice. "Old Ben, come over here a sec."

Bentley was right next door. Hearing this, he came over, and after listening to what had happened, his expression turned a bit strange as well.

Only then did he say, "This guy... in theory I don’t think there’s much of a problem. Boss, you decide."

The team definitely had to guard against undercover agents from other forces, but Mountain Fortress had already defected to the Star Thieves many years ago.

Now he was even the leader of an underground organization.

If someone like that was still a plant from some other force, then all he could do was accept it—what kind of organization would scheme that hard?

Qu Jianlei let out a light sigh. "Looks like this really is happening... Call the four of them over and let’s discuss it."

When those four heard about it, they all voiced their support, with only Xiao Qin looking a bit disgruntled.

Maybe she was reminded of her former husband?

Next, Youyou went out and called the Fourth Master in. "Whatever you’ve got to say, you can ask him."

Xiang Xue was the least formal of them. Even though she’d joined this team, it still felt more like a rich young lady playing around.

"If we run into trouble and you can’t take care of both Youyou and the team, which would you choose?"

The Fourth Master rolled his eyes at her. If she weren’t also an A-level Warrior, he figured he’d be cursing her out.

But in the end he still said, "Of course the team comes first. I used to be a soldier..."

"But I don’t think our team is very likely to end up in a situation where a member’s interests go against the team’s, right?"

Strictly speaking, this kind of situation was actually possible.

However, if you couldn’t even deny that kind of hypothetical, it meant the person in charge of the team didn’t have much confidence in the future.

Qu Jianlei simply nodded calmly. "I’ll do my best to prevent that from happening, but I can’t guarantee there won’t be accidents."

"Accidents don’t matter," the Fourth Master answered solemnly.

Having commanded troops, he understood all too well how likely all kinds of accidents were—when they came, all you could do was accept it.

Then he asked, "Next, do I need to prove my sincerity in wanting to integrate into this team?"

Huh. Qu Jianlei was a bit intrigued. He actually took the initiative to bring up a token of allegiance?

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