The gentle morning light chased the dark away, as a bird found its way to a branch and began to chirp.

Giovanna and Stella blinked their eyes open at the same time. The first sight that welcomed them was not Xia Lei but Arthur, Rosa and Theresa. The three were sprawled about on the couch, still unconscious.

“What happened?” Stella palmed her forehead, trying her best to recall yesterday’s events. But to no avail, all she could remember was a muddled mess

“Didn’t we sleep with Xia Lei last night?” Giovanna was equally confused.

Where was Xia Lei? Why was he not here?

The Grey sisters were desperate for an answer.

Stella hopped off the bed and tried to wake Rosa up. “Rosa, Rosa! Wake up! Wake up now!”

Not sure if it was the vigorous shaking or the urgency of her screams, Rosa finally woke up. The proximity of Stella’s face had her stunned. Abruptly, she grabbed Stella’s arm. “Shit! We fell into his trap!”

At this moment, Arthur and Theresa finally stirred awake.

Arthur’s first instinct was to rummage through his shirt pocket frantically. The fabric was still there. He quickly took it out to peel it open and saw that the metal was still in there unharmed.

The five Knight Hospitaller members were dumb-founded.

He managed to recover them but why has he not taken the relic back?

Suddenly, the door opened and Xia Lei made his entry. Held in his hand was a metal tray that was covered with a piece of red silken fabric. Something was hidden under it but no one had a clue of what it could be.

The five glued their eyes to Xia Lei cautiously.

“Good morning,” greeted Xia Lei with a smile. “Was there a party here last night?”

They all kept silent.

Giovanna quickly scanned the bed frame and coffee table with her gaze, probably searching for a knife or a pair of scissors. Unfortunately, there was none of that sort.

Xia Lei placed the tray on the coffee table, then seated himself opposite Arthur.

Stella went to stand behind Xia Lei’s back sneakily.

To which Xia Lei warned, “Miss Stella, it would be in your best interest to sit down quietly. I’m being all nice and friendly to you all because we’re not enemies. But one wrong move from you will change all that.”

That made Stella halt her footsteps.

Arthur stashed the fabric mass into his pocket. He couldn’t understand why Xia Lei would leave the sacred relic with him, so it was only natural for him to want to hide it away.

Xia Lei grinned. “Mister Arthur, there’s no need to hide it, I saw everything.”

Arthur decided to ignore him and dropped it further into his pocket. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to continue our discussion. I’m still waiting for the results from the Knight Hospitaller’s meeting before proceeding with further discussions,” answered Xia Lei.

Arthur’s expression darkened, he went silent.

Xia Lei smirked. “Please don’t tell me that you’re refusing to talk to me because you think you’ve already got your paws on your sacred relic?” He then pulled on the edge of the red fabric to reveal its content underneath.

The Knight Hospitaller members were stunned.

Hidden by the red silk fabric were four blocks of silver metal. Each one of them bore an uncanny resemblance to the one Arthur had in his pocket.

“Weren’t you all here for this? What’s the point of going through such extremes to drug me and steal it away? Here, take it, there’s one for everyone.” Xia Lei tossed a block to Giovanna.

Giovanna extended her arms to catch it.

The remaining three were then tossed to Stella, Rosa and Theresa.

Was this a large sacred relic giveaway?

The four ladies were perplexed by the sudden change of events, holding on to the freshly-received metal blocks. They didn’t know what this was about.

“You tricked us!” Arthur couldn’t hold his irritation any longer, abruptly standing up from his seat with seething anger.

Xia Lei calmly retorted, “I tricked you? What are you going to do about it? You should consider yourselves lucky that I didn’t bury you alive in the mountains.”

Arthur dug out the silver metal from his pocket. “How dare you place a fake block in the safe?! You knew I was going to have someone steal it!”

Xia Lei cackled. “What kind of logic is that? Why would I leave the genuine one in there knowing that it would be taken away? I may be shameless at times but damn, you’re really something.”

The fuming man smashed the silver metal onto the floor. He had informed Angelo earlier that he managed to retrieve the sacred relic successfully but all his efforts now sounded like a childish prank. He was already certain that he’d become the ultimate joke of the Knight Hospitaller.

“Mister Arthur, I hope you haven’t forgotten that I run a military factory and own very technologically advanced equipment here. I can give you as many sacred relics as you wish. But let me remind you again, the only way you’ll get the real silver metal is through heeding my request,” said Xia Lei.

Arthur decided to speak. “I’d like to take a look at the real thing before calling Sir Angelo to update him.”

Xia Lei then reached down into his pocket to retrieve another block He placed it down on the metal tray.

Arthur quickly extended a hand to grab it, but he failed to lift the block off the tray. Xia Lei’s grasp had found itself around Arthur’s wrist in the nick of time before he could attempt anything.

The Grey and Russo sisters quickly charged towards Xia Lei.

“Stop!” growled Arthur while breaking out in cold sweat. Xia Lei’s grip was like a metal clamp around his wrist! Its sheer force felt like it was going to break his bone anytime.

The sisters quickly halted their action.

Clang! The metal block was returned to the metal tray.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

With that, Xia Lei finally freed Arthur’s wrist from his strong grip. He then held the silver metal block tightly in his palm. “This is my territory. The CIA and the FA organization didn’t even dare to attack me in this vicinity. I have no idea what gave you all this confidence and courage to assault me here. Even if we choose to ignore that, you would’ve at least needed around a hundred to two hundred experts to try snatching your relic away. My people could easily handle a measly bunch of five.”

Despite the subtle threat, Arthur couldn’t help but keep his eyes glued to the silver metal block in Xia Lei’s hand. His excitement was poorly concealed.

“I can replicate your sacred relic’s shape but yet to successfully imitate its properties. I’m sure you’re clear about that, right?” mentioned Xia Lei as he proceeded to store the metal block back into his pocket.

Arthur finally snapped back to reality. “Yeah, that’s genuine.”

“On what basis have you determined that conclusion?” Xia Lei continued, “Have you seen something like this metal before?”

Arthur replied, “Mister Xia, I’m grateful for your mercy but please don’t twist my words. I’ll go give Sir Angelo a call now.”

“Sure, go ahead,” said Xia Lei as he gestured to the door.

Arthur proceeded to exit the room for some privacy.

Xia Lei turned his head around and was about to activate his left eye when Giovanna came to stand in between him and the door. The only thing he could see was her slim waist and her immensely perky boobs. The erotic sight made his left eye jump slightly, the scenery of a span of white skin and a small patch of gold entered his vision.

Xia Lei furrowed his brows, “What are you doing?”

“What happened last night?”

“What do you mean?” Xia Lei stood up from his seat to move aside.

Stella abruptly took a step closer to him to block his vision.

“Last night... did we...” Stella paused to muster enough courage. “...Sleep together?”

She just so happened to step into the field of his left eye. The fabric clad over her body was quickly peeled away by his x-ray vision as if it was ice under intense sunlight. She had the same slim waist and the same crazy perky boobs. It was surprising to know that not only the Grey sisters share the same pretty face, but their proportions were also the same too.

If he had slept with both of them, he might not have been able to distinguish them.

Xia Lei’s mind couldn’t help but wander towards the territories of nonsense.

“It’s... very important to me, please do answer us,” pleaded Giovanna subtly.

That made Xia Lei’s head throb a little. “No, nothing happened between us. You can go check yourselves if you don’t believe me.”

Stella and Giovanna’s eyes met, releasing a breath they held in unison.

Xia Lei averted his gaze to the door, but Arthur had already hung up the call with Angelo. The latter entered the room to announce his discussion. “I’m terribly sorry, Mister Xia. We can’t meet your request.”

“Ah, that’s a pity,” Xia Lei shrugged his shoulders in response. “You may leave now, there’s no need to discuss this further.”

“Wait.” Arthur continued, “What Sir Angelo had meant was that we can’t do this alone. We are going to need resources.”

“You mean money?”

Arthur nodded. “Yes, we need some funds to hire mercenaries and some armed organizations to get the job done. I’m sure we can fulfil your request that way.”

“Why would I need to return you the sacred relic if that’s so? I have the money and I could’ve easily hired assassins and that sort to work for me anytime I wish,” retorted Xia Lei.

“Hehe, Mister Xia, your wish is to remain as a decent businessman with a clean record. If you hired mercenaries and assassins to take them down, you would be attracting some unwanted attention. You don’t want the trouble and you don’t want to involve yourself with people like that. Aside from that, there’s no guarantee if they would execute the favour even after payment. They don’t hold the same honest values we do. They’re not as stupid as to do suicide missions like such without an extremely handsome pay. Here’s where we’re different. We’ve existed since a thousand years ago and would naturally have our own set of protocols for things like this. I’m sure you contacted us for that particular reason, right?”

That was in fact what Xia Lei had acted upon. If there was another organization that could wipe out FA organization with a fee, he would’ve contacted them instead of the Knight Hospitaller.

“How much do you want?”

“One hundred million USD.”

Xia Lei scoffed. “Fifty million USD, nothing more.”

“That’s a deal.” Arthur continued. “But we’d also need a batch of Thunder Horse’s weapons like the XL2500 sniper rifle, Gust assault rifle and the Hellbound One-soldier Cannon.”

Xia Lei frowned.

To which Arthur quickly explained. “To avoid a misunderstanding, I’d like to clarify that we’re not trying to loot your resources. But as soon as the mission starts, we’d have no choice but to kill off the entire FA organization. Your weapons are the most advanced in the world. If you could kindly provide us with those, I’m sure my people will succeed.”

“Alright, I can do that.” Xia Lei was finally reminded of something. “But how am I going to be sure that you won’t scam me off my money?”

“There’s no need to worry about that, I can guarantee that with the honour of the Knight Hospitaller. Other than that, I’ll be leaving four hostages to you.” Arthur pointed at the Grey and Russo sisters. “They will be staying here until we’re done with our part of the deal.”

“...”

Xia Lei was at a complete loss for words.