Chapter 135: Proceeding Smoothly

The next morning, Qin Yang led his team of five out of the suite. Thanks to a perfect disguise, no one suspected they had been replaced. Today was the day of the transaction between Zaka and Azalius, a day of critical importance.

The exchange was set to take place in the plaza in front of the Azalius Royal Palace. Azalius was a man who knew how to indulge himself. Controlling all the diamond and gemstone mines in Nili, he was obscenely wealthy. However, he lacked heavy weaponry, so he was willing to make unprofitable trades to bolster his army. He even used jewelry and diamonds to hire international mercenaries to harass and strike at the stubborn resistance forces, offering a ten-carat raw diamond—worth hundreds of thousands of dollars—for every resistance officer killed. The mercenaries were as fired up as if they had been injected with adrenaline, flocking to Nili to take on these missions. Azalius believed that once the resistance was stripped of its officers, and combined with his planned viral attack, the resistance would be his for the taking.

The palace itself was opulent, rivaling the residences of royalty in many nations. The armed rebels standing guard, however, were a far cry from the disciplined sentries one might expect at such a palace, though their ferocity in combat could not be underestimated.

Azalius was over fifty, though his dark skin masked his age. Standing over 1.9 meters tall, he had a square jawline etched with a fierce expression, and a few faint scars were visible upon closer inspection. Following him was his wastrel of a son, Walker. The boy clutched a golden dagger, his neck weighed down by a gaudy chain of jewels, and his fingers adorned with four or five diamond rings that would make any woman seethe with envy. His face wore a cunning, sinister smirk. Intelligence reports indicated that Walker was the only child of Azalius, rumored to be of "nine-nation bloodline"—a testament to his father’s methods of using the allure of international models and threats to force them into his bed. Naturally, his Nili heritage remained dominant.

"Zaka, my friend, did you rest well yesterday?" Azalius asked with a boisterous laugh, clapping Zaka on the shoulder.

"Thank you for your hospitality, General," Zaka replied with a sycophantic grin. "My shipment of arms has arrived."

As they spoke, four or five supply trucks drove in. Walker’s eyes lit up, and he rushed to the trucks, grabbing a heavy machine gun from one of them. He roared with excitement and pulled the trigger, firing wildly at some unfortunate souls tied to poles nearby. The expression on his face was one of perverse, almost orgasmic delight. Zaka was startled by Walker’s madness and cursed the boy as a wastrel under his breath. He, too, felt the sting of this trade; gathering such a large quantity of arms had not been easy, and even his own organization did not possess such well-equipped weaponry. Still, thinking of the outcome, he balanced his emotions. Azalius was not only releasing three hostages but would also launch a massive search for the remaining Chinese nationals still roaming Nili. Once they were captured, he vowed to make the Chinese God of War team and the resistance pay for their blood debt.

As the hail of bullets ceased, Walker let out a wild, crazed yell, tossed the machine gun aside, and nodded in satisfaction with a look of pure gratification.

Azalius laughed in satisfaction and waved his hand. A line of soldiers marched over, escorting three Chinese nationals. These were staff members from the Chinese embassy in Nili who had failed to evacuate in time. While they hadn't suffered overt torture, their situation was clearly dire. Had they not been worth a shipment of arms, Azalius would have disposed of them on the spot and told the Chinese government that their personnel had unfortunately vanished in the crossfire.

"Zaka, my old friend, your generosity pleases me greatly. Walker!" Azalius waved him over.

Walker scrambled up, excited, his dagger darting back and forth in front of the hostages. His look of enjoyment was so sickening that Xie Chengyang nearly lunged to slaughter him on the spot.

"Take General Enns and help our old friend capture those wandering criminals hiding in our country," Azalius commanded happily. "Our intelligence says there is a great beauty among them. Keep your eyes sharp."

"Right away, right away!" Walker became instantly ecstatic at the mention of a beautiful woman.

Though Zaka had no desire to work with this degenerate, he could not refuse the General’s orders. Wiping sweat from his brow, he signaled his men. Qin Yang, quick-witted, moved to the front. Zaka pointed to the three hostages and ordered, "Take them back to our base immediately. Do not make a single mistake, do you hear me?"

"Don't worry," Qin Yang shouted back in the local Middle Eastern dialect.

Walker sized up Qin Yang and gave him a provocative look, then kicked one of the hostages, causing the man to collapse in agony. Qin Yang’s expression remained unchanged. Finding it boring, Walker simply climbed into a vehicle and, with a wave of his hand, arrogantly led a group of rebels away.

As Qin Yang signaled, Xie Chengyang and the others stepped out of the ranks. Simultaneously, two other squads of ten emerged and boarded a supply truck that had been emptied of its cargo. Xu Lai took the wheel, while the leader of the other squad sat in the passenger seat. Xu Lai remained calm, driving off without a word. Qin Yang and his team sat in the back, chatting casually to lower the guards' vigilance, occasionally threatening the three hostages—who were pale with terror—and then laughing boisterously.

The truck successfully drove out of Kano. According to the plan, Xu Lai was driving toward a temporary base where a helicopter could be used for escape. Zaka wanted to bring the hostages back to ensure nothing went wrong, never dreaming that Qin Yang and his team had already infiltrated his ranks.

Qin Yang leaned toward the back of the truck and opened the curtain, noticing they had entered a sparsely populated area. He checked the time and whispered, "Time to act."

He spoke in Chinese.

The nine rebels in the back were stunned, and before they could react, small blades were plunged into their necks. As they felt the sting, they realized with horror that their own necks were being pierced by knives, and in one case, a sharpened chopstick.

In the front seat, Xu Lai pointed out the window. As the rebel leader in the passenger seat turned to look, Xu Lai seized the opportunity, stabbing his neck with a sharpened chopstick, killing him instantly.

The three hostages cowered in fear, not daring to move.

Qin Yang stripped off his outer garment. As the truck jerked to a stop, they dumped the rebels' bodies into a nearby dried-up riverbed, where the tall, withered grass provided natural concealment. Dian Jiang and the others arrived from nearby and boarded the truck. Qin Yang wiped the makeup from his face with a wet wipe and said to the shaken hostages, "We are the Chinese God of War team, sent to rescue you. Congratulations, you are safe for now."

"Comrades, oh, comrades! You finally came," the leader of the group sobbed. "We thought..."

"Thought what?" Qin Yang waved a hand. "Rest now. Shui Wuya, Dou Bai, Wei Feng, treat their wounds and get them some food. Dian Jiang, where are the other four?"

"Tang Li, Zhou Kehai, Zhao Wu, and Wei Dao have gone to track the armed rebels who left the city, to search for the location of the remaining hostages," Dian Jiang reported.

Qin Yang nodded, checked the time, and said, "Azalius and Zaka’s men have already moved out. We must find the missing hostages before they do and get them back to our country as quickly as possible. We don't have much time. Let’s borrow their helicopter."