**Chapter 3: The Killer Arrives**
Putting down the gun, Zhou Ming sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes, and let his breathing slowly steady as his consciousness sank into his aperture.
In the bronze-colored true essence sea, four Gu worms floated and frolicked, displaying considerable sentience.
One of them, crystal clear, resembled a small sword carved from ice—this was a Two-turn Sword Qi Gu. It could release sword qi and was one of the strongest single-target damage Gu worms among Two-turn Gu.
Another, shaped like a beetle, had a blue shell, a pair of large pincers, and two black, pearl-like eyes the size of rice grains. This was a Two-turn Water Armor Gu. When activated, it could form a thin layer of water armor to cover the Gu Master's body and resist damage.
These two Two-turn Gu were the inheritance Zhou Ming had received from his parents in this life.
The Gu World was divided into five regions: Central Continent, Eastern Sea, Southern Border, Northern Plains, and Western Desert. It was vast and boundless, each region several times the size of Earth.
The family Zhou Ming had transmigrated into was located in the Northern Plains.
The Northern Plains had a harsh geographical environment and difficult living conditions. Conflicts and battles often broke out between various tribal families over resources, and it was almost commonplace for Gu Masters in a family to die in battle.
Zhou Ming's parents in this life had died in a family skirmish when Zhou Ming was seven years old. Both had been Two-turn Gu Masters when they were alive, and they died fighting for the family, earning honor and merit. Therefore, the family had never mistreated Zhou Ming as he grew up.
After he became a Gu Master, he inherited these two Gu worms and had been cultivating them ever since.
As the saying goes, "Humans are the spirit of all beings; Gu are the essence of heaven and earth." Gu worms are not inanimate objects but living creatures.
Wild Gu worms have their own will. They know how to seek advantage and avoid disadvantage, and how to find their own food and habitats.
After being refined, a Gu worm's independent will is erased and replaced by the Gu Master's will. Only then can the Gu Master use his true essence to command the Gu worm to unleash its power. However, it still needs to be fed; otherwise, it will weaken until it starves to death.
The higher the turn of a Gu worm, the higher the cost of feeding it. Zhou Ming had spent a considerable amount of resources on these two Gu worms, at one point making his spirit stones so scarce that even his own cultivation became difficult.
He had considered selling these two Gu worms, but after much hesitation, he couldn't bear to give them up and ultimately gritted his teeth and kept them.
Later, after graduating from the academy and officially joining a small team, he could complete family missions to earn merit and spirit stones, giving him even less reason to sell these two Gu worms.
The other two Gu worms in his aperture included a Water Jade Gu, shaped like jade. It was used to assist in cultivation, helping Zhou Ming accelerate his breakthrough to One-turn Peak, and still had two uses left.
The other looked like a dull gray grass root—a One-turn healing Gu worm called Grass Root Gu—floating in the essence sea, swaying its roots.
Zhou Ming had a total of six Gu worms. Besides the four in his aperture, there were two others: a Leaf Blade Gu, stored on the back of his right hand, and a Straw Sandal Gu, stored on his feet.
When Zhou Ming activated the Straw Sandal Gu, a pair of straw sandals would silently appear on his bare feet. At that time, Zhou Ming's running speed and jumping ability would greatly increase.
However, maintaining the Straw Sandal Gu's ability also required constant consumption of true essence.
Zhou Ming only maintained it for a short while before stopping the activation. The straw sandals on his feet immediately disappeared.
Watching the true essence sea level in his aperture, which had dropped a small amount, Zhou Ming immersed himself in deep meditation. Before long, he could feel the true essence sea level rise slightly.
*It worked. The Gu worms can be activated, and true essence can recover on its own.*
Zhou Ming opened his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.
Gu Masters replenish consumed true essence either through natural recovery or by absorbing natural essence from spirit stones.
In this world, Zhou Ming didn't have half a spirit stone. If he couldn't naturally recover true essence, then his Gu worms would be useless.
Fortunately, that situation did not occur. Zhou Ming's true essence recovery was the same as in the Gu World.
With his aptitude, he could recover one-fifth of his true essence per hour. If all five-tenths of his total true essence were depleted, it would take a full ten hours to naturally recover completely.
Slow, but better than nothing.
Glancing at the clock in the room, Zhou Ming put on his shoes, tucked the gun into his waistband, and opened the door.
More than twenty minutes had passed, and there were only a few minutes left until their agreed meeting time in Yu Man's room, so Zhou Ming decided to go now.
*Ding!*
The elevator door slowly opened, and a blond man in a suit with his hair tied in a ponytail walked out.
Zhou Ming closed his door and looked up to see the suited man walking toward him.
The two met eyes and paused slightly.
The suited man remained silent, while Zhou Ming nodded and smiled—a polite greeting.
Then both averted their gaze and went their separate ways. Zhou Ming walked toward Yu Man's room, number 708.
They passed each other.
A drop of cold sweat trickled down Zhou Ming's forehead.
He had felt an incredibly dangerous aura from that man.
This was a powerful perception of danger—a crisis intuition that had saved Zhou Ming's life multiple times.
*Assassin!*
*How could they be so fast?*
*Didn't Yu Man say they were safe for twelve hours?*
Although many questions arose in his mind, Zhou Ming deeply trusted this sixth-sense-like intuition.
People from the Northern Plains faced various dangers and battles from a young age; those who were slow to react to crises had long since died.
In that instant, Zhou Ming moved like a startled cat—twisting his waist, turning, drawing his gun, and firing.
The moment he turned, he saw the suited man's actions mirror his own: drawing his gun and shooting.
But the suited man hadn't expected Zhou Ming to suddenly make a move. He reacted abruptly when Zhou Ming turned, immediately turning to return fire.
Although the suited man's reaction speed was inhumanly fast, he was still a step slower than Zhou Ming.
*Bang! Bang!*
Two gunshots rang out in quick succession.
Zhou Ming was confident in his shot. At such close range, he was sure to hit his opponent.
Of course, the opponent's bullet would also hit him—but he wasn't worried.
The Water Armor Gu had already activated, enough to block that shot.
But immediately, Zhou Ming's pupils suddenly contracted.
The two bullets did not hit their intended targets as he expected. Instead, they collided precisely in mid-air.
*What's going on?!*
Zhou Ming was utterly astonished, but the situation no longer allowed him to think.
After firing the first bullet, the suited man immediately pulled the trigger for a second shot.
Clearly, the suited man had a strong objective: the first shot to block Zhou Ming's bullet, the second to kill Zhou Ming. Two bullets, no more, no less.
This was a very rigorous and confident assassin.
Zhou Ming did not possess the miraculous marksmanship of the suited man, and of course, he couldn't dodge a bullet already fired.
But immediately, the suited man's pupils also sharply contracted.
That bullet accurately struck Zhou Ming's body but remained on the surface—it did not penetrate at all.
*Water Armor Gu!*
Zhou Ming didn't even look at the bullet. He raised his gun to fire a second bullet at the suited man.
The suited man immediately returned fire, intending to use the same trick to block the bullet with a bullet. But the moment he pulled the trigger, his eyes widened.
Following Zhou Ming's bullet was a white sword qi.
*Sword Qi Gu!*
*Bang!*
Bullets collided, sparks flying.
*Chii!*
The suited man's neck was severed by the sword qi. Blood splattered on the wall behind him.
The suited man had blocked the bullet with a bullet, but he didn't know how to block sword qi—and indeed, he couldn't block it at all.
The suited man's head fell onto the soft carpet, rolling twice. His headless body swayed, then fell backward, hit the wall, slid down, and painted a thick, rich streak of blood on the wall.
Zhou Ming's body also swayed, but he forced himself to stand firm and not fall.
Both the Water Armor Gu and the Sword Qi Gu were Two-turn Gu worms. Activating them just twice had almost completely drained Zhou Ming's true essence.
Although the battle sounded long, the actual time elapsed was extremely short. Both sides had fired a total of five shots, all within a few seconds.
But in a life-and-death struggle, a few seconds were enough to claim a life.
"Brother Yang!" Zhou Ming called out weakly. "Help me."
The door to room 703 burst open, and Yang Zhisheng leaped out, quickly scanning the hallway with his gun.
He had reacted the moment he heard the gunshots, holding his gun braced against the doorframe.
However, the situation outside the door was unclear, so he hadn't acted rashly.
After hearing Zhou Ming's call, he immediately rushed out.
Seeing the scene, he couldn't help but pause briefly, then rushed forward even faster.
"You killed him? Are you hurt? How did you kill him?"
He spoke quickly, and his movements were even faster. Within a few sentences, he had already reached Zhou Ming.
"I'm fine," Zhou Ming said, somewhat distracted.
Besides the extreme exhaustion, countless pieces of information were flooding into Zhou Ming's mind.
**[Newbie Period Special Reward: For each assassin killed, gain a portion of that assassin's combat experience. Limited to this mission.]**
The assassin Zhou Ming had killed was no ordinary opponent. His combat experience was extremely rich, and even a portion of it was more than Zhou Ming could digest in a moment.
"Let's go. To my room first!" Yang Zhisheng saw that Zhou Ming was not in a good state and quickly pulled him along.
At the same time, he spoke directly into the air in front of him: "Yu Man, come to my place."
*Contacting Yu Man?* Zhou Ming thought silently. It seemed Yang Zhisheng and Yu Man had a special way of communicating.
Entering the room, Yang Zhisheng pressed Zhou Ming into a chair and said, "You rest for a while and recover."
"Okay," Zhou Ming nodded.
Both fell silent, and the room became quiet.