Bai Ye pondered for a moment and said, "So, what you mean is?"
Li Jia Yi replied, "Those cultists are clearly planning to pick us off one by one. Hamiel and I were dragged down by you. They don't want anyone to know about their existence, so they intend to kill us all. This way, no one will come out of this unscathed. There's only one path forward."
Bai Ye asked, "Cooperate again?"
Li Jia Yi gritted his teeth. "I'm willing to put aside our feud and cooperate with you, and you're unhappy? Every time you ruin my good deeds, every time you take advantage of me, and you even killed my assistant. What do you have to be unhappy about? I should be the one who's unhappy!"
"Don't get so worked up. I didn't say I wouldn't cooperate," Bai Ye said. "I'm worried you'll trick me. What was that vehicle called?"
"Tianyan Bo Gan Tactical Vehicle," Li Jia Yi replied. "Am I crazy to lie to you? What would I gain? If we could have avoided them, would I have deliberately provoked them? That vehicle can truly track us down, and we can't escape it."
Bai Ye said, "Alright, continue."
Li Jia Yi said, "There are five of them on the other side..."
Bai Ye interrupted, "Four."
Li Jia Yi paused for a moment. "You killed one?"
"Mhm," Bai Ye replied. "Honestly, not very strong."
Li Jia Yi: "..."
Can this guy not brag for a moment? If they were willing to fight him one-on-one, he could have killed one too!
Li Jia Yi took a deep breath, reminding himself not to get angry. Unity was key right now.
"Then four!" Li Jia Yi continued. "With our combined strength, three against one, we might not lose. Furthermore, we don't necessarily have to clash head-on. We can find a way to destroy their Tianyan Bo Gan Tactical Vehicle. Without that thing, it'll be easy for us to hide for three days."
Bai Ye pondered for a moment and suddenly said, "You seem to know a lot about the cultists?"
Li Jia Yi paused, then flatly replied, "No."
Bai Ye chuckled sarcastically, "Heh heh."
Bai Ye continued, "Since we're going to cooperate, we should be more transparent. You clearly know something about the cultists. You recognized them when you saw them, and you even knew that to conceal their identities, they wouldn't let you and Hamiel go. You're clearly familiar with their modus operandi."
"Cooperation requires a foundation of trust. If you don't tell me what you know, how can I be sure you're not playing games?"
Li Jia Yi retorted, "Don't sugarcoat it. Even if I know something, what does that have to do with our cooperation? Aren't you just trying to pry information about the cultists out of me?"
Bai Ye nodded. "Yes!"
Li Jia Yi: "..."
Li Jia Yi was speechless again. Bai Ye's frankness left him unsure how to respond.
Li Jia Yi finally said, "I was hunted by them before."
Bai Ye asked, "Then how are you still alive?"
Li Jia Yi replied, "I gave them what they wanted. Is that not enough?"
Bai Ye sneered, "They even kill those who know their identities. Do you think they'd let you go just because you gave them something? Do you think I'm a three-year-old child to be so easily fooled?"
Indeed, Yimi was also alive.
However, Yimi had a unique situation. The cultists who hunted him at the time were his friends, and they had a brief moment of recovered memory. In the end, Yimi placed the item by the other's corpse and escaped.
After the incident with the Life Crystal, Yimi might once again be on the cultists' kill list.
Li Jia Yi said helplessly, "Do you really have to bring this up now? If we delay any longer, Hamiel might really be in trouble. Can we talk about this after we deal with these cultists?"
Bai Ye asked, "Are you sure you'll tell me?"
Li Jia Yi confirmed, "I'm sure."
Bai Ye thought for a moment. "I'll trust you this time. Where is that bat now?"
Li Jia Yi replied, "East District, there's a river there. They're fighting right now. You should be able to see it once you get here, but we need to make a plan."
"Just say it," Bai Ye ordered. "Since you've come to me, you must have already thought of a plan."
Li Jia Yi explained, "We don't need to fight them to the death. The main objective is the Tianyan Bo Gan Tactical Vehicle. However, they've currently locked onto Hamiel's location, so there's no need for them to deploy that vehicle."
Bai Ye considered. "So, the top priority is to rescue Hamiel and then successfully escape. Once the four cultists lose our trail, they'll have no choice but to use that vehicle you mentioned to track us down."
"But our escape will be a ruse, designed to force them to deploy the vehicle so we can destroy it. Once the vehicle is gone, we can hide in the city, and they'll have almost no way to find us."
Li Jia Yi affirmed, "Yes, that's the idea."
Li Jia Yi suddenly remembered his beautiful assistant. She was indeed beautiful, but not very sharp.
Looking at Bai Ye, it was so much easier to talk to a smart person. He just had to give a hint, and Bai Ye would understand what he meant.
Li Jia Yi propped up his chin. It would be great if he could get this guy to be his assistant.
He wasn't saying he was the smartest, but his IQ was definitely online, and he could fight. Although his words were harsh, and they disliked each other and wanted to kill each other, wasn't that just because they were enemies at the moment?
Upon closer inspection, it seemed that as long as he was a man, and setting aside the inability to admire his looks or engage in workplace manipulation, Bai Ye was actually a pretty good candidate.
Meanwhile, Bai Ye stood up and gave a polite bow to the woman. "I apologize for the disturbance last night. I should be going now. Have a pleasant day."
With that said, Bai Ye's body transformed into a bolt of lightning and vanished without a trace.
East District?
Bai Ye recalled his previous visit there. It would be convenient. He could activate his electric field and head directly towards the East District without needing to expand in other directions.
About fifteen minutes later, Bai Ye's body once again flickered as lightning. He reappeared by the river, not far from a cross-river bridge that was now broken in half.
Bai Ye recognized the broken bridge from the news. The question was, where were Hamiel and the cultists?
BOOM!
As if to answer Bai Ye's unspoken question, a deafening explosion erupted from the other side of the broken bridge.
When Bai Ye turned his head, he saw a massive water pillar shoot into the sky, with a large amount of spray falling back down.
Even an idiot would know what was happening.
Bai Ye immediately flickered, transforming into electricity once more, and sped towards the direction of the water pillar.