Angel's ultimate move was like a hammer, while Qin Ming, who had activated his Qi Wave Reinforcement to boost his defense, was the anvil.
Hammer met anvil—neither side came out unscathed. Qin Ming, hit square in the chest, nearly lost his breath and had several ribs broken on the spot.
As for Angel, who had slammed down with full force, she felt her elbow completely give out—an excruciating pain shot up from the point of impact.
The two of them lay on the ground, back to back, and it took over ten seconds for them to recover from the intense pain.
Thanks to his self-healing ability, Qin Ming was the first to get back up by pressing a hand against the ground.
When he turned and saw that Angel was still down, he suddenly lunged forward, grabbed her slender waist, and slammed her hard against the ground.
With a loud crash, Angel's upper body hit the ground heavily, leaving cracks spreading outward—but despite taking the hit headfirst, Angel didn't pass out. In fact, she acted like nothing had happened.
Instead, it was Qin Ming—who had lifted her up—whose eyes widened in disbelief.
"What the hell! Why are you so heavy?!"
When Qin Ming had tried to lift Angel for the first time, he had almost failed.
The moment he hugged what looked like a short and small girl, he didn't feel like he was holding a person—but rather a human-shaped weight!
His instinctive outburst made Angel, who had just been clutching the back of her head and wincing in pain, suddenly go dark in the face.
Without a word, she reached out and grabbed Qin Ming's waist. With a surge of strength, this woman who stood barely 1.6 meters tall picked up Qin Ming and threw him clean over her shoulder!
It was a textbook German suplex that slammed Qin Ming's head and upper back onto the ground with a thunderous crash.
"Didn't your family ever tell you?! It's incredibly rude to comment on a woman's weight! How the hell am I heavy?!"
Still shouting, Angel launched herself into the air again, going for another reckless elbow strike aimed at Qin Ming.
Qin Ming rolled to dodge, and she missed. Her elbow hit the ground hard, sending out a shockwave and cracking the surface in a tight spiderweb pattern.
Seeing the crater left behind—something that looked like it had been hit by a massive pile driver—Qin Ming twitched at the corner of his eye.
"You call that not heavy? I couldn't even make a dent like that if I tried!"
"Shut up already!"
Having missed, Angel pushed off the ground and spun midair, her legs sweeping toward Qin Ming in a handstand kick.
When her attack missed again, she sprang to her feet and suddenly dashed toward the far wall.
"I'm done playing with you! You big dumb brute! Bye-bye!"
While shouting, Angel leapt at the wall, springing side to side up the corner like a gymnast, and nimbly vaulted onto the rooftop.
…Only to crash through it with a loud smash and fall straight into the building.
Hearing the crash from above, Qin Ming—who had just gathered strength and was preparing to leap up after her—quietly let go of the wall ledge and dropped back to the ground.
He walked over and pushed open the door to the house. Inside, lying in the rubble, Angel was sprawled out, dazed from the fall.
"I mean… you really climbed onto the roof with that kind of tonnage? Are you honestly fooling yourself at this point?"
Angel, gritting her teeth in frustration, suddenly swung her arm and hurled a cloud of dust into Qin Ming's face.
Taking advantage of the moment when Qin Ming instinctively raised his hand to block, she sprang to her feet, turned, and sprinted full-speed at the wall.
With another explosive crash, Angel crossed her arms to protect her head and burst through the wall, fleeing without looking back.
She tore down the street, smashing aside parked cars in her way, and vaulted cleanly over a three-meter wall.
The moment she landed, she came down hard on the roof of a car, shattering its windows and caving in the hood completely.
Charging forward like a wild boar, Angel was an unstoppable force. In the blink of an eye, she had put hundreds of meters between them.
Glancing back and seeing Qin Ming flip over the wall behind her—flattening the already-wrecked car into something resembling a metal sheet—Angel suddenly leapt onto the next wall, gripping it with her bare hands and climbing like a gecko.
Every time her fingers dug into the wall, she left behind clear handprints. Her raw power was terrifying.
She climbed all the way to the twenty-third floor in one go and finally rolled onto the rooftop.
Panting heavily, she flopped down on the edge, letting one leg dangle over the side. As the wind blew past, Angel tugged at her already-skimpy clothes, fanning herself.
"Whew! As expected of a fighting champion—he's really something else. But I, Angel, am no slouch either! Didn't I just escape easily?"
While muttering to herself, she kept rubbing her elbow, which was still throbbing with pain.
She had no choice but to flee. The high-tech paralysis gloves she wore only worked once in a short time.
That ambush and sudden burst had failed to seriously wound Qin Ming. If she didn't run now, she really wouldn't have any way to fight him.
Just as Angel lay there gasping for air on the rooftop, she suddenly heard a soft ding in her ear.
Startled by the sound, she instinctively turned to look.
And saw, to her horror, the elevator doors of the adjacent building's rooftop open—revealing a tall and familiar figure stepping out.
Qin Ming walked out of the elevator, glanced at the doors closing behind him, then turned to face Angel.
The two locked eyes in silence for over ten seconds.
In the end, it was Angel who broke the stillness first, springing up from the edge of the rooftop.
Pointing at Qin Ming, her face flushed red with anger.
"You… you actually took the elevator up?! You've got no honor! No respect for the rules of the martial world!"
Qin Ming stared at her, utterly baffled.
"The elevator was right there. Why wouldn't I use it?"
"Have you ever seen a proper hero chase a thief—not by running across rooftops with amazing agility, but by riding a horse underneath?!"
"But I'm not a hero, am I? I'm usually the guy who gets chased by the hero! I don't have much experience in this area! How was I supposed to know there were rules to this?!"
Qin Ming's response left Angel speechless for several seconds.
Looking at Qin Ming, who looked like a bandit even without a mask, Angel had to admit—it was kind of unreasonable to expect him to play the part of a righteous hero chasing a villain.
After all, in the middle of the night, if someone saw him leaping across rooftops chasing someone, they might not even know who to help.
As Qin Ming talked and walked toward her, Angel suddenly shouted out in panic.
"Stop right there!"
"What now?"
"I'm warning you! Don't come any closer! One more step and I'll jump!"
"You'll jump... wait, what makes you think jumping will threaten me?"
"Because that's how it works in the movies! And aren't you chasing me to interrogate me about Sound Nest's evil plan? To sabotage our cloning operations and destroy our two local branches? To save all those poor clones and modified bodies? Well let me tell you! I, Angel, have always been loyal to the organization! As for the branches—one's under the West Market Temple, and the other is in the East Market's Luotian Building—I won't tell you anything! You can just give up!"
"Huh?"
"Farewell forever, you big oaf!"
With those final words, Angel didn't give the dumbfounded Qin Ming any chance to react. She spread her arms wide and fell backward in a perfect cross-shaped posture.
Qin Ming hadn't expected the woman to actually jump and rushed to the edge of the rooftop in a panic.
Looking down—she was already gone!
Inside the building, Angel had slowed her fall by grabbing onto the wall and smashing through a window. Now inside, she clapped her hands smugly.
"Tch. Dumb musclehead. Thought you could outsmart me, Lady Angel? Think again—you'll need two brains for that!"
Still gloating, she turned around, stood on tiptoe, and made a rabbit-ear gesture above her head, clearly proud of her quick thinking and agility.
Then she turned around again—and saw fire spraying from the window as a familiar figure descended with a jetpack.
Seeing Qin Ming fly in through the broken window, Angel's smile instantly froze.
Once she realized what was happening, she bolted.
And of course, Qin Ming chased her.
As she ran, hearing the heavy footsteps behind her, Angel felt like crying and shouted out:
"What do you want from me?! I already gave you the locations! TWO OF THEM! Why are you still chasing me? I didn't even steal your wife!"
Qin Ming didn't respond, just silently pursued her all through the building.
Eventually, he cornered her in a dead end.
Angel, back against the wall, looked at him nervously—nowhere left to run.
Qin Ming finally stopped and, still stone-faced, slowly reached into his coat.
Seeing this, Angel freaked out, flailing her arms and switching through seven different fighting stances in one second.
Balancing on one leg, arms up in defense, she watched in alarm as Qin Ming finally pulled out... a small yellow notebook and a pen.
"Alright. Sign here."
"Huh?"
"Autograph."
"Oh. Real name or stage name?"
"You have a stage name?"
"Yeah, thinking of getting into pro wrestling."
"Real name for now. When you get famous, I'll come back for the stage name."
"Okay."
Angel calmly lowered her leg, took the notebook and pen, and obediently signed her name. Watching Qin Ming put the notebook away and head toward the window, she stood there silently for a long moment.
Just as he was about to reach the window, she finally looked down at herself and blurted out:
"Hey! You cornered me like that, and all you wanted was an autograph?"
Qin Ming stopped in his tracks, slowly turned his head.
"What else were you expecting?"
"It's not that I wanted something else! But it's kind of crushing my self-esteem here. I'm dressed so... breezy, and all you asked for was a signature. That's like seeing a naked beauty and only stealing her earrings."
"...I'll take the earrings, thanks. Honestly, with your weight, I'm afraid you'd shatter my pelvis."
With a burst of fire, Qin Ming shot into the air and vanished on the spot.
Angel stood there, mouth agape, stunned for several seconds.
Crossing her arms and furiously bouncing one leg, she finally stomped the ground so hard it cracked.
Scowling, Angel growled:
"Peh! Next time I see you, I'm sitting on your face! Let's see if your skull can handle it!"
(End of Chapter)