Chapter 239: A Tropical Trip With Vipers!

Chapter 239: A Tropical Trip With Vipers!

When my private jet touched down on the small airfield of South Sea City, the southernmost major seaport of Eurasia, a wave of humid tropical breezes rushed through the opening cabin door. The warm air carried the distinct, salty tang of the southern waters, a sharp contrast to the filtered climate of the cabin. My longtime stewardess walked down the walkway steps ahead of us, her heels clicking crisply against the metal as she secured the perimeter for my group to depart.

Members of the local Fire Birds branch stood in formation near the tarmac to greet us, their eyes scanning the surroundings with disciplined focus. Though the presence of my Syndicate was weak here in the Black State, this region remained the home turf of the Black Snakes, who held the lion's share of control over the local underworld.

I stepped out onto the sun-baked aluminum stairs dressed in a sharp, white tieless suit, gently holding the hand of the beautiful woman walking beside me. Linda looked around the airstrip with a chilling, analytical gaze, her grey eyes reflecting the bright morning sun as she took in the two black limos parked in wait. Her long black hair caught the tropical wind, flowing elegantly over the shoulders of her long white dress. The garment was entirely shoulderless, reminiscent of what a ancient Greek goddess would wear, accentuating the natural grace my wife had gained after maturing into a stunning twenty-four-year-old woman.

Following right behind us was the twenty-seven-year-old, full-figured Mercy Mu, walking with the gallant, military precision that always contrasted beautifully with her short blonde hair and deep blue eyes. Today, she wore a knee-length maid outfit instead of her preferred full-length uniform, a necessary concession to the sweltering coastal heat. Beneath the sway of her short skirt, strapped securely to her firm, tone thighs, were her trusty paired HK P30 pistols, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice with her master-level Gun-Fu.

My State Manager, Randy Lee, stepped forward from the waiting shadow of the vehicles, extending his hand with a broad, welcoming smile as he noticed my two wives accompanying me. I gripped his hand firmly, offering a brief nod to the man running our local operations.

"Leader, it is wonderful for you to personally come to the Black State for a vacation," Randy said, his tone filled with genuine respect as he maintained his grip. "What can I do to serve you during your stay?"

"Be at ease, Randy, this is purely an unofficial visit," I replied, adjusting my collar slightly as the humid air settled over us. "My wife and I are just here to visit some of her family for the weekend, so all I really need is a reliable car for my personal maid to use for our daily needs."

Randy immediately turned toward the first limousine, waving his hand toward the driver while barking out a series of rapid commands. The crew moved with frantic efficiency, removing every piece of luggage and equipment from the vehicle to transfer them to the backup car. Once the trunk was clear, Randy stepped back toward us and proudly handed the keys directly to Mercy.

"This is my personal limo, and I had it freshly detailed this morning in anticipation of your visit," Randy insisted, bowing his head slightly to emphasize the gesture. "Please use it freely, Leader, and I will personally return here to pick it up when you take off on Sunday."

After running the Fire Birds for some years now, I had grown accustomed to receiving this level of absolute deference from my men. Experiencing this type of respect firsthand always seemed to make my subordinates happy, so I readily accepted his offer without any unnecessary arguments.

"Thank you, State Manager Lee, I appreciate the gesture," I said, offering him a final handshake before turning back toward the open door of the vehicle. "I will see you right here on Sunday at three in the afternoon. Linda, Mercy, let us get moving."

Linda stepped forward, her voice carrying its trademark icy elegance as she offered a polite nod to the manager. "Mr. Lee, it was wonderful to meet you, and thank you for the warm southern hospitality."

Mercy stepped ahead of us to hold the heavy door open, her blue eyes scanning the surrounding airfield one last time for potential threats. Linda extended her long, flawless legs into the darkened interior of the limousine, vanishing from view and instantly ending the silent fantasies of the guards who had been staring in envious awe. Once we were both safely inside, Mercy climbed into the driver's seat, started the engine, and smoothly drove us away from the terminal.

Mercy caught my eye in the rearview mirror, a soft smile playing on her lips as she navigated the coastal highway. "My dear Master, where would you like to go first? Should I head toward my summer home, or straight to Linda's father's place?"

I glanced up, catching the subtle glint in her eyes that silently begged me to choose her private property. It was rare for her and Linda to get away from the children for a weekend, and I couldn't help but cave into one of my loyal maid's few personal requests.

"I would like to visit your private sanctuary first, Mercy," I announced, leaning back against the plush leather seating. "After that long flight, I think it is the perfect time for a refreshing nap and a shower before we decide to go out tonight."

My eyes drifted toward Linda as I spoke, letting out a small cough to imply that the shower was meant for Mercy while the nap was meant for my wife. Linda smiled softly, wrapping her slender arms around my bicep to lean her head against my shoulder, nuzzling my neck affectionately.

"Rick, I am truly pleased that you brought Mercy and me back here for another vacation," Linda murmured, her breath warm against my skin. "If I remember correctly, I think the last time the three of us came down here was nearly two years ago."

"Well, you can't blame the scheduling entirely on me," I teased, reaching over to gently pinch her waist. "Your Linda Lang Fashion business keeps you incredibly busy these days, doesn't it?"

Linda pouted playfully, driving her elbow lightly into my side to protest the teasing. "I only work this hard so our daughter Lucy has a strong legacy to inherit when she gets older. Even if fashion or business turns out not to be her talent, she can always sell the company to follow her own dreams."

I reached down to lift Linda’s chin, tilting her face up to meet mine before planting a soft kiss on her lips. "Actually, our daughter Lucy Lang is probably going to follow her mother's footsteps perfectly. Just the other day, I caught her secretly drawing a collection of well-crafted dresses for the family, so she will definitely be into art, fashion, or both."

Linda’s grey eyes widened with sudden excitement, her grip tightening on my arm. "Really? I saw her looking through my design books last week, but I assumed she was only being curious. If she truly follows me into the industry, I might just die of happiness, Rick."

"Oh no, this is an emergency!" I shouted toward the front seat, letting out a dramatic laugh. "Mercy, we might have to detour to the local hospital right now, because I absolutely cannot let my Linda die of happiness!"

Mercy looked at us through the mirror, biting her lower lip as she tried to suppress a rising grin. "Master, we just passed a veterinary hospital a moment ago. If her condition is truly that bad, it might be much closer than the city hospital."

Linda’s face flushed with a mixture of mock irritation and embarrassment, and she let out a sharp grunt as she crossed her arms. "Humph. Mercy, now you are joining in on the teasing as well. You are both nothing but bullies..."

Mercy and I burst into shared laughter, thoroughly enjoying the adorable pouting expression of our usually stoic Ice Queen.

Once we arrived at the property, Mercy and I pulled out our smartphones, standing near opposite sides of the room as we quickly exchanged silent texts to survey the layout.

[Mercy: One bug in my main bedroom, and one in the guest bedroom.]

[Rick: I found one in the kitchen and one in the dining-room, lastly one in the living room.]

[Mercy: Shall I flush them?]

[Rick: No, don't do that, let me rewire them all first.]

[Mercy: What will you do with them?]

[Rick: Oh? I made a special... Bug Babysitter AI Program, that tricks Listening-Bugs. I call it, RAID: Rick's AI Defense.]

[Mercy: Really? What does it do?]

[Rick: It simulates whatever generic activities I want the listeners to hear by reproducing random topics, sounds, and algorithms of conversations.]

[Mercy: What will you set then?]

[Rick: A wild threesome, lasting the whole time we are in here, and then chats about baby names, bad movies, and making fun of Adam's inadequacies.]

[Mercy: ..............]

[Rick: Sending dots isn't the same, LOL! ;P ]

I pulled a compact electronic toolkit from my pocket, stepping toward the hidden listening devices one by one. I carefully attached a specialized override transmitter box over each bug, sealing them inside a small, soundproof isolation case that completely blocked our actual voices while feeding them a virtual loop. Once the device was active and generating the fake audio feed, I looked back at the women and pocketed my tools.

"Alright, the system is running and we can talk and act freely in here," I said, stretching my arms out as the tension left my shoulders. "Just make sure to close all of the blinds, Mercy, so no one can peek inside with long-range telescopic cameras."

With the surveillance completely neutralized, we finally unwound and relaxed into the comforts of the estate. Ironically, even without the wild threesome I had programmed into the fake audio feed, the master bedroom still echoed with plenty of real, passionate sounds throughout the afternoon.

The rest of the weekend flew by in a blur of pure bliss alongside my loves. We eventually met up with Linda's father, George, who had brought along one of his newer lovers instead of my annoying mother-in-law, making the entire visit incredibly pleasant. It wasn't a particularly notable or dramatic meeting, so George and I mostly spent the afternoon relaxing on the patio and drinking high-end whiskey.

However, the real purpose of my journey to the south coast began during the pitch-black hours of early Sunday morning.

To completely avoid detection from overhead military satellites and the constant tails following my movements, I changed into a solid black tactical wetsuit without a scuba tank. Using my Stealth Mastery Skill, I slipped out of the villa like a phantom, rushing across the sandy shoreline before diving silently into the dark ocean waves.

I immediately flushed my entire nervous system with a powerful surge of Chi, using the energy to sustain my body without needing to breathe a single breath of air. I propelled myself forward through the dark currents, swimming faster than a mechanical torpedo to easily scramble the satellites' thermal imaging systems. Without active sonar deployed in the area, the trackers completely lost my signature in the deep water.

I slowly emerged from the surf on the shores of a deserted island located about one mile out from the summer home. Slipping onto the wet sand, I kept my movements perfectly hidden under the pale moonlight while my eyes scanned the terrain. The island was incredibly small, consisting only of a handful of swaying palm trees and a dense cluster of lush green plants growing in the center of the shallow straits.

My sensory perception immediately picked up a figure dressed entirely in black sitting motionless inside the thick overgrowth. The man was holding his breath and keeping perfectly still, clearly attempting to hide himself from the rest of the world. I let out a silent grin, using my stealth to glide right up behind him before casually sitting down on the smooth rock right next to his hip.

"Logan Chen, long time no see, ha-ha," I whispered, breaking the silence.

Logan jumped slightly, his head snapping toward me as his dark eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "Goddammit, Rick, you just scared the absolute shit out of me! Damn, did you really swim all the way out here from the mainland?"

"It is only a few miles," I replied, wringing out the sleeve of my wetsuit with a casual shrug. "For guys like us, a distance like that isn't a problem at all."

"Well, that's good to hear. You would have done exceptionally well if you had trained inside the Sea Temple," Logan muttered, shaking his head as he relaxed his defensive stance. "Look, before we start diving into the important business details, tell me what's been happening in your life back in Star City..."

I leaned back against the rock, looking out over the moonlit waves as we spent the next half hour catching up on everything that had happened over the past year...

"Alice Ling, my stepdaughter, really liked you," Logan said, shaking his head with a low chuckle as he leaned against the trunk of a palm tree. "Damn, it's a real shame you two never got together, because she had a massive crush on you back then. But damn, you really ended up marrying a younger woman after all, didn't you?"

"Alice Ling was always incredibly fun to hang out with," I replied, a nostalgic smile tugging at the corner of my lips as I remembered her lively energy. "But truthfully, I could never see her in a romantic light, whereas Ning'er was actually secretly my childhood fiancée from the start. We just happened to fall in love along the way, though I have to admit, life has a funny way of throwing complete screwballs at you when you least expect it."

Logan burst into a loud laugh, slap-hitting his own knee at the thought. "Well, the most amazing thing is still imagining you and that crazy Lan Chow having two rugrats together. I still can't believe you two actually hooked up after you broke her nose that night, ha-ha! Whenever I tell stories about that fight to my students, they just laugh and tell me I am completely full of shit. Alright, let's get down to it, what is this serious talk all about, Rick?"

I reached into the inner pocket of my tactical wetsuit, pulling out a durable, waterproof case containing our operational blueprints and sliding it across the stone toward him. Logan caught the container, flicking on a small penlight inside the protective casing to review the highly classified documents as his eyebrows lifted in sudden surprise. After scanning the details, he sealed the container tightly, looking up at me with a sharp, questioning gaze.

"Really? Is this truly all you want me and the elites of my Sea Temple to do for you?"

"Yes, that is exactly the plan," I confirmed, my tone turning entirely serious as I outlined the chessboard. "The Fairy Mountain Temple elites will be marching directly to the main ceremony alongside me, but we already know the Forest Temple will attempt to mobilize as well. I need your forces and the Snow Temple to set up a coordinated ambush against them, preventing them from sending their high-level masters to the event to get in my way, which is all I require from your end."

Logan let out another hearty laugh, clearly relieved by the tactical scope of the request. "And here I thought you were going to ask my people to jump straight into a blazing fire for you, but all you want is for us to bully the exact same guys we already want to bully, ha-ha! Seriously, Rick, you are absolutely hilarious. Sure, I think working alongside the Snow Temple is going to be the real joke here, but I will willingly hold hands with my rival temple just to pull off this specific task. You can officially count on me to strike the exact day they decide to move, and we will ambush them right at the edge of the Central borders, out in the middle of no-man's-land."

I stood up from the smooth rock, stretching my arms over my head to loosen up my muscles after sitting in the humid night air. I looked down at Logan, offering a final, casual warning before preparing to make my departure.

"Just make sure to watch out for sharks on your swim back to the mainland. I ended up killing a couple of them on my way over here, so the fresh blood in the water is already attracting a feeding frenzy up toward the north side of the island, meaning you just need to stay alert when you head south."

Logan froze, his eyes widening as he stared up at me in absolute disbelief. "Rick, are you seriously telling me that you killed two great whites on your way out here, and you did it with your bare hands?"

I offered a mysterious grin, keeping the truth hidden since I couldn't exactly tell him that I had simply vaporized their massive bodies using the raw power of my cultivation energy. "It's really no big deal, you just have to punch them directly in the gills the same way dolphins do. See you later, brother! Once the Li family is completely wiped out, let's make sure to go out drinking again."

I turned on my heel and immediately headed toward the northern shore to leap back into the dark ocean waves, moving with absolute silence.

Just as I vanished into the shadows of the shoreline, Logan called out after me. "Let's skip the drinking entirely, because I still have horrible memories from the last time we went out. Let's just go get some hot pot instead... Damn, you're gone already, nice stealth..."