Among the Twelve Virtues, in terms of combat power, Aether was universally acknowledged as an absolute bottom-tier profession, even weaker than Embers. Normally, such people ought to be despised by man and beast alike; in a party of heroes, they'd be kicked out for failing to keep up with everyone's pace and end up in some backwater living a slow life.
Anyone who actually thought like that was basically already dead and cold.
So what if you could fight? In a world teeming with so many schemers and backstabbers, did fighters die any less often? In Yacheng alone, no fewer than dozens or even hundreds had died just last night.
The underworld wasn't all about fighting and killing, nor was it merely about worldly wisdom and socializing—compared to Embers, who only gained basic human rights once they made a name for themselves, Aether was vastly more popular!
After all, you might never buy alchemical items, but you'd always need to know where you accidentally left your house keys...
Never underestimate the intelligence network of Aether.
One only needed to look at Beishan District to see why.
If something went wrong, Wen Wen could slack off, Lao Zhang could brew health-preserving tea, and Xiao An could go out to play with Ji Jue; but if Tong Hua slacked off, the entire branch would already be half-crippled.
If not for Tong Hua yesterday, Wen Wen would surely have fallen into a deep pit by now; how could she have pulled herself out in time?
Aether possessed no combat power.
Aether had no need for such a thing either.
As long as a Celestial Chosen was alive, they could never escape their need for Aether—What happened? Am I in trouble? Is some bastard trying to screw me over? Where is my enemy hiding? And does she really love me?
In theory, everything that happened had an inevitable cause and an inevitable effect. Whatever passed through the world inevitably left traces, and the Eye of Aether was the reader of it all.
At higher ranks, manipulating fate and rewriting reality weren't empty words either.
Just look at the Tong family. Sitting pretty in Yacheng for so many years, growing ever more prosperous, picking the winning side in every storm, making the right crucial decisions, earning enough to practically own half of Yacheng, with barely an enemy to speak of... Even if they had any, they were cleared away long before they could ever become a threat.
This knack for quietly making a fortune was leaps and bounds better than those guys licking blood off blade edges in life-and-death struggles just to earn pocket change for their own funerals.
If you could pick up money off the ground just by bending over, who would bother fighting and killing?
If Ji Jue had this ability, he would absolutely lurk behind the scenes as a ten-thousand-year turtle.
Under the tracking of the Path of Aether, running and hiding were entirely futile.
A single hair, a personal belonging, or even just a photograph was enough. Even if Chen Yubo fled to the ends of the earth, he'd be sniffed out.
Funds exceeding four billion and shares whose value was simply impossible to calculate...
Such vast wealth was enough for every Aether Celestial Chosen in Haizhou who caught wind of it to pull out their water basins, Tarot cards, dice, pendulums, astrolabes, and whatnot, just to peek and see if this Tang Seng meat was right outside their doorstep.
That only eleven people had found him so far was already proof that the disruptor Uncle Lin hired was doing an effective job!
"Rest assured. Back when this estate was built, the boss hired a Mirror-type Celestial Chosen to set up a Mist Mystery Rite."
Uncle Lin consoled him, "Aside from Yubo's vague location, Aether can read nothing else. Unless they manage to enlist a Celestial-Human, it is foolproof."
That last bit was actually useless nonsense.
If an actual Celestial-Human really were interested in such worldly wealth, Chen Yubo had better deliver it to their doorstep himself, kowtowing and begging the grandmaster to accept it; hesitating for even a second would be an insult to his own life.
Besides, even if they knew Chen Yubo's location, the Aether Celestial Chosen wouldn't necessarily make a move. They might sell the information, or take one look and lose interest. The opponents hadn't even shown their faces yet, so there was no need to scare themselves.
Once Chen Yubo finished testing, the crystal ball was taken by Xiao An to play with.
It instantly became completely blank and crystal clear.
Aether Celestial Chosen these days knew what was good for them. Who would snoop on a White Stag hunter of the House of An for no reason? In fact, merely possessing the bloodline of the House of An was enough to interfere with most Aether techniques.
Yet right after... when the crystal ball landed in Ji Jue's hands, three dazzling red dots unmistakably appeared!
They didn't even bother disguising or concealing it in the slightest, like a Trojan horse sitting brazenly on a desktop screen, leaving Ji Jue frozen on the spot.
Three?
With just a little thought, one of them had to be Tong Hua. Even if she had prepped him thoroughly, Wen Wen certainly wouldn't leave him completely unsupervised. And the second, if Ji Jue wasn't mistaken, had to be his teacher.
He was an apprentice of the workshop; forms signed in his own hand were in his teacher's possession. With Professor Ye's collection and accumulation, checking up on his condition was as easy as child's play.
Both of these gave Ji Jue peace of mind, letting him breathe a sigh of relief. But... who the hell was the last one?!
Ji Jue scratched his ears and cheek, thoroughly baffled.
Surely it couldn't be Young Master Lou unable to swallow his pride after taking a loss, constantly probing Ji Jue's movements day and night just to find an opportunity for revenge? No, even as big and influential as the Lou family was, they wouldn't be such sore losers.
Then who was it?
Ever since becoming a Celestial Chosen, he hadn't offended many living people—most of the ones he offended were already dead. When had he attracted the attention of another Aether Celestial Chosen?
And as if sensing Ji Jue's detection, one of the three red dots blinked once in acknowledgment, then vanished.
Only the remaining two stayed as steady as ever—and even ramped up their intensity.
Fine, that confirmed the remaining two were people he knew.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Ji Jue deeply appreciated another truth: some things were just like cockroaches inside a coffee machine, pop-up ads on a computer, or a ten-yuan bowl of pork trotter rice that came with two free cold sides and a fried egg... as long as you could get by, it was fine. Don't go looking for trouble when you didn't have to.
Better to just pretend he didn't know!
He leaned back in his chair, gazing at the sea, with nothing to do, sighing and groaning.
Meanwhile, the dining room began to liven up.
"Hey, how's it going, you two?"
A young man with dyed blond hair and decked out in hypebeast streetwear swaggered in and plopped down next to Ji Jue. He gave Ji Jue's shoulder a familiar punch, earning a glance from Xiao An. Seeing Ji Jue's fingers twitch in a signal, Xiao An looked away.
Completely unaware that his throat had come within a hair's breadth of intimate contact with a piece of iron, the youth draped in gold chains chewed his gum. "Just call me Blondie. I run around Nanshan Road; folks call me Brother Blondie. What about you, bro? Never seen you around."
"Nice to meet you, Brother Blondie." Ji Jue smiled and shook his hand. "I'm from the Beishan District side."
"Whoa, bro, your life must be rough."
Blondie gasped in surprise, pulling down his sunglasses to look closer. "That bitch from the Security Bureau is vicious as hell. Last time I heard a buddy say he got caught smuggling through her turf and was beaten half to death—he still hasn't gotten out of bed! What line of work are you in?"
Ji Jue replied, "Appliance repair. Flipping a few spare parts on the side to put food on the table."
"Sigh, a hard life indeed." Blondie sighed, lighting a cigarette for himself. "Times are tough all around. The big shots in the city are fighting to the death; little grunts like us might end up dead in the gutter any day. How about coming over to Nanshan Road? We're all Boss Chen's people anyway. Let's look out for each other and make money together—I'll carve out a turf for you!"
"No need, too few hands, can't handle it," Ji Jue said helplessly, pointing at Xiao An across from him. "Just the two of us, how could we watch over a turf?"
"Ah, don't be shy! How about we hit karaoke somewhere after this meeting wraps up?"
Brother Blondie was getting animated, talking with gusto. He was about to say more when an older man with graying hair nearby urged gruffly, "Ah Mao, what are you babbling about? Do you want everyone to sit around and wait for you to finish chatting before we start the meeting?!"
Ah Mao paused, glanced back at the grim, despondent group seated around the large table, and then at Ji Jue, who was casually admiring the scenery. It finally dawned on him that he'd misread the room. Somewhat sheepishly, he got up and walked over to take his seat.
"Lao Lin, you have to give the brothers a straight answer. How is the boss really doing? The brothers are in total chaos; someone has to step up and handle things."
Before the gray-haired man could finish, a middle-aged man smoking beside Chen Yubo sneered. "What? Boss isn't even dead yet, and Uncle Fu already wants to jump up as his successor? I don't object—in fact, you have my full support! Since you're in such a rush to seek death, let's see if Lei Yaoxing even considers you worth his time."
"Hey, Xu, don't talk out of your ass!" Fu Yuanqing's expression changed abruptly. "I'm doing this for the brothers, for the syndicate!"
"When the boss got put in the hospital, I didn't see you looking very worried," Xu Jun raised an eyebrow. "Instead, you've been hopping all over the place, keeping real close contact with the elders. This morning, one of my boys saw someone having morning tea at Hengfa with Lei Yaoxing's men. Was that you?"
"Xu, stop slinging mud!"
"I don't think it's necessarily slander," someone beside them chimed in with a cold glance. "Old Fu, it's not like you playing both sides is anything new. Selling out brothers has become such second nature to you, and getting a good price for it is totally your style."
"Ha! You have the nerve to lecture me?" Fu Yuanqing flared up in rage. "Who doesn't know you're two-timing, Yang Jun? Your goddaughter just rolled out of Gold Tooth Leopard's bed before crawling right into Bucktooth Kun's pants. Did you think nobody knew?"
"Fuck your mother! Your granddaddy here has been loyal to the boss through and through, keeping vigil at the hospital from last night until now. Where the fuck were you?"
"I actually think Xu Jun has a point."
"Fuck your mother, who cares what you think?"
"At a crucial moment like this, when the syndicate is falling apart, you're still arguing..."
"The boss isn't even dead yet, and you're already trying to pick a new boss?"
"Hey, everyone calm down."
Amid the bickering and shouting, Chen Yubo, seated at the head of the table, kept his head down, not daring to utter a word. He shrank back further and further, terrified that someone might notice him.
But from behind him came a low cough.
It was Uncle Lin.
In an instant, dead silence fell over the room, leaving only the annoying sound of the tides outside the window.
"The boss once said that walking the underworld path these days, aside from tearing each other apart, there's only weathering the storm together. It's nothing if our own brothers have flaws or shortcomings once in a while. A man has to survive first before he's qualified to talk about loyalty and brotherhood. Now that the boss is on his last legs, if anyone wants to switch allegiances or get out while they can, I have no reason to hold you back."
Behind Chen Yubo, the man standing with his hands behind his back spoke slowly, "The accountant is downstairs. If anyone wants to leave, hand over your businesses and books, and you can go at any time. But think it through carefully—" His voice grew cold. "Once you walk out that door, we are done. Whether you go play filial grandson to Lei Yaoxing or pack up and leave Yacheng, it will have nothing to do with the boss ever again!"
In this precarious, storm-tossed moment, Uncle Lin showed no intent to pacify or placate, nor any sign of wavering... yet such an unyielding tone, under the crushing pressure brought by Lei Yaoxing, gave off an impression of bluster.
It wasn't that it lacked persuasiveness, but rather that it had the wondrous effect of encouraging people to quit, causing Ji Jue, who was watching the drama from the sidelines, to pause slightly.
In the protracted silence, everyone exchanged glances. Several times, people looked as if they wanted to say something or offer persuasion, but under Uncle Lin's indifferent gaze, the words died in their throats.
Expressions shifted; faces morphed. It was truly magnificent to watch.
At this moment, those who looked dark and angry didn't necessarily have a guilty conscience, while those looking frank and open weren't necessarily loyal; most people's true stances were revealed through hesitation and wavering.
"I'm sorry, Lao Lin." The first to stand and break the silence was a scruffy middle-aged man—specifically, a Celestial Chosen sitting near the edge. After hesitating, he finally said, "If the boss were still here, I'd go through fire and water without a second thought. But..."
"No need to say more, I understand." Uncle Lin waved his hand, his expression softening warmly as he patted the man's shoulder. "At this critical juncture, bringing it up to leave instead of stabbing us in the back is already doing your utmost duty. Now that the boss isn't here, who am I as an assistant to demand anyone risk their lives? All these years of hard work... let's part on good terms. Until we meet again."
The man was taken aback, standing dazed for a long moment before finally nodding. He didn't even look back once, ducking his head and hurrying away.
With the first leading the way, a second followed, then a third...
Soon, six of the Celestial Chosen present had departed, leaving only three seated where they were, motionless. Among the others managing various businesses, several stepped forward after hesitating, heading downstairs to hand over their accounts and leave.
In less than ten minutes, the dining room's previously raucous atmosphere turned desolate.
Fewer than a third of the original crowd remained.
When the tree fell, the monkeys scattered. In this day and age, didn't everyone enter the underworld just to make money? Expecting loyalty and brotherhood from White Stag was a joke to begin with; what's more, stepping forward to cleanly cut ties without a backstab already made someone a good brother.
And among those who stayed, their loyalty wasn't necessarily firm either—they might just be waiting for a better offer. Before the meal was even eaten, the gathering had broken up with no food in sight.
After waiting for a long time, with no one else standing, Uncle Lin spoke again, "No one else is leaving? A-Yi, Seventeen, Blondie kid?"
"Uncle Lin, what kind of talk is that!" The blond kid, having held it in for who knows how long, flushed red. "Running the streets is all about brotherhood! A real man's word is as solid as a nail driven into wood. The boss's brother is my bro... cough cough, my family! Why the fuck should I fear Lei Yaoxing?!"
His words were resounding and forceful.
Unfortunately, it would have been better if his voice hadn't trembled.
"Is everyone thinking the same?" Lao Lin looked around.
The man called Seventeen puffed on his cigarette and said nonchalantly, "Boss pays, I risk my life. If the boss hadn't helped me take care of the loan sharks, I'd have sold my kidneys long ago."
"Uh... me, me too..." The young man named A-Yi stood up nervously to answer, but halfway through, ran out of words and sat back down awkwardly.
The others chimed in one after another. Unlike the thugs, however, the white-collar types who worked with their brains sounded far smoother—their rhetoric flowed like a cascade of flowers, bringing immense reassurance.
At this moment, Ji Jue lamented: why wasn't he a Heart Pivot? Could it be that his desires weren't strong or numerous enough? So many Sovereign Virtues had come knocking, yet Big Brother Heart Pivot hadn't spared him so much as a glance!
Unfortunately, he lacked any talent for Aether, having never studied micro-expressions or the like. After watching the entire drama, he could only think it looked convincing enough, but he genuinely couldn't tell who was real, who was fake, what was truth, and what was lies.
Yet Lao Lin happened to turn around and look right at him.
His attitude was respectful. "Mr. Ji, would you trouble yourself to take a look?"
???
Ji Jue paused mid-spectacle. "I only agreed to protect Chen Yubo, not to do your dirty work."
"I must trouble you," Lao Lin pleaded. "We cannot leave behind hidden dangers."
If a traitor was left behind, nobody would be able to sleep. They couldn't allow a termite to lurk right under their noses.
Ji Jue sighed.
"All right."
The moment the word fell, in the silence, two phones suddenly began ringing.
Staggered and distinct.
Amid everyone's bewildered glances, Ji Jue raised his hand and pointed at the two people whose phones were ringing.
"This one, and that one."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than blood sprayed.
Burning black smoke and sparks surfaced from Uncle Lin's hands, flashing and disappearing in an instant. Then, the head of the man named Seventeen slipped off his shoulders.
Thick blood dripped from the severed neck, setting off a chorus of shrieks and gasps.
Even in death, that bewildered face never understood what had happened.
"Th-th-this..." Chen Yubo trembled violently, frantically wiping the blood from his face. "What is going on?!"
"Yeah, what is going on?" Ji Jue rested his chin in his hand, eyes lowered. "Someone claims to be loyal and devoted, yet in secret, he's already coordinated with outsiders for an inside job to swallow Chen Xingzhou's legacy tonight. In fact, after taking the money, your head, Young Master Chen, could serve as a pledge of allegiance to claim credit and rewards from his new boss."
He paused, looking toward the other person. "Right?"
"Bullshit!" Xu Jun, whom he was staring at, flew into a rage, slamming the glass in his hand onto the floor. "Where did this little punk crawl out of? Spouting baseless bullshit, claiming people are traitors—you look like the traitor to me! Lao Lin, I've served the boss for so long, are you just going to stand there and watch this little bastard slander me?!"
Lao Lin didn't say a word, only watching him impassively.
Ji Jue didn't speak either. The phone screen in his hand flickered as he flipped it over, its rotating glow reflecting face after face filled with panic and suspicion.
A helpless sigh.
He hadn't wanted to be so blunt and overt.
He had originally planned to mention it to Lao Lin after the meeting and let him deal with it on his own.
He didn't even want to get involved in the Wild Gathering's internal strife, let alone play Werewolf with the bunch Chen Xingzhou had left behind.
He wasn't a Heart Pivot, so he couldn't read minds like the legendary Empress; nor was he an Aether, so he couldn't tell whether a person's words were true or false...
But he had Deus Ex Machina!
While Deus Ex Machina wasn't omnipotent, except for the parts it couldn't do, it was pretty damn capable at everything else!
Traitors these days were far too sloppy. No carrier pigeons, no coded communications—just straight-up texting! What was he supposed to do? He couldn't even pretend he didn't know!
This godforsaken place was so isolated from the city and so sparsely populated that there weren't even a few helmet-wearing anglers around. As a result... even Boundless Telecom hadn't bothered investing in infrastructure. Across the entire mountain, within a radius of a dozen li, there was only this single cell tower—and it happened to be built right next to the villa!
Ji Jue didn't even need to step outside; a glance from the window in the staircase hallway was enough for him to conveniently hook into it.
And only then did he discover just how convenient this thing was.
In today's modern society, where everyone's phone was glued to their hand and losing a single bar of signal caused physical distress, it was practically like activating full map-hack in an instant.
The moment any phone approached, it was automatically connected—Ji Jue didn't even have to waste effort rummaging through them one by one!
Unless it was satellite communication or a VVVIP encrypted call from Boundless Telecom, not a single bit of circulating data could escape his gaze.
Phone calls, text messages, chat apps, virtual numbers, short-video browsing histories...
With just a command, Brother Tower delivered all relevant information right before his eyes.
On the day he arrived, he'd touched the cell tower, then went down to the basement to touch the network server, leaving preset commands. This morning, he'd casually run another check.
With Brother Tower and Brother Server, forget secret collusions between traitors—he even knew who couldn't sleep at night and sneaked onto the villa's Wi-Fi to download cat videos and search for the most cost-effective cheap cat food. Right, Chen Yubo?
Unfortunately, Chen Yubo couldn't smile now either.
In fact, he could barely hold back his tears.
The instant he caught Lao Lin's chilly stare, a gun appeared in Xu Jun's hand, pressed without hesitation against Chen Yubo's forehead beside him.
Gone was any trace of the warmth and amiability from when they had sat down earlier.
The dagger had been revealed from the scroll; only cruelty remained.
Chapter 126