Shanlong

"Completely wiped out?" Lin Xiaowei stared at Zhang Qing, who had just delivered the news, utterly frozen in place. Only after a long moment could she help but press, "Are you saying the three Black Tri-Star operatives assigned to the mission... are dead?" "That's the information I have from my informant at the moment," Zhang Qing replied. "While Black Tri-Star isn't some world-class criminal outfit, they've operated in Tiannan's underworld for years. They couldn't lack skill. How could they die so easily?" Lin Xiaowei asked in rapid succession, "When did it happen? Who killed them?" "Who did it remains unknown, but it must have happened tonight." "Tonight?" Upon hearing that, Lin Xiaowei immediately thought of Xia Li, the general manager of Longquan Real Estate, who had also died in the redevelopment zone right as night fell... She had a chilling sense that some monstrous, earth-shattering beast was roaming Yunmeng City—a city of fewer than two million people—lurking in the depths of the shadows, waiting to devour its prey. "Can we get more details?" Lin Xiaowei asked. "I'm afraid that'll be difficult," Zhang Qing said. "Core intelligence like this is usually held only by the top brass of the underworld. My informant clearly doesn't rank high enough. However..." He measured his words carefully. "If Black Tri-Star deleted their account because of these deaths, it undoubtedly proves they encountered a horror beyond their ability to fight. It terrified their logistics operative so badly that he didn't even dare think of revenge, choosing instead to cut ties instantly. And to possess the kind of power that could terrify a Black Tri-Star operative to that degree..." "The Su family?" Lin Xiaowei immediately shook her head. "Impossible. I was there when Su Yaoyu got the news. Judging by her reaction, it didn't seem like the Su family's doing." "Though Su Yaoyu is a young mistress of the Su family and runs a subsidiary worth hundreds of millions, as a woman, she hasn't reached the Su family's inner circle at all. If the Su family really took action, they wouldn't necessarily tell her," Zhang Qing reasoned. "On the other hand, consider Su Yaoguang... If the family doesn't protect Su Xiangyang, Yaoguang is the sole surviving male in Su Huaifeng's line. His weight is on a completely different level from Su Yaoyu's. Whatever their motive, the Su family elders wouldn't just sit back and watch him fall into mortal danger. Doing so would slap the Su family in the face and make them look weak." Lin Xiaowei pondered in silence. When a young master of the Su family was involved, she naturally had to tread with utmost caution. "Rather than believe the Su family eliminated Black Tri-Star without a sound, I'd sooner suspect that Su Yaoguang has an unknown side to him," she said in a heavy voice. Her mind involuntarily returned to that lingering sense of incongruity and wrongness she had felt when she saw Su Yaoguang at Chihe Residence. Yet where that feeling came from, she couldn't say. Shaking her head, she stopped chasing dead ends. "Under the pretext of protecting Su Yaoguang, dispatch a squad to keep an eye on him in secret..." Lin Xiaowei ordered. "Our manpower... was all borrowed by Consultant Xia. We're running short..." Zhang Qing said with some embarrassment. "Consultant Xia..." Lin Xiaowei knew who he meant, and her head began to ache. "The general manager of Longquan Real Estate wasn't some fringe figure like Black Tri-Star. A few underworld rats dying is one thing, but Xia Li... He was a successful businessman worth hundreds of millions, and he held standing in the martial arts community... The higher-ups are exerting immense pressure. Not just Consultant Xia—our entire Security Department will be run off our feet for the foreseeable future. Superintendent Zhao ordered everyone to give Consultant Xia their full cooperation," Zhang Qing added. The difference in a person's status and social standing dictated a vastly different response from the Security Department. "Forget it. I'll take time to check on him myself every now and then. Hopefully I'm just overthinking it," Lin Xiaowei said. Zhang Qing nodded. *** Early the next morning. Yaoguang glanced at the fourteen names, their sects, and their addresses listed in his phone's notes before picking the nearest one. Shanlong City. The closest city to Yunmeng within Tiannan's borders. The straight-line distance was only about sixty kilometers. By car, it would take just over an hour. The entire purpose of Yaoguang's cultivation was to give himself a better life. With hundreds of thousands in his pocket, he wasn't going to mistreat himself. He hailed a taxi directly and set off for Shanlong City. On the road, he opened his phone to search for any circulating videos of this top martial arts master of Shanlong City. *** As the car drove out of Yunmeng City, the surrounding high-rises gradually thinned. After traveling a bit farther, even single-story houses and low-rises became sparse. Yaoguang scrolled through the videos to study Lei Ao's fighting style, paying no attention to the scenery outside. Just then, the car suddenly came to a stop. Yaoguang lifted his head. He saw the taxi driver chatting with two women carrying luggage. Beside them stood a ride-hailing car that had broken down midway. The driver haggled with the two of them and soon agreed to give them a ride to Shanlong City for fifty yuan each. Throughout the exchange, he never once asked for the opinion of Yaoguang, his original passenger. Considering that everyone hit rough patches when away from home, Yaoguang said nothing. The two women stowed their luggage in the trunk and got into the car. The moment they climbed inside, a heavy waft of perfume hit him. Next came a woman who looked quite pretty and fashionable at first glance... Yet a closer look revealed nothing but cosmetic procedures and heavy makeup. Once inside, she caught sight of Yaoguang, her eyes lighting up slightly as she took the initiative to greet him: "Hey, handsome." Finding the perfume too overpowering, Yaoguang said, "You two sit in the back. I'll take the front." With that, he pushed the car door open. As he opened it, the other young girl happened to come around from the side and ran right into the door. Before he could speak, the girl rushed to apologize, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't see that you were getting out..." She stepped aside as she spoke. Yaoguang glanced at her. The girl looked seventeen or eighteen at most, somewhat thin and tanned, entirely unadorned. Even so, she possessed a striking, refreshing purity. "No problem," Yaoguang replied, walking around the front of the car to sit in the passenger seat. The taxi resumed its journey. "Handsome, are you traveling for fun? Want to hang out together?" In the back, the fashionable woman smiled and tried to strike up a conversation with Yaoguang. However, Yaoguang merely answered, "Looking for someone." He showed no interest in continuing. The woman tried chatting with Yaoguang a few more times, but seeing his consistently cold attitude, she grew bored. She turned to the girl beside her. "Don't worry, Xiaoying. We're both from Yujia Village. Now that I've struck it rich, of course I'll take you along. Once we reach the company, I guarantee you'll make big money. If you work hard, earning tens of thousands a month won't be a problem." "I only have a middle school diploma. I wouldn't dare dream of tens of thousands a month. If I can make five thousand, I'll be happy. That'll be enough to buy medicine for my mother and pay my sister's tuition." "Tsk, five thousand a month? What good is that? Big Sis brought you out here to make real money... Let me tell you, a person can lack anything except money. If you don't have money, people will bully you and look down on you wherever you go. But as long as you've got money, no matter what you're doing, there'll always be plenty of people fawning over you..." The woman went on and on about the divide between the rich and the poor. Finding the noise annoying, Yaoguang put on his earphones and went back to browsing videos. This annoyed the fashionable woman. She had found a young, handsome, clean-cut guy like Yaoguang quite appealing to her tastes, but now she lost all interest in boasting. *** More than an hour later, the car arrived in Shanlong City. Compared to Yunmeng City, Shanlong City had a smaller population, looking at first glance like an overgrown county town. This was tied to Shanlong City's geographic location. Tiannan Province was already in the far south of Dayu, and Shanlong City sat at the very edge of Tiannan, directly facing Mingguang City across the border in the neighboring country of Feiyu. Shanlong City had been established as a southern border pass. Because Feiyu was even more backward, Shanlong City, despite its geographical advantages, had never managed to develop. Its weak economy was evident in the streets and buildings. The car soon arrived outside the manor where their target, Lei Ao, resided. Lei Ao had originally been a low-profile Martial Master, but his fame had skyrocketed over the past year or two, and his living conditions had improved dramatically. Not only did he now live in a manor, but he had also taken in numerous disciples. At this moment, the manor was heavily guarded, with many burly "disciples" patrolling back and forth. Yaoguang did not enter the grounds. Upon arriving outside the manor, he immediately mobilized his qi and blood, activating a secret art. What was a secret art? A technique born from a consummate, peerless comprehension of a given realm—that was a secret art. The sensory secret art was an application of the power of qi and blood brought near its absolute peak. Using his own qi and blood as a medium, he infused his conscious spirit into it. Spirit moved with qi, and qi was enlivened by blood, granting vitality to his qi and blood so that it could resonate with its own kind, allowing him to vaguely sense powerful, anomalous individuals. Combined with the human mind's capacity to construct mental imagery and even memory palaces... The ultimate manifestation of this secret art formed a map in his mind, marking anomalous surges of qi and blood as red dots. Before long, Yaoguang withdrew the secret art. "Nothing?" He was somewhat surprised. After a moment of thought, he walked up to the manor's entrance. "Can I help you?" At the gate, a man standing a full one meter ninety sized him up. Seeing his composed bearing and extraordinary attire, the man spoke up to ask. "I have an appointment with Martial Master Lei Ao. He isn't at the manor right now, is he? I've arrived early," Yaoguang said. These words, precisely pointing out Lei Ao's absence, left the man unsure of Yaoguang's background. Even so, he said, "Since you're Master Lei's friend, let me take you inside to rest first. How should I address you?" *So he really isn't here.* *No wonder I didn't sense anything.* Yaoguang remarked internally. "Never mind. I'll return at the agreed time," he said. The man frowned, staring at him with another close look. Just then, three young men walked out from inside, chatting and laughing. One of them, around Yaoguang's age, paused slightly upon seeing him. Then he hurried over with a beaming smile. "Young Master Su, you've come to Shanlong City? Are you here to see Master Lei?" Then, as if remembering something, he added, "I heard you didn't go to the capital for university, but went into martial arts instead? Interested in the martial path? Well, coming to Master Lei means you've found the right person. Master Lei is the number one expert in our Shanlong City. His fame and standing were earned through hard-fought battles." Yaoguang looked at him... No recollection. "My name is Zhao Qing. I live here in Shanlong. The schooling here isn't great, so my dad sent me to Yunmeng High School. I had the privilege of seeing you back then, Young Master Su," the young man explained at once. His gaze toward Yaoguang carried both pleasant surprise and awe. During his first two years of high school, Su Yaoguang had been thoroughly unremarkable. In his third year, however, word spread that he was the illegitimate son of a major figure from Tiannan's Su family—an heir to a financial syndicate. Zhao Qing had recognized such a prominent figure immediately. After graduating from high school, Zhao Qing hadn't wanted to attend university and had returned to Shanlong to inherit his family's business. Although his family had tens of millions to their name, they were in an entirely different league compared to a titan like Tiannan's Su family. After spending a year out in society, he understood the importance of connections more than ever, which was why he had eagerly stepped forward to greet him. "Hello," Yaoguang nodded. "Are you here to visit Master Lei, Young Master Su? I know where Master Lei is right now. We happen to be heading over to join the excitement—would you care to come along?" Zhao Qing asked with a broad smile. "Sure." Yaoguang glanced at him. With great skill came great boldness. "Lead the way."