Chapter Eighty-Six: Following the Trail to Its Source (3k)

Inside the hotpot restaurant, the broth seethed in a copper pot, steam rising thick and fragrant with the scent of chili oil and peppers that filled the private room. Wang Siqi was happily swishing a slice of fatty beef through the broth, humming a little tune under his breath.

At the table, four young women hired to dance swayed gently to the music, the mood lively and cheerful.

Then, without warning, the private room door was shoved open, and a gust of cold air rushed in, instantly scattering the heat of the hotpot.

The four dancers froze mid-motion and, flushed with embarrassment, retreated to the corner of the wall, their eyes averted.

At the doorway, Yang Tao entered with her hands clasped behind her back. Small though she was, the uniform of the Constabulary lent her an air of remarkable authority.

"Mr. Wang, we suspect you may be connected to a drug trafficking case. Please cooperate with our investigation."

What does it feel like to eat hotpot, sing songs, and suddenly be invited by the Constabulary for tea? Wang Siqi had never known before. Now he did.

"Don’t slander my innocence."

He denied the accusation at once.

Forcing himself to remain calm, he rose with practiced gallantry and said to his companion, "A Li, don’t be afraid. It’s all a misunderstanding. I believe the Constabulary will surely treat every law-abiding citizen fairly and justly."

Yang Tao kept her face stern and waved a small hand. "Take everyone here back to the Constabulary for questioning."

Bai Yujing grabbed Yang Tao by the shoulder with one hand and Wang Siqi with the other, and the three of them vanished from the private room in an instant.

The remaining six constables paused in astonishment, unable to help but marvel at how fast Master Bai was.

Then they moved forward to escort the rest back for questioning.

With a dull thud, the air gave off a heavy, muffled impact.

Yang Tao looked around in shock and realized she was not inside the Constabulary at all, but back in Wang Siqi’s master bedroom.

She stared blankly and asked, "Master Bai, did you get lost?"

"No."

Bai Yujing answered tersely. The hand resting on Wang Siqi’s shoulder shifted and jabbed straight into his abdomen.

The interrogation finger struck true.

In an instant, Wang Siqi’s body convulsed violently, as though struck by an electric current.

His pupils contracted sharply, pain flooding his face.

An indescribable agony spread rapidly from his abdomen through his whole body, as if countless razor-sharp blades were moving through his flesh, slicing every inch of skin.

In his mind, a horrifying image formed of his meat being cut away piece by piece with a knife.

"Ah!"

He let out a shriek so miserable that Yang Tao’s heart nearly leapt out of her chest.

With a blank expression, Bai Yujing said, "Tell me where your base is."

"I’ll talk!"

Wang Siqi’s voice turned shrill to the extreme. Even forcing out two words felt as though the air itself was filled with blades, cutting his throat into segments.

The pain drenched him in sweat, even soaking his trousers through.

Bai Yujing tapped his abdomen once more, releasing the effect of the interrogation finger.

Yang Tao watched this scene, her little face full of confusion. "Master Bai, the Constabulary abandoned torture long ago. What you’re doing isn’t according to the rules."

"I’m not from the Constabulary."

Bai Yujing replied with perfect righteousness. He had no interest in speaking of procedure. One use of the interrogation finger was enough.

Even a steel-hard man would end up lying at his feet like a dog, begging for mercy.

Yang Tao slapped her forehead and suddenly understood. "Oh, right. You’re not from the Constabulary. We can’t control you."

Bai Yujing glanced at Wang Siqi.

Terrified, the man jerked upright and hurriedly said, "Our base is at Fuxing Advertising Company on Shanghai Pinghuan Road. The front office is operating normally. The secret is in the manager’s desk—there’s a spiritual artifact hidden inside it, engraved with spatial scripture."

"I’ll call for backup right away."

Yang Tao wanted to phone for reinforcements.

Bai Yujing patted her shoulder and smiled. "For this one, just lie back and stay put. I’ll carry you."

As soon as the words fell, he kicked Wang Siqi unconscious. He did not strike to kill, only because there was a Constabulary captain beside him.

He could not kill a man in front of a constable.

Besides, under the laws of the Xia Kingdom, Wang Siqi was doomed anyway. There was no need for Bai Yujing to dirty his own hands.

...

Autumn sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows and fell upon the signboard of Fuxing Advertising Company, refracting into a faint golden glow.

Inside the open office, employees were bent over their work, with keyboard clatter and ringing phones intertwining into a scene of busy, orderly activity.

Wu Cheng sat in the manager’s office, unable to settle his mind.

For reasons he could not explain, ever since morning he had felt a creeping dread, as though something ill-fated was bound to happen today.

Perhaps this was the guilt of a thief.

Ever since boarding this pirate ship, Wu Cheng had lived each day as though walking on thin ice, fearing that one day the ugly things he had done would be discovered by the Constabulary.

And yet, even so, he could not bear to give up this life of effortless gain. Fine cars, beauties, and days of indulgence had long since drawn him in too deeply to escape.

Ah, his conscience was still not empty enough.

It would probably take a full month of doing this before that tension could be erased.

But could he really last a full month?

Such a thought flickered through Wu Cheng’s mind. He shook his head. Better to go to the karaoke bar tonight and find a few "princesses" to calm himself down.

He lifted his teacup and took a sip.

With a muffled boom, the air burst with a heavy sound. He suddenly looked up, only to see a tall and a short figure appear out of nowhere in the office.

The Constabulary emblems on Yang Tao’s cap and chest made him leap to his feet in fright. The teacup in his hand nearly slipped away, tea splashing across the desk and spreading into a wet stain.

He hurriedly set the cup down and forced a smile. "I wondered why I heard magpies calling this morning. So we have honored guests at the door."

Yang Tao’s little face tightened as she snapped, "Cut the act. We already know this place is a den for producing Heaven Powder!"

The sharp cry struck like thunder, making Wu Cheng’s legs go weak as he crashed heavily into the office chair.

His mind went blank, leaving only the repeated thought: finished, finished.

Bai Yujing paid no mind to his reaction.

He looked toward the desk and swept a wide sleeve. Spiritual pressure struck out with overwhelming force.

With a thunderous explosion, the solid wood desk burst apart under the impact, splinters flying everywhere and revealing the spiritual artifact hidden within.

It was a brown wooden board-like object, its surface densely engraved with scripture, faintly glowing.

Yang Tao’s expression changed slightly. "It’s encrypted too. This is bad. It’s too late to bring in an expert to crack it."

The moment the words left her mouth, Bai Yujing reached out and seized the artifact.

His spiritual pressure flowed into it like a thin stream.

Wherever it met an obstruction, it gently bypassed it, moving only along the unobstructed path.

Such exquisite control over spiritual pressure was simply breathtaking.

When other spiritual masters faced encrypted artifacts, they often triggered the sealing mechanism because of a wrong route, causing the entrance to the pocket dimension to be permanently locked shut.

But Bai Yujing was different.

He could control the flow and force of his spiritual pressure perfectly, ensuring the artifact’s sealing mechanism would not be activated.

He found the correct method of input with ease.

The scripture on the surface of the artifact began to peel away, transforming into streams of flowing light that intertwined in the air, finally condensing into a circular black passage.

"So amazing~"

Yang Tao’s mouth formed an O as admiration filled her face.

Bai Yujing said nothing more, only glancing at Wu Cheng, who had slumped into the chair.

Spiritual pressure descended like an invisible giant hand, instantly knocking Wu Cheng unconscious.

Then, with a flash of movement, Bai Yujing stepped into the black passage like a ghost.

Yang Tao came to herself and cried, "Wait for me!"

Although this was a guaranteed win, Yang Tao had never been the kind of woman who wanted to lie down and be carried. Her dream was to become the kind of powerhouse who could carry others, and naturally she wanted to learn as much as possible from a master in the art of doing things.

...

The pocket dimension inside was not very large, only a little over two hundred square meters.

At its center was a pool. An old machine gave off a low, steady roar as it sucked water from the pool, subjected it to a complex mechanical process, and eventually packaged it into neat bags of what appeared to be harmless Heaven Powder.

Two workers were operating the machine.

Aside from them, there were also two spiritual masters.

One was a seventh-rank spiritual master wearing a pig mask, responsible for maintaining the spiritual artifact that kept this pocket dimension running.

The other was a ninth-rank spiritual master.

He wore a black robe and sat in a chair beside the pool, his face hidden behind a sinister bronze ghost mask.

The eyes visible beneath the mask were cold and hollow, like a stare from hell, chilling one to the bone.

When Yang Tao’s gaze brushed past them, she felt as though she had fallen into an icy abyss; her body trembled uncontrollably several times.

And yet she did not retreat behind Bai Yujing. Instead, she straightened her back with force.

Once she wore this uniform, she no longer represented herself alone, but the image of the Constabulary as a whole. She could not yield to evil.

"The Constabulary really does have a good nose."

Hu Jie did not care about Yang Tao’s small gesture, focusing his attention mainly on Bai Yujing.

As someone who mingled in the underworld, he always paid close attention to any strong figure that surfaced in the open.

The recently rising star making the greatest waves was undoubtedly this Qingyun Sect Master, whom the Hero Website had ranked as the Lord of Heavenly Punishment.

"Master Bai, with strength like yours, don’t you feel stifled being confined to a small sect?"
Hu Jie tried to win Bai Yujing over with words, coaxing him. "As spiritual masters, we should have greater power. The way it is overseas—that is what truly respects spiritual masters."

"You’re with the Free Democratic Alliance?"

Hearing this line of argument, Yang Tao immediately guessed which organization he belonged to.

Only the group of spiritual masters from the Free Democratic Alliance would constantly argue that the treatment of domestic spiritual masters should be brought in line with that overseas.

Hu Jie could not be bothered to answer Yang Tao. He kept his eyes on Bai Yujing and said, "With your power, even if you cannot become the head of the Xia Kingdom, at the very least you could rule a region."

"Heh. You truly do not understand the situation, nor do you understand that the laws of the Xia Kingdom exist to protect weaklings like you. Trash, kneel, or I’ll beat you down until you kneel."

Bai Yujing’s expression remained calm, yet his words were razor-sharp.

The air in the room instantly tightened. The two workers wished desperately that they could shrink their bodies outside the pocket dimension.

Even the face of the seventh-rank spiritual master maintaining the space went pale beneath his mask.

In such a small space, if they fought, they could very easily lose their lives.

Hu Jie’s eyes suddenly turned cold. His form flickered like a ghost and in an instant he plunged into the pool.

Water splashed everywhere as he rose again, now holding a black egg-shaped object in his hand.

The shell was covered in bulging, fish-eye-like knobs, exuding a disturbing and sinister aura.

Bai Yujing looked at him and did nothing.

Clenching his teeth, Hu Jie resolutely stuffed the so-called evil fetus into his mouth.

It was a treasure the Free Democratic Alliance had obtained from the Three-Tailed Contamination Zone. It contained a faint consciousness. What would hatch from it?

No one knew. Only that it would certainly be nothing good.

Hu Jie had originally planned to use the people who consumed Heaven Powder to help incubate the egg, but the situation was no longer favorable.

If he did not fight with all he had now, then he would not have a chance to fight at all later.

He could only gamble on this one chance.