I'm Here! (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival)

"That's good."

Qing Long took one last drag from his cigarette, stubbed it out, and fixed Su Heng with a grave stare. "Tell me exactly what happened that night."

"Okay."

As Su Heng recalled the events, he described them haltingly. "I often go running by the river. That night, when I was there, I heard something... Then I ran over and saw a mysterious man wearing a mask..."

"You're saying some masked guy took out our men?"

"Mm-hmm!"

Su Heng nodded. "It was nighttime, and I was a bit far away, so I didn't dare get close. The moment I noticed something was wrong, I left immediately."

According to his account, an absurdly powerful masked expert had beaten Qing Long's two lackeys to death that night. As for further details, he revealed nothing.

After all, it was a lie he had hastily made up. The more he said, the more loopholes there might be.

Anyone else would have found his story unbelievable, but Qing Long and his men were in this line of work. After hearing Su Heng's description, they actually believed some of it.

"Could it have been a gang robbing another gang..."

Qing Long's thick, stubby brows furrowed deeply as he glanced back at the suited man behind him.

The suited man said nothing, only nodded.

"You aren't lying to me, are you?" Qing Long leaned his stocky body forward slightly and silently stared at him.

"No, no. How would I dare lie to you?"

Looking panicked, Su Heng hurriedly waved his hands.

"Fine. You can leave."

Qing Long leaned back against the sofa, crossed one leg over the other, lit another cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a huge cloud of smoke.

That was it!?

Qing Long's attitude caught Su Heng off guard. He had thought they would have to fight here, but now... all sorts of thoughts flashed through Su Heng's mind before he finally said softly, "Thank you, Brother Long!"

As he spoke, Su Heng rose from the sofa and hurried outside, his steps rushed, looking as though he were fleeing for his life.

But once he reached the corridor outside, Su Heng's expression instantly turned icy, as though he had become a completely different person.

The lobby on the first floor of the KTV had been remodeled into something like a bar.

As he passed through, Su Heng casually picked up an unwanted mask from a table. Outside, in an alley around the street corner, several "corpses" lay sprawled on their backs along the road.

These people had gotten drunk at the nightclub, lost consciousness, and been thrown outside.

If they had been pretty girls, there was even a chance they would be taken away by someone looking to pick up a drunk girl. In his previous life, Su Heng had only heard about such things online. He had never expected to witness it firsthand after coming to this new world.

He found a young man with a build similar to his own, stripped off his clothes, and put them on. After circling around outside, Su Heng returned to Qingcheng KTV.

Inside Brother Long's private room.

The atmosphere was somewhat heavy.

"Brother Long, you're really just letting that kid go?" The pockmarked young man who had brought Su Heng in earlier came over to Brother Long and asked impatiently.

Qing Long ignored him, merely shooting him a glance. The pockmarked young man shuddered and immediately did not dare say another word.

"Hu, what do you think about this?"

Qing Long turned to the suited man behind him.

The suited man looked like Qing Long's bodyguard, but in reality, this man named Li Hu had been assigned by the company. He was an Awakened One trained by Tianshen Biology.

If they were talking status, Li Hu was actually the highest-ranking person present.

The only reason he had come here was because of an assignment from the company.

It was also thanks to Li Hu's help that Qing Long had managed, in just a few short months, to rapidly expand his territory and business severalfold.

Without the use of high-powered, rapid-fire weapons, an Awakened One facing ordinary people was like an adult facing babies.

The strength to tear apart tigers and leopards with bare hands, coupled with superhuman agility gained through grueling training—this was an enormous gap that numbers simply could not make up for.

Even some less powerful firearms found it difficult to have much effect on Awakened Ones.

That was why, whenever he encountered problems, Brother Long liked to ask Li Hu for his opinion. Sometimes, his manner even carried a hint of flattery.

"That kid's words make some sense."

Li Hu spoke in a low voice.

"If they ran into an Awakened One, your two lackeys really would have been finished. And anything connected to the Forbidden Zone is highly sought after among Awakened Ones. If news really leaked out, it wouldn't be too surprising for an Awakened One to make a move."

"You mean there's a mole among us?"

Qing Long's gaze immediately turned dangerous as it swept across the faces of his lackeys one by one.

"We can't rule that out." Li Hu continued, "But that kid definitely didn't tell us everything."

"If it really was an Awakened One, then even the slightest movement within several hundred meters wouldn't escape their notice. If an Awakened One could be watched by an ordinary person without realizing it, they would have been shot to death by your firearms long ago."

"So..."

Hearing Li Hu say that, Qing Long came to the same realization.

Awakened Ones were terrifying beings who could dodge bullets with their bare bodies. How could one possibly fail to notice someone hiding in the shadows?

"So either that kid had been lying from beginning to end, or the Awakened One he mentioned had some connection to him and spared him that night."

Li Hu concluded, "But I'm more inclined toward the second possibility. That guy has some signs of training, but he's still just an ordinary person. He's basically no threat."

"I see."

Qing Long was an old hand himself. Otherwise, the company would never have taken a liking to him and assigned him the task of searching for the True Relic.

After some thought, he quickly came up with a plan.

No matter what, being targeted by a powerful and unknown Awakened One was an enormous source of pressure. Since that kid had some connection to the Awakened One he mentioned, perhaps they could follow the trail and uncover some clues.

"Niu Zhi."

Qing Long ordered the tattooed man who had just brought Su Heng over, "Take some men and keep an eye on that kid. Find out who he interacts with every day. Remember, don't alert him. If you notice anything, contact me immediately."

"When the time comes..." A vicious expression spread across Qing Long's face as he crushed the cigarette butt in his hand. "I'll personally send someone to kill them!"

"Understood!"

Niu Zhi called out to the pockmarked man and prepared to leave the private room.

But just as he reached out and gripped the doorknob, his pupils suddenly contracted. A fist mark had appeared in the center of the solid wooden door.

The fist mark widened and twisted as countless cracks spread across the surface. Then, with a deafening boom—

Countless splinters, propelled by immense force, howled through the air like a torrential downpour.

Niu Zhi's nearly two-hundred-pound body was hurled high into the air before crashing onto the coffee table in the private room. Liquor and beverages mixed with bright red blood, spilling all over the floor.

Outside the door.

Under the dim light.

A tall figure wearing a savage Evil Ghost Mask appeared before them.

A chill rose in everyone's hearts.

"I heard someone here was looking for me, so I came."