Celebrity Father and Daughter

2024-08-17

Chapter 413 Celebrity Father and Daughter

"The Hell Creek Family?" Xing Yang asked, somewhat puzzled. "I mainly operate within Zhendan. I've had one encounter with them, but there shouldn't be any conflict... Why do you ask?"

Captain Cheng shook his head and said, "Members of the Hell Creek Family who came to Ningdong for exchanges are also staying at the New Lake Hotel. When we went to find them to get information, we discovered that their rooms were all empty."

"We checked the hotel's surveillance footage and found that most of the Hell Creek Family members who stayed downstairs left yesterday at noon and never returned. Only one person named Anderson returned around 5 PM, but instead of going back to his own room, he went to Michelle's room on the 22nd floor, which also belongs to the Hell Creek Family. After knocking on the door and going inside, Michelle left the room alone a while later and went to Room 2408 on the same floor as you. That room is occupied by Charles, the leader of this Hell Creek exchange team, and another member Richard."

"Michelle stayed in the room for about ten minutes before leaving. She then returned to her own room, and a while later left alone again. She was never seen on surveillance footage again, and the other members of the Hell Creek Family also disappeared without a trace..."

Captain Cheng's description was indeed somewhat bizarre, causing Xing Yang to frown as well.

"A key characteristic of pure-blooded members of the Hell Creek Family is blond hair, which matches the person who attacked you," Captain Cheng continued. "Considering the mysterious disappearance of the Hell Creek Family members last night, we suspect there's some connection between this and your attack."

Xing Yang shook his head. "I really can't understand what reason they would have to attack me... Moreover, although I haven't had much contact with the experts of the Hell Creek Family, I've at least heard of those at this level, but I've never seen this man before."

Captain Cheng nodded upon hearing this. "This is just a possible direction. You can try to recall further, and please provide us with any other clues you may have."

"The Security Team at the gate will be on duty 24 hours a day to protect your safety, but I still suggest that you come and stay at the branch office, where you can get the best protection."

"Thank you for the association's kindness," Xing Yang waved his hand and declined, "But the schedule for this tour is very full, and we don't have much time to stay in Ningdong. We'll have to leave soon, so it won't be of any help..."

"To be honest, I don't recommend you continue the tour," Captain Cheng said. "The attackers' identities and motives haven't been clarified yet, and leaving now is too risky. Ningdong is the location of one of the major branches of the Yuan Cultivation Society, and its security is incomparable to other cities. I suggest you postpone the tour and wait until things are cleared up before making any decisions."

"I've also considered that," Xing Yang replied. "After this experience, I will be extra careful, and I've also contacted a good friend to travel with us. He will arrive in Ningdong tomorrow. With his help, we are confident that we can deal with the attacker."

"Regarding the situation with the Hell Creek Family, I suggest you try using the Dust of Replication," Xing Yang proposed. "They're currently missing, so there shouldn't be any objections, right?"

For investigating cases, the Dust of Replication is a very convenient tool, but correspondingly, if it is abused, it will also involve infringing on other people's privacy. Therefore, as an official organization, the Yuan Cultivation Society usually obtains the consent of the parties involved when using this method to investigate cases.

For example, regarding the details of Xing Yang's battle with the attacker, Xing Yang did not agree to use the Dust of Replication. This was not only because the battle involved some of Xing Yang's hidden abilities and Noble Phantasms, but more importantly, the Dust of Replication has a large range and could completely cover the entire suite, including places like the bathroom.

The previous Room 2405 was occupied by her daughter Xing Yue and her assistant, two young women who are public figures. It would be bad if someone with malicious intent used the investigation to spy on their private moments.

After hearing Xing Yang's suggestion, Captain Cheng shook his head. "We tried it, but we didn't get any useful information."

Verbal refusal is only effective against principled official organizations, and even then, it cannot guarantee 100% compliance. Of course, there are other ways to prevent others from using the Dust of Replication to spy.

The ability of the Dust of Replication is not, in essence, the ability to create something from Create Something from Nothing. If no information was left behind, it would be impossible to recreate anything. However, whatever people or things exist will inevitably have an impact on their surroundings, leaving certain traces. These traces are not the visible and tangible marks commonly understood, such as fingerprints, bloodstains, or footprints, which cannot be read by conventional means. Only the Dust of Replication can recreate the scene through these hidden traces. To give an example, one can think of the world as being constantly filmed by an invisible camera, Dust of Replication is the special device that can read this recording.

Since the scene is reconstructed through traces, theoretically, anything that can affect these hidden traces can interfere with the reading of the Dust of Replication.

First, traces will be buried and refreshed over time, so the effect of the Dust of Replication is not very long, usually only one month. Scenes older than one month cannot be restored.

Secondly, the Dust of Replication cannot be read repeatedly. Once a scene has been read, the traces have been destroyed and cannot be read again.

Furthermore, since traces are essentially remnants of information, theoretically, as long as information transmission can be isolated, the remnants of traces at the scene can also be destroyed. Therefore, certain specialized abilities and magical artifacts can also affect the effects of the Dust of Replication; the most common example is Soundproof Barrier.

Therefore, generally speaking, Soundproof Barrier will also affect the reading performance of Dust of Replication. The higher the level, the greater the impact.

One way to understand it is that although the camera was constantly filming, the scene was filled with smoke, so the final footage looked like it had been pixelated, making it impossible to see anything clearly.

When Luo Jun was in the room, he induced Richard to activate the Soundproof Barrier. The barrier was very effective and severely hampered by the interference of the Dust of Replication, making it impossible to discern any useful information.

"Interference..." Xing Yang pondered, but then Captain Cheng shook his head. "Not entirely... Room 2408 was indeed severely interfered with, but Room 2212, where Michelle stayed, is a different story. It was accessed once using the Dust of Replication!"

"They've already read it?" Xing Yue asked in surprise. "Besides you, there are other people investigating them?"

"This is also a major reason why I suspect this matter is related to the Hell Creek Family," Captain Cheng said. "The surveillance footage from last night to this morning shows that no one has entered Michelle's room since she left. If someone used Dust of Replication there, it must have been through unconventional means. The most likely candidate is the attacker!"

"The attackers are investigating Michelle, investigating the movements of the Hell Creek Family members..." Xing Yang nodded. "Judging from this, the Hell Creek Family is indeed closely connected..."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Captain Cheng frowned, signaling Xing Yang and Xing Yue to be careful, and went to the door himself. "What's going on?"

"Captain Cheng... someone wants to see Mr. Xing Yang..." came the voice of Security Team at the door.

"Who is it?" Captain Cheng asked.

"It's... Miss Michelle from the Hell Creek Family!"

(End of this chapter)