At six in the morning, a newsboy cried out at the top of his lungs, "Extra! Extra! The Lu Family's eldest daughter escaped death, and the whole family fled the city to avoid disaster!"
A man gave the newsboy a dollar and bought a paper. Just as the boy was about to make change, the man waved his hand. "Keep it."
"Thank you, sir!" The newsboy happily pocketed the banknote. It was the first paper he had sold that morning.
The cold wind swept past, but the newsboy did not feel cold at all. He cried even harder, and before long, he sold another paper. This customer gave him a fifty-cent coin.
The newsboy put the coin into his pocket, only to discover that the banknote from before was gone.
Where was the money?
Had it fallen out when he reached into his pocket just now?
That could not be. After putting the money in, he had not touched his pocket again.
The newsboy sniffed his freezing runny nose and slapped himself across the face. The hard-earned dollar was gone just like that.
In truth, he had never earned that dollar at all. The man who had bought the paper was Hao Lianwu, Chief of Illusion Cultivators. He had merely tested his Illusion Technique on the newsboy.
At Yuanzhu Ward, Hao Lianshen entered an abandoned Western-style building and handed the newspaper to Lu Xiaolan. "Lu Chunying's family is leaving Green Water City. They'll depart on the special train this evening."
Lu Xiaolan read the newspaper. "Didn't you say the main purpose of dealing with the Lu Family was to lure out Li Qi? Now you want to rob the special train too? Are you planning to wipe them out root and branch?"
Hao Lianshen sat beside the fireplace and held