Grandmaster of Baodan

Magic City Security Bureau.

Just after finishing a video conference with headquarters, Deputy Director Lu Huai walked out of his office, his expression grave.

"There's actually a Fusang powerhouse comparable to a Huajin Grandmaster. He fled all the way from the Northern Heavenly Mountain, and may have already slipped into Magic City..."

Lu Huai felt enormous pressure.

He knew all too well how much destruction a Huajin Grandmaster could cause in a city.

"Headquarters wants us to find him and recover the Tianshan Snow Lotus stolen by this Fusang man..."

Lu Huai was at a loss.

A Huajin Grandmaster.

How were they supposed to find him in Magic City, a city of tens of millions?

"But someone from headquarters should arrive within half a day at the latest..."

All Lu Huai could do was hope the Fusang man wouldn't go on a rampage in Magic City. If he caused too much trouble, Lu Huai figured his days as deputy director would be over.

As he passed the bureau's call room, Lu Huai suddenly heard a phone ringing.

"Why isn't Xiao Lin here?"

Lu Huai glanced into the call room and saw no one inside. The phone was ringing away by itself.

"He must have gone to the restroom."

Lu Huai went into the call room and picked up the phone.

Answering calls wasn't the responsibility of a deputy director like him.

But Lu Huai had a strong sense of responsibility. What if it was an emergency call involving someone's life? What if something happened because he answered even a second too late?

As soon as Lu Huai picked up, he heard the caller say, "Hello, is this the police?"

"This is the police. Go ahead."

Lu Huai replied at once.

At first, he thought it was just an ordinary report—perhaps a thief to catch, or an electric scooter that had been stolen.

But when he heard the words "Fusang people" and "Tianshan Snow Lotus," his pupils contracted.

He immediately asked, "You mean you saw several Fusang people acting suspiciously at Dingxing Coffee Shop, talking about how to transport a snow lotus they got from the Northern Heavenly Mountain back to the Fusang Kingdom?"

"That's right."

The voice on the other end answered with certainty.

"This..."

Lu Huai was stunned. He'd just been worrying about how to find the Fusang Kingdom powerhouse who had stolen the snow lotus, and now someone had called in a lead?

Talk about perfect timing.

"Are you sure they were Fusang people? And that they mentioned the Tianshan Snow Lotus?"

Lu Huai asked again to make sure.

If there were merely a few Fusang people, that didn't mean much. There were plenty of them in Magic City.

But if they were talking about the Tianshan Snow Lotus too... Fusang people and the Tianshan Snow Lotus? It still wasn't possible to be completely certain that they were the people he was looking for.

But there was probably a seventy to eighty percent chance.

After getting another firm confirmation from the caller, Lu Huai's expression brightened. He lowered his voice and said, "The information you've provided is very important to us..."

After praising the caller and promising to send him a reward later, Lu Huai hung up and immediately mobilized personnel.

"If they really are the Fusang people who fled here, the bureau's people alone won't be nearly enough."

Lu Huai wasn't underestimating them. They were dealing with a powerhouse comparable to a Huajin Grandmaster. If their forces couldn't overwhelm him, he might fight back desperately. Even if they subdued him in the end, the incident would still have serious repercussions.

Besides, the caller had said he'd seen several Fusang people, not just one.

Could the others also be powerhouses on the level of Huajin Grandmasters?

At that thought, Lu Huai immediately made up his mind.

Central Magic City.

The streets were still bustling, crowded with people coming and going.

Su Yuan switched off the phone he'd used to report the incident, then casually tossed it by the roadside and headed toward Jinshan Villa District.

Why hadn't he returned the phone to that dark-skinned international visitor? Because Su Yuan knew that in half a day, the police would track the phone's location.

They would find it, use the real-name registration on its SIM card to identify the dark-skinned international visitor, bring him in for questioning, and eventually return the phone to him.

"It's over."

A smile appeared on Su Yuan's face.

Making that call was the final step in the plan Grey Mirror had given him.

The plan had been a chain of interlocking steps. Everything Su Yuan did, every sentence he spoke, every word, every change in his tone and expression—all of it had served its intended purpose.

A single mistake at any point could have affected the entire plan, or even exposed his identity.

Take the final step, reporting the incident. Why had Su Yuan chosen to make the call at this particular moment?

Was it because this was when the four members of the Chizuru Family would be gathered together?

That was only one reason.

Another was that if he'd called even one minute earlier or later, the person answering wouldn't have been Deputy Director Lu Huai, but the call-room employee, "Xiao Lin."

After hearing Su Yuan's report, Xiao Lin wouldn't have taken it seriously. He would merely have recorded it as usual. Twenty minutes later, Deputy Director Lu Huai would hold a meeting at the bureau and tell everyone to watch for two things: Fusang people and the snow lotus.

Only then would Xiao Lin realize how important the report was and immediately inform Lu Huai.

But by then it would have been too late. With a twenty-minute delay, the four members of the Chizuru Family would already have received their next instructions and split up, making them far harder to capture.

Reporting the incident at exactly the right time was crucial. It determined whether the call would be taken seriously right away.

"From here on, I don't have anything to do with it."

Su Yuan thought casually.

Through Grey Mirror, Su Yuan already knew that his call would draw the attention of Xia Kingdom's authorities, who would send a Grandmaster of Baodan to subdue the four members of the Chizuru Family.

Dingxing Coffee Shop.

Chizuru Kami and the other three had finally received the family's next instructions.

"The four of you are to split up and return to the family immediately."

After reading the specific orders, Chizuru Kami and the others understood at once. They planned to leave the coffee shop one after another and depart Magic City separately.

Just then,

Chizuru Kami's expression shifted slightly. He looked around, his face grave.

At some point, the enormous coffee shop had been left with only the four of them. Even the coffee shop's staff had disappeared.

The other three realized something was wrong too. They exchanged a look, ready to flee in different directions at once.

Whoosh! A vast tide of mental power swept over them. Chizuru Qi, Chizuru Takahashi, and the other Great Samurai felt their thoughts slow, as if a mountain weighing tens of thousands of tons had been placed on their shoulders.

"What is this?"

As an Onmyoji, Chizuru Kami had a powerful soul, so the mental suppression affected him less. With difficulty, he turned his head and saw an old man standing at the coffee shop entrance. He wore shorts and slippers and looked no different from an ordinary old fellow in a park. Yet the mental power he radiated surged like a raging sea.

"Grandmaster of Baodan..."

Chizuru Kami's face turned ashen.