The aircraft's Shadow Mode produced no light screen and little noise, so it didn't alert anyone.
As people from the Patrol Inspection Office, they had the authority to fly, and their way was clear all the way.
Soon, the two aircraft landed in a grove in the southern suburbs, a thousand meters from the marked location. Then two figures climbed out and met up.
"Director, did Chen Xia find the location?"
The woman who climbed out was Lin Qinghan. She wore a black jacket and trousers that showed off her graceful figure.
Jiang Xinglan was taller and more willowy. Her black hair was tied back so it wouldn't get in the way. She stood half a head taller than Xiao Lin. Looking toward a house ahead, she nodded. "Mm. The Night God Sect members are in that house, preparing to summon the Blood God. To be safe, I didn't let him act. Chen Xia is below the earthen mound. I've already arranged the arrest plan, and the others will be here soon. But the ritual may have already begun. We need to stop it first!"
"Mm." Lin Qinghan wasn't afraid. She and Jiang Xinglan had graduated from the same university. Jiang Xinglan had been Grade 3 upon graduation and entered the Grade 4 Five Viscera realm not long afterward. Lin Qinghan had graduated as a Grade 2 martial artist and was now a Grade 3 martial master, as well as a Grade 3 spellcaster.
The two of them alone ranked among the strongest in Yijiang City. Why would they fear a few Evil Cult members?
"Help me turn invisible," Jiang Xinglan said.
"Okay!"
Lin Qinghan took a handful of white glass beads from her pocket and scattered them around. Before long, the special particles joined together and swirled around the two women. Then they vanished mysteriously.
Whoosh...
Chen Xia waited below the earthen mound. Ten minutes had passed since he sent the message, and he figured the others wouldn't arrive so quickly. There was also a guard inside the house who seemed to have noticed something amiss and had gone out to investigate.
But Chen Xia had taken him down too and thrown him on the ground.
Beep, beep... Just then, a message came through on Chen Xia's Technology Watch: "Don't move. We're right beside you."
Beside him? Chen Xia looked around, but saw nothing. Still, he could hear faint breathing and footsteps.
Just as he was wondering what was going on, two graceful figures appeared in the empty space to his right, startling him.
Fortunately, he'd been warned, so Chen Xia didn't panic. He'd never heard of anyone having an ability like this. Could it be a Spirit Technique?
Chen Xia had only heard about martial artists' abilities. Spellcasters' techniques weren't widely discussed at school or online, and he knew little about them. Spellcasters were too rare to be common knowledge, and ordinary people had almost no information to look up. He remembered that his school had once tested students for spiritual aptitude, but after he'd taken the test, nothing had come of it.
Looking at the two young, beautiful women who outranked him, Chen Xia smiled and greeted them. "Director. And this is...?"
"My name is Lin Qinghan, the director's secretary. You can call me Sister Lin," Lin Qinghan said coolly.
"Hello, Sister Lin." Chen Xia had seen that Lin Qinghan seemed to be behind the invisibility technique, and found it fascinating, but he didn't feel comfortable asking about it.
Besides, she looked to be only in her twenties, while he was already twenty-eight, yet he was calling her Sister Lin...
But a subordinate had to know his place. Anyone serving as secretary to the Chief Office's director was no ordinary person. He couldn't call her Xiao Lin or something like that. Calling her little sister, Lin Qinghan, or beauty didn't seem appropriate either, since she outranked him by quite a bit.
Lin Qinghan was reasonably satisfied with Chen Xia's behavior. If he'd blabbed on and on, asking questions and acting disrespectfully, it would've shown that he didn't know his place.
Though both women were young, Jiang Xinglan held all the authority over the Patrol Inspection Office in Yijiang City. As her secretary, Lin Qinghan wasn't someone just anyone could approach carelessly. With her qualifications, she could be sent out to head a branch office at any time.
Once they reached the bottom of the mound, Lin Qinghan dropped the invisibility technique. Maintaining it for too long consumed spiritual energy; she'd only used it earlier so they could approach without being seen.
To be honest, Lin Qinghan admired Chen Xia for investigating alone. But he was only a Grade 1 martial artist, and at twenty-eight, he still hadn't shown what the director saw in him.
Which of Lin Qinghan's classmates hadn't become a Grade 2 or even Grade 3 martial master at a young age? Even if Chen Xia had the talent to catch up later, that was all it amounted to. The most likely explanation was that he came from a humble background and could be trained into a loyal subordinate. Of course, that was only her guess.
"This place reeks..."
Lin Qinghan blinked her clear, shining eyes. Suddenly, she caught a whiff of urine, mixed with another foul smell in the air. She covered her nose and glanced at Chen Xia, wondering if it could be...
Noticing Lin Qinghan's disgusted look, Chen Xia felt a little speechless.
"Director, should we wait for everyone from the Patrol Inspection Office to arrive?" Lin Qinghan asked.
"The Patrol Inspection Office will surround the whole place. We'll go up first and stop them from summoning the Blood God. Now that we've found their base, we need to wipe it out as soon as possible, before anything unexpected happens," Jiang Xinglan said, her brow furrowed.
"Director Jiang, does the Blood God really exist in this world?" Chen Xia knew only the Eternal Night Blood Scripture. It described many routes for blood to circulate and related matters, but he couldn't say whether the Blood God truly existed. After all, anything called a god couldn't be an ordinary creature.
"There are some in the Outer Domain, but not many make it into the cities," Jiang Xinglan replied. Then she said, "Let's leave it at that for now. Move!"
Lin Qinghan and Jiang Xinglan headed forward together. Lin Qinghan glanced back. "Why are you following us? Do you have a death wish?" She didn't want Chen Xia coming along; she felt he'd hold them back, and that would be trouble.
"Wouldn't we be safer if we acted together?"
Hearing that, Lin Qinghan smiled and was about to reply when Jiang Xinglan whispered from ahead, "Let him come. It'll be good experience for him!"
"All right. Remember, just follow us later. Don't make a sound."
"Got it." Chen Xia nodded.
The two guards inside had already been dealt with, and Chen Xia had told them what was inside. The three moved nimbly and climbed over the two-meter wall.
There was a security camera in the corner of the courtyard. They climbed over the wall on the opposite side, avoiding it and slipping through its blind spot.
Jagged shards of beer bottles were embedded all along the top of the wall, packed tightly together and razor-sharp. But that was no obstacle for them. Even a Grade 1 martial artist could jump over it, let alone Chen Xia, who was already a Grade 2 martial artist.
After entering the courtyard, the three crept into the first floor. They saw a kitchen in the inner room, three bedrooms, and a staircase on the left.
They first checked all three floors of the building to make sure no one would suddenly appear. Then they found that the building was practically empty.
They returned to the first floor and began searching for the basement entrance, following the clues Chen Xia had given them.
Chen Xia had already interrogated the guard, so the entrance was easy to find. It was behind a door in the corner of the first-floor kitchen. When they opened it, they saw a staircase leading down.
"Let's go down!"
Jiang Xinglan, Lin Qinghan, and Chen Xia cautiously entered the basement. It wasn't dark below; dim candlelight revealed the mottled cracks in the earthen walls, while the air was thick with mold and decay.
Wooden doors lined both sides of a long corridor, each leading to a separate room.
There was no sound of anyone moving ahead. Jiang Xinglan gently pushed open a door, and the stench of blood immediately hit them. Inside, they saw a chair completely covered in blood.
By the corridor's candlelight, everyone saw blood on the surrounding walls too, forming many mysterious symbols that had since dried.
The mysterious symbols, candles piled on the ground, burnt paper ash, and clutter made for a disturbing sight.
A white bag had been tossed in the corner of the room. They could guess that the cultists had tied a woman to the chair to perform some kind of sacrifice. It had been outright torture, and it was hard to imagine how cruel these people were.
The air in the basement was stifling. The stench of blood and mold mingled until it was hard to breathe.
"There's a book..."
Suddenly, Jiang Xinglan spotted an old notebook among a pile of clutter on the floor. Bloodstains covered its cover. She carefully opened it and found strange symbols and writing inside, along with a drawing of a mirror.
Chen Xia took the notebook and glanced through it too. Jiang Xinglan lowered her voice. "They may have been recording their experiments to summon the Blood God, but they failed."
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