Stirring Up Trouble

"An ability to turn invisible?"

Xu Tong's pupils contracted sharply, but he relaxed almost immediately. On closer inspection, he realized Zhang Hu couldn't actually turn invisible. His ability was more like a chameleon's camouflage.

Invisibility and camouflage might seem similar, but in truth, there was a world of difference between them.

There was no need to go into detail here. Suffice it to say, if you looked closely, you could still spot Zhang Hu's movements from the subtle changes around him.

"Wait here for me. If anything changes, you can retreat whenever you like and meet up with the boss."

Zhang Hu's voice was quiet, but he exuded absolute confidence, as if he didn't care what might happen. The only thing he seemed concerned about was having a deadweight like Xu Tong along. After all, quality livestock was rare.

Xu Tong nodded woodenly. With a single stride, Zhang Hu lunged toward the officer standing guard at the entrance.

In the darkness, the two officers were completely off guard. They only felt a gust of wind rushing toward them. By the time they sensed something was wrong, a knife-hand strike had slammed into the backs of their necks.

Thud!

With two muffled impacts, they collapsed to the ground. The whole thing had gone off without a hitch, as easy as plucking fruit.

Zhang Hu grinned and tossed the unconscious officers aside. Then he slipped into the building.

Watching Zhang Hu disappear into the stairwell, Xu Tong narrowed his eyes and glanced at the stone by his feet.

Wind howled across the rooftop of the building in the wilderness, stinging the officer's face and making him deeply uncomfortable.

The officer on rooftop duty narrowed his eyes and warily scanned his surroundings, shifting positions from time to time.

Just then, a faint sound came from the distance. He hurriedly leaned out to take a look, only to see a stone—he had no idea where it had come from—tracing a graceful arc through the air before landing squarely on his face.

"Ah!"

His loud scream pierced the night. The lights in the entire building suddenly blazed to life.

"Who's there?!"

A clatter soon rang out from inside the building. Zhang Hu had clearly been discovered.

As for Xu Tong, the moment he threw the stone, he turned and left without a word. He paid no attention at all to the commotion and sounds of fighting behind him.

He didn't do as Zhang Hu had told him and go meet up with Yang Zixuan and the others. Instead, he headed straight for Zhou Huasheng's room.

He pushed open the door and looked inside. As expected, the room was already empty. It made sense. Since Zhou Huasheng had ordered Yang Zixuan and the others to steal things and abduct people, he wasn't going to sit around and wait to be caught.

Still, Xu Tong searched the room. He remembered that Zhou Huasheng had arrived with a large suitcase. Since they were heading into the mountains, he obviously wouldn't have brought it along.

Before long, Xu Tong found the suitcase under the bed. He didn't have time to check what was inside. He tossed it straight into the Prop Catalog, then hurried off toward the Poplar Forest outside the Forest Farm.

Yang Zixuan and the others had never told him where they were supposed to meet Zhou Huasheng.

But although the Forest Farm was small, the surrounding woods were dense, and it was nighttime. It wasn't realistic to expect a man nearing seventy to run far away and wait for them.

So there was no need to think too hard. They were probably meeting in the Poplar Forest outside the Forest Farm. The path was easy to walk, and it was nearby. Beyond the woods, to the left, stretched an endless mountain forest—an ideal location.

When Xu Tong hurried over and took a closer look, he found Zhou Huasheng skulking in the woods, just as he had expected.

The old man had clearly been waiting there for a while. Xu Tong didn't even need to get close to smell the pungent smoke lingering in the air.

Looking at the old man hiding in the woods, craning his neck in anticipation, Xu Tong's smile grew more and more sinister.

He didn't understand schemes and hadn't studied them, but there had been an old man at the mental hospital who liked stealing other people's things.

Once, a roommate caught him red-handed. Just as the old man was about to get a brutal beating from the others, he claimed that the man in the next bed had forced him to steal, and said he'd planned to use the stolen item to frame him.

The whole ward descended into chaos, nearly ending in a death. The head nurse on duty that day was severely disciplined by the hospital, and the patient who'd been about to beat him was locked in the padded room in the intensive care unit.

Yet the old man didn't get in trouble at all. He was even treated as an eyewitness and rewarded with a giant chicken leg.

After that, Xu Tong remembered one saying: "When trouble comes, muddy the waters first."

Bang! Bang!

Gunshots suddenly rang out from the Forest Farm. Zhou Huasheng's expression changed. "What's going on?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a figure came hurrying through the woods. Zhou Huasheng tried to hide, but it was too late.

In the darkness, a hand grabbed his wrist. "M-Mr. Zhou, something's happened! Our people have been caught! We—we need to run! Now!"

Seeing the young man gasping for breath, Zhou Huasheng was so confused that his mind went blank for a moment. "Wait, aren't you... Comrade Xiao Chen?"

"There's no time to explain! Someone's dead! If you don't leave, you'll be in serious trouble!"

Xu Tong didn't give Zhou Huasheng a chance to think. He grabbed him and ran deeper into the woods behind them.

Zhou Huasheng was full of doubts, of course, but when he heard that someone had died and things had gotten completely out of hand, his face changed, and he panicked.

As he ran, he cursed, "What happened? I told them to keep it quiet and not let things get out of hand. Why didn't they listen?"

"There's no time to explain. It's complicated, Mr. Zhou. Run straight ahead along this path. My friend will be waiting for you in the woods up ahead. Don't stop!"

Xu Tong pointed toward the woods in front of them and spoke to Zhou Huasheng.

Zhou Huasheng looked at the dark woods in the distance, suspicious, but before he could think it over, the gunshots from the Forest Farm grew more frequent.

Xu Tong urged him to hurry along. "Go! If you don't leave now, it'll be too late. As long as you aren't caught red-handed, Zhang Hu and the others will take the blame, no matter what happens."

Zhou Huasheng was tempted by the argument. It made sense. Whether or not he found the Ascension Bureau, he couldn't afford to be saddled with a murder charge.

He stopped thinking about it and patted Xu Tong on the arm. "Comrade Xiao Chen, I won't forget this great kindness. If I find the ascension... no, the ancient ruins, I'll make sure to repay you."

With that, he turned and hurried off in the direction Xu Tong had pointed.

Once Zhou Huasheng was gone, Xu Tong smiled coldly. "What a fool."

Then he turned and headed back to the Forest Farm.

It had been less than ten minutes. When he returned to the Forest Farm, it was already in complete chaos. A fire was blazing on one side, while gunshots rang out nonstop near Zhang Hu.

After thinking it over, Xu Tong headed straight toward Zhang Hu.

By rights, given Zhang Hu's abilities, how could a few officers possibly be a match for him?

But when Xu Tong quietly made his way over and saw what was happening, he was deeply shocked.

Captain Wang, who usually looked so unremarkable, was holding his own against Zhang Hu.

Xu Tong wasn't the only one surprised. Zhang Hu himself had never expected Captain Wang to be so strong.

The two men stood in the hallway. A layer of armor resembling ceramic had appeared over Zhang Hu's body. The officers' pistols bounced off it without having any effect.

He swung his fists in broad, powerful arcs, raining blows down on the man in front of him.

Captain Wang was quickly forced into a corner. With nowhere left to retreat, Zhang Hu grinned viciously. This man had nearly caught him off guard earlier. Even if Zhang Hu couldn't kill him, he'd at least break a few of his bones.

At the thought, Zhang Hu's expression darkened. He raised his fist and swung it at Captain Wang's chest, certain that the blow would land. But Captain Wang suddenly crossed his arms and managed to block it.

Just as Zhang Hu was about to pull back his fist, Captain Wang grabbed his wrist with both hands and yanked. Using the momentum, he turned sideways and stepped in. His knees bent slightly, his waist twisted, and his elbow slammed into Zhang Hu's chest.

Thud!

Zhang Hu's face turned the color of liver. His body was knocked into the air and crashed hard against the wall behind him. Several cracks appeared in the ceramic armor plating across his body.

Before he could get back up, a gunshot rang out. A bullet struck him in the chest.

Zhang Hu felt a numbness in his chest. Then agonizing pain spread outward from the impact point like a spiderweb.

Crack!

The muscles in his chest burst apart, sending torn fibers flying. He opened his mouth to scream, but blood poured out instead.

Captain Wang got to his feet and spat a mouthful of bloody saliva to the side. He tossed his pistol aside and tore open his already-damaged shirt. His lean frame looked as if it barely had any flesh on it.

But his bronze-colored muscles looked as if they'd been forged through countless rounds of training. His body seemed like tempered steel, hammered again and again. The bat-wing muscles beneath his arms were especially striking when he spread them wide.

"Come on! I spent almost twenty years training in the military, and there haven't been many people who could take me!"

Zhang Hu rose with a dark expression. Facing Captain Wang's taunt, he pressed a hand to his chest, murderous rage surging in his eyes. He was barely able to hold it back.

He was about to ignore everything and risk the boss's wrath just to kill the man in front of him.

"Wheee!"

A sharp whistle rang out. Zhang Hu's expression changed. The boss had already succeeded and was calling for him to hurry back and regroup.

The whistle was urgent. It meant the boss was already losing patience.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Hu scowled and took something out of the Prop Catalog, tossing it forward.

Bang!

A thick cloud of smoke instantly filled the entire hallway.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

By the time the smoke cleared, Captain Wang and the others looked around and saw that Zhang Hu had vanished without a trace.

"Find him! He has to be nearby!" Captain Wang's expression immediately darkened. He turned to retrieve his pistol, but when he looked back—

"Huh? Where's my gun?"