What? Li Qingshan?

One uniformed Patrol Bureau staff member after another emerged from the stairwell and flooded into the lobby.

Li Qingshan glanced at the mech hovering in midair. It remained completely motionless, showing no intention of responding.

"So aloof?"

Helpless, Li Qingshan gave up on trying to strike up a rapport and obediently followed the staff back to the ground.

Along the way, Li Qingshan gave a complete and honest account of every detail.

The middle-aged man in the suit was naturally excluded.

The staff did not ask many questions. They simply recorded everything word for word and told him they would contact him again if necessary. Once the information was verified, a reward would be transferred to him.

Back in the parking lot, Li Qingshan had barely stepped out of the stairwell when the chubby little boy spread his arms and ran over excitedly.

"Coach, are you okay?"

Li Qingshan held out one finger and pressed it against Cao Shaoyu's forehead, saying with slight disdain:

"Don't you go on all day about being a real man? What kind of behavior is all this hugging?"

"Uh... I was just worried."

Cao Shaoyu stopped awkwardly, rubbing his fat little hands together.

Not far away, Cheng An wore a miserable expression as he honestly gave his statement to an investigator.

The moment he saw Li Qingshan, his eyes lit up. He immediately jogged over and complained:

"Boss, your colleague doesn't follow the rules. I already told him everything about tonight, but he still wants to dig into my past..."

"Cough, cough!" Li Qingshan gave two dry coughs, glanced at the staff member beside him, then put on a solemn expression and waved his hand.

"Cooperate properly. I guarantee you'll be fine!"

"Thank you, Boss!"

Cheng An's face brightened, and he ran back.

Li Qingshan turned toward the staff member beside him, who was looking at him strangely, and said calmly:

"Desperate times called for desperate measures. I asked him to help with quite a few things before this. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easy to uncover the Evil God Follower conspiracy, stop the sacrifice, and save the people from disaster..."

"Understood, understood. I'll handle it right away."

The staff member wore an expression like he was severely constipated. He quickly cut Li Qingshan off and turned to deal with Cheng An.

Compared with the merits Li Qingshan had just claimed, impersonating the Patrol Bureau was nothing. Letting off a junket operator like Cheng An was even less of an issue.

"Coach, my dad will be here soon. He wants to meet you," Cao Shaoyu said from beside him.

"Your dad?" Li Qingshan raised a brow in surprise. "Weren't your parents coming tomorrow?"

Cao Shaoyu pulled a long face and muttered:

"I don't know where my dad got the news. He called me the moment I came upstairs."

That fast?

Li Qingshan's thoughts raced, and he quickly guessed where Cao Shaoyu's father had gotten the news.

The Patrol Bureau!

There had been no hint of trouble at the Silver Radiance Hotel before. Cao Shaoyu's father could not possibly have foreseen that his son would be in danger here.

Moreover, the time he called Cao Shaoyu was just shortly after Li Qingshan sent the report to Wan Keshan.

In other words, Cao Shaoyu's father had not only learned of the Patrol Bureau report immediately, but had also discovered that his son was at the Silver Radiance Hotel.

Gasp! His background really was terrifying!

Li Qingshan sucked in a sharp breath. Looking at the foolish little chubby boy before him, he could not help reaching out to rub his head.

Before learning Lost-Trace Steps, this little chubby boy with such an incredible background had been beaten up at school every day.

However, Li Qingshan soon thought of another problem.

Cao Shaoyu's father was in the provincial capital, Wuyi City, over five hundred kilometers away from Luoying.

Even if he got the news immediately, only twenty minutes had passed.

Five hundred kilometers in twenty minutes? What kind of vehicle could travel that fast?

Boom!

A sonic boom shattered the air, interrupting Li Qingshan's thoughts. He raised his head in confusion.

A black shadow rode layer after layer of shockwaves through the distant night sky.

In just a few seconds, the black shadow reached the skies above the Silver Radiance Hotel and abruptly stopped.

The transition from extreme motion to absolute stillness seemed to ignore inertia entirely.

The black shadow slowly descended from the air, revealing the sleek body of a futuristic vehicle.

"My dad's here!" Cao Shaoyu waved excitedly. Li Qingshan came back to himself and expressionlessly spat out two words.

"Too small."

"This car is small?" Cao Shaoyu turned back in confusion. "Coach, I've ridden in it before. There's tons of room inside."

"I wasn't saying the car was small. I was saying my horizons were too limited."

Li Qingshan watched the descending flying car and could not resist ruffling the little chubby boy's hair again.

A four-wheeled car could not go that fast, but a flying car without wheels could!

Anyone who could use a hover car in the Old Continent truly had an "incredible background."

With the flying car overhead, everyone on the ground consciously cleared out a ten-meter-wide "parking space."

Soon, the flying car landed and its door opened.

A huge fat man nearly two meters tall, with a waistline approaching two meters as well, jumped out of the vehicle.

Thud!

The ground trembled slightly. The fat around his waist jiggled, but the huge man looked entirely at ease, as if he had exerted no effort at all.

"Dad!" Cao Shaoyu pulled Li Qingshan forward. "I brought Coach Li over."

"You brat!" The huge fat man first glared at his son, then turned to Li Qingshan with a beaming smile. "Coach Li, I'm this brat's father, Cao Ya. I was planning to thank you in person tomorrow anyway. Tonight was quite the coincidence."

Li Qingshan carefully studied Cao Ya's smiling face. Once he confirmed that Cao Ya was not here to hold him accountable, he took the initiative and said:

"Mr. Cao, you're too polite. Tonight was my fault. I shouldn't have brought him here."

"Coach Li, there's no need to cover for this brat!" Cao Ya waved a large hand and smacked the back of his son's head.

"I already investigated. This brat has been asking around about the Silver Radiance Hotel recently."

"Luckily, Coach Li came with him today. Otherwise, who knew what might have happened!"

Cao Shaoyu's eyes watered from the pain. Looking aggrieved, he said:

"Dad! How can you blame me for this? Who would have thought Evil God Followers could be mixed in with a fighting arena?"

"I'll deal with you when we get home tonight!"

Cao Ya glared at him, then looked at Li Qingshan again and turned slightly to invite him.

"Coach Li, it's not easy to catch a cab here. Why not take my car? We can talk on the way."

"Then I'll trouble you."

Li Qingshan readily agreed. With curiosity in his heart, he boarded the hover car.

There was no driver inside, not even a driver's seat. It seemed to be controlled entirely by an intelligent system.

The spacious cabin contained a circular sofa that wrapped around the interior. Behind the sofa's backrest were completely transparent portholes.

Cao Ya and his son got in. After confirming Li Qingshan's address, Cao Ya made a few simple settings on his communicator, and the flying car slowly rose into the air.

Sitting on the sofa, Li Qingshan looked through the porthole and watched the crowd below gradually shrink.

Suddenly, a crimson glow caught his attention.

The crimson light flew from afar toward the Silver Radiance Hotel. Though it had not broken the sound barrier, it was still extremely fast.

What was stranger was that the crimson light was clearly not dazzling, yet Li Qingshan's eyes stung uncontrollably, as though he were staring directly at the sun.

As the crimson light approached the parking lot, the thing inside it gradually became clearer.

Li Qingshan endured the discomfort and widened his eyes as he looked down.

The crimson light moved quickly, plunging into the large hole the Cold Moon Flying Shuttle had blasted out earlier in the blink of an eye.

Though he had only caught a fleeting glimpse, Li Qingshan still saw it clearly.

It was neither a mech nor any other technological creation. At the center of the crimson light was only a burly figure.

Moreover, Li Qingshan knew this person.

"Teacher Wan?"

On the third basement level, all the surviving spectators had already been carried away, while the remaining staff were investigating the clues.

The silver mech still hovered in midair, guarding the scene.

Suddenly, a burly figure fell through the hole in the ceiling and crashed heavily onto the floor.

Bang!

Ash billowed up, spreading around the newcomer.

"Pah, pah, pah! These Evil God scum still stink as badly as ever!"

Wan Keshan vigorously waved his arms, fanning away the dust.

Suddenly, he froze. His nose twitched as he sniffed hard.

"No, this smell isn't right!"

Wan Keshan's gaze sharpened as he stared toward the center of the hall.

The lava formed from the arena had turned dark red, its surface covered by a layer of dark ash.

Wan Keshan's body flashed, and he appeared beside the lava. He scooped up a bit of ash with his bare hand. Molten lava slipped through his fingers without even harming his skin.

Wan Keshan rubbed the ash between his fingers, brought it to his nose, and sniffed lightly. His brows gradually furrowed.

"An Evil God Projection?"

"Only a half-finished one." Yu Man drifted down from the air and landed beside Wan Keshan.

"This sacrifice planned by the Evil God Followers had over a thousand offerings. If they had successfully completed it, they might really have summoned a Blood-Flesh Demon God Projection."

An Evil God Projection contained a trace of the Evil God's will. It was on an entirely different level from the half-finished product from before.

If they had truly summoned an Evil God Projection, setting aside whether she and Wan Keshan could defeat it, the aftermath of their battle alone would have been enough to destroy several city blocks and cause countless casualties.

"Hehe, your uncle was still smarter. I sent you here first and had you ruin the sacrifice ahead of time."

Wan Keshan stroked his chin with a smug grin, then looked around.

"Where's Li Qingshan?"

"He already left. Actually..."

Before Yu Man could finish, Wan Keshan's laughter interrupted her.

"Hahaha, I knew it. With how sharp that kid is, he must have run off long ago."

Wan Keshan laughed freely, but inwardly, he let out a breath of relief.

After receiving the news earlier, he had not dared contact Li Qingshan for fear that something dangerous might be near him.

Just now, when he saw so many survivors outside but did not spot Li Qingshan among them, Wan Keshan's heart had been hanging by a thread.

Fortunately, he could finally rest easy now.

"Uncle, Li Qingshan was the last one to leave."

The mech remained expressionless, but Yu Man's voice was full of helplessness.

"What do you mean?" Wan Keshan froze.

"Although I killed this half-finished product, I wasn't the one who disrupted the sacrifice. It was Li Qingshan!"

"What? Li Qingshan?"