Over the next few days, Zhang Ping spent his days at Iron Soul learning to sort ore from Qiu Qiang, then the first half of each night learning boxing with Wang Jieming at Beast King Fist Hall.
In the second half of the night, he put on the black trench coat he had bought, wrapped himself in Nether Mist, and roamed the streets of Mingzhu City. Drunks and vagrants who stumbled across him unwittingly provided him with plenty of fear.
He was not trying to frighten people. He was searching for the traitors hiding in Mingzhu City.
The Cleanup Team had the entire city under surveillance, yet they still had not found anything unusual. That, in itself, was the greatest anomaly.
Zhang Ping was certain that if the descendants of the Beast-Taming Zhu Family were plotting something, this was their best opportunity.
With the Heavenly Fox holding the City Lord's Manor, Situ Shibai did not dare make a move. The Heavenly Fox, meanwhile, had been countered by the Cleanup Team and was just as blind to what was happening.
As long as the Beast-Taming Zhu Family evaded the Cleanup Team's surveillance, they could do whatever they wanted without anyone knowing.
Zhang Ping did not know how they had evaded surveillance or what they intended to do, but he wanted to find them and teach them a brutal lesson.
Midnight.
The autumn wind carried a chill.
Under the pallid moonlight, Nether Mist coiled around Zhang Ping. The Reaper's Mask on his face shifted constantly, taking on the faces of the dead. It was a terrifying sight.
But he could not see his own face, so he did not find it frightening.
"Hey, wake up."
As he patrolled the streets, he spotted an adventurer passed out drunk by the roadside. He walked over and patted the man's shoulder, his voice turning hollow and distant as it passed through the Nether Mist.
After a few pats, the drunk opened his eyes with a frown. Before he could curse, he saw Zhang Ping's face. His eyes bulged, then rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
That was some good-quality fear!
Satisfied, Zhang Ping picked up the drunk and moved him somewhere safer.
The Cleanup Team guarded Mingzhu City, but no one could guarantee that a Mutated Beast would not slip inside. Zhang Ping had encountered an Armored Venom-Tail Rat in a small park before.
Even if this dead-drunk man was fairly strong when sober, he was little better than an ordinary person while unconscious.
Even the weakest Mutated Beast would pose a serious danger to him.
After settling the drunk, Zhang Ping continued his night patrol through Mingzhu City.
Roads crisscrossed Mingzhu City in every direction.
Buildings had gone up without any consistent standards, and many had even been constructed by Awakened. Their structures defied every principle of architecture, yet not only had they stayed standing, some had stood for centuries. Neither earthquakes nor floods had damaged them.
These strange buildings divided many of Mingzhu City's roads into twisting passages like a maze.
Anyone unfamiliar with the city could easily get lost in them.
Just then, three men wearing copper circlets and carrying green lanterns emerged from a house. They moved silently through the alleys and eventually stopped near a mansion.
"Are you sure she's inside?" one of the men asked.
He was nearly forty and unremarkable in appearance. Only his vermilion eyes stood out.
"Master, Chen Xueli has kept her well hidden, but today is her fourteenth birthday. I'd stake my head on her being inside," one of his subordinates said with certainty.
The man nodded. "Get ready. Place the Dragon-Sealing Stones first. Go!"
His two subordinates split up at once and began setting them around the mansion.
Not far away, Zhang Ping had happened to patrol into the area. He leaned against a wall and quietly watched the three men.
Once they separated, he discreetly used Appraisal Technique, but it failed again and again. When he was sure it would not work, he took the badge Situ Shibai had left him out of the Golden Treasury.
The badge could contact only Situ Shibai and Liu Sishan.
"Sisi, I'm near Number Thirteen, Skyfire Road. I found three people sneaking around. They seem to be planning something against someone in a mansion." Zhang Ping contacted Liu Sishan rather than Situ Shibai.
Outside the city, countless Water Whips lashed around Liu Sishan, killing the Mutated Bats in the air. Holding her badge, she said calmly, "Got it. I'll ask Manny. One moment."
She then contacted Manny and asked about surveillance on Skyfire Road.
"Sisi, nothing unusual is happening on Skyfire Road. We haven't spotted anyone," Manny replied shortly afterward.
She and Chen Luowei had both checked. In theory, nothing within the Illusory Light Curtain could escape their notice. This time, though, something was wrong: not only had they failed to spot the people Zhang Ping mentioned, they could not even see Zhang Ping.
Liu Sishan immediately realized something was amiss.
She ended the call with Manny, contacted Zhang Ping again, and said, "Don't do anything rash. Wait for me."
She cut the connection and looked up at the Mutated Bats swarming across the sky.
Zhang Ping put away the badge and kept watching the three men nearby.
All three wore matching circlets. They were probably some kind of special equipment, though he did not know what they did.
The green lanterns were suspicious too. He guessed one of the two items helped them evade the Cleanup Team's surveillance, while the other blocked Appraisal Technique.
After thinking it over, Zhang Ping transformed his body into a Pure Water Body, then took the shape of a snake.
Covered in Nether Mist, he looked like a huge black python.
He quickly climbed a house, returned to human form on the roof, and looked down into the mansion grounds.
The mansion wall stood nearly three meters high. Everything beyond it was blurred, and he could not make out a thing. About fifteen minutes later, the view suddenly cleared, revealing a courtyard with a pond inside the wall.
The courtyard was full of flowers and other plants, all clearly well tended.
So that's it. The stones they placed can break the mansion's barrier.
Zhang Ping studied the scene, then turned his gaze to a stone they had placed outside the wall. After a moment's thought, he used Appraisal Technique.
It failed three times before finally succeeding.
[Dragon-Sealing Stone (East): Four Dragon-Sealing Stones placed in their corresponding positions form a Dragon-Sealing Battle-Breaking Barrier, capable of overriding most barriers.]
The next instant, Zhang Ping saw how the Dragon-Sealing Stone had been made.
A turning millstone.
Screaming Awakened.
Blood dripped down, drop by drop. After passing through a special funnel-shaped device, it emerged as black liquid.
Another piece of special equipment, shaped like a Saint Mother's Tears Candlestick, infused the black liquid into the Dragon-Sealing Stone. The eyes of the Black Dragon coiled around the stone gradually lit up, turning bloodred...
When the vision ended, Zhang Ping's expression darkened.
As he had suspected, most special equipment and items were made through cruel, bloody, inhuman methods.
Zhang Ping took a deep breath, his resolve hardening.
In this world, he now had another goal besides killing every Heavenly Fox.
He would never let the Beast-Taming Zhu Family rise again!
Up ahead, the three men stopped beneath the wall after setting up their barrier-breaking formation.
Their leader took out three vials and gave one to each subordinate. Once all three had drunk their contents, they immediately climbed the wall and entered the inner grounds.
The owner of this house was powerful.
Even while he slept, the three men could sense his overwhelming presence, like a Giant Dragon coiled in its lair.
Chen Xueli, son of Old Scholar Chen Shihai, was resting inside. At fifty-five, he was a Top-Tier Awakened and the head of Vast Sea Academy.
Their target was his granddaughter, Chen Juntaing! They did not intend to use her to threaten him. Chen Juntaing was also an Awakened, and her awakened ability was vital to their plan—perhaps its most crucial part.
From the location of Chen Xueli's bedroom, the three soon worked out where the women's bedrooms were.
They approached carefully. Then one of them used Psychokinetic Force to open a bedroom door.
"Not her," the vermilion-eyed man said after glancing at the middle-aged woman inside.
They checked room after room. Watching from a distance, Zhang Ping realized they were looking for someone.
He did not know whom they wanted, so he watched patiently. Only by identifying their target could he work backward and figure out their purpose.
These remnants of the Beast-Taming Zhu Family had to be plotting something big. He could not let them succeed!
Outside the city, Liu Sishan finally finished off all the Mutated Bats. Pure water enveloped her body, and she sped toward the city.
People hiding in the shadows soon noticed her movements. Several black-clad figures slipped into the darkness and sent a warning to the three men inside the Chen Family mansion.
The vermilion-eyed man froze for an instant when he received the warning. He turned and scanned his surroundings but did not spot Zhang Ping.
"Master, what's wrong?" the subordinate beside him whispered.
"We've been discovered," the vermilion-eyed man said quietly. "Ten more seconds. If we haven't found her by then, we abandon the mission."
They picked up the pace. When Psychokinetic Force opened a bedroom window, the vermilion-eyed man's eyes lit up. "That's her. Take her and prepare to withdraw."
The subordinate with Psychokinetic Force lifted the girl out of the room and carried her outside. The other lightly touched her temple, and her body went limp. She had clearly lost consciousness.
The three men took the girl over the wall and fled west, directly away from the direction Liu Sishan was approaching.
Damn, they're getting away.
Zhang Ping followed at once, using Appraisal Technique on the unconscious girl as he moved.
A moment later, the appraisal succeeded.
[Appraisal successful] [Name: Chen Juntaing] [Species: Human] [Affiliation: Vast Sea Academy] [Potential: ????????????] [Lifespan: 120] [Rank: Intermediate Awakened] [Level: 13] [Talent] [Saint Mother's Blood: The blood in her body can convert all living beings. Those who drink her sacred blood will be unable to use their abilities and will suffer repeated misfortune.] [Advanced Skill] [Intermediate—Saint Mother's Halo: Awakens the Saint Mother's power in her bloodline, forming a ring of Holy Light behind her. Her affinity with others increases dramatically, and all living beings have a chance of being converted into her fanatical followers.]
This girl had the highest potential of anyone he had seen so far.
But potential was only potential. Until it became actual strength, it meant little.
Her ability was unusual, but...
Zhang Ping frowned at the appraisal results. He could not figure out what the three men wanted.
If they meant to use Chen Juntaing's ability, what good would it do? She was only an Intermediate Awakened. At most, her power could affect Awakened below the Intermediate rank.
Wait!
It suddenly dawned on Zhang Ping that the Saint Mother he understood and the Saint Mother of this world might not mean the same thing.
Saint Mother's Blood...
Could the blood in Chen Juntaing's veins really have come from some Saint Mother among her ancestors?
Could her ability, like Nether Mist, possess power beyond its rank?