They had found the source. The picture online looked very much like the old man's statue Ke Meng had carved, except that the old man's eyes were not as wide or as round as the statue's.
"We found him. Should we give Ke Meng a heads-up?"
"No need. Let him keep carving. The old man's abroad, beyond our reach. We won't be able to catch him anytime soon."
The investigators were a little frustrated. This man was not from Koi Continent, but a foreigner from Crocodile Continent.
Foreign countries also had enforcement agencies for special items, directly under their respective governments and run by powerful financial interests.
Although the situation abroad was chaotic, a veritable free-for-all of monsters, if Koi Continent really wanted to intervene overseas, the special items those countries kept sealed away were no pushovers. At the very least, they had something capable of safeguarding their national standing. You could not simply enforce the law across borders whenever you pleased.
Ke Meng carved until nine o'clock. When he opened his eyes and saw a statue of an old man before him, he jumped, almost mistaking it for an illusion.
He had carved entirely according to the feeling of a Frog-Head Octopus-Body, letting that feeling guide every cut. Yet when he opened his eyes, why had it changed? It looked nothing like what he had imagined.
Could this be the hidden information emanating from the frog-headed, octopus-bodied statue?
"A Meng, we've found him. He's in Crocodile Continent, a retired law professor who just turned a hundred." Luo Yuan walked over, glanced at the statue, then took out his phone and brought up the old man's photo.
Ke Meng looked at the photo, and an indescribable sense of familiarity rose in his heart. He had seen him somewhere before.
His