"Do you know where Shadow Erosion is right now?" Wang Hai asked, looking at Qiu Rui.
"It should be at the seafood market now," Qiu Rui replied.
"Huh? Hiding there the whole time?" Han Ling's eyes widened. They had already checked the seafood market but hadn't found anything.
"Yes, ever since I found out he was Calamity Beast, I moved him from the fish tank to the water pipe," Qiu Rui nodded.
Had he overlooked the liquid in the water pipe?... Shen Heng lowered his eyes slightly.
Under normal circumstances, as long as there are differences in the Calamity Beast, his Echolocation should be able to detect them.
He had always assumed that although the Calamity Beast was special, it would at least have a physical form, so he hadn't considered things like water flow.
Shen Heng paused for a moment, then looked at everyone and said:
"I'm sorry, this was my mistake; I couldn't find the Calamity Beast."
"It's none of your business. Although I don't know the specifics of your investigation, the seafood market is so big that no one would examine every inch of it without knowing there are liquid-type Calamity Beast." Wang Hai looked at Shen Heng.
"Uh, yeah, I didn't mean it was your fault when I said that. I was just a little surprised that this Calamity Beast had been hiding in the seafood market all along," Han Ling said somewhat awkwardly. She thought Shen Heng was blaming himself for what she had just said.
Shen Heng nodded silently.
He's not someone who can't accept his mistakes, it's just...
It seems that in the future, if a normal check doesn't reveal anything, a more thorough examination will be necessary when encountering similar situations.
Shen Heng took a light breath and turned to look at Qiu Rui.
"Does Shadow Erosion have a general location of activity?"
"I'm not sure about at night, but during the day it's near my stall, and because of it, some faucets aren't working," Qiu Rui replied.
Shen Heng nodded slightly and looked at Wang Hai.
The intelligence gathering is almost complete; the next step is to deal with this Calamity Beast.
Wang Hai paused for a moment, then picked up his phone and made a call.
The call was answered quickly.
" An Lin, come down to the conference room on the third floor."
The call ended.
After a while, Zheng Anlin went inside.
His gaze swept across the room before settling on Wang Hai.
"Team leader."
Wang Hai gestured towards Qiu Rui's location with his eyes, "Keep an eye on him for a bit, we're going out to deal with a Calamity Beast."
Zheng Anlin glanced at Qiu Rui, then nodded. "Yes, I understand."
Shen Heng glanced at Zheng Anlin. Although Brother Zheng had lost an arm, he was still at the Second Tier, so he could easily handle Qiu Rui had not yet reached the first level.
Everyone stood up and then walked out of the meeting room.
Just before leaving, Qiu Rui's voice came from behind.
" Director Wang, I'd like to ask what will happen to me next?"
Wang Hai stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Qiu Rui.
"It's impossible to say for sure. Your case is the first of its kind in the entire country, and we have no data to refer to. However, given the number of people you indirectly caused to die, the death penalty is not surprising."
"Then..." Qiu Rui slumped back in his chair, "Could I make a phone call to my parents?"
"They can come to the site if they want," Wang Hai said calmly.
"Okay, thank you!" Qiu Rui nodded weakly.
Seeing this, Wang Hai didn't linger and turned to walk away.
Before leaving, Shen Heng paused, glancing towards the conference room.
Under the cool white light.
Qiu Rui was leaning weakly against the back of the chair, his head hanging low.
His face was expressionless; he just sat there blankly, as if in despair for the future or repenting for the past.
"Gone?" A gentle voice sounded in my ear.
Shen Heng glanced at Le Gu Nan, who was staring at him, nodded, and turned to walk outside.
More than ten minutes later.
Shen Heng sat in the car, gazing at the seafood market in the distance.
When he took Qiu Rui away, it was nighttime, but the seafood market was still open.
Including the round trip and the time spent on interrogation.
So far, only a small portion of the people have left the seafood market; a small number remain inside.
Therefore, they are still waiting.
Waiting for the crowd to disperse, waiting for time to pass.
However, before that...
Shen Heng used his Origin Power to suppress the surrounding sounds, and then pierced towards the seafood market.
The familiar architecture re-emerged in his mind.
This time, Shen Heng didn't focus his attention on the tangible objects, but rather on the crisscrossing pipes.
Silver ribbons appeared in Shen Heng's mind; they were echo signals symbolizing the flow of water.
Although the echo signals in the pipes differed, they were largely the same and not significantly different, until a strange, stagnant feeling suddenly pierced his senses.
Shen Heng slowly opened his eyes. There was a difference, but it wasn't to the point where he could easily tell.
He raised his finger and lightly pressed on the headset.
"Found it."
"Okay, stay put." Wang Hai's voice came through the earpiece.
"Understood," everyone replied.
Time passed slowly.
It wasn't until midnight, when everything was completely quiet, that Wang Hai's voice came through the earpiece again.
"Action!"
"Clear!"
Everyone got off the car and walked towards the entrance of the seafood market.
Wang Hai took out the key that the manager had handed him while he was waiting, unlocked the door, and then pushed it open.
Then, led by Shen Heng, the group headed straight for a certain location.
Aside from Wei Leyang, he needs to shut off a sluice gate because there's a high probability the water pipes will burst later. Whether he succeeds or not, the sluice gate still needs to be shut off.
As the group continued on their way, Shen Heng silenced all the noise along the way.
After a moment, Shen Heng stopped and looked up at the main water supply pipe on the wall.
"Is it over here?" Wang Hai glanced at the pipes, then looked at Shen Heng.
"Yes, one end is here, and the other end is over there." Shen Heng pointed to the two locations.
Wang Hai glanced at the ten-meter-long pipe that Shen Heng to, then looked back at Shen Heng.
"Can't find the head?"
"Yes, all I can sense is liquid; I can't tell which is the head." Shen Heng nodded slightly.
Upon hearing this, Wang Hai frowned slightly. He gazed at the pipe in thought for a moment, then said:
"Spread out, one person every two meters, then attack together."
Everyone nodded slightly, offering no rebuttal.
Without knowing the exact location of the Calamity Beast's vital organs, this method can inflict maximum damage on the Calamity Beast.
Following Wang Hai's instructions, the group positioned themselves below the pipe and then prepared to attack.
Shen Heng held the trembling longsword, waiting silently in place.
Soon, a shout came through the headset.
Without hesitation, Shen Heng pushed off the ground with his toes and slashed his long sword fiercely at the water supply pipe.
"Bomm--"
An explosion rang out next to Shen Heng.
At the same time, Shen Heng's long sword also slashed into the water supply pipe.
The next moment, Shen Heng sank.
A slight but real resistance emanated from the longsword...