"Number eleven is really becoming a nuisance, are there no one to take him out in the Abyss…"
Ze Chuan looked at the withered corpse in front of him, extinguished the cigarette butt in his hand by pinching it between his fingers, and rubbed his forehead.
It had been five years, and this guy had been squatting in the Outer City, refusing to leave; he would be much safer searching for natives in the Abyss.
But this guy had plenty of ti in the present world.
"Maybe his location in the Abyss is very dangerous."
As the person in charge of the Outer City’s Southern District, Tao Hu had to show up too.
The murders by number eleven all involved blood-sucking, leaving the victims dry as mummies, so they were easy to identify.
The pattern of his activities was also regular, with roughly ten days a month spent in the Abyss and the rest in the present world.
Once he began his killing spree, bodies were sure to be found over a continuous span of ti; not finding any didn’t an he didn’t kill, it simply ant the bodies hadn’t been discovered yet.
"Let’s leave it at that, today’s trail is in the South City District, notify the mission hall; pay extra attention even though he mostly targets those who are alone, but still arrange for more manpower around your nephew’s family."
Ze Chuan patted Tao Hu’s shoulder, number eleven’s issue had beco a tired topic, like eczema that just wouldn’t go away.
They were all familiar with the routine; just follow procedure.
Arriving in person signified high importance, and that was that.
Right at that mont, however, a mber of the security team hurried over and said
"Captain Ze Chuan, Captain Tao Hu, a mid-level partner has co with Tao Tong, and it seems they want to know about number eleven."
"Oh? With Tao Tong?"
Ze Chuan was sowhat surprised, and then he thought of Tao Yu.
As for inquiries about number eleven, they were quite frequent; even high-level partners had asked before.
After all, a reward of one hundred and twenty thousand was no small sum; even Ze Chuan had been tempted.
But so far, only two teams had taken on the challenge, and neither had fared well.
"Tiger, let’s go. It looks like your precious nephew has co; we should go greet him," Ze Chuan said with a smile.
"Right, the kid’s a bit reckless this ti."
Tao Hu knew Tao Yu’s strength had increased rapidly; in just four months he beca a mid-level partner!
Now, half a year had passed, and even though the pace of strength growth definitely slowed, he was probably not diocre among mid-level partners.
Frankly, he might already be on par with Captain Ze Chuan or stronger.
But in the end, he was still young and lacked experience; taking on such a mission now without a suitable team was very risky.
"It’s okay, it’s right for young people to be ambitious; they need to gain experience. If he wants to, we can accompany him and look together this ti; we are old now, just here to escort and protect," Ze Chuan said, his thod of dealing with the situation laid out, adding a fair bit of trouble for himself, but he felt it was absolutely worth it.
Then the two arrived at the morgue entrance and saw Tao Yu and Tao Tong, the two brothers, walking towards them.
"Captain Ze Chuan, Uncle Hu," Tao Tong greeted courteously first, followed by Tao Yu, who smiled and greeted as a sign of respect and politeness to the elders.
"Heh, our genius of the Outer City is here. Are you interested in the bounty on number eleven?" Ze Chuan asked with a chuckle.
"A bit, I’m sowhat strapped for cash recently," Tao Yu replied, also with a smile, removing his face mask as a sign of politeness.
"Number eleven is no easy target; today a body he killed was discovered in our South City District..." Ze Chuan said as he led Tao Yu into the morgue.
While it wasn’t rare for people to die in the Outer City, those warranting an autopsy were quite few; usually, they were dealt with on the spot, either burned or dumped at the trash mountain.
Tao Yu listened as Ze Chuan briefly shared so information on the side.
"So you’re saying the day before yesterday was in the East City District, and yesterday’s body hasn’t been found yet, aning this one is from today?"
Initially, Tao Yu thought this body might have been killed yesterday, but it turned out it was from today!
"Yes, today’s. He is very likely still in the South City District, but number eleven is very cautious; he never leaves a pattern, sotis striking in the sa area repeatedly, and sotis going far between kills."
Ze Chuan continued speaking to this point, then also let out a smile.
"If Young Master Tao is interested in this matter, Tiger and I can arrange for so people to accompany you to look for clues. After all, maintaining the order of the Outer City is also our responsibility," he said.
Ze Chuan watched as Tao Yu stared at the corpse and added support for his interest.
"Thank you for your kind offer, Captain Ze Chuan, but I think that if we deploy too many people, given his caution, he would likely just run away," Tao Yu responded.
Tao Yu rejected Ze Chuan’s offer; he was here to make money, not to take a casual stroll and then head back.
Before Tao Hu beside him could speak,
Tao Yu’s fingers turned into Gang Qi, a wisp of Gang Qi like a blade slid past the surface of the mummified corpse, cutting it open to reveal the bones inside.
This one move imdiately silences both Ze Chuan and Tao Hu.
Being inexperienced, Tao Tong still didn’t understand what was happening, and he looked sowhat bewildered at the two captains who abruptly fell silent.
What’s going on? The atmosphere was fine just a mont ago; why has it suddenly beco so awkward?
Is it because of the younger brother’s refusal of the goodwill?
However, before he could formulate any new ideas, Tao Yu pulled out a piece of bone and gently crushed it in his hand, only to find that, apart from the outer layer, the entire skeleton was unbelievably brittle, without a single drop of bone marrow.
"It’s possible that his goal wasn’t to absorb blood, but to absorb bone marrow..."
Tao Yu casually tossed the crushed bone back onto the corpse, shook off his hand with force, and said calmly.
He then turned back with a smile, glancing at the stunned faces of Ze Chuan and Uncle Hu.
"I think I’ll be able to handle it alone if I go find him; let’s keep this between us for now. The guy is very cautious, so don’t let him catch wind of this and run away," Tao Yu suggested.
Tao Yu raised his hand in a hushing gesture, prompting two nods from the numb pair.
Ze Chuan’s eyes filled with complicated emotions.
He trod the path of strength, with his entire body penetrated by it, and he had mastered nurous other skills besides; his power made him no pushover among the middle-rank partners.
But, he hadn’t mastered the thod of turning Qi-Blood into Gang Qi!
He didn’t cultivate the Myriad Streams Breathing Technique!
And although his set of real combat abilities was strong, it made it even harder to achieve Gang Qi.
The simplest route he had planned for himself was to initially learn the ’Myriad Streams Breathing Technique’ in the Outer City, then go to the Inner City to spend money and master the ’Thirty-Two Forms.’
If one had enough talent and invested sufficient Yuan Force to accelerate the process, it was quite possible to master Gang Qi and find the gateway to becoming a senior partner.
Since his own developnt was fixed, he pinned his hopes on his son, and wanted to convince Liu Yi to plan well for him, but unfortunately, he had never agreed. It seed that they had a tacit agreent to intentionally control the spread of the Myriad Streams Breathing Technique.
Though the Breathing Technique wasn’t as strict as the ditation Technique, it was still best to have a Level 5 expert guide and massage the body to aid understanding at the introductory phase. This left Ze Chuan sowhat helpless, with no way to advance.
Who would have thought that today he would actually witness a young man who had taken this path!
"The young truly are to be feared…" Ze Chuan sighed, indeed, youth held boundless potential!
It had only been half a year, yet the progress was astoundingly fast...
Standing beside him, Tao Hu felt a darkness looming before his eyes as well.
His elder nephew had changed too much!
Just four months ago becoming a middle-rank partner was already a rush of progress; at first, he also estimated that his strength wouldn’t grow slowly, and by now it might have already surpassed that of Captain Ze Chuan.
But now, Gang Qi had even appeared!
Sothing that even Captain Ze Chuan didn’t possess...
After Tao Yu and Tao Tong left, Ze Chuan said to Tao Hu with a sense of lant,
"Tiger, how many years have you been with now?"
Not this again? At this mont, Tao Hu was also sowhat speechless.
"Maybe I should retire now; I’m afraid I might one day hinder you, and he’ll co knocking on my door to finish off..."
Ze Chuan couldn’t help but think of a previous unresolved case – the extermination of the Li family!
Although the case had been dropped, Ze Chuan learned afterward that it probably wasn’t the work of those Inner City powers they initially suspected.
But the incident had passed, and the truth, whatever it was, wasn’t important; it was just a trivial matter after all…
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