Chapter 105: The Victory of the Power of the Masses!
21:57, at an intersection about three kilometers away from Yuhua Road.
A taxi slowly approached and pulled over to the side of the road.
A man dressed quite ordinarily, wearing a mask, and appearing to be around forty to fifty years old based on the lines on his face, opened the car door and stepped out. He looked around briefly, fixed his gaze in one direction, and swiftly walked away.
Inside the taxi, the driver watched the man’s every move with an impassive expression. After the man walked far enough away, he took out his phone, opened a chat app, and entered a group called [Shizhou City Temporary Urban Legends Chat Group].
Old Ma the Taxi Driver: “@Shizhou City Baixiaosheng I might have found the person you’re looking for. He was supposed to go to the Yuhua Road Auto Repair City, but he got out of the car halfway for some unknown reason.”
…
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Near the Nightless Street, at Lin Nian’s home.
She had fed her grandfather a late-night snack, secured him to sleep, and returned to the living room to grab her phone before stepping outside.
Walking on the dimly lit streets of an old residential area, Lin Nian felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She took out her phone, glanced at it, and quickly replied to the message.
Shizhou City Baixiaosheng: “Oh? Old Ma, please follow him. Report his location in the group every minute. [Red Packet: Exclusive to Old Ma the Taxi Driver]”
[Old Ma the Taxi Driver has claimed your red packet.]
Old Ma the Taxi Driver: “Don’t worry! Even without this red packet, I would help with those copper refiners, harmers, and killers!”
After a day of brewing and fermenting, the vile conduct of Hu Chuan and Wang Elder had already spread within the circle of spiritual ability users in Shizhou City, reaching a state of public outrage. During its spread, many versions had even emerged that were originally untrue.
At this point, even if they had done nothing wrong, the charges imposed on them were enough for them to “earn” a spot on the wanted list of the Siye Society.
Shizhou City Baixiaosheng: “Then thanks, Old Ma. You can stop after ten minutes! @All members, keep an eye on the info Old Ma posts in the group. [Random Red Packet]”
According to the plan outlined by “Gu Qiqi,” Hu Chuan and Wang Elder were exceptionally cunning and dangerous. Once their whereabouts were discovered, the only way to ensure they wouldn’t notice was through this method of random cross-tracking by multiple people, ensuring the safety of the trackers.
Although asking the online sleuths for monitoring footage in Shizhou City could achieve a similar effect, surveillance cameras fell under the category of objects and were hard to guarantee couldn’t be controlled by Hu Chuan.
Most of the members in this temporary chat group were D-level or even unranked spiritual ability users, leading fulfilling lives with their jobs and personal circumstances—one might say they were a group of happy, well-off elderly, weak, sickly spiritual ability users.
Such individuals were not the initial targets when the Secret Society sought to recruit members; rather, people like Wang Elder, who were neither here nor there and dissatisfied with their present lives, were.
Using them for tailing would reduce the chance of alerting their targets significantly.
Moreover, although these spiritual ability users might not possess great strength, they had terrifying networks after living in Shizhou City for years. If there were other non-group spiritual ability users who discovered Wang Elder and Hu Chuan’s whereabouts, that information would be passed to them quickly.
From this perspective, they were like the “Chaoyang Masses” of Shizhou City’s spiritual ability users!
This was the victory of the power of the masses!
……
The real-time location of Wang Elder shared by the taxi driver, Old Ma, rolled through the chat group continuously.
Ten minutes later.
Lin Nian looked at Old Ma’s last message, paused for two seconds, typed a reply, and sent it.
Shizhou City Baixiaosheng: “@Beef King Master He, that guy is just passing under your building now; could you please check which direction he headed?”
Beef King: “He went east, towards Jinmen Road.”
“Towards Jinmen Road?” Lin Nian frowned slightly, recalling the terrain near Jinmen Road in her mind. After waiting for more than ten seconds, she sent another message.
Shizhou City Baixiaosheng: “@Mighty Doctor Li, that guy is about to pass by your clinic; could you please check which direction he’s heading?”
Mighty Doctor: “I saw him, heading towards Chunfeng Road.”
Shizhou City Baixiaosheng: “…”
————
22:04, Yuhua Road.
This old street, which has a bit of history, lies on the outskirts of the city but hasn’t deteriorated like other old streets as night falls.
As one of the major traffic routes in Shizhou City, it connects to the highways leading to the affiliated counties and serves as an entrance to the airport expressway, with a passenger transport center that sees a steady flow of people daily.
Accompanying the crowds are numerous auto parts shops, small restaurants with generous portions, and the largest auto repair city in Shizhou.
By nightfall, many shops along Yuhua Road were still open, making it more vibrant than streets where not a soul could be seen after dark, though not as bustling as the Nightless Street.
It was not surprising that Hu Chuan chose this place for the transaction with Wang Elder and Yang Yichen.
The combination of heavy foot traffic, convenient transport, older and relatively poorly planned buildings made it much easier to escape in case of unexpected situations.
However…
The agreed transaction time had passed, yet Wang Elder’s figure had still not appeared at the designated location.
Across from Yuhua Road’s gas station, at a McDonald’s.
Lu Yibei stared through the glass window into the gas station for a moment, withdrew his gaze, took out his phone to check the time, and sighed silently. He turned to Huasang and said, “Let’s go; Wang Elder probably won’t be coming.”
“Hmm?” Huasang tilted her head slightly. “Won’t we wait a bit longer? It’s only been less than five minutes…”
“Five minutes is plenty long enough.” Lu Yibei shook his head. “Given their current situation, they would certainly avoid lingering in one place for too long.”
“So under normal circumstances, Wang Elder wouldn’t be late or early; the most likely scenario would be arriving exactly on time to meet Yang Yichen, quickly complete the transaction, and then leave.”
“If he hasn’t shown up yet, either he’s gotten into trouble and is delayed, or our actions have been spotted by Hu Chuan. With no news from Senior Qing Xiazi and no updates from Lin Nian, it is mostly likely the latter.”
Anyway, I didn’t expect to pin those two down solely based on this one lead…
Lin Nian should be getting news soon, right? Lu Yibei thought.
“Additionally…” She lowered her gaze and lightly tapped the Shuishu Beast, which was reaching for the egg tart in front of Huasang. “Big Cousin, don’t steal Huasang’s food; eat mine instead!”
Seeing this, Huasang pushed the egg tart toward the Shuishu Beast and turned to Lu Yibei. “However, if it turns out to be as you suspected, this trip isn’t completely fruitless.”
“At least we’ve ruled out one wrong option.”
“Exactly.” Lu Yibei nodded.
Previously, when hypothesizing that Hu Chuan was hiding within Shizhou City, Lu Yibei had theorized that the small commodities wholesale market, auto repair city, and old district furniture city were the most likely places he would choose.
Now he had picked the transaction location near the auto repair city, meaning his chances of hiding there would be significantly reduced.
After all, once Wang Elder was captured, Dachunyang Palace would definitely investigate the sources of spirit energy fluctuations in the surrounding areas.
Only by being far enough away would Hu Chuan have adequate time and space to respond when Wang Elder was captured.
In this situation, playing under the light would be far too risky!
Lu Yibei wasn’t sure if Hu Chuan dared take that risk; anyway, if he were in her shoes, he definitely wouldn’t dare.
After a brief pause, she looked at Huasang and said, “The current challenge is determining whether he’s hiding at the small commodities wholesale market or near the furniture city.”
As soon as she finished speaking, her phone vibrated. She pulled it out, unlocked the screen, glanced at a message from Lin Nian, raised an eyebrow, and then held the phone out to Huasang.
Looking at the message on the phone screen, Huasang frowned and said, “Someone suspected to be Wang Elder has headed towards the furniture city? So that means…”
“Hu Chuan and Wang Elder are hiding near the furniture city!” Lu Yibei asserted.
Based on what he just said, shouldn’t Hu Chuan be hiding at the small commodities wholesale market? Huasang thought for a moment and replied, “Do you mean Wang Elder is going back to inform Hu Chuan?”
“Exactly!” Lu Yibei nodded. “Now you can go find Senior Qing Xiazi, gather some people, and monitor the area near the furniture city.”
Huasang’s brows furrowed slightly. “I’m going to find my master? What about you?”
“Me?” Lu Yibei rolled her eyes. “I’m just going to pay them for their work! You think all these people helping with the tailing wouldn’t need some benefits?”
If it hadn’t been for last time when I managed to snag some gold from Oujinbang, I’d be bankrupt today. Du Sixian probably thinks I’ve picked up some bad habits… Lu Yibei added in her mind.
“Moreover, once you find those two, there’s bound to be a confrontation. Why would I want to go do something so dangerous?”
Huasang slightly parted her lips, staring into Lu Yibei’s eyes for several seconds before taking a deep breath and gravely said, “Don’t worry; I will definitely get the ruler back.”
“Got it, got it! You’ve said that seven or eight times already…” Lu Yibei waved her hand impatiently. “Hurry up and go. If that Wang guy escapes later, you won’t be able to get it back.”
“Let’s go!” Lu Yibei patted the Shuishu Beast’s head. “Big Cousin, let’s send her off.”
“…” Huasang looked at Lu Yibei, hesitated, then nodded.
————
22:15.
Near the Nightless Street, in the surroundings of the ravaged residential buildings.
Two disciples of Dachunyang Palace responsible for clearing residual spirit energy fluctuations sat on a stone chair by the street, chatting idly during their break after the second round of clearing.
“Did you know? I just heard from the brothers left at the mountain gate that Sister Fu has done something earth-shattering again today!”
“Oh? What did Sister Fu do this time?” the other disciple asked.
“She rode off on the mountain guardian beast and hasn’t returned yet!”
The other disciple frowned, pondering for a few seconds. “She wouldn’t be riding the beast down the mountain to chase after those two guys, would she?”
“Who knows?”
As the two disciples were talking, the surrounding moisture suddenly thickened, a faint white mist drifted, and tiny electric arcs flickered on the walls of the narrow alleyway, accompanied by faint thunder, as an agile figure darted past.
The two disciples were taken aback, slowly turning to look at each other, and simultaneously saw deep shock in each other’s eyes.
“Did you see that?”
“I did; it seemed to be the guardian beast…”
“Hiss—!”
Just as the two were conversing, footsteps approached from the mouth of the alley. Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw Huasang walking briskly towards the direction of Senior Qing Xiazi.
Seeing Huasang walk past, the two disciples hesitated for a few seconds, finally mustering the courage to ask, “Sister Huasang, wait a moment. We have a few questions for you, if that’s okay?”
“Hmm?” Huasang turned around, tilting her head toward the disciple. “Ask away.”
“Was that figure just now…”
“The mountain guardian beast.” Huasang replied calmly.
“And the one who brought you…”
“Fu Xinyi,” Huasang nodded and said frankly, “Is there anything else? If not, I need to meet my master; I have important matters to report.”
“Nothing more, nothing more! You go ahead with your business!” the two disciples replied in unison.
————
Meanwhile, on a rooftop far away in a high building.
Lu Yibei sat on the back of the Shuishu Beast, gazing down at Huasang, who was now a distant figure, and gently patted the beast’s neck. Leaning down, she whispered softly in its ear, “Let’s go, Big Cousin, let’s head to the small commodities wholesale market.”
“If Hu Chuan is hiding around the small commodities wholesale market, he’ll soon expose himself.”
“Puff!” The Shuishu Beast gave a gentle snort, and with a powerful leap of its iron hooves, it soared into the air, disappearing beneath the bright moonlight in an instant.
When Lin Nian relayed the news that Wang Elder was approaching the furniture city, she felt the likelihood of Hu Chuan hiding nearby the small commodities wholesale market had increased.
But then the new challenge arose: how to approach the small commodities wholesale market without being noticed by Hu Chuan and capture him before he makes another escape.
If the disciples of Dachunyang Palace involved in the pursuit all gathered toward the small commodities wholesale market, Hu Chuan would definitely have a way to get wind of it and slip away.
Therefore, a show needed to be staged, a horror drama!
To make him think that Dachunyang Palace had misjudged when he suddenly appears before him.
To avoid leaks, Lu Yibei didn’t even tell Huasang her plan.
“…”
Isn’t it just a classic feint? Who can’t do that?
Even if she guessed wrong, he definitely couldn’t escape from Shizhou City for the time being. But if she guessed right…
I have allies and room for error, but he does not!
Lu Yibei thought, her eyes narrowing in the wind, a glint of coldness flashing in her gaze.
