Chapter 55: Tailing — So They're Going After Them! |
"The crow has left the nest."
Rain continued to drizzle endlessly. Su Chen was still adjusting to his recently advanced body when Hu Xiang's message arrived.
It was code — meaning Pan Yu had broken his usual two-point routine today.
A sharp glint flashed in Su Chen's eyes. His first thought was whether the man was coming for him, but he quickly dismissed the idea.
Inside the Supervision Department, even if Pan Yu attacked, he'd have nowhere to run.
'Could he be going to meet someone?' Su Chen's mind pivoted. He replied: "Report your position continuously."
He glanced out the window. The rain was tapering off and the lightning fading, which only made the night sky heavier — the vault of heaven itself seemed ready to collapse.
Su Chen pulled the Shadow Evasion Cloak on beneath his clothes and pressed the Mimicry Mask to his face, kneading it into shape.
Though it was late, the Supervision Department's HQ was still blazing with light and bustling with foot traffic. Su Chen blended into the crowd and vanished.
"This guy — is he heading for the Outer City?"
Hu Xiang was also wearing a Shadow Evasion Cloak, sparse raindrops pattering against its surface.
He held a pair of black binoculars. Intricate engravings across their metal casing flickered intermittently. In his field of vision, a blurry red silhouette advanced through the shadows.
He didn't dare get too close. Only through these binoculars could he track the target's position at all.
Fortunately, the man wasn't moving particularly fast within the city. After roughly half an hour, Su Chen rendezvoused with him at a street corner.
"Bro, this guy is definitely up to something." Hu Xiang handed over the binoculars. "Sneaking out in the dead of night — without this gadget, I'd never have spotted him."
[Shadow-Drawing Binoculars (2nd-tier): "Shadow-Revealing Engravings" allow the user to see things invisible to the naked eye.]
A 2nd-tier item — and an engraved weapon at that.
Su Chen took the binoculars, pleasantly surprised.
Engraved weapons required a skilled Engraver to etch precision patterns that, through principles no one fully understood, imbued objects with extraordinary properties.
"These are on loan from the City Patrol Department. Don't break them." Hu Xiang saw Su Chen turning them over in his hands and couldn't help cautioning. Something about Su Chen felt different again, though he couldn't put his finger on what.
Su Chen raised them to his eyes. Sure enough, a vivid red outline stood out clearly.
"Where's he going? Meeting with someone?" Hu Xiang guessed.
"Not sure. Let's just follow for now." Su Chen couldn't pin it down either. The two trailed behind with utmost caution.
At this hour, with the drizzle still falling, the streets were nearly deserted.
As they followed Pan Yu farther from the Inner City, the surrounding buildings grew increasingly modest. His pace slowed — he seemed to be trying to get his bearings.
Su Chen frowned. "Where exactly is this?"
"The western district... hmm, near Daliang River..." The pair were hidden on a rooftop. Hu Xiang surveyed the area, uncertain.
The name struck a chord. A bolt of realization shot through Su Chen's mind. "Old Han!"
This was near Han Da's home — he'd mentioned it during their last conversation.
The connection hit Su Chen like a thunderclap, and everything clicked into place.
To find out what had happened the night Qi Chuan died — and why the Evil God Artifact had been drained — Su Chen wasn't the first choice at all. Zhao Xiong and the others were the ideal targets.
Low in strength. Low in profile. Easy to overlook.
Confirm they'd been at the scene the night Qi Chuan died, then grab one and extract the truth through interrogation. Simple.
Su Chen's expression tightened. He quickly fired off a string of messages, then turned to Hu Xiang. "Does Pan Yu live in the wealthy district?"
"Not exactly — slightly off to the side. But still the villa type. What are you thinking?"
............
"Nobody home?"
In a darkened bedroom, curtains drawn tight, Pan Yu's silhouette materialized from the shadows.
A matte-black short blade twirled restlessly in his fingers, but his gaze was fixed on the empty room before him. His brow creased.
"It's his rest day. Where could he have gone?"
............
"Bro, are you sure this is a mission from Director Yuan?"
Hu Xiang watched Su Chen tap his way around Pan Yu's safe, looking like he wanted to rip the whole thing out of the wall, and felt his cheek twitch.
"Covert investigation — what's unusual about that?" Su Chen glanced up. "What did you think this was?"
Hu Xiang opened his mouth, then closed it. Su Chen pressed on: "Did you plant everything?"
"Front door, every corner of the ground-floor living room — everything you had me buy is in place. You had this planned from the start when you asked me to purchase those things?"
Hu Xiang's expression was complicated. He finally voiced what had been gnawing at him. "This is breaking and entering, plus murder, isn't it?"
He'd felt something was off for a while, but getting off this ride was no longer an option.
"Wrong." Su Chen shook his head. "Whether it's that or not is for the Supervision Department to determine. I am the Supervision Department. If I say it's not, it's not."
Hu Xiang stared, dumbfounded.
............
Deep into the small hours, all of Nanfeng City sank into an even deeper hush.
"Did he go out for fun? In this rain? Where would he go? He doesn't even have a partner."
Running a fool's errand in the middle of the night had soured Pan Yu's mood. Traveling on foot consumed too much time, and he hadn't lingered long at Han Da's place.
After waiting an hour or two with no sign of Han Da returning, he headed back.
'Forget it. I'll try someone else tomorrow. That woman — Zhou Li — should work. I hear she's close with Su Chen. She might know even more.'
He squeezed in through the crack beneath his front door, his body emerging from shadow. The surrounding darkness prompted an instinctive dry cough.
Tonight's target had been Han Da. Unsuccessful. He hadn't rushed to hit anyone else — haste breeds mistakes.
'Besides, she's supposed to be one of the patrol division's beauties. Might as well enjoy myself while I'm at it...' Pan Yu walked forward, his footsteps perfectly silent.
He hadn't originally wanted to go after Zhou Li — she was already a 1st-tier professional, meaning slightly more resistance, slightly more noise.
But tonight's failure had stirred his appetite.
Then, abruptly, his stride faltered. The motion-sensor lights hadn't come on.
'Broken?' The thought formed instinctively — followed by a chill stabbing through his chest.
A pinpoint of crimson blazed out of the darkness, hurtling toward him without warning.
Hu Xiang had been crouched behind the sofa, breath held, energy coiled, timing his strike to perfection.
His profession was Flame Spear Adept — also a mid-2nd-tier class — but he excelled in direct combat, and possessed a trait that elevated his power a full notch whenever he wielded a spear-type weapon of appropriate tier.
Every muscle in his arms locked taut. Hu Xiang was already in peak combat mode. Gripping his spear, flames spiraling along the shaft — one strike, one kill.
The air split with a piercing shriek. Scorching heat rushed at Pan Yu's face.
"Who?!"
Pan Yu's pupils contracted as raw terror flooded him. But years of ingrained instinct triggered his shadow-hiding ability reflexively — he moved to melt away.
Hummm—
In the very next instant, light sources erupted from every direction. The pitch-black living room blazed into blinding brilliance. The shadows at his feet vanished.
His stealth ability failed. He was pinned in place.
The lost fraction of a second had cost him his only window to resist.
Squelch!
The spear punched through his body. Agony detonated through every nerve — but in that same instant, it ignited the savage fury buried inside him.