After hanging up the phone, Chen Nan didn’t even bother to ask Li Li for leave and dashed off immediately.
While he was on the phone, he hadn’t tried to lower his voice, so Li Li in the classroom heard everything loud and clear. Annoyed, she walked out of the classroom, intending to have a serious talk with this problematic student.
But when she stepped outside—
Where was he? He had actually run off!
"This Chen Nan is driving me nuts!"
As Li Li stamped her feet in frustration, Chen Nan had already reached the school gate, assessed his bearings, activated his Qinggong, and rushed towards the address Li Lin had given him.
On the main road, many people felt a blur before their eyes, as if something had zipped by, but when they strained their eyes to look again, they saw nothing.
In less than three minutes, he had arrived at the residential area where Li Lin lived.
He went straight to the second floor of a building, following the address Li Lin had given him, and knocked on the door.
The knock had barely ended when the door creaked open, revealing a middle-aged man with slightly graying hair, his face etched with panic and urgency.
Seeing Chen Nan, the man’s face flashed with excitement as he grabbed Chen Nan’s hand and repeatedly asked, "Hello, hello, are you Mr. Chen?"
Chen Nan didn’t have time for pleasantries and got straight to the point, "Hello Uncle Li, I’m Chen Nan. We can talk about the rest later, but first, can you tell me what’s going on with Li Xiao?"
Li Lin nodded repeatedly, took Chen Nan inside the house, and directly explained the situation to him.
It turned out that as the Chief of the Yutan District Public Security Branch, he had engaged in much corrupt behavior in the past, accepting numerous bribes. Among those bribes was a Tiger Talisman said to date back to the Spring and Autumn Warring States period. It was the artifact split between the emperor and his generals, used to deploy troops.
After obtaining this intact Tiger Talisman, Li Lin had carefully cherished it until, on one occasion, he decided to give it to his backer as a birthday gift, under the guise of a congratulatory offering.
In Li Lin’s view, while the Tiger Talisman was precious, pleasing his superior was even more important.
However, what he hadn’t expected was that just three days ago, members of the Cultivation Sect, Divine Sky Sect, actually approached him demanding the Tiger Talisman.
Although Li Lin was the head of the local Public Security Branch, the Divine Sky Sect was a Cultivation Sect with numerous skilled members, and taking someone from their hands was certainly not easy.
After hesitating for a while to keep his family from being harassed, Li Lin told the members of the Divine Sky Sect the truth.
He thought that by giving them the whereabouts of the Tiger Talisman, they wouldn’t bother him anymore. Unexpectedly, a day later, they returned, claiming he had deceived them.
"Li, your leader said he’s never seen this Tiger Talisman! Damn it, you dare to mock us. It seems you won’t tell the truth until we teach you a lesson. If you don’t deliver the goods within a day, be prepared to collect your daughter’s corpse!"
Those were their exact words.
Li Lin had never imagined that the superior he had once tried so hard to please would deny this transaction.
He’d also not anticipated that the people from Divine Sky Sect wouldn’t give him any chance to explain and went straight to kidnapping Li Xiao.
Fortunately, before Li Xiao was abducted, she had sent him a message telling him to seek help from Chen Nan, which was why he hadn’t raised an alarm and instead called Chen Nan for help immediately.
After understanding the whole story, Chen Nan nodded and reassured him, "Uncle Li, don’t worry. Since the kidnappers have a specific target, they definitely won’t harm Xiao Xiao unless it’s absolutely necessary."
"But I don’t have the Tiger Talisman anymore. There’s no way I can meet their demands!" Li Lin became agitated.
Choosing to trust Chen Nan was a decision made out of utter desperation.
Seeing Chen Nan only say things that were meant to comfort without offering any solutions made Li Lin grow impatient again.
"Uncle Li, please calm down for a moment!"
Chen Nan gestured with his hand, and once Li Lin’s emotions had settled slightly, he asked, "Since they told you to exchange the item for the person, they must have left you a way to contact them, right?"
Calmed by Chen Nan’s composure, Li Lin became a bit more settled.
After thinking, he nodded and said, "Yes, they told me to call them on this number after I had thought it over."
Flipping through his phone’s contact list, Li Lin handed his phone to Chen Nan.
On it was a mobile number.
Chen Nan knew that the contact number left for Li Lin by the other party was likely unencrypted and difficult to trace by normal means.
"I’ll contact a few friends."
Chen Nan said, stepping onto the balcony of Li Lin’s home. He dialed Poison Wolf’s encrypted number, "Brother, help me pinpoint the current location of this mobile number."
Seeing Chen Nan deliberately go out onto the balcony to make the call, Li Lin tactfully didn’t follow.
He just hoped that whoever Chen Nan was calling truly had the ability to rescue his daughter.
Since the number was purposefully left by the Divine Sky Sect and encrypted, regular police efforts would not be able to trace it. However, with the Sky Team’s intelligence and surveillance capabilities, breaking through the encryption and finding the real-time location of the phone signal wasn’t difficult.
Within a minute, Poison Wolf responded, "Hey, Crown Prince, what trouble have you gotten into this time? The number is from the province’s city, but it’s currently in Thunder Mountain Villa on the outskirts of the city."
Thunder Mountain Villa?
Chen Nan furrowed his brow; he had never heard of this place before.
As if guessing Chen Nan’s question, Poison Wolf offered an explanation without waiting for him to ask, "That’s a stronghold of Divine Sky Sect in Ningjiang. What, you’ve got a beef with Divine Sky Sect? Need us to step in?"
After a moment’s consideration, Chen Nan shook his head and replied, "It’s a minor feud, but we’re not at the point of a head-on confrontation yet. Just help me gather some information on this Divine Sky Sect and give it to me later tonight."
His primary task at the moment was to get Li Xiao out safely.
As for dealing with the kidnappers later, that could wait.
Seeing that Chen Nan had made up his mind, Poison Wolf nodded in agreement, "Alright, got it. But just a heads-up, the Divine Sky Sect has some complicated backing. Don’t act rashly unless you have no other choice."
Chen Nan’s brow creased lightly.
After hanging up the phone, Chen Nan returned to the living room, "Uncle Li, don’t worry. I’m going to meet those people from Divine Sky Sect now. Leave this matter to me."
Without waiting for a response from Li Lin, Chen Nan charged out.