"One face a thousand guises, Illusion Fox." The person in black revealed his true face under the light, a man, but with an unfamiliar countenance—a foreign assassin. In the Illusion Fox’s hand, too, was a dagger, and they were clad in the custom soft armor of the Ghost.
"As expected, Lord Netherworld King is full of clever strategizing; you anticipated an assassination attempt. Now that you are surrounded, surrender quickly." Illusion Fox said with a cold laugh. Earlier, Ye Shikai had secretly arranged for the Ghost to transfer Su Qingyu to another sickroom, and had Illusion Fox disguised as Su Qingyu, just waiting for the assassin to walk into the trap.
"Bang." The door of the sickroom was smashed open, and several Hidden Guards rushed in, encircling the assassin. Seeing the assassin’s tongue move slightly, Illusion Fox rushed over and delivered a punch directly to his face.
"Catch him, don’t let him commit suicide by poison." Illusion Fox grasped the assassin’s face, and a capsule fell out straight away.
"Take him away." Illusion Fox commanded loudly, then ordered to have the poison capsule safely secured for analysis.
"Ah!" Suddenly, the captured assassin let out a cry of pain, and the adjacent Hidden Guard tightly pinned him down, preventing any attempts to escape or break free.
"Ah!" The assassin suddenly spewed out a mouthful of black blood. Illusion Fox’s expression turned grave. By these signs, it seemed the assassin not only had poison hidden in his teeth to sacrifice his life but must have also ingested poison before setting off, timed to take effect. It was evident the malice and cunning of the person pulling the strings from behind.
"Open his mouth." Illusion Fox commanded, pulling out a pill from his pocket and stuffing it directly into the man’s mouth, swallowed whole with a gulp.
"It’s alright, he is safe now. Take him away." The pill Illusion Fox had just fed him was indeed the pride of Zi Yun, the Shennong Pill, capable of neutralizing all poisons in the world—an absolute treasure. But it was somewhat regrettable to have it used by an assassin. However, Ye Shikai had instructed this for the express purpose of drawing out the hidden mastermind.
Yanjing, Netherworld Palace base.
The base seemed particularly solemn today. Ye Shikai sat in the center, his fingers lightly tapping on a wooden table, producing a rhythmic knocking sound. To his left, Ji Qian and Wang Kai sat upright and alert; to his right were the Netherworld Palace’s four great war generals. Those present nearly constituted half the might of the Underworld.
"What everyone’s been thinking, I already know, so I won’t dwell on it any longer." After a few minutes of silence, Ye Shikai was the first to break the atmosphere.
"Boss, we have pried the name of the mastermind from the assassin’s lips." The words of Ghost landed like a bombshell; so easily had they drawn out the culprit behind the curtain.
"Who is it?" Ye Shikai spoke coldly, his voice trembling slightly—a sign that he was on the verge of outrage.
"Boss Xing." Ghost spat out these three words, and almost everyone present gritted their teeth in hatred—this Boss Xing, like a pest, was tirelessly harassing them.
"Bang." Suddenly a hole appeared in the table, and Ye Shikai wiped away the splinters from his hand, taking a deep breath, as he had nearly exploded in anger just now.
"Be careful, the second personality could resurface." Ji Qian channeled a stream of gentle Inner Strength into Ye Shikai’s body, melding with his own tyrannical Inner Strength to suppress his Dantian. Ji Qian was very worried that these events might trigger the second personality within Ye Shikai’s heart. They had barely returned to Yanjing, just barely steered clear of heart-racing battles, and now it seemed they were to provoke his anger again.
"I am fine." Ye Shikai waved his hand and said indifferently.
"According to the Hidden Guard’s investigation, these mothmen are also secretly researched by Boss Xing, there should be no mistake about that." Ghost nodded, placing a plastic bag on the table, which contained something resembling leather, causing some confusion among the people present.
"An hour ago, we found one of Boss Xing’s secret bases." Ghost reported, "There, Nightmare killed a female assassin." Ghost laid a photo in front of Ye Shikai.
"I know this woman, she can also disguise herself. She’s one of Boss Xing’s assassins, I think her name is... Poisonous Concubine." Ye Shikai picked up the photo, the woman had an ordinary face, but Ye Shikai could never forget her. Once, this woman had disguised herself as Su Qingyu and went to a hotel room with him, but Ye Shikai saw through her disguise immediately.
"Boss has said a lot, this piece of leather was extracted from her boots." Ghost continued, "This is a kind of rare poisonous snake skin from South America, extremely rare."
"So what, are you just trying to say that this woman’s boots are valuable?" Wang Kai was somewhat puzzled, not knowing what Ghost was getting at.
"Of course not, Boss, do you remember Zhao Rou being poisoned to death in the National Security Bureau’s prison?" Ghost waved his hand and turned his head towards Ye Shikai.
"Of course, with her death, the lead on the mothmen was cut off."
"Did you collect small leather scraps around the prison at that time?"
"Could it be that..."
"That’s right, I compared the two leathers and confirmed they are the same kind." As soon as Ghost finished speaking, everyone took in a sharp breath. This meant it could almost be confirmed that the mastermind behind Zhao Rou was Boss Xing, and after the failure of the HST plan, Zhao Rou was naturally silenced by him, then Boss Xing took over the HST project.
"That son of a bitch Xing, I’ll flay him alive." Soul Destroyer cursed fiercely.
"I deduce that the one who kidnapped Miss Luo today was also Boss Xing, after all, only he has the means to mobilize the mothmen." Ghost continued.
"When I went to rescue her, I encountered a woman in black veil. Have you figured out her identity?" Ye Shikai was rubbing his chin, speaking thoughtfully.
"Could it be, that person was Poisonous Concubine?" Ji Qian asked.
"Impossible, I know Poisonous Concubine’s capabilities, she doesn’t have this kind of strength." Ye Shikai immediately denied. Poisonous Concubine was at most a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, she couldn’t possibly harm Ye Shikai. That woman in black veil must be someone else.
"I remember, today when Wang Kai and I went to the rescue, we were stopped by the National Security Bureau." Ji Qian suddenly brought up this incident, which struck Ye Shikai as odd. How did the National Security Bureau know the whereabouts of the two Lords, otherwise, how could Tianjing possibly block the way.
"Could it be that someone tipped them off?"
"Wang Qian." Ye Shikai’s gaze sharpened, with the Wang Family’s status, what they say could definitely influence the National Security Bureau. Moreover, Wang Qian was at the scene today, she saw with her own eyes the two Lords’ arrival and hurried departure. If she took this opportunity to tip off the National Security Bureau, it would allow Tianjing to intercept halfway. This was not impossible.
"That damn woman, Boss, she must be scheming against us in the dark, not letting Lord Moon God and Lord War God go to the rescue." Soul Destroyer said excitedly.
"There’s another thing, the Hidden Guard led by Wild Wolf and Short-nosed Crocodile was also stopped by the police today, saying they needed to be inspected."