Departing from Pengcheng

However, Lin Mo intended to wring this man completely dry of information.

"Aside from yourself, who else do you know is a mole? And who was your contact at the Yangcheng branch?"

Lin Mo fetched a pen and paper, ordering Ma Wenlong to confess everything clearly.

As long as the Soul Seizing technique remained active, Ma Wenlong would stay under Lin Mo's control.

Shouzhen had already sent the message out, but his phone screen remained quiet. Liu Zheng hadn't replied for a long time, causing an inexplicable sense of unease to drum in his heart.

Xia Zhi stood silently behind Ma Wenlong, watching her former comrade-in-arms—now acting like a marionette—write down name after name on the paper.

An indescribable chill washed over her, as if a thorn had pierced her heart from behind.

She watched familiar and unfamiliar names appear on the paper until the final stroke of the last name was drawn.

When she saw the name of Ma Wenlong's contact at the Yangcheng branch at the very end, her face went deathly pale.

Shouzhen also stood up to glance at the names.

A look of astonishment crossed his face.

"No way... it's him?!"

Lin Mo folded the thin sheet of paper once, then again. His fingertips pressed down hard to create sharp creases, as if compressing the heavy weight of the names written within.

Then, he casually stuffed the note into his pocket.

"Alright, get ready to move out." His voice wasn't loud, yet it instantly congealed the air in the living room. "Bring this guy along. We're going to Pengcheng."

He turned his gaze to Shouzhen and instructed, "Just remember the names on that paper. Keep them to yourself."

Shouzhen looked anxious, his brows knitted tight. "We can report this to the Yanhuang Awakening General Bureau! Let them investigate!"

"It's useless."

Xia Zhi's voice rang out coldly. She was inspecting the pistol confiscated from Ma Wenlong, skillfully removing the magazine without even looking at Shouzhen.

"What is our current status? Reporting this based on a list of unknown origin? They'll just take us for fools. And what if the person we report to is one of them?"

It was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him; the excitement on Shouzhen's face was instantly extinguished.

Lin Mo walked over and patted them both on the shoulders. The touch wasn't heavy, but it carried a stabilizing force.

Lin Mo patted their shoulders and reassured them.

"Don't worry, Sir will cover for us."

This prompted Shouzhen to ask, "So, where are we going now?"

"Sir told me that Ning Qingcheng is currently in Pengcheng."

Although he didn't know how Beixuan Zhenren had communicated this to Lin Mo, Shouzhen believed it.

Pengcheng was only about an hour or two away from Yangcheng by car.

Since the three of them had been unconscious for three hours, by that calculation, Ning Qingcheng would have long since been transported to Pengcheng.

With a click, Xia Zhi reloaded the magazine and handed the gun to Lin Mo, her eyes sharp as knives.

"Let's go, then. What about Ma Wenlong?" She glanced at Ma Wenlong, who sat on the floor like a doll, his eyes hollow.

"Bring him." Lin Mo took the gun, concise and to the point.

"I have Sir's Puppet Talisman. Once I stick it on him, he'll do whatever he's told."

Shouzhen was surprised to hear that Lin Mo possessed so many talismans with different effects.

"Alright, but I need to disguise myself. Wait a moment." Xia Zhi walked directly into the room.

Lin Mo turned to look at Shouzhen. "What about you? Do you need a disguise?"

Shouzhen shook his head instinctively.

Lin Mo smiled. He fished a sheet of yellow paper inscribed with cinnabar runes from his pocket. Moving with the speed of a magician, he slapped it directly onto his own chest.

An imperceptible ripple spread out from the talisman.

Shouzhen watched helplessly as Lin Mo's face changed right before his eyes. Brow bone, nose bridge, lips—everything was being reshaped.

A few seconds later, a stranger with ordinary features—the kind who would disappear instantly in a crowd—stood before him wearing Lin Mo's clothes.

This wasn't just a disguise; it was a complete transformation.

In reality, Lin Mo had simply used the False Form divine ability to change his face.

Shouzhen's mouth gaped wide enough to fit an egg. "Th... There's a talisman for this too?!"

"Good stuff, right?" Lin Mo's voice had also become raspy and unfamiliar. He pulled out another talisman and slapped it onto Shouzhen.

Shouzhen shuddered but didn't feel anything specific.

"It changed already?" He reached up to touch his face in confusion.

His fingertips met a rough, prickly texture.

He suddenly realized he had grown a thick ring of stubble.

"Feel it?" Lin Mo forced a smile onto his new face. "A new face avoids a lot of trouble. At the very least, it won't give the enemy a chance to seek revenge later."

Shouzhen felt there was logic in Lin Mo's words.

A moment later, a disguised Xia Zhi walked out. She looked up to see two strange men sitting in the living room wearing Lin Mo and Shouzhen's clothes. One of them was stroking his new beard with great interest.

"You guys..."

Xia Zhi was dumbfounded.

"You use a disguise, I use transformation. It's about the same," Lin Mo spoke. The familiar cadence coming from a strange throat carried a bizarre sense of comedy.

Xia Zhi stared blankly for two seconds before letting out a long sigh, her tense shoulders relaxing.

"If I'd known you had treasures like that, I wouldn't have wasted my box of imported skin wax."

Geared up and ready, the three of them got into the Cadillac and set off immediately.

In a basement with absolutely no signal.

Liu Zheng was holding a scalpel, cutting into Zhai Xun's body.

Since leaving the manor, Zhai Xun's corpse hadn't undergone any changes.

"It's no good. I can't tell when he died at all. I can only determine that he was in great pain before the end."

Placing the last piece of blood-red crystal onto a tray, Liu Zheng sighed.

"Do you have any recollection of this kind of ability?"

Old Bai frowned as he looked at Zhai Xun's corpse.

"No. I haven't seen an ability that can coagulate blood for such a long time and keep it at low temperatures."

Just then, the basement door was pushed open.

A figure wearing a hood and a mask stood in the doorway.

"I know. In 1998, a very powerful Cryo-Killer appeared in Southeast Asia. People killed by this Cryo-Killer all exhibited blood coagulation that wouldn't thaw for a long time."

He walked step by step toward Zhai Xun's corpse.

"The bodies of those killed by the Cryo-Killer looked exactly like this one."

"Are you saying the person we caught last night is that Cryo-Killer from 1998? So this killer has become a professional hitman now and is involved in the Pengcheng incident?"

Liu Zheng hadn't expected that he had managed to catch such a killer.

However, the hooded man shook his head.

"That's not right."

It was Old Bai who spoke this sentence. Old Bai turned to look at Liu Zheng.

"The guy we caught yesterday looked only about twenty. Ten years ago, he would have been around ten years old. He was already a powerful Cryo-Killer back then?"

The hooded man picked up a piece of the blood-red crystal that was emitting cold air.

"Indeed, it isn't him. Because the Cryo-Killer was taken out by Yanhuang Awakening back in the millennium."