Heaven and Earth Destroy

The female secretary offered no explanation.

Explanations were for the living.

She stepped into the range of the light prison, shifted the wakizashi to her right hand, and aimed the tip at Hakucho Keifu’s throat.

Hakucho Keifu struggled, but his shadow was pinned down by the beams of light, leaving his body nailed to the floor. His fingers twitched with difficulty. He began forming a hand seal, but it fell apart halfway through.

The female secretary said in a low voice, “The higher-ups said you know too much. You can’t be allowed to live.”

Hakucho Keifu gritted his teeth and sneered.

“I also know you padded last month’s reimbursement claim by three thousand. You’re not exactly innocent yourself.”

The female secretary’s movements stalled.

“Why were you investigating that?”

“If a secretary’s expenses aren’t checked, what kind of boss would I be?”

Hakucho Keifu took a breath and somehow still managed to smile.

The female secretary wasted no more words. The wakizashi shot straight for his throat.

Before the blade could fall, two strange forces suddenly surged from the shadows inside the light prison, forcibly knocking the wakizashi aside.

The female secretary’s wrist shook. She retreated several steps, her heels thudding against the carpet.

A figure appeared in the corner of the office.

Hakucho Keifu looked up. When he saw the person’s face, he could not help frowning.

“Zhafu of Tibet?”

Zhafu ignored him.

He wore white-bone magical implements over both hands, their joints engraved with dense, intricate patterns. Standing at the boundary between light and shadow, he looked as though he had just stepped out of another dimension.

A second figure appeared in the office right after him, except this one was sitting in Hakucho Keifu’s office chair.

He had even casually picked up a ballpoint pen from Hakucho Keifu’s desk and was examining the brand printed on its cap.

Hakucho Keifu’s breath caught.

“Lin Mo!”

He had heard that name countless times and seen plenty of photographs, but this was his first time seeing Lin Mo in person.

After Vina went missing, several lines of contact were severed, and Neon’s sleeper agents in Huaxia were eliminated one after another. Hakucho Keifu had suspected for some time that Lin Mo was behind it all.

Hakucho Keifu reacted quickly.

He raised both hands and knelt on the floor.

“Lin Mo! I want to defect! All the information is here. I can hand over Neon’s entire intelligence network in the south to Yanhuang Awakening. Everything I know! It’s all here!”

Lin Mo raised his head and glanced at Hakucho Keifu, then looked toward the female secretary at the door.

The hand gripping the blade had already steadied itself again.

She recognized Lin Mo, but she did not retreat.

Lin Mo placed the pen back on the desk.

“Kill him.”

The two words had barely fallen when Zhafu raised his hand.

Two beams of gloomy light shot out from the white-bone implement, heading straight for the female secretary’s chest.

She brought up her blade to block. The wakizashi bent under the impact of the light.

Using the force to retreat, she reached her left hand toward her waist, still intending to throw another light-prison bead.

Zhafu expressionlessly raised his hand.

The white-bone implement opened. Its bone plates interlocked, while several black markings snaked along the floor and wrapped around the female secretary’s ankle, forcibly dragging her half a step back.

That half-step cost her life.

The gloomy light pierced through the gap beside the wakizashi and struck her shoulder and ribs.

The female secretary groaned and dropped to her knees. The light-prison bead slipped from her hand, rolled across the floor, and came to a stop at Lin Mo’s feet.

Lin Mo lowered his gaze, glanced at it, and nudged the round bead aside with the tip of his shoe.

“This thing’s pretty bright. It’d be useful during a blackout.”

Hakucho Keifu’s eyelid twitched.

He could still joke at a time like this?

This man was even more unpredictable than the intelligence reports had described.

The female secretary raised her head and spat out a sentence in Neonese.

Zhafu gave her no chance to finish.

The white-bone implement snapped shut, and a streak of eerie light pierced through her forehead.

She collapsed. The wakizashi fell from her hand, skidded across the floor, and stopped at Hakucho Keifu’s feet.

With its source gone, the light prison lost its power and the restraints dispersed.

Hakucho Keifu stumbled out of the shadows and steadied himself against the desk.

He did not pick up the blade, nor did he make any sudden movements. He simply knelt, placed his briefcase and USB drive on the floor, and pushed them toward Lin Mo.

“These contain the entire intelligence network’s arrangements. I can go to Yanhuang Awakening and provide even more detailed information.”

Lin Mo did not look at the briefcase.

He stared at Hakucho Keifu and asked, “On the phone just now, they refused to let you return home?”

Hakucho Keifu’s back turned cold.

Had this man already been here?!

He forced down his physical reaction and nodded.

“Yes. They abandoned me.”

Lin Mo hummed. His fingers tapped against the desk.

“But I have no intention of accepting your defection either.”

As soon as he finished speaking, two bone blades pierced through Hakucho Keifu’s throat.

“Sorry. I never take prisoners here. Anything I want to know, I can find out myself.”

As he spoke, Lin Mo raised his hand and extracted the souls of Hakucho Keifu and the female secretary.

Soul-searching was far more efficient than interrogation.

—System: Host, you really have no heart. Who taught you to cultivate?! Have you forgotten? I held you in my arms when you were little—

Hong Kong, the luxury residences of Clear Water Bay.

The Wang family’s mansion stood against the mountains with a view of the sea. Wang Xincheng had personally determined its feng shui layout.

Everyone in the trade who had visited said it was excellent. Water could be seen upon entering, the mountains provided support from behind, and even the placement of the several Taihu rocks in the garden had been carefully considered.

But tonight, the light in the study was dim. The sandalwood had burned halfway down, and ash had fallen beside the bronze censer. No one had bothered to sweep it away.

Wang Xincheng sat behind the desk, his phone still open to the call history.

The caller had no name.

But Wang Xincheng knew that string of numbers very well.

He stared at the teapot on the desk for a long while before turning his phone facedown and letting out a long breath.

“Just as I thought. One sealing spell was never going to be enough.”

He reached for the compass at the corner of the desk.

That compass had been with him for more than forty years. Its face was worn, but the needle in the central pool remained steady.

Yet during the call just now, the needle had shifted by half a degree.

To an outsider, half a degree meant nothing.

To Wang Xincheng, half a degree marked the boundary between life and death.

He murmured, “I wonder if I can keep it suppressed this time.”

Someone knocked twice on the study door.

Before he could answer, the door opened.

“Dad, what are you worrying about now?”

Wang Keting poked his head in, holding a bowl of dessert. “You’ve scared the maids downstairs so badly they don’t even dare come up to bring you sweet soup.”

A woman followed behind him. She was dressed smartly, with neat makeup, and held a tablet in her hand. After entering, she first glanced at the phone on the desk, then looked at Wang Xincheng.

“Dad, who was calling?”

Wang Xincheng looked at his two children.

His daughter, Wang Leyao, was in her early thirties and managed the family business. At the negotiating table, she was no less formidable than any man.

His son, Wang Keting, was talkative, averse to trouble, and a spoiled young master. Yet, oddly enough, he had been born with an eye-catching destiny.

In the past, Wang Xincheng had often scolded the boy for being thickheaded.

But looking at him tonight, he suddenly found himself reluctant to do so.

“Sit.”

The moment Wang Keting heard that word, he placed the dessert on the desk and carefully stood to one side.

“Come on, Dad. Every time you tell us to sit, it means nothing good. Last time, you wanted me to meet the daughter of the Chen family. The time before that, you told me not to start a company.”

Wang Leyao raised her hand and smacked the back of his head.

“Sit down.”

Wang Keting covered his head and muttered, “Do you think you’re chairing a board meeting at home too? You slap anyone you see.”

“At the company, the desks I slam are worth more than you,” Wang Leyao replied without looking at him.

Wang Xincheng tapped the armrest, and the study fell silent.

“There are some very important things I need to tell you.”