Ren Tianye's expression was calm, betraying neither anger nor joy. He asked flatly, "Where is Liu Aijiu?"
"The Demon Suppression Bureau and the city lord's mansion have launched an urgent search. As long as he is still within Huai'an City, he cannot escape."
"Even if he has already left Huai'an, General reckless has led men to pursue him along the road to Pukou Town."
"He will not be allowed to evade justice!"
Ren Tianye nodded and ordered Su Jin to lead the pursuit. He then went personally to the prison to visit the theater troupe, especially the young man and woman.
Questioning the two in detail, the surprise hidden beneath his calm exterior grew heavier.
The young couple had no idea what sportswear was, nor did they understand the words they had spoken, especially terms like "club" and "bar."
They had been forced to perform all of it.
It was all Liu Aijiu's idea.
But the problem was...
How did Liu Aijiu know about these things?
Could it be that Liu Ruyan had taught him?
But...
How could Liu Ruyan know?
That segment was his personal experience!
Before his transmigration, at the age of five, he had taken a master—a traditional martial arts veteran of the orthodox lineage. He trained in internal family boxing styles like Xingyi, Bagua, practical Taijiquan, Baji, and Tongbei, mastering all of them deeply.
He also mastered various traditional weapons, both long and short.
By the age of twelve, he entered professional combat systems, including freestyle fighting, Sanda, and wrestling.
He participated in all kinds of martial arts competitions, such as the Provincial Traditional Wushu Tournament and the National Wushu Invitational. After reaching adulthood, he fought in legitimate commercial kickboxing and Sanda elite events.
He was laden with honors!
Because he walked this path with determination and solid grounding, and because after his transmigration, his strength mysteriously became formidable, he went on to fight bloody battles across various regions, becoming a top-tier military general in the Northern Frontier.
After all, in martial arts alone, modern physical fitness, principles of force generation, human anatomy, and coordination training—systematically optimized and summarized—were superior to those of the ancients.
The only lack was practical combat and fierce battle.
And his transmigration made up for that.
Before transmigration, because he followed this path, he got by fairly well and was quite popular with women.
Once, he met a girl at a nightclub.
She craved his good looks and many honors for show; he craved her great figure and playful ways. That was the so-called romantic relationship.
But the reason they broke up was exactly what the theater troupe acted out today, almost with the same script.
He couldn't spend a hundred thousand yuan on a woman he would never marry, and after she proposed breaking up, he cut off the relationship.
But...
That had been in the most private setting, and the content was only known by him and that girl. How did it...
Now appear here?
How did Liu Ruyan know?
Hadn't Liu Ruyan transmigrated twenty years ago?
If they were to meet face-to-face, she would be the age of his elder aunt!
How...
Could she be so clear?
Ren Tianye couldn't figure it out, his mind in great confusion.
For now, his only hope was that Su Jin and her team would capture Liu Aijiu and interrogate him thoroughly.
But at this very moment, Su Jin was sweating profusely.
"Liu Aijiu—still not found?"
"Sir, no. We can't find Liu Aijiu. Only these..." Xie Changfeng brought out the items seized from Liu Mansion, all of which were books.
These books were stamped with the seals of the Common Hearts Alliance and the government.
Seals stamped by Zhou Zhi.
And these books... were from the Red Phoenix Literary Pavilion.
Su Jin took a quick glance—all were romance novels—and immediately understood Liu Aijiu's intention: simply to preserve some volumes.
"According to those who have been interrogated, Liu Aijiu was still in the city last night, saying he wanted to preserve the spark. So obviously, these are the sparks he kept," said Xie Changfeng.
"But from last night onward, no one has seen Liu again. That bastard—either he ran off or is hiding."
Su Jin's expression grew heavier.
In arresting these Love Mutual Aid Alliance members, the Demon Suppression Bureau had made thorough preparations, but because they viewed these people as disorganized mobs, they hadn't bothered to seal the city gates to avoid alarming the enemy.
So Liu Aijiu could easily have fled through the city gates last night.
Alternatively, he could be hiding within Huai'an City.
Either way, it was a dereliction of duty by the Demon Suppression Bureau.
And a chance for the delusion-inducing fiends to exploit.
"Search thoroughly. Even if we have to dig three feet into the earth, find Liu Aijiu!"
"And immediately send a message to General reckless, ordering his men to conduct careful inspections. If Liu Aijiu has left the city, he could only flee toward Pukou Town, not toward the capital. He might still be on the road."
After Su Jin gave her orders, she personally joined the search party, sweeping the entire city. The common folk of Huai'an also flocked to help, searching actively.
Yet after a whole day, the ashes at Red Phoenix Literary Pavilion were nearly blown away, and there was still no sign of Liu Aijiu.
Nor any news from General reckless.
"Can he just vanish into thin air?"
Su Jin frowned deeply. As she continued the search, a thought emerged in her mind: after this matter, she would petition her Lord Duke to bring in the crack team from the Demon Suppression Bureau in the capital.
Especially Yang Tao, Chen Youli, and Wu Mingyu—the three mainstays.
With enough manpower, future operations could be more meticulous, and such mishaps as today's would never happen again.
But for now, she had to personally report to her Lord Duke and confess her failure.
"Still haven't found him?"
"Then keep searching!" Ren Tianye also issued a strict order: "That Liu Aijiu must be found."
He instructed Su Jin to intensify the search. Ren Tianye sat in his chair, feeling nothing but irritation. The more he delved into the mystery of Liu Ruyan, the more layers of fog obscured her, leaving him completely in the dark.
Just then, a guard rushed in.
"Lord Duke, someone left a letter at the mansion gate, addressed personally to you as 'Lord Duke, Personal Reading.' Our men inspected it; it's only a letter, no other irregularities."
Ren Tianye took the letter. The few characters on it made his body stiffen once more.
"Former Demon Suppression Bureau member, respectfully informs the Lord Duke: Liu Aijiu has fled toward Source City!"
...
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
