WHOOSH...
Worried that something might happen to Li Xiaohong and that he might miss whatever conspiracy these old men were plotting, Shen Fei made his decision after just two seconds.
Time to leave home!
Although he had resolved not to carelessly leave his villa, this incident forced him to get moving again.
The small building chosen by the conspirators was situated in a tricky spot, about eight or nine kilometers away from his home. This placed it beyond the current range of most of his Defense Towers. His [Attribute Enhancement Tower] had only regained three uses. Knowing there was a secret treasure in the building, he planned to go all out, like a lion hunting a rabbit, and refused to settle for using just four Defense Towers. This time, he was going to deploy all ten of them. To do that, he had to change his position.
WHOOSH.
Having made his decision, Shen Fei acted immediately. Soon, the mist enveloping his home began to spread...
Using the Detection Tower, he located an abandoned school four kilometers from his house. Riding the Golden Celestial Horse, concealed by the enveloping mist, he landed inside the school without alerting anyone.
WHOOSH.
The moment he landed, a large, dense cloud of mist shrouded the deserted school.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Once the mist covered the school and provided visual cover, Shen Fei deployed nine Defense Towers in one go. Aside from the Mist Tower he had left at home, he now had nine available slots for his Defense Towers. He placed all of them on the playground of the abandoned school:
The Breaking Forbidden Tower.
The Guard Tower.
The Detection Tower.
The Divine Thunder Tower.
The Star-Slaying Tower.
The Vine Tower.
The Corn Cannon Tower.
...
Shen Fei deployed nine Defense Towers in a single breath. While fully activating the Guard and Detection Towers, he focused his attention on the hidden building four kilometers away.
The building was eight or nine kilometers from his villa. By moving to this midpoint, he was now within five kilometers of both locations. This allowed him to simultaneously monitor his villa and attack the hidden building with his full strength.
Break!
The third basement level of the hidden building was protected by a Barrier. After spending thirty seconds on preparations, Shen Fei used the newly deployed Breaking Forbidden Tower to shatter the membrane blocking his view.
WHOOSH.
A Tenth Tier Defense Tower specializing in breaking restrictions naturally shattered the obstruction with ease. Moreover, it caused no sound or disturbance.
WHOOSH.
The instant the Barrier was broken, Shen Fei used his Detection Tower to send his viewpoint back over. He was in. This time, with the membrane broken, he got in smoothly.
His view entered the third basement level, which was warm and damp. Shen Fei saw that the lowest floor of the building was an interrogation room resembling an ancient prison. Under deliberately dim lighting stood several men in black. A middle-aged man in a cardigan with a buzz cut was gripping an older womanâs hair with both hands, questioning her loudly.
Just as his gaze swept past the middle-aged man to the other three who were clearly kidnap victims, Shen Fei froze again.
Granny Jia!
In this interrogation room, he actually saw Granny Jia. The older woman whose head was being held by the middle-aged man was Granny Jia from his own residential complex. Before this, he had planned to first deal with Granny Jia for randomly throwing feces. But because of his sister, he had come to rescue her best friend first. He never expected that Granny Jia would show up here, in the same place as his sisterâs best friend!
"Iâm asking you about Shen Ziqiang! And you fucking tell me Shen Ziqiang is dead?!" the middle-aged man in the cardigan shouted fiercely. "Dead my ass! Look here! Heâs alive and well! How did a fucking idiot pig like you ever become the community director!"
He had grabbed Granny Jia, the community director, hoping to get more information about the Shen Family. But he never expected that in her mind, Father Shen was already dead, and even Shen Fei had passed away. Looking at the terrified Granny Jia, who had lost control of her bowels, the middle-aged man cursed his bad luck for failing to gather any useful information.
CLANG!
Shoving the reeking Granny Jia aside, the middle-aged man turned his attention to the other two people. Shen Fei recognized one of them: Li Xiaohong, the one he was looking for. The other was a young man with thick brows and large eyes.
Seeing that Li Xiaohong wasnât in immediate danger, just tied up, Shen Fei held back. He had already quietly aimed all his Defense Towers at the building and planted a dozen thick vines in ambush under the third basement floor. He wanted to see more, to uncover more of these old menâs secrets.
"Mister! Mister, come at me! Donât bully my classmate!" Qiao Shan, a member of the guard team at Qing City Institute of Technology, was filled with despair.
He originally thought inheriting his game abilities meant he was about to take off. But after just half a night of feeling good, bad luck had shamelessly latched onto him, one misfortune after another. His string of bad luck began yesterday. He tried to show off at school, only to be crushed by Brother Kaipan. He then left for the Tourism Management Office, where he was intimidated by its directorâShen Yueâs father. Dejectedly trying to return to school, he was kidnapped by a group of Japanese men. After managing to escape and make it back to campus in the middle of the night, he resolved to never again leave the protection of its Defense Towers. But his hopes were dashed when a classmate, pretending to be an admirer, ambushed him with a club and knocked him unconscious. When he next awoke, he was in a cage. He had been kidnapped again.
A few hours ago, after a middle-aged man stared into his eyes for three seconds, Qiao Shan had involuntarily spilled countless pieces of intelligence. This included everything he knew about Shen Yue and Brother Kaipan, the latter of whom was ranked 18th on the Combat Power leaderboard and often followed Shen Yue. Qiao Shan told them everything.
Then, an hour ago, Qiao Shan saw his classmate, Li Xiaohong, get dragged in, also a kidnap victim. Before she could even be interrogated, another older woman was brought in. Seeing the man who had been grabbing the old womanâs hair now standing before Li Xiaohong, Qiao Shan shouted out of a sense of camaraderie.
CREAK!
Just then, the cell door opened again. Five or six middle-aged men in sharp suits and leather shoes walked in.
"President Ma, how is it going?" one of them asked, standing next to the man in the cardigan.
"This old woman is useless! Community director, my ass!" the man in the cardigan said quickly. "This kid is the most useful one. He said Sun Yu is the guy, and that heâs even seen him! This kid also inherited abilities from the game âTower Defense of Ten Thousand Realmsâ, so the information from his interrogation is quite reliable! Now itâs time to interrogate this girl. Sheâs the best friend of the Shen Family kidâs sister!"
"Good!" a middle-aged man wearing a gold watch nodded. "After we interrogate this girl, we move. We canât delay any longer. The longer we wait, the more trouble itâll be! Whether itâs the Shen Family kid or the Sun Family kid, weâll just grab them both!"
This group of men had previously assumed the person behind the events in Qing City was Shen Ziqiangâs son, Shen Fei. After all, they knew about Shen Fei spending two billion on Krypton Gold. Furthermore, Yi Shangtian had secretly informed them about Shen Feiâs situation. But all reportsâfrom the Tourism Management Office, from Shen Ziqiang and Sun Jianguo, and even the intelligence gathered from Qiao Shanâpointed to Sun Yu. To be safe, they conducted more tests and kidnapped more people. But the more they asked, the more confusing it became. Many among them had already decided that, regardless of the situation, it would be best to just capture both of them.
"Who are you people!" Li Xiaohong cried out agitatedly. "Iâd rather die than tell you anything!"
Her voice was soft and beautiful, but the circumstances filled it with urgency.
"Thatâs not for you to decide!" The middle-aged man ignored her words and waved his hand. Li Xiaohongâs eyes instantly rolled back as she froze, as if her soul had left her body.
...
"This is another breakthrough!" the man in the cardigan said half a minute later, after gleaning information about the Shen Family from Li Xiaohong. "This girl is very close to the Shen Familyâs girl!"
"Good!" the men agreed, exchanging glances. "Then weâll proceed with a three-pronged approach! One team will go after Shen Ziqiang and Sun Jianguo at the Tourism Management Office! One team will go after the Shen Familyâs girl, Shen Yue! And one team will go directly to the Shen Family villa to demand money and get close to Shen Fei and Sun Yu!"
"You! You all!" Li Xiaohong cried out in alarm, snapping out of her daze and hearing their plan. She didnât know why she had lost control and said everything. Although the pink tattoo on her lower abdomen was growing slightly warm, she just couldnât break free from their control.
"There, there. As long as you cooperate, Iâll give Shen Fei to you when the time comes," the middle-aged man replied with a sly smile. During the interrogation, Li Xiaohong had even confessed her feelings for Shen Fei. As he spoke, he reached out, wanting to pinch her chin. "Youâve got quite the pretty face!"
The balding middle-aged man moved to pinch the young Li Xiaohongâs chin.
"Get your filthy hands off me!" Li Xiaohong struggled with all her might, but it was useless.
CRACK!
BOOM!
Suddenly, the floor beneath them shattered, and a thick vine shot upwards, breaking through several meters of concrete and bursting into the room.
"AHHH!!!!"
The greasy middle-aged man who had reached out suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream. His outstretched hand was pierced straight through by the vine.
CRACK!
Before he could scream again, the vine that had impaled his palm whipped back like lightning, instantly binding him and dragging him underground.
SWOOSH!
SWOOSH!
SWOOSH!
The chaos erupted in an instant. Following the manâs screams, the concrete floor was broken through again and again. A dozen thick vines, each as thick as an arm and gleaming with a metallic luster, erupted from the ground and lunged toward the other men in black and their bosses.