After listening to the accounts of the onlookers the inspector approached Wu Long and Old Yen, and the latter somewhat guiltily nodded to him.

‘Heh, so they are acquainted… it seems my intuition was right again, he is useful after all’

Wu Long thought as he noticed the look of ‘You are making trouble again’ on the inspector’s face when he glanced at Old Yen.

“So, it seems you are the main perpetrator here”

The inspector looked at Wu Long with a more stern gaze, steering the direction Old Yen could take advantage of to be let off with a warning or similar light consequences.

“Heh, it seems that there was a misunderstanding between us that we have already solved”

Wu Long chuckled and looked at Old Yen. The latter quickly understood and smiled.

“Inspector, it was indeed a misunderstanding…”

“Misunderstanding?!?”

The inspector’s eyes widened and he had the look of ‘Are you **ting me? How is this a misunderstanding? How the hell am I supposed to spin it like this?’, as he looked at the surroundings, littered with body parts of Old Yen’s former subordinates and rubble from the destruction unleashed by Gong Cui.

“Yes, a minor misunderstanding we have already solved”

Old Yen pleadingly looked and the inspector rolled his eyes almost imperceptibly but still maintained an outward dignified and strict appearance.

“Ahem, you two follow me to the Precinct… as well as the two ladies”

He added as Wu Long patted Old Yen’s shoulder who looked with telling eyes at the two sisters, signaling the already irritated inspector with a guilty smile.

“Inspector…”

“Your Highness, you will be escorted to the Palace by the Imperial Guards for your safety while I deal with this situation and establish all truths of the matter, as well as deal with the consequences, thank you for cooperating with the investigation as well as your patience”

The prince did not have a chance to even insert a word before he was escorted out with haste “for his safety and protection”.

Once they were at the precinct and at the office of the inspector, the owner of the office took off his hat of the government official and launched it at Old Yen with frustration.

“Misunderstanding? Seriously? You want me to wrap it up as a misunderstanding?!?!”

“Haha, Inspector Po, you should not get so angry, your blood pressure is going up again, at this rate you are going to have a misfortunate accident-…”

“You are my misfortune!!! Have you ever thought how hard it is to clean up after you every damn time?! And this time it is a thousand times worse!!!…”

He breathed heavily after shouting out but soon his breathing stabilized and he deeply sighed.

“Haa… what’s his deal? He obliterated your establishment, a work of a few centuries no less, and you are going to call it a misunderstanding?”

The inspector turned his gaze to Wu Long who looked with amusement at the scene before him. 𝐞𝗼𝘃𝐞𝐥．𝗰𝐨𝗺

“He is… my current clien-…”

“Hoh? Client? I didn’t realize what I gave you was so cheap to trade it for some services”

Wu Long chuckled, and Old Yen paled a bit since what Wu Long gave him was sparing his life.

“… my current boss”

“B-… have you been chewing those weird mushrooms again?”

The inspector looked at Old Yen in astonishment, while the Gong sisters finally slowly started to understand that they were not in as deep trouble as they initially thought.

“Haa~, you got lucky the prince was unharmed because if he was harmed even in the slightest there would not be anything I could do to help. But as long as you did not cross that line, we just need a sufficient enough sum of money to cover everything up”

Inspector Po, as he was called by Old Yen sighed, and sat down with an exhausted from the stress expression. Old Yen naturally nodded along and produced a spatial ring that he placed on the table, which the inspector examined and then nodded in confirmation.

“Are they going to be an issue?”

He then turned his gaze to the Gong sisters.

“No issue at all, I have not seen anything, no bribes, no corruption, nothi-…”

“Cui’er!”

Gong Cui rattled off as Gong Liwei closed her mouth with her hand and Wu Long chuckled while Old Yen facepalmed.

“I don’t get paid nearly enough for all of this”

The inspector looked up at the ceiling as he heavily sighed.

Wu Long once more was assured that his decision to spare Old Yen was right, as what he lacked severely in this terrain were connections and knowledge, both of which were Old Yen’s forte. Even such a seemingly complex situation where he would have to go into confrontation with the Empire was almost effortlessly solved. All it required to solve was some money, which he did not lack.

It was a dirty side of society that a righteous person such as Wei Lan would despise, even Gong Liwei had an uncomfortable look on her face, which was why the inspector asked about them in the first place.

But Wu Long was not a saint, and it did not matter to him that the inspector was heavily involved with the crime organizations in this entertainment district, as were most likely all the others. This was an ecosystem that naturally formed everywhere where society made rules, and more often than not Wu Long ignored it, if not outright used it like now.

As they left the precinct, Wu Long dismissed Old Yen who went to get the information Wu Long requested from him.

“Are you not worried that he will simply conspire against you?”

“If he was such an idiot I would not have spared him in the first place, he now knows that it is better to cooperate than to go against me, so he’ll behave”

“Then, if he knows that he cannot fight you, what about if he runs away?”

“When I spared him I placed my finger on his forehead, that was not just a simple gesture, but the moment when I placed a Soul Mark on him, he would not be able to run wherever on the three continents he goes. I just did not tell him that since I want to see what he chooses to do”

Wu Long shrugged his shoulders as it truly did not matter much to him. If Old Yen tried to escape he would just get rid of him and find a new information source.

Gong Liwei looked at Wu Long for some time, trying to figure out this mysterious man who seemingly had an answer to everything.

“Then, what are you going to do now?”

Wu Long asked Gong Liwei, and a complicated expression appeared on her face as she sighed. Returning to the family who sold her off was not a pleasant route to take, but then what did she have? Gong Cui had the Profound Music Palace, but she was not as talented in Music Dao so she could not follow her there, and she did not belong to any particular sect either.

“Hmm, how about you temporarily join a group I travel with for now? We booked the whole floor of an inn, and there are plenty of rooms left so you can stay there for a few days until you figure something out”

Wu Long asked and Gong Liwei first looked surprised, but then a light of suspicion appeared on her face. Just as she was about to speak up Gong Cui’s eyes shined.

“That sounds nice! Sister, this guy’s a good guy!”

“Cui’er!”

Gong Liwei shook her head with a sigh.

“What? Is he a bad guy?”

Gong Cui looked at Wu Long with a cute suspicious look.

“No… he is… I don’t know… Haa~ how did they let you go alone?”

“Hm? Oh, they didn’t”

“…?”

“I ran away”

Wu Long chuckled as Gong Liwei almost fainted from these words.

“Cui’er! You… you seriously! Aaargh! I don’t know anymore, let’s go see this group first then”

She cried out in frustration as it seemed that her little sister did not have anywhere to go in the capital as well. Wu Long almost laughed out loud at how these sisters recklessly made decisions on the spot without thinking much of the consequences, but tactfully decided to not show too much amusement as the day had enough stress for the elder of the sisters.

He led them to the inn where he and his beauties stayed with the pirates, where no one except for the mother-daughter pair showed much surprise at the sight of Wu Long bringing a pair of exquisite beauties with him.

Much like Cao Xiang and Cao Mei were surprised at the sight of them, the sisters were also gobsmacked at the sight of so many peerless gorgeous women collected together, all traveling with one man, and while Gong Cui expressed excitement to see so many interesting new people, Gong Liwei’s mind was blank for quite some time.

They were warmly welcomed by a beauty with a very shiny personality who had brown eyes and dark brown hair, wearing slim upper clothes and tight pants. The other beauties smiled for some reason when they saw the way she greeted them, as did Wu Long, while the pirates expressed surprise at the warm attitude of the usually colder beauty.

‘Heh, it seems Min’er decided to probe them first’

Wu Long inwardly chuckled, shaking his head at her suspicious personality to anyone she met for the first time.