Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The informal interrogation came to an end.

Xiang Wan gained a complete victory. When she got up from her seat, her back was already covered in perspiration.

Cheng Zheng, Quan Shaoteng, and Mei Xin looked at her in wonder. Their eyes revealed their bewilderment and surprise at the outcome…

Cheng Xin, however, shot a glance from the corner of her eyes. Her expression was so dark it felt as though she had eaten sh*t.

Xiang Wan had proven Cheng Xin wrong. In a normal scenario, she should be very happy with this outcome.

However, her voice sounded as though she was about to collapse.

“Captain Quan—I’ve tried my best.”

There was no joy in her tone.

Not even a tinge of victory.

They could only hear her worried tone as she thought of Bai Muchuan.

“Captain Quan, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

A thin layer of mist could be seen forming in Xiang Wan’s eyes. When Quan Shaoteng saw that, he felt his heart twinge and puffed a sigh. As he got up from his seat, his expression was so cold and determined as though he had transformed into a different person.

“Leave it to me!”

…

The Vulture’s Mouth Yu Bo was talking about was the name of a geographic location, not the Vulture’s Mouth they were previously led to believe.

The place they were in now was known as the Vulture’s Mouth.

The mountain was also called the Vulture’s Mountain.

It was said that the mountain was named that way because it looked like a vulture about to take flight.

When they came here, Xiang Wan could only see mountains overlapping each other. She just couldn’t tell which part of it had looked like a vulture…

However, the Vulture’s Mouth Yu Bo described did look like a vulture’s mouth. The sharp, hooked beak was as though linking the peaks of the mountains together.

Before Quan Shaoteng left, he had instructed his men to fetch the old granny from Yu Bo’s village. They then proceeded to select members to form a search team and to take their dinner before setting off.

The old granny arrived shortly. When she heard that they were going into the mountains—Vulture’s Mouth, she kept waving her hand and looked at them with a terrified expression.

“Don’t go there, don’t go!”

“Why?”

“That Vulture’s Mouth eats people!”

“…”

That place was a forbidden ground to the locals.

They’d heard rumors about mysterious disappearances and deaths. There were even some talks of it that it was a haunted forest—such myths were very convincing to a poor and remote village.

Very few people resided in Vulture’s Mouth. With the addition of such superstitions, almost no one dared to step into the mountains.

The old granny gave an account that for the long years she lived here, the locals, no matter young or old, they would always take a detour. No one would ever dare step in there even if they only needed some firewood. As a result, the trees there were extremely dense. If someone were to go in, one would feel like one was buried under the trees.

“Have you went in there before?” Xiang Wan asked.

The old granny was startled for a moment.

It was because she saw Xiang Wan’s ashen looking face. She seemed frightened of her.

“No, no, no,” she waved her hands anxiously. “I’ve never entered there before. I don’t even dare to. If you didn’t ask me, I wouldn’t even want to talk about it.”

Xiang Wan walked towards the old lady. “Granny, how old are you this year?”

The old granny smiled, a hint of confusion written on her face. “I will be 80 years old soon!”

Xiang Wan smiled at her. “This is an age where one would not tell lies.”

A wider smile appeared on the old granny’s amiable, wrinkled face. Almost all of her teeth had fallen off with just a few still remaining in her mouth.

“… I don’t dare to!”

Xiang Wan nodded her head and suddenly changed the subject.

“You said none of those who went in managed to come out alive, that nobody dared to enter those mountains… But I was told someone did entered that place before. That someone also managed to come out of it alive?”

Her tone lacked emotion.

But was soft and slow.

The old granny avoided making eye contact with Xiang Wan.

To her, she felt that the young lady’s eyes were too bright and deep as though they could hook her soul. She did not dare to look at them.

The old granny looked away while answering. “There’s indeed one such person. He’s the only one as well. He is Yu Sanwa—third son of Old Yu from our village.”

The old granny became more talkative after Xiang Wan started the conversation. She said that many years ago, Yu Sanwa had an affair with his sister-in-law, and the whole village spurned him. When his brother got to know about the affair, he beat him up badly. Back then, Yu Sanwa was forced to flee, and he entered Vulture’s Mouth. Everybody had thought he would never come back again…

However, to everybody’s surprise, he managed to come out of it alive.

This Yu Sanwa the old granny talked about was Brother Steel.

The old granny recalled that Yu Sanwa was like a totally changed person after he came out of Vulture’s Mouth alive.

He became an irascible person and would beat a person up without any reason. He behaved violently but he never mentioned what happened to him inside Vulture’s Mouth.

The villagers thought Yu Sanwa got possessed.

Possessed by the curse of Vulture’s Mouth.

From then on, Yu Sanwa became the notorious man of Vulture’s Mouth. Nobody dared to provoke him.

Not long after Yu Sanwa came out of Vulture’s Mouth alive, he also started to do business which made him rich in a very short amount of time. His business seemed to be doing well and not long after, he built a villa. As for the people from the village, they either left or passed away, including his own brother.

Most of the people who were still alive did not want to live there anymore…

Eventually, that place became Yu Sanwa’s territory.

Xiang Wan asked, “Do you know what type of business Yu Sanwa is involved in?”

The old granny shook her head. “Everybody avoids him like the plague. Who would dare ask?”

…

What the granny said was mostly based on her understanding.

However, all of these were considered useful information to Xiang Wan.

“Is there really such a mysterious place in this world?”

“Do you think it’s similar to the Bermuda Triangle…?”

By then, everyone was ready to head out.

The group of people were discussing this mysterious myth in the courtyard.

Xiang Wan walked out as well and made a simple statement.

“I suspect that’s the place where the Dark Clan is making their drugs!”

Everyone fell silent at her remark.

Quan Shaoteng gave her a glance and nodded his head.

“That should be the most logical explanation!”

However, although the explanation was reasonable…

That would also mean Bai Muchuan and the rest were in a dire situation!

…

Quan Shaoteng was certainly the Operations Captain for a good reason.

Although he was not well-versed in interrogation or questioning, he was very experienced in field missions and assigning tasks.

All the police officers at the villa had been mobilized by him, including those armed reinforcement police officers who had just arrived from Nanmu region. He conducted a short briefing and deployed a thorough assignment of tasks.

Manpower, weaponry, and strategy.

The whole process did not take more than 15 minutes.

Once they were properly equipped and fully prepared their supplies, they were ready to roll out.

Xiang Wan asked, “Is everything ready?”

“Yes! Perfect!” Quan Shaoteng narrowed his eyes as he inspected the team he had assembled, hands on his waist. “The only imperfection is that… they are not soldiers from Red Thorn.”

In fact, not only were they not from Red Thorn, none of them were from Serious Crime Division One as well.

“It’s alright.” Xiang Wan smiled at him. “The best are all inside there with Bai Muchuan. We just need to meet up with them.”

Quan Shaoteng kept quiet upon hearing that.

At this moment, he was no longer as optimistic as before.

However, Xiang Wan was still the same. She had great confidence in Bai Muchuan.

That thought sent a chill down his spine and made him speechless, as well as a little ashamed of himself.

“You’re right! Once I meet up with Little Bai, we’ll be formidable!”

“Mm.” Xiang Wan nodded her head heavily and smiled. “We should head out now—”

We? Quan Shaoteng was stunned.

He gasped and looked at her calm face. “Teacher Xiang, you wait for me here with the second-in-command, Hassan. This mission is going to be dangerous…”

“No!” Xiang Wan’s eyes dimmed and had a pleading tone in her voice. “I want to come along!”

“… It’s inconvenient for you to come along. If something were to happen…”

“Having unable to find Bai Muchuan is already the most unexpected incident that happened to me.”

Xiang Wan looked at him stubbornly. She suddenly changed her tone and added, “Surely you do not want to see that…” The corners of her lips quirked upwards as her desperation showed on her tone. “If something really happened, we would be able to see each other for one last time, right?”

“…”

Those words were like a dagger piercing through Quan Shaoteng’s heart.

He was not a soft-hearted person by nature.

However, Bai Muchuan was like a brother to him, he was certainly one of his few soft spots in his heart.

Since Xiang Wan was such a brave woman, he need not play the bad guy.

“Okay!”

Once Quan Shaoteng made up his mind, he would not waver.

He turned his head and shouted a command powerfully towards the people assembled in the courtyard.

“Everybody, attention!”

These people had served the army before, and they were used to obeying commands.

Upon hearing Quan Shaoteng’s orders, everyone lined up neatly.

Quan Shaoteng furrowed his eyebrows as he spoke. “Everyone, listen carefully. This mission will be a very difficult one. This, is not just a rescue mission, it can also turn into a mission to destroy this criminal organization once and for all. Of course, this is also the time to show them what we’re made of! As men, we achieve and accomplish goals! Don’t go soft on them! We’ve prepared so long for a day like this, but—”

He paused for a moment and took a good look at every one.

“I hope every one of you here will come back safely!

“By then, we shall have a huge celebration right here!”

His words were filled with strength and energy. He sounded totally different when he was handling normal police tasks earlier in the day.

His words obviously boosted the morale of the group of armed police officers. Together, they shouted at the top of their voice.

“We pledge to complete our mission!”

“We pledge to complete our mission!”

“…”

There was quite a distance from the villa to the actual Vulture’s Mouth.

However, the road outside the villa could directly reach the bottom of Vulture’s Mouth…

It was a very strange terrain.

Both sides of the view were lined up with tall mountains where the center of the view was flat like a straight line. The trees had such luxuriant foliage that could block most of the sunlight even in the daytime.

It was no wonder that for so many years, nobody dared to step into that area.

Probably only a crazy person would enter such a creepy place that totally smelt like danger.

The police cars stopped when they reached the place.

Everyone lifted their heads to look at the mountains that were shaped similarly like a bird’s beak. They couldn’t help but feel a chilly feeling ran through their bodies.