At that moment, both these men were sitting in meditative poses, each of them wearing Spirit Shackles. This was a great magic treasure that could even restrain True Immortals. Once they were put on, the body’s spirit energy would instantly be sealed away and the prisoner would become no different to an ordinary person, unable to cast any spells at all.

Of course, if it was just some random person, the man definitely wouldn’t feel scared in this situation.

But now, one of these two individuals was the widely renowned Master of Immortal Mansion, and the other was Devil Emperor Gua Pi who had once rocked the world. Though their spirit energy had been sealed, they still had their innate body attributes! They could thrash him instantly with just a physical attack.

Now the man finally understood the look of ridicule in the two prison officers’ eyes… so it turned out that they had been mocking him.

Faced with these two Buddha-like existences, the man felt alarm well up from the depths of his heart. He didn’t even dare look at them, and could only keep his head down very low… At this time, he wondered incessantly whether he should exercise that move from the TV series Yu Zui(1): jump quickly behind one of them, press his elbow down in the middle of their head and yell, “I told you not to motherf**king bother me!”

But the issue was… he didn’t dare!

The old devil and Master of Immortal Mansion Cheng Yu had already heard the noise earlier on, and they both just sat in silence.

After about ten minutes of deep silence, the man felt like the air around him had frozen. He didn’t dare sit down, already feeling miserable.

A while later, the old devil slowly opened his eyes and looked at the man. “Newcomer, what crime did you commit?”

“…” The man struggled in his heart, unsure whether to say it or not.

The old devil looked at him out of the corner of his eye, instantly causing the man to sweat profusely. “Here you only have two choices. Be honest… or die.”

It could only be said that the old devil was truly worthy of his name. The evil in the depths of his heart couldn’t be locked away by the Spirit Shackles. With just one look from him, the man was already so scared that he trembled all over and straightaway huddled in a corner with his arms over his head.

He looked completely scared out of his wits. “I… stole someone(2)…”

Master of Immortal Mansion Cheng Yu: “???”

The old devil: “???”

The old devil was surprised, because before the man had been sent here, Odd Zhuo had informed them of the situation and had asked them to cooperate. But wasn’t the man guilty of abducting a girl? What the hell was with this infidelity?

The man realized that what he had said sounded a little ambiguous, so he rephrased his words. “I abducted a girl…”

Mm…

Now that was the right answer!

The old devil nodded with satisfaction, then gave the man an air slap.

He hated this type of vague talk the most! Abducting a girl was abducting a girl, why did the other party need to say ‘infidelity’? Did he want to carry his next door neighbour Old Wang on his back(3)?

Odd Zhuo and Warden Liang were watching in the monitor room outside the cell, and they saw how the man was immediately lifted off his feet by the old devil’s slap, spinning three and a half times in the air before falling to the floor.

Warden Liang was sweating hard. “…” The old devil was, in the end, their most dangerous prisoner; even though he had the Spirit Shackles on, he was still so lethal.

Whatever the case, it had to be said that this trick of Odd Zhuo’s was really smart.

“What a clever plan, Director Zhuo!” Warden Liang was full of admiration. “I believe it shouldn’t be long before this person confesses.”

But was it really going to be that easy?

Odd Zhuo stared at the monitor, lost in thought.

For some reason, he felt that this entire incident wasn’t that simple. This Shuigou Sect had managed to capture twelve students one after another through underhanded means; anyone could tell that there had to be an expert who had plotted the entire thing.

And it was when Odd Zhuo and Warden Liang were thinking up various ways to interrogate this man suspected of being a member of Shuigou Sect that the local cultivation police department called to deliver the latest news on the incident.

The twelve missing students had all returned unharmed…

…

The return of the twelve missing students once again stirred up the news media and became that Friday night’s hot topic.

They had been discovered close to the end of school that day, left at the school gate in a light coma.

A surveillance camera at a street crossing had caught the minibus that had been used to transport these missing students. The police had checked the license plate and found that it was fake.

After a follow-up search, they finally discovered that the minibus had been driven to the seaside and then completely destroyed. Its entire frame had been burnt to ash and could fall apart at the slightest touch.

Everyone thought that the return of the students would lead to critical progress made in the Shuigou Sect case, but most unfortunately, none of the twelve students remembered much of what had happened after they had been captured.

In the evening, Wang Ling sat on the sofa with Father Wang and watched the news; this incident was all that the TV news talked about.

The return of the twelve students that had been taken was of course a good thing. But any criminal gang, especially a dark force as rigidly structured and watertight as Shuigou Sect, had to have a reason for whatever they did.

Everyone’s main focus now was on what Shuigou Sect might have done to the twelve students.

When Wang Ling opened the group chat, the group was in the middle of a lively discussion.

Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal said, “It looks like the police have no idea what to make of this incident, but I have some theories.”

Cailian Zhenren: “Tell us, Senior Immortal!”

Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal speculated, “After Shuigou Sect took the twelve students, it sent all of them back without the police knowing at all. This proves that the person behind the scenes has an incredibly extensive intelligence network, and is very familiar with the overall map of Songhai city. To possess such a huge intelligence network, plus genuinely strong people… I can make two rough inferences about this person’s identity. First, they previously worked in the city government’s intelligence department for a very long time, and would be some retired senior director of the department. But the probability that this is the case is very low…”

Lightning Dharmaraja: “Why’s that?”

Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal: “Given the government’s current anti-corruption campaign, many city leaders don’t dare to even show their faces at banquets anymore; at the most, they’ll just eat abalone-flavored fasting pills at home — how would they have the energy and money to build a new dark force? It would be pretty good for them already if they could afford a down payment on a house in a city school district!”

Everyone: “…”

Wang Ling: “…”

Cailian Zhenren: “Then what about the second possibility?”

Grenade-Throwing Senior Immortal said, “The second possibility is that the person behind the scenes is likely a killer, and a top veteran at that. Only veteran killers can operate such a huge intelligence network so precisely, and have enough savings to build a new dark force. Combined with this group’s skill at coming and going without leaving a trace, I think this Shuigou Sect is very likely to be a killer organization… there is only one truth(4)!”

(1) A 2016 Chinese web series based on a crime novel.

(2) “偷人” literally means to “steal someone”, which can also refer to infidelity.

(3) This is an euphemism which means to bear the consequences of someone else committing infidelity in your family.

(4) This is Detective Conan’s catchphrase, from the manga series of the same title.