Chapter 605: Chapter 605: Taking Over the Ninth Game_1
Li Qing watched as Gong Ge skillfully disassembled the whip and bound the shepherd’s hands and feet, while he made a call to Wang Baichuan.
"Officer Wang, withdraw your men. You probably can’t get involved in this matter anymore, I need to take over!"
Once the call connected, Li Qing got straight to the point.
"It really involves a cultivator?" Wang Baichuan asked in surprise.
"An evil cultivator, six of them, to be exact, and they’re very alert. Your men have been spotted," Li Qing relayed the information he had just extracted from the shepherd to Wang Baichuan, then added, "Withdraw everyone, there’s no need to increase casualties unnecessarily."
"Alright!" Wang Baichuan agreed readily, "Do you need any assistance from me?"
Once evil cultivators were involved, it was no longer their department but Li Qing’s jurisdiction.
"Was that drone in the sky yours?" asked Li Qing.
"Yes, but it didn’t find anything. We still haven’t pinpointed exactly where these bandits are hiding," said Wang Baichuan.
Li Qing looked upwards to determine the location and said, "Help me check the courtyard under the northeast side of the mountainside, to the right. There’s a blue tin house, with two large apricot trees below, and a household with a grave next to it."
"Okay, I’m at the village entrance right now. Where are you? I’ll come find you!" Wang Baichuan said.
"You’ll see if you come to the top of the mountain," Li Qing replied.
"Alright, wait a few minutes for me."
After hanging up the phone, Li Qing made another call to Dian Chunqiu.
For safety’s sake, he needed to call for backup!
There were five people on the opposing side, and while Li Qing was confident he could deal with them, he was concerned about ensuring Lü Zong’s safety.
It was better to play it safe.
There was currently no real person in charge in Suzhou for Division Nine, and since Li Qing reported directly to the Bureau Chief Dian Chunqiu, he had to reach out to him.
After ending the call, Gong Ge came over and asked, "Qingzi, what do we do now?"
"For now... it seems we can only wait. It will probably take some time for reinforcements to arrive," Li Qing replied with a hint of helplessness.
Gong Ge hesitated, running his hands through his hair before asking, "Qingzi, it’s just that... I didn’t quite understand what you said just now."
"What didn’t you understand?" Li Qing asked in surprise.
"That is, what kind of evil cultivator is the other party, and this Qi cultivation, what’s all that about?" Gong Ge inquired.
Li Qing looked at Gong Ge with a serious expression, "Gong Ge, it’s good to know these things, but don’t utter a word of it to anyone. It’s a secret from another world. You must have seen rumors about something like ’ascension tribulations’ online, right? It’s roughly that kind of thing."
Gong Ge’s expression instantly became incredibly animated, "I had some suspicions in that direction but didn’t dare to think it. Are there really people in this world capable of flying through the air and escaping from the earth, like lifting a mountain with a wave of their hand or filling seas?"
Li Qing nodded, "I can’t give you the details, but I can give you a definite answer, there certainly are."
"Geez, this... is simply unbelievable," Brother Gong said with a look of shock. "So Qingzi, can you also zip and zoom through the air?"
"What are you thinking?" Li Qing laughed. "Indeed I’m one of those people, but there’s still a long way to go before I can soar through the skies and burrow into the earth."
He, too, yearned to soar through the skies, yet he was limited by his strength.
Suddenly, Brother Gong asked with a bashful look, "Qingzi, do you think I... have any hope?"
Li Qing smiled. The desire to become stronger truly is everyone’s obsession.
"Drink more alcohol in the future. That’s genuinely good stuff. When your bones start to change someday, we’ll see," Li Qing said. "With prolonged drinking of that alcohol, even if you can’t really cultivate, it’s certain to bolster your health and prolong your life. Do you think Lü Zong would have encountered such trouble if it wasn’t for that alcohol? They wanted to steal the Elixir I gave to Lü Zong."
Brother Gong’s expression instantly became excited, his face even flushed with eagerness.
"Alright, from now on, even if I have to be shamelessly persistent, I’ll pester Lü Zong to share a cup of alcohol with me every day. I was wondering how you suddenly became so strong, Qingzi; so that’s what happened," he stated.
After a pause, a hint of worry crossed his expression as he asked, "Qingzi, if you need to call for help, does that mean the situation is very troublesome? And Lü Zong..."
"You just heard that there are five more of them. I have some confidence, but I can’t guarantee Lü Zong’s safety, so calling for help is more prudent," Li Qing explained.
Brother Gong let out a sigh of relief, "As long as there’s hope, that’s good enough."
"Lü Zong took your advice and was very cautious, but unfortunately, he was still targeted."
While the two were talking, Wang Baichuan rushed over with someone else in tow.
"Qingzi!"
He called out from a distance and hastily approached Li Qing, panting, "It looks like there’s no one in the courtyard you mentioned. The drone has been watching for a while, and it seems empty. The gate is also tightly closed; there’s no sign of anyone moving around from the outside."
Li Qing shook his head and said, "We’ve startled the snake in the grass already!"
He pointed at the shepherd he had nearly beaten to death and explained, "This kid disguised himself as a shepherd, keeping watch from the mountaintop all along. The people you sent in were all spotted by him, so they’re definitely nearby, but I don’t know where they’ve gone into hiding."
Wang Baichuan glanced at the tied-up shepherd and exclaimed in frustration, "Ah, no wonder!"
"My men even asked this kid for directions before, inquiring about the village situation. We were practically feeding him intelligence, damn it!"
"There’s nothing to be done since we’ve already startled the snake," Li Qing said somberly. "Let the drone check if there’s anywhere nearby that looks suspicious. This kid said his master came here because he set his sights on a large tomb here."
"He might have already found the location of the tomb and hidden inside."
"A large tomb?" Wang Baichuan’s expression shifted subtly, then suddenly he said, "Then he must still be inside that residence!"
"They wouldn’t brazenly rob graves right outside. It’s very likely that the tomb is near or even directly below that residence. Villagers have keen eyes; they notice the slightest oddity. The reason those bandits bought the house was definitely for the convenience of tomb-raiding. Later, they could justify moving the excavated earth out under the guise of renovating the place."
Li Qing suddenly had a realization, "For these matters, it really takes someone experienced. I was just pondering over the possible location of the tomb. As soon as you said that, everything clicked. It’s definitely like you said."
"It’s not so much experience as it is just having seen a lot," Wang Baichuan modestly replied.
Li Qing gave him a cursory glance, thinking to himself, Isn’t having seen a lot the same as having experience?
