Chapter 144: In A Rush To Die (III)
Liu Long drove like his personality—fast and furious. He arrived before Li Hao did.
There were very few people on site due to the collapse. Liu Long stood at the entrance and waited for the others, lighting a cigarette when he alighted from his car. When someone approached him, he declared coldly, “I am Liu Long!”
The person’s eyes widened.
“Where’s Li Hao? Tell him to get out here!”
Only senior executives were left on the scene. The man quickly responded, “Liu... Captain Liu, Commissioner Inspector Li doesn’t seem to be here. Are you looking for him?”
“Yes!” Liu Long frowned. “He’s not here? Is he playing me?” His frown deepened and his voice snapped with arctic frost. “I hear there’s been a collapse. Has anyone died?”
“No, no one’s died at all...” stammered the fearful executive. Everyone was apprehensive of the boss of the law enforcement team. Although Liu Long no longer occupied this position, regular people weren’t aware of that.
A car pulled in as they conversed.
“Chief, how are you here faster than me?” Li Hao called out with delight.
Qiao Peng kept up an internal litany of curses as he got off. You’re here damned quick!
“Cut the bullshit!” Liu Long ignored Qiao Peng and turned his glare onto the driver. He looked uncertainly at the man, then at Li Hao. “Hurry up, Director Hao’s waiting! ...are you a supernatural?” He suddenly pointed at the driver. “Have you registered?”
“No,” the middle-aged driver responded softly. “I’m planning to go tomorrow.”
“This is the bodyguard that my father hired for me,” Qiao Peng explained. “We don’t mean to keep it from the Night Watchers and were planning to register him...”
“Shut up, there’s no place for you to talk here!” Liu Long speared him with a cutting glance. “Register as soon as possible!” That was all he said since everyone knew that there were bound to be supernaturals hidden at different places.
Qiao Peng still brought his driver despite knowing Liu Long was coming, partially because it was inconvenient to send the supernatural away when Li Hao was already in the car and partially because they wished to test to see how much the Night Watchers knew about the Qiaos.
Based on Liu Long’s reaction... there seemed to be nothing amiss. Otherwise, the man would’ve played dumb.
While Qiao Peng appeared to be a dandy, schemes and calculations abounded in his heart. Every step he made was carefully considered. Far from being an accident, the exposure of his driver was deliberate.
After all, it would be unbefitting their status if the vast Qiao family didn’t have a single Darkmoon or Sunderer to their name.
“I don’t care what you agreed to,” Liu Long barked with annoyance. “Hurry up, Li Hao. I’ll go in with you so you can handle this as fast as possible.” He glanced at the driver again. “Leave this guy here. No one will do anything to a Qiao young master while I’m here!” A jeering tone crept into his voice. “And keep your head down! Don’t think you can do anything you want just because you’ve got money. We couldn’t be bothered with you before and lacked the authority to do anything, but times are different now!”
“Understood!” Qiao Peng bobbed his head. “Why don’t Director Liu take a seat here? I’ll only trouble the commissioner inspector and he’ll be out soon...”
“No need, we go together!” Liu Long responded with aloof arrogance. “I’m sure you understand with your family’s position just how much danger Li Hao is still in. We cannot afford a single mishap! If there’s someone hidden in the mountain who means him harm, your family cannot afford the consequences!”
Damn it, how unlucky can we get?! Qiao Peng cursed again. We thought ourselves real clever and made sure to invite Li Hao with an airtight excuse. Great, now we’ve brought Liu Long to us as well. What a hassle this has turned out to be!
As for the possibility of killing Liu Long along with the young man... Forget it, not with Hao Lianchuan and Yuan Shuo both in residence. Open hostilities at this point in time would easily lead to other problems.
They had to give up the plan and send away this scourge as quickly as possible. Qiao Peng dared to say nothing else and quickly led them into the affected zone.
Liu Long crossed his arms and wordlessly stalked behind Li Hao. He walked into the mountain without reservation, sensing something as soon as he entered. There were three extremely faint presences that he wouldn’t have sensed without being a Dominator. And it was also because he knew of their existence beforehand that he could sense anything. He might have ignored the information otherwise.
Based on that alone, they could determine that the Qiaos were skilled at concealment. Were these three the same as Qiao Feilong and possessed treasures that could hide their presences? Even if that was the case, he was only picking up very faint signs. That indicated they either contained all of their power inside their body, or they were in a unique environment with quarantine properties. Perhaps... they were surrounded by ice crystals!
Liu Long’s eyes suddenly lit up. Was that the case?
Ice crystals could indeed obscure their presences to the greatest degree possible. But if that was the case, it meant they would have trouble using their full strength if suddenly forced into battle.
This wasn’t an issue under normal circumstances since ice crystals were fragile and easily broken. But this was a valuable opportunity if the team made full use of it.
Are there ice crystals around? Or is this the effect of the ruins that Li Hao and Yuan Shuo spoke of? Liu Long rapidly ran through possibilities and felt that it was more likely to be ice crystals! The Qiaos likely hadn’t penetrated deep into the ruins. If those weren’t fully open, then it was most likely to be the isolating effect of ice crystals.
The heavens smile upon me! Liu Long was immensely excited. If this was the case, he might be able to dispose of the three Sunflares ahead of time if he snuck in and caught them unawares before they smashed the ice crystals! This trip was highly worthwhile!
His perception of the three presences swiftly vanished as the zone of collapse was quite far away. What he sensed slowly dwindled until he could no longer sense them anymore. This was further confirmation that it was likely to be ice crystals.
In the meantime, Li Hao busily took in his surroundings. He was actually observing the three balls of light and determining how strong they were. It was most straightforward to compare them to Huang Yun; he might be able to identify their exact strength this way. And if he saw any colors in their light... he might be able to see their power attributes if they were of the commonly seen ones.
The trio soon arrived at the caved-in area. Li Hao did have some skill to his name. He looked around in great detail and swiftly inspected the surroundings. The young man ducked into the hole and quickly bounded back up.
“This is easy, you don’t need to build a new mine shaft. You just need to clean this area up and you’ll be able to resume work in roughly ten days. Building a new shaft might take longer. You better wait to send someone to clean this place up after three days so there’s no secondary collapse!
“Do not take human life lightly!” Li Hao intoned. “The Qiaos are rich, but we all call Silver City home. There is indeed a risk of a secondary collapse here, so you should wait a few days for things to stabilize before cleaning it up. Do you understand? I’m keeping an eye on you, so don’t set a toe out of line. You don’t want Sis Liu to recall anything unpleasant, do you? If that happens, you can’t blame us for not showing you face!”
“Of course not!” Qiao Peng quickly agreed. “Commissioner Inspector Li, are you sure we don’t need a new mine shaft?”
“One hundred percent!” Li Hao pronounced loftily. “I may not be on the same level as my teacher, but I can solve a small problem like this with a single glance! I have to say, it’s a waste of money to invite me here. Other people can come to the same conclusion. But you Qiaos run a large business, so what do you care about money?”
“Not at all, I’m much reassured with the commissioner inspector here...”
“That’s enough,” Liu Long interrupted impatiently. “Come with me if you’re done. What are you dragging your heels for?”
Li Hao chuckled and looked at Qiao Peng again.
“I'll send someone over with it when the commissioner inspector returns tonight,” Qiao Peng quickly said in understanding. “It’s not convenient to carry it around with you.”
“I’m betting you wouldn’t dare misappropriate my money!” Li Hao snorted and left with Liu Long.
Qiao Peng escorted them out of the mountain and breathed more easily only when the two got in their car. He couldn’t resist cursing when their car was far away.
“We almost succeeded!” he swore. What did Liu Long have to get involved for?? Another thought quickly occurred to him and he swiftly turned to his driver. “Go ask if anything unusual happened at that area.”
It was a pity that they hadn’t collected Li Hao’s blood. But perhaps something had happened to that place with the young man’s visit?
The driver vanished without a word.
......
At the same time, in the car.
Liu Long broached the topic only after they were a long distance away. “Their presence was very faint and hard to sense, but they should be Sunflare. I seemed to sense some flames, so they might be fire supernaturals!”
Li Hao nodded, he’d also seen some red. “There seems to be two fire supernaturals, the other might be an earth or wood supernatural. We’re not sure on that—teacher told me about this after he visited last night. They should all be a bit weaker than Huang Yun—the wind supernatural from the Night Watchers last time.”
“Your teacher... is really strong!” Liu Long sighed with appreciation. He’d only sensed a tiny bit, to think that Yuan Shuo would see so much and even be able to estimate their strength! The professor was truly magnificent!
“Huang Yun is a mid Sunflare, which possibly makes these three initial Sunflare or approach mid level. Regardless, it’s good that they’re not stronger than Huang Yun!” Liu Long continued, “Did your teacher mention if they’re being concealed because of the ruins or because of ice crystals?”
Erm... his teacher hadn’t mentioned any of that! Not only had he not talked about this, but he didn’t even investigate anything last night for fear of discovery. Granted, Li Hao didn’t mind the question. He thought back over what he’d observed.
“It might be due to ice crystals because the ruins are very durable. Being more fragile, some of the ice crystals might’ve cracked with the collapse last night. That permits some supernatural power to leak out—you might not have sensed anything otherwise, chief.”
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