Chapter 142: The Land of Gu Miao, Peacock Valley

"Although many people want me dead, the entry points they choose can convey certain signals," Lin Xiaosu said. "Du Tiange stepped up to avenge his brother, but his brother's intersection with me was a rather bizarre scenario. At first glance, it looked like a clumsy performance, but until now, I realized this is a deeply subtle scheme."

"Do tell..." Blue Demon grew interested.

"Let's walk and talk!" Lin Xiaosu began to elaborate...

Du Tiange was hell-bent on taking his head because he had destroyed Du Tiange's own brother.

Du Tiange only had this one brother, and this was his only remaining blood relative in the mortal world.

Ordinarily, someone like him was unlikely to possess any concept of familial affection, but human emotions themselves are the most complex things. Sometimes, precisely because of that deficiency, a person will attach extraordinary importance to a single point.

His brother, Du Qi, was precisely that point.

Lin Xiaosu's sole intersection with Du Qi had taken place by the side of South Lake in Jiangcheng.

He and Ding Ruoshui were originally boating peacefully on the lake when Du Qi suddenly leaped out, slashing a gash into the speedboat with a sharp blade—this was a provocation!

Afterward, Du Qi's targets pointed directly at Lin Xiaosu's mother and his detective agency, bit by bit deepening Lin Xiaosu's obsession with eliminating him.

At the time, Lin Xiaosu interpreted this provocative strategy in one way: the opponent wanted to provoke him into killing Du Qi, and then prosecute him for murder.

If it were merely this single step, their plan could be considered a total failure.

Because Lin Xiaosu had precisely relied on the legal provision of "legitimate defense" to reasonably and lawfully bring Du Qi's life journey to an end.

However, judging from the current situation, the opponent's plan was not that simple.

They had prepared a contingency plan.

If Lin Xiaosu killed Du Qi using methods outside the bounds of the legal system, they could use the law as a rope to lock him down.

Should Lin Xiaosu exploit loopholes in the law to successfully break the deadlock and achieve a counter-kill, they still held a hidden backup move: the very peculiarity of Du Qi himself.

Du Qi might not amount to much on his own, but he had a good older brother.

His brother would inevitably avenge him and kill Lin Xiaosu.

This set of strategies might seem crude and childish at first glance, but once one delved deeper, one would realize how seamless the scheme truly was—every step controlled, watertight and foolproof.

"People from the Longevity Corporation!" Blue Demon's gaze turned calm. "Who could it be?"

Lin Xiaosu said, "Li Changsheng of the Longevity Corporation has a daughter named Li Ziyi. I've heard many people say she is the true strategist of the Longevity Corporation. That day, she was actually at the teahouse as well! Moreover, this seemingly crude yet exquisite planning is a perfect match for the demeanor of a master strategist."

Blue Demon stretched out her hand and put on a pair of glasses.

A moment later, the glasses were retracted. "She has not been arrested because Hidden Dragon currently has no direct evidence of her breaking the law. Shall we arrest her and launch an investigation?"

"If possible, I naturally suggest arresting her, but... if my guess is correct, trying to arrest her right now should be quite difficult."

"In fact, this is also reciprocal proof! If Hidden Dragon takes action and still cannot find her, it precisely indicates that she herself is extraordinary." Blue Demon said.

"Indeed!"

"Therefore, I am giving the order!" Blue Demon raised her hand, put on her glasses, and issued a voice command.

An investigative directive issued by a Heavenly King-level figure would quickly become a nationwide directive.

For all of this, they could only wait and see how things unfolded.

Lin Xiaosu arrived outside the Gongchun Mountain outpost.

At the Gongchun Mountain outpost, Lin Xiaoyang and Zhijun, two top-tier martial artists, stood on guard. Although the Gongchun Mountain at this moment appeared calm and peaceful on the surface, the strings in their hearts were pulled taut.

It was solely because of one thing: last night, Lin Xiaosu had crossed the national border tracking a genetically modified being and had vanished without a trace since.

Lin Xiaoyang had called his brother, but with eerie strangeness, the phone was out of service.

In countries all over the world, how many places had no mobile service?

I'm afraid it was either deep primeval mountains and dense forests, the deepest basements, or places equipped with signal-blocking devices.

Of course, he could never have imagined another possibility: that the cell phone was hidden in another world (the space belonging to Lin Xiaosu was, in reality, another world)...

Precisely because the three possibilities he guessed were all terrifying, Lin Xiaoyang's mind was in total chaos.

His own brother, upon learning that he was facing impending amputation, had traveled thousands of miles to his side and brought him a turning point in his destiny. Could it be that he himself...

Just as his thoughts grew increasingly restless and unsettling, a figure cleared the outpost wall, and a sunny, handsome smiling face appeared before him.

Who could it be if not his brother?

Whoosh!

Lin Xiaoyang and Zhijun leaped down from the watchtower simultaneously. "Xiaosu!"

"Worried I wouldn't come back?" Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly.

"You knew it!" Lin Xiaoyang punched him lightly. "Then why were you still so reckless as to run across the border?"

"Since I'm back, I'm fine!" Lin Xiaosu said. "Brother, I'm heading back! I came specifically to bid you all farewell."

In the cave below, within several rooms, all the soldiers rushed out...

"Instructor, you're leaving?"

"Don't call him instructor. Xiaosu said not to call him instructor..."

"But he clearly is our instructor..."

"Instructor, won't you stay a few more days? We're all confident we can break through within a week. Watch us break through..." a young soldier shouted.

Lin Xiaosu smiled. "I know you can all break through; my presence makes no difference! You have your duties, and I have my life. Brothers, I have to go!"

The soldiers looked at each other in dismay.

Deputy Squad Leader Li Zhiwei waved his hand. "Form up!"

The entire squad lined up neatly in a single row.

"Salute our comrade-in-arms, see him off!" Li Zhiwei raised his hand and executed a standard military salute.

Swish!

Every single soldier saluted in unison!

This was perhaps the only time this group of soldiers would ever salute a non-military visitor to the outpost in such a formal manner.

Simply because, in their minds, regardless of what identity this person held, he was their comrade.

Because they had truly fought side by side, and achieved earth-shattering results.

Facing their military salute, Lin Xiaosu bowed deeply.

With a movement of his feet, he cleared the wall, waved in the air, and bid farewell!

He had already departed.

Li Zhiwei let out a long breath. "Xiaosu imparted this divine martial art to us. We will turn the earth-shattering achievements of the Gongchun Mountain outpost into a glorious victory report and send it to him!"

"Military achievements as a victory report, let our comrade know!" more than a dozen men roared in unison.

Lin Xiaosu was already five hundred meters away from the outpost, yet he still heard these heroic words.

He walked step by step along the mountain path. Behind him, the great mountain seemed to gradually cast off its black cloak, slowly revealing the verdant green beneath.

Dawn had broken.

Another new dawn was ushered in.

The clouds dispersed. Over the Nan River ahead, a final wispy trace of light mist lingered.

By the roadside along the Nan River, a beautiful woman leaned against a mountain rock. A gentle breeze blew, causing her hair to flutter, tinged with a faint trace of blue in the wind. Standing by the Nan River in the early morning, she was as beautiful as a painting and as elegant as a poem.

Blue Demon.

"You didn't leave!" Lin Xiaosu appeared before her in a single step.

Blue Demon slowly turned her head. "My trip to the Southern Frontier actually came with a mission. Now that your affairs here are settled, can you help me complete mine? The compensation can follow our usual standard."

Lin Xiaosu smiled. "We can dispense with the compensation, right? You traveled thousands of miles to play the beauty saving the hero. In ancient times, this would be enough to warrant returning the favor with one's body. Are you still going to talk to me about money?"

"A beauty saving the hero, and the hero returning the favor with his body... this beauty is digging a pit for herself!" Blue Demon looked at him with an expression as if her teeth ached. "Let's talk about money instead. If we don't talk about money, my heart won't feel at ease."

Lin Xiaosu widened his eyes, but finally nodded. "Fine, you talk..."

Blue Demon walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him, recounting her mission along the way.

For this trip, rescuing Lin Xiaosu was the main quest.

However, since she had already come to the Southern Frontier, there was no harm in taking on a side quest along the way.

The origin of this side quest was the tragic death of a Hidden Dragon soldier in the Southern Frontier.

This person was Hidden Dragon Operative No. 196.

He had come here to execute a mission and died here.

The situation in the Southern Frontier was complex, inhabited by multiple ethnic groups alongside some mystical skills with extremely ancient traditions, such as witchcraft and Gu sorcery. These witchcraft and Gu techniques were considered terrifying even from Hidden Dragon's perspective.

Therefore, Hidden Dragon did not act blindly, instead dispatching two operatives to infiltrate back into their homeland.

They were the Dong brothers.

The Dong brothers were of the Miao ethnic group, and they were also Hidden Dragon operatives.

No one knew their Hidden Dragon identities. Returning to their hometown to investigate the cause of their comrade's death would theoretically reduce the risk to a minimum and maximize the outcome.

However, no one anticipated that ten days after the Dong brothers returned home, a human tragedy occurred: these two brothers, along with all seventeen members of their entire family, were wiped out cleanly overnight.

This was not merely the death of Hidden Dragon soldiers; it was the total annihilation of an entire household without any bottom line.

It truly ignited the fury of Hidden Dragon's upper echelons, prompting them to step up their investigation.

Through this investigation, they discovered the shadow of Gu sorcery behind the mass annihilation case of the Dong family—moreover, it was extremely advanced Gu sorcery, associated with a terrifying name and a traitor to Hidden Dragon.

This Hidden Dragon traitor was no ordinary figure.

His name was Chu Tiankuo, holder of the 37th Hidden Dragon Gold Medal.

Among Hidden Dragon Gold Medals, the smaller the number, the stronger the strength. The top 50 gold medal holders were all absolute paragons in the mortal world.

Chu Tiankuo was no exception. He excelled primarily in two skills: first, close-quarters assassination, against which no one could defend; second, he was proficient in the art of disguise, earning him the moniker "Thousand-Faced Killing God."

"The art of disguise?" Lin Xiaosu caught the first key point.

Blue Demon said, "Yes. His art of disguise is different from yours and mine. I take the genetic route, you take the ancient martial arts route, whereas he takes the technical route! He is a grandmaster who truly fuses disguise, psychology, and performance art into one melting pot. Let me tell you about his most classic case, and you will understand just how terrifying his disguise technique is..."

Chu Tiankuo's most classic case took place seven years ago in the Tsardom.

He needed to assassinate a Tsarist martial arts expert. This person was extremely vigilant and distrusted those around him, with only one exception: his 12-year-old daughter.

This Chu Tiankuo disguised himself as the little girl, successfully fooling the target and delivering a fatal strike...

Oh, by the way, this little girl was also white.

Lin Xiaosu's horizons were broadened immensely...

A middle-aged yellow-skinned man disguised himself as a 12-year-old white girl, fooling the father who knew her best...

This method was invincible.