Chapter 106 Encounter

Hearing the footsteps of strangers behind us, Zhu Shi and I turned around. Ma Zao also turned around after quickly putting on a cat whisker mask.

Deep in the grove, in this secluded spot, came a young man with a refined and approachable demeanor, dressed in a dark blue outfit that blended modern style with some traditional elements.

It was none other than Lu Youxun.

Upon seeing the visitor's appearance, Zhu Shi frowned.

She first took two steps forward, intentionally or unintentionally, to block Ma Zao's view, and then casually asked, "Lu Chan, what are you doing here?"

"I sensed some fighting going on here, so I came to check it out," Lu Youxun replied casually, glancing thoughtfully behind Zhu Shi.

Last time, I only glanced at Lu Youxun's black rope heart-locking ring a couple of times, and he, knowing my tastes, gave it to me, which shows his skill in reading people. Zhu Shi deliberately covered Ma Zao in front of him, a move that he probably perceived as a blatant attempt to conceal something.

Whether Zhu Shi concealed his identity or not, since Ma Zao was now acting alongside the two of us demon hunters, there was no reason for him not to observe carefully. Although Ma Zao was wearing a mask, this level of concealment was practically nonexistent to his incredibly sharp eyesight. At least, I find it hard to believe that such a level of disguise would be effective.

Even disregarding the fact that he gave me the black rope heart-locking ring, I do have feelings for him. In reality, I have many reasons to dislike him. For example, regarding the Asahi incident, he and his backing are my competitors, and I remain wary of them to this day; also, his supernatural ideology makes me suspicious, and his mind is full of various ideologies, actively participating in factional struggles within the supernatural organization—just thinking about it annoys me immensely.

However, he speaks and acts with great grace and is very tactful in his dealings with others, so I intuitively cannot feel any aversion towards him. Perhaps these qualities are all part of his "way of dealing with people"... Well, let's assume that's the case, and I'll admit that his way of dealing with people is quite skillful.

One thing at a time, but for now, I still need to be wary of his possible moves regarding the marijuana incident.

"You said you sensed movement... Were you in the vicinity just now?" Zhu Shi asked suspiciously. "Shouldn't you be in the rear?"

“How could that be? This mission involves the Humanitarian Division and the creator of the monster. Since I don't have any other work to do right now, I naturally need to be in the closest place to the scene to wait. You called earlier to ask me about that wine tasting club, and I knew you were nearby, so I came over first.” After answering, Lu Youxun looked at the Shadow Man, “Is he the one with the ability to teleport? He seems to be alive. It's amazing you were able to capture him alive… And what about her?”

In the end, he did indeed turn his attention to Asahi, saying, "Although she's wearing a mask now, if my observation is correct, could she be..."

Seeing that her identity had been exposed, Ma Zao simply took off the cat whisker mask and walked out from behind Zhu Shi without fear.

“I’ve heard of your name, and I’ve heard of the power behind you,” she said to Lu Youxun. “You’re looking for me because of the Soul Loss Syndrome, aren’t you?”

Seeing that she was asking the question directly, Lu Youxun hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Yes. As your representative, I apologize for all the mistakes that our Extraordinary Sect made against you, and we will make compensation later."

“We’ll discuss this after the apology and compensation. What are you planning to do now?” I said. “Let me tell you the rude things first. If you try to forcibly take Ma Zao away, I won’t stand idly by.”

Lu Youxun looked surprised, glancing back and forth between me and Ma Zao, before asking, "Just in case, let me ask first, when you say you won't stand idly by, what do you mean...?"

I walked behind Asahi, put my hand on her shoulder, and stated my position without wavering: "It means you will be my enemies."

“Zhuang Cheng…” Ma Zao turned around and looked at me.

I didn't look closely at her expression at that moment, but stared straight at Lu Youxun.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure about my current strength. In all the battles so far, I've never encountered an enemy who can stand on equal footing with me; and according to Zhu Shi, in Luoshan, it seems that only Da Wuchang can undeniably overpower me right now, while other strong individuals or forces can at most engage me in a battle of equals.

But before any actual contact and clash, I still find it hard to see myself as someone so superior. I don't know how effective my threats will be. Even if Lu Youxun himself backs down, will the forces behind him do the same?

"...Please don't worry, we won't do that." Lu Youxun finally conceded, but the reason he gave seemed to be more than just my statement. "Besides, even if you didn't say that, there's nothing we can do right now."

“What does this mean?” I asked.

"The specific situation is complicated," Lu Youxun replied. "Simply put, the situation at the top is currently at a stalemate, and it is inconvenient for anyone to take action at will."

Zhu Shi asked suspiciously, "Is it within your own transcendentalism?"

“It’s between transcendence and pacifism, which is to say, between your faction. Also, Zhu Shi, I know you’re not interested in the struggles between factions, but if you have time, you should pay more attention to what’s happening on your own faction. It won’t do you any harm.” Lu Youxun sighed. “This stalemate won’t last many days, but until then, let’s try to coexist peacefully.”

“Alright.” Zhu Shi nodded. “Since you’re here, hurry up and help. It’s not easy to capture this strange man alive, so don’t kill him for now. Before he self-destructs, you can take charge of interrogating him.”

"Of course, this is my job."

Lu Youxun nodded, walked past us without looking to the side, and came up to the Shadow Man. He asked casually, "By the way, there were also sounds of destruction coming from the Wine Tasting Club earlier. Could this weirdo be connected to the Wine Tasting Club as well?"

“He has a partnership with the owner behind the scenes there…” Zhu Shi said, recounting everything about the nightclub, “…that nightclub even employs very young girls. My plan is to wait for my brother to hand over the evidence he has collected, and then report it to the authorities to shut down the nightclub.”

"Do you need evidence to deal with those kinds of guys? You're too naive in that respect. We're Luo Shan, we're 'superhumans.' We can just do whatever we want with those mortal villains."

Lu Youxun sneered, took out his phone, and gave a few instructions to the person on the other end, essentially ordering his men to quickly destroy the nightclub. He'd always been so approachable in front of us; I'd almost forgotten that he was, after all, a high-ranking official in Luoshan who controlled numerous detectives. Even former Detective Kong had to run around on his orders.

Zhu Shi seemed to want to say something, but ultimately remained silent. Even if Lu Youxun didn't care about evidence, it was still the villains who suffered. The wicked will be punished by the wicked; this could be considered retribution for that nightclub. Anyway, I felt great satisfaction.

After giving his instructions, Lu Youxun put away his phone and began working.

Instead of interrogating the Shadowsworn first, he picked up a twig from the ground and began drawing a complex and mysterious array around the Shadowsworn. As he drew, he explained his purpose to us. This was to seal the Shadowsworn's abilities and prevent him from suddenly activating his teleportation powers to escape during interrogation.

Although Zhu Shi could directly destroy the Shadow-Switch Monster's ability, this destruction was only temporary. The restart time varied depending on the strength and attributes of the monster's power. Zhu Shi explained to me in a low voice that, based on the feeling he had just experienced, the effect would only last for a maximum of an hour and a half. If the Shadow-Switch Monster's ability suddenly restarted, and Zhu Shi failed to destroy it again, they would have to capture it again.

Lu Youxun seemed to know the details of Zhu Shi's abilities, but this was not because Zhu Shi had told him, nor because Luoshan had a rule that demon hunters had to report the details of their abilities in every possible way.

Zhu Shi told me that this was simply because she performed many missions as the Impermanent Man of Luoshan, so information about her abilities inevitably came to light. Lu Youxun, being an expert in information gathering, would naturally know the details.

The process of drawing the sealing magic circle took nearly an hour. During this time, the Shadow Man, bound by the fiery hand, didn't seem to have completely given up, his eyes darting around, searching for an opportunity to escape. Any other monster would probably have already despaired and self-destructed; he was probably still quite resentful. With such an overpowered escape ability, how could he have been caught? Something must have gone wrong—that's probably what he was thinking.

Hopefully he could have held on a little longer. Interrogating a living person would be far more comprehensive than extracting information from a severed head.

But as time went on, the light of hope in his eyes dimmed more and more, and he was probably not far from resigning himself to his fate.

"I didn't expect you to know how to create a magic array to seal supernatural abilities..." Zhu Shi looked at the magic array on the ground with curiosity, then looked at Lu Youxun who was holding a tree branch. "A magic array that can seal supernatural abilities should be a very high-level technique, and you didn't even use any special materials. You just set it up with array symbols... It's not surprising that you can set up magic arrays, but I've never heard of you being good at this before?"

"Actually, I'm not very good at magic arrays and seals. It's just that his special ability is closely related to clones, and I happen to know a little about clone techniques," Lu Youxun said calmly.

Zhu Shi seemed to remember something, but appeared hesitant and didn't continue speaking.

Lu Youxun tossed aside the branch from which he had drawn the magic circle lines, and then said to the Shadow Man, "It's a wonder you haven't given up hope yet. Well then, I'll trouble you to spill everything you know."

(End of this chapter)