Chapter 47: Aftermath

Amid the thunderous roar, a surging blast of force, accompanied by blazing fire, swallowed Falcon’s astonished body whole.

On the second floor, Lin Lei felt the scorching heat wave and once again transformed into a cloud of blood mist, slipping through the cracks between the bricks.

One explosion followed another, and the abandoned factory collapsed completely with a deafening crash.

Yet that cloud of blood mist soon re-formed into Lin Lei’s body not far away.

“The Mist Form ability consumes far too much stamina and source energy. I can’t maintain it for long…”

Lin Lei wiped the sweat beading on his forehead.

He turned toward the ruins, which were blazing fiercely.

Just then—

Boom!

Rubble flew in every direction.

Falcon emerged from the still-burning ruins, his entire body charred black and completely naked.

The violent explosion and flames had clearly done him little harm.

“The physical-type fourth realm is absurdly powerful…”

Lin Lei shook his head at the sight, turned without hesitation, activated Nightwalker, and entered stealth before heading into the distance.

On the other side, Falcon’s sharp gaze swept through the darkness, but he could not find even a trace of Lin Lei. In the end, he clenched his fists tightly.

…

Late that night.

At Tianmei Song City, Lin Lei sat on the sofa in his dressing gown, the injuries on his body completely healed.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

At this hour, the only people who would come looking for him were likely Yu Shishi or Long Er.

Lin Lei rose decisively and opened the door.

A bald head appeared before his eyes.

“Brother, you’re back.” Long Er’s eyes flashed when he saw Lin Lei.

Lin Lei glanced at the underling standing guard outside, then nodded at Long Er. “Come in and talk.”

Lin Lei returned to the sofa and sat down, rubbing his temples with his eyes closed as though taking a brief rest.

Long Er locked the door from the inside before walking over to him.

“Brother, are you all right?”

Lin Lei shook his head. “You know what I’m capable of. What could happen to me? What about your side?”

Long Er sighed.

“Falcon didn’t die. He looks rather miserable, but his injuries aren’t serious. We underestimated the Deathbirds’ determination. I never expected them to send someone from the fourth realm. If I’d known, I would have buried more explosives…”

Long Er did not know Lin Lei’s plan. He had assumed Lin Lei intended to kill Falcon, so he naturally regretted that Falcon had survived.

Lin Lei kept his eyes closed and said nothing.

In truth, if Falcon had been a fourth-realm expert of any other type—or even a physical-type fourth-realm expert with a slightly weaker blessing—Lin Lei might still have had a chance of killing him.

Falcon’s physical body was simply too powerful.

Even if Long Er had buried ten times as many explosives, they probably would not have made much difference.

Besides, Lin Lei had never expected to kill the visitor for certain.

The man had personally witnessed Blood Shadow of the Blood Sakura Society using the Sword Bone ability. Naturally, he would go after Blood Shadow. There was no way he would remain bored enough to continue investigating the second-realm investigators who had taken part in the operation a few days earlier, was there?

…

In a certain high-rise building.

Bare-chested, the young man used electric clippers to shave off all his scorched, curled hair and eyebrows.

Looking at his reflection in the mirror—his head now smooth as a peeled egg—Falcon frowned deeply.

At that moment, a man wearing glasses and a suit jacket draped loosely over his shoulders walked in from outside. He could not help laughing.

“How did you end up looking like this?”

Falcon turned around and lowered his head toward him. “Brother Crow, I’m sorry. I failed to complete the mission…”

Crow waved his hand and sighed softly. “I’ve heard what happened. It doesn’t matter. Haven’t you already figured out the identity of our opponent?”

“I was wondering how a second-realm source-energy user from the Investigation Bureau could possibly deal with Cuckoo. Now that I think about it, it must have been the mantis stalking the cicada while the oriole lurked behind. Blood Shadow happened to witness Cuckoo attacking that second-realm source-energy user from the Investigation Bureau, then used his strange ability to approach and ambush her…”

“No wonder Cuckoo didn’t even leave a corpse behind. It must have been some special method of the Blood Sakura Society…”

Crow sneered, his eyes growing sharper.

Falcon, however, knitted his brows tightly. “But I still feel that what happened yesterday wasn’t that simple… Blood Shadow seemed to be waiting for me in advance…”

Crow shook his head. “It wasn’t ‘seemed to be.’ He really was. Blood Shadow is relying on his ability to provoke the Deathbirds.”

“After all, as long as the leader of the Blood Sakura Society remains alive, the society still has a chance to rise again.”

As he spoke, Crow’s brows furrowed deeply. “Don’t worry. The Deathbirds won’t let Cuckoo die for nothing. Blood Shadow and the Blood Sakura Society will both pay the appropriate price!”

Falcon was somewhat helpless. “But… the Sword Tassel was destroyed. Now, we can only rely on the scattered red threads below to determine Blood Shadow’s whereabouts…”

Crow’s eyes flickered. “That doesn’t matter. Now that we’ve confirmed Blood Shadow’s identity, we have a more convenient way to find him…”

…

Lin Lei did not know that Crow had completely shifted the target to the Blood Sakura Society.

However, judging from the changes in the Deathbirds’ orders to the members of the Purple Dragon Gang, it was not difficult for him to guess at some of their actions.

The Deathbirds had stopped investigating those second-realm investigators.

Lin Lei naturally no longer needed to worry about his public identity being exposed.

“From now on, whenever there’s a mission involving the Deathbirds, I’ll have to avoid it in advance…”

Having confirmed that he would not encounter trouble again in the short term, Lin Lei finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, he needed to avoid more than merely missions carried out in cooperation with the Deathbirds.

He also had to spend as little time as possible wandering outside.

All the Purple Dragon Gang members in the upper city belonged to Lin Lei, but there was no telling whether the Deathbirds had given additional red threads to other people—threads that could lead them to him.

The only fortunate thing was that the red threads had a limited range of detection.

Lin Lei had tested them carefully. They could only sense one another within two or three hundred meters, and the farther apart they were, the weaker the response became.

Still, the Deathbirds had deliberately distributed so many red threads throughout the upper city. They clearly had some way of determining the general direction of their target, so Lin Lei could not afford to let down his guard completely.

As he was thinking, a sudden vibration sounded.

Lin Lei turned his hand over and took out Long Wentian’s black phone. After unlocking it, his eyes flashed.

Lei Siguang had sent a new message:

“Next week is the appointed time… You’ve taken care of the Yin Woman and the Candidate, right?”

Lin Lei had thought he would have no contact with the Deathbirds for some time, but he had forgotten about Lei Siguang.

His eyes flickering, Lin Lei decisively typed three words:

“Taken care of.”

…

The Investigation Bureau.

Hodge pushed open the door to an office.

“Director Gongyu, you wanted to see me?”

Deputy Director Gongyu was holding a stack of documents and appeared extremely busy.

When he saw Hodge enter, he pulled another file from a drawer on the side.

“There’s only one month left before the investigator promotion examination for the third realm. Registration opens today. You’ll be responsible for handling our bureau’s applications and registration arrangements for the examination…”

Hodge accepted the file, raising his brows slightly. “You can count on me, Director.”