Li Chonglou immediately forwarded the information on the suspects provided by Kang You to Lin Qianqian.
"Although you can't show your face, you still have to investigate the information, right?"
Having suddenly been given such an identity, Li Chonglou naturally couldn't use his own resources to help him investigate.
After considering for a while, Lin Qianqian agreed.
Just an hour later, Li Chonglou received information on three groups of criminals.
Although he couldn't pinpoint them precisely due to time constraints, it was enough for Li Chonglou. From this point on, this matter was entirely up to him. After obtaining the general locations of the three groups of criminals, he immediately changed into plain clothes and set off for their whereabouts.
The locations were not in Shangjing, but they weren't far.
The first target Li Chonglou sought was the group closest to him. There were four people in total, who had purchased tools from an informant ten days ago and resided in an old residential area.
In such old neighborhoods with many houses and winding alleys, it would take a considerable effort for a stranger to find their way out, let alone search for someone.
"Old Lin, merge."
If it were before, he might have had to investigate room by room. His Heavenly Eye's透视 (tòushì - perspective/insight) ability had been sealed by the curse.
However, due to an anomaly with the Taiji, he could now lift it in a state of soul fusion, without needing to forcibly break the seal.
Currently, with his Heavenly Eye's 透视, Li Chonglou easily located the four criminals.
Unfortunately, after discreet confirmation, he ruled them out. These four were merely petty thugs planning some minor mischief.
Then, Li Chonglou rushed to the second address without delay.
Coincidentally, the locations of the second and third groups of criminals were in the same area, which saved Li Chonglou some effort.
However, as Li Chonglou approached, he noticed something was amiss.
"More than two groups... and they're the same group?"
Li Chonglou frowned. According to the information from Lin Qianqian, these three groups of criminals should have been separate entities. But what Li Chonglou saw now was different.
Heavy security, various hidden high-tech equipment.
And there were quite a lot of people inside, at least several hundred.
The most crucial point was that this was also a residential area, with ordinary residents living there, which restricted Li Chonglou from acting carelessly.
Li Chonglou immediately activated his Heavenly Eye's 透视 ability, hoping to locate the target and perform a precise rescue before withdrawing. However, he saw an even bigger problem.
Beneath this residential area, a complex underground base had been dug out! And there were also a large number of criminals guarding it.
Li Chonglou instantly realized he had stumbled upon a major secret base. Those two groups of criminals were likely just peripheral subordinates of the true owners!
"Trouble."
Li Chonglou's brows furrowed as he began to ponder a solution.
After a long while, Li Chonglou decided to take a risk and investigate.
"If I can successfully find Kang You's daughter, rescue her, and then report this to catch them all in one go."
Li Chonglou murmured and immediately used his Heavenly Eye's 透视 ability to plan a safe route.
...
In a dilapidated two-story residential building, several men were arguing about something.
"I told you we shouldn't have brought the person back so soon. Now the higher-ups have taken them."
"What's the point of your hindsight now? Kang the Fat Pig has so much influence, could you have hidden them here if you didn't bring them back?"
"Stop arguing. The main financier doesn't even know about this yet. They only know the person is in our hands. At worst, we'll leave Qin Prefecture once we get the reward."
Three men were blaming each other, while a man with a grim expression sat nearby.
At this moment, the seated man suddenly spoke, "What about Ah Gou's side? We agreed to give them thirty percent of the reward once we received it. Given the current situation, it'll be good if we can even get thirty percent of the bounty."
His words silenced the others, and they sighed one after another.
Silence filled the room for a long time. One of them suddenly stood up, saying he was out of cigarettes and needed to buy some, then left the room.
As soon as he exited the building, he was suddenly approached by another man, who warned him in a low voice.
"You know the rules."
Anger flashed in the man's eyes, but remembering that this was the other party's territory, he took out a few bills from his pocket and stuffed them into the other's hand. Only then did the other smile gleefully and wave him away.
After turning out of the residential area, the man went to a convenience store on the street to buy a pack of cigarettes, then turned into a nearby alley.
"These cigarettes are damn expensive."
Recalling the money he had just paid, the man was still indignant. However, just as he was about to light a cigarette, a large hand suddenly covered his mouth from behind.
Li Chonglou dragged the man into a nearby abandoned and deserted dilapidated room, threw him to the ground, and with a casual punch, pierced a thick wooden board.
"If you want to live, answer my questions."
Unsurprisingly, the man, in his panic, revealed everything he knew. Then, Li Chonglou knocked him unconscious with a chop to the neck.
However, Li Chonglou, who knew even more, found his brow furrowed even deeper.
Because the situation had become complicated.
According to the man's confession, they had originally been hired by a wealthy individual to kidnap someone's daughter, with strict instructions not to harm the hostage, and to release her only after the financier gave the word.
However, that financier and the men had underestimated Kang You's connections. After they had succeeded, the men quickly realized they had been exposed. Helpless, the group sought out another boss named Ah Gou, who agreed to let them hide in Tu Zhen, the former old district, in exchange for thirty percent of the reward.
They did manage to evade pursuit, but by then, the men realized they had walked into a tiger's den.
Tu Zhen was essentially a large-scale drug manufacturing plant, with notorious international crime lords established there, and other illegal activities being conducted in secret.
Among these was human trafficking.
As a result, Kang You's daughter, due to her good looks, was directly seized by the people at the drug factory. The men would have been silenced long ago if they hadn't reacted quickly and opportunistically joined the drug factory.
Without the hostage in hand, they couldn't receive the larger sum of money. The men again approached Ah Gou's group, hoping to get the hostage back through him. However, they then learned that Ah Gou's group also had little power; their ability to introduce them to this safe haven was solely due to profit sharing.
Thus, the situation had evolved into its current state.
Li Chonglou's expression was now grim.
He had never expected that the mission Lin Qianqian had given him would involve an international criminal syndicate!
From his Heavenly Eye observations just now, including some areas underground, Li Chonglou could confirm that the man's words were all true.
However, he hadn't found the hostage's location, which was likely in the deeper parts underground.
What was more troublesome now was that the security underground was several times tighter than above ground, and there were almost no blind spots in the surveillance. It was impossible for Li Chonglou to rescue the person without a sound.
"This time, I've truly boarded the pirate ship again..."