We arrived at a bustling street in the new district, and right across was our target location.
It looked like a luxuriously decorated bar, but the sign outside revealed that it was actually a mbers-only wine tasting club. Occasionally, a few people would co and go through the opulent entrance, all dressed to the nines. Even the attendants who received and saw off the guests were well-dressed and appeared well-trained.
This place was clearly a high-end venue where the unaffiliated had no business entering. In fact, ordinary people wouldn’t even think about trying to get in just by looking at the grandeur.
Although the Shadow Swapping Monster targeted local bigwigs to hunt, it seed that he himself possessed a nontrivial societal status, rich or noble, as otherwise, he could not co and go from such a private club.
Or perhaps his identity was neither that of a custor nor an attendant, maybe he was the proprietor?
We didn’t approach rashly but first stood at a distance to observe carefully, while also keeping an eye on those entering and exiting the wine tasting club.
"Is this the place?" I asked.
Mazao confird without doubt, "This is it."
"Do you know what the situation inside is like?" Zhu Shi inquired.
"I don’t know. The images retrieved are too fragnted. If you gave a few more days, I could piece them together. But with just one night, we can only know that ’the weirdo cos and goes here’ occasionally," Mazao said.
"From ti to ti...That ans the weirdo might not necessarily be in there now," Zhu Shi reasoned.
"The weirdo doesn’t co every day; and even when he does, it’s mostly at night," Mazao thought for a mont, "However, I think there’s an eighty, no, ninety percent chance he’s inside the wine tasting club right now."
"On what basis?" Zhu Shi was curious.
"Because I am here," Mazao said matter-of-factly, "Since I’ve already co here drawn to the presence of sothing strange, the strange thing is bound to appear nearby. Although that weirdo seems to barely qualify as human, or at least has human self-awareness, he can also be categorized as sothing strange. It wouldn’t be surprising if he attacked right now."
If saying that I, before eting Mazao, was bound to draw a blank when investigating paranormal incidents, then with Mazao, the opposite would be true—she was bound to encounter ghosts.
She didn’t even have to seek out strange incidents; instead, they would co seeking her.
The current situation was the sa. If we considered tracking down the weirdo as an investigation into a paranormal incident, then the target location she found through her intuition was bound to be haunted. Calling it one hundred percent might be an exaggeration, but assuming a direct hit would probably not be far off.
Such an enviable physique. Thankfully, now I was able to benefit from it too.
Unlike , Zhu Shi’s understanding of Mazao’s Broom Star Physique was mostly based on hearsay. She rely exclaid "That’s preposterous," then took out her phone and contacted Lu Youxun. She passed on the na of the wine tasting club to Lu Youxun, requesting him to dig up so information.
True to his renown as a master of intel within the Luoshan Patrol, it wasn’t long after Zhu Shi hung up the phone that Lu Youxun sent over detailed information.
During this ti, I also released "Fireflies" to infiltrate the interior of the club opposite us.
The current "Fireflies" had undergone an upgrade; not only could they store more preset instructions, but they could also store information about their surroundings, aning they could record what they saw for to review the "video" later.
Unfortunately, these newly added functions weren’t relevant right now. I rely manually manipulated a few "Fireflies" to infiltrate the wine tasting club. Even if soone spotted these "Mars" lights, it was unlikely to draw much attention, but to be safe, I didn’t send them directly through the main entrance but had them crawl through ventilation ducts and window cracks.
After a rough sweep inside with a few "Fireflies," I quickly got a preliminary grasp of the club’s internals.
The place was far less glamorous than its exterior suggested.
In a nutshell, it was all glitters on the outside but rotten on the inside.
Almost at the sa ti, Zhu Shi seed to have grasped the true nature of the wine tasting club through the docunts Lu Youxun sent to her phone.
"So this is actually a ’nightclub’..." Zhu Shi said with disdain.
"A nightclub?" Mazao puzzled.
"In simple terms, the outer area of this wine tasting club is exactly as its na suggests, a place for savoring fine wines, but deeper inside, there are many won who provide ’special services,’ as well as the full array of massage, bathing, and accommodation facilities," I said, observing the situation inside.
Whether out of privacy concerns or for the sake of ambiance, the custors inside wore all sorts of headgear, and so of the won wore flamboyant masks, hiding their true faces like a masquerade ball.
The custors’ headgear seed to have voice modulators built-in, as their voices sounded quite peculiar.
Faced with Mazao’s youthful visage, it wasn’t easy for to give a more direct description, so I glossed over it with "special services."
However, in the Doomsday Era, there might be won who traded "special services" for survival resources, possibly even more blatantly than in peaceful tis. My brief explanation was enough for Mazao to nod in understanding, without any sign of shock or surprise.
"Can you see what’s happening inside?" she asked, even more curious about that.
I first simply explained my "Firefly" ability, then said, "Even if the Shadow Swapping Monster is in there now, he must be in human form, and I wouldn’t be able to tell him apart. Mazao, have you investigated what his human form looks like from that finger?"
"No," Mazao shook his head.
Even though people in the night club wear hoods and masks, I could capture their true faces hidden beneath by integrating my spirit into the surrounding heat. But without knowing the target’s appearance, there’s no way to proceed.
In that case, we could only try to track other features of the target.
Like "scars."
"You chopped off the hand of the Shadow Swapping Monster’s body last night, with a creature’s regeneration power, is it possible to fully restore the hand without any trace overnight?" I asked.
"If it were a Sin Demon from the Doomsday Era, it would be possible. But if it’s a monster from this era..." Mazao was sowhat uncertain.
Zhu Shi gave a definite answer, "According to the information from Lu Youxun, if it’s just a loss of the palm, monsters don’t even need half a night to fully regenerate."
Finding the target through scars seed to be a dead end... While thinking, I asked Zhu Shi, "When the monster is in human form, can your ’Buzhou Mountain’ directly expose their true identity?"
"It can, but if we don’t know ahead of ti who it is, we’ll have to check everyone one by one," Zhu Shi pondered.
"Sin Demons... Monsters are usually able to sense the aura of souls. Although they find it difficult to distinguish the differences in ordinary human souls, they are quite sensitive to the souls of those with powerful mana, allowing for precise identification," Mazao shook her head, "We have fought with monsters before, and they definitely rember our aura. If we check one by one, we might spook the creature before it’s his turn and he might run off first."
"Can’t this aura be hidden? You’ve said before that you could apply a state of hidden aura through ditation," I said.
Zhu Shi diplomatically offered her opinion, "Though I’m not incapable of hiding my aura, to a monster that can sense soul auras, having soone who doesn’t emit a soul aura suddenly appear and start checking suspects nearby would also trigger their alertness."
It seed we had hit a snag.
I had the ability to observe everyone without being detected, but I didn’t have the eye power to see through monsters; Zhu Shi had that eye power but not the ans to observe everyone without being discovered.
If only we could link my senses with Zhu Shi’s... No, even if there were such a thod, it didn’t seem right to use it. Lu Youxun once tried to transmit information directly into my spirit, but was rejected by my own power, and he seed to have been nearly severely injured. Trying to link my spirit with soone else’s could likely involve significant risks.
"Perhaps, I could just stake out here, waiting for that monster to walk out the door himself," Zhu Shi suggested.
"That’s probably not going to work," Mazao shook her head, "Although my investigation isn’t very clear, that monster hasn’t been using normal thods to move in and out of this place for the past two months... It doesn’t seem to be Shadow Transmission; the footage I traced didn’t have a sudden blackening process. He’s likely using the superpower of shadow-swapping to move between here and other places."
"Using that thod is probably to create an alibi that he has never been to such a venue, to conveniently protect his social relationships in his human identity, I can understand that... But why not use Shadow Transmission instead of shadow-swapping?" Zhu Shi wondered, "Is it because Shadow Transmission consus more energy... or even to monsters, entering the Shadow World is risky?"
"If he’s using the shadow-swapping superpower, then even if I monitor everyone inside with ’Firefly,’ I won’t be able to detect anything. His Shadow Clones can imitate human form, and there is no difference in posture between his body and the clone at the mont they swap places," I said, "But if that’s the case, maybe I could narrow down the suspect range to ’certain personnel who have not left the club for a long ti.’"
"I can also continue to investigate that monster’s finger; in a few days, the identity of the target monster will definitely be grasped, but..." Mazao seed to realize so other issue.
"That monster clashed with us last night; he must know now that he’s being targeted by Luoshan Impermanence. Will he really stay long in Saltwater City afterward?" Zhu Shi pondered.
"But if he really has that sense of crisis, why would he enter the nightclub to have fun at this ti?" Mazao fell into thought.
I offered my male perspective, "Perhaps it’s precisely the imnse pressure of survival that has triggered a need for solace."
Mazao nodded as if enlightened, "I see..."
Zhu Shi cast a hesitant glance. Sister Zhu, if you have sothing to say, you can say it directly. Remaining silent like this instead hurts more.
I drew my attention back to the problem at hand.
If the Shadow Swapping Monster really opted to flee Saltwater City, we would not be able to track him down. Finding an enemy with the power of Shadow Transmission once they flee would be like finding a needle in a haystack. The clues related to the Weirdo Maker and the Human Bureau, as well as those related to the Doomsday, would also co to a halt.
Naturally, I was imnsely curious about these clues. And on top of that, I had a personal grudge against the Shadow Swapping Monster.
I couldn’t accept that the culprit intent on harming Changan would just slip away.
At that mont, Zhu Shi’s cellphone rang.
She glanced at the caller ID, her expression a mix of surprise and recognition, and then she answered the call. I refrained from eavesdropping on the conversation using "Firefly", hence I had no idea what was said on the other end, but she soon displayed a look of shock.
"What?" she exclaid, aghast, "My brother is missing?"
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