Chapter 319: Chapter 319: Messing Up Could Be Deadly
After coming out of the Nine-layer Pagoda, Wang Lan immediately informed the Tianjian Bureau of the relationship between Xiao Qing and Bai Ji. The Tianjian Bureau did not hesitate and promptly began their investigation. Soon, they found a property registered under Bai Ji’s name.
Located in a mid-range residential area in East Forest Town, the Tianjian Bureau immediately proceeded to search. They turned Bai Ji’s room upside down but found nothing significant. Last week, Wang Lan received a reply from the Tianjian Bureau stating that this lead had likely gone cold.
But now, the very fact that all the incidents occurred precisely in East Forest Town—that was too much of a coincidence.
After freshening up, Wang Lan stepped out of his room to find the four team members had already been training on the training ground for a while.
Wang Lan knew that Star Martial Warriors needed to maintain peak condition through regular training. Jiang Xinyu, for example, had been systematically training every morning and evening since the age of nine.
After ten years of persistence, it was actually Wang Lan, the anomaly, who wasn’t enthusiastic about training at all. If he thought about training, he would; if not, he wouldn’t move a muscle. Since coming out of the Nine-layer Pagoda, Wang Lan hadn’t exercised at all.
It seems... I’m not putting in any effort at all.
"Captain!" a voice called out.
"Captain! Do you always get up this late? It’s half past eight and you’re just getting up?" Bai Xu, who felt most at ease with Wang Lan, blurted out.
"Exactly. We got up at half past four and have been training for more than three hours."
"You went to bed so late last night and got up so early? Lack of sleep can affect your case-solving efficiency. Never mind, let’s go. We’ll head out for breakfast."
Wang Lan drove the four of them to a teahouse. Since it was Sunday, the area around the teahouse was filled with parked cars. After circling around, they couldn’t find a single parking spot.
"Captain, just park the car here. Even if we circle for an hour, we won’t find a place. How about this: I’ll go buy breakfast while you all stay in the car. With people inside, we won’t get a ticket."
"You talk as if traffic police would ticket a car with Tianjian Bureau plates," Zhang Xiao retorted, leaving Liu Yifeng speechless.
In the end, Wang Lan got out to place the order, returning to the car later with a large bag of Baozi and fried dough sticks.
The Baozi were crab roe-filled, the siu mai were beef and sticky rice, and the fried dough sticks were cheese-filled. Breakfast for the five of them cost Wang Lan nearly six hundred yuan. Even if his teammates were all elites from the Tianjian Bureau, such extravagance was unsustainable.
"Captain, these crab roe soup buns are forty-eight yuan each, and you bought five of them?" Bai Xu asked, her eyes flashing and her tone coquettish. "Be honest, are you a super-rich tycoon? Why don’t you even own a car?"
"Why do you ask? Also, your reaction is a bit off. Zhang Xiao, let’s switch seats; I’ll sit in the passenger seat."
"Don’t be scared, I won’t bite. Captain, do you have a girlfriend? You could consider me?"
"I’m only eighteen! Would you really make a move on me? Yifeng, protect me!"
Amidst playful banter, the five of them finished breakfast in the car. The crab roe soup buns of Modu City truly lived up to their reputation.
"Captain, where are we headed now?"
"Jinghua Mansion."
"Huh? What are we doing at Jinghua Mansion?"
"Investigating the case! I suspect these murder victims were all death soldiers, and their deaths are related to Jinghua Mansion."
Although the four of them didn’t understand how Wang Lan had come up with new leads overnight, they didn’t ask further. Yang Yang drove into Jinghua Mansion Residential Area and, under Wang Lan’s direction, stopped at a parking spot in front of Building Fifteen.
"This place... I think I’ve been here before. Last week, I accompanied the Intelligence Division here for a search," Zhang Xiao said, stroking his chin as he looked at the residential building.
"Did your search last time yield any results?"
"Nothing. The room was very clean, furnished for a single woman. There were only women’s items, nothing out of the ordinary."
"Let’s go and search again," Wang Lan led the four inside.
It wasn’t that Wang Lan distrusted his teammates’ search abilities, nor did he hope to find any evidence in Bai Ji’s home. Instead, Wang Lan suspected that these death soldiers had come to Bai Ji’s house and been marked for death by the murderer.
The premise was that if they really were the Duanmu Family’s death soldiers, then their presence in the East Forest District, assuming it was related to Xiao Qing, could only be to search Bai Ji’s home. Because they couldn’t let it be known that the Duanmu Family was responsible, they had to send death soldiers.
Then, might the death soldiers have left behind any clues while searching?
With leads so scarce, Wang Lan couldn’t afford to miss any potential opportunities.
Opening the door, they were met with a scene of utter chaos.
Liu Yifeng turned to Zhang Xiao. "Was it this messy after you guys finished your search last time? That’s unlikely. Our Tianjian Bureau brethren are all men of integrity. How could they have rummaged through the place like bandits?"
"No, we didn’t make a mess during our search last time. Even if we moved things, we put them all back. It didn’t look like this. Here, not only were belongings scattered everywhere, but even the walls, ceilings, and floors had been completely smashed!"
"Looks like my guess wasn’t wrong," Wang Lan chuckled. "These unidentified victims were indeed death soldiers, and they did search this place thoroughly. Just as I suspected..."
"Captain, did you... find a new clue? How did you find it?" Bai Xu asked, an admiring look on her face. If she had just been joking earlier in the car, by now, Bai Xu genuinely admired this team leader who was a few years younger than her.
"It can’t really be called a clue; it’s more of a new hypothesis," Wang Lan explained. "As for how I thought of it... I had a dream last night.
Of course, a hypothesis is just that until we find evidence to prove it. While we don’t have evidence yet, the likelihood of this hypothesis being correct has significantly increased.
Everyone, start looking carefully. See if we can find any evidence."
The five of them split up and began their search.
Bai Ji’s apartment wasn’t large, only about 120 square meters, with a living room, a master bedroom, a secondary bedroom, two bathrooms, one shower room, and a separate study.
Having been thoroughly wrecked, its original state was impossible to discern. Despite being in a modestly priced residential area of Modu City and only 120 square meters, its value shouldn’t be underestimated.
In Modu City, with an average price of 80,000 yuan per square meter, this apartment was worth over ten million.
"Captain, I don’t think it’s necessary to look any further. The entire place has been stripped bare. If there was anything to find, it would have been turned up already."
"I’ve seen people who can turn eating fish, chicken, or crabs into an art form. But I’ve never seen a search so thorough that even the underlying electrical conduits are exposed. Impressively excessive."
While the five were meticulously searching inch by inch, Wang Lan suddenly caught a flash of light in the corner of his eye. Instantly, he moved to the balcony. Star Power surged. Enhanced vision, activate!
The buildings in Jinghua Mansion were spaced closely, only about thirty meters apart. Consequently, many of the lower and middle floors received very little sunlight each day. However, Bai Ji’s apartment was favorably located; it was only ten in the morning, and sunlight already bathed the balcony.
Through his enhanced vision, Wang Lan spotted a telescope on the floor just below the top of a building two hundred meters away from Bai Ji’s. Behind the telescope stood an old man who looked like a wild man.
The old man seemed to sense something, quickly retracting his telescope and retreating into his room.
"Captain, what are you doing on the balcony? We’ve searched here; there’s nothing."
"I haven’t found anything on my side either. Nothing at all."
"I, however, might have discovered something," Wang Lan said with a faint smile. "How strong are each of you? The murderer is a powerful individual capable of instantly killing even a Galaxy Stage warrior. If things go wrong, you could be killed."
"Early Star Sea Stage."
"Peak Galaxy Stage."
"Peak Galaxy Stage."
"Middle Galaxy Stage," Bai Ji confessed, her face reddening. Among the four, she seemed the most self-conscious about her rank.
"Don’t look at me, I’m only twenty-one!" Feeling Wang Lan’s gaze, Bai Xu blurted out, completely forgetting that a woman’s age is her greatest secret.
The peak period of strength growth for Star Martial Warriors is between eighteen and thirty years of age. During this time, they generally reach their full potential.
Even prodigies who took ten years to advance from Starlight to Star Cloud before turning eighteen would find their cultivation speed up even faster during this peak period. It might only take a few years to progress from Star Cloud to Galaxy Stage.
Moreover, during their university years, many civilian Star Martial Warriors also experience explosive growth due to the resources schools allocate in their favor. Reaching the Galaxy Stage by twenty-four or twenty-five isn’t remarkable. If you haven’t broken through to the Galaxy Stage by then, there’s little chance you’ll advance to the Star Sea Stage in your lifetime.
Wang Lan knew Yang Yang was twenty-eight this year and at the early Star Sea Stage, but his time for growth was running out. At this rate, becoming a Titled Strongman seemed unlikely.
On the other hand, twenty-one-year-old Bai Xu was at the middle Galaxy Stage. With nine years of peak growth remaining, she had the potential to go the furthest.
A fair assessment: all four team members would certainly be among the very best, even when compared to the geniuses and Demons as common as dogs at Modu City’s Star Martial Academy.
They truly lived up to their reputation as an independent S-ranked group from the Tianjian Bureau; their quality was extremely high.
With one at the early Star Sea Stage as a baseline, Wang Lan felt reassured. His normal strength was already at the late Galaxy Stage, and in his Phoenix form, he could even contend with those in the Star Sea Stage.
With two at the Star Sea Stage against one, Wang Lan didn’t believe the opponent could still be a Titled Strongman.
"Follow me. Yang Yang, you must always be ready to protect the other three. The murderer’s strength is at least at the Star Sea Stage. If possible, leave him to me."
"Captain, are you sure you can handle it?" Yang Yang voiced a hint of doubt towards Wang Lan for the first time.
After all, who would believe an eighteen-year-old could be at the Star Sea Stage? In the seventy years since the war, Jade Country had seen hundreds, if not thousands, of leading geniuses. But none had broken into the Star Sea Stage at the age of eighteen.
One would expect it to happen by twenty, right?
Even Yu Ruoyun, hailed as a rare genius of the ages, is at the peak Galaxy Stage at nineteen. If she breaks into the Star Sea Stage this year, she might be the first to do so before turning twenty. Could Wang Lan possibly be at the Star Sea Stage?
"Yeah, I probably shouldn’t ask this, but Captain, can you really handle it?"
"Bai Xu," Liu Yifeng said with a mysteriously profound look, "some things Yang Yang and I can say, but you cannot."