Chapter 68 | Sequence: Sacrifice

Lin Zhen stood rooted to the spot, only reacting after several seconds.

"Re—resign? Why? Is it the salary? We can negotiate!"

Yin Yang smiled and shook his head as he stepped forward.

"No, it's just that I'm moving to another city."

"Huh?"

Lin Zhen was bewildered. Yin Yang didn't offer much explanation, simply walking to the counter to pick up the book he had been reading during the day.

This was part of the "payment" Lin Zhen had given him back then—a stack of books. Of all of them, only this last one remained unread.

"But why? This is so sudden."

Lin Zhen found it hard to accept. Everything had been perfectly fine today; why the sudden decision to leave?

Manager Lin walked out from the back as well. He had heard Yin Yang's words clearly.

He looked out the window, then thought back to when Yin Yang had first started working there, and a faint understanding began to dawn on him.

Yin Yang reached into his pocket and pulled out a leaf. It looked somewhat like a ginkgo leaf or a seashell, though the material felt like plastic.

"Zhen-jie, this is for you."

"What is it?"

"A small gift."

Yin Yang's smile remained as gentle as ever. He had crafted this leaf himself; it could help the wearer recover from injuries.

However, this one given to Lin Zhen was not a special version and could not be used as a token to identify him.

Hearing this, Manager Lin's brow furrowed even deeper.

Yin Yang tucked his book away and glanced at Canned Food.

"Meow~"

Canned Food jumped straight out of Lin Zhen's arms and rubbed its head against Yin Yang's pant leg.

"Zhen-jie, thank you for looking after me during this time. You can keep my remaining salary."

"Also, the coffee you make is very good."

Yin Yang gave Lin Zhen a final wave before walking out of the bookstore with the book and the cat.

"Xiao Yang!"

Lin Zhen tried to chase after him, but Manager Lin caught her by the wrist.

"Xiao Zhen!"

"Dad, Xiao Yang is in such a hurry to resign that he didn't even want his pay. Something must have happened. We have to help him!"

"You can't go. Listen to me!"

Manager Lin's expression was incredibly solemn as the incident of Nannan's disappearance flashed through his mind.

The Security Bureau couldn't find her, yet Xiao Yang had located her in less than half an hour.

At the time, he had assumed it was a coincidence, but once coincidences start piling up, they cease to be coincidences!

"Dad, why?"

Manager Lin watched the direction Yin Yang had gone and spoke slowly.

"We aren't the same kind of people. Him leaving now is better for him and for us."

Lin Zhen was a smart girl. She had only been flustered by the news of his resignation, but hearing her father's words combined with the earlier explosion, she began to understand.

"The matter with the Qi family... was that Xiao Yang's doing?"

"It's possible. If anyone comes to investigate, just say he disappeared after resigning. You know nothing!"

"But..."

"No buts! I'm going to find Old Huang to see what he knows."

Manager Lin steadied his emotions before dialing Uncle Huang's number.

"Hello? Old Lin, I'm right in the middle of something. What is it?"

"I saw the explosion over by the Qi family. What happened?"

"Sigh, don't even ask. The Qi family was wiped out by a cult. The mountain was practically leveled! I'll tell you more when I have time."

Manager Lin hung up with a grim face.

"Did you hear that? A cult!"

Lin Zhen, however, found it impossible to associate Xiao Yang with a cult.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she said urgently.

"Dad, it might not be Xiao Yang. Two women and a man came by this afternoon, and they were asking about the Qi family too."

"The Qi family incident happened not long after they left. It might not have been Xiao Yang."

Manager Lin let out a deep sigh upon hearing that.

"But both groups are connected to our shop."

...

Two days later.

Wang City.

The ruins of the Qi family estate.

"This method is clean and efficient. It doesn't look like something those people from the Shadow Lotus Church could pull off."

"According to Wang Gen's earlier description, there was no fire during the explosion, only a burst of white light. It should have been a spiritual bomb."

"The fact that the range was controlled so well proves that the person responsible isn't someone who enjoys indiscriminate killing."

An elderly man stood at the summit of the Qi family's hill, rubbing the sand and stones on the ground between his fingers.

"Teacher, wasn't the blast range controlled by Bureau Chief Wang?" a student who was taking notes asked curiously.

The old man sighed.

"Sometimes I wonder what great sins I committed in my past life to end up with you lot as my disciples in this one!"

Hearing this, the other two students nearby lowered their heads in embarrassment.

The old man pointed at the empty summit before them.

"Do you see what the shape looks like?"

"Like... a folding fan?"

"Exactly. This 'handle' of the fan is where Wang Gen was standing."

"Because he blocked it, a portion of the energy had nowhere to go and surged outward instead."

As he spoke, he walked to a specific spot.

"This should be the center of the explosion. If Wang Gen hadn't intervened, the blast would have covered the entire mountain."

"Precisely because Wang Gen blocked it, a portion of the energy couldn't be vented properly, resulting in this fan-shaped blast pattern."

"From this, we can conclude that the person who made the spiritual bomb only intended to wipe out the Qi family and had no intention of expanding the casualties."

"This is a major departure from how the Shadow Lotus Church operates. Therefore, I suspect the person who did this was not one of them."

As the three students scribbled notes furiously, the old man brushed the dirt off his palms.

"It's too clean. According to Wang Gen, the person left through a door after he arrived."

"He had already pressured that person at the time, which proves the perpetrator's strength is below Sequence 6."

"Yet, according to Xia Zhiqiu, that person simultaneously suppressed him, two Sequence 6 members of the Shadow Lotus Church, and the mutated Qi family head."

"To be able to suppress four Sequence 6 combatants while not being at Sequence 6 oneself... they must have used some kind of transcendent item or an incantation array."

"Interesting. I love dealing with criminals who work this meticulously."

He stretched and looked at the students following him.

"If you were the security officer in charge of this case, what would you do?"

The first student thought seriously for a moment before saying, "I heard the main bureau in Central City has a sealed object that can distort time to a certain extent. We could apply for it! Then we could perform a time backtracking to see who the culprit is!"

The old man nodded and looked at the second student.

After a slight hesitation, that student said, "I would screen the surrounding surveillance footage to see who disappeared after approaching the Qi family area, or who appeared in the vicinity for the first time without any record of leaving!"