"We've found four hairs in total!"
"They must be left by Zhao Ruihu or his bodyguards!"
"Regardless of who we find, track down the vine to find Zhao Ruihu!"
Ying Yue's face revealed a smile, then casually grabbed a twig. As True Yuan flowed, the twig softened and shape-shifted....
In the blink of an eye, it had turned into a tiny wooden crane!
This wooden crane was only the size of a mosquito, its body milky white. Flying into the sky, it was hard to be spotted. Ying Yue selected a hair and tied it to the wooden crane.
Muttering the mantra of the Wooden Crane Eagle Tail Technique, he bit the tip of his tongue and sprayed a jet of blood, spitting it onto the wooden crane, where the blood seeped in, tinging the crane with a hint of red.
"Go!"
Ying Yue casually threw it, and the wooden crane transformed into a streak of light, vanishing into the horizon.
"Zhao Ruihu, here I come!"
Watching the direction the wooden crane disappeared, Ying Yue's eyes gleamed with a trace of chill. He then sensed the position of the wooden crane and swiftly followed it.
...
Minghong Elegant Courtyard, the most expensive wealthy residential area in Yunyang, is situated mid-way up Emerald Bamboo Mountain, which is covered with vast tracts of bamboo forests, plus an artificial lake built around the mountain.
The lush bamboo forests surround the lake water.
This makes Minghong Elegant Courtyard a place with mountains, water, and vast tracts of bamboo, creating picturesque, pleasant scenery.
Consequently, villas in Minghong Elegant Courtyard carry price tags in the tens of millions, with even the cheapest costing over ten million, inhabited by big bosses and the wealthy – the rich and noble.
In the past, Ying Yue wouldn't have even known about such a place, let alone enter it. But today, he had arrived.
He followed the wooden crane straight to Yanynag's most famed wealthy residential area—Minghong Elegant Courtyard!
"The wooden crane has stopped at villa number 23. Looks like Zhao Ruihu or his bodyguard is here!"
Villa number 23.
Compared to other villas, villa number 23 was quite an anomaly, with over ten fierce bodyguards in suits and sunglasses standing guard—like sentinels, securing villa 23 tightly.
At the moment, five people were sitting in the guest hall on the first floor.
Three blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners, a slightly plump young man, and a middle-aged man wearing glasses.
The plump young man was Zhao Ruihu.
"Mr. Tom Ding, have you brought the items?"
Zhao Ruihu looked at the three foreigners, his eyes burning with impatience.
The three foreigners glanced at each other and smiled, not saying much. They produced a briefcase, pushed it in front of Zhao Ruihu, and in broken Mandarin said, "Zhao, as per your request, three potions, all here. Check them out if you'd like, the password is...."
"Great!!"
Zhao Ruihu, excited, rubbed his hands and quickly unlocked the briefcase to reveal three differently colored test tubes lying quietly inside.
"This is Umbrella Company's latest medicine?"
Seeing the three test tubes, Zhao Ruihu, along with the glasses-wearing middle-aged man beside him, were both visibly shocked, greedily eyeing them.
"Green Potion, makes your body 1 to 3 times stronger!"
"Red Potion, enhances your memory 2 to 4 times!"
"Black Potion, gives you a 0.9% to 1.5% chance of awakening!"
Tom Ding explained with a smile, "Zhao, this is the latest development from Umbrella Company, practically negligible side effects. Yanjingshe company has gone to great lengths to get these!"
"You've gone through much trouble, all of you!"
Zhao Ruihu brought his hands together in gratitude and then asked, "Gentlemen, what are the prices of these three new medicines...."
"Well, not to hide!"
Tom Ding laughed, "Since it's the latest development from Umbrella Company, very few make it to the market, so naturally, the price will be a bit steep!"
"Specifically, how much?"
Zhao Ruihu pressed, accustomed to shelling out millions, even tens of millions.
"Green Potion, worth 70 million, Red Potion, worth 40 million, Black Potion, worth 300 million; a total of 410 million!"
Tom Ding raised a finger and smiled, "We can knock off 10 million as a courtesy, only charging Zhao 400 million!"
"400 million..."
Upon hearing this price, Zhao Ruihu's expression changed instantly, "Mr. Tom Ding, you must be joking with me, 400 million? What kind of medicine is worth so much?"
"Zhao might not know, but these new medicines can make one's body stronger, brain smarter, and even awaken one to become mutants with magical abilities. Such divine medicine, how different is it from the holy water of God?"
Tom Ding shook his head repeatedly, "400 million, not expensive, not at all!"
"Haha!"
Zhao Ruihu set down the test tube in his hand and turned to the glasses-wearing middle-aged man, "Professor Qi, check the authenticity of this new medicine!"
"Sure!"
Professor Qi nodded repeatedly and took out a special device to begin examining it.
"Gentlemen, please wait a moment!"
Zhao Ruihu slightly squinted his eyes, then casually picked up a cigar from the table, lit it, took a drag, and exhaled a long puff of smoke, silently waiting.
"Young Master Zhao, these three new medicines are all authentic!"
10 minutes later, Professor Qi finished his examination and said with slight excitement, "The performance is unbelievably good, much better than the old medicine, and just as Mr. Tom Ding said, the side effects can almost be ignored!"
"Very good!"
Zhao Ruihu breathed a long sigh of relief and then turned to look at Tom Ding and his two companions, smiling, "Thank you for bringing such a new medicine, but the price is indeed steep!"
"Zhao, you heard what Professor Qi said. These three new medicines overcome the shortcomings of the old ones, and they perform exceptionally well. You Chinese have a saying, 'you get what you pay for'!"
Tom Ding smiled and said, "The old medicine of the same performance would also cost over two hundred million, I've only doubled that for this new medicine, not too much, right?"
Zhao Ruihu smiled and shook his head, "Stop talking nonsense, I said it's expensive, so it's expensive. How about this, since you've come from far away, I'll make a fair offer—ten million, how about that?"
"What do you mean, Mr. Zhao?"
The three foreigners' expressions darkened.
"My meaning is very simple!"
Zhao Ruihu stood up and slowly blew smoke into the faces of the three men, arrogantly saying, "If you're unwilling to accept ten million, then...leave the medicine behind and you can get lost!"
"Slap—"
A burly white man immediately became angry, slammed his hand on the tea table, and coldly huffed, "Mr. Zhao wants to betray us, and isn't afraid of biting off more than he can chew!"
As soon as the voice sounded, a group of bodyguards standing outside the villa rushed in, each holding a pistol, with the dark muzzles aiming at the three foreigners.
"It's not betrayal, just teaching you three fools a lesson. Use your brains a bit, and don't just strut onto someone else's turf!"
Zhao Ruihu crossed his legs smugly, "So, Mr. Tom Ding, are you satisfied with the price I've offered?"
Facing about twenty gun muzzles, the three foreigners calmed down instead. Tom Ding gently shook his head and smiled, "They say you businessmen from Great Qin are cunning, and today I've seen it for myself. But Zhao, do you think we would dare come here without backup?"
"Backup?"
Zhao Ruihu flicked the ash from his cigarette, sneering, "Even the strongest dragon can't suppress the local snake. You Yanjingshe Company may be thriving overseas, but let me tell you, in Great Qin, you're nothing, and as for Jiangzhou, we, the Zhao Family, hold sway!"
Saying this, he closed the password box and stood up, "Gentlemen, I truly can't wait to try out the new medicine. So, sorry, but I don't have time to entertain you anymore. A Biao, see them out!"
"Yes, Young Master!"
The leading bodyguard raised his hand and coldly said, "Gentlemen, please!"
"Hahaha, what a greedy person!"
Tom Ding shook his head with a smile, looking at Zhao Ruihu's retreating figure, "Zhao, do you really want to do this?"
"Too much nonsense!"
Zhao Ruihu didn't even turn back, "A Biao, kick them out!"
"Gentlemen, if you don't leave now, we'll be forced to show no courtesy!"
The tall and burly A Biao's tone cooled down, and he clenched his fist, producing a series of crisp cracking sounds.
"Ah, I thought people from Jiangzhou were outstanding and capable, but it turns out, even the famed Young Master Zhao is nothing but a bully and a traitor!"
Tom Ding sighed and said with a smile to the burly white man beside him, "Go, William, get our medicine back. I don't want to stay here a moment longer!"
"Heh heh!"
William, tall and resembling a raging bear, grinned wickedly and reached out to grab A Biao's pistol.
"Damn it!"
A Biao was clearly unprepared for this, his expression changed, and his right hand instinctively squeezed the trigger, aiming to shoot at William's thigh.
But William's hand was faster, appearing like a phantom at A Biao's wrist, then gently clamping down, and a crisp "snap" was heard.
A Biao's right hand was forced down at a 90-degree angle, and the pistol fell to the ground with a light "clack."
"Ah—"
A Biao let out a piercing scream, jolting the rest of the bodyguards awake—they immediately responded by pulling their triggers.
The pistols were equipped with silencers, making a very quiet sound, but the power of a dozen or twenty bullets was not to be underestimated.
Just as these bullets were about to hit William, Tom Ding, still beaming, blew a gentle breath and a mysterious scene unfolded.
About a dozen high-speed bullets suddenly stopped in mid-air, as if they had been magically suspended.
Then—
"Clatter clatter clatter" they fell to the ground, making a crisp noise.
Silence!
A deathly hush!
All the bodyguards in the living room, as well as the bespectacled middle-aged Professor Qi, were frozen in place, staring at the bullets on the ground, their eyes wider than those of a cow.
Even the screaming A Biao went silent.
"This..."
Everyone trembled, utterly terrified!
Stopping bullets in their tracks!
Is this even human?
At this moment, Zhao Ruihu had already stepped out of the living room and was about to leave when Tom Ding smiled and spoke, "Zhao, give us the new medicine back!"
Zhao Ruihu, without turning back, said, "A Biao, what are you doing, I told you to drive them off, didn't I?"
"Young... Young Master!"
A Biao broke out in cold sweat, swallowing hard, "They... they are monsters, they're not... not human, not human at all!"