Back at the office, Dennis was already sitting on the sofa, panting and drinking water, obviously having taken care of everything.

Seeing Li Cheng颐 enter, he immediately wore a helpless expression.

"Boss, about what happened just now..."

"It's over, that's good. It's nothing. If they come again, I'll deal with them together," Li Cheng颐 said with a smile.

Dennis was speechless and could only stare at him with a resentful gaze. The resentful gaze of a grown man made Li Cheng颐's heart skip a beat.

"Alright, alright, I have a task for you. Collect all the large-scale crowd events that have occurred around this neighborhood in the past five years." Li Cheng颐 knew that it would be too inefficient to ask people one by one, and it was best to have a familiar local person do it.

"No problem. But..." Dennis was interrupted before he could finish speaking.

"The expenses will be deducted from the office account. Up to one million is fine." Li Cheng颐 brought a lot of gold bars with him. Gold is a hard currency everywhere, so it's very useful.

Compared to diamonds, which can be artificially synthesized, gold and silver are non-renewable resources, and many places use them as precious metals.

"Understood," Dennis said helplessly.

Listening to the two of them talking, Nilan, who was following behind, puffed out her cheeks, looking dissatisfied.

After Li Cheng颐 finished his instructions and left, she pulled her father into a corner.

"Dad, are you sure about this guy? I feel like this boss is really unreliable. I told him to come back and save the day, but he stopped halfway. It was my girlfriend who had to temporarily fill in and drive those two away."

"It's not that bad. Mr. Li doesn't seem like that kind of person. After all, he has so much money, there's no need for him to get involved in this mess. You're probably just misunderstanding him." Dennis's mind wasn't so simple, and he saw a bit of the truth.

"You haven't considered that he might just want to take advantage without contributing?" Nilan retorted.

"That wouldn't happen, would it? He already hired me as an employee, there's no need," Dennis said hesitantly.

"Knowing a person's face but not their heart, people's hearts are unpredictable." Nilan started educating her father at a young age. "I think we should prepare to resign and run away in advance. What if he never intended to contribute in the first place, or can't afford to contribute? When something happens, we won't even have a place to run."

"Don't worry, I believe Mr. Li isn't that kind of person," Dennis shook his head.

No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't understand Li Cheng颐's reason for doing this. If he didn't want to get into trouble, wouldn't it have been enough to just not hire him as an employee in the first place?

Seeing that she couldn't get through to her father, Nilan could only helplessly pout her lips slightly, staring at the office study, as if she wanted to see through the door and keep her eyes fixed on Li Cheng颐 sitting inside.

But what she didn't know was that at this time, the office study was already empty, without a single person inside.

Ludian City Center, Municipal Office.

In the empty office, the civil affairs officer, Wenlin Salton, was tiredly rubbing his temples, sitting at his desk.

The black telephone had just been put down, and the documents on the desk still retained the residual warmth from being freshly printed.

In the empty coffee cup on the right, the steam from the hot milk had long since cooled.

He was so busy signing the documents that had just been delivered that he even forgot to drink his breakfast milk.

Knock knock knock.

Suddenly, the door was knocked. The rhythmic knocking, not too fast or too slow, showed the stable patience of the person outside the door.

"Come in," Wenlin said in a low voice.

Not just anyone could enter his office. Ordinary people would be stopped by the triple checkpoints of the security guards, hunter investigators, and his secretary, Barty.

Therefore, those who could reach the door were all people he could meet.

Click.

The door was gently pushed open, and a silver-haired man in a black, fitted windbreaker slowly walked in, closing the door behind him.

The man naturally walked to the guest chair in front of the desk and sat down, his black eyes with a hint of gold looking at Wenlin.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Li Cheng颐, and I'm currently the owner of a detective agency."

"I don't remember having this appointment," Wenlin frowned as he looked at the other party. A mere detective agency owner, and not even a large agency, was not qualified to come to this office at all.

He must be a small-time figure who had sneaked in by other means.

He immediately reached for the telephone receiver, preparing to have his secretary kick the man out.

"If I were you, I wouldn't do that," Li Cheng颐 said calmly. "A stranger who can freely enter your office at any time, bypassing all other defenses, what you should do now is not to provoke him, but to try to listen to and understand his demands."

Wenlin's hand holding the receiver paused. He was bluffing him.

He was just too tired before and didn't react for a moment. Now that he had come to his senses, he immediately understood what it meant for this person to be able to sit here.

"Alright, then, Mr. Li Cheng颐, can you tell me what reason made you willing to take such a great risk, sneaking in here just to meet with me?" He let go of the receiver and looked at the other party seriously.

The name Li Cheng颐 had a foreign style, obviously not a local from Ludian.

"Of course not." Li Cheng颐 casually picked up the documents on the desk and flipped through them.

"I just came here to test the security strength. I was originally planning to go to the Hunter Branch in this city, but I also needed to take care of some matters here, so I made a trip here first."

During the days Li Cheng颐 had been here, he hadn't really been guarding the lingering aura of the Huayu Pearl at the office all the time. Instead, he had quickly familiarized himself with the hidden situation throughout the entire city.

Ludian belonged to the Venus Federation of Anze and was one of its hundreds of prefecture-level cities.

All the security and military forces in the city were mainly controlled by the Hunter Branch. The armies here were not based on artillery and firearms like those on Earth and the Moon, but mainly on hunters, supplemented by soldiers.

What they had to face were not ordinary hot weapons, but all kinds of bizarre cults and kingdoms.

Human wave tactics were meaningless here. Only elites were the key to ensuring stability.

This also led to the fact that throughout the entire Federation, and even the entire Anze, hunters were like celebrities in the eyes of those who knew about the hidden world.

Powerful hunters were packaged and promoted as celebrities, and the land around where they lived could rise in value, bringing both fame and fortune.

The federal government even created a hunter ranking, completely financializing some hunters. Even a single strong hunter could be listed on the dark market to raise investment and make money.

And the most contradictory thing was that hunters didn't have any special abilities. At most, they had top-notch qualities and skills that reached the limits of human beings. When facing various monster opponents, they still faced extremely high risks.

The evil consequences brought about by celebrity status were that the hunters who could really continue to be active were extremely good at packaging themselves.

Real, hardworking hunters who dared to do that were just嫌弃 (xiánqì - disliking) that they weren't dying fast enough.

"Then, Mr. Li, you can tell me your purpose now," Wenlin said seriously, straightening his attitude.

"I need the records of all crowd gathering events that have occurred around my office in the past five years," Li Cheng颐 said.

"Crowd gatherings? Does that include festivals?" Wenlin frowned.

"Yes, that too."

"That's easy to handle. Major events are all recorded," Wenlin opened a drawer and rummaged through it for a while, quickly taking out a brown plastic-covered file bag.

The thick file bag was filled with stacks of documents.

He handed it to Li Cheng颐.

The latter took it, quickly opened it, and scanned it quickly.

Each document was hundreds of words on a single page, and Li Cheng颐 could easily understand it with just a glance.

His powerful mental strength allowed him to easily master the language and writing of the Venus Federation. This simple writing was much easier than the difficult Black Sea script.

A document of more than ten pages was like flipping through a book in his hands. He finished reading it after flipping through it once.

While he was reading, Wenlin patiently sat in his original seat, waiting for the result.

He was thinking about what forces the other party came from.

The style of the name Li Cheng颐 was somewhat similar to the Ascended Immortal Kingdoms in Dongting of the East, where most of them had such a style.

But the Ascended Immortal Kingdoms were very far away from here, with many forces in between. What was the purpose of suddenly coming here?

Searching for records of crowd gathering events was obviously to investigate something.

Was he investigating the people in it, the events themselves, or looking for an object?

If he was looking for people or things, then he would definitely use the power of the municipal government. The other party said just now that he was going to the Hunter Branch, which meant that the other party was not a hunter, and their camp or strength didn't care about the hunters.

If he was a member of the Sunlight Council, he would have just ended the matter by issuing a notice from above, and there would be no need for so much trouble.

So...

The identity of the other party was obvious.

A strong outsider who did not belong to the hostile forces, had good strength, and had just come from another place to look for something!

Thinking of this, Wenlin's heart instantly became hot.

"Mr. Li, are you looking for someone?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yes," Li Cheng颐 nodded. Wasn't he deliberately revealing so much information in order to get the other party to cooperate according to his wishes?

"If you're looking for someone with a similar name to yours, then four years ago, there was a vicious conflict near Snowboat Street. People from the Underworld Cult and a group of unknown forces clashed, and both sides suffered many casualties. Finally, before the Underworld Cult mobilized a high-level expert at the bishop level, that group of people mysteriously disappeared," Wenlin said quickly.

"I still remember that incident vividly. The Underworld Cult is a member of the Sunlight Council. After providing evidence that the other party had broken the rules, they had the right to deal with the other party according to their internal doctrines. Therefore, our Hunter Branch had no right to intervene."

He paused and continued: "Later, I didn't expect that that group of people actually successfully repelled the power of the cult and retreated on their own, leaving the city."

"Do you know the identity of that group of people?" Li Cheng颐 asked.

"Most of them have yellow skin and black eyes. Some of them move very quickly when they attack, and their bodies become larger. Some people also control a kind of metal weapon that is very fast for offense and defense. But they themselves seem to be very fragile. They are a force with obvious strengths and weaknesses," Wenlin replied.

Li Cheng颐's heart tightened. Wasn't this the Feiyi? (flying guards/assassins)

Although the Feiyi were fast, ruthless, and accurate, the Feiyi masters themselves were actually very weak. After the basic rules changed, the strength of the Feiyi masters was bound to be greatly reduced. It was normal for the movements to not be very large.

Hearing this, he had basically determined that it was the Mingyuan Group and his party.

"Anything else?"

"No, regarding the specific situation, we inquired everywhere at the time, but we didn't know the origins of that group of people.

If you want to know more, you can only go to the people of the Underworld Cult, but...they believe in the gods of the underworld and possess some kind of mysterious power. If you're not very confident, I suggest you go to the Hunter Branch to inquire about the information first," Wenlin's attitude was quite sincere.

After confirming the origin of the other party's identity, he knew that his opportunity had come.

All along, he had been in an extremely awkward position. Although he was the top leader of the municipal government and also served as the second-in-command of the Hunter Branch,

In reality, the power of the hunters and the power of the municipal government were far inferior to the major cults.

The reason why he could maintain the current balance was only because the other cult forces of the Sunlight Council balanced and restricted each other.

And the interior of the hunter organization was actually extremely lacking in real experts and strongmen.

Although hunters had used means to win over many strongmen who were close to the cults, making them owe a lot of favors, in the end, these were not as good as having his own experts.

"In the city, the Underworld Cult and the Crescent Cult are the largest forces. The two restrain each other. If you want to investigate more information, you can go to the Crescent Cult to exchange information. Let me tell you a little trick: those vampires actually value the spirit of contract very much. When they're not sucking blood, they're just like ordinary people. They claim to be nobles and value promises and oaths very much," Wenlin said, stopping when he had made his point.

(End of this chapter)