With his dantian destroyed, even the mightiest cultivator was nothing but a cripple. Unless some heaven-defying stroke of fortune came his way, Xue Jianfeng's life was over.

His howls of agony would not stop, and the ruckus even drew the attention of the residential compound's security guards. Wei Zhao casually scooped up a rag and stuffed it into his mouth, and only then did Xue Jianfeng finally quiet down. He slumped to the ground utterly broken, not stirring so much as a finger, all his former swagger and self-assurance gone; even his eyes had gone a flat, despairing gray.

"Little silly girl, find someone later to haul him back to the Mystery Investigation Bureau and lock him up," Wei Zhao said, turning to Qiu Lingshan. "Use whatever methods you have to—squeeze as much intel out of him about the Tai Gu Alliance as you can, see what they're really up to. A piece of trash like this doesn't deserve any courtesy."

"Huh? Oh..." Qiu Lingshan had been staring at Wei Zhao in a daze, and only snapped back to herself when she noticed everyone's odd looks fixed on her. She hurriedly made an excuse about making a phone call and scurried off to one side.

"She's a deputy director already, and after three years apart she's still this scatterbrained." Wei Zhao shook his head with a helpless smile, then let his gaze fall on Fei Yangsheng nearby.

Fei Yangsheng was scared witless. Yin Zhiping and Sun Baimei had been brutally slaughtered by Wei Zhao before, and now even the far stronger Xue Jianfeng had met the same fate. Wei Zhao's madman-like power had taken deep root in his heart, and with his mere mid-Foundation Establishment strength he could not summon the slightest thought of resistance. He dropped to his knees with a prompt, well-practiced thud.

"Spare me, Senior! This business really has nothing to do with me—I was forced to be his driver, I didn't actually do anything! Please, Senior, don't destroy my cultivation, I surrender, I surrender..." Fei Yangsheng's kneeling-and-begging posture was as neat as a picture, while his heart quaked with fear. After all, Wei Zhao sparing him last time had been a rare mercy. Now that he had fallen into Wei Zhao's hands a second time, even though he had not lifted a finger against Qiu Lingshan and the others, who knew what Wei Zhao was thinking?

In truth, Wei Zhao had never intended a bloodbath. Seeing him so sensible, he nodded and said, "Fine, then. Stay and follow me. We'll be dealing with the Tai Gu Alliance people soon enough, and I happen to be short an inside guide."

"Yes, yes, thank you for your mercy, Senior. Thank you for your mercy." Fei Yangsheng was overjoyed at the words. So long as he could keep his life and his dantian, everything else was negotiable.

To be sure, serving as Wei Zhao's errand-runner and guide smacked somewhat of betraying his country for the enemy, but the Tai Gu Alliance's demands regarding honor and integrity were not much higher than the secular world's—especially when weighed against things like one's life and one's dantian, there was no need to agonize over the choice at all.

Xue Jianfeng crippled, Fei Yangsheng surrendered—the sudden upheaval had at last run its course, and only then did Qiu Lingshan and the others have a chance to surround Wei Zhao in a tight circle.

Looking at those familiar faces, Wei Zhao felt a warm current well up in his heart. Amid everyone's delighted cries, he went from Qiu Lingshan onward and gave every last one of them, men and women alike, a great bear hug. To him, every person here was family.

"These three years, you've all worked hard," Wei Zhao said, visibly moved as he looked at them.

"What are you talking about, Chief? This is all just what we ought to be doing—hard work doesn't even come into it!" Wu Chengtian blurted out at once.

"Exactly! Chief, you're being all distant with us—you're breaking our hearts here!" Yu Bing, Zhao Qitan, and the rest chimed in, egging him on.

"Fine, fine, fine, I misspoke, all right? Who told you all to be grasshoppers tied to the same string as me—if you drop dead from exhaustion, you've only yourselves to blame. Satisfied now?" Wei Zhao said, raising his hands in surrender.

"That's more like it." Only then did Wu Chengtian and the others break into grins.

Wei Zhao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Just then Ying Ziyu suddenly slipped over, sniffed her way up and down his whole body, and said with a frown, "Big brother Wei Zhao, what's that smell on you? Don't tell me you've been out chasing women again?"

"Huh?" Wei Zhao blinked. Seeing Qiu Lingshan and the others stifling their laughter, he realized—how could a primordial spirit body like his have any smell at all? He had nearly been taken in by the little minx.

The reunion stirred up a brief round of merrymaking, but it did not last long, for Qiu Lingshan suddenly remembered the news she had received earlier and hurriedly told Wei Zhao all about the trouble at Snow Valley and Tang's mother being injured.

"Outrageous!" Wei Zhao's good mood vanished in an instant, replaced by a surge of fury. He said in a low voice, "There's no time to lose. I'll head for Snow Valley right now. The rest of you stay here and wait for my return."

"Right!" Everyone nodded in unison. Having witnessed Wei Zhao's clash with Xue Jianfeng just now, they knew their own strength was too poor to be of any help; Wei Zhao going alone would let him cut loose far better anyway.

With that, Wei Zhao made to set off, but on second thought he first went up to the second floor to look in on the women lying unconscious. He checked each pulse in turn and found them unchanged from before, which brought him a measure of relief. As things stood, no change was itself good news.

His true body was now at the early Xuan Sheng stage. Once he advanced further and became a titan-realm expert, Wei Zhao was confident his chances of finding Zhang Liju would rise greatly. Zhang Liju might appear and vanish like a dragon showing its head but never its tail, but if the two of them were roughly on the same level, then the places they moved about in would overlap considerably, and a meeting would naturally follow. He had always firmly believed that so long as he could find Zhang Liju, Gu Mengyao and the other women would be saved!

Coming out of the villa, Wei Zhao had only one man with him: Fei Yangsheng. Fei Yangsheng was still the driver—except when he had arrived he was driving for Xue Jianfeng, and now his boss had become Wei Zhao.

To Wei Zhao's considerable surprise, this fellow Fei Yangsheng was actually a decent driver. Apart from barreling along and ignoring every traffic law in sight, he was impressively fast—a regular whirlwind. A plain private car was somehow revved up like a beast on stimulants into a top-tier sports car. On reflection, it really was enough to make one speechless.

Still, that style of his rather suited Wei Zhao's taste. Wei Zhao wanted to reach Snow Valley as fast as possible; if the fellow drove like a snail, he would have had to take the wheel himself, so this saved him no small amount of trouble.

"What's your connection to that Xue Jianfeng?" Wei Zhao asked from the passenger seat.

"Senior, he's the senior disciple of our sect. He was leading this excursion into the secular world, so I didn't dare disobey him—that's how this whole mess came about..." Fei Yangsheng answered cautiously.

"What sect?" Wei Zhao asked offhandedly. In truth, he did not much care what sects made up the Tai Gu Alliance—unless things developed to the point where he wanted to divide and conquer them, and only then would he take a real interest in these sects. For now, this kind of intel was worth less than nothing. (To be continued.)