Chapter 265: Three Yins

His dark eyes bright, Bai Qi caught my scent from far away. Before I even drew close, he leaped up, pulling his heavy chain taut.

"I'm sorry."

I rubbed Bai Qi's head and carefully pulled the syringes from his body. These Injections must have been fired directly into him with a tranquilizer gun; some of the needles were already bent.

"Awooo!" Bai Qi licked my face and circled around me, his chain clanking against the ground.

"I'll get you out." I raised the Deer-Slaying Dao and brought it down with all my strength. The iron chain snapped. "The key to your collar might be on Jiang Long. I need to head back to the villa to clean up the scene anyway."

Jiang Long had seen the Underworld Live Show files. I couldn't let him live. I needed to go back and confirm whether he was actually dead.

Furthermore, I hadn't found any trace of the tattooed man on the first or third floors of the villa. He was the primary enforcer and had likely seen the Underworld Live Show files as well. If I got the chance to eliminate him, I wouldn't hesitate.

Freed from the chain, Bai Qi excitedly ran a few laps before suddenly stopping in front of me. He bared his teeth at the corner of the cell, letting out a low, dangerous growl.

Black hair slowly emerged in the cell, taking the shape of a young man. He tilted his head to study Bai Qi, then looked at me in confusion.

"It's fine. He's with us." I was also a little surprised by Bai Qi's reaction. The dog had actually shown a flicker of fear just now. Had the Fate Ghost already grown to a level where even Bai Qi couldn't stand against it?

I honestly didn't know whether letting a ghost grow like this was a good or bad thing for me.

The Fate Ghost stared quietly at Bai Qi for a long time before dissolving back into ink-black hair. It melted into the shadows and moved toward the other side of the cell.

Unsure of what the Fate Ghost was doing, I followed it until it stopped in front of a locked partition.

"The things I'm looking for are in here?"

I hacked off the lock and stepped inside. The room was furnished like a study, a sharp contrast to Jiang Long's own thuggish temperament.

High-end bookshelves lined the walls. The books on them were in pristine condition without a single creased spine. Unless the owner was a fanatic collector, it meant these books were merely for show and had never been opened.

"An ebony desk, a sofa... why would Jiang Long build a study underground?"

The basement was damp and cold. Placing expensive wooden furniture down here meant he couldn't show it off, and the environment itself would ruin the wood.

A complete tea set sat on the expensive ebony desk. Two ebony chairs were placed facing each other on opposite sides.

'Is this room used for receiving guests?' I recalled what Jiang Long had said before. Old Master Jiang would send someone specifically to collect documents. This study was likely designed to host that envoy.

Guided by the Fate Ghost, I shoved the bookshelf aside. Three ancient paintings were affixed to the hidden wall behind it.

They were three chi long and one chi wide. The first painting depicted a hunched old woman holding a cup of tea. She appeared kind, yet a trace of venom hid in her eyes. A poem was inscribed at the bottom of the scroll, and the signature was written in two ancient characters: Meng Po.

The subject of the second painting was an old man with an extraordinary bearing and a transcendent aura. However, a massive, colorful snake coiled around his body, giving him a terrifying appearance. Another poem was written at the bottom of this scroll, signed by Lord Snake.

I had actually seen the figure in the final painting before. It was a three-eyed, four-armed, mischievous toddler clutching several women's severed heads as if thoroughly enjoying its playtime. There was no poem at the bottom of this scroll, only two crookedly written characters: Ghost Infant.

"Three paintings, three bizarre figures. Meng Po, Lord Snake, and a Ghost Infant. What does this all mean?" I took down the scrolls and inadvertently discovered a hidden compartment behind them.

The wall had been hollowed out to store stacks of yellowing documents and letters.

Drawing on my old experience as a private detective, I knew I had just struck gold.

I casually tore open one of the envelopes. Inside were bad debt records from the Jiangjin Group dating back over a decade, along with a handwritten letter from Old Master Jiang. That old fox had personally ordered Jiang Long to carry out covert reprisals against specific rivals.

"Business is a battlefield. I guess only the most despicable people manage to stand firm until the very end."

I tore open the envelopes one after another. Most of them contained handwritten letters from Old Master Jiang, some dating back twenty years. The more I read, the more alarmed I became.

The information revealed in these letters implicated them in multiple violent crimes resulting in severe injuries and disabilities. The details were utterly vile.

"You old bastard. And you had the nerve to threaten me with the weapon of the law?"

Jiang Long wasn't as loyal a lackey as he seemed. He had definitely kept these letters and ledgers as insurance in case Old Master Jiang ever tried to dispose of him. He might have eagerly called him "godfather" to his face, but behind his back, he was hoarding twenty-year-old letters as evidence. What a harmonious, "model" father and son.

I organized the letters, found a waterproof folder in the study, and packed them all up to take with me. If this evidence ever came to light, it would completely shatter the Jiang family's foundation in Jiangcheng.

I had no intention of exposing them right now, though. Although Old Master Jiang didn't have the Underworld Live Show files, Jiang Long had definitely reported the matter to him. That meant it was ninety percent likely that Old Master Jiang was already aware of the Underworld Live Show's existence.

If I publicized their dirty laundry and pushed Old Master Jiang to the point where a desperate dog leaps over a wall, he would probably choose mutually assured destruction. He would leak the Underworld Live Show files and broadcast them to the world. I wouldn't be able to salvage the situation, and my erasure by the Show would be guaranteed.

It was a stalemate of mutual apprehension. Both of us would have to tread very carefully.

Slipped among the letters and ledgers, I found the few pages of scratch paper I had used to jot down notes about the Underworld Live Show. These contained summaries of my livestreaming experiences, deductions about the broadcasts, case analyses, and my hypotheses regarding the Two-Faced Buddha, the Eight Characters Divine Fiends, and other details.

Once I was certain I hadn't missed anything, I pulled out my lighter and set the scratch paper ablaze.

From now on, I would never write down another detail about the Underworld Live Show. I would keep everything locked safely inside my memory.

I tossed the burning pages onto the bookshelf. The flames quickly spread, swallowing the entire basement.

I left the garage and led Bai Qi back into the villa. The men in the living room whose vitality had been drained by the Fate Ghost weren't in any fatal danger; they had only passed out temporarily. These guys were acting as a proxy for a tiger, but their crimes didn't warrant death. There was no need to rack up a higher body count.

I combed through every room of the three-story villa, but I couldn't find the tattooed man. His van was still parked out in the courtyard, yet he was nowhere to be seen.

'Did Jiang Long silence him? Or did he hear the commotion and make a run for it?'

I couldn't guess the truth. Glancing at the clock, I saw it was nearing midnight. I fetched the key from Jiang Long's body and unlocked Bai Qi's collar, then found some waterproof tape to tightly seal the folder. Hoisting the Deer-Slaying Dao over my shoulder, I left the villa.

Raindrops pelted us, quickly soaking through my coat. Bai Qi and I stood on the desolate street. There wasn't a single taxi in sight.

"We need to get back to Ting Tang Road," I muttered. "The cops might already be on their way. We have to move fast."

I glanced around and suddenly noticed a dilapidated Wuling Hongguang minivan switch on its headlights by the villa district's entrance. The young man sitting inside was staring at me in astonishment.

"Jian Ge?" Er Gou threw open the door and bolted out into the heavy downpour. "What are you doing here? Didn't you say we wouldn't make a move for four days?"

"And what are you doing here?" I patted his shoulder. "Er Gou, we can't stay here. Let's talk in the car."

Rain washed down Er Gou's face as he stared blankly at the pitch-black, deathly silent villa. Just over an hour ago, that same house had been brightly lit and ringing with laughter.

I climbed into the back seat of the van with Bai Qi and shoved the Deer-Slaying Dao underneath it. "Head to my shop. Make sure you dodge the traffic cameras on the way."

"Jian Ge, you still haven't answered my question. What were you doing charging into Jiang Long's lair all by yourself in the middle of the night?" Er Gou asked as he drove. "I came out here to keep watch, so I saw exactly what that villa looked like before and after. Don't tell me you wiped out their whole gang on your own?"

"Gang? There are no gangs in Huaxia. At best, they're just scum living in the shadows." I patted the seat, my tone slowly turning serious. "Er Gou, I hid a blade under this back seat. You absolutely cannot let anyone else see it. Three nights from now, bring it with you and come find me..."