Chapter 281: Hostage

The cold gun barrel pressed against his temple. Jiang Chen trembled as he once again heard that nightmare-like voice in his head.

"Gao Jian!"

He gritted his teeth, disbelief written all over his handsome face.

"What a coincidence running into you here." I smiled, my finger resting on the trigger. "Don't move. My hand tends to shake when I get nervous."

My original plan was to use Old Master Jiang as a hostage to force the police to clear a path, taking them with me to hunt down Lu Xing. The plan was perfect, but executing it was incredibly difficult. Old Master Jiang was highly vigilant—the fact that he spotted me before the armed police did proved that enough. Furthermore, he was a key protection target for the police, making it nearly impossible for me to find an opening to strike.

Jiang Chen's appearance was an accident. While his status couldn't compare to Old Master Jiang's, as the heir to the Jiang family, his importance far exceeded that of an ordinary person.

With Old Master Jiang under strict protection, I decisively changed targets and chose Jiang Chen as my hostage.

"Everyone back off!"

My voice was fierce and stern. A kidnapper had to look the part. I put Jiang Chen in a chokehold, pressed the police pistol against his head, and put on the most ferocious expression I could muster.

It wasn't long before the armed police and auxiliary officers, who were still searching the building floor by floor, were called downstairs.

Even Chen Jianguo, who had been overseeing things from the command center, personally arrived at the first-floor reception hall. When he saw the scene before him, his face turned as black as charcoal. "You useless trash! The criminal came down ages ago. What are you still searching the roof for?!"

Bellowing furiously into his radio, the armed police captain had lost every shred of his dignity today.

"Captain Chen, don't blame them. This man has ghost arts on him; he cannot be judged by common sense," Old Master Jiang said. Even with his own son held hostage and in constant danger of having his brains blown out, the old man remained entirely unruffled. I couldn't even detect the slightest shift in his expression.

In my eyes, this man was even more terrifying than Huang Boyuan. At least when Huang Boyuan's eldest daughter was in danger, he showed genuine emotion. Old Master Jiang, however, acted as if he couldn't care less whether Jiang Chen lived or died, making his true depths impossible to fathom.

"Gao Jian, don't do anything rash! You've already made a mistake; absolutely do not compound it!" Chen Jianguo tried to persuade me, but it fell on deaf ears. Back in the police academy, I had systematically studied negotiation tactics for handling hostage rescues, suicide preventions, and terrorist activities. I knew exactly how to grasp a criminal's psychology, use words to shake their resolve, and divert their attention. I probably understood these techniques better than Chen Jianguo himself.

My nerves were stretched taut. Not only did I have to watch out for the threat of snipers, but I also had to protect Jiang Chen's safety. Lu Xing and his accomplice could very well be hiding in the crowd. If they fired a shot from the shadows and killed Jiang Chen, everything I had done would be for nothing.

Sweeping my gaze across the hall, I didn't spot Tie Ningxiang anywhere. For some reason, my heart felt a little lighter.

"Everyone get out of my way! I won't hurt Jiang Chen."

I cut off Chen Jianguo's nonsense. His face twitched with anger, but he was completely helpless. "Scatter! Guarantee Jiang Shao's safety!"

Dragging Jiang Chen along, I slowly backed toward the stairwell and made my way all the way up to the twelfth floor. "Bai Qi!"

Hearing my voice, the TV cabinet door burst open, and Bai Qi darted out.

Seeing the numerous heavily armed police officers surrounding us, the dog bared its fangs and let out a suppressed, menacing growl, its vicious nature fully exposed.

No matter how many enemies it faced, Bai Qi would never feel fear. The dog was brimming with ferocity. It simply hadn't encountered a worthy foe yet, so it had kept its animalistic nature hidden, acting docile and obedient.

After retrieving Bai Qi, I didn't linger. I silently recalled the Fate Ghost and headed to the parking lot.

"Go. Open the car door."

Held at gunpoint, Jiang Chen had no choice but to comply. He walked over to his Lamborghini supercar and pulled the door open.

I snatched the keys and took the wheel, forcing Jiang Chen to sit in the passenger seat with Bai Qi in his arms. "Don't try any funny business. This dog of mine has bitten people to death before."

The Lamborghini was completely surrounded. I steered with one hand while pressing the gun against Jiang Chen's head with the other. "You can follow me, but don't come within ten meters. Otherwise, the Jiang family's bloodline ends here."

I pulled the Black Wooden Box out of my pocket and flipped the lid open. Inside, the Mother Insect wasn't spinning in circles; instead, it was pointing straight toward the west side of the city.

"Lu Xing already left?"

It made sense when I thought about it. Their main objective was to retrieve the Double-Faced Buddha Statue and complete the Buddha's final plan. There was no need for them to fight me to the bitter end.

I started the sports car. I had already wasted too much time here. Worse yet, Lu Xing and Qiu Ren were now on their guard, making it even harder for me to stop them.

They weren't ordinary criminals. Armed with evil arts and ghost arts, their danger level and the difficulty of capturing them far exceeded that of regular people.

I glanced at the car's clock. It wasn't even 1:00 AM yet. Blind Liu probably hadn't turned his phone on.

"Whatever, I'll catch up to them first," I muttered. Outside the window, police sirens wailed, and a long dragon of police cars trailed behind me. I gave a bitter smile. Since I was already exposed, there was no point in hiding anything anymore. I simply pulled out the Underworld Live Show Phone and mounted it on the dashboard.

"Fellow livestream viewers, if there are any extraordinary individuals hiding among you who happen to be near Jiangcheng, I hope you can rush over to lend me a hand. I'm not asking you to lure the cops away. I just need you to help me track down Lu Xing and Qiu Ren. That lunatic is going to destroy this city; he must be stopped!"

The live stream was full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. With the police breathing down my neck, I could only track the person implanted with the Child Gu. If Lu Xing and Qiu Ren split up—with one specifically leading me on a wild goose chase while the other carried out the plan—I would be in serious trouble.

Begging the stream for help in a moment of crisis, hoping to rely on the livestream viewers—my seemingly normal actions left Jiang Chen completely dumbfounded.

Pretending not to care, he slanted his eyes and secretly peeked at the screen. He probably thought I had accomplices, his mind running wild with speculation. He was likely mistaking me for a core member of some massive crime syndicate.

I had noticed Jiang Chen's little movements early on, but I ignored him. Jiang Fei, Tie Ningxiang, and the others had all appeared on my stream before, and I had never been punished by the Underworld Live Show. Based on my deductions, as long as I didn't leak specific intelligence or the exact location of the Underworld Live Show, I wouldn't face retaliation.

Driving at high speeds in the heavy rain required extreme concentration. Believing I hadn't noticed his snooping, Jiang Chen felt secretly smug, thinking he had grasped some grand secret of mine, and peeked even harder.

His eyes were glued to the device as if caught on hooks, and slowly, his entire head turned until he finally got a clear look at what was on the phone screen.

"What's going on? Black screen every single day. Are there any mods here? Can someone penalize this Streamer?"

"Good lord! So many police cars. What a massive production!"

"I came here to watch panicked girls running around in pajamas. What's the point of dragging a pretty boy all over the place? Streamer, did you come out of the closet?"

Dongguan Waiter: "I've got the uncut two-minute eel video. Call me daddy if you want it."

"Daddy, add my QQ, send it private to my email."

"Sent, no need to thank me."

"May good people live in peace... Screw you, A Bite of China? Stir-fried eels? And it's a freaking two-minute cooking video?"

The barrage of comments grew increasingly absurd, and the look in Jiang Chen's eyes grew less and less calm.

"Having fun?" I shot him a glance before ignoring him again, speeding toward the west side of the city under the guidance of the Mother-Child Gu.

Over ten minutes later, the Mother Insect reacted violently as we drove past a mid-range residential complex.

"Why would Lu Xing come here?" I casually grabbed a raincoat from the car, threw it on, and dragged Jiang Chen out of the vehicle.

The moment I stopped, the long line of police cars on the road all slammed on their brakes, their movements so uniform it looked as if they had rehearsed it in advance.

"Gao Jian, the net of heaven is vast and lets nothing slip through! You only have one path left, and that is to surrender and confess. Don't harbor any delusions of getting lucky!"

Chen Jianguo's voice boomed from the loudspeaker behind us, but I couldn't care less about him right now. With Jiang Chen in my hands, who would dare take a shot at me and risk offending the Jiang family?

"A bunch of cowards. Talk to me when you actually catch me," I muttered.

"Gao Jian, don't be too arrogant!" The heavy rain had drenched Jiang Chen like a drowned rat, a sight unimaginable in the past. Whenever Jiang Chen went out, he was always accompanied by beautiful women and secretaries vying to hold his umbrella, willing to expose themselves rather than let Jiang Shao get the slightest bit wet.

"If I were you, I would obediently shut my mouth right now." Gripping Jiang Chen's hair, I stared into his fury-filled eyes. "A bullet passing through a skull causes a shattering explosion. You can simulate that in your head first, then try speaking to me again."