Chapter 786: An Unimaginable Hunting Plan

"Starting from a dream?" I faintly began to understand the black-robed man's plan.

"Exactly. We enter Zhu Li's dream while he's fast asleep. I have my own ways of searching his memories."

The black-robed man brimmed with confidence, but I thought the risk was too great. "Just because you can search his memories doesn't mean you'll find the Butcher's other wills. What if the wills aren't connected to each other? Wouldn't this just alert the enemy and expose us?"

"Everything carries risk. This is the best method I can think of right now." The black-robed man glanced at me. "Entering Zhu Li's Dream Realm is just the first step of my plan. Finding the Butcher's Will inside Zhu Li's dream, and then entering the Dream Realm of the Butcher's Will—that is what I actually want to do."

"A dream within a dream?"

"Entering a dream from within a dream, and then killing within that dream. The key to hunting the Butcher lies in the Dream Realm." The black-robed man stared intently at the Good and Evil Asura Mask on my face, his gaze seeming ready to pierce through it to see my expression clearly.

"Carrying it all out in a dream? That's a bit difficult. I personally think it would be safer to do it in reality." The black-robed anchor and I had only met twice. I couldn't completely trust him. Blindly following him into a dream under these circumstances—especially a dream within a dream—was incredibly dangerous.

"Since officially becoming a live show streamer, you haven't fought with other streamers yet. You don't understand the power behind the title of live show streamer." The black-robed man's voice was flat, but I could hear the arrogance in his words. "Whether it's me or the Butcher, our dying struggles alone would be enough to destroy this city and bury countless people along with us. That is one of the reasons I am not hunting him in reality."

"A live show streamer can destroy Jinghai?" I shook my head, feeling he was boasting a bit too much.

"When the day comes to hunt the Butcher, you'll understand that not only am I not boasting, I'm actually being modest." Facing my doubts, the black-robed anchor didn't argue. He sneered and sidestepped the topic. "The focus of my plan is indeed in the Dream Realm, but that doesn't mean reality will be ignored. Killing the Butcher requires two steps: annihilating his will, and destroying his physical body. These two steps must be carried out simultaneously. A single mistake in either step, and all our efforts could fall short."

The black-robed anchor paused and pointed at me. "You will enter the dream with me. Once we determine the exact locations of all of the Butcher's wills, you can leave. I will deal with his wills in the Dream Realm, and you will kill his physical body in reality!"

Frankly speaking, the black-robed man's plan was very tempting. The Butcher was the most dangerous and ruthless streamer in the Live Show. Even if I didn't hunt him, he would probably come looking for trouble with me in the future. It was better to strike first.

Noticing I hadn't spoken for a while, the black-robed man's tone shifted slightly. "Do you see a flaw somewhere, or are you averse to killing? The Butcher's Will is divided into multiple parts, so you will need to kill more than one person. But rest assured, anyone hosting the Butcher's Will is a sick lunatic, just like Zhu Li. You don't need to carry any psychological burden."

"Let's talk specifics. When do we make our move?" I had plenty of blood on my hands, but to me, killing was just one method of handling problems. I wasn't a maniac who killed indiscriminately.

"Do you still remember that face-changing monster in the White Rose?" the black-robed man asked casually.

"Of course. If it weren't for you, I would've caught that damn thing by now."

"It isn't a ghost, nor is it a thing. It's a toy made by the Butcher. I stopped you from chasing her because I wanted to use her to draw out Zhu Li." The black-robed man had clearly thought much further ahead than I had. After all, he had been plotting to hunt the Butcher for half a year now. "There is one woman among the Red Building Tenants who wasn't possessed by an obsession. Her name is Bai Ya'er, and she is a believer of Zhu Li's. Through Kong Ying's tracking and investigation, we found that this woman frequently visits the White Rose Beauty Center for treatments. I didn't pay it much mind at first, but over time, I realized something was wrong. Her visits to the beauty center were far too frequent, and every time, she received the same treatment—something related to the face."

I had also suspected as much. "So, you're guessing the White Rose is connected to Zhu Li?"

"Exactly. At first, I thought the shop owner of the White Rose was also hosting the Butcher's Will, but after testing the waters a few times, I realized the owner was merely a puppet. To refine a living person into a puppet toy, a level of control over flesh and emotion that reaches this degree—only the Butcher is capable of that." The black-robed man gave a self-deprecating smile. "That monster kept repeating topics related to human faces. The reason is that the face is the part of the human body that best reflects emotional changes. By stealing your face, she effectively stole a trace of emotion that belonged to you right out of your body. When I first encountered this monster, my mind was unsteady, and she almost took advantage of that flaw to find a weakness."

"If that monster can take on my face, does that mean she already successfully stole a trace of emotion from my body?" Such a mishap had occurred when I confronted the monster on the pedestrian street.

"Your face was stolen by her?" The black-robed man froze for a moment. "If that's true, then we need to make our move as soon as possible. The Butcher's Will can read a lot from that face of yours. After all, he's the one in this city who's best at reading emotions."

The black-robed man tossed me a Black Phone. "I'll call this phone to contact you if anything comes up. Stay hidden in the outer district for now, and be ready to strike at a moment's notice."

The solid black touchscreen phone was small and exquisite, completely different from the Large-Screen Phone of the Live Show. I didn't act coy and simply put the phone away. "Let me know when you need me."

"Leave that monster to me. I'll also confirm Zhu Li's location as soon as possible." The black-robed man drew out his words. "Before I find him, you'd better keep a low profile. All of Jinghai is fraught with danger right now, and even I don't know exactly how many factions have infiltrated the city."

"There's one more thing I want to get straight. After we kill the Butcher, how do we divide the items he redeemed from the Live Show?" I didn't believe the black-robed man was immune to the temptation of the Butcher's inheritance.

"Let's talk about that after the Butcher is dead." The black-robed man waved his arm, seemingly dispelling some kind of barrier. The wailing of police sirens and shouts from outside the alley flooded back in.

He walked toward the alley exit, disappearing from sight the moment he stepped out.

"What a mysterious guy." Wearing the Good and Evil Asura Mask, anyone who saw me would find me suspicious, so I avoided the main roads and walked deeper into the alleys instead.

"This time, I finally don't have to fight alone. Though, it's still uncertain whether the black-robed man can actually be trusted." Whether it was hunting the Butcher or fighting the Xinhu Double-Faced Buddha, my interests highly aligned with his. Logically, we should be natural allies. It was just a pity that I had my own secrets as well.

For some unknown reason, he deeply hated Fate Usurpers, yet I was already walking the path of usurping fate.

I took a long detour. By the time I finally returned to the clinic, it was already the early hours of the morning.

The car I had driven from the Red Building was covered with a sunshade. The crushed frog corpses and bloodstains on the tires had all been cleaned up.

"She really lives up to her forensic medicine background. Very professional." I checked the perimeter of the clinic. Once I confirmed no one had followed me, I took off my mask and vaulted over the courtyard wall.

I opened the door. The house was pitch-black. I hadn't planned on turning on the lights, but the moment I stepped inside, the lights on the first floor flicked on.

The faint white light wasn't blinding. Sitting near the door was a woman. She was expressionless, like an inherently emotionless puppet.

"What took you so long?" Yan Shengnan picked up the cold coffee from the coffee table, crossing her long, sexy legs.

'They shouldn't be the same person.' I swept my Judging Eye over the woman inside and out. Her height and build were roughly the same as the black-robed anchor I had met, but their styles of doing things and tones of voice were completely different. "Were you waiting for me?"

"I was just afraid you'd die out there." The woman stood up from her chair and walked toward the second floor. "You can sleep on the first floor."

Her clothes were different from during the day. Having taken off her white lab coat, she looked much more approachable.

I quietly approached her. My gestures, pacing, and the tone and rhythm of my voice all employed hypnotic techniques. I really wanted to confirm this woman's identity, and hypnosis was one of my hidden trump cards. "Sorry to make you wait so long. I might have to bother you for a few more days."

"As long as you can catch the killer who hurt Kong Ying, I don't care about anything else." Even when mentioning Kong Ying, the woman's voice didn't show much emotional fluctuation, which made me a bit curious.

"I've never been able to figure it out. Why are you with Kong Ying? The two of you don't look like a good match."

"From the time I was born until now, he is the only person who has ever confessed his feelings to me."

"That's it?" I was rendered speechless. Surprise showed on my face, but my footsteps didn't stop. I had already walked right up to her side.

"Yes. Get some rest early." The woman seemed slightly impatient and quickened her pace.

"Pardon the offense." As she passed by me, I suddenly struck out, grabbing her wrist and forcefully pinning her against the wall.

She probably didn't have a habit of wearing perfume. Her body gave off a strange, mixed scent of shampoo and disinfectant. I was pressed very close to her, but bizarrely, neither of us had any extreme reaction, as if we were a married couple of many years spicing up our intimacy.

Her skin was very smooth, her arms like tender bamboo shoots. I couldn't find any wounds or plum blossom scars.

The corpse poison of an Uncorrupted Bone couldn't possibly be cleared that quickly. It seemed this woman really wasn't the black-robed anchor. However, her current reaction was absolutely not normal either. There was definitely something wrong with her.

I let go of her hand and slowly backed away. "I wanted to verify some things. My apologies."

The woman looked back at me. A flash of anger flared in her eyes before vanishing instantly, and she quickly returned to her original, icy demeanor.

Without saying a single word, she entered one of the rooms on the second floor.

'Cold and closed-off. This woman's personality really is a bit hard to read.'