Chapter 1934 — The Inquiry

The military training at Donghai Engineering University was no secret; Baldy Wolf had not needed to dig at all to get reliable information—and the information was absolutely accurate.

"Then could it be students doing field training somewhere nearby?" Oterdi asked.

"That's impossible too. Red Conch has been in this business for years now, and we know the scope of each year's training. This place is far too remote—getting students out here and back within two days is out of the question. Those students aren't like us; how could they walk so far?" Baldy Wolf shook his head. "Maybe you misheard. There are owls around here, and their call sounds about the same as what we just heard. If border troops had come, we'd be hearing gunshots—do you think you and I would still be standing here talking?"

"You've got a point!" Oterdi, seeing that no strange sights or sounds had come for quite a while, nodded as well. But just at that moment, the call came again...

"Doo—goo—" The sound came from Wei Zhao's throat, mimicking precisely the call of an owl.

"Damn, so it really was an owl. Scared me half to death!" This time Oterdi heard it clearly too, and he could not help shaking his head. "Anyway, let's hurry up and make the trade!"

"The goods are here. Take a look." Baldy Wolf set a black leather case down in front of Oterdi.

"Mm... here, this is the money. You check it too." Oterdi casually handed Baldy Wolf a case.

The two were old partners in business and were not overly guarded with each other now. Each inspected the contents of the other's case, found nothing wrong, and closed them both.

Wei Zhao could see the contents of the cases perfectly clearly: one was packed with drugs, the other with American dollars.

The drugs held no interest for Wei Zhao, but the dollars did. True, he had extorted two billion from An Jianwen, but because Fatty Lai wanted to build a company, very little had actually ended up in Wei Zhao's hands to spend freely. This case of dollars would ease his financial pressure nicely.

Most important of all, Wei Zhao suddenly thought of Yu Xiaoke at the orphanage—she must be badly short of money, surely?

At that thought, Wei Zhao decided to rob them outright. Lowering his voice beside Wang Xinyan's ear, he said, "There are two bad men over there. Stay here and don't move. Wait until I've dealt with them."

By now Wang Xinyan was no longer afraid; all that remained was shyness. She nodded.

Only then did Wei Zhao remember that he was still covering Wang Xinyan's mouth. He hastily let go and walked toward the two drug dealers.

But after the trade, the two dealers were still muttering about something.

"Say, Brother Baldy Wolf, why has the goods been getting scarcer lately? We're running badly short on our side—can you raise the supply?" Oterdi asked, hefting the case in his hand.

"That... our old partner in Red Conch, the Yu family, has run into some trouble. Without the Yu family's skilled hands backing us, our say in the Golden Triangle is declining by the day." Baldy Wolf sighed. "I've already spoken to the boss, told him to coordinate with the higher-ups and see if they can send a few cultivators to hold the fort. That way we can take back our say."

"All right, that's an internal matter for your gang—I can't interfere. I'll be going then. Every extra minute I spend on the border makes me uneasy." Oterdi nodded and made to leave.

Baldy Wolf, money in hand, was also about to leave. But before either of them could take a step, they each let out a muffled grunt and dropped to the ground.

Against ordinary men who were not even cultivators, Wei Zhao could knock them out without a sound.

Wei Zhao did not kill them. Though finishing these two off would have been easy as turning his hand, he still wanted to ask Baldy Wolf a few questions.

For someone like Baldy Wolf, Wei Zhao could not be bothered with interrogation. He simply produced several silver needles and casually inserted them into Baldy Wolf's head. Baldy Wolf woke, though his gaze had gone somewhat blank.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions. Answer them one by one, and conceal nothing," Wei Zhao said sternly.

"Yes..." Baldy Wolf seemed to have entered a hypnotic state, entirely stripped of independent will.

This technique had been passed down to Wei Zhao by his master. Though highly effective, it worked only on lesser men. After all, a cultivator's will is extraordinarily strong—even a Yellow Rank cultivator possesses formidable mental power, and with this method Wei Zhao could not hypnotize them at all.

But for small fry like this, who were nothing at all, the technique was the fastest and most effective. Its only drawback was a certain aftereffect: the subject would lose a stretch of memory, the length varying from person to person—a day at the least, four or five at most—so he would never recall having been hypnotized.

Wei Zhao intended to use the same method on the foreigner, the aim being to make them forget recent events so that he could quietly swallow that case of dollars without anyone the wiser. As for the two of them, Wei Zhao planned to hand them over to Chen Yutian, letting him join forces with Yang Huaijun and Qiu Lingshan to earn another merit. Capturing drug dealers and seizing this much narcotics was, after all, a major achievement.

Wei Zhao did not mind letting these two wretches realize their greatest value; killing them outright would have been a waste.

"What is your name, what do you do, and what organization do you belong to?" Wei Zhao asked.

"My name is Tu Lang. On the street they call me Baldy Wolf. I handle drug deals for Red Conch," Baldy Wolf said.

"Where is Red Conch's headquarters? How many people are there? Who is the boss, and what is your relationship with the Fire Wolf Gang?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Red Conch's headquarters is abroad. I don't know where. What's in the country is only a branch." Baldy Wolf said, "The Red Conch branch is in Qingrun City. The First Boss is dead, the Second Boss was captured, and for now the Third Boss is in charge. I don't know the Third Boss's name, because everyone just calls him the Third Boss. Red Conch and the Fire Wolf Gang are brother gangs; we help each other out. But the exact relationship, I don't know either."

Wei Zhao was somewhat surprised by Baldy Wolf's words. He had not expected Red Conch's headquarters to be abroad, nor that Baldy Wolf would not even know where. What was in the country was only a branch.

So by that account, the First Boss Feng Tianlong had killed was merely one person in charge of a Red Conch branch. Red Conch's foundations ran deep indeed!

"Does Red Conch have cultivators holding the fort? What rank is the highest-level cultivator?" Wei Zhao asked.

"The Third Boss is himself a cultivator, at the peak of the late Mystic Rank. Apart from him, there's only one skilled hand at the early Yellow Rank." Baldy Wolf said, "Red Conch's business is run in partnership with the Yu family. The skilled hands are all sent by the Yu family."

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