Chapter 866: Emphasizing Strengths and Avoiding Weaknesses

Zuo Qing took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“Don’t worry, there are plenty of rising stars among the Night Watchers in the past two years. Sooner or later, we’ll get you to talk.”

“Then I’ll wait and see,” Old Chen smiled.

Zuo Qing’s gaze sharpened slightly as he waved his hand to Tan Maoxun, who then left the interrogation room and locked the door behind him.

“I’m here to remind you that we’ve already found the whereabouts of the [Mask] team,” Zuo Qing said calmly.

“Oh?” Old Chen raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised.

“I must remind you that there’s a significant difference between voluntarily confessing and me extracting the information from you. If you come clean now, I can offer you a dignified way to die.”

“Heh.” Old Chen chuckled lightly, “Isn’t this method a bit too primitive for trying to extract information from me?”

“Do you really think I’m trying to extract information?”

Zuo Qing calmly took out his phone, zoomed in on a map, and pointed to a specific location.

“Ningchang County, Coastal Fishing Village.”

Seeing the red-marked address, Old Chen’s pupils constricted slightly.

For the first time since entering the interrogation room, his expression turned serious.

“You really don’t hide your surprise at all,” Zuo Qing said calmly. “Don’t you think I’m trying to trick you?”

“How did you find it?” Old Chen asked, puzzled. “I should have erased all traces.”

“I told you, there are plenty of rising stars among the Night Watchers in the past two years.”

Old Chen fell silent.

“Is it [Nightfall]?” After a long pause, Old Chen finally spoke.

“They’ve already entered that fishing village to look for clues, and our follow-up team is also on their way there…” Zuo Qing stepped closer to Old Chen, speaking slowly and deliberately, “Now, do you have anything to confess? There’s still time.”

Upon hearing this, Old Chen was taken aback, as if he remembered something.

“What’s the date today?”

This sudden question made Zuo Qing frown slightly. After hesitating for a moment, he answered truthfully, “The 14th.”

“The 14th…” Old Chen murmured the date, a smile creeping onto his lips. He first chuckled softly, then uncontrollably burst into laughter.

His laughter echoed in the interrogation room, eerie and terrifying.

“What are you laughing at?” Zuo Qing asked coldly.

“I’m laughing at you for letting the [Nightfall] team just walk in like this.” Old Chen’s aged face cracked into deep lines as he laughed. “I originally just wanted to eliminate the biggest threat, the [Mask], but unexpectedly, I can also take down a [Nightfall] team… what a pleasant surprise.”

Zuo Qing’s expression darkened immediately.

He suddenly reached out, grabbing Old Chen by the collar and bringing his face close, his eyes wide with rage.

“What do you mean?”

Old Chen’s disheveled silver hair fell over his aged face, and his deep, murky eyes quietly stared into Zuo Qing’s furious gaze. He slowly spoke, “Don’t you understand? Zuo Qing… neither the [Mask] nor the [Nightfall] will come back.

The destruction of these two special teams will push the Great Xia directly into an endless abyss… this battle, the Night Watchers are bound to lose.”

“Bastard!” Zuo Qing could no longer contain his inner fury and slammed his fist into Old Chen’s face, sending him crashing to the ground. “Chen Lu, what exactly have you prepared in that fishing village?!”

“I haven’t prepared anything.” Old Chen lay on the ground, smiling. “Only ‘them’ have been watching over there…”

Upon hearing the word “them,” Zuo Qing’s brows furrowed tightly. Just as he was about to pull Old Chen up to ask more, he paused for a moment and chose to leave the interrogation room instead.

“Where’s the [Nightfall] team?” Zuo Qing asked coldly.

“They entered the fishing village after sending back this address.”

“Contact them. Regardless of whether they found any clues about the [Mask], they must retreat immediately!”

“…No, Commander Zuo.” The technician’s fingers flew over the keyboard, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead. “They’ve lost signal, just like…

Just like the [Mask] team.”

Zuo Qing’s expression turned grim.

He stood still for a moment, contemplating, then ordered again, “The location of the monastery shouldn’t be far from there. Have the Master head there now.”

“Yes.”

“…Also.” Zuo Qing’s gaze swept over Old Chen in the interrogation room, his eyes narrowing slightly. “Pull up all his background information and check if there’s any connection between him and that small fishing village in Ningchang County…”

……

Fishing Village.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Who is it?”

A fisherman opened the door and froze upon seeing the three people standing outside.

A chubby man with a grotesque scar on his face, grinning widely; a fierce-looking man who clearly didn’t seem like a good person; and a delinquent youth with a cigarette in his mouth, squinting at him…

“Good evening, big brother. We’re lost tourists…” Bai Li Pang Pang cleared his throat, about to say something, when the villager quickly retreated behind the door as if he had seen a ghost.

Bang—!

With a dull thud, the door was slammed shut, followed by the sound of a lock clicking.

Bai Li Pang Pang’s smile froze in the evening breeze.

Cao Yuan: …

Shen Qingzhu: …

“How many houses is this now?” Shen Qingzhu asked, exhaling a puff of smoke with a hint of melancholy.

“The fourth one…” Bai Li Pang Pang replied dejectedly. “What’s going on? Are the people in this village so wary? Why don’t they even let us finish speaking?”

“I feel like normal people wouldn’t let three of us stay over,” Cao Yuan said quietly.

“What should we do?”

“This isn’t a solution.” Shen Qingzhu pondered for a moment. “I think we need to play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses.”

“Play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses?” Bai Li Pang Pang became interested. “What strengths do we have?”

“Our weakness is that we don’t look like good citizens, but we have one strength…” Shen Qingzhu patted Bai Li Pang Pang’s shoulder and said seriously, “We have money, a lot of money.”

Bai Li Pang Pang’s eyes gradually lit up!

A few minutes later.

As a household’s door opened, Bai Li Pang Pang suddenly blocked the door with one hand while pulling out thick stacks of cash from his pocket with the other, frantically stuffing them through the gap in the door.

“Big brother! Don’t close the door yet! We’re lost tourists, we just need a place to stay for one night, and I’ll give you fifty thousand for one night!”

At Bai Li Pang Pang’s words, the villager paused slightly, his hand loosening on the door.

“Fifty thousand?” He squatted down with a strange expression, casually picking up a hundred-yuan bill from the ground and examining it closely, his brow furrowing.

He forcefully tossed the bill away and said irritably, “You think you can stay here with fake money? Get lost! Otherwise, I’ll call someone!”