Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Guo Chunfeng was caught in a hazy mist, unable to free himself for a long time.

Thankfully, the well-trained Secret Sword Agents were much more effective than he had anticipated. After only an hour and a half, they had already produced a satisfactory answer.

Guo Chunfeng was quite right. In the cyber era, few people bought tickets with cash. In the past two days, only 129 tickets from North Tranquility City to the capital city had been bought with cash in the ticket office.

All 129 passengers had been contacted immediately. Three of them were out of reach, but two of them replied in confusion that they were still in North Tranquility City and never purchased tickets to the capital city.

After investigation, the two citizens of North Tranquility City went to the same bank two days ago at about the same time.

What was odd that both of their ID cards had gone missing.

One of them had gone back to the bank to look for his ID card half an hour later, to no avail. He had thought that he had lost the ID card on the street. But three hours later, the staff in the bank had found his ID card in a corner and contacted him.

The other went back to the bank two hours later and found his ID card successfully.

It meant that the ID cards of the two citizens of North Tranquility City both went missing for one to two hours before they returned to the bank.

The tickets bought under the two ID cards were purchased in the same period, too.

Through the surveillance camera in the ticket office, picture of the two citizens buying the tickets with cash was shot, too. But the two real citizens were actually somewhere else, which could be proven by the complete picture captured by the surveillance cameras on the street.

They had him!

Later, the conductors on the trains reported that the three unreachable passengers had been found out. They were on the crammed trains where they could barely walk. They could not charge their portable crystal processors, and the devices automatically turned off after running out of power.

The picture from the West Railway Station of North Tranquility City where the two citizens entered the platform with the tickets were soon sent over, too.

But of course, they were not the real citizens but Vulture Li Yao in disguise.

Now, it was absolutely certain that Vulture Li Yao had pretended to be one of the two citizens of North Tranquility City and hidden himself one of the two trains!

The two crystal trains were both temporary ones. They were not very fast and about to arrive in the capital city.

The first train would arrive at the General Railway Station of the capital city half an hour later, and the second would reach the North Railway Station two hours later.

“Ask all the field agents to surround the General Railway Station and the North Railway Station. Send the image of the two citizens that Li Yao disguised himself as!

“Right. Monitor the hundred square kilometers around the capital city. It is possible that Li Yao might jump off the train and escape!

“There’s no need to search on the train. Both trains are packed with people. A reckless search might alarm the target and even harm innocent people!

“Block him in the railway station. Do not attack him immediately after he is discovered. He is not someone that common Secret Sword Agents can deal with. Contact the battle-type Cultivators in the Nascent Soul Stage in the capital city. Tell them that a highly-dangerous criminal is on the run and ask for their help to capture… or execute him if necessary!”

Guo Chunfeng rose up suddenly, turning from a drowsy cat into a ravenous tiger.

Everybody who had eye contact with him trembled beyond control.

“Understood!”

Refreshed, all the Secret Sword Agents took action!

Very soon, all the information about the two citizens of North Tranquility City that Li Yao was pretending to be was sent to the Secret Sword Agents in the five hundred square kilometers around the capital city.

In the railway stations inside the capital city, in the minor stations outside the capital city, along the railways… All the Secret Sword Agents were moving out!

In the General Railway Station of the capital city, the crystal train whose ticket Li Yao had bought under the middle-aged man’s identity slowly arrived.

The overloaded anti-gravity rune arrays were panting and spurting out intense fog that enveloped half of the platform. The train finally crouched down on the railway.

Countless exhausted passengers who had stood for a day and a night flooded toward the exit with their family carrying their luggage.

Hundreds of Secret Sword Agents, who were pretending to be chauffeurs, cleaners, regular police officers, were watching the crowd anxiously.

On the roof, on the trees, in the sky, in the corner, countless surveillance cameras were aimed at the crowd. Thousands of invisible mystic rays were scanning the appearance of the passengers and analyzing them crazily!

Shua! Shua! Shua!

With the ‘hundred-day memorial ceremony’ coming up, the security level of the capital city had been upgraded to the highest. All the passengers who were exiting the station needed to check their tickets again and verify their identity information. Also, a temporary decision was made that their ID cards had to be scanned!

Naturally, the tired passengers were all complaining about the decision. The situation was even more chaotic.

However, after all the passengers on the railway were cleared, the middle-aged man that Li Yao pretended to be was still not detected.

According to the record of the ticket check, the ticket that Li Yao had purchased had not been scanned.

He had not left the station at all, at least not through the normal exit openly.

But the Secret Sword Agents had blocked every gap in the General Railway Station. Not even an earthworm would be able to sneak out underground.

In the command center of the Demon Execution Division in the Secret Sword Bureau, Mosquito waved her fist in excitement after reading the messages sent back by the field workers. “It’s all clear now, boss. Vulture Li Yao bought two tickets to the capital city under two identities. Now that he is not on the first train, he must be on the second!

“The second train is arriving in half an hour. There’s no way that he can escape!”

“Huh…” Guo Chunfeng narrowed his eyes and stared at the complicated route map of the crystal trains on the light beam. He rubbed his temples so hard that he almost churned his skin. He nodded but gave no reply.

It was not right. Very not right.

It was too simple and straightforward. Would the well-known Vulture Li Yao be captured so easily with such crude approaches?

No, he would not. He must have formulated more delicate schemes, more…

Guo Chunfeng suddenly bulged his eyes so abruptly that he nearly shook off his eyebrow. Smashing his tea cup on the desk, he shouted, “We’ve been fooled!”

All the Secret Sword Agents were shocked by him. They stared at him in confusion.

Guo Chunfeng jumped to his feet and operated on the light beam personally. He enlarged the railways around the capital city and drew a bigger circle around it, breathing heavily. “Consider such a possibility.

“Vulture Li Yao’s destination is the capital city, but why must he take a direct train to this place?

“See? In the five hundred square kilometers around the capital city, there are more than ten major cities!

“There are superfast direct trains between those cities and North Tranquility City!

“Also, those cities have not been hot tourism destinations recently. The tickets are not hard to buy. You don’t even need to buy them in advance!

“What if the two false identities that he threw out were just smoke screens to confuse us and he didn’t mean to come to the capital city straightforwardly?

“With a third false identity, he could buy a ticket to a major city several hundred kilometers away from the capital city. After he arrived, he could take a taxi, rent a shuttle, steal a shuttle… or get a vehicle in any way possible. Then, he would be able to drive to the suburbs of the capital city and move in on foot. The journey is only several hundred kilometers. He can finish it in one day!”

Everybody was stunned by the possibility.

“How is the ID card check in North Tranquility City going on?” Guo Chunfeng asked in a hurry. “Any progress?”

“Well, after the two ID cards were locked onto, we—we thought we’d got him, so—so we stopped the investigation,” Mosquito stammered.

Guo Chunfeng glared at them all, his eyes immediately turning bloodshot. Drinking all the tea in the tea cup along with the leaves, he managed to hold his anger and gnashed his teeth. “Who said you could stop? Continue investigating! There is bound to be a third fake identity!

“Buying the ticket in the ticket office with cash. Leaving in the past two days. Destination, the railway stations in the major cities around the capital city. Those are your conditions. Investigate now!”

Mosquito and the other Secret Sword Agents looked at each other in bewilderment.

It was easy to check the record of the tickets from North Tranquility City to the capital city, but the suspicious tickets from North Tranquility City to the major cities around the capital city?

It was like fishing for a needle in a pond, if not an ocean, which was going to take quite a while.

Mosquito shrank her neck and asked, “Boss, what about the surveillance in the North Railway Station?”

Guo Chunfeng pondered for a long time but still waved his hands helplessly. “Continue watching. What if our opponent wants us to figure out that we are fooled and let go of the previous defense?”

…

In the North Railway Station of the capital city, the second crystal train whose ticket Li Yao bought with the young man’s ID card slowly arrived.

Countless Secret Sword Agents were still patrolling in the crowd on alert.

However, after wasting more than an hour, they still found nothing.

The double failure was certainly a major strike for the proud Secret Sword Agents. Frustration was looming over everyone.

While the well-trained, professional Secret Sword Agents were sighing, a train from North Tranquility City arrived at the North Railway Station of Green Plateau City a hundred and fifty kilometers away from them.

A thick woman with dark golden, curly hair wearing heavy makeup was walking to the exit in the crowd.

She was in cheap clothes that were of the latest fashion but a low quality. Her neckline was quite low, revealing a large area of fair skin. She was apparently not very young, but she was wearing smoky-eye makeup that was most popular among the girls. Her false eyelashes were very long, but they were not neatly pinned. A tiny section of adhesive tape was exposed from the corner of her eye.

When the passers-by were attracted by her breast and eyed her lasciviously, she always sniffed and looked back at them with derision with her eyes, but she would hold her breasts even higher.

She carried two bucket bags as if she was waving two giant hammers. Pushing aside quite a few passengers by force, she squeezed to the exit.

“Please show me your ID card.”

The conductor at the exit smiled after checking her ticket.

The thick woman cursed in the most vulgar dialect of North Tranquility City and handed over her ID card.

Beep!

The conductor put the ID card on a tiny rune array and scanned it with a bright green mystic ray. An enjoyable sound immediately echoed.

The information chip was alright. It was a real ID card.

On the top of the ID card, a glow was blinking and formed into a small hologram, which was exactly the appearance of the thick woman, except that she was not wearing any makeup and looked a bit plain… and even ugly.

The thick woman was angry, obviously unwilling to reveal her real face in public. She mumbled and went to grab her ID card.

The conductor at the exit hesitated for a moment, but the crowd behind her was already pushing her forward.

The thick woman burst into fury and barraged the guy pushing her in the back with the profanity in the dialect of North Tranquility City.

“This will do. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Looking at the simmering crowd behind, the conductor hurried to let her pass.

Vulture Li Yao snuck into the downtown of Green Plateau City in such a way.

At this moment, there were four days and a half to go before the highly-anticipated ‘hundred-day memorial ceremony’.

He was two hundred and fifty kilometers away from the capital city.