Era of Magic and Martial Arts-Chapter 381 - 365: Cut Ties When Necessary, Trade Is Destiny

Chapter 381: Chapter 365: Cut Ties When Necessary, Trade Is Destiny

The office door was gently pushed open, and the female secretary walked in lightly on high heels.

Her curves were particularly eye-catching in professional attire, with the collar slightly open, revealing a faint hint of whiteness.

However, when she caught a glimpse of Lou Duan’s cold profile, she immediately restrained her expression, raised her hand to tighten her collar, and put on a serious professional demeanor.

"Have you found out?" Lou Duan asked in a bland voice.

The secretary stood still, her hands folded in front of her:

"Detective Team Leader Li Shang from the Patrol Office is involved. He’s acting on Hou Wendong’s instructions. Also, the person involved, Feng Mu, is the son of Feng Ju, another team leader recently favored and promoted by the commissioner."

Lou Duan’s brows slightly furrowed, like a faint groove etched into his forehead.

His fingers continued to lightly tap on the desk, with a slight change in rhythm.

Chen Yang’s death, Feng Mu’s exoneration, these were nothing more than inconsequential dust to him.

Even the names Li Shang and Feng Ju were just a few dead leaves blown about in the wind, unworthy of a second glance.

In the secretary’s words just now, the only useful information was about Hou Wendong, because Hou Wendong was the most trusted secretary of Member of Parliament Wang Xinfa.

And regarding Member of Parliament Wang Xinfa, Lou Duan was quite familiar and apprehensive.

Lou Duan gestured for the female secretary to leave; she showed a hint of disappointment on her face and gracefully exited the office.

The office returned to silence, only Lou Duan’s fingers continued tapping on the desk, like a silent countdown.

Suddenly, he stopped, his fingers hovering in the air, and muttered to himself:

"Second Prison is now caught up in a whirlpool of public opinion. How could someone like Wang Xinfa, who cherishes his reputation, still instruct his subordinates to step into the muck?"

"The one who died is an insignificant ant, and the involved individuals are nobodies."

Lou Duan’s voice grew lower, as if speaking to himself or to a hidden adversary:

"But things can’t be interpreted that way. Seeing through appearance to essence, this implies that Wang Xinfa is subtly backing Second Prison."

His face gradually turned livid, as if covered by a layer of frost, detecting an unusual sense of danger:

"Anomalies are often indicative of something strange; the situation at Second Prison might undergo a reversal. There might be a larger collusion of interests that I am unaware of. Only then would Wang Xinfa tolerate getting his shoes dirty."

Previously, Liu Bo’s hints, along with the body from this probe, made Lou Duan completely abandon any lingering delusions, a fierce resoluteness displayed in his eyes.

He reached out and pulled open the drawer, the metal slide rails producing a faint rubbing sound.

Inside the drawer lay a black USB flash drive, with no marks on the surface, as smooth as a cold obsidian stone.

Inserting it into the computer’s USB port, the screen flickered slightly, as if tainted by something filthy, the picture briefly distorted before returning to normal.

A few seconds later, the webpage automatically redirected, leading to an unfathomably deep dark web platform.

The page was as black as ink, like an abyss without a bottom, with only a few lines of dark red symbols rolling in a loop.

The symbols were twisted and eerie, as if drawn in some Evil Sacrificial Ceremony, exuding an ominous aura.

Beneath the symbols, the silhouette of a shadowy Libra slowly appeared.

On one end of the Libra, it was piled with dazzling gold coins so bright that they seemed to penetrate the screen. On the other end, a heap of twisted human corpses, pitiable, with dislocated limbs and faces contorted into silent screams, as if enduring some invisible agony.

Below the Libra, a blood-red input box quietly hovered, like a gate leading to the abyss, coldly displaying:

Nickname——;

Password——.

Lou Duan’s fingers flew over the keyboard, the movements so skilled as if repeated thousands of times.

He entered the nickname: Seize the Moment, then typed in a complex password.

The screen flickered, and the dark red page began to load slowly; a moment later, a new window popped up, his gaze landing on the dialogue box in the middle of the screen.

He contacted an administrator with the ID [Clown].

The other party’s avatar was a deep darkness, without outline, without color, seemingly unreachable even by light.

The personal information section was empty, with only a simple signature lying there:

"Transaction is Destiny."

The other party’s avatar was a void of darkness, devoid of any personal information, with only a brief signature—"Transaction is Destiny."

The word "Destiny" made Lou Duan’s brow furrow slightly, a taboo arising in his heart that he quickly dispelled.

Don’t casually associate the word "Destiny" with [Destiny], that would be too sensitive.

[Clown]: Quantity for weighing?

Seize the Moment: Three

[Clown]: Assess quality for weighing.

A Libra, identical to the site’s logo, appeared in the center of the screen.

Lou Duan moved the mouse, clicking on the side with the human corpses.

Soon, an assessment template popped up, requiring him to input the target’s relevant information and data.

Just as he was about to enter the information, the screen flickered, and a crimson eye emerged from the depths of the page.

The eye was enormous and bizarre, with a pupil filled with interlaced crimson lines, slowly rotating like an ever-changing Kaleidoscope.

It seemed alive, staring intently at Lou Duan in front of the screen, with a wicked and creepy gaze, as if it could see directly into his soul.

Lou Duan’s heart involuntarily tightened, a faint sweat breaking out on his back.

He tried to maintain composure, but unconsciously, he gripped the mouse tightly.

At the same time, a line of blood-red warning text slowly appeared at the bottom of the page:

"Deliberately falsifying or concealing assessment information will result in ill fate taking the insufficient amount from you." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The text seemed written in blood, the edges faintly showing traces of liquid movement, as if ready to drip off the screen at any moment.

"Regardless of how many times I log onto this site, each time I see that eye, it feels like there’s truly someone watching me in the room—utterly strange."

Lou Duan’s fingers paused, peripheral vision scanning the shadows in the corner, but there was no one, not even an eye.

Lou Duan took a deep breath, shaking off the inexplicable unease, and began inputting the target’s information.

With each line of characters entered, the crimson eye would slightly rotate, the crimson patterns in the pupil seemingly relaxing, as if inspecting each word, each punctuation mark entered by him.

Lou Duan could feel that the gaze carried a sense of pressure like a living thing, a silent threat constantly reminding him:

Do not lie intentionally!