Chapter 542

Deep within Feng Mu's heart, a grand wish was quietly taking root:

"One day, I will surely let the prison's fresh air replace the stench of the entire Lower City..."

At that moment, a prompt box suddenly popped up on his retina:

【Second Prison (Partially Unfoldable)】

【Current Control Completeness Increased to 83%!!!】

【Keep it up!!!】

At this moment, it was truly hard to tell whether the system popped up this prompt box at this critical juncture to encourage Feng Mu to keep striving, to accelerate the increase in control so as to unfold the Base Vehicle;

or to motivate him in some other way to fulfill his grand wish as soon as possible?

Feng Mu did not know either; he merely shrank his pupils, his gaze locked tightly on the progress bar showing 83%.

"I remember that when I first unlocked the Base Vehicle, the Second Prison's control was 72%, and now, after a few days, it has risen to 80%?"

As Feng Mu's line of sight focused, a string of hidden logs gradually unfolded:

【Explosion occurred, Qian Huan fell into a coma, 72%→74%】

【Wang Cong met Lu Chenjia, gained partial support, 74%→76%】

【Two Zone Chiefs died, 76%→77%】

【Helped Li Hanyu obtain key chips, 77→78%】

【You gained Li Hanyu's full support at this stage, 78%→83%】

"The backend records do not lie, enough to verify that every one of my actions at this stage is correct, my guess is correct, the system's judgment is very comprehensive and intelligent..."

For Feng Mu, unfolding the Base Vehicle was undoubtedly his most urgent top priority at this stage, its importance far exceeding even his own cultivation practice and power enhancement.

And the records fed back by the backend at this moment were undoubtedly like a shot in the arm, verifying that Feng Mu's actions were not in vain, giving him more confidence in his next moves to control the Second Prison, and making it easier to formulate the optimal plan.

"The system's judgment is comprehensive, not far from my expectations; judging by this, I don't even need to become Prison Warden—as long as I can actually fully control the Second Prison, the progress can reach 100%!"

Feng Mu pondered in his heart, his eyes growing brighter:

"Especially the last feedback—gaining Li Hanyu's full support made the progress jump by 5% directly, this is truly beyond my expectations?"

"It seems that in the upcoming situation, Li Hanyu will likely play an even stronger boosting role than I imagined!"

"Prison Warden Qian's mother is truly remarkable!"

Feng Mu gently removed his glasses, slowly wiping the lenses, muttering to himself:

"Only 17% left, and the Base Vehicle can be fully unfolded..."

Li Shang had just come out of the Hospital, reeking of disinfectant, and hurried back to the Patrol Bureau.

He had just sat down on the chair, his butt not even warm yet, when the phone on the desk rang like a death warrant.

Li Shang almost reflexively grabbed the receiver, and Hou Wendong's voice came through the phone—a string of addresses.

Li Shang shouted into the phone:

"Rest assured, Hou Mi, I will immediately lead a team to inspect the scene."

Hanging up the phone, Li Shang pinched his swollen, aching brow; the nonstop work was nearly killing him.

"Just because I'm the Divine Detective, they dump every case on me—is that reasonable? Who the hell becomes a Divine Detective just to solve cases nonstop? Damn it!"

Cursing aside, Li Shang still summoned a team of constables.

A team of constables rushed out of the Patrol Bureau, jumped into the car, and sped toward xxx Residential Compound.

The street scene outside the car window flew backward; at one moment, the Butt Lamps of Upper City all lit up at once, illuminating the night sky completely within a second.

One second, from night to day—this was forever the grandest sight of the Lower City.

Li Shang had no heart to admire it, only thinking deeply in his mind:

"Why are there always endless homicide cases? It must be because there aren't enough prisons, leaving too many bad guys roaming free outside!"

"If we could set KPIs for prisons, requiring them to catch enough prisoners every month, then there wouldn't be endless cases to solve, right?"

"The public security rate of the Nine Districts would greatly improve!"

Dawn had broken; the newly built Residential Compound, with few residents, remained as silent as a dead city.

Li Shang led his brothers out of the car and quickly walked toward the crime scene.

Hou Wendong arrived late; he stood downstairs, looked up for a while, confirmed it was roughly safe, then took the elevator up.

He couldn't help but be cautious; lately his bad luck had been relentless, as if he died wherever he went.

Ward off evil, he had to ward off evil.

With a "ding—", the elevator door opened.

Two constable chiefs stood guard at the door, expressions stern.

The crime scene had been cordoned off, and the Trace Inspection technical team was busy testing in the hallway.

"Any findings?" Hou Wendong walked up to a Trace Examiner and asked.

"Hou Mi, we extracted gunpowder residue, but no bullet; the bullet should have been dug out and taken away by the murderer." The Trace Examiner replied.

Hou Wendong frowned, said nothing, and walked straight into the room.

Inside, Li Shang was carefully examining two corpses.

Seeing Hou Wendong approach, he stood up and reported:

"Hou Mi, preliminary judgment: the two encountered the murderer in the hallway, were subdued, then dragged onto the sofa inside.

The door lock shows signs of violent prying; the murderer cruelly tortured them, breaking every joint in their bodies, and only killed them at the end."

Hou Wendong's gaze fell on the two corpses leaning against each other; their heads had been deliberately positioned face-to-face, their twisted faces frozen in expressions of extreme distortion.

Hou Wendong's face involuntarily twitched, then he looked away.

Li Shang continued:

"However, the two of them kept their mouths shut tight, so they probably didn't say what the killer wanted; therefore, the killer vented his anger by tearing out both their tongues."

Hou Wendong nodded, asking a question he already knew the answer to: "Has the killer been found?"

Li Shang naturally had someone in mind; he believed Hou Wendong knew as well.

He took a deep breath, maintaining a professional attitude, and said responsibly:

"The scene was handled very cleanly, leaving almost no clues; from the evidence left at the scene, the killer's identity cannot be confirmed, however, from the footprints, there was more than one killer."

The killer could not be deduced from the scene, but if deduced from outside the scene, the killer was naturally... Feng Mu?!

Seeing Li Shang play dumb, Hou Wendong didn't press the matter, and after a few seconds of contemplation said: "Alright, pull the bodies back to the Patrol Bureau."

Li Shang nodded in agreement, then asked softly: "Cremate them?"

Hou Wendong shook his head: "No rush, keep them for now until the case is closed."

Li Shang found Hou Wendong's thoughts hard to fathom for a moment, so he sensibly didn't ask further.

Immediately after, he reached into his pocket, took out a piece of note paper, handed it to Hou Wendong, and said:

"This was found on the deceased."

Hou Wendong narrowed his eyes slightly, reached out, and took the note paper.

On the note paper was written a string of address; looking closely, it was precisely the address of the crime scene.

Hou Wendong pinched the note paper, not lingering further, turned around and left the house directly, went downstairs, returned to the car, and dialed a number...

(End of Chapter)