Chapter 75: The Mysterious No. 1

Since Yuan Anping was pursuing Mr. Lu of the Guangminghui, Lin Qing felt at ease and turned his attention to dealing with the Yuanhong Society enforcers.

Yuan Anping’s strength was even greater than Chu Tianyao’s; even while hiding his true power, he could easily handle Chu Tianyao, so dealing with that man shouldn’t be a problem.

With no leader to direct them, the Yuanhong Society enforcers scattered like frightened animals, each trying to flee in different directions.

Lin Qing casually killed a few who refused to surrender and knocked down several others attempting to escape; before the remaining Yuanhong Society members could get far, the patrol team arrived.

With a large force mobilized to surround and block them, not a single Yuanhong Society member managed to escape—either killed on the spot or captured.

In Lin Qing’s vision, the Order Rank continued to rise.

Soon after, the patrol sealed off the scene and waited for the Gongan Bureau to arrive and investigate.

Not long after, Yuan Anping returned.

“Chief, what happened to that man?” Lin Qing asked.

“He’s dead. Let the Gongan Bureau handle the corpse.”

Yuan Anping helplessly spread his hands. “He fought me to the death, so I had to go all out—I didn’t hold back, and accidentally killed him.”

“Well, as long as he didn’t get away.” Lin Qing nodded slightly.

Yet, he felt Yuan Anping had done it on purpose.

With Yuan Anping’s hidden strength, he was far stronger than Mr. Lu—he shouldn’t have needed to go all out.

But killing him was fine either way.

“By the way, when that man died, a sun tattoo appeared on his body—he was from the Guangminghui,” Yuan Anping reminded him.

“He’s from the Guangminghui too?” Lin Qing feigned surprise.

After all, he only knew Mr. Lu was from the Guangminghui because Zhao Jiayi’s mental probe had revealed it—he couldn’t reveal that fact.

“Members of the Guangminghui are indeed scattered across the globe.”

Yuan Anping shook his head. “But he had no serial number. That red-haired woman who attacked you yesterday—did you confirm her tattoo had a number?”

“Yes, 7486,” Lin Qing nodded.

“Then you’d better be careful,” Yuan Anping said. “Anyone granted a serial number by the Guangminghui is almost always stronger than someone like Chu Tianyao.”

“Stronger than Chu Tianyao?”

Lin Qing frowned. “How is that possible? Aside from her stealth ability, her strength was far inferior to Chu Tianyao’s.”

“It’s probably because of her potential,” Yuan Anping said. “Just like how geniuses hold high status—the fact that the Guangminghui gave her a serial number means her potential and future role will far exceed what the number suggests.”

Lin Qing fell into thought.

That made sense.

The red-haired woman’s assassination attempt was invisible and completely silent—if not for the Order Rank alert and Zhao Jiayi’s mental probe, he might have been killed by her.

Invisible plus silent—that combination was truly monstrous.

Everyone relaxes eventually; once they let their guard down, the red-haired woman could strike with instant, lethal precision.

She was only countered by mental awakening users.

If that red-haired woman mastered the original Morning Sun Cultivation Method and learned a few more techniques suited for assassination and ambush…

She would become an utterly terrifying assassin.

In fact, her future threat would far surpass Chu Tianyao’s.

“Too bad, eliminating Guangminghui members doesn’t count as merit,” Lin Qing sighed.

Yuan Anping fell silent.

The Dark Star Society was a known assassin organization, a criminal syndicate composed entirely of villains.

But Guangminghui members are scattered across the globe; many aren’t criminals at all—only discovered to have tattoos after death.

Under these circumstances, it’s impossible to accurately identify Guangminghui members, so their elimination can’t be counted as merit.

“Don’t worry. You’ve earned plenty of merit this time—it won’t be less than last time.”

Yuan Anping glanced at the chaotic scene and sighed. “Your pace of earning merit is faster than mine back then—among all young patrol officers in Jiangnan, few match you.”

“Faster than you?” Lin Qing was surprised.

“Of course.”

Yuan Anping nodded. “Some are strong, some have good intelligence, some have powerful backgrounds—there are countless talents out there. And I heard… last year, a patrol officer from the neighboring province earned a Special-Class Merit on his very first mission.”

“What?” Lin Qing was stunned.

Special-Class Merit? For most patrol officers, First-Class Merit was already out of reach—let alone earning it. Special-Class Merit… was unimaginable.

“You’re not bad either,” Yuan Anping patted Lin Qing’s shoulder. “After this mission, you’ll likely be promoted to First-Rank Patrol Officer.”

Lin Qing shook his head slightly, not particularly concerned.

Even if he earned more Second-Class Merits, he could only learn other series of combat techniques.

They wouldn’t bring a qualitative boost to his combat power.

To learn three Awakening Methods, he needed First-Class Merit.

Moreover, headquarters had promised in his contract that when he earned First-Class Merit, they would grant him partial access to Special-Class Merit permissions, allowing him to learn the original “Zi Zai Shen” combat technique.

But all these benefits required First-Class Merit as a prerequisite.

“First-Class Merit…”

Lin Qing silently pondered.

The Yuanhong Society was nearly shattered—he should expect Chu Tianyao to come after him now.

So he still had a chance to earn First-Class Merit.

…

March 2nd, evening.

In the Director’s Office of the Xiaoshan District Patrol Division.

“Lin Qing, the Gongan Bureau’s report is out—I’ve sent it to you.”

Kou Guoyong sat behind his desk and shook his head slightly. “You really took too many risks this time.”

“Too risky?” Lin Qing asked. “Why say that?”

Kou Guoyong said gravely: “You don’t know yet, but according to current findings, the armed strength at this Yuanhong Society outpost was significantly stronger than last time’s underground boxing arena.”

“Was it?” Lin Qing feigned confusion.

“Of course.”

Kou Guoyong said: “Beneath this bar is an underground warehouse used to imprison trafficked victims. The armed guards there were strong—but according to the Yuanhong Society enforcers’ confessions, before you raided it, Chu Tianyao broke in and caused chaos, killing many skilled enforcers and archers.”

“Chu Tianyao went there before me?” Lin Qing exclaimed.

“This morning’s patrol system task was issued because we received a tip letter claiming to be from Chu Tianyao.”

Kou Guoyong nodded. “Also, facial recognition on surveillance near the bar confirmed Chu Tianyao’s presence—so it’s genuine.”

“No wonder… I thought it was coincidence,” Lin Qing mused. “I assumed Chu Tianyao was allied with the Yuanhong Society—apparently they’re fighting among themselves?”

“Exactly.”

Kou Guoyong sighed. “You got lucky this time.”

“Just luck,” Lin Qing smiled, not denying it.

During this operation, he had only used full strength when impersonating Chu Tianyao at the start; afterward, except for that one kick against Mr. Lu, he’d used only half his power.

But Mr. Lu had been killed by Yuan Anping, so no one knew… his true strength was already close to Patrol Captain level.

“I heard the Yuanhong Society has three leaders—you’ve taken out two already.”

Kou Guoyong marveled. “If you eliminate the last one, you’ll have earned First-Class Merit for sure.”

“It’s not that simple,” Lin Qing shook his head slightly.

Zhang Zhiren had admitted he was the Yuanhong Society’s No. 2 leader, and Zhou Yang was the No. 3.

But who the No. 1 leader was remained unknown.

“Indeed difficult.”

Kou Guoyong was only joking—he shook his head. “According to the enforcers’ confessions, no one has ever seen the No. 1 leader—not even Zhang Zhiren or Zhou Yang know who he is.”

“No one knows?” Lin Qing asked, puzzled.

“That’s right. No one knows.”

Kou Guoyong said: “The Yuanhong Society’s main bases are all in Xiaoshan; normal operations are handled entirely by Zhou Yang and Zhang Zhiren. Only when the Yuanhong Society faces problems they can’t solve does the mysterious No. 1 leader appear.”

Lin Qing fell into deep thought.

After a long silence, he asked: “By the way, Director, did you get any interrogation results? Why does the Guangminghui need those trafficked people?”

Kou Guoyong fell silent, then spoke slowly: “That ties into a major case in the metropolitan zone.”

(End of Chapter)