Chapter 2308 — The Kidnapping Strikes Again

"Go, then. But no one is to know about the covert agents. Some sects have no successor to carry on their line, and when the time comes they may well grow envious. Openly they would not dare move against us, but if they set their tricks in motion in the dark, we will be hard pressed to guard against them all..." said Old Ancestor Xuanchen.

"I understand! Rest assured, Master. At present only you and I know of the covert agents' existence—even the agents themselves have no idea what fate awaits them!" said the eldest senior brother.

"Good. Off you go." Old Ancestor Xuanchen nodded... East Sea City.

Although Qiu Lingshan had captured the thugs who kidnapped Wang Xinyan, she could get nothing out of them. After she reported to Yang Huaijun, discussion and study led them to conclude that the mastermind behind this kidnapping case might be the same one behind the "false Wei Zhao" case in Pine Mountain City, and that the two cases could be merged.

But that left the trail cold all the same. Whether it was the false Wei Zhao or the thug caught afterward, both were complete idiots. According to the hospital doctors, their brains had been eroded and destroyed by the drug; everything they did had been carried out under the hypnosis of a highly skilled hypnotist. They possessed no consciousness of their own.

This state of affairs left both Qiu Lingshan and Yang Huaijun thoroughly frustrated! The thugs had been caught, and they knew perfectly well that eight or nine times out of ten a mastermind stood behind all this—yet from these thugs not a single clue could be pried loose!

And if that was a headache, there were still more headaches to come!

One wave had scarcely subsided before the next rose. Not long after Wang Xinyan's kidnapping case was closed, another student kidnapping occurred at East Sea Engineering University in East Sea City!

This time the victim was a second-year male student whose father chaired a famous enterprise in the city, with assets exceeding five hundred million. After the kidnappers seized the young man, they likewise demanded a ransom of ten million from the chairman.

But the chairman, following the kidnappers' instructions, did not call the police. He wired the ten million directly to them, and the kidnappers—true to their word—released his son.

Only after seeing his son home safe did the chairman come to the police station to report the matter. Whether the kidnappers were caught no longer mattered much to him. So long as his son was safe, that was enough—and he did not particularly care about that ten million either.

This affair, however, left Qiu Lingshan somewhat disheartened. Were these kidnappers not far too brazen? They had just failed once, and already they were at their second kidnapping?

From the methods used and the sums demanded, one could judge that both kidnapping cases had been carried out by the same criminal organization behind the scenes. The thug captured earlier was merely a small player executing orders on the surface; his capture could not wound the organization to any vital degree.

In truth, that was not the case at all. Formula No. 02 was not so easily compounded, and the success rate of the culture medium was currently very low. Through strenuous effort, Dr. Yin had barely managed to produce those two doses of Formula No. 02. To have him make another would be very difficult indeed—it could not be done in a moment!

Formidable as Formula No. 02 was compared with Formula No. 01, its inability to be mass-produced was a great drawback; it could only be researched slowly and steadily improved.

So the loss of one Formula No. 02 thug dealt a heavy blow to An Liwen's strength. Fortunately, the family of the second target was exceedingly obedient—they paid up the moment payment was demanded, sparing An Liwen no small amount of trouble!

"Well done!" An Liwen looked at Big Mule and Li Biaohan and praised them. "Li Biaohan, you chose this target very well—consider it making up for your blunder in choosing Wang Xinyan last time! Have you found the third target?"

"Brother Wen, I've found the third target too. But she's not from our school. I was afraid that picking another rich young master from our school would draw police attention, so this time I chose a rich girl from the nearby University of Economics!" said Li Biaohan.

"Oh? A girl?" An Liwen's heart gave a lurch. He asked, "You're certain there's no problem with this rich girl? She's not Wei Zhao's mistress or some such, is she? Don't tell me we've run up against that thing again!"

"Absolutely not. She looks like a dinosaur out of Jurassic Park—Wei Zhao would never give her a second glance!" said Li Biaohan. "And the woman's private life is a mess. She keeps several pretty-boy toys, and she's always out at bars and nightclubs!"

"That's good!" An Liwen nodded in relief. "A tramp like that would never catch Wei Zhao's eye! Is her family very rich?"

"Quite. She's an only daughter, but her father is a gang boss who runs an underground casino in the South District—a man of some influence..." Li Biaohan explained.

"Oh, a small-time thug, nothing to worry about." An Liwen did not take him seriously in the least. How could a little hoodlum running a casino compare with the Fire Wolf Gang?

"However, the rich girl has a close guard at her side. From what our investigation shows, the guard should be a cultivator, though we don't know his exact strength," said Li Biaohan.

"No matter. He can't be all that strong, I'd wager. Make your move!" An Liwen said to Big Mule. "But this time remember: twenty million. A casino owner is bound to keep plenty of cash on hand—we might as well take it!"

"Yes!" Big Mule nodded in acknowledgment.

And so, the next day, the daughter of the famous Gambler of the underworld was kidnapped. Word had it that a Yellow-Rank guard stood at her side, but before the kidnappers the guard was nothing but a one-move kill—kicked flying with a single foot, left sprawled on the ground unable to move, gravely wounded!

Gambler moved in the underworld. His daughter had been seized and his Yellow-Rank guard beaten, and after his shock and fury, once he calmed down, he grasped one thing: the kidnappers were formidable. Even a Yellow-Rank guard had been felled in a single move—he might have many underlings, and his casino might have another Yellow-Rank expert watching the floor, but none of them were a match for such men. They would not even fill the gaps between their teeth!

So arm-wrestling with them was out of the question! But call the police? Gambler naturally would not do that either. After all, he was a big brother of the underworld—having his daughter kidnapped was shameful enough, and now he should go to the police too? What would the rest of the underworld think?

Besides, he judged the kidnappers' mindset by the thinking of an underworld man, and feared that if he called the police, the kidnappers might in their rage tear up the ticket and kill her. So after hesitating again and again, Gambler decided to pay. What was twenty million, after all?

Gambler gritted his teeth and paid. That twenty million was precisely the sum of cash he could lay his hands on at present.

And so Gambler's daughter came home safe as well, and Gambler finally set his heart at ease. (To be continued) RQ