Chapter 1753: Golden Body

A moment after Li Shangfeng and the others left.

A figure in a brown coat stopped slowly in front of the charred factory.

The street had returned to deathly silence. The originally neat outer wall of the factory had become mottled, and acrid smoke rose from the ashes, making it difficult to get close.

Even Li Laide was stunned when he saw this scene.

"A fire?"

"No... there's a smell of gasoline in the air."

He twitched his nose slightly and saw through the truth behind it instantly. While surprised, he secretly observed Chen Ling's reaction from the corner of his eye.

Li Laide had a pretty good impression of the Li Shangfeng siblings. Perhaps because of Chen Ling, or perhaps because they were kind-hearted by nature, the siblings hadn't shown any strangeness toward Li Laide's appearance and lifestyle, and had even treated him to a decent lunch...

But Li Laide had actually always been curious: what exactly was the relationship between Chen Ling and these siblings?

Boss?

Li Laide wasn't a fool; he knew Chen Ling's strength. How could such a terrifying existence take a fancy to this obscure factory? And why would he give them money while staying here for two days?

Regarding their relationship, Li Laide had guessed countless possibilities in his heart, both good and bad...

This factory had been operating here for so long, so why did it catch fire not long after Chen Ling arrived?

Did he do it?

What was his purpose in doing so?

Were these siblings the children of his enemies? Did the siblings have a Dao Foundation treasure? Or... did he actually take a fancy to Li Lanhua?

Li Laide had never been stingy with using the darkest thoughts to speculate on human hearts; it was his instinct. But thinking about it carefully, it didn't make much sense. With Chen Ling's strength, if he wanted to harm these siblings, why would he need to go through so much trouble?

In short, Li Laide was curious about Chen Ling's reaction. Perhaps from this incident, he could see what kind of person Chen Ling really was... This was the only way he could understand Chen Ling at the moment.

Chen Ling's eyes watched the charred ruins, no joy or anger visible on his face, only a chilling calmness.

A moment later, he suddenly spoke to the void in front of him:

"Where is he?"

Li Laide was startled. Looking around and seeing no one, he thought Chen Ling was talking to him and shook his head innocently, "I don't know, it wasn't me..."

Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz—

A sound of electromagnetic interference came from Chen Ling's hand.

"Our member took him to find Li Lanhua." Square 10's voice came from it. "The other side dispatched a total of three people, one Tier 4 and two Tier 3... However, they acted very covertly. They didn't use Tai Shi Si's own personnel; they should be privately cultivated civilian God Path users."

"Three God Path users, kidnapping a girl who hasn't stepped onto the God Path... Tai Shi Si is truly cautious." Plum Blossom 10 snorted coldly.

"Tai Shi Si..."

Chen Ling narrowed his eyes slightly.

Although he didn't know why Tai Shi Si had suddenly taken action against Li Lanhua, Chen Ling always felt that something was fishy...

In the previous world, Li Lanhua was forcibly kidnapped because Li Shangfeng's negotiations broke down, and she died on the way; in this life, Chen Ling had thought the tragedy wouldn't repeat itself, but he hadn't expected history to repeat itself so shockingly.

Tai Shi Si was an organization that appeared in this world because of Ying Fu, so the people who kidnapped Li Lanhua in the previous life and those who kidnapped her in this life shouldn't be the same group... Even though fate had already taken another fork in the road, how could the same plot play out so coincidentally?

Just as Chen Ling was deep in thought, several illusory figures floated across the night sky and landed here.

It was the J-generation and Q-generation members.

"How is it? Any discoveries?" Chen Ling asked.

Yesterday, Chen Ling had scattered the Twilight Society members. The J-generation and Q-generation were responsible for gathering intelligence on Tai Shi Si. Now that more than a day had passed, they should have gained something.

"Yes." Bai Ye took the initiative to speak. "During this time, we have been trying to infiltrate Tai Shi Si. However, Tai Shi Si is the territory of the Witch God Path after all, and some of the arrangements inside are quite tricky... Even in this form, we cannot enter easily."

"Later, we finally found a gap and infiltrated their archives from underground, reading quite a few sealed files."

"What is certain is that it was the Alchemy Association that detonated the nuclear weapons in the Red Dust Domain back then... After that, the Red Dust Lord was furious but was suppressed by Ying Fu and his men, forcibly entering a slumber."

"During that period, Ying Fu also discovered the existence of the Alchemy Association and easily uprooted them... However, he didn't kill them directly but absorbed them into the Chengtian Domain and specifically established Tai Shi Si, whitewashing them from a secret underground witchcraft organization and bringing them into the light."

Hearing this, the murderous intent in Chen Ling's eyes surfaced again. He said coldly:

"So..."

"The people in Tai Shi Si are remnants of the Alchemy Association?"

"The vast majority are." Bai Ye continued. "After the Alchemy Association transformed into Tai Shi Si, they restrained themselves for a period and did many things for Ying Fu, but recently, they seem to have become active again..."

"They bypassed the supervision of the Chengtian Dynasty, unearthed potential Witch God Path users in various prisons, and secretly absorbed them into their ranks, brainwashing and cultivating them, with the ultimate goal of using the Philosopher's Stone to achieve immortality."

"If I'm not mistaken, Heart... no, Li Shangfeng is one of their targets."

Bai Ye paused for a moment,

"And the most crucial thing is that we discovered that the core members of the Alchemy Association throughout the generations didn't die completely. Instead, before dying of old age, they were forcibly turned into 'Golden Bodies' using alchemy and stored underground in Tai Shi Si."

"They should be waiting—waiting until they successfully refine the Philosopher's Stone and master the method of immortality, then they will restore everyone in the 'Golden Bodies' and achieve immortality together."

"In other words..."

Before Bai Ye could finish,

Chen Ling coldly completed the second half of the sentence:

"In other words, those who plotted against the Red Dust Lord and detonated the Red Dust Domain back then are also still alive... and they are hiding underground in Tai Shi Si."

"That's right." Bai Ye nodded. "The main person in power at the Grand Historian's Office right now is someone we also know... it's Brand, the former president of the Witchcraft Association from the previous world."

"Above him is a Lord Chong, the previous generation's Alchemy Association president, but he has semi-retired for the time being. After receiving an imperial decree this morning, he left the Chengtian Domain in high spirits; no one knows where he went."

Bai Ye finished reporting the results of his investigation during this period. Everyone looked at Chen Ling quietly, waiting for his orders.

"What a Ying Fu... what a Grand Historian's Office." Chen Ling laughed out of extreme anger.

"A human tumor that nearly wiped out an entire domain has actually managed to develop well to this day... and is still delusional about achieving immortality?"

"Is there no justice left in this world?"