Chapter 1574: Investigation II

Lory stared at the giant hole sealed off with strips of red warning tape that snapped sharply in the dry desert wind. Five soldiers stood guard around it, rifles slung across their chests as they kept watch over the dark opening like sentinels.

To enter the tunnel, they would have to get past them without being seen. They couldn’t afford to raise any suspicion, or things would become complicated later. After all, no country would appreciate another nation conducting an investigation within its territory without authorization.

Zhao Li Xin narrowed his eyes, quietly calculating the distance, the wind direction, the soldiers’ positions, and the rhythm of their movements.

Honestly, stealth had never been his style.

He was the kind of man who would simply kick down the enemy’s front gate and crush anyone who stood in his path without hesitation, an arrogance born not from recklessness, but from absolute confidence that victory was inevitable.

In the past, although he was always the one who devised the strategies and laid out the plans, the delicate and inconspicuous tasks were never his responsibility. He had thousands of loyal subordinates to carry them out, men and women who would quietly clear obstacles long before he even stepped onto the battlefield.

His role had always been straightforward; when everything was set and done, he would decide when, where, and how to attack the enemy.

But because of Lory, he had no choice but to change his ways.

Now he personally handled things he once would never have bothered with, infiltration, sneaking into enemy territory, and conducting surveillance with his own eyes. Tasks that, in his previous life, would have been considered beneath his position.

Since the beginning, Zhao Li Xin knew that Lory preferred doing these things herself.

She liked investigating directly, seeing the evidence with her own eyes rather than relying on secondhand reports. And when she set her mind on something, she could be incredibly stubborn, and stopping her was nearly impossible.

So Zhao Li Xin chose the simpler solution—he went with her.

He would rather handle every one of those tedious, low-level tasks himself than allow Lory to face the danger alone. Because no matter how capable she was, he would never feel truly at ease letting her walk into danger without him by her side.

"We need to distract them somehow," Lory whispered, biting her lip as her sharp eyes swept across the guarded site. "If we knock them out, they’ll immediately know someone tried to tamper with the scene."

Her gaze moved from one soldier to another, calculating her moves, "We can’t kill them... and we can’t knock them out either, so—" She turned toward Zhao Li Xin. "You have any ideas, sweetheart?"

Zhao Li Xin was silent for a moment, watching the soldiers with calm patience. Then he said in a most casual tone, "I could make one of them look like he’s having a heart attack."

Lory blinked in surprise. "You can do that? Why have I never seen you do it before?" she asked curiously.

Zhao Li Xin shrugged lightly. "I had Mong Yi and Mong Ki."

The meaning was obvious. In the past, Zhao Li Xin had never needed to deal with such trivial matters himself. He had loyal subordinates who would clear the path long before he even arrived.

"Ohh... right." Lory nodded in realization. Then she tilted her head slightly and looked at him again. "So how are you going to do it?"

"Mm." His voice remained calm. "Just block the oxygen flow in one of the arteries. The body will react violently. To them, it will look like sudden cardiac arrest...that’s it" He explained it as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

Lory raised her brows. "...And how exactly would you do that?"

Zhao Li Xin glanced down and picked up a small gravel stone from the ground. He rolled it lightly between his fingers before holding it up.

"With this," he said simply. ℯℓ.

Lory immediately understood. "You’re going to hit his acupoint?!"

"En." Zhao Li xin answer shortly.

Her eyes lit up instantly. "That’s good, honey." She quickly scanned the terrain again before pointing toward a large excavator machine parked near the perimeter. "But we need to get closer, let’s move behind that excavator."

They began their descent from the rocky hill, stepping carefully to avoid dislodging loose gravel. Even the smallest sliding stone could echo across the quiet wasteland. Moving from bushes and boulders, they kept low until they finally reached the massive excavator and slipped behind it for cover.

From there, Lory quietly observed the guards. Her sharp eyes measured the distance, studying their movements and the gaps between their patrols. They would have to move quickly, at exactly the right moment. The timing must be right, precise.

Using scattered boulders and bushes as cover, they moved quietly across the barren land until the massive excavator shielded them from the soldiers’ direct line of sight.

Finally, they were close enough.

Zhao Li Xin crouched behind the heavy machinery and studied the guards again. One soldier had wandered slightly away from the others. The man leaned lazily against a boulder, lighting a cigarette as he enjoyed a brief moment away from his post.

Zhao Li Xin’s eyes sharpened, he watched the target. He waited for the right moment, the right time. The soldier took a long drag, exhaling a thin trail of smoke into the dry air.

In the next instant, Zhao Li Xin flicked his thumb. The small gravel shot forward like a bullet, slicing through the air faster than the eye could follow.

’Thud.’

It struck the soldier directly in the chest. The man froze, his eyes buldged and the cigarette slipped from his fingers. A strangled groan tore from his throat as his hand shot to his chest.

"Urgh—!"

His face twisted in sudden agony before he collapsed heavily onto the ground.

The other guards jerked upright.

"Hey! What happened?!"

"Shi*—! Get over here!"

They rushed toward the fallen soldier as he writhed on the ground, clutching his chest and gasping for air, completely convinced he was suffering a sudden heart attack.

Panic spread instantly among them, and in that precise moment, Lory and Zhao Li Xin, darting forward in lightning speed, slipped past the fluttering red tape and dropped into the dark opening of the hole just as the guards’ attention remained fixed on their fallen comrade.

Within seconds, the two of them vanished into the tunnel below. Meanwhile, behind them, the soldiers were still shouting for a medic, completely unaware that someone had just entered the very place they were supposed to guard.

The descent took longer than Lory expected. The deeper they went, the colder the air became. The sunlight from above slowly shrank into a distant circle until darkness swallowed the shaft completely.

When their feet finally touched the bottom of the pit, dust stirred around them.

Lory could have summoned a light spell, but she didn’t want to waste the effort on something so trivial. Instead, she reached into her ring and pulled out a flashlight.

A sharp beam of white light cut through the darkness. She swept it slowly across the pit. The walls were lined with old metal plates, rusted and stained with years of neglect. Pipes ran along the curved surfaces, some broken, others corroded beyond recognition. The faint smell of damp metal and stagnant water lingered in the air.

Realization dawned on her face.

"Huh, this is a sewer," Lory muttered.

Zhao Li Xin glanced around calmly. "Is that strange?"

"Yes." Lory frowned slightly as she studied the surroundings again. "Because it’s not shown on the map Jay gave me."

She walked toward the far side of the pit, her flashlight beam sliding across the walls until it stopped at a tunnel entrance. There she saw an iron fence blocking the passage. Or at least, what was left of it.

The metal gate had been violently torn open. One side of the iron door had completely separated from its frame, the thick hinges twisted like broken bones. The bars were bent outward, warped by immense force. Lory crouched beside it, running the flashlight over the damage.

"It was smashed through," she murmured. "Must be Baels’ work, "Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Where does this tunnel lead to?" Zhao Li Xin asked, his tone tinged with curiosity.

"Let’s see and find out~" Lory replied lightly, already stepping toward the dark tunnel.

Suddenly, Zhao Li Xin caught her wrist.

"Wait." His voice was firm but quiet. "Let me go first."

Lory smiled and let him take the lead.

Zhao Li Xin took a flashlight from his ring and switched it on before stepping ahead of her. The beam of light cut through the darkness as they quietly moved deeper into the wide tunnel.

The sound of their footsteps echoed faintly against the metal walls.

Lory swept her gaze around, her eyes widening slightly as she took in the sheer size of the passage. The tunnel was far larger than she had expected, wide enough for maintenance vehicles to pass through with ease.

She had no idea such a massive underground sewer system existed beneath this area.

What puzzled her even more was the fact that it had never appeared in any formal report.

Her brows slowly furrowed with conspiracy. Someone must have hidden it, she thought.

’But who?’

The head of national security? No... that didn’t seem likely.

If something this large had been erased from official records, the order must have come from someone far higher.

"Lory... do you smell that?" Zhao Li Xin suddenly halted.

Lory tilted her head slightly. "Smell what?"

Zhao Li Xin drew in a slow breath, his brows faintly furrowing. "Gunpowder... blood... and something else."

His expression tightened slightly. "Sharp. Pungent." He raised thback of his hand to cover his nose.

Zhao Li Xin’s senses had always been far sharper than those of ordinary people, especially his sense of smell. If something unusual lingered in the air, he would notice it long before anyone else.

Lory glanced at him immediately. "Where is it coming from?"

Zhao Li Xin turned his head slightly, his gaze settling into the dark tunnel stretching ahead of them. "From the front."

Lory studied his face for a moment. "Are you okay?"

Zhao Li Xin took another careful breath, as if testing the air again, before giving a small nod. "I’ll be fine."

Lory frowned faintly. "Then why aren’t you wearing a mask?"

His eyes remained fixed on the darkness deeper within the tunnel."There might be more clues ahead," he said calmly. "If I dull my sense of smell now, I might miss something."

Then suddenly, Zhao Li Xin’s gaze shifted to Lory. Before she could react, he gently took her hand and lifted it toward his face.

Pressing her palm lightly against the bridge of his nose, he inhaled slowly, as if absorbing the faint scent lingering on her skin.

Lory blinked in confusion.

"I’m not wearing perfume, you know," she said.

Zhao Li Xin shook his head slightly. "No... your scent is different." He inhaled again, more slowly this time. "It’s pleasant. Not as strong as it used to be... but it’s still there."

Lory stared at him, momentarily taken aback.

Then she remembered, about the strange fragrance that had once clung to her body, that only Zhao Li Xin could notice. It’s a scent she believed came from the druid insignia her mother had planted within her. But after everything that happened, she thought the scent would fade away completely.

Apparently...It hadn’t disappeared at all, doesn’t matter, only zhao Li Xin could smell it anyway.

"Feel better?" Lory asked, looking at him with concern.

Zhao Li Xin sighed softly. "Much better. But I’m going to need it more later," he said with a meaningful grin.

"I have no idea what you mean," Lory replied with a nonchalant shrug. "But sure."