Hearing the footsteps of a stranger behind us, Zhu Shi and I turned around to look.

  Ma Zao also hurriedly put on a cat-whisker mask before turning her head.

  Deep in the small forest, in this rarely visited pce, stood a young man dressed in deep blue clothing that blended modern fashion with elements of traditional style.

  His appearance was refined and gentle.

  It was none other than Patrol Lu.

  Upon seeing the newcomer’s face, Zhu Shi furrowed her brows.

  She deliberately took two steps forward, subtly positioning herself in front of Ma Zao, then casually said, “Lu Chan, what are you doing here?”

  “I sensed signs of a battle in this area, so I came to take a look,” Patrol Lu replied offhandedly while thoughtfully gncing behind Zhu Shi.

  Last time, I merely took an extra gnce at Patrol Lu bck-corded Lockheart Ring, and he immediately catered to my interest by gifting it to me—a clear testament to his keen perception and ability to read others.

  Zhu Shi deliberately positioned herself in front of Ma Zao, blocking his view.

  To him, this action likely carried the obvious implication of "trying to hide something but making it more conspicuous."

  In reality, whether Zhu Shi blocked him or not, since Ma Zao was now moving alongside us two demon hunters, there was no reason for him not to observe her carefully.

  And though Ma Zao was wearing a mask, such a simple disguise was probably no different from nothing at all to someone with his sharp eyesight.

  At the very least, I found it hard to believe that such an attempt at concealment would have any meaningful effect.

  Even setting aside the fact that he had gifted me the Lockheart Ring, I actually had a certain degree of fondness for him.

  But if I were to count the reasons I had to dislike him, there would be plenty.

  For instance, when it came to Ma Zao, both he and the force behind him were my competitors, and I remained wary of them to this day.

  Furthermore, his staunch belief in transcendentalism made me uneasy—his head was filled with ideologies and doctrines, and he actively engaged in factional struggles within supernatural organizations.

  Just thinking about it was exhausting.

  And yet, he conducted himself with grace and handled matters with careful consideration, making it difficult for me to feel any genuine aversion toward him.

  Perhaps all of this was simply part of his art of survival…

  Well, if that’s the case, I’ll acknowledge that his skills in navigating the world are indeed quite refined.

  Business is business—I still need to stay on guard against any moves he might make regarding Ma Zao.

  "You said you sensed some commotion… Were you already in the area just now?" Zhu Shi asked suspiciously. "Weren’t you supposed to be stationed much further back?"

  "Of course not. This mission concerns both the Humanitarian Division and the Creator of Oddities. Since I didn’t have any other pressing tasks at hand, naturally, I had to position myself as close to the scene as possible, on standby. Earlier, when you called to ask me about that wine-tasting club, I knew you were in this area, so I rushed over ahead of time."

  After answering, Patrol turned his gaze toward the Shadow Swap Oddities, the strange entity before us.

  "So this is the Oddities with the shadow swap ability? And still alive, no less… I have to say, it’s impressive that you managed to capture it."

  Then, his eyes shifted. "And her?"

  As expected, his attention finally nded on Ma Zao.

  "Even though she’s wearing a mask right now, if my observation isn’t mistaken… could it be that she is—"

  Realizing that her identity had already been exposed, Ma Zao simply removed the cat-whisker mask and stepped forward from behind Zhu Shi, her expression fearless.

  "I’ve heard your name before," she said, looking directly at Patrol Lu Youxun.

  "And I know about the forces backing you. You’re searching for me because of the Soul lost Syndrome, aren’t you?"

  Hearing her confront him so directly, Patrol Lu actually hesitated for a moment before nodding.

  "Yes. On behalf of Transcendentalism, I apologize for the many wrongs we’ve committed against you in the past. We will also provide compensation in due time."

  "We can discuss apologies and compensation ter. What are you pnning to do now?" I asked.

  "Let me be blunt—if you intend to take Ma Zao away by force, I won’t just stand by and watch."

  Patrol Lu expression showed a hint of surprise.

  He gnced back and forth between Ma Zao and me before asking, "Just to be sure, when you say you won’t stand by and watch, do you mean…?"

  I stepped behind Ma Zao, pced a hand on her shoulder, and made my stance clear without hesitation. "It means you’ll be making an enemy of me."

  "Zhuang Cheng…" Ma Zao turned to look at me.

  I didn’t focus on her expression at that moment.

  Instead, my gaze remained locked onto Patrol Lu.

  To be honest, I still wasn’t entirely certain where I stood in terms of power.

  In all the battles I had fought so far, I had never encountered an opponent who could truly match me.

  And according to Zhu Shi, in Mount Luo, only the Great Wuchang could unquestionably suppress me—any other strong individuals or factions would, at best, be able to engage me on equal footing.

  But before actually cshing with someone, it was difficult for me to truly see myself as such an untouchable force.

  Throwing out bold words like this—I wasn’t sure how much of an effect they would really have.

  Even if Patrol Lu himself backed down, would the forces behind him do the same?

  "…Please don’t worry. We won’t do that," Patrol Lu eventually conceded.

  However, the reasoning he gave next made it seem like my stance wasn’t the only factor at py.

  "Besides, even if you hadn’t said that, we wouldn’t be able to do anything right now anyway."

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "The situation is complicated," Patrol Lu replied.

  "To put it simply, things are at a stalemate up top—no one can make a move easily."

  Zhu Shi frowned. "You mean within Transcendentalism?"

  "It’s between Transcendentalism and Ordinism—in other words, your faction," Patrol Lu expined.

  "And Zhu Shi, I know you’re not interested in the conflicts between factions, but when you have time, you should pay more attention to what’s happening within your own. It wouldn’t hurt you."

  He let out a sigh. "This deadlock won’t st for too many days. But until then… let’s at least try to coexist peacefully."

  "Alright." Zhu Shi nodded.

  "Since you're already here, hurry up and help. We've managed to capture this Oddities alive, so let’s not kill him just yet. Before he has a chance to self-destruct, you should interrogate him first."

  "Of course. That’s my job, after all."

  Patrol Lu nodded and walked past us without so much as a gnce, stopping in front of the Shadow Swap Oddities.

  As he did, he casually asked, "By the way, there were also reports of destruction at the wine-tasting club earlier. Does this Oddities have some connection to that pce as well?"

  "He was working with the owner behind the scenes…" Zhu Shi expined, then proceeded to recount everything about that nightclub.

  "…That pce even employed very young girls. My pn is to wait for my brother to hand over the evidence he’s gathered and then report it to the authorities so they can shut the pce down."

  "You seriously think you need evidence to deal with scum like that? That’s where you’re too naive." Patrol Lu scoffed.

  "We’re in Mount Luo. We’re Transcendents. When it comes to dealing with lowly human scum, we can crush them however we please."

  Patrol Lu let out a cold ugh and immediately pulled out his phone, giving a few brief orders to the person on the other end.

  In short, he commanded his subordinates to go and dismantle that nightclub immediately.

  He usually carried himself so casually around us that I had almost forgotten—he was still a high-ranking officer in Mount Luo, commanding numerous agents.

  Even Agent Kong in the past had to rush around following his directives.

  Zhu Shi looked like she wanted to say something but ultimately held back.

  Even if Patrol Lu disregarded proper legal procedures, the ones suffering were criminals anyway.

  Evil begets evil—perhaps this was simply karmic retribution for that nightclub.

  As for me, I found it downright satisfying.

  After finishing his call, Patrol Lu put his phone away and got to work.

  Rather than questioning the Shadow Swap Oddities right away, he first picked up a fallen tree branch from the ground and began drawing an intricate, arcane formation around the Oddities.

  As he did, he expined the purpose behind it: the formation was meant to seal the Oddities’s ability, preventing it from using its Shadow Swap power to escape mid-interrogation.

  Zhu Shi could temporarily disrupt the Oddities’s ability, but that effect wasn’t permanent.

  Depending on the strength and nature of the target’s power, the time it took to recover varied.

  She whispered to me that, based on the "feel" from earlier, the suppression effect would st at most an hour and a half.

  If the Oddities power reactivated unexpectedly and she failed to disrupt it again, we’d have to go through the trouble of capturing it all over again.

  Patrol Lu seemed to be well aware of Zhu Shi's abilities.

  However, this wasn’t because Zhu Shi had personally told him, nor was it due to any rule in Mount Luo requiring demon hunters to meticulously report every detail of their powers.

  Zhu Shi told me that it was simply because, as a Wuchang of Mount Luo, she had carried out many missions.

  As a result, details of her abilities had inevitably been exposed over time.

  And since Patrol Lu specialized in information gathering, it was only natural for him to know.

  The process of drawing the sealing formation took nearly an hour.

  During this time, the Shadow Swap, still restrained by the Fming Hand, seemed unwilling to give up just yet.

  His eyes darted around, scanning for an opportunity to escape.

  If it were any other Oddities, they might have already lost hope and self-destructed.

  But this one clearly wasn’t resigned to his fate.

  With such a cheat-like ability for escaping, how could I have been captured?

  He was probably thinking something along those lines—convinced that there had to be some kind of mistake.

  Hopefully, he could hold on a little longer.

  After all, interrogating a living being would yield far more complete information than trying to extract it from a severed head.

  As time passed, the light of hope in the Shadow Swap Oddities eyes grew increasingly dim—it seemed he was not far from accepting his fate.

  "I didn’t expect you to know how to set up an ability-sealing formation…" Zhu Shi remarked curiously, gncing at the intricate pattern on the ground before turning her gaze to Patrol Lu, who still held the tree branch in his hand.

  "Sealing supernatural abilities should be an advanced technique. And yet, you didn’t even use any special materials—you set it up using just formation symbols… I’m not surprised that you know how to arrange formations, but I’ve never heard that you were particurly skilled in this area."

  "I wouldn’t say I specialize in formations or seals," Patrol Lu replied calmly.

  "It’s just that his ability is closely tied to Doppelgangers, and I happen to have some knowledge of doppelganger techniques."

  Zhu Shi seemed to recall something but hesitated, as if she had some concerns, and chose not to speak further.

  Patrol Lu tossed the branch he had used to draw the formation lines aside, then turned to the Shadow Swap Oddities and said, “I must say, I’m impressed that you haven’t given in to despair yet. Well then, let’s not waste any more time—go ahead and spill everything you know.”

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