When the sky was dimly lit, in the hotel, on the only double bed in the room.

Facing the window, Dark Department Xiu Ju was held in Shen Qiang's arms. Staring at the already light-penetrating curtains while lying on the bed, Dark Department Xiu Ju could clearly feel that Shen Qiang had woken up, but the Shen Qiang holding her neither made any sudden moves nor got up. He just held her waist and lay quietly.

After a moment of silence, Xiu Ju softly said, "Either get up and cultivate, or sleep a little longer."

Hearing this, Shen Qiang said, "Bianyi's issue hasn't been resolved yet; I simply can't sleep."

"The experts from Dragon Group have already managed to control four servers under Bianyi's company through technical means, but they have not found pivotal evidence. They have one server overseas that is heavily encrypted; cracking it is very challenging. Therefore, the group has already sent someone there, and if nothing goes wrong, everything should be in our grasp within forty-eight hours," Xiu Ju explained.

Slightly turning her head to look at Shen Qiang, Xiu Ju said, "So you don't need to worry about these now. What you need to do is to compete well and try to achieve good results. Once our people get that hidden server overseas, we can settle accounts with him."

Shen Qiang was silent for a moment before asking, "How will Dragon Group deal with Bianyi?"

Xiu Ju took a deep breath and replied, "If the evidence is conclusive, he will be tried according to his crimes."

Shen Qiang chuckled and said, "What if I think that's not enough?"

Xiu Ju frowned and said, "Shen Qiang, you better not mess around, understand? You are a member of Dragon Group, you must abide by the rules first."

Hearing this, Shen Qiang did not utter a word.

After waiting a moment without receiving an answer, Xiu Ju suddenly turned over and saw Shen Qiang's grim look.

"Don't do anything stupid!" Xiu Ju sat up, looked at Shen Qiang lying on the bed, hesitated for a moment, then took out her phone and directly logged into the Bounty Hunters platform, saying, "Look carefully, this is the Bounty Hunters platform. I'll search for 'Nightmare,' 'Masked Man'; you see the results for yourself."

Having said that, Xiu Ju quickly found results on the Bounty Hunters platform.

Shen Qiang saw, the returned bounty information surprisingly listed as many as twenty-seven entries.

The top-listed bounty was still as high as one hundred million.

And the others were various related bounties.

Shen Qiang briefly looked through; all twenty-six pieces of information were offering bounties for clues about him.

The highest of them offered ten million while the lowest bounty was only three hundred thousand.

Without exception, they all wanted clues about the masked man.

"Do you understand now? Shen Qiang, right now many people are eyeing that one hundred million bounty. These people are all anonymous; they could be Loose Cultivators, demons, vicious criminals, or even disciples of the five major sects."

"They all want to find you, kill you, and then use your mask to claim the reward. As soon as they confirm your identity, your friends and family will all be in danger. So, you must wait and trust me. If our analysis is correct, we will definitely be able to destroy that server within forty-eight hours," she added.

Shen Qiang, lying on the bed, calmly said, "And if we are wrong?"

Xiu Ju was taken aback, then replied, "We won't be wrong."

Shen Qiang stood up, smiled, and said earnestly, "It's okay if we're wrong. If we are, then I will deal with Bianyi's problem in my way."

"Your way?" Xiu Ju frowned.

But Shen Qiang wouldn't answer Xiu Ju's questions at all.

Instead, he began his cultivation.

...

At 9:30 AM, while the Huaxia Cuisine Grand Prize finals were still tensely being prepared, the official website's live streaming page was already packed with people.

"Teacher Li, the last round from five to three was really heart-stopping, I didn't expect that the cold noodles with pickled vegetables from Datong River Restaurant would actually secure third place!"

"Actually, that's quite normal. After all, the most crucial aspect of why cuisine is so appealing is the saying 'food is the heaven for the people,' and everyone needs it. Shark fins, sea cucumbers, lobsters, although better, are still a bit out of reach for us ordinary folks, but cold mixed dishes are much more down-to-earth. After the last competition, I specially found a small shop and ordered a portion for just twelve yuan, and it tasted pretty good."

"Teacher Li, then you didn't get a good deal there, the top-grade cold noodles from Datong River are only 38 yuan."

"I hope they won't raise the price after winning the award; otherwise, if it becomes too expensive, we won't be able to afford it."

"Hahaha, they probably won't."

The two hosts chatted and laughed casually.

But at this time, the online viewers were also furiously sending messages across the screen.

"Hehe, after watching the last competition, baby specifically sought out an ethnic cold noodles to try, and I think the taste was really pretty good. I wonder what Datong River will bring out today."

"I guess it should be seafood! Haven't you noticed? In the last two matchups, Datong River brought out fairly ordinary food, but with this, they can't win first place."

"Mhm mhm, baby thinks so too, Datong River is a high-end restaurant, they can't always serve cheap food."

"Exactly, have you guys seen the ingredients being prepared at Hundred Flowers Tower? Yangtze River knife fish, look like each one weighs half a pound. With prices like 8000 yuan per catty for such Yangtze River knife fish, if Datong River can't bring out good ingredients, then no matter how skilled their chefs are, it's useless."

"Darn, you all only noticed the Yangtze River knife fish, didn't you see the fish beside it? Yangtze River's three delicacies, knife fish, shad fish, puffer fish, and this competition bans the use of puffer fish, so Hundred Flowers Tower is clearly going for Yangtze River's double delicacies."

"Mhm mhm, it does seem so. Yuqing Hall is really impressive too, you see they've prepared Antarctic claw shrimp and black gold abalone, just looking at them makes my mouth water."

"Yeah, yeah, they look so delicious."

"Uh... you think I'm going to say I'm not at all interested in Datong River's ingredients right now?"

"Indeed, it's a bit awkward. What is Datong River preparing? It looks so plain, not to mention there are many dried herbs, totally unappetizing,"

"Exactly, what are they doing? To counter Hundred Flowers Tower's Yangtze River double delicacies and Yuqing Hall's two seafood dishes, at the very least they should have top-grade Kobe beef or something."

"Yeah, yeah. If they think they can compete with Hundred Flowers Tower and Yuqing Hall with such plain ingredients, that's just too presumptuous. Even a fool thinks meat tastes better than herbs."

"Is Datong River digging its own grave?"

"I think so!"

"Psh, what do you know, it's just the initial preparations. I think Datong River getting this far isn't by chance."

Just as the comments flew past like a storm, the commentator said, "Oh, all the team leaders have entered the arena, the big battle is about to start. Let's see whether it will be the centuries-old traditional brands that remain unshakable, or whether Datong River, this dark horse, can dominate!"

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