"Have you found Qi Li? Where is she?"

The moment Lu Dongshan opened his eyes, he lifted his head and eagerly asked Su Xuan.

But to his surprise, Su Xuan had already put his phone down.

"It was just a promotional call," Su Xuan said with a shrug. "Nothing about Qi Li."

"What?" Lu Dongshan's head sank back onto the pillow, his face etched with disappointment.

"You just lie here and rest," Su Xuan said, standing up and walking toward the door. "I'll let you know the moment I have any news about her."

"Su... Brother Su!" Lu Dongshan called out to his retreating back. "When we find Qi Li, I... I'll buy you a drink!"

"I'll hold you to that!" Su Xuan waved over his shoulder without looking back and left the room.

Outside, he saw Zhong Huilan. She was leaning against the wall with her head bowed, looking utterly exhausted.

"Sister Zhong, why don't you get some rest?" Su Xuan asked, walking over to her side.

"Oh, no, it's fine," Zhong Huilan said, glancing up at Su Xuan. "I'll rest after we find Qi Li."

In truth, she desperately wanted to sleep. Her energy just wasn't what it used to be as she got older, and she hadn't slept a wink since Long Xiwén's incident.

"Su Xuan, what on earth has been going on lately?" Zhong Huilan couldn't help but complain. "They claim to be from the mountain realms. Fine, let them come, but why are they continuously causing trouble in our world of Red Dust? Every last one of them can scale walls and leap over rooftops. It's a real headache!"

She could only voice these frustrations to Su Xuan; she couldn't let her subordinates hear them.

"I shouldn't have let her kill those men last night. I should have just handed her over to you," Su Xuan murmured. "Then she wouldn't be in this mess."

"That wouldn't have been possible," Zhong Huilan said, shaking her head. "If you hadn't done that, they would have caused a much bigger scene, and many more people would have died!"

She wasn't just saying that to comfort him. She had heard Qi Li's account of the events the previous night. If Qi Li had really been violated by those two beasts, the situation would have escalated dramatically. Qi Li's father would have undoubtedly brought even more people to exact vengeance!

That was why they had to find her.

Understanding the gravity of the situation, Zhong Huilan said in a somber tone, "Su Xuan, I'll have to rely on your help again for this."

"I'll do my best," Su Xuan nodded, then added, "I'm going to check on Long Xiwén."

With that, he walked down a long corridor, found Long Xiwén's hospital room, and went inside.

To his surprise, Long Xiwén wasn't lying in bed. Instead, she was holding onto the windowsill, stretching her body.

"Su Xuan, you're here!" Long Xiwén greeted him cheerfully the moment she saw him. He guessed she still didn't know about Qi Li's situation, as Zhong Huilan had been deliberately keeping it from her.

"You're recovering quickly!" Su Xuan sat down and poured himself a glass of water. "I thought you'd be laid up for weeks, if not months. It seems Kangnai's medical standards are really quite impressive."

"Hehe!" Long Xiwén grinned and teased, "Your hospital is amazing, but that medicine the beautiful Qi Li gave me is also incredible. The effect was almost instantaneous!"

"You're not mad at them?" Su Xuan smiled.

"Mad? How could I not be?" Long Xiwén sat cross-legged on the bed, her expression resigned. "But my position doesn't allow me to blame them. As long as they turn back from the brink, it's fine. It's a small price for me to pay, and besides..."

Long Xiwén took out an attractive-looking pill. "She also gave me this. It's called a Youth-preserving Pill, and it's supposed to delay aging. How much do you think I could sell it for?"

"No one would buy it," Su Xuan replied with a laugh, shaking his head. "Because no one would believe it."

"True!" Long Xiwén's brow furrowed slightly. "It's not like you see immediate results after taking it. I guess it really wouldn't sell."

"You should just keep it for yourself," Su Xuan said, taking another sip of water before standing up. "I need to get some breakfast. I'm starving."

He had planned to replenish his body today to speed up his protective divine garment's recovery, but then Qi Li had gone missing.

Long Xiwén noticed Su Xuan didn't look well. "Go on, then. Eat a lot, and make sure you get some rest, too."

"Got it."

After leaving Kangnai, Su Xuan went straight to Longming Xuan, his own high-end restaurant. To the manager's utter astonishment, he ordered more than a dozen dishes for himself, many of them meat, and began to eat voraciously.

As he ate, he could even hear faint crackling sounds from his protective divine garment, as if it were rapidly repairing itself. It seemed that replenishing himself with food was highly effective for its recovery. Delighted, he drank several more bowls of aged ginseng soup.

Once he had eaten and drunk his fill, he called Chen Yuesheng again, but there was still no news of Qi Li.

Where on earth did she go? Su Xuan was puzzled. Could it be that the Spirit-Taming Sect... eliminated her without a trace?

DING-DONG!

His phone suddenly chimed. It was a new Didi ride request.

Su Xuan looked at the screen and let out a wry laugh. He must have accidentally opened the ride-hailing app while calling Chen Yuesheng.

Might as well take this one. Waiting is waiting, after all.

Su Xuan left Longming Xuan and drove to pick up the passenger. He was just one ride short of completing the second stage of his mission. Since his electric scooter had been blown to pieces by the Ascension Pot, he was driving the Koenigsegg today.

Inside a telecom shop, a portly man holding a phone asked an employee, "What kind of car is a Koenigsegg?"

If Qi Li were present, she would have recognized the fat man at a glance: Yan Xiaosong. A shop assistant had helped him order the ride.

Yan Xiaosong's martial brothers were also in the shop, each holding a brand-new phone. They didn't have mobile phones in the mountain realm because there were no signal towers there.

"I'm not sure," the employee, who knew little about cars, replied. "It might be a new model from some car company."

"Not bad. Got a new car on my first try," Yan Xiaosong said, puffing out his chest. He then turned to Qiao Yongshou, who was fiddling with his own device. "Protector Qiao, stop playing with that phone. Come outside and wait for the Didi with me. We're going to the train station to look for her!"

He then barked at the others, "You all need to move quickly, too! Check the bus stations, airports, and highway interchanges... search everywhere! Don't let that girl leave the city!"

Indeed, he had ordered the ride specifically to find Qi Li. Although Qi Li's combat power was low, her movement techniques were superb. Last night, their entire group hadn't been able to catch her.

"Got it!" the others replied at once.

Yan Xiaosong swaggered out of the shop. A minute or two later, a sports car with a design unlike any other vehicle pulled up. He hurriedly checked the license plate number. It was indeed the Didi he had just ordered.

"Whoa, this car is badass!"

Seeing the Koenigsegg, Yan Xiaosong looked like a country bumpkin who had never seen the world, unable to hold back his praise. Qiao Yongshou, standing beside him, also had a glint in his eyes, stunned by the Koenigsegg.

The Koenigsegg stopped in front of them.

A ridiculously handsome face looked out from the driver's seat. "Did you order a ride?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.