Midnight.
Also known as the hour of demons.
Xue'er's whereabouts.
The person in the black robe.
A cowardly individual.
When these words connected, Duan Chen eagerly seized the slip of paper that Qin Ze placed before him.
He opened it, his eyes narrowing slightly, reading at a glance.
An address was displayed on it.
Duan Chen had never been there, but he knew something about it.
Driving from the Soul Hunter Guild in Sucheng, it would take about two hours to reach the destination, which was exceptionally close to Sucheng's outskirts. No, it would even take three hours.
The destination was a废弃工厂 (abandoned factory).
What did it mean?
Could Xue'er have been kidnapped and held there?
Qin Ze's expression was anxious, craning his neck to look at the paper in Duan Chen's hand.
Duan Chen instinctively covered it.
He said with a serious expression, "You can't see it."
This was not something Qin Ze's level could interfere with.
Qin Ze was a little unwilling, looking pleadingly at Duan Chen, "No?"
"No."
Duan Chen flatly refused without mercy.
He clutched the paper, a fireball appearing in his hand, and incinerated it.
Qin Ze then pouted a little, looking wronged.
Duan Chen instructed, "If you have this kind of thought, you might as well go and practice your own talent."
"If you can't master the 'Currency of Right and Wrong', you'll probably fall behind."
"Although the guild has suffered a great disaster this time and desperately needs personnel, it's still uncertain how many agents will be recruited."
Quality over quantity.
Sucheng was a remote place, and cases requiring low-level agents rarely occurred.
If not for the seventy percent attrition rate of low-level agents this time, the agent assessment, which was not originally scheduled, would not have been moved up.
Qin Ze immediately realized the seriousness of the situation.
Especially when he heard that among his competitors this time, there was even someone transferred from the capital.
This gave him an even greater sense of crisis.
Without a word, he turned and ran, his footsteps faster than a rabbit's.
His face showed a flustered haste.
Seeing that Qin Ze had been sent away, Duan Chen returned his attention to the slip of paper.
Oh, no, the paper was gone.
It was the information conveyed by the paper.
The hour of demons, three days later.
Was there any significance to it?
"What month and day is it now?"
He suddenly grabbed a passing laboratory technician, who was in a white coat and was startled.
Trembling, he replied, "Today is August 8th."
August 8th.
Three days later...
August 12th?
Duan Chen's eyes narrowed slightly. He had always been exceptionally intelligent, so he suddenly asked a question.
"What is the lunar date for August 12th?"
The laboratory technician was stunned for a moment, then hesitated and finally blurted out a number.
"July 15th."
July 15th.
Duan Chen loosened his grip without realizing it.
The laboratory technician hurried away with a pile of test tubes.
"So terrifying, so terrifying."
"As expected of a high-level agent, their aura is indeed powerful."
Meanwhile, Duan Chen was still pondering the date.
7:30 PM.
Zhongyuan Festival.
Also known as Ghost Festival.
It was the time of year when the Yin and cold energy between heaven and earth was most intense.
It was also the busiest time for various departments and Soul Hunter Guilds across the land.
Because on this day, all sorts of heretics would appear.
Making trouble.
What were the intentions of this mysterious person of unknown identity in arranging to meet on this day?
And what did they intend to do?
Duan Chen couldn't figure it out.
But he could only be sure that the other party had no good intentions and had ulterior motives.
This was a banquet of Hongmen.
But he had to go.
Three days later.
On the night of August 11th, at ten o'clock, Duan Chen was already waiting outside the gate of the abandoned factory at the agreed-upon location.
He did not rush in rashly.
During these three days, other agents had entered and searched the factory thoroughly.
They found nothing.
Although there was some dust inside, everything looked like a normal abandoned factory.
It seemed the other party had not made any arrangements inside the abandoned factory beforehand.
This was also normal.
After all, no matter what, Sucheng was his territory. Although he was only a high-level agent, he had been active here for many years, and he knew the geography and building layouts of this place like the back of his hand.
Duan Chen's expression gradually turned cold. He thought to himself that based on the factory's layout he knew, there shouldn't be any sewers.
If that were the case, how did the other party intend to appear from within the abandoned factory, or did they not intend to meet him inside the factory at all, but rather outside as agreed?
That didn't seem right.
He took a shallow breath, and a look of composure and determination flashed in his eyes.
No matter what danger he faced, Mi Xue'er called him "brother." He could not possibly abandon Mi Xue'er.
Time ticked by, and it was midnight on August 12th, the true hour of demons, the day the Ghost Festival officially began.
Duan Chen's expression grew increasingly tense and serious.
He had not brought anyone with him.
It wasn't because he was overly bold and reckless.
It was because he worried this might be a stratagem by the heretics to lure the tiger away from its mountain, to draw most of the agents from the Sucheng Soul Hunter Guild away.
Then, to facilitate a deeper scheme.
He would absolutely not allow such a scenario to occur.
Absolutely not.
At the exact moment the minute and hour hands overlapped, when it officially struck twelve o'clock, Duan Chen suddenly heard the sound of a bell.
He had a premonition. They were here.
"Hee hee hee hee hee, I didn't expect you to actually dare to come here alone?"
"What? Are you here to save your good sister?"
Duan Chen looked up and saw the woman who had appeared before him.
No...
Although it was night, Duan Chen had excellent eyesight and could see that the person before him had an Adam's apple.
Although she looked like a woman, with exquisite makeup, bright red lips, and long hair, dressed in an elegant and tight-fitting qipao.
There were no strange protrusions below her waist.
Her chest did have curves.
However, at most, it was an A cup.
But the Adam's apple was a male characteristic.
On the neck of the person before him, there was a smoothness unique to women. Even someone with very few male characteristics wouldn't be completely without an Adam's apple.
This was a man.
A man cross-dressing as a woman.
"Who are you? Where is Xue'er?" Duan Chen tightened his grip on the Thousand Illusions Pandora and asked the seemingly bizarre man.