Arrangements

The next day.

Inside the Liu family's loft.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk!” Liu Wen sat in the center seat, holding a cup of hot tea to his lips and taking a sip.

Across from him sat Liu Jiyun, looking at a text message on his phone sent by their contact in Ningcheng. “Dad, the authorities just backed off like that? That doesn't seem like their usual style.”

Liu Wen's six crimson eyes shifted slightly as he replied in a calm tone, “They just can't do anything to us for the time being. Who knows, a group of strangers might already be secretly investigating Ningcheng to find out who attacked the investigation team.”

Hearing Liu Wen's words, a helpless expression appeared on Liu Jiyun's face.

Facing the massive Nanming Kingdom, he felt an overwhelming amount of pressure lately. After all, he was just an ordinary person.

Liu Wen noticed his expression but didn't care. “Have you found out who slaughtered everyone at the Inspector Bureau? I asked you to investigate that.”

This incident had instantly doused Liu Wen's growing arrogance and his belief that he was invincible.

Knowing that there was another existence like him lurking in the shadows of Ningcheng—and not some trash like a Ghoul—made him realize he wasn't alone.

Liu Jiyun pulled a heavy-duty phone from his coat and placed it on the table in front of him. “The nearby surveillance cameras caught something, but the situation is a bit unusual.”

With that, he tapped the screen to play the video.

The video showed the street opposite the Inspector Bureau.

While the rest of the street was displayed clearly, the area around a dark figure was blurry, as if suffering from interference.

“We aren't the only ones with this footage; the Inspector Bureau has it too. Just by standing there, the 'person' who did this could interfere with electronic devices. Its strength probably isn't much weaker than yours, Dad,” Liu Jiyun said, staring at the screen.

Liu Wen stared intently at the screen with his six eyes. After a moment, he suddenly said, “It seems I have to move my plans forward.”

“Plans?” Liu Jiyun asked, somewhat confused.

“I want you to use the Liu family's influence to establish a church in Ningcheng. I want you to recruit as many different kinds of people into the church as possible,” Liu Wen said in a flat voice.

His abilities leaned toward the spiritual and mental side, so controlling people's hearts through a church would allow him to make the most of his strengths.

It would also allow him to build up his strength to counter any potential retaliation from the Nanming Kingdom in the future.

“Alright, I'll get right on it!” Liu Jiyun nodded and immediately stood up to leave.

Drip!

Just as he stepped out the door, a drop of rain hit his face.

Liu Jiyun looked up. Without him realizing it, the sky had turned dark. Is it raining?

...

On the sea about five kilometers away from Ningcheng, a twenty-meter-long fishing boat was heading toward the shore.

“Hurry up, hurry up! Damn it, this shitty weather forecast is never fucking right.” At the bow, a shirtless middle-aged man held a walkie-talkie, looking up at the dark clouds in the sky.

The rain had started out of nowhere, catching them completely off guard.

Behind him, inside the cabin, a young man was steering the boat.

Beside him, a woman looked out at the sea ahead through binoculars. “Why is the boss in such a rush? We're only a few kilometers from the pier. It's not like we're in the deep ocean.”

“He's always like that. Let's just do as he says.” The young man put a cigarette in his mouth, looking completely carefree.

Bang!

Suddenly, the boat shuddered violently as a loud crash echoed from the stern.

The moving fishing boat lost power and slowly ground to a halt.

“Damn it, what was that?” The young man steering the boat paled. He knew for a fact there were no hidden reefs in this area.

“What the hell are you doing? Did the boat hit something? Why have we stopped?” the middle-aged man's voice immediately crackled through the walkie-talkie.

The young man replied with a helpless expression, “Boss, I don't know either. Why don't you go down and take a look?”

At the bow, the middle-aged man lowered his walkie-talkie and walked toward the stern, cursing as he went. “Fucking hell, talk about bad luck. We didn't catch a single thing, and now we've hit who knows what.”

He hurried to the stern and leaned over, trying to see what was underneath.

The moment his eyes met the water, he found himself staring into a pair of pitch-black eyes.

The creature had the head of a shark, with nearly two meters of its upper body rising out of the water. It had extended four clawed arms that were tightly gripping the engine.

Looking at the monster, the middle-aged man's breath caught, his face turning pale at a visible rate.

He wanted to scream, but under the Ghost Shark's gaze, his throat felt choked up, and he couldn't make a sound. “Ah... ah...”

A cruel expression appeared on the Ghost Shark's face. Just as the middle-aged man thought he was going to die—

Splash!

The Ghost Shark suddenly turned and dove back into the water, leaving the middle-aged man utterly bewildered.

The Ghost Shark's dorsal fin broke the surface as it swam a hundred meters away. In the next second, the fin spun around.

Whoosh!

Beneath the surface, the Ghost Shark's webbed legs kicked furiously. The entire monster charged toward the fishing boat at extreme speed, churning the surrounding seawater.

On the surface, its black, meter-long dorsal fin sliced through the water, rushing toward them at nearly a hundred meters per second.

Only now did the middle-aged man snap out of his daze. His face warped in terror, and he spun around, screaming at the top of his lungs, “Jump ship!!!”

Boom!

A terrifying explosion suddenly erupted behind him. The aft of the boat caved in instantly, and the deck rapidly buckled and warped.

The middle-aged man, who was trying to run, lost his footing and was launched into the air. Intolerable pain wracked his body as he looked down in sheer confusion.

What he saw made his pupils shrink to the size of pinpricks. The fishing boat below had been smashed completely in half.

Under the force of the colossal impact, everything on deck was sent flying into the air.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

In the next second, the airborne middle-aged man and the debris rained down onto the sea.

With the young man clamped in its jaws and several people clutched in its left hand, the Ghost Shark swam toward the middle-aged man's corpse.

“Ningcheng TV News reports: Five unexplained boat wrecks have occurred off the coast of Ningcheng. All passengers on board are currently missing.”

Inside a villa, Zhao Jin leaned back on a sofa, watching the television.

Sensing the information flowing into his mind, he pulled out his notebook and began writing.

【The physical strength of the Ghost Shark far exceeds that of any other created monsters so far. Its growth rate has reached an upper-medium level.】

This villa was uninhabited, which was a nice bonus for Zhao Jin.

Destiny Force: 462 wisps!

Besides the Ghost Shark, the Destiny Force provided by monsters like Liu Wen had replenished some of what he had previously consumed.