32: The Name of the Ghost

Over the next two days, Qin Feng followed his master's instructions and kept a low profile. He used Jinchuang Pills and medicinal baths to treat the internal injuries caused by Ghost Net's finger technique while consolidating his recently achieved Martial Master Realm. Under Doctor Chu's exquisite medical skills and the effects of the Medicinal Pills, the terrifying dark-purple finger mark on his chest had gradually faded, though the internal meridians still required time to recover.

During this time, he appeared to be quietly recovering in the clinic's backyard, but in reality, he had already mentally reviewed the Green Intelligence provided by the System countless times—the two locations where Ghost Net had hidden her items: the abandoned Earth Temple in the south of the city and the stone lion in Willow Lane in the west of the city.

He was familiar with both places. The Earth Temple had been abandoned for a long time, usually only serving as an occasional shelter for beggars and vagrants; the incense burner there was covered in dust and ignored by everyone. Willow Lane was an ordinary residential area, and the stone lion in front of that particular house had fallen into disrepair, with an inconspicuous depression in its left eye just as described.

The time was ripe.

That night, with the moon hidden and stars sparse, it was the perfect opportunity for a night-crawler. Qin Feng's injuries were mostly healed. He changed into a set of dark gray night-traveling clothes, covered his face with a black cloth, and suppressed his aura to the limit. Like a shadow merging into the night, he silently left the clinic.

He first headed to the Earth Temple in the south. The temple was dilapidated, its ruined walls looking like a crouching beast in the darkness. Avoiding several homeless men curled up in the corners, he slipped into the main hall like a civet cat. The clay statue of the deity had long since peeled and crumbled, and the incense burner on the altar was covered in cobwebs and a thick layer of ash.

Qin Feng held his breath and reached into the cold incense ash, searching carefully. Sure enough, at the edge of the burner's base, he felt a tiny protrusion. With a light press, a piece of iron on the inner wall of the incense burner quietly popped open, revealing a palm-sized hidden compartment. Inside was an oilcloth bundle.

He quickly took it out, feeling its weight in his hand. Opening the oilcloth, he found several letters sealed with wax, a token carved with a ferocious purple wolf's head, and a small bag of gold coins, roughly fifty or sixty of them. He carefully stowed away the letters and the token, then poured the gold coins into the money bag he had prepared.

Having succeeded, he didn't linger. He immediately retreated, erased all traces, and turned toward the west of the city.

Willow Lane was quiet and deserted, with only the occasional sound of barking dogs. He found the pair of stone lions in front of the third house; the one on the left indeed had an imperceptible shallow pit at its left eye. With internal energy gathered at his fingertips, he reached in gently and felt a layer of wax seal. Carefully breaking the seal, he found a small hollow hole containing a long, slender sword case made of soft leather.

Taking out the sword case, it felt cold and flexible. He gently drew out a section, and a dark, cold gleam like a venomous snake's tongue flashed and vanished in the night. It was Ghost Net's personal weapon, that Profound Rank Low Grade soft sword—'Snake's Kiss'! The blade was extremely thin and resilient, easily wrapped around the waist or arm, making it exceptionally concealable.

Qin Feng was inwardly delighted; this sword was perfect for his current situation of needing to hide his strength and conduct covert operations. He sheathed the Snake's Kiss sword and, along with the sword case, bound it firmly to the inside of his left arm beneath his clothes, leaving no trace visible from the outside.

After finishing all this, he moved through the shadows of the alleys like a ghost and returned safely to the clinic. The entire process was clean and efficient, completely unnoticed... In the blink of an eye, another half month passed.

The Purple Robe Bandits truly seemed to be wary of consequences. After paying two precious "Realm-Breaking Pills" that could help a Grand Martial Master break through a minor Realm, along with a massive amount of gold coins, and making a blood oath not to approach Star South City for three years, the City Lord's Manor finally relented and released the deputy commander, Ghost Net, who had been strictly imprisoned and interrogated for a long time.

However, when Ghost Net, dragging her weak body with most of her power sealed, secretly instructed her trusted subordinates to go to those two hiding spots to retrieve her important items, the result she received almost made her cough up blood again.

The hidden compartment in the incense burner was empty!

The left eye of the stone lion had its wax seal broken, and the inside was empty!

The crucial tokens and funds she had painstakingly hidden, which were related to her subsequent plans and contact with the Yin Demon Sect, had vanished into thin air!

"Who is it?! Who exactly is it?!" Ghost Net let out an uncontrollable low growl in the secret base, like a wounded mother wolf. Her face was distorted, filled with bone-deep resentment. Her first suspicion was the Star South City Six Fan School, but on second thought, it didn't seem right. If the government had seized them, they would have been presented as evidence, not taken so silently.

Combining this with Zhao Qianshan's exposure, the mysterious disappearance of several elite scouts, and her own identity being accurately pointed out and lured into a trap by a "hooligan"... Connecting this series of events, a shadow hiding in the dark, repeatedly opposing them with mysterious methods and coming and going without a trace, emerged in her mind and those of the Purple Robe Bandits' high-ranking members.

"It must be him! The guy who ruined our plans!" The leader of the Purple Robe Bandits gnashed his teeth. "Search! Search for me! Even if you have to flip Star South City upside down, find this rat who hides his head and shows his tail!"

Although they used every secret lead they could, they were never able to pin down the target. The opponent seemed to truly be a ghost, with no fixed identity and no pattern of activity.

Out of anger and helplessness, based on the person's secretive and ruthless actions and their ghost-like, elusive nature, they gave this unknown enemy a nickname—

"Ghostly Specter"!

Soon, a Kill Order from the highest levels of the Purple Robe Bandits spread through secret channels across their sphere of influence and the related underworld: Find the true identity of the "Ghostly Specter" at all costs and kill him on sight! A thousand gold for effective clues; ten thousand gold and the position of Guest Elder of the Purple Robe Bandits for his life!

The name "Ghostly Specter" entered the vision of various factions for the first time, which also meant that Qin Feng's future path would be filled with countless dangers. His days of seizing resources and sabotaging plots from the shadows might not always go so smoothly.