405: The three innocent female college students who were killed in the robbery,

Chapter 397: Three Innocent Female University Students, the Red-Robed Daoist, for the Substitute Death Tribulation!

"Old Qin, are you alright...?"

The oppressive feeling, like falling into an ice cellar, suddenly vanished. The three guards, as if waking from a dream, broke out in cold sweat. They hurried forward, their voices filled with concern and lingering fear.

"It's nothing." Old Qin waved his hand, his tone calm, but his gaze turned to Lu Xuan, his eyes instantly burning with intense light.

It was a burning gaze mixed with admiration and conviction, as if he were staring at an unattainable monument.

"No need to be nervous. Old Lu was just testing you, seeing how you'd react."

Can humans truly reach such heights?

Old Qin looked at Lu Xuan, who was still sitting on the sofa, his heart surging with tumultuous waves.

He had held high positions for a long time and had met countless extraordinary individuals, yet no one had ever been like Lu Xuan.

With just an invisible force, he had rendered three battle-hardened National Art masters immobile.

It turned out that human power could be so strong, to a Realm that completely subverted his understanding.

"Is... that so?"

The leader of the National Art masters swallowed, slowly releasing his right hand that was tightly gripping his gun.

A few drops of cold sweat quietly emerged, sliding down his chiseled jawline.

Old Qin did not know Lu Xuan's true terror, but the three of them had experienced it firsthand.

That oppressive force just now was no test; it was the ultimate fear, where even their bone marrow trembled, when facing death itself.

When that invisible force struck, the three of them felt as if their Mental Energy had been violently struck by a red-hot hammer, their minds went blank, and even their breathing became sluggish.

Let alone raising their hands to resist; they couldn't even move their fingertips a hair's breadth.

Without exaggeration, if this Old Old Lu in front of them were truly an enemy, in that instant, no action would be needed.

Simply by this overwhelming aura, everyone present would have their minds shattered and die on the spot within a few seconds.

In the retired Old Leader's manor on the outskirts of Liangqing City, lush greenery provided cover, and a quiet tranquility prevailed.

A simple, light-grey villa was hidden beneath the dense camphor trees, blending with the surrounding pavilions and water features, exuding a subtle sense of gravitas.

At this moment, a sleek white car quietly drove into the manor. Its tires rolled over the bluestone path, making only a very soft sound, eventually coming to a slow stop beside the lawn in front of the villa.

The car door opened, and the first to step out was a middle-aged man in a black suit, with a steady demeanor, slightly frosted temples, and a contained aura of long-held authority in his every move.

He paused briefly, his gaze sweeping over the tightly closed villa door.

Then, behind the middle-aged man, two young men in dark suits followed closely.

They had tall, straight postures, sharp eyes, hands hanging at their sides, and exuded a taut sense of alertness.

They silently followed the middle-aged man, walking slowly towards the villa entrance.

The crisp sound of the doorbell broke the tranquility of the manor. A moment later, the villa door was gently pulled open.

The door was opened by a woman in her thirties, wearing clean, off-white loungewear.

The edge of her apron still had some flour, suggesting she was a housekeeper responsible for daily chores, and her face showed a hint of rush, as if she had just come from the kitchen.

"Hello, is Fang Hai here?"

The middle-aged man spoke first, his voice steady yet authoritative, his gaze calmly falling on the housekeeper.

The housekeeper was stunned. Just as she was about to respond, she saw the young man behind the middle-aged man step forward, display his identification, and speak in a serious tone.

"We are from the Yifeng Province Inspection... We have a case and need to ask Fang Hai to come with us to assist with the investigation."

"Ah?" The words "Inspection..." struck the housekeeper like a thunderclap. Her face instantly turned pale, her hand unconsciously tightened around the rag she held, and she instinctively stepped aside to make way.

Finally, the housekeeper responded in a flustered voice: "He... he's in the living room talking with the young master. I'll go call him right away..."

"No need. We can go ourselves. Please remain quiet and do not disturb anyone else."

The middle-aged man nodded faintly, his tone devoid of emotion. He then led the two young men, stepping steadily past the housekeeper and walking towards the villa's living room.

Fang Hai's identity was interwoven with multiple pasts—he was once the head of the Liangqing City Security Bureau, holding significant local security power, and also the former first head of the Yingnan City Security Bureau.

More crucially, he was Lu Yuliang's direct superior back then, and the two had worked together in the same System for many years.

And the intersection of all these identities invariably revolved around the sensational murder case of three female university students at Yingnan University.

That year, he and Lu Yuliang were deeply involved in the investigation of this case, making him one of the few key figures who knew the core details of the case.

Inside a somewhat old resettlement house in Liangqing City, the light was dim, and the air was filled with a faint scent of dust.

Lu Yuliang stood silently by the window, his fingertips lightly tapping the cold glass, his gaze fixed on the bustling street below, exuding a calm aura.

Just then, the door clicked open from the outside. The first to appear were two young men in plain clothes.

They carefully supported an old man in his seventies, one on each side, as they slowly walked in.

Although the old man's hair was white, it was meticulously combed. The wrinkles on his face were not deep, and his skin was firm, indicating excellent self-care.

However, at this moment, his eyes were unfocused, his lips trembled slightly, and his entire being exuded an undeniable daze, as if he had not yet recovered from some shock.

After being helped to a chair opposite Lu Yuliang, the old man had not fully recovered from his daze, his body still swaying slightly.

Lu Yuliang was the first to break the silence, his voice carrying a hint of the hoarseness of time: "Old Fang, long time no see."

Upon hearing the words "Old Fang," Fang Hai's body trembled. He hastily looked up.

His cloudy gaze fell on Lu Yuliang's face. In just a brief glance, the familiar outline and features instantly awakened long-sealed memories.

His lips trembled, his voice filled with incredulous shock: "Old Old Lu... is that you? How are you here?"

The decadent and confusion he felt when he was taken from the villa earlier were instantly washed away by this sudden reunion.

Fang Hai's eyes widened, his face filled with bewilderment.

He froze in the chair, even forgetting to adjust his breathing, clearly not having expected to meet his former subordinate here.

"Old Old Lu, could it be... that you've also fallen to the same level as me?"

Fang Hai suddenly leaned forward, a complex light flashing in his cloudy eyes—shock, and even a hint of incredulous speculation.

In his eyes, Lu Yuliang's current predicament was merely a belated "matter of course."

Fang Hai leaned back in his chair, his voice filled with a worldly sigh.

"Old Old Lu, don't argue; arguing is just self-deception—this is the inherent flaw in human nature.

Greed, desire, the craving for power, they entwine the human heart like vines. No 'normal person' can truly resist that temptation."

After Fang Hai finished speaking to himself, he paused, unconsciously rubbing the armrest of the chair, a hint of self-mockery added to his tone.

"Back then, I thought you were an exception. Now it seems you were just better at hiding than anyone else."

Lu Yuliang watched Fang Hai animatedly talking to himself and making wild inferences, a strange, indescribable expression crossing his face.

This guy, even in this situation, his mind was still so muddled and confused.

But Lu Yuliang had no time to argue about these irrelevant trivialities. His tone was crisp and direct, getting straight to the point.

"Old Fang, the murder case at Yingnan University twenty years ago, those three girls in Dorm Room 506, do you still remember them?"

"Ah?"

Upon hearing this, Fang Hai's pupils suddenly contracted, his cloudy old eyes widening sharply. The veins on his hand, tightly gripping the edge of the table, bulged.

Shock and terror intertwined and surged in his eyes, and even his breathing became sluggish for half a beat.

"You... you, Old Old Lu," Fang Hai's Adam's apple bobbed violently, his voice trembling with unconcealed panic.

"Why would you suddenly bring up... bring up that matter?"

Lu Yuliang's face was as cold as if covered in frost. He raised his hand and picked up a transparent document bag from beside him.

Inside the bag, a black talisman, with tattered edges and a dark color, exuded an eerie aura under the light.

"Hmph," He slammed the document bag heavily onto the table with a dull thud, his eyes sharp as knives, piercing Fang Hai.

"What is this thing? You'd better tell me honestly—why did you have people stick these talismans in Dorm Room 506 back then?"

One must know, the purpose of these talismans was not for blessings or warding off evil, but to suppress the lingering souls of those three girls who died tragically in the dorm room!

The next moment, the panic in Fang Hai's eyes suddenly faded. His eyes narrowed slightly, and only a bottomless calm remained in his pupils.

That unusually calm demeanor was completely different from the flustered, incoherent old man he had been moments ago.

He slowly straightened up, his tone flat, almost indifferent, as if discussing trivial matters unrelated to himself: "Old Old Lu, what are you talking about? I don't understand."

The feigned ignorance in his words was all too obvious.

Fang Hai meticulously hid all his emotions and flaws, unwilling to expose even a hint of weakness.

"You!"

Lu Yuliang's chest heaved violently, anger about to burst through his chest.

However, a calm, unruffled old voice sounded at just the right moment, instantly quelling the tense atmosphere in the room.

"Yuliang, let me handle it."

Before the words finished, the door creaked open, and Lu Xuan, with his hands behind his back, slowly entered the room.

When his gaze fell on Fang Hai, it carried no warmth, only complete disregard, as if the person before him was merely a speck of dust.

Just as Fang Hai was filled with confusion, a golden ripple suddenly shot out from Lu Xuan's eyes.

The golden light was fleeting, quietly disappearing into the Void Realm, so fast it seemed as if it had never appeared.

But in Fang Hai's perception, the world suddenly changed color.

Ten thousand towering mountains crashed down, pressing on his heart like the collapse of the sky.

That vast and boundless oppressive force instantly shattered his tiny mind, making even breathing incredibly difficult.

The next second, Fang Hai's eyes suddenly became hollow, his body stiff as a Puppet.

When Lu Xuan asked a question, he mechanically responded, his tone flat and emotionless, repeating every word precisely.

He was exactly like a programmed repeater robot, completely devoid of his previous calmness and pretense.

A Great Grandmaster of the Embracing Core Realm did not need to act; merely by releasing his Martial Dao Will, he could crush an ordinary person's Mental Energy like Mount Tai pressing down.

That immense pressure, originating from the Mental Energy of the Physical Body, could easily tear apart the opponent's psychological defenses, causing their mind to collapse.

Within a short period, they would completely lose control of their brain, becoming a Puppet at the mercy of others.

"Red-Robed Daoist..." Fang Hai's eyes were hollow, mechanically repeating the name, his tone completely flat.

"It was him... it was him who said he could help me avoid disaster," his Adam's apple stiffly bobbed, words uncontrollably pouring out.

"The method was... to use other people's lives as an lead to block calamities for the client."

"Those three female students from Yingnan University were not victims of revenge; they were merely sacrifices he randomly chose when I sought the Red-Robed Daoist's help... they just happened to become substitutes to block my tribulation."

It turned out that twenty years ago, Fang Hai was at a critical stage in his career advancement. At a high-end banquet, he was introduced by chance.

He met a mysterious Daoist wearing a red Daoist robe—who later became the Red-Robed Daoist.

At that time, as soon as the Red-Robed Daoist saw him, he asserted with certainty that Fang Hai would soon face a catastrophic disaster.

"Your fate is dim, and a tribulation is approaching. If you do not resolve it in time, not only will your official career be ruined and plummet, but you will ultimately be imprisoned and spend the rest of your life in jail."

"Where is the Red-Robed Daoist...?" Lu Xuan's voice was calm.

Fang Hai's head was slightly bowed, and he mechanically responded: "He... he is in the Mingxin Temple in the city center."

That Mingxin Temple was the largest Daoist temple in Liangqing City, with flying eaves and painted arches, extraordinarily grand.

Presumably, there were many people like Fang Hai, whose weaknesses were exploited by the Evil Path.

They secretly funded him in the name of the authorities, allowing the Red-Robed Daoist to build such an extremely luxurious "sanctuary."

In the deepest part of Mingxin Temple's secret chamber, candlelight flickered, illuminating a red-robed figure.

It was a white-haired old man, his scarlet Daoist robe making his face appear as pale as paper, his body enveloped in a deathly stillness, completely devoid of any Life Qi or warmth of a living person.

Suddenly, his tightly closed eyes snapped open, pupils contracting sharply. The previously hollow depths of his eyes were instantly filled with an unshakeable unease.

"Something's not right... Why do I have this feeling of heart palpitations?" he muttered to himself, his right hand gripping the small skull Magical Artifact in his sleeve.

"Could it be... someone wants to attack this Grandmaster?"

Cultivators of Daoist arts, their Physical Body is already connected to the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, naturally possessing an extremely keen instinctive vigilance.

At this moment, this chill and warning, originating from the ethereal, spread throughout his body like a bone-deep parasite, certainly not a baseless delusion.

Before the words finished, just as the red-robed old man was about to push himself up from the meditation cushion, a deafening crash echoed from the heavy iron door of the secret chamber.

The reinforced metal door panel was actually bent and deformed, torn open like paper, and flew inward, heavily smashing onto the central altar where rituals were performed.

In an instant, incense ash scattered, Magical Artifacts shattered, blood-red copper bells rolled across the floor, and the altar was instantly reduced to a chaotic ruin.

Amidst the spreading dust, Lu Xuan's figure, with his hands behind his back, slowly walked in. His black Zhongshan suit was spotless, his steps as steady as if treading on mountains.

His gaze swept over the disheveled red-robed old man, his expression still indifferent, as if the earth-shattering commotion of breaking the door and destroying the altar was merely him casually brushing away a speck of dust.

"I have something I need your help with." Lu Xuan stood in the dust-filled secret chamber, his voice flat and unruffled, as if he were talking about a perfectly ordinary trivial matter.

But there was no hint of a request in his words!