Chapter 549: Script In Progress

At this moment, in an inconspicuous shadow in the corridor outside the private room, a spider silently clung to the wall.

"Wuji Realm??"Hearing these four words, Chen Ling's heart skipped a beat.

Ever since the performance ended and the guests fled in fear, Chen Ling had not left. Instead, he had been secretly exploring every corner of the dance hall. He had just reached the second floor and hadn't even finished searching all the private rooms when Li Ruohong also came up, heading directly towards the innermost private room.

Chen Ling keenly sensed something was amiss. After all, Li Ruohong's reaction to such an incident was too calm. A normal person would likely first think of ghosts and spirits, but Li Ruohong immediately went to private room 001, seemingly to ascertain the situation there.

So Chen Ling quietly moved outside the private room, where he then overheard the conversation.

People from the Wuji Realm have already infiltrated Hongchen Main City?

Chen Ling had never imagined that Li Ruohong was already connected with people from the Wuji Realm. However, upon reflection, it made perfect sense. The Grand World Dance Hall had an enormous daily flow of people, a diverse mix of individuals coming and going, making it an ideal meeting point. Furthermore, Li Ruohong's identity as Mu Chunsheng's nephew meant that approaching him would provide a connection to the Beidou Consortium.

Coincidentally, Chen Ling had simply chosen a theater building at random to monitor the casino, only to find himself inexplicably drawn into this. On his second day in Hongchen Main City, he encountered two secret agents from the Wuji Realm.

Could this be the effect of the Emperor's Mandate?

While Chen Ling was deep in thought, Li Ruohong exited the private room and walked directly downstairs to dispatch people to clean up the messy venue.

Chen Ling did not try to sneak into the private room. He was certain that the two people inside were Dao practitioners, and their ranks were unknown, making it too dangerous to rush in. For him, knowing there were two agents from the Wuji Realm here was enough.

"What a pleasant surprise..." Chen Ling narrowed his eyes, looking at the innermost private room. As if something had occurred to him, a faint smile appeared on his lips.

After thoroughly understanding the layout of the dance hall, he quietly went to the back door. His gaze swept over a row of trash cans, and after casually tossing a packet from his pocket into one, he opened his umbrella and slowly walked away into the distance.

Hongchen Main City.Police Headquarters.

A police officer hurried down the corridor and knocked on an office door.

"Come in.""Chief, we have an emergency!"

The Chief of Police Headquarters, who had been processing cases in his office, looked up with a slight frown. He appeared to be an elderly man in his seventies or eighties, yet his black hair was remarkably thick. Dressed in the distinctive police uniform of Hongchen Main City, his chest adorned with numerous badges, he exuded an oppressive aura simply by sitting there.

"What is it?""It's Hongfang Street..."

"Hongfang Street?" Hearing those words, the Chief's expression darkened. "The casino? Have the surveillance efforts yielded results? Have we found any suspected movements of Twilight Society members?"

"No... not the casino. It's the Grand World Dance Hall, not far from it."

"The dance hall?" The Chief paused, surprised.

"Yes, we just received over thirty reports simultaneously, all concerning that dance hall... Apparently, there was a murder there, and also..."

"And what?""And it's haunted!" The officer took a deep breath and repeated the eyewitness accounts, causing the Chief's frown to deepen.

"Are you saying that during the heavy rain, blood seeped down from the dance hall's floorboards... and they witnessed Li Ruohong, his face covered in blood, grinning menacingly as he sliced someone, sending them flying over ten meters, smashing through seven or eight tables and chairs, and then the body vanished in the blink of an eye?"

"That's right, everyone saw it," the officer added. "Even our surveillance team stationed outside the casino witnessed blood flowing out from the entrance and into the sewer."

The Chief stood up and paced his office for a long time, lost in thought.

"Chief... could that Li Ruohong be a Dao practitioner?" the officer asked cautiously.

"From the description, it's highly probable," the Chief said gravely. "Covered in blood, capable of sending someone flying over ten meters with a single strike... it sounds like a characteristic of the Asura path of the Divine Weapon Dao..."

"We conducted a brief investigation. This Li Ruohong is the nephew of Mu Chunsheng, the chairman of the Beidou Consortium. This dance hall has been open for several years... Previously, there were no signs of him having embarked on the Divine Dao, and his behavior was arrogant and overbearing. However, he has been unusually low-key recently, seemingly having reined himself in considerably," the officer reported truthfully.

"Previously arrogant and overbearing, then suddenly low-key... and now he possesses the Divine Dao?"

"Yes." The officer seemed to recall something. "One of the people who reported it was his personal bodyguard. According to him, Li Ruohong didn't care about the murder at all. And the moment it happened, he ordered everyone to keep it quiet and strictly forbidden to leak any information...

"There's something else: according to him, Li Ruohong's whereabouts have been particularly mysterious lately. There's a private room in the Grand World Dance Hall that no one is allowed to enter, and no one has ever seen anyone come out of it. Even when food is delivered, the manager is only allowed to place it at the door.

"Initially, they all thought it might be Li Ruohong's mistress, but then they realized something was wrong... because sometimes the items they were asked to deliver were very strange, such as certain animal bones, or disgusting insect carcasses, and even things resembling human skin!"

"This too??"

The Chief's expression instantly changed. He sat back in his office chair, his brows furrowed deeply, and his expression shifted repeatedly.

Something isn't right.This dance hall is absolutely, unequivocally wrong!

"What about the casino then? Have our recent surveillance efforts there revealed anything unusual?" the Chief suddenly asked.

"No... it's still the same as before; we haven't found any clues."

"There's also been no activity from Fusheng Society, which means they haven't detected any fluctuations in Dao abilities at the casino either... Could our assessment truly be wrong?" the Chief murmured to himself. "After the Twilight Society members rescued their companion, they didn't actually hide in the Hongfang Street casino... instead, they secretly moved and are actually concealed within the dance hall?"

"Chief, what should we do next? Should we conduct a full-scale search of the dance hall?"

"No, absolutely not!"

The Chief immediately shook his head. "If that truly is a Twilight Society stronghold, doing so would only tip them off or provoke them... Just like the measures we took concerning the casino, do not conduct any overt searches. Transfer some of the personnel originally assigned to casino surveillance, have them disguise themselves, and investigate discreetly.

"If I'm not mistaken, Mu Chunsheng's birthday banquet is coming up soon, and Li Ruohong will certainly attend to offer congratulations... At that time, we can have our people attempt a more in-depth investigation, provided they ensure they remain undetected.

"As for Fusheng Society, I will contact them and ask them to also keep an eye on the Grand World Dance Hall to see if they can uncover anything."

"Understood!"