Star Trace Gate

South bank.

The gold medal undercover agent Huang Youlong was shot to death in the dense forest by the Soul-Destroying Nail, and even his body was blasted to pieces by the magic weapon. However, before he died, he also informed Ren Ye and Yin Hu of the intelligence he had learned.

Among the eight chief craftsmen, one must be a traitor.

"Ong!"

At this moment, dozens of strange aura fluctuations suddenly surged in the dense forest, as if something was awakening.

The woods rustled, and the aura of super-grade magical weapons made Ren feel suddenly palpitations.

"Brother Hu, the goal has been achieved. Let's slip away, let's slip away...!"

Ren also reacted very quickly. He turned around and rushed towards Yin Hu. At the same time, a talisman appeared between the two fingers of his left hand.

"Boom."

Not far away, the shadow of the Nine-bend Green Cloud Bamboo was fighting against the attacking magic weapon.

"Whoosh!"

Ren Ye came in front of Yin Hu in an instant, grabbed his wrist with his right hand, and pointed to the ground with his left hand: "Shrinking Talisman!"

"Don't pull me, I can still fight." Brother Hu shouted in a face-saving manner.

"Beat your tiger mom! If you keep pretending to be so arrogant, I'll kick you out of the car...!"

"Ong!"

The talisman spontaneously combusted, the space shook, and the figures of the two instantly disappeared on the south bank.

Two breaths later, the shadow of the Nine-bend Green Cloud Bamboo dissipated in the dense forest on the south bank. Dozens of magic weapons chased to the shore, but only floated far away, without crossing the lake to chase and kill.

A faint murmur rose from the forest enveloped by a black light: "Let them go. Don't let them cross the lake. This will prevent them from being exposed too early and delaying important matters..."

As soon as the words were spoken, dozens of magic weapons slowly retreated and disappeared into the dense forest.

Suddenly, a cold wind blew through the forest, and the burning natural fire suddenly extinguished, as if nothing had happened here.

……

The other side.

"Gudong, Gudong."

Ren Ye and Yin Hu's bodies fell from mid-air and landed heavily on the ground.

Not far away, Xu Tingtao and his men ran out to greet them, exclaiming, "Who on earth are you? How could you fight your way to the other side with two guns and two horses, and then return unscathed?!"

"I can't say that I'm completely unharmed, I can only say that my hair is a little messy." Ren Ye spoke in a pretentious manner, but his body was already drenched in sweat and he had to pee like a spring.

He knew very well that if he hesitated for a moment on this trip to the South Bank and did not use the Nine-Bend Green Cloud Bamboo to break the impasse immediately, he would most likely be in danger of death, and might even have to use his last trump card to get out.

He was able to return so smoothly because the group of "dirty guys" on the south bank seemed to have something big to plan and did not make killing himself and Yin Hu their first goal.

"call!"

Yin Hu also gasped, sat on the ground and swallowed two pills.

Ren Ye slowly stood up and clasped his fists towards Xu Tingtao: "This time we went to the South Bank, our mission has been completed. The two of us will not stay here to disturb you. We will go back first to report."

"well."

Xu Tingtao nodded: "Take care."

"Take care of yourself too. I hope you can leave this damn place safely." Ren Ye replied sincerely, then called Yin Hu and hurried away.

Xu Tingtao watched the two go away, a look of desolation in his eyes. He couldn't help but shake his head and sighed: "Alas, there are so many hidden talents in our Order Alliance. Even two errand boys can have such fighting power. If everyone can work together to fight against the bald law enforcer, why would we have to retreat again and again...!"

"Military Officer Xu, we just received a message from the higher-ups asking you to attend a meeting immediately to discuss the deployment of defenses along the coast." A person with supernatural powers nearby reminded him softly.

"Open, open, open, I'll drive your ancestor's urn through the drain bend on that damn bald head." Xu Tingtao cursed angrily, then turned around and ordered, "Call back, I'll be there right away."

On the south bank, a man in a crescent-shaped black robe walked on a forest path covered with dead leaves and came to a stone formation with steady steps.

There were seven or eight bald men sitting around the fire. They glanced at the man in black robe but did not say anything.

"boom!"

The man in black robe stepped into the stone formation, a black gas rose into the sky, and his figure suddenly disappeared from the spot.

A bald man looked at the stone formation in surprise and whispered, "He is from the city. Who does he belong to?"

"What's wrong……?"

"I always feel that there is something about him that makes my heart palpitate. It's very strange and hard to describe in words."

"How could a nobody running errands have any strange feelings?" his companion muttered with a sneer.

The fire roared and everyone fell silent again.

……

on the way back.

Ren Ye drove the car with a slight frown on his face.

Next to him, Yin Hu took a breath and opened his eyes and said, "...I always feel that there is something wrong with the black-robed man who fought with us briefly."

"What's wrong?"

Ren also turned his head to ask.

"There is a special smell on him." Yin Hu thought: "Yes, it is very special...!"

"Don't play the Riddler game." Ren Ye urged impatiently, "What's so special about it?"

"To put it simply, everyone has their own unique smell." Yin Hu organized his words: "But that person is a little different... He has a faint fragrance on him, which is very special. This can cover up his own smell."

Ren Ye heard this, thought for two seconds, and then instantly concluded: "It's like perfume?!"

"That's about it." Yin Hu nodded and said, "It should be the smell of some precious incense powder or spices, the kind commonly seen in ancient secret realms."

After a brief silence, Ren Ye suddenly asked, "Do you think the residual souls in this star gate can use spices?"

Yin Hu thought about it seriously and said, "It's hard to say. Just based on the background of this star gate, the residual souls we see now may be reflections of living people in the past. It's not strange that some people like to sprinkle spices on their bodies, right? And... this may also be a hint of a mission clue."

Ren Ye slowly looked at him: "Then let me ask you again. You said that the mission we received was to bring back the gold medal undercover Huang Youlong... Then is it possible that the mission received by others is to kill him?!"

Yin Hu was stunned: "This... this is of course possible."

Having said this, the two of them stopped talking and just kept thinking.

Just now, after listening to Huang Youlong's words before his death, Ren Ye had some associations in his mind. But he was not sure yet, as he felt that the clues he had grasped were too complicated and it was difficult to connect them together logically.

There was no conversation along the way, and the two soon returned to the Tiangong Department's headquarters in Fulai County.

……

Headquarters, in a tea room on the 6th floor.

Song Mingzhe sat on the sofa and asked expressionlessly, "That's all Huang Youlong said?!"

"Yes."

Ren Ye nodded immediately and said, "His original words were that among the eight master craftsmen, one must be a traitor."

Song Mingzhe looked at him and Yinhu calmly, slowly stood up and walked to the window.

He looked at the night sky outside the window, thought for a long time, took out his cell phone, and dialed a number: "Hello?! Go and call the eight great craftsmen to gather at the Craftsman's Platform Secret Realm in twenty minutes. Also, secretly notify fifty third-rank and above magical masters to ambush at the Craftsman's Platform in advance... After everything is ready, I will go to the Craftsman's Platform. Okay, that's it."

After he finished speaking, Song Mingzhe hung up the phone, turned his head to look at Ren Ye and Yin Hu, and said with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work."

[Congratulations, you have completed Song Mingzhe's commission and brought back the insider. You have been rewarded with 88 gold coins.]

As soon as he finished speaking, Ren Ye and Yin Hu heard the reminder from the Star Gate at the same time.

The two of them smiled and nodded at Song Mingzhe. They said no more and just waited with him.

About ten minutes later, the door was suddenly pushed open, and a young man hurried in, shouting in a slightly panicked manner: "Master, when I sent someone to notify the eight master craftsmen, one of them was no longer at the headquarters."

"Who?!" Song Mingzhe asked immediately.

"The guest from the south wind - Xu Lang." The young man immediately replied: "The people sent said that they asked the person who served Xu Lang, and he suddenly left fifteen minutes ago in a hurry. The tea in his workshop was still hot..."

"This is alarming." Song Mingzhe did not show any panic, and immediately ordered: "Notify the other seven master craftsmen to track Xu Lang with all their strength. If he resists, kill him on the spot. Also, call the fifty third-rank masters to follow behind and observe the situation. I will wait for news here."

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, the young man immediately turned and left.

Song Mingzhe put his hands behind his back, walked to the window again, frowned and thought.

In the tea room, there was silence. Ren Ye and Yin Hu, who were sitting on the bench, did not dare to say anything. They just waited with Song Mingzhe.

Time passed by minute by minute, and in the blink of an eye it was already past nine o'clock in the evening.

At this moment, Ren Ye and Yin Hu had been sitting here without eating or drinking, waiting for nearly two hours.

"Squeak!"

Just when Yin Hu was getting a little impatient, the door was suddenly pushed open, and seven people walked in, full of blood.

Ren Ye recognized them at a glance. They were the seven master craftsmen he had seen before. The leader was wearing a Taoist robe and seemed to be called Taoist Jiang.

There were spots of blood on his clothes, and his hair was a little messy.

"How about it?!"

Song Mingzhe looked at the seven people and asked.

"...!"

Taoist Jiang clasped his fists and said softly, "We tracked down Xu Lang at the Nanhe Bridge. He was trying to cross Jingming Lake to escape from here... The seven of us and dozens of third-grade magical masters besieged him and eventually killed him on the inside of the bridge."

"And then?" Song Mingzhe looked at him and asked again, "What is the purpose of Xu Lang's fall?!"

"I used the soul-questioning secret method to find out that Xu Lang is the bald law enforcer's accomplice." Taoist Jiang said word by word, "The law enforcer is quite interested in the inheritance of the high-level magical powers of my craftsman department. His task in the next eight days is to get the two craftsmanship books that you spent half your life and painstakingly wrote before the law enforcer launches a general attack, so as to fill the scarce gaps in the craftsmanship books for the law enforcer. If possible, he will also kill the seven of us one by one and plunder our accumulation over the years..."

After the words fell, Song Mingzhe and Ren Ye were both stunned.

At this moment, Ren also felt that he had grasped something extremely important.

He whispered softly, "Among the eight master craftsmen, there must be one who is a traitor. He has another eight-day mission, which is to get Song Mingzhe's two craftsmanship books and wait for an opportunity to kill the other seven and plunder their accumulation..."

"Heh, this plot is so familiar! Is this a hint from the Heaven?!"