"Delivered yesterday?" Jin You's lips twitched.

Seeing that the other person nodded again, she immediately asked him when it was shipped, where it was delivered, and who it was given to.

The middle-aged boatman answered each question clearly, though his voice was muffled and his breathing was labored.

A moment later, the team voice chat said again: "I scanned the whole thing, there are no cats in the boat."

Jin You sighed and replied, "The information was wrong. That spirit cat was transported to the underground arena of the Living Kill Hall yesterday... It's uncertain whether it's alive or dead now, and the client wants it alive."

"Then... what should we do?"

"This is that bald monk's problem. The intelligence he obtained was flawed. If he wants us to continue the operation, he should offer us more money." Jin You reached for his chest, only to find nothing. He clicked his tongue in frustration. "You contact him. I'll clean up the scene."

After she finished speaking, she took the captured broadsword and cleaved open the spirit bodies of each fallen enemy, and then obtained two second-tier crystal cores and two first-tier crystal cores.

After a while, a conversation took place on the other end of the long whip, followed by a voice message:

"That monk wants us to go back to the arena to work, and he's offering us five thousand more. Shall we do it?"

"Make him raise it to six thousand." Jin You took a box of tobacco without any other impurities from a henchman, lit it in his hand, and put it to his lips.

A moment later, a hesitant voice of agreement came through the audio.

The gray-haired girl, covered in blood, nodded, stubbed out the cigarette she had just taken a half-puff of, clapped her hands, and left the place.

……

Volume 1: Chapter 264, Black and White Clearly Defined

Xiping City, Wuxu District.

When Jin You disembarked from the rented unmanned speedboat, his entire equipment had been replenished.

Previously, after reaching an agreement with the old monk to continue the mission, she had him pay a deposit of two thousand yuan and bought several more fire magic talismans and pills from a roadside vending machine.

If you want to do things in a confined space, this kind of equipment that can make a lot of noise is indispensable.

The three single-shot aircraft were hung back on his waist, and a broadsword was slung behind his back.

The team stepped out of the rented boat, and the target location was already in sight.

Ahead lay a long street with a chaotic security situation. Numerous shop signs painted in vibrant colors by illustrious artists were densely packed on both sides of the street, standing out brightly against the overcast sky.

The damp stone pavement was covered in mud and grime, leaving a noticeable mark as the girl's boots stepped over it.

The most eye-catching shop is the Blood Bar, which has two majestic stone lions carved in front of the door and a signboard painted with various ferocious animals.

"How do we do it?" Changbian clearly didn't have much experience working in such a busy street and indoor space.

"Try to infiltrate, find the leader of this place, capture him, and use his life to exchange for the cat." Jin You adjusted her mask and said softly:

“You guys keep watch and provide support outside, I’ll infiltrate alone… Array Master, try to hack into the spiritual eyes of this place, but don’t let them spot me.”

"...I can't guarantee it, I can only try," the short array master said hesitantly.

"Then I'll try my best." Jin You said, and walked forward.

Xi Heng's illusory figure leaned against the tavern door, raised his eyes and said, "There are several guys in here who are no weaker than that guy with the hoe. It's not a good idea to just barge in."

“…I know,” Jin You whispered. “I want to ask you for help.”

"Me?" Xi Heng pointed to himself and tilted his head.

"You want to use my body? That will bring your consciousness closer to mine and wear it down even faster."

She curled the corners of her lips into a smile: "You might have lived for two years originally, but if I were to constantly occupy your body, you might not even last two months."

“That’s not what I meant.” The gray-haired girl shook her head. “As a cultivator, you should possess a vast spiritual consciousness—I need to borrow that.”

"Gathering intelligence, huh?" Xi Heng clicked his tongue. "I'm not really interested."

"If I die here, it won't be good for either of us."

"No, maybe I can take over this body after you die." The eerie woman with white hair and red eyes shook a finger.

"..." Jin You was silent for a moment, then put forward another condition: "Basic books on array formation are cheap, but advanced knowledge is getting more and more expensive. I can use one-third of the reward for this commission to buy you program building and advanced materials."

"Deal." Xi Heng snapped his fingers, producing a crisp sound.

Immediately afterwards, she expanded her spiritual sense, scanning all the figures on and under the floor of the bar in front of her.

"There are several hundred people inside, mostly spectators from the underground arena, and more than twenty armed patrolmen, but most of them are near the underground arena, while the bar above is less guarded."

She tried to transmit the information about the target's location directly, but she always felt that there was a barrier blocking the communication through spiritual senses, so she had to continue to use the outdated method of language to transmit information.

"In addition, quite a few henchmen dressed as members of the Living Killing Hall were also gambling in the audience seats; each group had about twenty men." Xi Heng continued to scan the area.

"The territorial leader you're looking for should be in the middle box at the top of the arena. He has a bodyguard next to him whose upper body has been completely modified, and he doesn't look any weaker than the guy you just killed."

"Most of the other rooms are empty, and those that are there are people whose appearance has nothing to do with the Hall of Living Slaughter."

"How is the leader's transformation going?" Jin You asked.

"He was an extremely fat man, his right arm replaced by a golden hand, and there were floating patterns on the surface of his gold-rimmed glasses. He seemed quite special." Xi Heng closed his eyes and looked at him for a while longer.

"A formation master... does he have a specially designed exposed socket on his shoulder?"

"No."

"They're probably technical array masters who do modifications; their combat strength won't be very high."

Just as she was making plans, a voice came through the team's communication: "We've obtained the Spirit Eye authorization, but it can only rotate the field of vision, not directly conceal your figure. You still need to be careful to find blind spots while moving around."

"Send me the location of the Spirit Eye and the scanned image," Jin You replied, opening his portable map. A moment later, many red dots and lines appeared on the map.

The red lines form a three-dimensional image, which is drawn as an architectural model in front of her, with each road clearly visible.

Xi Heng approached and pointed out several positions of the enemy guards with his finger.

The other party memorized these locations and then asked, "Can the ventilation ducts be used?"

"It's too cramped; it can probably only fit one head in," Xi Heng said.

After nodding and looking at the whole map, Jin You planned her route and went into the bar.

Although the Living Killing Hall gang is known for its brutality, they have managed to keep their bar business quite well-organized.

Behind the solid wood semi-circular counter, a dazzling array of transparent bottles of liquor were displayed. Although most of them were rotten stuff made of alcohol and impure water, at least they looked bright on the surface.

"What would you like?" A slightly overweight man wearing a wooden hat swung his long prosthetic fingers across the various wine glasses.

"The specialty of the Living Kill Hall." Jin You tapped the counter three times with his fingers.

The bartender said "okay," picked up the glass, squatted down, and squeezed out a stream of blood from something behind the counter.

Then, he turned around, took a bottle of pale yellow, cheap liquor from behind, poured it in, added some expired flavor powder, shook it a few times, and mixed it up.

Strange bubbles floated on the surface, and a mixed and peculiar smell wafted into the nose when it was picked up.

Jin You took it, tilted his head back and drank it down in one gulp, suppressing the instinct to cough in his throat, letting the burning sensation slide from his throat to his stomach, before frowning and finishing it.

"Twenty-three." The man at the counter nodded as he saw her finish the drink in one gulp.

"Damn, this thing is going up in price." Jin You glanced at the twenty-three.

"Everything's gone up in price lately," the bartender said casually, then pointed with his thumb to the curtain behind him made of countless metal sheets.

"Let's go in. There's a great project downstairs today, and I'm tempted to go check it out."

"Project?" Jin You replied.

"Do you know about spirit beasts? The boss recently got a spirit cat that only has fur, and he's going to have it fight against thirty-odd ordinary bald cats." The other person chuckled, "That spirit cat has shiny black fur all over its body, it's damn good-looking."

"..." The girl coughed lightly, then asked, "When does it start?"

"Almost there, we'll finish this one soon." The bartender glanced at the time and took the empty glass to wipe it clean.

Jin You said no more and quickly went behind the curtain.

Two guards stood behind the curtain and told her to put down her weapon.

However, the two men were clearly not working diligently. Jin You simply placed the large sword on the table behind his back and was then allowed to enter.

"Walk along the left side of the wall."

The voice of the Black Array Master came through the team's voice chat, and the monitoring spirit eye next to them turned to the right.

There were no guards patrolling the underground corridors and stairwells; apart from the spirit eyes, there were only lights and emptiness.

Jin You wandered around like in a maze, and soon found her way into an employee area with signs that said "No Outsiders Allowed".

Several unarmed figures were in the main hall, manipulating the array patterns on the tabletop.

Several images drawn with light shone on the wall covered with projection screen, observing the center of the arena from various angles. Two cameras were constantly moving and zooming in and out, focusing on the two figures locked in combat.

"What is this for?" Xi Heng glanced at it a few more times.

"Live broadcast." Jin You answered in her mind, her steps steady and light as she swept across the area without making a sound.

"There's also a live stream..."

"Of course, a mere few hundred spectators on site aren't enough for the Killing Gang to make money; the tens of thousands of people on the wide-area network are their real source of income." Jin You finished reading this briefly and had already walked around to another corridor.

Glass windows line both sides of the road, and in the distance, you can see two broad and burly figures wrestling and colliding with each other in the center of a wide, funnel-shaped underground arena.

Their eyes blazed with fury as they desperately tore pieces of each other's flesh with their sharp, piercing bodies and mouths, blood splattering everywhere.

The intense and rousing commentary continued to fill the air, while the bloodthirsty audience cheered wildly.

During the scuffle, one of the players' eyeballs was gouged out and thrown to the side, causing the spectators on that side to frantically scramble for it.

A thin, pale figure snatched the eyeball, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it several times, and swallowed the bursting eyeball, shouting that it was delicious.

"...Are these still human?" Xi Heng asked, gazing into the distance.

"Most of them have eaten elixirs that have damaged their brains, making them no different from madmen."

Jin You found the location of the ventilation duct and stuck a fire talisman on it.

"Besides, meat is indeed a rare commodity. Many people have never eaten meat other than rats or cockroaches in their lives, so eating human flesh is something to be excited about."

While lying in wait, she paused for a moment as instructed by Xi Heng, waiting for the members of the Living Kill Hall who were patrolling ahead to go around before quickly emerging and silently passing through a dangerous area.

The surrounding surveillance cameras were constantly being redirected, but they were unable to capture her image at all.

As they approached the top floor, a guard who had already walked away seemed to sense something, and moved back to the corner where she was hiding.

Jin You immediately detonated the fire talisman he had previously placed, blasting apart a large section of ventilation ducts and causing the guards in front to turn around alertly.

Before long, no one blocked her way, and she smoothly arrived at the top-floor private room.

"The guards are still inside. Should we launch a full-scale attack?" Xi Heng reminded him.

Jin You was still brainstorming ideas when she suddenly heard the referee in the arena below announce the winner and the commentary begin the post-match evaluation and advertising segment.

Before long, the commentator began introducing the next match:

"The guys sitting in the stands, the regular customers watching on the network, you've probably all heard of spirit beasts, right? But very few have actually seen one. Today, the shop owner got us a spirit beast, a spirit cat! This little guy is different from those bald, ugly cats on the street, it has blue eyes and black fur..."

As the sound system blared loudly, the audience erupted in cheers and shouts that drowned out the whistling wind coming from the ventilation ducts.

"Time is running out, let's get started." Jin You pursed his lips, pulled three flying instruments from his waist through the gaps in his right fingers, and held three spirit-breaking golden needles in his left arm.

She glanced at the doorway before her, then raised her silver-gray left arm, aiming at it.

Immediately afterwards, a module suddenly rose up from the middle of the arm with a bang.

A bolt of lightning pierced the sky, penetrating straight through the thick wooden door and exploding into a dense gray mist.

"Who's there!" came a shout from inside.

The next instant, three flying instruments pierced through the open hole in the wooden door, and after a brief flight, emitted two hissing sounds.

Jin You stepped forward and kicked open the door, throwing out the golden needle in his hand, ignoring the mist and stabbing straight at the location of Xi Heng's illusory figure.

The Spirit-Piercing Golden Needle pierced through the white-haired girl's phantom image and pinned her to the burly figure of the Living Kill Gang elite in the mist behind her.

The person's spirit was paralyzed by the golden needles, yet he still ran and pounced in the direction of the attack.

Jin Youchao tried his best to dodge, barely avoiding the attack that resembled a ferocious beast's pursuit, and quickly approached the other figure sitting in the main seat.

"Lean back and get out of the way," Xi Heng said from the side.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a heavy, golden fist broke through the thick fog and came hurtling towards him.

The girl obeyed the order and dodged the attack, then quickly conjured a single-shot projectile, which pierced the bones of the nearest enemy's right arm.

Card--

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