Astute brilliance flickered in Tang Xiu's eyes as he said again, "The second one is to prepare for the other eventuality—track the source of his phone call. Be sure to find his position while I go ask someone to help to investigate it as well. I hope our men can find him first if he's on the mainland."

"Got it!" Hao Lei directly hung up after replying briefly.

Although Tang Xiu sat calmly at the dining table, deadly intent was a.s.surgent inside his heart. He never liked being coerced or played. The other party was too greedy, and he had secretly made up his mind to make him absolutely regret what he did if he could find him.

"Is this all necessary for the zodiac carvings, though?" asked Mu Wanying curiously after putting down her chopsticks.

Tang Xiu nodded, "Yeah, we already have a lead on the jade rat, but the owner is too greedy, raising the price again and again and simply broke my bottom line."

Mu Wanying nodded without speaking anything. She knew that Tang Xiu was someone who was easy to speak with. He would never be so angry if the other party was not that excessive.

Beijing.

It was a city cast by reinforced concrete, showing a scene of its prosperousness. Located outside the Southern Fifth Ring Road was a very special and heavily guarded residential complex with four patrol teams on guard 24 hours a day, as well as various surveillance equipment to monitor every part of the neighborhood, creating a three-dimensional surveillance network.

The center of the block was surrounded by a nearly three meters high wall with only a small three-story building that looked very ordinary. For outsiders, this small building was the complex's Property Management Office, but to the families of the Special Ability Bureau's ability users, this small building was a mysterious place only those Elementalists could enter.

Four floors underground.

Aquababe was fiddling with a satellite phone while pacing back and forth outside the training room. She had just pressed the doorbell, yet there was no response. Duanmu Lin was currently training inside and he hadn't even come out.

"Hey, Aquababe, what are you doing here?"

Electrolady leisurely strolled in while carrying a cup of green tea. Her face, however, was rather pale and her black training suit was drenched with her sweat, making it literally being pasted on her body, revealing her hot, alluring stature to the fullest.

"Tang Xiu just called and asked the Chief for something," answered Aquababe with a wry smile. "I just pressed the doorbell, but there's no response,"

"Girl, don't tell me you forget that he likes to wear a headset while training, eh?" Electrolady smiled and said, "Anyway, if you wanna let him know that you're looking for him, you gotta press the bell uninterruptedly. Besides, he'll take off the headset every ten minutes or so."

Aquababe blanked out for a moment and hastily nodded.

At last, the heavy metal door slowly opened and the heavily sweating Duanmu Lin wiped his wet hair with a white towel and asked, "What is it?"

Aquababe hurriedly handed over the satellite phone and said, "Tang Xiu just called. He wants to speak with you, Chief. He said there's an important thing he needs your help with."

Tang Xiu?

Duanmu Lin grabbed the phone and saw a number on the screen. He called it back and waited for a few seconds before his called got picked up. Then he spoke, "Are you looking for me, Tang Xiu?"

"Elder Duanmu, there's something I need your help with."

"Tell me!"

Duanmu Lin's expression turned strange the more the conversation went on. Then he interjected, "It turns out that the Big Boss behind the Grand Fortune Jewelry is you, and also the culprit who created a babel of criticism and sensation with the billions of US dollars for treasure hunts recently, huh? What exactly are these zodiac jade carvings? Is it really worth your time to spend such a great deal of effort to look for them?"

"Well, the zodiac jade carving has no effect on ordinary people. There aren't any uses for ability users like you either. But for me, it is no small help," explained Tang Xiu. "You must have heard some facts about cultivators, right? The further cultivators like me walk on our cultivation path, the harder it is for us to break through the realm. Therefore, I need the zodiac jade carving for my use. I need to comprehend the profound principles contained within it and strive to break through to the higher realm as soon as possible."

Duanmu instantly caught the gist and nodded, "I did hear about this fact. Alright, I promise you. I'll contact the Head of Intelligence Service immediately. I believe that a person can be found soon as long as he's in our country. But I'll still need to ask permission from the top bra.s.s if he's in any foreign country, though. If they approve, I can use the Skynet Intelligence System overseas."

"Thank you, Senior Duanmu. I'll be waiting for your news," Tang Xiu directly hung up after thanking him.

Duanmu Lin threw the satellite phone back to Aquababe and quickly issued a series of orders.

Macao.

Inside one of the presidential suites on the 24th floor of the Conrad Hotel, five old men in black robes were sitting in a circle while sinister aura came out of their bodies. At the center of the circle was a one-meter diameter round table with a fully red, vivid lifelike jade rat placed on it. The redness of the object was as though a surging flame of magma, emitting out a hazy glow.

On the sofa against the wall not far away from them was a young man with long white hair nesting lazily and shaking a crystal cup of red wine in his hand. There were ten mobile phones on the tea table in front of him, two of which had their batteries and mobile cards removed.

"Young Master, will the other party give us a billion US dollars?"

A pet.i.te yet gorgeous looking woman looking around 27 was neatly dressed and standing behind the white-haired youth. Her eyes glittered with a thoughtful look on her face as she asked in a soft voice.

"This zodiac jade carving contains enormous energy. I thought it was one of a kind in this world, but never did I expect that there were twelve of them," said the white-haired youth smilingly. "It's highly likely the owner behind the Grand Fortune Jewelry has discovered what's contained within these jade carvings; thus, they went so far as to announce such a huge reward to find them. Although I can't tell why he has to find the whole set of these zodiac jade carvings, I'm absolutely sure that it's of great use to this person."

"They can't find them, so now they are doing everything possible to find them and are preparing the funds for us," said the pet.i.te woman softly. "Then, what's your next plan? Are you going to Shanghai now to s.n.a.t.c.h the jade carvings they have obtained?"

The silver-haired youth hooked his fingers at her and the pet.i.te woman immediately walked to him gracefully before she sat beside him and put her head on his thigh. The youth then stroked her long, soft hair, yet his eyes were particularly detached and unconcerned, "Going there now? No hurry. They only have six jade carvings now. I need to wait for them to find more before robbing them."

"But I don't understand why you asked for money from them, though? We are not short on money right now, right?" asked the pet.i.te woman.

"Who says we're not short on money? We are short of cash now," said the youth with a chuckle. "I need to equip that mercenary regiment. I already poured down some initial capital, but if I can make a billion US dollars, then I can solve the financial issues for the time being. Even we can get two water defense guided missiles with it."

Ring, ring, ring…

Suddenly, one of the mobile phones rang.

The silver-haired youth grabbed it and looked at the number shown on the screen. He smiled and picked up and said, "What's up? Have you made up your mind, General Manager Hao?"

"One billion US dollars, but we need some time to prepare it. I'm currently very suspicious that you have no sincerity in cooperating, though," Hao Lei's angry voice came out of the phone.

"I have no sincerity, eh?" The silver-haired youth chuckled and said, "Whether I mean it or not is not your s.h.i.+t to concern yourself about, no? I have the jade rat you want, so you better listen to me, else I'll disappear with it right away and you'll never be able to collect the twelve zodiac jade carvings for the rest of your life. I give you three days of time. If there's no money I can see within this time, I will never contact you again."

"Wait!" Hao Lei called out, "Our Grand Fortune Jewelry is rich, but we just spent quite a lot to purchase two big s.h.i.+pments of jade materials, so we don't have that many funds right now. The three days you just gave is too short; I need some time to find a way to raise the money."

The silver-haired youth was silent for a short while and categorically said, "Five days! I give you two more days; do not bargain with me again. If you don't transfer the down payment into my account within five days, there's no need to have any deal between us anymore."

"Alright!" Hao Lei complied and then said, "But I don't trust your words, so I wanna see that jade rat and whether it is the one we need."

"Relax! I'll naturally satisfy your demand since I want this money," sneered the youth. "Wait for ten minutes, I'll stream the video and show it to you."

"Deal!" Hao Lei finished talking and directly hung up.

Time pa.s.sed by and two days flashed by in the blink of an eye. Tang Xiu was still in Shanghai, and, aside from the news of the jade rat, he didn't receive other news about the remaining five zodiac jade carvings.

He even gave up his immediate plan to leave for Longquan Bay in Kanas for these jade carvings and just waited calmly for any news. He turned down banquet invitations from many people and also put on hold many unimportant issues. He even put his mobile phone away except when Hao Lei was not with him. He kept looking at his mobile phone from time to time, hoping to get the news he wanted quickly.

Ring, ring, ring…

Just as Tang Xiu felt a bit impatient while waiting for the news, he received a call from Duanmu Lin. After pressing the answer b.u.t.ton, he hurriedly asked, "How's the investigation on your part, Senior Duanmu?"

"It's coming from the Conrad Hotel in Macao," said Duanmu Lin. "No other information is gathered yet, but you can expect it to come soon."

Macao?

Tang Xiu abruptly got up and quickly put on his coat to rush to the outside. He had found the hiding place of that person and decided to go there in person. The other issues were not as important as this zodiac jade rat which held much significance.

"Awu, are there any of our men stationed in Macao?" asked Tang Xiu after leaving Bluestar Villa Complex.

"I don't know about that; we'll need to ask Little Boss," answered Mo Awu.