"There's no need to hide it anymore," said Tang Xiu with a sneer. "The Dark Shaman clan used to be magnificent, but there's no need to hide in a rat nest now, is there? Tell those people inside to get out, else don't blame me for resorting to slaughter!"

The stalwart man frowned and turned to speak to a middle-aged man behind him. As the latter quickly ran inside, he turned around again and said indifferently, "I don't know what you mean, but this place is where we in the farming district do our business and not someplace you can make trouble with!"

"Hmph…" Tang Xiu snorted and beckoned to Mo Awu and the rest who then spread out quickly to surround the entire farmhouse. He didn't hurry to move but quietly waited.

A few minutes later, the middle-aged man who just left, ran back from the inside with a fl.u.s.tered expression and quickly came to the stalwart man and said, "Big Brother, there's n.o.body inside."

"What?" the stalwart man blanked out and looked in disbelief as he quickly said, "n.o.body is inside you said? What about our Boss and those guests?"

"I dunno. But there's n.o.body there really." The middle-aged man shook his head.

Tang Xiu, who stood nearby, had a change in complexion as he shouted in a heavy voice, "Capture them all."

A few lightning fast shadows quickly hurled forward all of a sudden. They were extremely fast and their actions were very aggressive. In just ten seconds or so, dozens of big men were all knocked down to the ground, some of whom who tried to struggle and received broken legs for their efforts instantly.

Tang Xiu's complexion was grim as he unleashed his perception to cover the entirety of the farmhouse in an instant. What made him angry was that there indeed was n.o.body else in the entire place.

"Hu Zhiwu!"

With an incredulous expression in his eyes, Hu Zhiwu quickly ran to Tang Xiu's front and asked, "An order for me, Boss?"

"Where are they? Did you really keep an eye on the people I told you to monitor?" asked Tang Xiu aloud with a grim expression.

"They're definitely inside, Boss," said Hu Zhiwu hurriedly. "I can guarantee none have left since we came here."

A Jin, who came over, quickly added, "Captain Hu is telling the truth, Boss. We have the farmhouse already surrounded and not a single path was missed. They can never escape our eyes, even if they can fly away."

Tang Xiu frowned. Given the report of these two men, those people were still inside the farmhouse? Yet, he had scoured it with his spiritual sense. Apart from these big men they had beaten and had stopped resisting, there was n.o.body else, not even a trace of their shadows. Could it be… this farmhouse had a secret, hidden room?

As he came to this conjecture, Tang Xiu released his perception again to carefully scour every nook and cranny in each room. Finally, he discovered there was something amiss with the pile of rubble in a sundries room that gave off a bad feeling when his spiritual sense probed it.

A moment later, Tang Xiu appeared in the sundries room. His fist swiftly punched forward and instantly created a hole on the wall.

"It's empty. There's a rope here though, Boss." Mo Awu went ahead to probe and observe for a moment before he turned back and quickly reported.

Tang Xiu nodded slightly and punched the hole to make it bigger until he could drill through it. He then grabbed the rope and went down fast as he quickly traversed forward in the underground pa.s.sage. He kept scanning the place with his spiritual sense and didn't find any danger inside.

"Reflected light? This isn't a secret room… that's right… this is an underground pa.s.sage then?

"Did these Dark Shaman clansmen leave through this underground pa.s.sage? If so, it's no wonder Hu Zhiwu and his men were unable to notice their escape in time. However, this place is just a small farmhouse, though. How can there be underground pa.s.sage here? Is this the secret base of the Dark Shaman family?"

Drilled-out hole?

Tang Xiu looked at the dark underground river in front. The s.p.a.ce was quite large while the river wasn't too wide. Yet, the water current was simply a rapid. He could faintly see the starlight up there through the hole in the soil.

"Boss, there's an exit ahead and this underground river is rather short, about a kilometer long. It is connected to the entrance of the large river outside," Mo Awu went ahead and made a quick report.

Behind Tang Xiu was Hu Zhiwu who looked bitter now. Never once had he imagined that this small farmhouse had such hidden pa.s.sage underground. He thought those people could never escape, but he never expected that they would escape under cover and had long slipped away.

"This is all my mistakes, Boss."

Hu Zhiwu felt very vexed inside. It was the first mission the Boss a.s.signed him, yet he screwed things up eventually.

"It's not your fault; I can't blame you with this." Tang Xiu shook his head and said, "n.o.body expected that there was an underground pa.s.sage here. I might be unable to see anyone either had it been me on the watch. Don't blame yourself. We can still drag them out if they're still in Macao, though. Let's go! I need you to arrange accommodation for us and dismiss our men."

"Understood!"

Yet, the vexed and guilty feeling grew more inside Hu Zhiwu's heart. At this point, he might actually feel better if Tang Xiu were to blame and even punish him.

Early in the next morning, Tang Xiu woke up from his sleep and looked at the time. It was already half past seven, so he took a shower. After that, he took his handset to dial his father Tang Yunde's cell number.

"Hey, Xiu'er. Why did you suddenly remember to call me, eh? Is there something up?" Tang Yunde's surprised voice came out of the phone.

"Well, I'm afraid I need help from you to deal with something, Dad." Tang Xiu's replied with a rather strange tone.

"Huh? I also have something I need your help with, Sonny!" Tang Yunde burst into laughter and said, "I didn't expect you to call me for help first, though. Tell me, what problem is it that you can't handle exactly?"

Tang Xiu, however, was startled and asked quizzically, "You have some issues that need my help? What is it?"

"Speak yours first," said Tang Yunde with a smile.

"Well, I'm now in Macao since I gotta track some people," said Tang Xiu. "I recalled you have some acquaintances here, so I need you to contact him to provide some a.s.sistance to us in Macao."

"You're in Macao?" Tang Yunde was surprised and asked again, "Where?"

"The Sheraton Hotel," answered Tang Xiu.

Tang Yunde was silent for a moment before he said again, "Tell me your room number."

Tang Xiu didn't understand why his father asked him his room number, but he quickly told him nonetheless, and then… his father finally hung up the call.

'What's exactly going on with him?'

Tang Xiu blanked out for a while and just looked at the screen of his phone and didn't even respond for a long time.

After a few minutes pa.s.sed by, a knock was heard at the door.

Tang Xiu was in the hall, looking indecisive about whether he needed to make a phone call again. He looked up at the door and motioned for Mo Awu to open it. To his surprise, once Mo Awu opened the door, the one who was coming inside was unexpectedly his father, Tang Yunde.

"Dad… why are you here?" asked Tang Xiu incredulously.

"Didn't I tell you that on the phone just now, did I?" Tang Yunde chuckled and said, "I got some trivial things I need your help with in Macao, but I never thought that you would have come over here either, though. Alright then. Who are those you want to track and what's their background?"

"I have yet to fully grasp their real ident.i.ty, but they should be from Thailand, the Dark Shaman clan," said Tang Xiu. "That's right, my men have captured his photo last night and it will soon be sent to me."

"Then finding them won't be a problem as long you got some of their photos." Tang Yunde nodded.

"These people are not some ordinary laymen, Dad. I know this Dark Shaman clan. They are a very mysterious lineage of witchcraft heritage and are a very special kind of people," said Tang Xiu cautiously. "If you are to ask some others to look for those people, you must warn them not to alert those people and catch their attention as they could kill them easily if they begin to act."

"How did you provoke such people, Xiu'er?" asked Tang Yunde with a frown.

"It's the other way around. They were the one who provoked me," said Tang Xiu. "You should have heard about the treasure hunt that will be paid with an astronomical price in our country, right?

"Yeah, I heard of it." Tang Yunde nodded and said, "I dunno which family's wastrel it is who must find the whole set of those zodiac jade carvings, though. To think that he burns 100 million US dollars just for each piece of jade carving. If he were to find all of the ten jade carvings, it would be a billion USD! Even if he does have the money, he shouldn't have burned it like that…"

Suddenly, his soliloquy came to an abrupt end when he realized how awkward his son's expression s.h.i.+fted to all of a sudden. With a disbelief a.s.surgent in his heart, he asked, "X-Xiu'er… you couldn't be that wastrel black sheep, right?"

Cough, cough…

Tang Xiu nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood and let out a hollow, dry smile, "Well, I'm that black sheep wastrel, Dad…"

Tang Yunde was utterly dumbfounded. He never thought that the black sheep that had caused such a big disturbance turned out to be his treasured son.

This was…

Along with a dry smile, Tang Xiu continued, "There's actually a very important reason for me to spend such a large sum of money to find the zodiac jade carvings, Dad. You also know that I'm a cultivator. The zodiac jade carvings are top treasures in my eyes due to them being related to the huge future plan I've made. They also have an enormous boost to my cultivation. To us, as cultivators, what we desire the most is to always to s.n.a.t.c.h the fate of becoming immortals, and the whole set of zodiac jade carvings is exactly the opportunity for me to obtain that fate."

Tang Yunde felt relieved after hearing the explanation from his son. Yet, as a father, he didn't want to lose face in front of him either and hurriedly s.h.i.+fted the topic and said, "Let's just forget it and leave this topic, shall we. I knew about your matter and business, though. If anything, I'll arrange everything whenever you got the photos later. But you gotta be careful in dealing with my issue here too, Sonny! It's regarding my business here that always pays me hundreds of million yuan annually in dividends."

"Please tell me about it, Dad," said Tang Xiu with a serious face.

Tang Yunde thought for a while before he suddenly said, "Bah, just forget it! I'll solve it myself. If I can't solve it, then I'll find you to deal with the problem. Your issue is extremely important, so we'll deal with it first."

"Alright then!" Tang Xiu nodded and said, "I won't hurry to ask you since you don't wanna tell me now. The jade rat is really important to me and I must find it no matter how difficult it is, regardless of price. But you can tell me about your problem at any time too if you need me."