Hunter of Mysterious Creature

"Oh? Is this guy famous in the West?"

"Not exactly famous, but his name can be found on the wanted lists of every European country... Oh right, his real name isn't Val Juedra, but Lugus Juedra. He isn't a Frenchman either; he's from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, from the Hezhong States."

"I'm curious about what he did in Europe to be wanted by all these countries," Sun Hang asked.

"This guy does have some skills. He went to the Vatican and robbed the church's treasury," Ye Jiu said, "but his luck was bad. When he was driving away from the crime scene, he crashed into a drunk-driving Ferrari. His little van was smashed into a shop front, and he got injured, so he had to abandon the vehicle and flee."

"Wait, the drunk driver did a great deed?"

"Things were indeed abstract. The sheriffs in Sicily initially thought it was just a regular traffic accident, but when they opened the van's compartment, they found it was packed with various treasures—it was only then that the Vatican authorities realized the church's treasury had been robbed," Ye Jiu said.

"Even the church is abstract..."

"The affair quickly escalated, and Juedra had to flee Sicily under a false identity... Meanwhile, the Vatican dispatched people to reclaim the stolen items and released a list of the stolen treasures to the public, declaring that all stolen treasures, including the national treasure 'Sacred Artifact Box', have been recovered and safely stored in the new vault at St. Peter's Cathedral."

"I have a feeling this matter isn't over," Sun Hang said.

"Exactly. Although the Vatican claims that all stolen items have been recovered, the bounty on Juedra keeps increasing, and European countries are mobilizing significant resources to search for him... It's as if he didn't just rob the church's treasury, but assassinated the current Pope."

"This implies that not all the stolen items were recovered, and for some reason, the unrecovered items cannot be disclosed to the public... Pfft, don't tell me that red crystal he stole from the Vatican's treasury?"

"No one knows exactly what he took from the Vatican... Although we speculate that it is most likely that red crystal, without any concrete evidence..." Ye Jiu paused, "The trail of Lugus Juedra ends here; after that car accident, no one in Europe has seen his presence again... If it weren't for the photos on the wanted poster being very similar to Val Juedra, the ages, disappearance, and appearance times matching up, we wouldn't be able to connect the two."

"So did he flee to Xiazhou after being wanted by European countries?"

"He didn't immediately escape to Xiazhou; there was a blank period of about nine months where his whereabouts couldn't be traced at all. It was only in the ninth month after the car accident that the French missionary 'Val Juedra' entered the country from Nepal and began his missionary activities within the Xiazhou Federation."

"So how did he collude with Shang Dalin?"

"I don't know," Ye Jiu shrugged frankly, "Val Juedra stayed in various places across the Xiazhou Federation for a while. It was in his fifth year that he went to Chang'an City and registered a shell company with Shang Dalin within the same month."

"So, was there no mention of how the red crystal came to be?"

"Don't rush," Ye Jiu chuckled, "The materials provided by Mr. Du indeed didn't mention the subsequent whereabouts of Val Juedra, Shang Dalin, and others, or the secrets within Phoenix Factory..."

"Don't tease me; I know some of the rescued inmates from the underground palace have already regained their sanity," Sun Hang kicked at Ye Jiu, "What did they say?"

"I told you not to rush, so why are you using force?" Ye Jiu dodged Sun Hang's attack with a flash and continued, "The first to regain sanity was the one hit by the bed crossbow; her real name is Shang Hongxiu, and she's Shang Dalin's sister... uh, and also his wife."

"...What kind of incest plot is this?"

"Or, in Shang Dalin's own words, Shang Hongxiu is one of his many imperial consorts..."

"Imperial consort? This guy is really dreaming of being an emperor... What about the other inmates? Don't tell me the people we rescued make up his entire harem?" Sun Hang's mouth twitched involuntarily.

Actually, he pretty much already had the answer in his heart.

"Haha, congratulations, you guessed it!" Ye Jiu patted the stack of files, "Including Shang Hongxiu, all sixteen inmates are women, and they're all Shang Dalin's 'imperial consorts'!"

"Since she's both Shang Dalin's sister and his woman, this Shang Hongxiu must know a lot of things, right?"

"Yeah." Ye Jiu nodded, "But Shang Hongxiu isn't Shang Dalin's biological sister; she's his distant cousin, and she's not from Chang'an but a native of the Tianfu area. After Shang Dalin and Juedra left Chang'an City, they came to Tianfu City... As Shang Dalin's distant cousin, Shang Hongxiu actually didn't know Shang Dalin's real occupation; she only knew that her cousin was doing business in Chang'an, and having Juedra accompany Shang Dalin to Shuzhou confirmed the 'foreign trade' story."

"Go on."

"Shang Dalin told Shang Hongxiu he came to Tianfu City to inspect investment projects, but due to urgency, he couldn't book a hotel and wanted to stay at her place... Shang Hongxiu naturally agreed, but she never expected that this beast would covet her beauty and forcibly assault her the same night he moved in."

"What a beast indeed."

"Shang Hongxiu said that during that period, Shang Dalin kept her tied up in the bedroom and would leave early and return late with Juedra, seemingly plotting something major... But one night, after the two came home, a sudden argument broke out, and Juedra picked up a fruit knife from the coffee table and stabbed at Shang Dalin, but Shang Dalin's physique was much better than Juedra's weak frame. He easily dodged Juedra's attack and smashed a vase over Juedra's head."

"Internal conflict?"

"That's what the person taking the notes asked, but Shang Hongxiu said she also didn't know why they started arguing. After Juedra was knocked unconscious by the vase, Shang Dalin picked up the fruit knife from the ground and stabbed Juedra over and over again... Shang Hongxiu said she was almost scared stiff at the time, thinking that after killing Juedra, Shang Dalin would kill her next; she didn't pay attention at all to what they were arguing about..."

"It's a pity; that intelligence was quite important... So, what happened next? After killing someone, Shang Dalin wouldn't continue living at Shang Hongxiu's place, right?"

"According to Shang Hongxiu, after disposing of Juedra's body, Shang Dalin took her to the underground palace and told her that the Vatican's Pope was a counterfeit and he was the real Pope... In the subsequent period, Juedra would occasionally bring women into the underground palace... Like Shang Hongxiu, these women were also his 'imperial consorts.' Among them, some were forced by Shang Dalin, and some were utterly devoted to him, even helping Shang Dalin monitor the other 'imperial consorts'..."