Chapter 4400 — The Informer

In ordinary times, as the man in charge of this region, he would actually have had a fighting chance to pull the wool over their eyes. Unfortunately for him, the mysterious figure standing beside the woman was the organization's second-in-command on Cloud Terrace Island, and he had just happened to be in these waters carrying out a mission!

"You blithering idiot!" The woman swung her leg up and planted her foot squarely in Wang Dayuan's face, sending him flying. She was furious. Better a godlike enemy than a pig-brained subordinate—and Wang Dayuan was exactly that, an absolute pig of a man!

"Miss Luan, shall I clean house?" the mysterious man said evenly, his voice cold, killing intent rolling off him in waves.

Oh, hell! Wang Dayuan, sent sprawling by the kick, was terrified out of his wits—and Ma Tianlang, still kneeling in the room, was scared half to death, staring at the mysterious figure shrouded beneath the black cloak and bamboo hat until his eyes nearly bled. These people were dead serious!

The woman's gaze settled on the two of them, and she seemed to be of the same mind. Losing two Xuan Ascension experts was a crippling blow to any other power, but for their organization, it was nowhere near that grave.

If the woman so much as nodded, Wang Dayuan and Ma Tianlang would lose their heads on the spot. For all that they were Xuan Ascension experts, before this powerful organization, under the very nose of this mysterious man, they had no chance at all of slipping away—otherwise, this man would never have become the organization's number two on Cloud Terrace Island.

"W-wait! There's one more—still alive, never sent to the experiments!" Ma Tianlang suddenly blurted out, seizing on a flash of inspiration.

"Is that so?" The woman's face showed a flicker of doubt. Even Wang Dayuan, terrified as he was, felt a private jolt of astonishment; he assumed Ma Tianlang had simply made it up on the spot to save his skin, since he himself had not been in the Moleng Sea area when it happened. The one who had been calling the shots was his deputy, Ma Tianlang, and no one knew the details better than he did.

"It's—it's true! Among the people brought back, there's one at the Nascent Soul stage. He was no use for the human experiments, so he should still be locked up to this day," Ma Tianlang said hastily.

"Yes, yes, there is one—we've had that Nascent Soul fellow locked away for ages," Wang Dayuan chimed in, finally catching on, nodding frantically along.

"Then what are you waiting for? Bring him here! Do you two actually want to die? Can't you see Miss Luan is already furious?" The mysterious man beside the woman gave a cold snort.

"Yes, yes!" Wang Dayuan and Ma Tianlang dared not dawdle. Clutching at this last straw, they scrambled and stumbled out the door to fetch the man.

A short while later, the Nascent Soul expert they had spoken of was dragged in, his face a mask of terror—and who should it be but Sun Hengbiao!

As a Nascent Soul expert, he had in fact stood a far better chance of escaping than the Golden Core cultivators. Unfortunately, Wei Zhao had beaten him half to death earlier, leaving his strength severely diminished. He simply could not run fast, and on top of that he was a conspicuous target and rotten with bad luck—the very first guard to come racing back had marked him.

Hauled along by Wang Dayuan and Ma Tianlang, he stumbled into the room. After a furtive glance at the woman and the mysterious man, Sun Hengbiao dropped to his knees of his own accord with a thud. He was no fool; he knew one could throw one's weight around before ordinary folk, but before these people, the slightest hint of defiance was nothing but a death wish.

"Talk," the woman said, her tone unreadable. "How exactly was the dungeon breached?"

"Oh." Sun Hengbiao shrank back and answered warily: "The one who did it was a martial artist newly thrown in. I don't know his exact level, but he was certainly very strong—I'm mid Nascent Soul and no match for him at all. There was a bit of friction at the start, and he flattened me in a single exchange."

"Get to the point," the woman said with a slight frown. All she wanted to know was who had caused her such a massive headache; the petty grudges of a nobody like Sun Hengbiao were the last thing she cared about.

"Yes, yes. At first the man just sat there quietly meditating, but after two guards came and took someone away—he must have made sure there was no one outside the door—he suddenly told us all to get behind him, and then he unleashed an utterly horrifying technique from his hands. I swear I've never seen such a bizarre martial art in my life, and the destructive force was the most terrifying I've ever witnessed. After that, a massive explosion tore through the dungeon, and then it collapsed," Sun Hengbiao recounted, not daring to conceal the slightest thing before these people.

"Oh? You're saying this man unleashed a highly destructive technique, and just by channeling it out of thin air with his hands, he caused a massive explosion?" The woman could not help but start slightly.

"Yes, the feeling was very strange—as if he'd been building it up for a long time, and then it just burst out all at once. I've never seen a martial art like it," Sun Hengbiao said, himself utterly baffled.

He was, after all, a mid Nascent Soul expert and had that much discernment at least: he could tell this was surely a technique Wei Zhao had honed in secret, not something conjured on the spot—otherwise, if a man could casually produce such power, he would be the equal of a Xuan Ascension titan, and how could he ever have been captured in the first place?

At this, the woman turned and exchanged a look with the mysterious man. A flicker of astonishment was plain in both their eyes—clearly they had found something, and just as clearly they had their suspicions.

"Tell us everything you know about this man—what he looks like, any details that struck you. Conceal the slightest thing, and you know what will happen to you," the woman pressed on.

"Yes, yes, I wouldn't dare hide a thing." Sun Hengbiao swore hastily, then thought hard and said: "As for his looks—beyond his strength and a face like a crude, blustering brute, there's nothing else I can point to. But there was something odd about the way his manner and his appearance didn't quite match up."

"You mean his bearing didn't match his face?" The woman nodded thoughtfully, her expression unfathomable. "Go on."

"Oh, right—there's one more strange thing about him. He seemed to look after one particular person. They never exchanged any special words, but the favoritism was plain as day." Sun Hengbiao suddenly clapped a hand to his head. "Whether on purpose or not, he deliberately sat next to the fellow named Lu. Earlier, when the guards came in to take people, by the rules it should have been the Lu fellow's turn, but the man glared at me and forced me to call out someone else's name instead!" (To be continued...)