Martial Dao: Peace by Force

Chapter 227: Chapter 164: Intelligence Boost! An Ominous Being Descends

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Wan Ze came out of the basement and sent Zhai Jia a message.

The two brothers arrived one after the other in no time.

Zhai Yu walked in front, his expression normal, though his eyes were watery from trying to stifle a yawn.

Zhai Jia followed behind. The moment he entered, he looked all around. His gaze swept past the direction of the coffin, and he subconsciously took two steps to the side.

Both brothers were wary of the thing, so they decided not to stay and talk in the basement.

The three of them headed to the Dragon Eagle Martial Arts Hall.

Inside the training hall.

Wan Ze poured hot water for the two of them. As he handed a cup to Zhai Yu, he said, ”Brother Yu, I’ve calmed things down on that end.”

Zhai Yu took the cup, his hand pausing for a moment. Then he looked up, his eyes filled with clear gratitude. ”Ah Ze, I won’t say much more about my thanks. If you ever need me for anything, just ask.”

Listening from the side, Zhai Jia couldn’t help but interject, ”Perfect timing. We’re short-staffed on the intelligence front right now...”

Before he could finish, Zhai Yu shot him a look.

”Enough fooling around. Hurry up and tell me the current situation,” Zhai Yu said, setting down his cup. His expression turned serious.

Zhai Jia dropped his goofy grin and pulled a notebook from his jacket. He flipped it open and began to speak while looking at it. ”We currently have three leads. First, the east... She said her physical body is in the east, but the east is a huge place... Second, her Perception is limited; she can’t sense things that are too far away. Third, the tomb robbers have Snake Form tattoos on their necks... I’ve looked into six targets so far, but that’s not all of them.”

Zhai Yu frowned.

’The range is uncertain... This is going to be hard to investigate.’

Wan Ze chimed in at the right moment, ”I asked her again today. Because so much time has passed, her memories are a bit hazy, but there’s one thing she’s sure of... Six months ago, someone appeared near her tomb... within a twenty-kilometer radius. She also said... there was an explosion at the time, and a lot of people died.”

”Six months ago...” Zhai Yu’s eyes narrowed slightly as he repeated the words in a low voice, his fingers tapping twice on the tabletop. ”Within twenty kilometers... an explosion... deaths.”

He looked up from his thoughts and turned to Zhai Jia. ”So, we need to look up all explosion cases within a twenty-kilometer radius of the Holy City from six months ago. Big or small, regardless of the nature of the incident, pull all of them. Then, we filter for the ones with casualties and check if any of those people had tattoos on their necks.”

Zhai Jia nodded. ”That’s the line of thinking.”

Zhai Yu continued, ”If the explosion killed people, the police department would definitely have a record. Even if it was covered up, the scene would have left traces. If we follow this thread, we might be able to track those people down.”

Wan Ze listened, nodding to himself internally.

’As expected of Brother Yu. That move was indeed clean and efficient.’

’Time locked, location locked, incident type locked. With these three conditions combined, the scope is much smaller.’

”Leave this to me. I’ll go investigate immediately.” Zhai Yu stood up and walked to the door, then suddenly noticed someone was missing beside him. He looked back at Zhai Jia. ”Are you coming?”

Zhai Jia leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh. ”Me? I can finally catch my breath. I definitely need to get some proper rest.”

Then he stretched lazily with a sly grin and chuckled. ”If I’d known you were so capable, I would’ve dragged you into this from the start.”

Zhai Yu shot him an annoyed look.

Zhai Jia chuckled, urging Zhai Yu to get serious and get to work. Then, without even looking at him, he turned to Wan Ze, wanting to spar.

But Wan Ze politely declined, picking up a book from the table and giving it a little shake. ”I’ve been cultivating my character lately.”

Zhai Yu and Zhai Jia were both stunned. ”Cultivating your character? You’re cultivating your character by reading *that*?”

That was a book on cryptography!

Next to it was a stack of similar books, like *Symbolic Logic* and *An Introduction to Information Theory*. Just looking at them was enough to give you a headache.

Wan Ze nodded. ”Just doing some reading to relax my brain.”

Zhai Jia was dumbfounded.

He glanced at the stack of books, then at Wan Ze’s earnest face, and was silent for a full three seconds.

Then he gave him a thumbs-up.

”You’re a badass.”

Wan Ze just smiled and didn’t reply.

Zhai Jia stood up, deciding not to ask for any more humiliation. ”Alright, I’m heading out too. That ghost woman has been running me ragged these past few days. I’m going home to catch up on sleep.”

He and Zhai Yu had just reached the door when Wan Ze suddenly called out to them.

”Oh, right, Brother Yu, Brother Jia, wait a second. There’s one more thing.”

Zhai Yu and Zhai Jia both turned around.

Wan Ze hesitated for a moment. ”I forgot to mention it earlier. That senior... she also passed down a Swordsmanship technique. I might as well tell you guys about it.”

Zhai Jia was taken aback. ”Swordsmanship? What kind of Swordsmanship?”

”It’s called the Void Spirit-Slaying Sword.” Wan Ze paused, his tone growing serious. ”This Swordsmanship... is very powerful. I can’t fully comprehend it yet, but I’m certain it far surpasses any Martial Skill I’ve ever seen.”

”Void? And Spirit-Slaying? Damn, what a grandiose name,” Zhai Jia said, blinking as he looked back.

Zhai Yu, who had been standing motionless at the door, decisively walked back and sat down in his chair again.

Wan Ze looked at the two of them and began, choosing his words carefully, ”Brother Yu, Brother Jia, there’s something I have to say first. You can learn this Swordsmanship, but you absolutely must be discreet about it and never speak of it to outsiders. Otherwise... it could bring a fatal disaster upon you.”

Zhai Yu’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

Zhai Jia froze for a second, then waved his hands repeatedly. ”Then never mind, never mind! I’m not learning it! If it really could get me killed, I’d be a dead man for sure!”

His expression was completely serious; he didn’t look like he was joking in the slightest.

Zhai Yu glanced at him without a word, but his eyes held a hint of disdain.

”What’s there to be afraid of?”

He smiled at Wan Ze. ”If he won’t learn it, I will.”

Wan Ze didn’t hold back, reciting the incantations and Heart Method of the Void Spirit-Slaying Sword.

Zhai Jia listened from the side, trying his best to follow along at first, but he quickly gave up.

To him, the words and phrases were like a text from the heavens. He recognized every individual character, but when they were strung together, he had no idea what they meant.