Cause a great wave for him.

The next day, the three of them set out for Maitreya Mountain, the stronghold of the Buddhist Sect, to begin their investigation.

After hearing Chen Shang’s words the previous night, Chiyo Yashuangyi wore a look of concern on her face. In contrast, Black Calis was brimming with excitement, eager to help Chen Shang carry out his plan.

“Welcome to the Buddhist Sect’s Maitreya Mountain!”

As soon as they entered the scenic area, Chen Shang slipped once again into the role of tour guide, enthusiastically introducing their surroundings.

Unlike the Confucian Sect, which radiated a solemn aura tinged with the scent of advanced hardware, the Buddhist Sect’s atmosphere was one of serene tranquility. Spires of temples, assembled from metallic planks, were scattered in harmonious disarray. When the breeze swept by, one could occasionally hear the crisp ringing of bells and the soft chanting of monks.

Chiyo took a deep breath, a rare expression of contentment appearing on her face.

“What is it? Do you like it here?” Chen Shang asked, standing beside her.

“My family arranged for us to visit Buddhist temples every year,” Chiyo replied, a touch of nostalgia in her voice. “It reminds me of my childhood.”

“We’ll hear your stories next time,” Chen Shang waved his hand, signaling her to follow him to the next location.

Under Chen Shang’s guidance, the trio slipped into the inner sanctum of the Buddhist Sect to investigate. Compared to the Confucian Sect’s striking contrast between inner and outer layouts, the Buddhist Sect was the same inside as it was outside. The interior was filled mainly with scattered temples and training grounds, indistinguishable from the areas open to tourists. There was no sign of any inhumane military facilities.

As they left the Buddhist Sect, Chiyo asked casually, “Was the Buddhist Sect involved in that case too?”

“What else?” Chen Shang replied nonchalantly, bowing with practiced reverence before a statue of the Maitreya Buddha.

“I still don’t understand—how do you know so much about all this?” Chiyo frowned, then asked, “Ten years ago you must have been six or seven, yet when you speak, it’s as if you orchestrated everything yourself.”

—Your intuition is truly sharp.

“How could that be?” Chen Shang laughed. “Are you suggesting I planned that massacre when I was six or seven?”

“It was just a question,” Chiyo muttered, dropping the matter.

From the moment she first met Chen Shang, she sensed that his mind concealed secrets she could not ignore.

But after spending some time together, Chiyo found Chen Shang to be as unfathomable as a black hole. The more she tried to probe his secrets, the less she could see the end, and gradually, a sense of dread began to creep in.

Yet Chiyo was not one to be easily frightened off. When her family forced her into the highest position of the Tokugawa Company, she had already learned to discard fear.

Chen Shang turned to Black Calis. “Have you finished mapping the Buddhist Sect?”

“Almost,” Black Calis replied, fingers flying over her keyboard. Three mechanical mice quickly scurried out from an unseen hole and crawled back into her sports bag.

Back at the hotel, Chen Shang opened his phone to review the maps of the three great sects, falling into deep thought.

“Now that we have all the maps, what’s your next step?” Black Calis stretched lazily on the bed.

“Even though the Midnight Headsman is immortal, if the three great sects join forces to hunt him down, he’ll have no chance of escape,” Chen Shang said, placing his phone on the table with a weary sigh. “Especially the Confucian Sect. Although their disciples are the weakest fighters among the three, they possess a vast arsenal of military weaponry.”

“Even an immortal couldn’t survive half an hour under a hundred heavy machine guns,” Black Calis commented.

In the game’s main storyline, the Midnight Headsman is worn down by wave after wave of heavy fire from the Confucian Sect, and in the end, the martial artists from the other two sects join forces to surround and kill him.

Even so, with nothing but his sword, he slays nearly half the experts sent to capture him.

In close combat, the Midnight Headsman is nearly invincible.

“The key to helping him exact his revenge is to seize control of the Confucian Sect’s arsenal,” Chen Shang said, rubbing his chin before turning to ask, “If I sneak you into the Confucian Sect, can you hack their command center?”

Black Calis snapped her fingers. “No problem. Their third-rate firewalls are no match for me.”

With Black Calis’s assurance, a look of ease appeared on Chen Shang’s face.

“So you already have a plan?” Chiyo asked, leaning against the wall.

Chen Shang didn’t reply. Instead, he silently inserted a spare SIM card into his phone, opened the “Martial World Wanted” app, and entered the forum.

The forum was frequented by bounty hunters active in the Kunlun Zone. Aside from boasting about their achievements, they also shared intelligence about wanted criminals.

Chen Shang logged in with a temporary account and posted under the topic “Midnight Headsman”:

“Help! I’ve found the Midnight Headsman!”

The bounty for the Midnight Headsman was a lucrative prize, and the sensationalist, clickbait title quickly drew attention.

The post was filled with fabricated details: the poster claimed to have been wandering the outskirts of the Kunlun Zone when he spotted a swordsman wearing a bronze skull mask. The swordsman chased after him, and terrified, the poster fled back to the city center without even snapping a photo.

He also included a set of coordinates at the end.

Less than twenty minutes after posting, replies flooded in—over fifty in all. The grizzled bounty hunters, having been through countless battles, weren’t about to believe such flimsy rumors, so most replies were sarcastic or skeptical:

“I’ve been looking for him for months with no leads, and you just happen to find him?”

“If you really ran into the Midnight Headsman, you’d be posting with your head in one hand and your phone in the other!”

“Stop fishing. Any more and the fishhooks will tangle!”

“No pics, no proof. Show us a photo, hurry up!”

“RJ500849, extraction code: Hell Babylon. *Click here to download file*”

“Damn, it’s a scam!”

“Forget this loser; I’m off to wipe out the Wutong Gang on Third Street! Those bastards are all fans of Ameng, posting nonsense all day long!”

“Count me in for justice!”

“……”

Amid the chaos of the comment section, Chen Shang sipped his soda, smiling without a trace of anxiety.

Admittedly, the post was a lure, but he’d left enough bait for the right people.

Sure enough, a few users soon sent him private messages, all asking, “Care to share more details?”

The location he’d posted wasn’t random, but the site of Old Gusu Town. Knowing the nature of the three great sects, once they saw this address, their first thought would be to link it with the tragedy from ten years ago.

Looking at the private messages, a faint smile played on Chen Shang’s lips as he typed a short reply on the screen:

“Let’s arrange a meeting.”