Chapter 676: Secret Key
Li Mingyuan remained silent for a long time.
Finally, he gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Captain Meng, you know what? I suddenly feel a bit of regret."
"Regret what?"
"Regret not running away before you arrived," Li Mingyuan said. "But I also know that even if I had run, you would have hunted me down. That blue halo of yours, that ability that leaves no place to hide... I wouldn’t have been able to escape."
As he spoke, he raised his hands and held them out to Xu Wuyi.
Xu Wuyi looked at him, retrieved a pair of specially-made handcuffs from his waist, and secured them around Li Mingyuan’s wrists. The moment the cuffs clicked into place, Li Mingyuan felt his power being restricted. Though for a Quasi-Grandmaster, this limitation was minimal and far from unbreakable, it was merely a formality.
What truly bound him was the man who had captured him.
He looked down at the cuffs, then back up at Xu Wuyi with a complex expression.
"Let’s go," Xu Wuyi said calmly.
Outside the courtyard, Li Jingsong and Zhou Tieshan stood side by side. Their expressions darkened as they watched Xu Wuyi escort Li Mingyuan out, their eyes drawn to the gleaming handcuffs on Li Mingyuan’s wrists. Even if Zhou Tieshan didn’t agree with Li Mingyuan’s actions, to have someone barge into the Celestial Swallow Battle Group and forcibly haul away their esteemed vice-commander was a bitter pill to swallow.
Yet, neither of them said a word. They knew they couldn’t afford to provoke this man.
Xu Wuyi marched Li Mingyuan across the base, through the Training Ground, and toward the main gate. The warriors along the way hastily parted to make room; no one dared step forward to stop them.
Outside the gate, the black sedan was exactly where it had been left. Xu Wuyi opened the back door, shoved Li Mingyuan inside, and slid into the driver’s seat. The engine roared to life, and the car pulled away from the Celestial Swallow Battle Group base. In the rearview mirror, the massive iron gates grew smaller and smaller until they vanished from sight entirely.
Xu Wuyi withdrew his gaze and focused on the road ahead. Sunlight streamed through the windshield, casting a faint glow over his black-and-white mask.
Recalling the look in Li Jingsong’s eyes and Zhou Tieshan’s brooding silence, he knew that starting today, his name would begin to circulate in hushed tones among the Federation’s upper echelon. They would learn of a masked captain in the Inspection Department—one with bizarre abilities and terrifying strength, before whom even a Quasi-Grandmaster didn’t stand a chance. They would start digging into his background, guessing his true identity, and evaluating his worth.
Xu Wuyi couldn’t care less about any of that.
The sedan merged onto the highway, speeding toward Xingjing. The sun was bright, and the journey ahead was long. Xu Wuyi drove in silence, his eyes as tranquil as a deep pool. In the back seat, Li Mingyuan kept his head bowed, not saying a word.
In the void above his head, the invisible pillar of light remained, clearly projecting his identity, his Level, and his crimes. And further off in the distance, that grand blue sun was slowly rising.
By the time the car entered the borders of Xingjing, the sky had already grown dark. Xu Wuyi pushed open his door, then opened the rear door.
"Get out."
Li Mingyuan looked up at him before silently climbing out of the vehicle. At the entrance, the old man in the security uniform was sipping tea from his thermos. He merely lifted his eyelids at the sight of Xu Wuyi marching Li Mingyuan inside, then went right back to his tea, as if they were just ordinary visitors.
The elevator descended to the seventh underground floor. The moment the doors slid open, Li Mingyuan’s footsteps faltered.
It was his first time seeing the interior of the Inspection Department headquarters, and its level of modernization far exceeded his imagination. The massive holographic screens, the bustling staff members, the frantic yet orderly workspaces—everything screamed of the massive funding the Federation poured into the Inspection Department.
But what caught his attention even more was the reaction of the people around them as Xu Wuyi escorted him out of the elevator. They would glance up, their eyes darting first to the handcuffs on his wrists, and then to the iconic black-and-white mask worn by his captor.
Immediately, their expressions shifted. It was a look Li Mingyuan knew well: a potent mix of shock, awe, and sheer disbelief. Only, these looks weren’t directed at him. They were aimed entirely at the man escorting him.
Ignoring the stares, Xu Wuyi marched Li Mingyuan across the lobby and toward Squad Four’s office area.
He pushed open the translucent glass doors to find Zhou Bin and the others gathered around a circular table, deep in discussion. At the sound of the door, they turned their heads in unison—and froze.
Fang Xiaoxiao was the first to react. She sprang to her feet, her eyes widening in disbelief. "Captain Meng, you really... you really brought him back?"
Zhou Bin stood up as well, his gaze raking over Li Mingyuan in absolute shock. Li Zhaowen pushed up his glasses, accidentally knocking them askew, but he didn’t even bother to fix them. Chen Yunxuan clamped a hand over her mouth, completely starry-eyed. Sun Jing leaned back in his chair, watching Xu Wuyi with a highly complicated expression.
Xu Wuyi nodded. He forced Li Mingyuan down into a chair, then looked at Zhou Bin. "Search him. Empty his pockets, and specifically look for that security key."
Taking a deep breath, Zhou Bin stepped forward and began the pat-down. Li Mingyuan didn’t resist; he simply kept his head bowed in silence.
It didn’t take long for Zhou Bin to fish a metal box out of Li Mingyuan’s inner breast pocket. It was small enough to fit perfectly in the palm of a hand, with a smooth surface devoid of any markings. Zhou Bin handed it to Xu Wuyi.
Accepting the box, Xu Wuyi turned it over in his hands a few times before placing it on the table. He looked at Li Mingyuan. "Open it."
Li Mingyuan looked up at him, hesitating for a few seconds. Then, he reached out and pressed a specific spot on the surface of the box.
It popped open, revealing a microchip the size of a fingernail resting inside. It was etched with dense, intricate patterns that glinted with a faint blue luster under the overhead lights.
This was the security key to the secret bank account.
Xu Wuyi picked up the chip and handed it to Li Zhaowen. "Look into this. Find out exactly how much money is in there, where it came from, and where it went."
Snatching the chip, Li Zhaowen hurried back to his workstation and got to typing. A few minutes later, he lifted his head, unable to suppress the shock in his voice. "Captain Meng, I’ve got it. The total funds in this account... exceed three billion."
A chorus of sharp gasps echoed through the office.
Three billion.
To a Quasi-Grandmaster, three billion wasn’t exactly an astronomical sum. But if all of this money had come from smuggling operations, that was an entirely different story.
Li Zhaowen continued, "The sources of the funds are highly convoluted. Some were wired directly from overseas, some were funneled through shell companies, and a portion was directly siphoned from the Celestial Swallow Battle Group’s accounts.
"As for where it went, some was transferred into several foreign offshore accounts, some was used to purchase real estate and various enterprises, and another portion... is untraceable."