Chapter 177: Chapter 66: Infiltration and Interrogation

The headquarters of the Hengcheng Safety Energy Development Company was a square, seven-story building standing tall in an open, desolate field. With the main building as its axis, two rows of two-story factory sheds surrounded it, covering a considerable area.

According to the files, it was a new energy company specializing in the New Era’s energy sector. Established in 1997 in response to official Zhengguo policies and registered in Modu, the company was dedicated to the investment and development of new energy technologies like biogas and wind power generation. It also had subsidiaries involved in waste management.

And this was the family enterprise the Tang Clan had built within the Zhengguo System after going legitimate.

The Tang Clan, according to some information gathered by Shao Qiming, was a native family that had taken root in Xiang State over a thousand years ago. They were skilled in Ghost Control and Exorcism, and local folklore told of many famous Divine Witch Warlocks from their line. These tales included infamous accounts of them cursing a disrespectful village with total crop failure, as well as legends of them protecting the peace and prosperity of the region.

Overall, according to ancient records, this Extraordinary Family tended to act on a whim, holding nothing taboo.

The Tang Clan was rooted among the common people and never attempted to meddle in political struggles or contend for worldly power. As a result, they were not widely known. But it was precisely this cautious approach that allowed them to survive several tumultuous eras over the past thousand years, enduring to this day with quite a substantial portfolio of assets.

Hengcheng Safety Energy Company was a family enterprise. During business hours, the Tang Clan’s senior leadership would usually be here. However, it was currently after hours, so Su Zhou wasn’t sure if they were still around.

So, he stood in the snow and enhanced his Spiritual Vision, gazing at the building from a distance.

With the combined power of his thermal vision and Spiritual Vision, Su Zhou could see the points of moving Spiritual Qi through the building’s walls. This way, while he couldn’t see ordinary people, anyone who had cultivated to the Spirit Awakening realm could not escape his sight.

’There’s no one at the Awakening Tier. Looks like their leadership isn’t inside.’

Su Zhou could see that even with the blizzard raging outside, there were still five Spirit Awakening Transcendents in the company headquarters, likely some of the mid-level managers. However, the true pillars and senior leaders of the family—the Awakening Tier Cultivators—were not among them.

’I should grab someone and question them.’

Su Zhou muttered to himself, preparing to infiltrate the company and capture a Spirit Awakening Cultivator for interrogation. But just as he was about to make his move, he suddenly realized he had a blind spot in his thinking.

’Wait, even in a Ghost Witch Family like this, not everyone can be evil. My code won’t let me just grab an innocent person for interrogation!’

His enemies in the Divine Wood World were mostly Demon Soldiers and Generals—beings so evil that killing every last one of them would have been justified. Back then, Su Zhou held nothing back. He wouldn’t have thought twice about ripping out hearts and lungs to make someone talk. But here on Earth, things were different.

’My code is to punish only the primary culprits. As for the others... even if they’ve benefited from the evil-doers, it doesn’t mean they deserve to die. After all, most of them aren’t even Transcendents. Others might not think this way, but this is how I have to operate.’ 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Yara couldn’t stand it anymore. It shot out from Su Zhou’s hair and bit down hard on his ear. "Are you an idiot? Just grab someone with Spiritual Power and interrogate them! In a Witchcraft Family that cultivates negative spiritual energy and commands ghosts, what makes you think you’ll find any good people? How does that old opera tune go again? ’The more I ponder, the more I loathe it... in all of Hongdong County, there’s not a single good man!’"

"Besides, do you really think someone living in modern society is going to be as mentally tough as the Demon Army? You don’t even need to interrogate them. Just give them a good scare, and they’ll spill everything!"

Oh, right! ’I don’t always have to resort to killing and interrogation. I completely forgot I could just scare them!’

Upon hearing this, a certain Demon Lord had an epiphany. And so, with the true spirit of a contrarian, he immediately shot back, "Why can’t there be good people just because they control ghosts? Have you met every single person in this family? Don’t talk if you don’t know! I can’t just act blindly in a situation like this. Sounding evil and actually being evil are two different things!"

Despite his contrarian words, his body was quite honest as it moved rapidly toward the building.

Admittedly, a Daoist Divine Technique like the Thunder Technique probably wasn’t anything special in ancient times. Outside of a thunderstorm, its destructive power would have struggled to surpass other Daoist Techniques.

In modern society, however, it was incredibly useful. With the heightened senses granted by the Thunder Technique, Su Zhou detected innumerable hidden security cameras along his path. To him, they were as obvious as giant searchlights, and he avoided them all with ease.

When he encountered a few cameras that were impossible to evade using blind spots, he simply used a touch of his Thunder Technique to cause a second or two of static on the feed. In that brief window, he had already used his Spiritual Power to reinforce a pane of glass, cut a large opening in the window, and slipped silently into the building’s hallway—just as he had done when he killed the Dusk True Demon.

This was true stealth, not the kind where you leave a trail of bodies. No one died, and no one detected Su Zhou.

At this moment, with the help of his Thunder Technique and advanced Spiritual Vision, it was as if Su Zhou had toggled on a wallhack and an enemy-highlighting cheat. The locations of every camera and the patrol routes of every person in the building were laid bare before his eyes. He quickly locked onto a target.

It was the figure of a Cultivator who had just left an office and appeared to be heading for the restroom.

"Hmm hmm~ What a happy day~" The man seemed to be in a decent mood, humming a little tune as he entered the restroom.

’You’re in that good of a mood? Then it’s decided. You’re the one!’

The restroom was adjacent to the hallway. After confirming there were no other cultivators with Spiritual Power nearby, Su Zhou unleashed his own. He activated the Qi Condensation and Object Manipulation Technique, and his incredibly dense Spiritual Power pressed down on the unnamed Tang Clan cultivator through the wall!

HUMMM! In an instant, a foul wind swept through the room as the Spiritual Power locked onto his body and soul. The short-haired young man in a suit, who looked to be about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, froze stiff in front of the urinal. He was completely paralyzed, as if pinned down by a ghost!

"Wh-what the hell?!"

He panicked, and the cultivator immediately tried to use his own Spiritual Qi to shatter the lockdown. But it was a futile effort. When his gray, phantom-like Spiritual Power struck Su Zhou’s, it was like a wave crashing against a divine, triangular mountain—it simply disintegrated.

’Which esteemed senior is playing a prank on me?’

Although his body was completely immobilized, the man in the suit could see from his peripheral vision that there was no one else around. The entire restroom was empty!

Su Zhou, for his part, didn’t bother using his Dragon Aura. He simply laced his Spiritual Power with a trace of the blood-soaked aura he had cultivated from slaughtering countless foes on the battlefields of the Divine Wood World. A terrifying, bloodthirsty Suppression washed over the man, instantly conjuring illusions of severed limbs and phantom blades hacking down at him. His legs felt weak enough to give out, but his limbs were frozen so solid he couldn’t even bend his knees to collapse.

’This feeling...?! Could it really be a ghost?’

The Tang Clan was a Ghost-controlling Family, and the man in the suit quickly recalled the many dangerous situations his elders had warned him about. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as tears welled in his eyes. ’Don’t tell me... the Evil Ghosts controlled by the main family’s Spirit Binders have turned on us? Are they here for revenge?!’

’Heaven have mercy, I haven’t done anything! I’m just from a minor branch family! Every grievance has its source, every debt its owner! Be magnanimous, my lord, please don’t come after me!’

Su Zhou hadn’t intended to just scare the man for fun; he simply wanted to break the cultivator’s psychological defenses. Seeing the man on the verge of breaking down in tears but physically unable to cry under the oppressive pressure, he transmitted his voice directly using Spiritual Energy, deliberately making it sound sinister and terrifying. "I will ask. You will answer. The faster you talk and the more you say, the safer you’ll be. I can tell if you’re lying. As long as you haven’t taken a life, I won’t take yours."

"I’ll talk! I’ll talk!"

The man in the suit had never been through any real hardships, nor had he ever received anti-interrogation training—few families or companies would bother with that anyway. He immediately spilled everything, like beans from a jar, answering all of Su Zhou’s questions without hesitation.