Unparalleled medical and martial arts skills, saving the CEO's fiancée at the start.

That night, Ye Chen practically turned Jiangcheng upside down.

Blackwater's outposts in Jiangcheng are mostly gone, but their nightclubs are hidden deep inside, like cockroach nests in a crack in the wall.

These nightclubs are legitimate businesses during the day: car repair shops, card rooms, small hotels, and even a funeral shop selling paper ingots.

At night, once the door is closed, the interior is dimly lit, and all the people coming in and out are unfamiliar faces.

Song Tiezhu's men had been following them for many days and had already figured out most of the place.

At Ye Chen's command, more than a dozen groups of people moved at the same time, like a sharp knife cutting from one end of Jiangcheng to the other, each strike making a sharp sound.

Ye Chen personally led Ghost Servant and Han Song to launch a surprise attack on a shady gang in the north of the city that had a Shunfeng Auto Repair sign.

From the outside, the place looked like a small auto repair shop, with a rusty red roller shutter door and two old tires half-buried in the mud at the entrance.

But the space under the woodpile in the backyard was hollowed out, and a narrow passage was built inside, leading directly to a back street.

Ye Chen ordered Han Song to block the back door, while he led his men to break down the door from the front.

The roller shutter door was kicked open by the ghost servant, and inside, seven or eight men were gambling around a low table, which was piled with loose banknotes and wine bottles.

Upon seeing people barge in, these people swarmed like a disturbed hornet's nest; some grabbed knives, while others climbed through the windows.

Ye Chen didn't draw his sword; he only used the scabbard to poke, sweep, and tap, and in a few moves, he had taken down half of them.

Ghost Servant and Han Song attacked from both sides, and it didn't take much effort to pin the rest of the people to the ground.

At the same time, Song Tiezhu's team raided the card and mahjong parlors in the west of the city and the small inns in the south of the city.

Aygul led a group of people to the paper craft shop by the river, mainly to control the people there.

That shop was the most eerie; in the back room, there was a thin, black-lacquered coffin filled with old cell phones and signal jammers.

As Aygul pulled people out of the cellar one by one, the shop owner was still burning paper money and muttering something.

Later, upon inventory, they found more than a dozen old-fashioned mobile phones used by Blackwater and a pile of cash wrapped in yellow paper in this one location alone.

Before dawn, all the dismantled gangs were dealt with in a unified manner: the people were handed over to Song Tiezhu for secret detention, and the goods and account books were moved to the newly vacated garage in the backyard of the Jiang family villa.

Ye Chen had the confiscated cell phones lined up in a row, then called in Gui Pu, Han Song, and Fang Zhe, and started checking each one.

Fang Zhe's glasses reflected the light as his fingers flew across the phones: "These are for communication within the outer hall. The code changes daily. Wen Jiuhong doesn't use these personally. He has people relay messages remotely. These you've seized will at most lead to a dozen or so errand runners. The real core members wouldn't use these cheap ones."

As Fang Zhe spoke, he picked up one of the old black-cased phones, removed the back cover, and pulled out an extremely thin card from under the battery. His eyes immediately lit up.

"However, this card... is the headquarters' encrypted card. I've seen it before. Using it, you can receive instructions from the headquarters."

Ye Chen took it and glanced at it.

It was a tiny telecom card with no number on it, but an almost invisible mark engraved on it, like half a tortoise shell.

Fang Zhe said that once this card is installed on the headquarters' dedicated terminal, it can receive one-way messages from the headquarters.

But there isn't that kind of terminal available now. Ye Chen wasn't discouraged and handed the card back to Han Song: "Try to activate it. Don't insert it into our regular phones. Try using that old equipment in the signal jamming room. If that doesn't work, ask Qiao San to lend you some people. There are people in the provincial capital who specialize in communication decoding."

Han Song nodded and carefully put the card away from his body.

The sky was already turning white, but the people who had been busy all night in the courtyard had not yet dispersed.

Ye Chen walked into the courtyard, and Jiang Ruoxi brought over a pot of hot tea and poured him a bowl.

Ye Chen took it, gulped it down in a few mouthfuls, and then went to the edge of the vat to wash his face with cold water. Only then did he feel a little more alive.

Jiang Ruoxi stood behind him and said softly, "You haven't slept for two days. How can your body take this? I'm worried."

Ye Chen wiped his face, turned around and smiled at her: "Wife, it's okay, don't worry about me. I'm an owl. But you, you've been working hard with us, you're more tired than anyone else."

Jiang Ruoxi didn't respond to that question, but instead handed him a clean towel and said, "Ye Chen, what do you think of Fang Zhe? Can you trust him?"

Ye Chen shook his head: "We can't trust him completely, but right now he wants to live more than we do. Once we dig out Wen Jiuhong, his price for surrendering will be worthwhile."

Jiang Ruoxi glanced at the row of confiscated cell phones and ledgers and whispered, "I have a feeling that Wen Jiuhong is waiting for us to sweep all of this away. It's like he's clearing out the place to make room for something."

Ye Chen's brows furrowed slightly: "Wife, do you mean he's giving up on Jiangcheng?"

Jiang Ruoxi nodded: "Maybe he's already moving. Jiangxin Island is just a place for him to test the waters. If he really wanted to harm you, he wouldn't just send a few knife-wielders to their deaths. He's stalling for time, keeping our attention on Jiangcheng so he can do other things."

Just as Ye Chen was about to say something, Han Song hurriedly came out of the house and handed over a cell phone: "I just received a message. Qiao San's people said that Wen Jiuhong appeared in the provincial capital yesterday and went in the direction of Longyin Mountain. The old man's people did not follow him, but the people guarding the mountain said that there were lights on halfway up Longyin Mountain last night. They were three very old kerosene lamps."

Ye Chen's expression changed drastically. Just as Jiang Ruoxi had analyzed, Wen Jiuhong's purpose was not in Jiangcheng.

Longyin Mountain.

Three lanterns.

That is the Dragon Heart Cave.

What was Wen Jiuhong doing there?

He couldn't possibly get into the third level, but he must be connected to the ancient tomb.

Ye Chen draped a towel over his shoulder and said in a deep voice, "Don't panic. Investigate which route Wen Jiuhong took to get off at Dragon Hidden Mountain, how many people he brought, and how long he stayed. Also, why didn't any of the patrols at the entrance of Dragon Heart Cave see the lights?"

Han Song's expression tightened, and he turned around to continue his investigation.

Ye Chen turned and walked to Jiang Ruoxi's side, his voice so low that only the two of them could hear: "Wife, maybe you guessed right. He's not here to kidnap anyone or anything. He's going to pick someone up from the ancient cave. After we went in there last time, something might have been disturbed."

Jiang Ruoxi grasped his hand; her fingers were icy cold, yet her determination was unwavering. "Ye Chen, let's go to Dragon Hidden Mountain again. This time, I'm going with you."

Ye Chen looked down at her; the morning light fell on the tips of her hair, like a very faint layer of gold.

Ye Chen responded softly, indicating his agreement to go together. He didn't try to persuade her further, knowing that Jiang Ruoxi wouldn't agree.

Some roads, when walked together, are less frightening; perhaps this is the power of love.

Looking into Jiang Ruoxi's resolute gaze, Ye Chen felt that this woman was sometimes even more ruthless than him. What he needed to do now was to protect her with all his might and let her no longer live in fear.