All the police officers participating in the mission had already been warned about the danger posed by Jin Shun.
Therefore, waiting for Lu Yunze to arrive before acting together was considered the safest option.
However, for the past few minutes, their captain had been rushing them, making the officers feel extremely frustrated.
If Officer Wang were here, he would surely wait for Chen Yang before giving the next order.
Unfortunately, on such an important day, he was absent for some reason, and the responsibility had to be temporarily handed over to another officer.
The officers were already feeling uncertain, and when the captain mentioned promotions and raises, some of their resolve wavered.
“Lu Yunze isn’t even one of us in the department. Are you people servants of outsiders or are you police officers?”
The captain was still complaining over the phone.
“Even without him, we aren’t helpless, are we? Don’t we have other Secret Arts Practitioners on site as well?”
That wasn’t wrong.
There wasn’t only Lu Yunze participating in this operation. There were also reinforcements from the Execution Department of Arcane Arts; at this moment, there were two or three Secret Arts Practitioners standing by at the scene.
“Didn’t you all confirm beforehand? That guy Jin Shun lives alone, and there are no other Secret Arts Practitioners nearby. There are so many of us and only one of him. Each of us could give him a smack and beat him half to death.”
When it came to arguing, the officers couldn’t win, and with Chen Yang still not showing up, it was clear that dragging this out wouldn’t help.
After discussing things with the Secret Arts Practitioners, they finally decided to start the mission now and rely on their own strength to arrest Jin Shun.
After making up their minds, they immediately sprang into action and entered the apartment building.
The first step was to evacuate the innocent residents inside the building.
Since there were Secret Arts Practitioners on the team, this step went very smoothly.
The second step was to approach the suspect’s room and set up an ambush outside the door.
The officers hid on both sides of the corridor, and only when they received word that everyone had been evacuated did they proceed to the third step—the final one: storming the room and capturing the suspect.
Led by the Secret Arts Practitioners from the Execution Department, they forcefully broke down the door and charged inside in a line.
“Freeze! Don’t move!”
The Secret Arts Practitioner who entered the room was just about to attack, but then froze.
“Ugh, what’s that smell?”
“Careful, what if it’s poison?”
“No, this smell… someone’s been burning incense.”
They thought they might catch him off guard, but what greeted them upon entry was a room filled with swirling smoke.
The room’s four corners were crammed with smoldering incense, the dense smoke and other pungent odors already saturating the whole room.
“Can’t see a thing… where’s Jin Shun?”
“No idea, seems like there’s no one inside.”
“That’s impossible. We’ve been watching the place the whole time. After he came back this morning, he never left.”
Every second in this room was torture to their eyes and throats, but since things had reached this point, they couldn’t just retreat—they could only grit their teeth and search every corner.
Even if Jin Shun attacked, they weren’t defenseless. Every officer who came in was equipped with special handcuffs; as long as they locked up even one hand, it would be enough to restrict his spellcasting.
The apartment wasn’t big. Besides the living room and kitchen, which were joined together, the only other two doors led to the bathroom and the bedroom, leaving almost no place to hide.
As for the incense burning in the corner, a Secret Arts Practitioner went to examine it, only to find it was just ordinary incense, albeit a very intense and hard-to-extinguish type, and it had been burning for a long time.
It looked like Jin Shun had started setting things up as soon as he got home, burning incense for half a day, with the windows closed and the curtains drawn, almost turning the place into a gas chamber.
More importantly, they still couldn’t find Jin Shun’s whereabouts.
“Did he really get away?”
Two officers pushed open the bedroom door. As expected, there were four more piles of incense burning in every corner.
So many people were searching, but no one immediately found the suspect. Many of them quietly admitted to themselves that Jin Shun had probably already escaped. But how had he gotten out? They’d been keeping watch outside the whole time.
They knew Jin Shun’s spell was the Illusion Technique. The officers stationed outside had also been equipped with devices to prevent anyone from slipping away using illusions.
One officer walked up to the bed, bent down, and peeked underneath.
In that instant, he made eye contact with a pair of eyes under the bed, his flashlight illuminating Jin Shun’s face.
“Found Jin Shun—!”
He hadn’t finished his words when Jin Shun sprang out from under the bed, shoving it aside and tackling him to the ground.
The officer’s head slammed into the cabinet and he immediately passed out.
By the time his partner in the bedroom reacted, Jin Shun’s baton had already come down, knocking him to the floor as well.
By now, the Secret Arts Practitioners in the living room had rushed in and began to cast their spells upon spotting Jin Shun.
But in the next instant, Jin Shun’s figure suddenly disappeared from where he stood, making them freeze for a second—only then did they realize it was an Illusion Technique.
“He’s gone!”
When the two Secret Arts Practitioners regained their senses, Jin Shun had already appeared right in front of them, snapping a pair of handcuffs onto them both.
Just locking up one hand was enough to work, and the effect was excellent—having once been a prisoner himself, Jin Shun knew all about it.
Jin Shun grinned, and as he glanced behind them, he swiftly dragged the two of them in front as human shields.
Fireballs flew from the companions in the living room, but only struck their own teammates, causing them to howl in pain.
“Watch it, damn it!”
“Stop! That’s our own people!”
One of their teammates stopped the fire spells in time, but as he turned his attention back to Jin Shun, he saw the man maintaining the same posture as before, like a statue.
No good!
Only when they realized it was yet another Illusion Technique did the real Jin Shun step forward, snapping on a pair of handcuffs.
Howl!
Now, they couldn’t even use fire spells anymore. Jin Shun gave each of them a whack with his baton, knocking them all out.
All that was left was a single police officer at the scene, fumbling to activate his spell.
Didn’t look like a Secret Arts Practitioner.
Jin Shun smiled coldly.
“You really think I’m so easy to catch? Just let you drag me back? Even if the old man won’t protect me, I can rise up again on my own strength!”
He planned to leave his family behind, start building his own power, and wait until he was strong enough to return for revenge—no problem at all.
Today was the day he would leave Lan City.
Everything was ready.
As long as he escaped this city, he could start a brand new life with a new identity!
The officer was already panicking, cowering in the corner and accidentally knocking over the incense stand.
Just as Jin Shun approached him, a figure suddenly burst through the window with a crash and landed with a thud.
Before Jin Shun could react, the newcomer grabbed him by the shoulder, a powerful force slamming him back until his spine hit the wall.
“Looks like I’m a bit late. Why didn’t you all wait for me?”
Steadying himself, Lu Yunze patted the dust off his clothes, then frowned at the smoky air inside the room.
“What is this—some kind of sacrificial ritual?”
Upon seeing the newcomer, Jin Shun’s face instantly turned ugly, and he lowered his voice: “Lu Yunze!”
“So it really is you,” Lu Yunze said, unlike this fugitive before him. “I was worried the Police Station got the wrong—”