Su Ze had originally wanted to get separate rooms for himself and Zhang Fantie, which would make it easier for him to slip away at night. But at Zhang Fantie's insistence, they had to settle for a deluxe room with two beds.
Zhang Fantie felt this was the best way to protect Su Ze, but it also dashed any hopes Su Ze had of escaping in the night. There was no way he could slip away without alerting a Butterfly Stage expert sleeping right beside him.
'Looks like I'll have to wait until we get to Luofan Country to find a chance to get away.'
Su Ze stopped dwelling on it. After dinner, he took a shower, and once he was done, he remembered to douse himself in the same pungent cologne Zhao Lingxiao used to wear.
Every second Zhang Fantie was near, Su Ze was on pins and needles. He had to be meticulous about not revealing any cracks in his disguise.
Frowning, he swallowed two small blue pills, then got into bed and started playing on his phone.
For a tonic like the Strengthening Elixir, it was best to exercise after taking it to absorb its effects faster and more completely. By just eating it and lying down, Su Ze was wasting some of its potency. But he didn't care. He could afford it, after all.
An unknown amount of time passed before Su Ze started to feel drowsy and drifted off to sleep.
In a sleepy haze, he was shaken awake. He opened his eyes to see Zhang Fantie with a grave expression, one hand clamped over his mouth.
Su Ze's heart leaped. 'Has my identity been exposed?'
But then he saw Zhang Fantie make a shushing gesture and point toward the window.
'Someone outside the window?'
'But this is the 12th floor!'
Su Ze took the hint. He immediately got up and moved to the wall farthest from the window.
Zhang Fantie appeared by the window in a flash, moving too fast for Su Ze to even see. He yanked the curtains open, and Su Ze's eyes widened involuntarily at the sight behind them.
A human face was pressed tightly against the windowpane!
It was a gaunt old man, his skin a sickly, grayish-white. He looked like a corpse that had just escaped from the morgue.
The old man's dead, fish-like eyes looked past Zhang Fantie and fixed directly on Su Ze. He spoke, each word deliberate, his voice hoarse and dry.
"I hope you haven't forgotten our deal. Did you bring it?"
'A deal?'
Su Ze's mind raced; he already had a guess as to the old man's identity.
He shook his head. "I don't make deals with people who lurk in the shadows."
"Interesting. It seems you absorbed the extract yourself." The old man grinned. "No matter. We can just extract it from your body instead."
Zhang Fantie, who had been standing to the side, finally made his move. He stepped forward, threw open the window, and sent a fist flying toward the old man outside.
The old man leaned back, floating outside the window like a kite as a nauseating stench flooded into the room.
The moment he smelled the stench, Su Ze was certain of the man's identity. He was familiar with that foul odor—the mysterious person who had ordered Zhao Lingxiao to kill PrMiss Zhuzhi smelled the same way. Clearly, they were from the same organization.
Su Ze had also smelled this stench on Zhao Lingxiao's corpse, though it had been much fainter and could be barely concealed with pungent cologne.
The old man outside let out a bizarre laugh. "The organization never abandons a deal halfway. We will be back to collect what you owe us."
The old man's figure vanished into the night. With a grim expression, Zhang Fantie locked the window again, drew the curtains, and said to Su Ze, "We leave at first light."
Su Ze nodded. "Mr. Tie, what was that old man's power level?"
"The same as me. Butterfly Stage," Zhang Fantie said.
A chill ran down Su Ze's spine. If he didn't have Zhang Fantie protecting him, his chances of surviving the night would have been slim to none.
The mysterious, unnamed organization was after PrMiss Zhuzhi's extract—or more specifically, the "Divine Grace of Evolution" skill. However, Zhao Lingxiao had absorbed the extract, and now Su Ze had taken his place.
That meant the mysterious organization's only option was to kill Su Ze and extract the Evolutionary Material from his body to recreate the extract containing the Evolution Divine Grace Skill.
'So now I'm a boss mob? Kill me to get a divine skill drop...' Su Ze felt a headache coming on. What he couldn't figure out was how they had found him.
He had arrived in Heiyan City by private jet, so it should have been impossible for him to be followed. The journey from Qinggu City to Heiyan City crossed more than half of Mu Country. He had only landed at noon, and his decision to stay at this hotel was made on a whim. How did the mysterious organization manage to track him to this exact hotel on the very same night?
The mysterious organization was powerful, but Su Ze didn't believe they were omniscient. They must have had some way of tracking his location.
'There are countless tracking-type skills, but they usually require leaving some kind of mark on the target. The thing is, I'm not Zhao Lingxiao. I've never had any contact with the mysterious organization. It's possible they marked Zhao Lingxiao, but they couldn't have had the chance to mark me.' Su Ze's expression suddenly froze. He turned to look at the bag he had placed on the nightstand.
The bag had belonged to Zhao Lingxiao, and Su Ze had kept it with him this whole time. The most valuable item inside was the vial of Tier-4 extract!
And that vial of Tier-4 extract was the very same deposit the mysterious organization had paid to Zhao Lingxiao.
'In other words, they're tracking me by tracking this vial of Tier-4 extract...' Su Ze understood now, but he kept his suspicion to himself and didn't tell Zhang Fantie.
After what had just happened, Su Ze couldn't get back to sleep. He lay in bed with his eyes closed, analyzing his current predicament.
On the surface, he looked like a man of great wealth with a Butterfly Stage expert for a bodyguard. It seemed like a solid position, but in reality, he was walking a tightrope over a cliff. One wrong step, and he would be doomed beyond redemption.
The mysterious organization wanted to kill him for his skill drop, and if the Zhao Family ever found out he wasn't Zhao Lingxiao, they would surely kill him to avenge the real one.
He needed Zhang Fantie's protection, but he was also terrified of Zhang Fantie discovering his secret.
'Whether it's the Zhao Family or the mysterious organization, I can't handle either of them. For now, all I can do is take it one step at a time.'
In what felt like a blink of an eye, the sky began to lighten. Zhang Fantie woke Su Ze. They both got ready, went downstairs for breakfast, and found that yesterday's taxi driver was already waiting for them outside the hotel.
The two of them walked out of the hotel's main entrance and headed for the taxi. Just then, Zhang Fantie's phone suddenly rang.
Zhang Fantie didn't really have any friends or family, and since he was on a mission, the only person who would normally contact him was Zhao Yuanyi.
Su Ze glanced at Zhang Fantie's phone screen. It was indeed Zhao Yuanyi calling. For some reason, the urgent ringing of the phone filled Su Ze with a sudden sense of dread.
"Minister." Zhang Fantie stopped in his tracks and answered the call, his tone respectful.
"Is Lingxiao with you?"
"He is."
Zhao Yuanyi's voice was completely flat. "Seize him and bring him back. He is not Lingxiao."
"And remember, I want him alive!"