Chapter 1: The Eye-Catching Wedding

  The bronze statue is gone.

  A few months ago, during the Spring Festival, Ning Fan came here. At that time, the bronze statue was still there, but now, where the bronze statue was originally placed, it is empty!

  All his expectations were dashed in an instant, and Ning Fang's mood hit rock bottom.

  Turning around, Ning Fang slowly walked out of the grand hall and stood in the torrential rain. Suddenly, he looked up at the sky and let out a long, mournful cry: "Ah..."

  All the indignation seems to be in this long sigh.

  Ten years had passed, and he finally received news of Lao Dao again. He held the key, thinking that opening the copper statue would reveal Lao Dao's whereabouts. As he entered Qingyun Temple, his heart was actually racing with excitement, but now everything had become an illusion.

  Suddenly a burst of breath stirred in his body, Ning Fang was startled, stopped his long sigh, and then without hesitation, he sat down directly in the rain.

  Close your eyes, calm your mind and quiet your breath, Ning Fan made an effort to drive away the distracting thoughts in his mind and the anger in his heart, guiding that somewhat disordered breath. But very soon, Ning Fan discovered that his breath was not disordered at all, but instead seemed to be growing stronger and stronger all of a sudden!

  "Is it finally going to break through?" Ning Fan's eyes widened slightly, and then he quickly began guiding the Qi in his body along its usual path. The true Qi reached a certain point and started to stagnate, but Ning Fan calmed down and drove the Qi to continuously impact that point!

  This was the inner strength that Ning Fan had been practicing since he was five years old. The old Daoist had never told him what this inner strength method was called, only saying that after practicing it, he could strengthen his body and build up his health. This inner strength method had a total of nine levels, and Ning Fan had practiced for twenty whole years, yet he had always been stuck in the first level. However, Ning Fan never thought that at this time, he would encounter an opportunity to break through!

  The torrential rain kept washing over Ning Fang's body, while Ning Fang continuously drove the true energy within his body to wash away the obstacles in his meridians. Gradually, Ning Fang also entered a state close to meditation.

  It wasn't long before Ning Fang suddenly felt that the path ahead was completely unobstructed, and his true energy surged out like a dam breaking. However, soon after, this true energy began to automatically disperse into the major and minor meridians, and finally, the true energy stabilized completely.

  Opening his eyes, Ning Fan saw a streak of dawn on the horizon. The torrential rain had stopped at some unknown time, and now it was already the second morning.

  After exercising his muscles and bones, Ning Fan felt that his strength and other aspects had made significant progress. Last night's breakthrough had apparently brought him many benefits.

  "Right, the bronze statue!" Ning Fan quickly thought of something even more important and turned around to run into the grand hall. Last night was too dark for him to examine it carefully, but now he could go take a closer look at the scene.

  However, a few minutes later, Ning Fan discovered that the bronze statue had been stolen for more than a month. The bronze statue was originally placed on a wooden board, and the color of the wooden board under the bronze statue was originally quite different from the surrounding area, but now the colors looked similar.

  Although Ning Fan was still unwilling to give up and checked for more than ten minutes, he had no choice but to accept a fact: that he could no longer find any clues of the stolen bronze statue. At least here, there were no more clues left behind.

  "It can only be considered a long-term plan." Ning Fan decided to go down the mountain first, but at this time, he suddenly realized that his body was sticky and uncomfortable, so he temporarily changed his mind and decided to take a bath first.

  Ning Fan had lived here for ten years and was very familiar with everything here. He also knew that there was a well behind the Taoist temple, where he used to take baths before. So now, without hesitation, he came to the edge of the well behind the Taoist temple to fetch water and take a bath.

  The cool well water poured over her body, feeling quite comfortable. Ning Fang quickly and neatly took off all her clothes, first washing herself clean, then casually wringing out her clothes a bit before putting the wet clothes back on her body.

  I had just put on my underpants when a sudden cry of surprise came from behind me, and this cry sounded strangely familiar.

  Turning around, Ning Fan felt depressed, why was it them again?

  At the back door of the Taoist temple, two beautiful and extraordinary women appeared. They were exactly the two beauties that Ning Fang saw in the security room of the villa yesterday afternoon. The one who had just let out a cry of surprise was precisely that eccentric iceberg.

  "Hooligan!" The ice beauty spat out two words coldly. This time she finally made some progress and didn't directly say "beat him" again.

  "You sneak into my home to peek at me taking a bath, if anyone's a hooligan, it's you two!" Ning Fan said with annoyance: "I think you two are the female hooligans!"

  "Shameless!" The iceberg beauty was stingy with her words.

  "What? Are you going to keep watching me take a bath?" Ning Fan sneered.

  "With your looks, what's there to see?" The disdainful voice came from the long-legged beauty, and after saying that, the long-legged beauty turned around and left with the ice mountain beauty.

  "What's wrong with my figure?" Ning Fan was somewhat depressed for a moment, he was actually despised by a woman for having a bad figure? However, come to think of it, with that woman's figure, she indeed had the qualifications to despise anyone's bad figure.

  "What nonsense are you thinking about?" Ning Fan shook his head, quickly put on the wet clothes, picked up the metal box, and came to the front of the Taoist temple.

  That weird beauty couple hasn't left yet, still standing at the Taoist temple entrance, Ning Fan didn't even bother to deal with them, turned around and walked away.

  "Halt!" The voice of the ice mountain beauty came from behind.

  Ning Fan didn't even bother to respond to her and continued walking quickly ahead.

  The beautiful iceberg woman's face showed a hint of annoyance, just as she was about to say something, her phone rang and she had to answer it: "It's me... what? Okay, I'll be right back."

  "Go back to the city first." Putting down her phone, the ice beauty said to the long-legged beauty.

  A few minutes later, Ning Fan, who was walking down the mountain road, saw a Range Rover drive by from the side, and his ears also caught a familiar phrase: "Hooligan!"

  Watching the departing Range Rover, Ning Fan was momentarily stunned. That weird beauty ran to Qingyun Pavilion early in the morning and then left so quickly? Is she crazy?

  Upon reflection, they were indeed mentally ill, and Ning Fan let it go.

  After the rain, Qingyun Mountain is even more refreshing, and with each breath, I feel my heart expanding and my spirit soaring. Unconsciously, Ning Fan also feels that his mood has improved a lot.

  When they returned to the village at the foot of the mountain, Ning Fan also found that the village was quite lively, and many tourists had already set out to climb the mountain.

  They quickly walked into the Ning'an Inn, and the two girls greeted him together.

  "Uncle!"

  "Uncle!"

  Ye Zi and Ning Ke appear together, and it seems like they have a pretty good relationship now.

  "Uncle, have you had breakfast? We've already eaten," Yehzi asked.

  "No, I'll go have breakfast first, then send you guys to school." Ning Fan said casually, and suddenly remembered something: "Right, Yezi, my phone is with you, did anyone call me last night?"

  "No, not last night, but this morning, a man named Kun Shu has called you several times already. I answered the phone and asked him what's up, but he didn't tell me." As Yezi was speaking, her mobile phone rang again, so she took it out of her bag and handed it to Ning Fan, "Look, Uncle, he's calling again."

  Ning Fan's heart sank slightly, and he suddenly had a very bad feeling. He hastily took the phone and answered it while walking out of the inn: "Uncle Kun, it's me, what's wrong?"

  "Something big has happened." Shi Kun's hoarse voice was filled with gravity.

  A few minutes later, Ning Fan hung up the phone and walked into the inn with an unusually solemn expression.

  "Uncle, you look so scary, what's wrong?" Yezi asked curiously.

  Ning Fan looked at Ye Zi, took a deep breath, and then said in a low voice: "Ye Zi, something has happened to your dad."

  "Uncle, what's wrong with my dad?" Yezi's face suddenly changed color.

  Ning Fan didn't answer immediately, he was somewhat reluctant to tell her the truth.

  "Uncle, what's going on with my dad? Is he... is he still alive?" Yezi asked in a tearful voice.

  Ning Fan didn't say anything, he just slowly shook his head.

  "Wow......" Yezi suddenly burst into tears and then threw herself into Ningfan's arms.

  Ning Fan gently hugged her, holding her frail and trembling body, and then whispered in her ear: "Yezhi, don't cry, you still have me."

  "Uncle, I only have you left...... Waa......" Yezi cried very sadly. She had lost her mother when she was very young, and now her father was gone too.

  Qingyun City Police Department, from the morning, became somewhat tense. Some police officers who were supposed to be on holiday today also had their holidays cancelled. Last night, Qingyun City was hit by torrential rain, and it wasn't until this morning that everyone discovered that last night's storm was not just heavy rain, but also an extremely brutal case.

  A naked corpse was found in the river, and after investigation by the police, it turned out to be a 16-year-old high school girl. The poor girl had been subjected to extreme humiliation and torture before her death, with almost no intact skin on her body. Even Shi Kun, who had been a detective for many years, had never seen such a tragic sight.

  Just as the police were investigating this case, they received another shocking news that someone had escaped from Qingyun City Prison last night!

  The escaped convict was named Mo Feng. In the past few years, at least twelve young women had died at his hands, and these women had also been subjected to cruel abuse. Therefore, the police immediately linked the two cases together!

  This made the police extremely nervous, because Mo Feng was a convicted felon who had been sentenced to death and was waiting for his execution to be approved at any time. Such a convict would naturally be extremely dangerous after escaping from prison. Another fact that worried them even more was that when Mo Feng escaped, he not only killed two prison guards but also another inmate in the prison, and this inmate was Ye Long, the former underworld boss of Qingyun City!

  If Mo Feng can't be caught as soon as possible, nobody knows how many more people he will kill. If the news gets out, it will inevitably cause panic among the citizens, so at this moment, the Qingyun City police are under great pressure.

  Shi Kun was under even greater pressure because the bureau had just established a special task force and he was in charge of it.