Setting a Trap!

The Black Church never acts without scheming.

The quieter things were now, the longer they had been plotting — waiting for one all-or-nothing eruption.

At this moment, their perfect window to strike was the Main Campus examination that could not be cancelled.

Calling it off wasn't really an option. Doing so would be the same as telling the Black Church's various factions that precautions had already been taken — and besides, Pearl Academy would never cancel such a critical event over something as nebulous as phantom fears.

*Forget it. Stop thinking about all that for now. Find the Shadow Demon-Beast first.*

"Monkey, you're with the military now, right?" Mo Fan called Zhang Xiaohou.

"Yeah, Brother Fan! Let me tell you, I am so awesome now..." The moment Zhang Xiaohou heard Mo Fan's voice, the small measure of proper, serious military bearing he'd worked so hard to build crumbled — he turned into a kid showing off his accomplishments, blabbing away without end.

"You volunteered to go to the central region yourself?" Mo Fan asked, a little surprised.

Zhang Xiaohou seemed to be doing well in the military. They were putting serious effort into cultivating him. Although it meant a full year of training in the central region, he'd be promoted to officer rank when he came back.

"Yeah! There's a lot I can learn there too. Brother Fan, you must have something to ask me, right?" Zhang Xiaohou said.

After their separation in Bo City, Zhang Xiaohou had joined the military and taken a path that most students would never choose. Mo Fan went to Magic City and ground away at his studies. The two had walked completely different roads, but it hadn't put a dent in their friendship.

"Mm. I want to know about a type of tamed beast the military uses — the Shadow Demon-Beast," Mo Fan said.

"That's not my department, but I have a comrade who specifically handles Shadow Demon-Beasts. Really classified stuff he probably can't get, but basic information should be fine," Zhang Xiaohou said.

Zhang Xiaohou's efficiency was extraordinary. Mo Fan called him in the morning, and by afternoon Zhang Xiaohou had already sent over materials on Shadow Demon-Beasts.

"Brother Fan, if you ever get out to the central region, come find me, okay? I really miss you."

"I will!"

"You must be ridiculously strong by now, Brother Fan."

"Obviously."

"Still as humble as ever, Brother Fan."

Zhang Xiaohou's comrade had done Mo Fan an enormous favor. The materials explained that tamed Shadow Demon-Beasts had an extreme obsession with beef — they consumed nearly half a cow every single day. If one was roaming loose in Magic City, the best place to start looking for clues was the city's beef processing facilities.

Mo Fan didn't rush straight to the processing plants. Magic City was a vast metropolis; there had to be eight hundred to a thousand large-scale beef storage operations scattered across it. Tracking down a Shadow Demon-Beast through sheer legwork would be easier said than done.

He went to the police station instead. A senior hunter's credentials were on par with a police officer's — enough to ask the officers to pull some theft reports.

"Hunter sir, I've sorted out the case reports you requested. Since they're all minor incidents, and what was stolen or damaged was meat products, cases like these are usually handled by just sending someone to look and make a note — formally filing them as proper cases is rarely done," the female clerk told Mo Fan.

"Good. Thank you. Also, please contact me right away if anyone reports a beef theft or damage — here's my information." Mo Fan handed the clerk who had pulled the records his contact details.

"Of course." She seemed to be a new hire, genuinely enthusiastic about everything.

Mo Fan left the police station and went back to comb through the minor theft records.

"Pudong New District has the highest frequency of incidents. The most recent was at Wan Street, which should be near the port — imported meat products would be stockpiled there first, then trucked out to the rest of the city..." Mo Fan had a rough direction in mind.

That same day he headed to Wan Street in Pudong New District, near the port. Having senior hunter credentials made everything go smoothly — the moment he said he was investigating a case involving Demon-Beasts, workers bent over backwards, telling him everything they knew.

Mo Fan went into the beef warehouses and began a careful, methodical search.

According to Zhang Xiaohou's materials, Shadow Demon-Beasts shed their tail fur easily, and the fallen strands had a faint luminescent quality. So if you found where one had been hiding, the glowing fibers would make it easy to confirm it had passed through.

He searched more than twenty beef storage warehouses before finally spotting glowing tail fur in one facility — a place that clearly didn't put much stock in cleanliness.

*Shed tail fur decomposes into powder after seven days... these strands are nearly powder already...*

This search hadn't turned up the Shadow Demon-Beast's actual location. It only confirmed that one had been through here, and not for long.

The trail died there. Mo Fan had no choice but to move on and look for the next suspicious site.

Not long after he left, another group arrived at the facility and began working their way through each warehouse.

"Gentlemen, is there really a Demon-Beast lurking around here? Someone else came to check just a little while ago..." a worker said, visibly on edge.

"Oh? Someone beat us here." Shen Mingxiao's brow furrowed slightly.

Shen Mingxiao was one of the school's more notable figures. He'd leveraged his connections in the Hunters' Alliance to trace the Shadow Demon-Beast this far — he'd expected to be the first one on the trail. Apparently not.

"Looks like we need to move faster. It won't do if someone else finds it first," Luo Song said.

"Relax. The Shadow Demon-Beast can only end up in our hands," Shen Mingxiao said.

After leaving the meat warehouse, Mo Fan walked toward the Huangpu River.

"Hello? Who's this?" He was nearly at his next destination when his phone buzzed.

"Hunter sir, it's me. We just received a tip — there's been a large beef theft at an old meat shop on the Xu River bank. Would you like to go take a look?" It was the female clerk from the police station.

"Perfect. I'm heading there now. Thank you — dinner's on me next time," Mo Fan said.

"Mm..."

In the underground parking garage of an unremarkable apartment block, a man wearing half a mask stood motionless, expression cold as stone.

Beside him crouched a creature blacker than midnight, its long curved claws resting lightly against the neck of the female clerk — who was drenched in cold sweat. One casual swipe, and blood would paint the concrete.

"You performed well. My not killing you doesn't mean I won't kill your family. So if you want your family to go on living, don't breathe a single word of this to anyone." The half-masked man's eyes were flat and predatory as he spoke.

He wanted to kill her. He truly did.

Ever since his face had been destroyed, he had pictured Mo Fan's face on every person he killed.

But he held back.

If the clerk died, the Tribunal's people could easily trace it back to him.

The Black Church reveled in slaughter — killing needed no justification. But the one condition that came before all others was that the killing must not bring trouble back upon yourself.