Chapter 1 Hengcheng Safety Energy Development Company

Hengcheng Safety Energy Development Company's headquarters was a square, seven-story building standing in the middle of a vast, empty wasteland. Around this central building were two rows of two-story factory sheds, covering a considerable area.

According to the information, this was a new energy company focused on the new era of renewable energy. Established in 1997 in response to official Zheng Country policies and registered in Modu, the company was dedicated to the investment and development of new energy technologies such as biogas power generation and wind power generation, and also had subsidiaries involved in waste disposal.

And this was the family enterprise built by the Tang family within the Zheng Country system after they had laundered their assets.

The Tang family, according to some of the information collected by Shao Qiming, was an indigenous family that had been rooted in Xiangzhou for thousands of years. They were skilled in controlling ghosts and employing yansheng (a type of witchcraft to suppress enemies). Many famous shen wu shushi (divine shamans and sorcerers) had emerged from their ranks in local folklore. Some were infamous for cursing disrespectful villages with crop failures, while others were legendary for protecting the peace and well-being of a region.

In general, according to ancient books, this extraordinary family tended to act according to their whims, with few taboos.

The Tang family was rooted in the common people and never tried to interfere in political struggles or the contest for supremacy, so their overall reputation was not that great. But it was precisely because of this cautious approach that they were able to survive the great upheavals of the past millennia and continue to this day, with considerable wealth.

Hengcheng Safety Energy Company was a family business, and during working hours, the Tang family's senior management was usually here. But it was not working hours now, so Su Zhou didn't know if they were present.

So, he stood in the snow, strengthening his spiritual vision from afar, gazing into the distance.

With the combined enhancement of thermal vision and spiritual vision, Su Zhou could see the spiritual energy points moving behind the building walls – in this way, although he couldn't see ordinary people, as long as someone had cultivated to the Opening Spirit Realm, they couldn't escape his eyes.

"There are no Awakened Realm cultivators here. It seems their senior management isn't inside."

Su Zhou saw that even in the midst of a blizzard, there were still five Opening Spirit Realm cultivators in the company headquarters. They were probably middle management, but the true pillars and high-ranking members of the family, the Awakened Realm cultivators, were not among them.

"I should grab someone and ask about the situation."

Su Zhou murmured softly, preparing to sneak into the company and grab an Opening Spirit Realm cultivator to interrogate. But just as he was about to move, Su Zhou suddenly realized a blind spot in his thinking.

"Wait, even a ghost-witch family like this must have some good people among them, and my code doesn't allow me to grab innocent people to interrogate!"

The enemies in the Divine Wood World were mostly extremely evil beings like demon soldiers and demon generals, all of whom deserved to be killed. Su Zhou naturally had no scruples when he took action, and wouldn't mind tearing out their hearts and lungs to get them to tell the truth. But now, things were different on Earth.

"My code should be to only punish the chief culprits – as for the others, even if they have received favors from the evildoers, it's not enough to kill them. After all, most people aren't even cultivators. Others might not think so, but that's what I'm going to do."

Yala couldn't bear to watch any longer. She darted out from his temples and bit Su Zhou's ear hard: "Are you stupid? Just grab someone with spiritual power to interrogate! What good people would come from a witch family that cultivates yin spiritual energy and controls ghosts! How does that opera go? 'The more I think about it, the more hateful it becomes. There are no good people in Hongtong County!'"

"Besides, do you think the minds of people living in modern society are as firm as those of the demon army? You don't even need to interrogate them. Just scare them a little, and they'll tell you everything!"

Oh, right! There's really no need to always kill and interrogate. I forgot I could also scare people!

Hearing this, a certain Demon Lord immediately brightened up – so he immediately retorted with a very argumentative spirit: "Why can't there be good people among those who control ghosts? Have you met everyone in this family? No investigation, no right to speak. In this situation, I can't act blindly. Sounding bad and actually being bad are two different things!"

Even as he argued verbally, Su Zhou's body was honestly moving rapidly towards the building.

It had to be said that the power of 'Thunder Law' might not have been that great in ancient times. Unless it was a thunderstorm, its killing power was hard to surpass other daofa (Taoist magic).

But in modern society, it was just too useful! Relying on the sensitivity provided by Thunder Law, Su Zhou sensed countless hidden cameras along the way, like sensing large spotlights. He easily avoided them all.

Even if there were a few that he couldn't avoid by using blind spots, he would slightly interfere with the Thunder Law, causing the camera to show a few seconds of snowy static – and in that short time, he had already used his spiritual power to strengthen the glass, cutting a large opening in the window, just like when he killed the Twilight True Demon. He sneaked into the building's corridors silently.

This was not a stealthy massacre. No one died, and no one discovered Su Zhou.

At this time, with the help of Thunder Law and advanced spiritual vision, Su Zhou was like he had a cheat code for x-ray vision and highlighting key information. The trajectories of all the cameras and people walking in the entire building were presented in his eyes. Soon, he identified a target.

A shadowy figure of a cultivator who had left the office and seemed to be heading towards the restroom.

"Hum hum~ I'm so happy today~" This person seemed to be in a good mood, even humming a tune when he entered the restroom.

"You're so happy? Then I've decided it's you!"

The restroom and the corridor were next to each other. After confirming that there were indeed no other spiritual energy cultivators nearby, Su Zhou directly unleashed his power, and incredibly solidified spiritual power was activated with the method of Qi Condensation and Object Manipulation. Separated by a wall, he pressed towards the unknown Tang family cultivator!

Buzz! In an instant, a gust of wind blew past, and spiritual power locked onto his body and soul. This young man in a short-haired suit, who was about twenty-seven or eight years old and standing in front of the urinal, froze. His whole body was as immobile as if he were experiencing a ghost pressing on his body!

"Wh-what the hell?!"

Extremely panicked, the cultivator immediately wanted to use his spiritual energy to break the seal, but it was doomed to be futile. When his gray, phantom-like spiritual energy slammed into Su Zhou's spiritual power, it was like crashing into a triangular, sacred mountain. It shattered directly.

"Which senior expert is playing tricks on me?"

Although his whole body was unable to move, the corner of the suited man’s eye could still see that there was no one else around him. The entire restroom was empty!

At this time, Su Zhou didn't use any Dragon Might. He simply mixed a trace of the bloody battle aura he had cultivated in the Divine Wood World into his spiritual power. The terrifying, bloodthirsty pressure swept over, immediately causing countless severed limbs and phantom images of swords slashing towards him to appear before the cultivator's eyes – his legs weakened, and he wanted to kneel, but unfortunately, the bones in his legs were stiff, and he couldn't bend his knees even if he wanted to.

"This feeling?! Could it really be a ghost?"

The Tang family was originally a family that controlled ghosts, and the suited man quickly thought of the many dangerous situations that his predecessors had repeatedly warned him about. He immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and tears were about to flow out: "Could it be that the evil ghosts controlled by the main family are retaliating and coming to seek revenge on us?!"

"Heaven have mercy, I haven't done anything, I'm just a concubine's son from a branch family! Debts have owners, grievances have those responsible. Sir, you are magnanimous, please don't look for me!"

Su Zhou didn't plan to scare people for fun, he just wanted to break this cultivator's psychological defenses. When he saw that the other party was about to burst into tears, but was unable to cry due to his aura, he bluntly used a deliberately disguised, very eerie spiritual transmission: "I ask, you answer. The faster the speed, the more the content, the safer you are – I can tell if you're lying. As long as you haven't harmed anyone's life, I won't harm yours."

"I'll talk, I'll talk!"

The suited man had never experienced any great storms, nor had he undergone any interrogation resistance training – few families and companies would specifically train this. He immediately poured out everything Su Zhou asked.