Chapter 13: Guiding the Blasting Operation!

Duty Room.

The faces of Fang Youcai and his two companions instantly changed upon overhearing the conversation between the two people.

“Captain, it seems there’s been a death on the other side?” Xiao Lü was shocked, though his tone carried a hint of uncertainty.

“Hmm…” Fang Youcai’s expression was equally strange.

Anyone with insight could tell from their dialogue that something had gone terribly wrong—most likely a homicide.

Yet, the fact that these two were speaking so openly in front of over ten thousand viewers in a live broadcast made it all feel surreal to Fang Youcai.

Ordinary people might be stunned by such news, but for those like them who frequently dealt with criminals, it was almost unbelievable.

Grave robbers have been impossible to fully eradicate throughout history.

One reason was the lure of profit—no matter how many were caught or shot at, there were always those who reckoned they could get lucky, convinced they wouldn’t be caught.

This perpetuated a steady influx of new recruits into grave-robbing gangs.

Another reason was their level of expertise.

Grave robbers were not petty thieves. Without genuine skill, this line of work was impossible.

Thus, in terms of individual capability, grave robbers far outmatched common pickpockets or small-time crooks.

This made apprehending them all the more difficult.

From what Fang Youcai knew, some large grave-robbing gangs operated like family clans or organized factions.

Their leaders passed down specialized knowledge and experience to their subordinates through secret methods.

This endowed them with exceptional grave-robbing skills, counter-surveillance abilities, and even underground networks that allowed them to share intelligence and evade capture.

It was no exaggeration to say their operational rigor rivaled that of secret agents.

Yet precisely because of this, Fang Youcai found it impossible to believe that such well-trained individuals would blatantly connect with a streamer and expose their grave-robbing activities live to over ten thousand viewers.

“Damn!” he muttered, rubbing his forehead, overwhelmed by an unprecedented sense of disbelief.

“What’s wrong?” Liang Jingyi asked, puzzled.

Fang Youcai shook his head. “Nothing. I just feel something’s off…”

“But I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.”

As he finished speaking, Xiao Lü suddenly said, “Trouble.”

“The other party’s signal is encrypted; we can’t locate their position!”

Xiao Lü’s words hit Fang Youcai like an electric shock.

His heart skipped a beat, and a sudden clarity dawned on him.

“Encrypted!”

“Damn it!”

“No wonder these bastards are so brazen.”

“So they were prepared all along.”

Fang Youcai abruptly stood up. “I feel like we’ve fallen into a massive conspiracy!”

“Since we can’t track the connection, start investigating this streamer named Zhang Xuan!”

Xiao Lü hesitated for a moment, then nodded firmly. “Got it!”

...

“Brother Xuan…”

Seeing Zhang Xuan fall silent, Zhou Cheng’s tone grew anxious.

In this situation, no matter how calm he usually was, he couldn’t relax.

Zhang Xuan raised his hand to stop him. “Don’t say anything. I know.”

“You’re saying the only way out is through this wall, right?”

Zhou Cheng, seeing that Zhang Xuan understood him, hurriedly replied, “Yes, Brother Xuan!”

“But there’s alum acid inside the wall.”

Zhang Xuan nodded. “I know.”

“But don’t worry about it.”

“There’s a one-meter zone on either side of the holes in the wall that’s free of alum acid.”

“Beyond that range, the acid is present.”

“The storage of alum acid inside the wall is arranged in adjacent cells.”

“Does that make sense?”

Zhou Cheng had already suspected the acid wasn’t contained in a single space within the wall. Zhang Xuan’s explanation confirmed his theory.

He immediately turned the camera and nodded toward the tall, thin man.

But the tall, thin man seemed not to understand Zhou Cheng’s meaning.

Zhou Ze patted him on the shoulder and said in a low voice, “Use the detonator!”

Only then did the tall, thin man nod.

Zhou Cheng was nervous. Although he had tampered with his phone to hide his location, their business was illicit, and with so many mixed viewers in the livestream, caution was essential.

Perhaps due to his nerves, when the camera shifted behind him, it inadvertently captured the charred body of a short, stout man.

But Zhou Cheng was too focused on talking to the tall man to notice.

Zhang Xuan frowned sharply upon seeing the shadow.

“A burnt corpse!”

With his keen insight, his vision was extraordinary. He quickly identified the tall figure in the footage and, combined with the newly unlocked livestream prompt feature, confirmed the victim’s identity.

It was the fat man he had seen at the foot massage parlor the night before!

No wonder the man had been emanating a dark aura—an ominous sign of imminent death.

However, the fat man was no saint. His fierce expression suggested he had blood on his hands. If he was dead, so be it.

Zhang Xuan felt no sympathy.

Although the livestream viewers couldn’t see as clearly as Zhang Xuan, they still noticed the blackened shadow partially covering the body on the ground.

“????”

“What the hell did I just see?”

“That dark thing on the ground—could it be a dead body?”

“Holy crap, is grave-robbing really this terrifying?”

“My scalp’s tingling!”

“This livestream is insane—are they really allowed to show this?”

As they chatted, a muffled blast suddenly rang out!

The screen vibrated, dust swirling into view.

“Third Master, it’s blown open!”

A voice filled with excitement echoed faintly.

...

“Third Master?”

Fang Youcai took out his notebook, alertly jotting down the name.

Xiao Lü said, “This appraisal streamer is named Zhang Xuan, male, nineteen years old.”

Fang Youcai was taken aback. “So young?”

Xiao Lü nodded. “Yeah, born after 2000.”

“This kid lives in the East Garden community of Qingcheng City, renting a place.”

“If you want to investigate, Captain Fang, he can be summoned anytime.”

Fang Youcai sighed, appearing disappointed.

The others looked puzzled.

After a moment, Fang Youcai said, “Let’s hold off on summoning him for now.”

Xiao Lü was surprised. “Why?”

Fang Youcai explained, “At nineteen, he’s just graduated high school, hasn’t even stepped into society yet.”

“At that age, it’s impossible for him to be connected to grave robbers.”

“Even if we find him, we’re unlikely to get any leads.”

“On the contrary, we might alert the culprits.”

“If these grave robbers dared not connect with Zhang Xuan, we wouldn’t even know what they were up to.”

Liang Jingyi nodded. “Makes sense.”

But Xiao Lü added, “Still, although Zhang Xuan is only nineteen, he seems to know more than the grave robbers themselves.”

“And I couldn’t find any information about his parents—he seems like an orphan.”

“I’m wondering if he might have some special background.”

“After all, no high school teacher would teach a student so much history!”

Fang Youcai slowly looked at him. “You mean… his family might be connected to grave robbers?”

Xiao Lü: “It’s a possibility we can’t rule out.”