Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The loud sound of a helicopter came from up in the night sky. Its spotlight was directed onto the Magicians who referred to themselves as the Golden Battle Hunters.

A clamor was heard coming from outside the manor, too. The people saw blinding milky-white light combining into glowing walls surrounding the manor and the three ranches surrounding it.

Standing at the ranch, Mo Fan could see a huge, white barrier blocking the night sky above him like a cage. People raised their heads and stared at the white barrier in disbelief...

More helicopters appeared above the barrier. Meanwhile, lots of figures had also appeared in the distance. They stood outside the barrier, spreading around it evenly.

The space that the ranches occupied was rather impressive; they could imagine the immeasurable energy needed to construct a barrier surrounding them entirely. Mo Fan, Mu Ningxue, and Lingling were astounded upon seeing it!

-What's going on?

-Did the Enforcement Union make their move?

-Who else apart from the Enforcement Union could invest so much effort and directly seal off the ranches and the manor with a barrier?-

"There are lots of Magicians out there; almost a thousand of them!" Lingling looked at the screen of her notebook.

The screen had an electronic map of the ranches. On it were countless tiny green dots.

Almost a thousand Magicians… that was almost the size of an army!

Mo Fan found it hard to understand what was happening. How did a thousand Magicians simply appear out of nowhere?

"Master Mintian," whispered Lingling.

"Isn't he just a speaker?" asked Mu Ningxue in confusion.

"They might have used his reputation and his talk as cover to gather thousands of people from different places. The truth is, they simply arranged for lots of Magicians to blend in with the crowd just to surround the manor. Perhaps the people of the Black Vatican didn't even realize they were being surrounded," said Lingling.

It was impossible for a thousand Magicians to show up out of nowhere. The Magicians disguising themselves must have waited until the talk was over and pretended to leave the place. However, they proceeded to set up the formation around the ranches, preventing the Black Vatican from running away.

"Why would they send us here if they were already planning such a huge operation?" wondered Mo Fan.

Considering the scale of the operation, the people in charge must be extremely confident with their move. They would only make the call if they assumed they could wipe out the remaining members of the Black Vatican here. Wasn't Leng Qing's arrangement and worry a bit too much?

"They aren't from the Enforcement Union. It's the Golden Battle Hunters. It's a first-tier Hunter Group from our country. Many experts in their group are willing to take on quests submitted by the Enforcement Union, including taking down members of the Black Vatican. Even the Black Vatican was impressed by their sources of information at times. Someone in their group must be aware that the Black Vatican is hiding here, thus they decided to make their move without notifying the Enforcement Union," said Lingling.

She was quite familiar with the Hunter Union. The Golden Battle Hunters had lots of members. They could have easily gathered a virtual army of Magicians.

"If that's the case, our job is done here," said Mu Ningxue.

Lingling shook her head. She looked fairly uneasy.

Mo Fan also agreed the whole thing would not end so easily. The Golden Battle Hunters seemed to have the situation under control with their quick, carefully-planned operation, yet they forgot to take into consideration that apart from the Black Vatican, the manor also had around a thousand visitors, and around five hundred workers. The woman called Carly they caught was obviously only a Gray Priest, but the intel provided by Leng Qing implied that there was a Blue Deacon here...

With such a huge operation, the Blue Deacon, the other Gray Priests, and the remaining members of the Black Vatican would surely hide their tails and blend in with the crowd, allowing them to sneak away easily.

There was no way a Hunter Group could take fifteen hundred people into custody and investigate them individually.

Most members of the Black Vatican were no different than ordinary people before their identities were compromised!

"All this effort just to catch a Gray Priest," Mo Fan sighed. Somehow, he felt that the operation was too sloppy and reckless.

"Humph, consider themselves lucky if she really is one..." Lingling harrumphed. She was displeased by the Golden Battle Hunters' flamboyant approach.

Why would Lingling not know what the Golden Battle Hunters were thinking?

In the past, when the Black Vatican was still active in their country, the Golden Battle Hunters mostly caught some unimportant members of the Black Vatican anonymously to exchange for the rewards.

However, they had blatantly revealed their identities, simply because the Black Vatican was almost wiped out entirely in their country. The ranches and the manor were the only base left. They even put up an act with thousands of people just to catch the remaining members of the Black Vatican off guard. It was likely that the media everywhere would be talking about the Golden Battle Hunters tomorrow.

The people of China hated the Black Vatican to the guts. Anyone who stepped forward to annihilate them would be praised as heroes.

It was obvious that the Golden Battle Hunters wanted to make a name for themselves, thus the huge operation.

Unfortunately, it was extremely dumb in Lingling's eyes!

First, if a Blue Deacon was in charge of the base, only he or she would have the names of the remaining members of the Black Vatican in China.

Second, the manor had more than fifteen hundred people, and most of them consisted of ordinary people like Rong Sheng, Zhao Pinlin, Wang Xuxu, and Guo Wenyi. If they were not quick enough, the Black Vatican might even hold the people hostage!

"Lingling, why were you saying that this is bad?" asked Mo Fan as he recalled her mentioning it in the first place.

"This Carly, she's only a smokescreen, according to my investigation..." said Lingling.

A few days ago, Lingling had thoroughly investigated Carly. She did have a name list, yet the list only consisted of...

As Mo Fan was ready to listen to Lingling's results, he immediately heard the captain wearing a shirt smashing the communication device on the floor and kicking the paralyzed Carly furiously.

"Asshole!" cursed the captain.

"Pan Jin, what's wrong?" said the Hunter with a beard.

"The people on this woman's list are only a bunch of prostitutes!" Pan Jin felt like exploding from the rage.

"What prostitutes?" asked the other Hunters in confusion.

----

Mo Fan had good listening. He could hear the captain's voice from a great distance away.

"Prostitutes?" asked Mo Fan in astonishment.

"Mmm, this Carly is only the brothel keeper of this manor, providing sex services to the rich businessmen who came here on vacation. She keeps a list of names, and they only consist of university students, office workers, or even housemaids who work here part-time as prostitutes… she purposely hid the information confidentially, so it looked as if some secret organization is trying to cover it up, like the Black Vatican," said Lingling.

"But this Carly is still a Magician, which means she's a smokescreen that the Black Vatican has purposely put in place," said Mu Ningxue.

"Exactly, the Golden Battle Hunters have set up such a huge operation and gathered more than a thousand Magicians. They even used Master Mintian's name and the barrier that cost at least a hundred million, yet they ended up catching a group of prostitutes...I wonder what their leader, Ge Ming's expression is now. How amusing! Even with so many people in the Hunter Group, none of them actually has a brain," said Lingling.

"Looks like they are still going to make the headlines tomorrow!" added Mo Fan.