"She stayed behind at the Ice Palace for treatment." Wei Zhao did not explain much to Zhao Qitan. For the moment he could not possibly open his heart to this man, so he kept his guard up and treated him merely as an ordinary friend!

"I see. Then congratulations indeed, Brother Wei!" Zhao Qitan said hastily.

"Mm... there is nothing else. Pack up and let's head back." Wei Zhao did not want to say more about such matters.

"Fine. I am all packed and ready to set out at any time. How about you, Brother Wei? Won't you rest for a night?" Zhao Qitan asked.

"No. No need to rest. Let's leave at once." Wei Zhao had home on his mind. The matter of Feng Xiaoxiao had come to a temporary close, and what remained was the college entrance examination. If he hurried, he might still make it in time to sit for it!

Moreover, the date of the Great Families Assembly was close at hand, and Wei Zhao had to accompany Chen Yutian to attend it. What troubled him, however, was that in this trial he had not found the chance to break through to Earth Rank, perhaps because he had only just broken through to late Profound Rank and had not even reached the peak of late Profound Rank.

If Wei Zhao did not become an Earth-rank master, then no matter what he could not make both Chen Yutian and Qiu Lingshan into Earth-rank masters. Before he himself reached Earth Rank, the limit for mass-producing masters was early Profound Rank.

After checking out of the inn, Wei Zhao and Zhao Qitan drove away together and headed in the direction of Songshan City...

To pin down the criminal suspect's trail, Qiu Lingshan posted additional officers around Feng Xiaoxiao's garage, so that the moment the suspect came to fetch the car, the police would spot him.

To Qiu Lingshan's disappointment, however, the suspect seemed to have vanished into thin air these past few days. He never appeared in public again, committed no further crimes, and never came to the garage for the car!

Of course, by now An Jianwen had already ordered Big Mule to dispose of that disguised Land Rover, and the reason "Zero-One" had stopped striking was that he was undergoing Dr. Yin's biochemical experiments!

Dr. Yin could now drive a test subject's human potential in an instant to the external strength of the peak of late Profound Rank, though only for an instant, lasting no more than three to five minutes, and under ordinary circumstances it need not be switched on.

"Young Master Wen, I have already made the drug into capsules and placed one in Zero-One's mouth. Once he meets an unbeatable enemy, Zero-One will automatically carry out the second command the hypnotist planted in his brain, which is to bite through the capsule. That way Zero-One's strength will instantly become the peak of late Profound Rank, but the duration is only three to five minutes for now, because the drug's activity is unstable and the time can only be fixed as a rough range." After the experiment succeeded, Dr. Yin hurried to report to An Jianwen.

"Excellent!" An Jianwen said in praise after hearing Dr. Yin out. "This is already very good. I was afraid that in order to capture Zero-One the police would invite masters from the Mysterious Investigation Bureau to reinforce them, and that Zero-One would be no match and unable to escape. If Zero-One were caught by the police, the plan would fail completely! As long as Zero-One can get away in that instant, there will be no problem!"

"There is one more piece of good news!" Dr. Yin said. "Zero-One's instantaneous limit is the peak of late Profound Rank, but I have also used drugs to raise his strength under normal conditions to early Profound Rank, lasting about two hours!"

"Not bad at all. That is progress. Before it could only hold Yellow Rank strength for that long, and now it has actually become Profound Rank! One step further, and once Zero-One's strength can be held at the peak of late Profound Rank, then we can rob the great families, hee hee!" An Jianwen said with satisfaction. "By the way, you just said you have already made the drug into capsules. Can you prepare some for me to carry on my person? Then would I not also become an external master with the strength of the peak of late Profound Rank?"

"I am afraid not!" Dr. Yin shook his head hastily. "Young Master Wen, the present drug has enormous side effects and does violent damage to the brain. After taking it, the man will slowly turn into an idiot, able only to move under the hypnotist's commands, having completely lost his own consciousness!"

"So frightening? Then forget it!" An Jianwen broke out in a fright. What a joke. Would that not turn him into a biochemical zombie?

"Young Master Wen need not worry too much. I am pressing research here as well. When my mentor left years ago, he took most of the data with him, so here I can only reconstruct it slowly, but rest assured, future drugs will certainly include one fit for ordinary men to use, one that can make even you, Young Master Wen, into a master!" Dr. Yin said.

"That would be wonderful!" An Jianwen dreamed in his heart of the moment he himself became a master. Did Gu Mengyao not like to find personal guards? Once he had played Wei Zhao to death, he would volunteer to become Gu Mengyao's personal guard, and then he could win the beauty home! At the thought, excitement surged through An Jianwen. "By the way, have Zero-One keep striking, and the bigger the uproar the better. Best to stir up public anger, so that even if Wei Zhao is not the final suspect in the end, everyone will still reject him!"

"Very well, Young Master Wen. I will arrange for him to strike again at once, only this time he will not drive. I will have him ride a motorcycle!" Big Mule said.

"Better make it ruthless, then find a chance to show his face, so the police will lock onto the suspect!" An Jianwen said.

"Good. No problem!" Big Mule nodded.

...

"Leader Wei, the wind and snow ahead are too heavy. Let's find a place to shelter!" Zhao Qitan stopped his car and stuck his head out, shouting toward Wei Zhao's car behind him.

Zhao Qitan was a Profound-rank master with deep true energy, so Wei Zhao could hear him without even opening his window.

Wei Zhao also stopped his car. The wind and snow ahead were indeed heavy, with visibility extremely low and the road ahead all but invisible, so Zhao Qitan had volunteered to act as vanguard, flashing his hazard lights to guide Wei Zhao.

"Then let's rest a while and find somewhere to take cover." Wei Zhao said.

Although there would hardly be any obstacles, pedestrians, or passing vehicles along this road, driving on like this still carried a certain danger.

"Not far from here there is a cave. We saw it on our way here and even marked it on the navigation map. Leader Wei, shall we head over?" Zhao Qitan asked. "Who would have thought it would come in handy now!"

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