Chapter 50: It Was Just a Prank

In less than two minutes, Long Yue, trapped in the net, heard the sound of a key turning in the lock. She knew that Zhuge Ling’er and Lu Zhan had been captured and brought back.
As expected, Ye Feng carried two large nets and threw the two of them onto the big bed like fish in a net, then adjusted some buttons on his small pistol.
“Alright, you can talk now, but I’m sorry—all communication devices are still blocked. In other words, it’s impossible to notify anyone else.” Ye Feng pulled up a stool and sat by the bed.
“What is this thing?” Lu Zhan appeared extremely agitated.
“Lu Zhan, stop struggling. It’s useless. This thing can even catch a vampire viscount,” Long Yue said helplessly to him.
“Ye Feng, listen, we don’t have any ill intentions!” Long Yue tried to explain herself to Ye Feng.
“No ill intentions?” Ye Feng’s expression clearly showed disbelief. Pointing at the clock on the wall, he shouted, “Do you think I’m a fool? It’s 1 a.m. The three of you break into someone’s house at 1 a.m. and claim you have no ill intentions?”
“And you did it by illegal means, under the pretense of special services. If such behavior can be considered without ill intentions, then let me ask—does breaking windows or shooting with weapons count as having ill intentions? Don’t think I don’t know you’re all experts—two at the middle stage of innate cultivation and one at the later stage. With three experts coming to my door at once, I can only think they want my life!”
“Tell me, how did Pearl know I was here? How did she know it was me who killed those drug lords?” Ye Feng assumed they were Pearl’s people.
“Ye Feng, listen to me first, and you’ll understand what’s going on!” Long Yue knew why Ye Feng was treating them this way. “Pearl doesn’t know you’re here. I’m Long Yue, Long Tian’s younger sister. He must have told you about me, right?”
Ye Feng frowned slightly. He didn’t answer the question. He did know Long Tian had a sister; he had heard him mention her a few times while drinking with him. But he didn’t want to reveal more information. He wanted to find flaws in her words to determine whether she was genuine or not.

“Our father’s name is Long Chen. He is a direct descendant of the Long family and one of the heirs to the family headship. During a mission outside, he met our mother, and the two fell in love quickly. Upon returning to the Long family, he asked our grandfather for permission to marry her. However, since our mother was just an ordinary woman, she faced opposition from eight elders in the family. Children born from unions with ordinary people were believed to have weaker constitutions compared to those born from unions with other warriors. For this reason, our father was punished with ten years of isolation. Ten months later, our mother gave birth to twins—me and my brother. When we were five years old, our mother died of illness due to excessive longing for our father. My brother and I became orphans… After wandering with my brother for over ten days, a kind couple who had no children adopted us.”

“That couple raised us with great hardship for two years. Then, people from the Long family came and took us back, only to see if we were suitable for cultivation. The tests showed that both my brother and I were geniuses in cultivation. My brother reached the peak of the Post-Natural stage in just one year—a feat never seen before in the history of the Long family. Even the fastest genius in their family had taken five years to reach that stage at the age of twelve, while my brother did it in just one year. As a result, high hopes were placed on him, and I, with my cultivation speed second only to his, was listed as one of the candidates for the next generation of family head.”

“My brother reached the peak of the Natural stage at the age of eight, but perhaps fate hated his talent, as he made no further progress afterward. By the age of ten, I had also reached the peak of the Post-Natural stage, while my brother still hadn’t made any breakthrough. Two years of research revealed to the elders that the Post-Natural energy in my brother’s body could never be transformed into Natural energy—a situation they had never encountered before. After I reached the peak of the Post-Natural stage, their attention gradually shifted to me, and my brother was slowly abandoned by them. By this time, our father had just emerged from his isolation and, having reached the Natural stage, replaced our grandfather as the new family head.”

“But tragedy struck soon after our father took power. Not long after, the second eldest proposed expelling my brother, arguing that he would never be able to reach the Innate Realm in his lifetime and that the clan didn’t need such a good-for-nothing. Our father defied all opposition but ultimately agreed that if my brother still hadn’t reached the Innate Realm by the age of eighteen, he would drive him out of the Long family. During the eight years he stayed in the Long family afterward, he was mocked and ridiculed by everyone. I reached the Innate Realm at the age of twelve, and the other children followed suit, but my brother’s cultivation remained stagnant. The eight-year deadline arrived quickly, and our father, bound by his promise, drove my brother out of the Long family. From that day on, my brother severed all ties with the Long family. Uncle Ao, who had been taking care of him, also left the family at our father’s secret orders to take responsibility for him.”

“Because of what happened in the Long family, my brother began to distrust everyone. Some people started to join him, and he gradually built his own underworld empire. In ten years, he controlled most of City H and became the well-known ‘Brother Long’ throughout the city…”

“What about your adoptive parents back then?” Ye Feng had never seen Brother Long visit anyone on his own, so he was skeptical.

“They left for America with the money the Long family gave them not long after we were taken away by them, and there was no news of them since. My brother tried to find them after leaving the Long family but to no avail, and he gradually forgot about it,” Long Yue said with a bitter smile and a shake of her head.

“How am I supposed to believe you’re telling the truth?” Ye Feng said, though his hostility had clearly diminished. “I don’t know much about Brother Long, but if any organization were to investigate deliberately, it wouldn’t be hard to uncover his background.”

“Don’t worry about that. The secrets of the Long family aren’t that easy to uncover,” Long Yue said with a smile and a shake of her head. “Even the forces behind Pearl probably can’t dig up this secret.”

“Alright, if that’s the case, then no matter what you make up, I can’t tell truth from fiction,” Ye Feng said, spreading his hands.

“Ye Feng, do you still remember me?” Zhuge Ling’er finally spoke up.

“You’re…” Ye Feng then turned his gaze to her and examined her carefully. “It seems… familiar…”

“The school shooting!” Zhuge Ling’er reminded him.

“Are you… that female police officer?” Ye Feng finally recognized her. Zhuge Ling’er, dressed in feminine clothes, indeed looked very different from when she wore a police uniform. “How come you’re hanging around with them?”
“My name is Zhuge Ling’er. I’m the youngest daughter of Zhuge Qingyun, the current head of the Zhuge family! If you don’t believe me, take my notebook—there are photos of our family in my QQ space. Enter the password, and you’ll be able to see them!” This was the only way Zhuge Ling’er could prove their innocence.
“Stop playing tricks,” Ye Feng said as he opened the QQ space page, then watched as Zhuge Ling’er entered the number and password.
After entering the space and typing in the password in the album, Ye Feng saw a magnificent Eastern-style building—a huge structure deep in the mountains. As the photos were flipped through, he saw pictures of Zhuge Ling’er and a few others, including three or four taken with Long Yue.
“Since that’s the case, why didn’t you explain from the start?” Ye Feng finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed everything she said was true.
“Brother only has you as his friend. I just wanted to see what kind of people he hangs out with…” Long Yue said with a helpless smile.
“Oh… I see. You were trying to play a prank…” Ye Feng shook his head and laughed.
“Well, today’s game is over. I’ll let you go. Let’s talk about serious matters!” Ye Feng said as he pressed another button next to his pistol, and the net-like substance around the three of them slowly disappeared.