High-level martial arts: Long spear with black flames to suppress demons.

Back in her bedroom, Zhang Qingqing leaned against the door, looking at the warm, smooth mahogany plaque in her hand. Strangely enough, the moment she held the plaque, her previously agitated mood from studying miraculously calmed down.

She rummaged through drawers and found a pretty red rope, carefully threaded the wooden plaque onto it, then lifted her long hair and put it around her fair neck.

The rosewood plaque fits perfectly against her delicate collarbone; it's just the right size and looks quite nice.

Looking at herself in the full-length mirror, Zhang Qingqing couldn't help but recall the scene of Shen Chang'an coming out of the bathroom shirtless this morning, and her cheeks flushed slightly.

"Actually... this guy is really handsome, and his physique is exceptionally good, like a model..."

Zhang Qingqing muttered to herself in front of the mirror, but then frowned in annoyance, "But his personality is just awful! He always looks so lazy and sleepy, and he's so weak and spineless!"

"I always say such nasty things, and he doesn't even say a word back! If he were even a little bit tougher and argued with me, I'd respect him more!"

Zhang Qingqing became increasingly angry the more she thought about it.

Then she remembered the incident when Shen Chang'an beat the school bully into the hospital at the beginning of her first year of high school.

"He's pretty good at fighting, but when he gets into trouble, my dad still has to clean up his mess!"

Zhang Qingqing remembered that her father used to work in a mysterious, secretive unit, and she secretly speculated about it.

"If it weren't for my dad using his old connections from his time in the classified unit and pulling countless strings to suppress the matter, Shen Chang'an would have been expelled from the juvenile detention center long ago!"

"And what happened before!"

"Riding that noisy motorcycle out to fool around in the middle of the night, and my parents didn't say a word to him! I said I wanted to buy a car and they scolded me. Why doesn't anyone care about Shen Chang'an?! Double standards!"

......

Despite her constant complaining, Zhang Qingqing honestly kept the wooden plaque close to her body.

Sunday afternoon.

After enjoying the sumptuous dinner prepared by Li Yue, the two had to return to school for evening self-study.

Li Yue drove the two of them to the gate of Qingzhou No. 1 Middle School as usual.

"Mom, we're going inside. Drive carefully on your way back!"

As soon as she got off the bus, Zhang Qingqing immediately reverted to her aloof demeanor from school. She slung her backpack over her shoulder, didn't even glance at Shen Chang'an, and quickly walked forward with small, quick steps.

This was already her standard procedure. At school, she absolutely forbade any classmate to associate her with Shen Chang'an, the "bad student who got in through connections."

Shen Chang'an looked at the retreating figure ahead, which he couldn't avoid, smiled indifferently, and followed at a leisurely pace for several dozen meters, carrying his guitar case in one hand, towards the teaching building of Class 7, Grade 12.

During evening self-study sessions for senior high school students, as the countdown numbers on the blackboard dwindled, the atmosphere became subtly relaxed.

With less than twenty days until the college entrance examination, teachers of all subjects have long since stopped teaching new lessons, and even test papers are rarely distributed. Most of the time is left for students to review their own knowledge and discuss their mistakes in private.

This was a rare moment of peace and quiet for Shen Chang'an, who was sitting in the quiet area at the back of the classroom.

He leaned comfortably against the wall, his phone hidden behind a mountain of study materials, the screen displaying the internal communication interface of the Town Night Division. He'd been watching it all night; aside from a few insignificant attendance records, nothing major had happened.

"Another day passed peacefully, perfect."

At 10 p.m., the bell rang on time to signal the end of get out of class.

The classroom instantly erupted in noise. Shen Chang'an stretched, picked up the guitar case leaning against the corner of the wall, slung it over one shoulder, and walked out along the aisle.

As he passed that familiar spot in the third row, he paused slightly.

Li Xiwan's seat was empty. Although several textbooks were neatly stacked on the table, her schoolbag was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, why didn't Xixi come to evening self-study tonight?"

He Fei, Li Xiwan's deskmate, was packing her schoolbag while turning to gossip with the girl behind her.

"Old Liu was just yelling in the hallway, saying that her phone was off and he couldn't reach her family either."

The girl at the table behind me shook her head: "I don't know, she never asks for leave."

"She didn't come?"

A slightly lazy yet highly penetrating voice suddenly rang out above the two of them.

He Fei was startled and looked up sharply, meeting Shen Chang'an's deep eyes. Seeing that this "plague god" who was usually the most elusive and unfathomable in the class had actually taken the initiative to talk to her, He Fei was so nervous that she even stuttered a little.

"Shen... Shen classmate. Yes, Xixi didn't come tonight."

"Old Liu can't get in touch with her parents?"

Shen Chang'an astutely grasped the key point.

"that......"

He Fei swallowed and explained in a low voice.

"Actually, Xixi is quite pitiful. Her parents divorced a long time ago and each remarried. She's been renting a place to live on her own since she was fifteen. Her parents basically don't care about her except for sending her living expenses on time. So Lao Liu probably won't get through to her..."

Shen Chang'an's gaze darkened slightly, and he asked directly, "Do you know where she lives alone?"

"It seems...it seems to be an old neighborhood in the northern suburbs."

He Fei tried hard to recall.

"Yes, it's called Beiyuan Residential Area!"

Upon hearing this name, Shen Chang'an's pupils contracted sharply.

Beiyuan Residential Area?!

He didn't ask any more questions, only said "thank you," and then turned around without hesitation, striding out of the classroom so fast that he created a gust of wind.

He Fei was left looking bewildered, staring at the person behind her.

......

As he rushed downstairs, Shen Chang'an had already taken out his phone and was rapidly typing on the screen.

[Shen Chang'an]: "@Liaison Officer 07. Immediately use your privileges to retrieve all the household registration and current residence information of student 'Li Xiwan' from Class 7, Grade 12 of Qingzhou No. 1 High School! Quickly!"

Just one minute later.

[Contact Person 07]: "The information has been retrieved. Li Xiwan, current residence: Room 604, Building B, Beiyuan Community, Qingzhou District."

Looking at the address on the screen, Shen Chang'an's heart sank to the bottom, and a strong sense of unease instantly surged into his heart.

Beiyuan Residential Area! Building B!

Isn't this the same building where that second-tier rat demon killed people last night?! The rat demon committed its crime in room 401, and Li Xiwan lives in room 604 upstairs!

Combined with that sniper lurking in the shadows...

"Damn it!"

Shen Chang'an rushed to the parking shed, ripped off the cover of the pink scooter, not even caring how conspicuous the scooter was. He deftly took off his school uniform jacket and threw it into the car, put on the black trench coat, and at the same time put on the realistic 26 or 27-year-old disguise hood over his face.

"Buzz—!"

After getting in the car, we sped off towards the northern suburbs.

It's 11 p.m.

In the dead of night, Beiyuan Residential Area was already fast asleep. After last night's murder, the residents tacitly agreed to turn off their lights and lock their doors early today, and not a single person could be seen taking a stroll downstairs.

A pink motorcycle with its headlights off silently glided into a dark corner on the outskirts of the residential area.

Shen Chang'an parked the car and removed the key.

Instead of going through the rusty iron gate with its dimly lit streetlights, he walked to a section of the wall on the side of the residential area that had no surveillance cameras.

His eyes were cold, and with a light touch of his hand on the wall, he moved like a nimble night cat, silently slipping into the old neighborhood shrouded in gloom.