Chapter 60

Zhang Xiaoman immediately told Zhang Bingyu everything she had heard about Yang Chen without holding back.

After listening to her cousin Zhang Xiaoman's introduction, even with Zhang Bingyu's resolve, she couldn't help but be moved, "Even the Xuan Cheng Zhenren of the Ten Thousand Immortals Hall had his dantian destroyed by him? That's a peak fifth-stage Daoist cultivator!"

"Who says it isn't?" Zhang Xiaoman nodded vigorously and said, "When this news came out, everyone was greatly shocked. A peak fifth-stage cultivator in his early twenties, we haven't seen such a genius in the Chinese mystic world for nearly five hundred years!"

Her big, twinkling eyes were filled with curiosity, and even a hint of admiration, "I've never liked the people from the Ten Thousand Immortals Hall, especially that Xuan Cheng Zhenren, who always likes to act superior and scold others... This time, Yang Chen really did me a big favor! Sister, where is he? I want to go see him, take a look at what he looks like..."

"Hey... you haven't even put on your shoes yet!" Zhang Bingyu smiled wryly and stopped Zhang Xiaoman, saying, "You're always so absent-minded. I really don't know what you'll do in the future! He's just sitting in the reception area, he's not going to run away... Why are you in such a hurry?"

Zhang Xiaoman laughed foolishly, scratched the back of her head, and said with her tongue sticking out, "With you protecting me, do I even need to think about the future? I'm still a peak first-stage cultivator..."

...

Under Zhang Bingyu's urging, Zhang Xiaoman obediently washed her face and changed into a relatively decent casual outfit.

Full of anticipation, she followed Zhang Bingyu to the screen outside the reception area. When she saw Yang Chen sitting on the sofa drinking tea, Zhang Xiaoman's enthusiasm instantly faded, and she said disappointedly, "How can he look like this..."

Zhang Bingyu looked curiously in the direction of Zhang Xiaoman's gaze. Although Yang Chen, sitting on the sofa in the reception area, wasn't the type of handsome man who would make women swoon, he was at least a fresh-faced young man, and the word "handsome" wasn't entirely inappropriate.

She said, "What's wrong with how he looks? Isn't he pretty good... Why does it sound so different when you say it?"

"It's just not what I imagined," Zhang Xiaoman pouted, trying to picture the handsome man she had envisioned in her mind and then comparing him to Yang Chen, "His nose is a bit flat, his eyes are a bit small, his chin is a bit round..."

In just a few words, Yang Chen's image was completely ruined.

Zhang Bingyu looked at Zhang Xiaoman, unable to tell if she should laugh or cry, and said, "Are you still going to Wenjiang City?"

"Of course I'm going! Why wouldn't I?" Zhang Xiaoman huffed, "I want to see what this ugly man can do, how he can have such high cultivation looking like this... Is there any justice in the world?"

Zhang Bingyu couldn't bear to listen anymore and could only shake her head and walk into the reception area behind the screen.

"We're ready, let's go now."

"Okay," Yang Chen put down his teacup and stood up, asking, "How are we going?"

"Of course by plane! Do you want to drive?" Zhang Xiaoman followed in, saying rudely, "It's over two thousand kilometers! It would take a whole day and night to drive, you know?"

"This is..."

"My cousin, Zhang Xiaoman, she's my assistant at the detective agency," Zhang Bingyu introduced. "You can call her Xiaoman."

"Call me Miss Zhang!" Zhang Xiaoman huffed, "Xiaoman isn't something you can call!"

"Alright..." Yang Chen didn't know what he had done to offend this girl, was it worth being so harsh? He shrugged helplessly, "So, Miss Zhang... shall we go?"

...

Around nine o'clock that night, the plane carrying Yang Chen and the others landed smoothly at Longwan International Airport in Wenjiang.

Before getting off the plane, Zhang Bingyu, who was only dragging a small black suitcase, turned to Yang Chen and said, "Longhui Pharmaceutical Group is still in Yueqing City, about fifty kilometers away. However, our Qingchen Detective Agency won't be directly involved in investigating Chen Youming... So, after we leave the airport, you two can go on your own. Xiaoman and I have some business to attend to, so we won't be going to Yueqing City with you."

Yang Chen nodded and smiled, "Alright."

His purpose for this trip wasn't entirely to find Chen Youming; he also had his own matters to attend to. Separating from the Zhang sisters would actually make things more convenient for him...

Longhui Pharmaceutical Group was established nearly seven years earlier than Hengyang Group and is a pharmaceutical company primarily producing traditional Chinese medicine for rheumatism, Chinese medicine injections, and cold and heat-clearing detoxifying granules.

On the plane, Yang Chen had already briefly reviewed the information about Longhui Pharmaceutical Group provided by Zhang Bingyu. In summary, Longhui Pharmaceutical Group was roughly twice the size of Hengyang Group, and its traditional Chinese medicine for rheumatism held a significant market share in China, making it a formidable force.

However, Yang Chen's trip wasn't to confront Longhui Group but to investigate the evidence of Chen Youming framing Yang Xiuyuan after his crime. Therefore, how powerful Longhui Group was wasn't within his consideration.

Zhang Xiaoman kept looking at Yang Chen with a puzzled expression, as if trying to see through him.

But Yang Chen didn't have the time to pay attention to Zhang Xiaoman's gaze. He was busy discussing the details of his father Yang Xiuyuan's case with Zhang Bingyu, as well as the clues and evidence that the Qingchen Detective Agency could provide.

As a result, Yang Chen didn't even have the chance to say a single word to Zhang Xiaoman, which made her even more puzzled...

Zhang Bingyu and Zhang Xiaoman were picked up by a black Porsche Cayenne outside the airport, leaving Yang Chen and Tang Yino with no choice but to take a taxi to Yueqing City.

After getting in the car, Tang Yino sat in the front passenger seat, staring blankly out the window, lost in thought.

Yang Chen took the opportunity to take out his phone and search for some information about Longhui Pharmaceutical Group.

The ride was silent, and about forty minutes later, the taxi stopped outside the Yandisk Economic Development Zone in Yueqing City. The driver turned around and said, "The road ahead is under construction, so you can't go through. Follow this road for a few hundred meters, and you'll see the Longhui Group building."

Hearing this, Yang Chen put down his phone, looked up, and smiled, "Thank you."

Tang Yino took out her wallet and paid the fare.

"Where are we going now?" Tang Yino asked after getting out of the car.

"Let's find a hotel nearby to stay for the night," Yang Chen said. "Tomorrow, we'll go to Longhui Group to find Chen Youming."

"Go directly to his place?" Tang Yino was taken aback. Isn't investigation usually done secretly and stealthily? Going directly to his place doesn't seem right, does it?

"Of course, we'll go directly. Are we supposed to kidnap him first?" Yang Chen, confident in his abilities, smiled faintly and said, "After we check into the hotel, you can rest. I have some things to take care of."

"Okay..."

The Yandisk Economic Development Zone was quite large, and there were many hotels. It was too late to be picky, so they chose a decent-looking budget hotel nearby and checked in.

Tang Yino took her bag and went straight upstairs, while Yang Chen walked around the hotel lobby for a bit before leaving.

About an hour later, Yang Chen appeared in the Yandang Mountains, about forty kilometers away.

A small, dilapidated Taoist temple was hidden behind a grove of pine trees, opposite the entrance to the Yandang Mountain scenic area. Even though it was nearly eleven o'clock at night, the area was still bustling with traffic.

A narrow stream separated the two, giving the impression of two completely different worlds.

Standing at the foot of a small hill, Yang Chen looked up at the faint light on the mountain, took a deep breath, and then started walking up the hill toward the dilapidated temple.

The temple's name was Jing'an Temple, but it was hard to recognize from the sign, as the ink had long faded, and the sign itself was almost unrecognizable due to termite damage.

Yet, in this dilapidated, rarely visited, and almost forgotten temple, lived a person who would shock the Chinese mystic world more than a decade later!

One of Yang Chen's purposes for this trip was to visit the abbot of Jing'an Temple, Hou Xunan! The lifelong president of the Chinese Daoist Alliance's "Energy Particle Research and Application Development Institute," who led the energy particle research trend in the Chinese mystic world for nearly fifty years and was renowned internationally!