Zhong Yi involuntarily looked up.

His gaze followed the spiral staircase upwards, vaguely discerning a delicate face partially obscured by the railing's carvings.

The young girl had short hair, incongruous with her gender, and fair, tender skin. In her left hand, she held a small wine flask, her eyes blank as she stared ahead, lost in thought.

Upon seeing Li Ang approach, the girl's empty eyes regained their sparkle.

She somewhat flusteredly hid the wine flask in her sleeve, tidied her hair, letting the dark strands fall over her cheek.

At this moment, Zhong Yi unconsciously entered the state of 【Assassin's Focus】.

Lines of information floated before him.

【Sutier: Your neighbor Ma Wei's youngest daughter】

【Always deliberately acting older than her age to feign maturity, a rebellious girl】

【Seems to pay special attention to you, who is also 'lonely'】

【The wine flask in her hand was stolen from her father】

...Zhong Yi was momentarily stunned.

Sutier's name, unlike the others, was golden.

Clearly, she was a very special character.

Although she had boyish short hair and deliberately put on a mature facade, the innocent and lively youthful aura could not be concealed.

Through his sunglasses, Zhong Yi pretended to glance at her a few more times, as if by accident.

Then, for the umpteenth time, he passed her by.

Just as Zhong Yi had walked past Sutier, the girl suddenly leaned her head back and softly called out to him:

"Hey."

Zhong Yi involuntarily paused.

A new mission prompt appeared in his vision:

【Main Quest: Talk to Sutier】

'Finally, I can turn around.'

Zhong Yi inwardly sighed in relief, then slowly turned around.

During the short ascent, if he had even a thought of greeting the girl, his behavior score would plummet.

The given reason was that Li Ang was naturally solitary and unwilling to get entangled in Karma with others.

Now that the girl had taken the initiative to greet him, Li Ang would passively respond. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"You... why did you hide the wine flask?"

Zhong Yi pointed to the half of the wine flask peeking out from the girl's sleeve, trying hard to suppress a smile.

The girl was startled. Seeing that she had been discovered, she no longer concealed it. With her delicate fingers, she brought the wine flask to her lips and took a small sip.

The clear liquid dripped from the corner of the girl's pink lips.

Sutier wiped her mouth: "It's full of scoundrels here. I don't want my dad to find out... I have enough trouble already."

Saying this, Sutier tilted her head.

Her hair swayed gently, revealing a bruised mark beneath her eye.

At this moment, Zhong Yi was in 【Assassin's Focus】 mode, and a line of text information floated above the bruise.

【New injury, sustained within half an hour】

【Sutier is frequently beaten and verbally abused by her father, unvalued at home】

Zhong Yi frowned.

"What happened?"

Without any superfluous body language, Zhong Yi inquired in the most concise language possible.

By now, he understood the meaning of the behavior score and strived to act in a manner befitting Li Ang's identity.

Sure enough, his behavior score began to rise, and significantly.

"I fell by accident."

Sutier hastily tidied her hair, covering the injury again, feigning an indifferent expression.

"Don't lie..."

Zhong Yi was about to speak.

The behavior score in the upper right corner suddenly dropped significantly.

【Behavior Score -10 (Li Ang does not proactively inquire about family matters, actively maintains distance from others, and avoids getting entangled in Karma)】

Seeing this, Zhong Yi abruptly swallowed the latter half of his sentence.

In fact, even if he wanted to continue, it would trigger the Illusion Realm's protection mechanism.

Once a player's actions excessively interfere with the plot, the character will break free from player control and proceed according to the preset storyline.

Zhong Yi reluctantly turned around and walked towards his room.

After only a few steps, Sutier's voice came from behind him again.

"Hey."

Zhong Yi turned back once more.

"About the wine... please don't tell my dad, okay?"

The girl's voice was soft, slightly hoarse.

Zhong Yi nodded, said nothing more, and turned to leave.

He arrived at his room door, unlocked it, and went inside.

Behind him, the sound of an increasingly intense argument could be heard.

"Why did you do that!?"

"I, I don't know! I didn't do anything..."

"Do you know how bad things have been these past few days? Tell me, what happened!"

"It has nothing to do with me, sir! I, I'm just a custodian, how could I know how to handle this stuff? You know, I'm just an ordinary person..."

"Shut up, you idiot! When we gave you the stuff in June, it wasn't like this... Where did the magic potion go!?"

"I... I don't know! How would I handle something like that?"

...Zhong Yi closed the door, leaned his ear against the door panel, and curiously listened to the argument outside.

"Magic potion? Is it that stuff mentioned in the notes?"

Zhong Yi immediately became interested.

At this moment, the mission information in the upper right corner also changed:

【Main Quest: Use an item to secretly observe the argument outside the door】

"Looks like a very important event!"

Zhong Yi quickly began to search for an item that could be used for secret observation.

This item was easy enough to find, right on his door panel.

It was a block of glass made of a special material.

From inside the door, one could see outside, but from the outside, it appeared to be a plain decorative object.

Zhong Yi pressed his eye against it, looking outwards.

Three figures appeared before him.

Zhong Yi once again infused his eyes with Spiritual Qi, entering the 【Assassin's Focus】 state.

【Ma Wei: Sutier's father, an informant for the Demon Suppression Division, involved in both legal and illegal activities, with dirty hands】

【Ma Wei's eyes are shifty, and he has cold sweat on his forehead, likely lying】

...【Feng Tianshuo: A Class A junior officer of the Demon Suppression Division, at the Middle Stage of Qi Refining】

【Feng Tianshuo's tone is urgent, as if something bad is about to happen】

【Feng Tianshuo's gaze keeps glancing backward; the person behind him seems to be putting him under immense pressure】

...【Shi Dan: A Demon Suppression Historian of the Demon Suppression Division, at the Late Stage of Qi Refining, Daoist title 'Sir Sirius'】

【Wearing new Jade Slips in his ears】

【Shaking {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} his head, his mental state seems somewhat off】

【Emitting a powerful and dangerous Qi】

...Listening to Ma Wei and Feng Tianshuo argue for a long time, Zhong Yi roughly understood the beginning and end of the matter.

Ma Wei was an informant and henchman planted by the Demon Suppression Division, helping them secretly control the trade of magic potions.

Pure magic potions could be used on infants to induce demonic possession; at the same time, after being diluted by some means, they could also be used by Cultivators, having a high addictive quality.

Therefore, this item had extremely high profits in both legal and illegal circles.

The Demon Suppression Division had a batch of pure magic potions stored with Ma Wei, which were only retrieved yesterday.

The people from the Demon Suppression Division quickly noticed something was wrong, because the purity of the magic potions had decreased, and some other drugs were mixed in.

This was why they came knocking.

"Listen, I'm helping you... If you insist on saying that, then I'll have to let him handle it."

Feng Tianshuo lowered his voice and pointed at Shi Dan, who was behind them with his back to both.

"This lord hates being disturbed when he's listening to music..."

"No one can lie to him, because he has the special ability to sniff out lies... Believe me, you don't want to face him."】