"Notify Han Ling immediately!"
Ignoring the astonished gazes around him, Hang Zhongxuan locked a cold expression on his face. After restraining Chen Qiyue with a Spirit Lock Talisman, he ordered Cen Wenyu to contact Han Ling and have him assist Lan Qihan and the others. His tone was sharp and commanding, leaving no room for hesitation.
Cen Wenyu was momentarily stunned but quickly came to his senses. He tapped open his lightbrain and connected to the communication channel. The call was answered within seconds.
Without pause, Cen Wenyu relayed the urgent message to Han Ling.
"Han Ling, you need to head over to Lan Qihan's location right now," he said rapidly, his expression tense and breath slightly short. "They most likely ran into the person behind all of this. He took Ling Ning and seriously injured Lan Qihan and the others."
Han Ling's voice came through, clearly shocked and grim.
"What? Ling Ning was kidnapped? I'm on my way!"
Cen Wenyu immediately sent over their coordinates. As soon as the call ended, he wasted no time and quickly followed after Hang Zhongxuan.
At that moment, the director of the film crew rushed over in a panic, confusion and disbelief written all over his face.
"Mr. Hang, what's going on? Why are you arresting someone? He's our main actor—"
Hang Zhongxuan didn't even look back. His voice was cold and firm. "He's committed a crime. We're here to arrest him in accordance with the law."
Cen Wenyu casually pulled out the Special Department's arrest warrant from his coat and handed it to the director. The golden seal and the spiritual inscription on the talisman immediately shut the director up.
He didn't dare say another word. It was far safer to offend Chen Qiyue than Hang Zhongxuan—no one in their right mind would want to mess with the Hang family. In the end, he had no choice but to let Hang Zhongxuan take Chen Qiyue away.
Meanwhile, the production staff and onlookers stood at a distance, whispering among themselves. Someone had already discreetly activated their lightbrain to record the scene. Another was quickly typing up a headline for the trending topics:
[Top Actor Arrested on Set? Special Department Personally Intervenes!]
Hang Zhongxuan and Cen Wenyu led Chen Qiyue away swiftly. The murmurs around them didn't die down. In fact, some people were already speculating whether this was all some kind of publicity stunt.
—
At the same time—
Han Ling, Leander, and Grant had just arrived at Grant's residence. The three were about to inspect the bottle of eustoma flowers they had brought from Ling Zhao's home when Cen Wenyu's urgent call interrupted them.
Han Ling's face instantly darkened as he quickly answered.
"Ling Ning was taken. The enemy is extremely powerful—we couldn't stop him. Lan Qihan, Jiang Mingyao, and Gu Xingxi were all injured. Thankfully, he didn't go for a killing blow."
Han Ling's voice turned cold. "Send me the location."
"I already did," Cen Wenyu replied. "We'll head back now to begin Chen Qiyue's interrogation."
Leander glanced at Han Ling after the call ended, silently asking what had happened. Han Ling read his expression and quickly explained, "The three of them were hurt by that Celestial Master, and Ling Ning was taken…"
Then he turned to Leander. "We have to go."
Turning to Grant, he added, "We need to deal with the situation on Ling Ning's end first before we can do anything about Ling Zhao's soul…"
Grant nodded reluctantly. "Don't worry about him—he's safe here. Go. I'll get some rest."
Although he was anxious to save Ling Zhao, he understood that priorities had to be set.
Han Ling and Leander left Grant's home and rushed toward Lan Qihan's location.
But on the way, Leander received a message from his butler. His face shifted, and he suddenly looked down at his phone with a frown.
"Damn it… I need to head home."
"What's wrong?"
"I've been away these past few days, and that idiot cousin of mine brought people over to cause trouble. The butler didn't want to bother me, but now he's got no choice."
He sounded clearly annoyed.
"What happened?"
"He's pissed that I was appointed family head. Now that my grandfather is sick, he's using this opportunity to provoke him on purpose."
"Let me off here—I'll have Butler Liu take me the rest of the way," Han Ling said, not wanting to trouble Leander further.
But Leander had no intention of dropping him off midway. He drove Han Ling all the way to where Lan Qihan and the others were.
As soon as they stepped out of the hover car, Leander suddenly reached out, grabbed Han Ling's wrist, and pulled him into a kiss.
The kiss came out of nowhere. Han Ling's eyes widened in shock, his ears flushed bright red.
"Y-You... What are you doing..."
Leander gave a triumphant smile and leaned in again, but Han Ling quickly pushed him away. "Wait till we get back! I'm going to check on Lan Qihan and the others first." With that, he darted away like a startled rabbit.
Leander chuckled and shook his head. "You're still adorably shy."
When Han Ling arrived, the area was quite open and not many bystanders were around, so there was no need to clear the space. Lan Qihan had already set up a barrier to prevent others from interrupting.
"Did you call the emergency team?" Han Ling asked, noting that Jiang Mingyao's injuries looked serious.
"I did. They'll be here in a few minutes," Lan Qihan replied, sitting wearily beside Gu Xingxi.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"After Gu Xingxi tracked down Ning Leng's last known location, we went straight there. She had gone to the hospital alone for a prenatal checkup. The medical staff followed our instructions and helped bring her out."
"Everything went smoothly at first. She boarded the aircraft without resistance. But halfway through the journey, she suddenly shouted and started struggling. Not even a few seconds later, someone suddenly appeared inside the cabin. Jiang Mingyao reacted fast and shielded her from the attack, taking the hit himself. I managed to stay conscious, but barely..."
"I had Xingxi call Wen Yu for backup. The enemy's cultivation was too high... He used disguise techniques. We couldn't clearly see his face—his level was far above ours."
"Thankfully, he didn't try to kill us. He just took Ning Leng, who suffered a minor miscarriage from the shock..."
"Is Xingxi okay?" Han Ling looked worriedly at the two lying on the ground.
"Nothing too serious. That celestial master threw something, and I wasn't fast enough to block all of it—it hit her head."
Just as Han Ling noticed that Lan Qihan was also injured more seriously than he let on, Gu Xingxi began to stir. She realized she was lying within a temporary spiritual recovery formation.
"How are you feeling?" Han Ling knelt beside her, carefully inspecting the wound on her head.
"I'm alright... a bit dizzy. Where's Ning Leng?" Her voice was weak, but urgent.
"She was taken," Han Ling replied gravely.
"I... I planted a tracker," she said, biting her lip.
"A tracker?" Jiang Mingyao, who had been silent due to his injuries, suddenly burst out, "Why would you bring something like that?!"
"I... Before we left, I had a strange feeling. I did a divination and the results said today was unlucky. I just felt like something would happen, so I packed some talismans and tools. The tracker happened to be in my bag, so I hid it in Ning Leng's waist sash."
"You really..." Despite his harsh words, Jiang Mingyao clearly felt relieved. He let go and passed out again.
"That was smart—being cautious is a good thing," Han Ling said softly. "I'll use that to trace her."
He immediately activated his light-brain and connected it to the data from Gu Xingxi's tracker, preparing to track Ning Leng's location.
As he stared at the blinking dot on the screen, Han Ling's eyes grew cold.
"I want to meet that celestial master again." He suspected the man had placed an extremely rare sensory transfer array on Ning Leng. Once triggered by contact with someone she'd cursed, no matter the distance, she would be instantly transported to the caster's location.
How interesting.
Han Ling sneered.
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