"Another Spirit Beast?"
A humanoid creature holding a stolen pipe wrench, dressed in an intricate wolf-head beast costume, yet even under the cover of bell-bottom pants, Ansheng still saw a figure resembling Ah Bai walking upright.
Undoubtedly, it was a canine creature, different from the perfect human form of the tabby cat costume boss.
"Did it just... huff?"
Moving closer to the railing from the seat, Lingren and Yuyu also saw the scene of the brawl below, clearly witnessing the wolf-head guy turning around and glaring fiercely toward the third floor, just like a cat huffing.
"Yes, it did just huff. In the worldview of Spirit Beasts, there's an iron rule: when a Spirit Beast's power grows to a certain level, they occupy territory and repel other Spirit Beasts from approaching."
"Once an unfamiliar Spirit Beast draws near, the Overlord Spirit Beast will stop at nothing to hash out with the outsider, biting each other into a mess of fur..."
Ansheng looked at Lingren who posed the question, gave a slight nod, and affirmatively said:
"It was just huffing at me, warning an uninvited guest like me that if I moved one more time, it might come up to the third floor and give me a good beating!"
Ansheng's tone was not panicked, merely casually narrating the actual situation on-site.
"Then... should we run?"
Lingren, upon hearing about the brutal iron rule among Spirit Beasts, was somewhat stunned and asked if the little fox should make a run for it.
Lingren had witnessed the power of cultivators alongside Ah Qing; ropes might not be able to bind them, not to mention now there's an even more outrageous Spirit Beast.
"Running away isn't quite necessary, I have some connections here in Chang'an City..."
Ansheng smiled, waved his hand, and looking towards Sister Ju at the bar, spoke out: "oi—"
"???"
Upon hearing the fox speak, Sister Ju's fur stood on end, hurriedly grabbing the freshly summoned Ah Chai, and squatted behind the bar.
In Chang'an City's turf, there might be other Spirit Beasts that could speak.
But speaking, white, fox; combining these keywords can only mean one thing, the fox in front of her is from the Security Bureau, the most formidable enforcer.
"I didn't know the immortals were conducting business, farewell—"
Sister Ju responded, abandoning the bar and escaping through the storage room behind the liquor cabinets with Ah Chai.
Good heavens, this isn't a Spirit Beast asking for a place to hide from the Security Bureau at the bar.
Clearly, the Security Bureau was investigating, tracking all the way into the Holiday Bar, even bringing in a physical destruction entity like Master Fuli.
Sister Ju ran swiftly, as if a second's delay would drench her in blood.
"?"
Lingren threw a question mark towards the little fox.
"In a moment, pin them down, wasn't someone just talking about general education? There, the teacher picked it up."
Ansheng didn't respond to Lingren immediately but instead showed a gleeful expression, looking at the undercover security personnel disguised as a barmaid.
"Yes!" the barmaid replied, pulling out a walkie-talkie attached at her waist, conveying Master Fuli's orders to the logistics support team deployed around.
The Security Bureau, when taking action, doesn't fear any criminal tactics or whatever they might be carrying.
Only missions on crowded streets or communal rental neighborhoods become the real trouble.
Machine guns are unusable, grenade launchers prohibited, even commonly used time travel machines and drones must be used cautiously.
But if Sister Ju and Ah Chai ran out the bar doors, they'd face suppression by fully-armed, kind-faced steel robots and chemical ammunition.
The Security Bureau fears them staying cozy in the bar rather than running.
Without interference by the two Spirit Beasts, the cultivators picked up pipe wrenches and brutally beat the fungal beasts into curled balls only screaming "ah ah."
Even other grave robbers were individually dragged out by the cultivators for a public beating.
Finally, when the security officers arrived by car, all cultivators obediently put hands on heads and squatted down, each receiving a pair of silver handcuffs, sitting in the van.
A security vehicle designed for six was stuffed with sixteen suspects.
Burly medical personnel transferred injured parties in "Venom" beast costumes to ambulances.
Bar patrons, bewildered faces abound, watched the brawl scene lasting even less than five minutes yet wrapped up quickly, showing expressions of utter astonishment.
Wh... what happened?
How come the forensic doctors are here to sweep things under the rug? Where's the group that was just fighting? How'd they end up on the security truck?
When the forensic team was searching for "spiritual particle residues," the real security officers arrived, conducted interviews, and investigations, and called out the bar's management for questioning.
......
"Um... hello?"
In the bar's office, Sister Ju, with a shy expression, took off her orange cat headgear and greeted Master Fuli who was seated in the office chair:
"Regarding... Ah Chai, I think I can explain clearly. The encounter between us was purely accidental..."
"I never intended to confine a protected animal, but Ah Chai is a differently colored jackal, an unlucky outcast from its pack."
Sister Ju was speaking while feeling awkward, her body twisted anxiously, and her calves were trembling a bit.
"Oooh~"
The gray jackal, now without flared pants and beast costume, lying on the floor let out a whimper, turned over exposing its belly, stuck out its long tongue, and began to concede.
"You... are not the Sister Ju that Ah Chai talked about."
Looking at the perfectly human face of the woman in her twenties dressed in an orange cat costume, Ansheng was full of certainty and said to the one claiming to be "Sister Ju":
"I can tell the difference between a human and a spirit beast. Where did you hide the spirit beast that was just here?"
Master Fuli spoke, and the bar waitress cooperatively lifted the Security Bureau phone, scanned the woman's face, and pulled up her registration information.
"Xue Yulin, female, 26 years old, her parents are..." The bar waitress read the information off the phone without looking at Xue Yulin, and with each word, Xue Yulin's face grew even more frantic.
The bar waitress looked up at Xue Yulin, puzzled, and asked: "Given your family's financial situation, it doesn't seem possible for them to give you 1.2 million to start your business, nor can they provide you with 3.47 million for game top-ups. The Ferrari 458 parked outside seems to be a pawned car, isn't it?"
"According to the car dealership's information, we've also found out that Holiday Bar is involved in three cases of malicious injury, including but not limited to illegal fundraising, gambling, fire safety complaints, and some tax warnings."
The bar waitress looked at Xue Yulin and spoke.
There are some cases where money was involved in reaching settlements with victims, and as long as it's not a public prosecution case, officials typically don't delve deeper, including tax issues, as long as taxes are paid and there is a promise not to re-offend, there won't be a report.
Holiday Bar has issues, but those problems were smoothed over with money.
However, these matters can't withstand scrutiny, and some cases can even be converted into public prosecutions, turned into criminal proceedings by the prosecutor's office.
Criminal suspects like to talk about laws, and the Security Bureau is not a department that doesn't follow the law.
"So... are you sure you want us to follow the procedures to the letter?" the bar waitress asked.
"Oooh..."
The jackal hiding behind Xue Yulin, being glared at by Master Fuli, instinctively shrank behind Xue Yulin, feeling all jittery, and didn't dare to speak.
"I..."
Xue Yulin looked as if she had something to say but was hesitating, clenching her teeth and looking at Ah Chai, "Remember to check me in the game..."
"Take care of my cyber husbands, write their stories into letters and send them to me. I admit, my startup funds were all from..."
"I stole it all! I climbed into the city development office of Chang'an City and eavesdropped on the mayor, and the meeting between national enterprises, stole internal confidential files, and made two million with insider information!"
As Xue Yulin was on the verge of confessing, a voice with a 90% resemblance to Xue Yulin's emerged from the ventilation ducts of the office ceiling.
A cat girl with an orange cat head, voluptuous, dressed in a beast costume, squeezed out from the ventilation duct and sprawled on the ground:
"Arrest me if you must! After all... there's no law in Xia Country's criminal code stating a cat can't eavesdrop on the mayor's calls!"
"I swindled the money, stole the car, the tax reports were eaten by me on purpose because we earned too much, I didn't want to pay taxes, so I chewed them up, delaying until you froze the accounts, and then secured high-interest loans from financial companies..."
The real Sister Ju made her appearance, but upon entry, immediately sprawled out on the ground, acting like a nonchalant rogue.
Even Master Fuli had his favorite words intercepted.
After all, unless the law prohibits it, you can do as you please.
I'm just a fat orange, punish me if you will! I guarantee you won't hear a peep from me!
"......" Ansheng looked exasperated, glancing at the bar waitress who was equally at a loss for words.
"Go, buy two boxes of catnip, let's see if this fat orange really has no shame." After a brief thought, Ansheng told the waitress: "I'll shoot an MV for it, put it on advertising trucks for the whole city to see, and buy a hot search for the tune!"
"Meow——"