Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 382 – Kidnapping in Artisan City

Su Yue instantly reined in her fervor, resuming her sharp and capable demeanor.

“To answer you, my lord, Jiji is already waiting downstairs. That rat’s nose is sharper than anyone’s—the moment you returned to the city, he was already circling the gates of the City Lord’s Mansion with a stack of blueprints.”

“Send him up.” Lin Fan leaned back into the sofa, his gaze returning to its usual calm.

The moment the words left his mouth, the heavy redwood door to the office was pushed open from outside, silent as a whisper, revealing a sliver of a gap.

A figure in a tailcoat practically slid in along the floor—it was Jiji the rat-man.

His suit, which should have been crisp and immaculate, was now wrinkled and disheveled, his fur drooping all over, looking like a lost dog whose master had just died.

Just half an hour ago, he had watched with his own eyes as Long Teng, the lord of Border Dragon City—that arrogant, unyielding man—walked step by step into the Mist Forest like a senile old man, cradling the cold corpse of Princess Long Wu in his arms.

In that moment, Jiji felt like the sky was falling.

He had spent the first half of his life scrabbling for scraps in the gutters. He’d finally managed to latch onto the golden thigh of the Dragon Clan, and before he could even ride that coattail to greatness… the thigh… had snapped?

“Y-your humble servant Jiji… pays respects… pays respects to my lord.”

Jiji prostrated himself fully, his head pressed hard against the carpet, not daring to lift it even an inch.

An indescribable, terrifying pressure filled the entire room. It wasn’t the pure Bloodline Suppression of the Dragon Clan, but something far more profound—a crushing weight from a higher plane of existence. It was like a rat in the sewers suddenly staring up at the vast, boundless starry sky.

Even just breathing the air in this room, Jiji could feel the pitiful amount of Spiritual power within him boiling uncontrollably.

The master of Azurewood City… was he truly this terrifying?

With Princess Long Wu dead, would this great figure still honor the old arrangements?

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“Lift your head.”

A cold, clear voice sounded from above, its tone betraying neither pleasure nor anger.

Jiji shuddered, trembling as he slowly raised his head.

The next second, his breath stopped.

What kind of being was this?

Pure white hair cascaded like a waterfall forged from moonlight. A face so perfect it defied even the boldest dreams. And those eyes—they seemed to hold an entire ocean of stars. One glance was enough to stir within him an overwhelming urge to prostrate himself in worship.

“Seen enough?” Lin Fan sat behind the wide desk, his fingers tapping lightly on the surface, producing a monotonous “tap, tap” sound.

“S-seen… seen enough! No, no, no! This humble one is guilty! This humble one has offended your divine countenance!” Jiji was scared out of his wits, knocking his head against the floor with frantic thuds.

Lin Fan waved a hand, too lazy to waste words on him: “Long Wu is dead. You know about that, right?”

Jiji’s eyes reddened instantly, his acting skills kicking in as he opened his mouth to wail: “The princess… she was a good dragon! She was like a second parent to this humble one…”

“Stop.”

Lin Fan frowned, cutting off his performance. “She’s dead, but I’m still here. Since she entrusted you to Azurewood City, then from now on, you belong to me.”

“Allow me to introduce myself.”

“I am Lei Li.”

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“You can think of me as… Long Wu’s older sister, and the boss of this Azurewood City.”

Jiji’s mind buzzed, his rat eyes darting around furtively.

Older sister?

Their bloodlines and appearances were worlds apart, but the way she spoke, that sharpness that seemed to see straight through to the marrow of one’s bones… there was indeed a certain resemblance.

Before he could puzzle it out, Lin Fan suddenly leaned forward, his slender fingers tapping lightly at his own smooth neck and earlobes.

There, a silver necklace and a matching pair of earrings were radiating a faint, eerie blue glow.

“You should find these familiar.”

Jiji looked closely, and it was as if he’d been struck by a bolt of lightning. His body, which had just been kneeling, jerked violently—he nearly jumped back to his feet.

“The ‘Phantom’?!”

He shrieked.

How could he not recognize it! This was the treasure he’d practically scraped from between his teeth, the prized possession he’d reluctantly offered up back then just to curry favor with Princess Long Wu!

The failed masterpiece of that mad old master in Artificer City—it could render the user invisible and disguise their evolution rank, but the price was that it voraciously devoured the user’s spiritual power. It was nothing short of a flashy death warrant!

“How… how did it end up in your hands?” Jiji’s voice wavered.

“Long Wu gave it to me.” Lin Fan said it without so much as a flicker of shame. “She said it was a fine gift from you.”

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Her fingertips gently traced the sapphire-blue gemstone.

“Since it’s such a fine thing, we can’t let it go to waste.”

“Jiji, I’ve heard this thing is the handiwork of that ‘God of Crafts’ from Artificer City?”

At that, Jiji nodded like a bobblehead: “Yes, yes, yes! That master has the strangest temperament—his head is full of nothing but wild, outlandish ideas. Eight out of ten things he makes have some kind of flaw, but when it comes to ingenious design, there’s not a second one like him in the entire Dragon Spirit Continent!”

“Flaws?” A faint, barely perceptible curve lifted the corner of Lin Fan’s lips. “To me, that’s exactly what makes it most interesting.”

She rose to her feet, bare jade-white feet treading silently across the soft carpet as she walked over to stand before Jiji.

A shadow fell over him.

“I have a task for you.”

“Whatever you command, my lady! Through fire and flood, I won’t so much as furrow my brow!” Jiji immediately swore oaths and vows.

His new mistress not only carried the token of his old one, but her strength was unfathomably deep. This was a leg he had to cling to no matter what!

“Go to Artificer City.”

Lin Fan looked down at this rat-man who wasn’t even as tall as her thigh, her voice lowered to a near whisper, carrying a coldness that brooked no argument.

“You’ll have all the Crystals you need, and you can pick any men you want. I don’t care whether you drown them in money or stuff them in sacks in the middle of the night—get me that ‘God of Crafts’ and his most capable disciples, every last one of them, brought to Azurewood City.”

Jiji was completely stunned. “All… all of them?”

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“That’s right.” Lin Fan snapped her fingers. “I want the people, but even more, I want the technology.”

She walked over to the massive floor-to-ceiling window and pointed at the defensive fortifications already taking shape outside the city walls.

“On Blue Star, there’s a weapon called a ‘gun.’ Its attack range is decent, but power is its weak point—it struggles against high-tier opponents.”

“This world has better, stronger materials, and Crystals brimming with immense energy, yet people here are so single-minded they just swing lumps of iron at each other.”

Lin Fan turned back around, her gaze burning with a devouring hunger.

“Tell me—what if we fused the two together?”

Jiji felt every hair on his body stand on end, yet his two tiny bean-like eyes grew brighter and brighter, bright enough to be unsettling.

He was a businessman—a black-market businessman, at that. He understood the implications all too well.

This wasn’t business. This was revolution!

A terrifying revolution capable of turning the entire continent’s methods of warfare completely upside down!

“M-M… My lady… what you mean is…” Jiji’s voice trembled beyond all control.

“Not just that.” Lin Fan tapped the necklace around his neck. “I want this ‘Ghost’ set to be on every soldier.”

“Pfft—! Mass… mass production??”