“Boss, we, we lost him.”
In the office of a small building of Fantastic Stones Shop, two young men reported with their heads down, and their voices subsided to a mutter.
“Bullsh*t! If you can’t even tail a person, what is the point of having you guys?”
Nie Fan jumped up in a rage and thumped the table while roaring. Frightened, his two men were trembling because they knew how brutal their boss could be.
But soon, Master Mo regained his composure. He waved his hand and said, “You can go now.”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
Upon hearing his words, his two men thanked him as if they were just pardoned from a death sentence and then scrambled away quickly.
Nie Fan frowned and said, “Senior brother, that person threw them off. What should we do now? How can we explain this to our leader?”
“Rest assured. This person can’t escape. I’ve found out that his name is Ding Ning. We will catch him.”
Master Mo said calmly with a flash of light in his eyes.
“Senior brother, you are brilliant!”
Nie Fan was overjoyed and hurriedly flattered Master Mo with a smile.
Master Mo’s face suddenly changed. “Why does he come back?”
“Is he here to get even with us after he found that our men followed him?”
Somewhat frightened, Nie Fan asked with a pale face.
Knowing that Zhai Fang, who was much more powerful than him, was forced to curse Ding Ning with his life, Nie Fan didn’t want to die in Ding Ning’s hands only to avenge Zhai Fang’s death.
Master Mo was no braver than Nie Fan. He was shaking all over and was very anxious to flee. But still, he forced himself to say calmly, “I don’t think so.”
Not aware of his slightly trembling voice, Nie Fan paced back and forth as restlessly as an ant on a hot pan. Frightened out of his wits, he asked, “What shall we do? What shall we do?”
“Relax, he didn’t come for us. He has gone to the material stockyard.” Master Mo comforted him.
Master Mo looked delighted and breathed a long sigh of relief. The Gu inside him told him that Ding Ning didn’t go in this direction.
But then he was full of doubts. “Since Ding Ning didn’t come at us, what is he doing here?”
“Junior brother, send someone to see what the guy is up to,” said Master Mo.
“Okay, senior brother,” Nie Fan replied to him.
He also felt that Ding Ning was not coming for them. Immediately, with immense relief, he calmed himself down and arranged his underlings to shadow Ding Ning.
But soon, they came back to report, saying that there was no sign of Ding Ning. However, they all had seen Ding Ning with Master Mo before.
With a helpless air, Nie Fan and Master Mo looked at each other. Master Mo thought to himself, “It’s impossible. I have sensed his presence through the Gu, but why did my men say that they couldn’t find him there?”
Since their underlings would never dare to deceive them, Master Mo felt a sudden panic in his heart. “Can that guy make himself invisible?”
Master Mo was momentarily silent, and then he said, “Junior brother, go there and have a look.”
“But… I…”
A shudder ran through Nie Fan, who was now too scared to follow the order. He didn’t want to get close to the frightening killer at all.
Master Mo smiled bitterly and said, “He has met me before, but he has never seen you. What are you afraid of?”
“Okay, I’ll go there to check the situation .”
After thinking for a while, Nie Fan summoned his courage and finally agreed.
In the stockyard of the crude raw jade stone, Ding Ning was picking out those crude raw jade stones that had captured his fancy. Then the workers would load and send them to Shengshi Huating Complex.
Ding Ning cast a glance at Nie Fan, feeling quite strange. He didn’t know why this man kept walking around him. Beyond that, this man peeped at him often. Ding Ning thought, “Is he going to murder me for money?”
But Ding Ning didn’t know that Nie Fan was at a loss now because he couldn’t find out the truth. “The curse of life is certainly on Ding Ning, but why did I also feel it on this bearded man?”
“Can the curse of life be used on two people at the same time? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“But I’m sure that this guy must be with Ding Ning. When Zhai Fang was killed, both of them must have been there so that I can feel the curse on the two of them.”
Under Ding Ning’s glance, Nie Fan felt terrified and no longer dared to follow him for fear of being killed. While pretending to select these crude raw jade stones, he slowly pulled away from Ding Ning.
“Boss!”
“Boss!”
But when a few workers of the Stone-gambling House saw him, they greeted Nie Fan. In a cold sweat, Nie Fan replied with a straight face and strode away quickly.
Ding Ning looked at his back and frowned. “It turns out that this guy is the boss of the Fantastic Stones Shop!” But he didn’t think too much about it. After selecting all the raw stones and paid the money, he swaggered away.
“What’s the delivery address of this man’s raw stones?”
Nie Fan popped out and asked the delivery man just when Ding Ning left.
“Boss, the address is the No.1 villa of Shengshi Huating Complex.”
The delivery man felt very strange, but he surely would answer his boss’ question honestly.
“Okay, I see.”
Nie Fan said, his eyes flickering. Then he nodded and turned to leave.
After eating and drinking to his satisfaction, Ding Ning stretched comfortably and said, “Luoxue, how’s the preparation for the restaurant?”
“It’s almost ready. I am making the menu while waiting for elder sister to tell me that my kitchen equipment is in place. Then I can start my business.”
With a broad smile, Luoxue answered him while writing the menu.
Somehow, Ding Ning’s heart ached for her, so he asked, “Will it be too tired for you to open a restaurant?”
“No, not at all. I like cooking. I like it when others are eating the meals that I make, which also provides me with a sense of accomplishment. In these two days, I set up a small kitchen next to Uncle Ling’s office and have cooked for people in the company. All of them said that I cooked nice food.”
Luoxue’s face was glowing with the joy of her cooking skills being recognized by others.
“It seems that she really likes cooking.” Ding Ning thought with a helpless smile. He then fondly advised, saying, “I have enough money. I support you in running a restaurant only because I am afraid that you will feel bored. Open it when you like to cook. If not, you can shut it down at any time. Remember not to push yourself too hard, all right?”
“I know, but I won’t close the restaurant easily. I want to build my career and make a lot of money for you.”
In high spirits, Ding Luoxue expressed her determination while waving her tender fists with a sweet smile, knowing that Ding Ning was concerned about her.
Amused, Ding Ning rubbed her head. He had never expected to make money from the food. He just wanted Luoxue to integrate into society as soon as possible by doing business.
Otherwise, Ding Ning wouldn’t choose to open this restaurant on the top floor of the company. After all, the restaurant on the top floor had already had many limitations so that it could not possibly grow bigger and stronger.
Anyway, Ding Ning was willing to support her as long as Luoxue was happy even if he couldn’t make a penny from the restaurant. He could afford to lose some money for the possible failure.
“Brother, how about calling it Sky-garden Restaurant?” asked Luoxue.
She looked expectantly at Ding Ning with her sparkling eyes.
“Great! You have the right to name your restaurant. I’m terrible at naming.”
Ding Ning said in a self-deprecating manner because he knew himself well enough. Without any special naming skills, he had given the group of pets with intelligence many lousy names like Xiaohei, Dahei, and so on.
“Hey, hey, then I’ll call it Sky-garden Restaurant. Tomorrow, I’ll ask Uncle Ling to register the name for me,” Luoxue said happily.
While shining with a great longing for the bright future, Luoxue’s curved big eyes were like the crescent moon.
Ding Ning had never expected that Sky-garden Restaurant, the name of which was made during their joking sentences, would become the best chain restaurant in the world.
All Sky-garden Restaurants were only located on the top platform of high-rise buildings. By its unique, tasty cuisines, Sky-garden Restaurant had managed to position itself on the top of the pyramid of the catering industry. Though it was a zero-Michelin-star restaurant, it looked down at all other restaurants like a proud queen. In fact, Sky-garden Restaurant was the first-ever super restaurant in the world that had the confidence to refuse the stars granted by Michelin.
Ding Luoxue, the leader of Sky-garden Restaurant Group’s Chairman of the Board at that time, declared disdainfully, “Sky-garden Restaurant from Shenzhou Country has gone far beyond Michelin’s imagination, whether it is about its dining environment, service, sanitation, or the deliciousness of food. No one is qualified enough to evaluate Sky-garden Restaurant. Our Sky-garden Restaurant is a super restaurant that Michelin has no enough stars to rate.”
Her words caused an uproar in the whole world, but no one criticized her for speaking arrogantly. Instead, they thought that what she said was very reasonable. It was why Sky-garden Restaurant dared to be so confident.
After all, even these most famous and the most authoritative top-rated restaurant critics in the world could not resist the temptation of Sky-garden Restaurant’s delicious food. Over the years, they had been Sky-garden Restaurant’s most loyal clients and simply not tired of its meals.
But these were the things that happened later, so let’s not mention it now.
In the neighborhood of Shengshi Huating Complex, Master Mo and Nie Fan on a low-key Buick Regal were staring at the truck that was driving into the No. 1 villa. It was a delivery truck from the Fantastic Stones Shop.
“Senior brother, I don’t understand why both Ding Ning and the whiskered man have the imprint of the curse of life.”
Nie Fan asked. Up till now, he was still very confused and couldn’t figure out what was going on.
Bewildered, Master Mo said, “As far as I know, the curse of life can only be placed on only one person. How can it appear on two people? It was too strange.”
“Is it possible that Ding Ning and the whiskered man killed Zhai Fang together so that his curse of life affected both of them?”
Nie Fan said his speculation carefully.
“It’s possible. Since the curse of life is an incomplete prohibited technique passed down from ancient times, no one knows what impact it will have on its targets.”
Master Mo said, scratching his head in distress, “I have heard about the full version of the curse of life. When the caster of the curse encounters an enemy that he cannot defeat, he will sacrifice his soul to the Demon Lord and leave a tracking mark on his enemy by his life wave. Then, the Demon Lord will come through the Space-time Door and harvest the enemy’s soul by following the tracking mark.”
“A demon? Do you know what kind of age we are living in now? How can there be a demon? It sounds too fantastic!”
Curling his lip, Nie Fan scoffed at Master Mo’s idea and said disapprovingly.
“Who knows? It is a legend, and even the curse of life is incomplete. I suppose that except for the one who is cursed, no one knows the effect of the curse of life. But Zhai Fang was merely a listed disciple of the Demon Cult, how could he know how to use the curse of life? I don’t know where he had learned this technique that is actually a top-secret within the Demon Cult.”
Master Mo said, shaking his head with a wry smile. He looked very much puzzled.
“Hey, senior brother, I think that Zhai Fang might be our honorable leader’s illegitimate child, do you think so?”
Nie Fan made a wild guess and asked with an indecent look.
“Well… It’s really hard to say. If Zhai Fang were a listed disciple only, our leader would not go all out to track down the killer and even come to Ninghai to avenge his death in person.”
Master Mo said and kept nodding in agreement.
“I think it must be so. Otherwise, how could the leader of the Demon Cult pay so much attention to a listed disciple’s death?”
Nie Fan thought he had found the truth and said with confidence.
It had been several years since they left the Demon Cult. They didn’t know that Zhai Ying nearly destroyed the den of the Demon Cult, nor did they know that Wu Tianxie had seen the scene through Zhai Fang’s Shadow Gu that Ding Ning got the Spiritual Gu King after it appeared. That was why Wu Tianxie would set his sight on Ninghai and ordered his disciples in Ninghai to track down Ding Ning.
Shadow Gu had no sound. Besides, the curse of life would begin to take effect only when it was within one kilometer of the murderer. If it weren’t for these facts, Wu Tianxie would have rushed to look for Ding Ning in Ninghai long ago.
For Wu Tianxie, revenging for Zhai Fang to give Zhai Ying an explanation was just an extra benefit that he wanted to get. What he wanted, more than anything, was the Spiritual Gu King. If he got the Spiritual Gu King, his strength would advance by leaps and bounds and could even contend against Zhai Ying.
Zhai Ying seemed to be very powerful because he dared to kill Demon Cult’s disciples in its headquarters. But if it weren’t for the Corpse-driven Sect that backed Zhai Ying, Wu Tianxie could have treated him anyway as he pleased.
Demon Cult was only a small sect, but the sect’s inheritances were mostly complete. Moreover, the sect’s poisonous Gu and cursing techniques were very mysterious and unpredictable, which were impossible to guard against. Compared with Demon Cult, Corpse-driven Sect was far inferior, for it had only inherited the techniques to make and keep corpse puppets. Otherwise, Zhai Ying would not have spared so much effort to send Zhai Fang to Demon Cult for getting the method of making the Brain-eating Gu.
