In the dark courtyard, Chen Bugu sat alone in the main house.
He reached out and stroked Amon's head; the creature had chased after him relentlessly after he left, refusing to go back.
Fortunately, Amon had mastered the ability to freely change its size; at this moment, it had transformed back to its newborn size, resting on Chen Bugu's shoulder, gnawing on a piece of dried meat.
Amon's growth rate was very fast, already showing faint signs of breaking through Five Star.
Wang Bin said that Teacher Lin had been taking care of it, but unfortunately, a day had passed since Chen Bugu returned to Obsidian Town, and after inquiring everywhere, he still hadn't found any news about Lin Ye.
He had already troubled Old Zhou, and if he couldn't get any information about Lin Ye at the Cross Street headquarters tonight, then perhaps Lin Ye hadn't returned to Obsidian Town.
If that were the case, he didn't know if it was good or bad; Chen Bugu could only pray that he hadn't met with an accident.
At the beginning of the Great Disaster, Old Liu and Lin Ye had always followed Chen Bugu.
Now, although Old Liu had found his wife, he had died at the hands of Dongcheng Xiuwu, and Lin Ye's whereabouts were unknown.
"You say you are a cold and selfish person, but I know you are different from those people; you can live with a clear conscience, but you will only live in nightmares."
Chen Bugu recalled Old Liu's words that night; at the time, he was unwilling to admit it, but Old Liu was right—if he didn't come back, he would probably live in nightmares forever.
Although he had known Old Liu for less than two months, he could have completely ignored this person's affairs and moved on, but he couldn't do it.
Two months was neither long nor short, but it was enough to leave memories in every battle fought side by side.
If he was powerless, then so be it; he could have pretended to be blind and cowardly like in his previous life.
But this time, he could kill!
If the entire team returned to the town, it would be too ostentatious and would put them on the defensive everywhere.
But if it was just Chen Bugu alone, he wouldn't have to worry too much.
Although Dongcheng Xiuwu was Eight Star, with the Bullet Time buff, he wasn't without a chance to kill him.
However, Dongcheng Xiuwu usually resided in the inner courtyard of Cross Street and rarely was alone.
Moreover, as the deputy leader of Cross Street, he would certainly not lack defensive equipment.
And Chen Bugu also needed to worry about Alek and the powerful foreign race experts he was friends with; at this stage, facing Nine Star, Chen Bugu could only flee in disarray even with Bullet Time activated.
But if he truly fell into heavy encirclement, he had made other preparations as well.
After returning to Obsidian Town, Chen Bugu went to see three people in succession.
They were Old Zhou, Master Fran, and Jiang Sisi.
Chen Bugu couldn't deal with so many people from Cross Street at once, so he needed help.
But he understood very well that Unyielding Hall and the Dwarf could not assist him in publicly killing Dongcheng Xiuwu.
The larger and more mature an organization, the more things its leader needs to consider; they are not like Chen Bugu, who is unburdened and free to come and go.
However, during his visits to the three, he also had some unexpected gains, which prompted him to form his current plan.
Old Zhou initially strongly objected, clearly stating that Liu Chengfeng would intercept and kill Dongcheng Xiuwu outside the town soon, and told Chen Bugu to simply wait patiently.
But Chen Bugu refused; he wasn't sure if this was Old Zhou's benevolent lie, at least in his previous life when he came to Obsidian Town, Dongcheng Xiuwu was still alive and well.
What's more, Chen Bugu wanted to kill Dongcheng Xiuwu himself.
Seeing that Chen Bugu's mind was made up, Old Zhou left him to wait in Unyielding Hall and turned to report the matter to Liu Chengfeng.
As a result, Liu Chengfeng changed his mind, decided to lead a team to the banquet, and promised Chen Bugu that as long as he didn't assassinate Dongcheng Xiuwu in plain sight, he would do his best to hold back Alek.
However, just as Chen Bugu thought, Unyielding Hall had too many concerns and couldn't provide him with overt support, so Liu Chengfeng couldn't hold out for too long; he himself still needed to kill Dongcheng Xiuwu as quickly as possible.
Moreover, once Chen Bugu killed Dongcheng Xiuwu and failed to escape in time, if he was discovered, then the doors of Unyielding Hall would no longer be open to Chen Bugu in the future; at least, to outsiders, it had to appear that way.
Old Zhou asked Chen Bugu if he had truly thought it through.
Chen Bugu nodded, and after further discussing some details with Old Zhou, he went to the Dwarf.
Master Fran was very happy to see Chen Bugu; he had already heard about Chen Bugu and Lin Lin's help to him and the Dwarf, and they had gained the Dwarf's most sincere friendship.
When Chen Bugu proposed borrowing equipment from Master Fran, he was surprised to see the Lianxin Crossbow here.
Upon inquiring, he learned that Dongcheng Xiuwu had placed this equipment here, hoping to have Master Fran craft matching arrows for it.
Chen Bugu explained the origin of the Lianxin Crossbow, and the straightforward Dwarf were furious upon hearing it, scolding Dongcheng Xiuwu as a despicable villain.
Chen Bugu, who had been worried about how to lure Dongcheng Xiuwu out, suddenly had a plan: he wanted to ask the Dwarf to help him put on a play.
Of course, Chen Bugu didn't tell the Dwarf that the play would end with Dongcheng Xiuwu's death.
In his original plan, he only hoped to further strengthen his power through the Dwarf's equipment, but he now found that the Dwarf didn't have many green pieces of equipment, and they were too recognizable, easily identified, which would undoubtedly drag the Dwarf into trouble.
"Brother Chen, if you ask me, why don't you wait until I recover from my injuries, and I'll find an opportunity to help you take care of that scoundrel Dongcheng Xiuwu, how about it?"
The short-tempered Master Fran was already cursing.
Chen Bugu politely thanked him but still chose to conceal his true intentions; he only explained the parts where the Dwarf's help was needed.
There were two reasons for not telling the Dwarf the entire plan.
One was to avoid dragging the innocent Dwarf into trouble.
The second was because he couldn't fully trust the Dwarf yet.
Therefore, simply using the Lianxin Crossbow to have them help transmit an additional message would be less likely to cause problems.
However, what surprised Chen Bugu was that Master Fran's judgment regarding the Lianxin Crossbow was actually true.
He had initially felt that the "Linked Hearts" skill shouldn't appear on a green-grade weapon, but if it were purple-grade, it could be reasonably explained.
Purple weapons were one grade higher than blue weapons, a rare existence even in High Heaven City.
The Lianxin Crossbow was a weapon Chen Bugu obtained from the Great Disaster; there was no reason it could reach this level, but his Great Disaster was full of strangeness, and he had no way to investigate it for now.
As for whether it was the loss of core components or the influence of a cursed sealing power, that would have to wait until he killed Dongcheng Xiuwu and retrieved the Lianxin Crossbow before he could slowly research it.
After bidding farewell to Master Fran, Chen Bugu finally went to see Jiang Sisi.