Hengsheng lay on the ground in rough shape.
His robes were wrinkled and torn, bruises covered his body, and his arms bore claw-shaped wounds.
His face had several small bite marks, and both eyes were swollen.
"Sorry…" Hengsheng murmured.
"Meow…" Yunsu meowed, licking her paws to clean them after teaching her human a lesson.
A moment later, after making sure the cat was no longer mad, he slowly got to his feet and began healing himself. His wounds glowed green and closed at a visible rate.
With a simple gesture, he changed into a fresh set of robes.
In a matter of seconds, Hengsheng returned to his usual, perfectly glorious appearance, no one could tell he’d just been badly beaten.
Hengsheng considered asking Yunsu about the Tenth Heaven, but his divine sense caught Xiaorong approaching from a distance. He had to set his curiosity aside for now.
Xiaorong landed in front of Hengsheng.
He glanced around, briefly inspecting the area. The ground beneath Hengsheng’s feet was splattered with fresh blood, still warm as if it had just been spilled—yet no corpse was in sight.
He frowned slightly, wondering what Hengsheng was interested in such a place.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Xiaorong asked in a low voice.
“Yes,” Hengsheng replied with a smirk.
“Can you tell me what it is?” Xiaorong asked, his curiosity piqued.
“I could,” Hengsheng said, still smirking.
“But if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you. Are you sure you still want to know?” His tone turned cold as he pretended to be mysterious, releasing a faint killing intent toward the other side.
Xiaorong's expression turned pale, and he instinctively took a step back as he felt a chilling killing intent pressure upon him.
He clenched his teeth in both anger and embarrassment.
After knowing Hengsheng for so long, he could tell the other side was just trying to mess with him. Still, he knew better than to test him, who knew what this bastard was gonna do if he dared to urge back.
“…Forget I asked,” he muttered, crossing his arms. He clicked his tongue in frustration and looked away.
'Bastard…' Xiaorong secretly cursed the other side in his mind.
"What did you say?" Hengsheng said.
Xiaorong paled, suspecting that this bastard had developed a technique to read other people's minds. He quickly shook this nonsense out of his head.
"Nothing…" Xiaorong said in a timid.
"I thought so…" Hengsheng replied with a smirk.
He felt better after venting his sour feelings from being beaten by the cat on poor Xiaorong.
"Let's get to work, follow me," Hengsheng said.
After that, Hengsheng, Yunsu, and Xiaorong took off into the sky, surveyed the entire island, and extended their senses here and there to ensure there was no hidden danger.
They found many hidden big and small treasure vaults everywhere, assuming they belonged to the pirate crews; a corpse pit filled with a million corpses of those who unfortunately fell into the pirates' hands; and the formation core, a formation controller that used to control multiple formations that covered the island.
When the survey was finished and it was confirmed that there was no danger remaining on the island, at least none visible, they returned to the center of the island where they had first appeared.
Hengsheng did not waste time getting to the next step.
"Where is your man?" Hengsheng asked Xiaorong.
Then, Xiaorong informs Hengsheng of the location of his man's whereabouts.
Hengsheng opened the dimensional map and searched for the location.
When he finds it, he uses the new function of the dimensional map to open the dimensional gate, connecting this place to the other side of space.
"YAH!" Hengsheng shouted, startling both the cat and Xiaorong with his sudden outburst; they had no idea why he yelled.
He was waving both of his hands randomly and chaotically, mobilizing the spiritual qi all around the place.
Hengsheng pretended to act as if he were performing an incredibly complex technique for Xiaorong to see, letting him realize the distance in cultivation depth between them!
'Where did he learn such a profound technique?! I can't comprehend it!' Xiaorong gritted his teeth while he thought, watching Hengsheng perform an unknown technique. And a moment later, his divine sense caught something.
Under Xiaorong's shocked expression, a purple swirling vortex appeared in the middle of the space, forming a swirling, 5-meter-radius, stabilized purple vortex gate that did not seem to disappear soon.
This dimensional gate is unlike the usual dimensional vortex that Hengsheng uses to teleport across space, which was a one-time teleportation portal.
This dimensional gate is a stable dimensional tunnel that allows people to go in and out as many times as they want, as long as Hengsheng continues to supply it with his Qi.
"Go, and bring your man here," Hengsheng commanded.
Xiaorong, still in shock, nodded instinctively, followed the command, and walked toward the dimensional gate. Before stepping inside the swirling vortex, he turned to Hengsheng and said,
"Hengsheng, don't make me look bad in front of my subordinate…" Xiaorong spoke in a low voice, expressing his seriousness.
Hengsheng nodded in response. He didn’t even think or intend to do that either—making fun of Xiaorong in front of his subordinate would be bad for his prestige; the command chain had to be solid, especially for a violence-based department like an intelligence department.
Lan Xiaorong, seeing Hengsheng's attitude, felt relieved and stepped into the dimensional gate.
Hengsheng was waiting in front of the dimensional gate for 10 minutes before the swirling vortex showed signs of movement.
Then, led by Xiaorong, people began to step out of the gate one after another.
These people were intelligence agents under Xiaorong's command. They were mostly former loose cultivators, whom most factions did not value much, considering them disloyal.
He also agreed with most factions' opinion that these loose cultivators had no loyalty. But Hengsheng did not need their loyalty; he simply bought them. As long as he continued to pay, they would stay and work for him—simple as that.
Soon, the last person stepped out of the dimensional gate. Hengsheng stopped supplying Qi and closed it.
As the gate closed, these cultivators began to realize that the dimensional gate they had crossed was not a formation or treasure, but rather a gate controlled by a cultivator.
They were frightened—most knew that space, void, or dimensional-related techniques were uncommon.
Only those in High rank cultivation realms could utilize them, and even the techniques that allowed lower cultivation realms to use them were difficult to practice; only geniuses among geniuses could successfully practice them.
Hengsheng observed them; there were a total of one thousand agents, all dressed in the same dark green robes, a uniform of the intelligence agents.
They acted perfectly like trained soldiers, not showing a weakness to others, but Hengsheng knew they felt dizzy from crossing the dimensional gate. Yet they hid it very well, worthy of being selected as intelligence agents.
Their cultivation realms ranged from the early stage of the Spiritual Foundation to the fifth gate of the True Body Realm.
Even though their combined strength could not compare to the Black Shark Pirate Group, they were still within the same range.
Hengsheng observed Xiaorong giving a speech to a thousand agents about the mission, while he stood still, acting like a mysterious final boss in the background.
Their mission was simple: Disguise themselves as the Black Shark Pirate Group, exert their authority over all the pirates to gather information, and secretly eliminate the target when the command is given.
Before long, Xiaorong finished his speech. Then he finally assigned them the first task as a sign that the White Shark Operation had officially begun.
As the director commanded, a thousand agents scattered in all directions to perform their task. Their first task was to clean up the mess of the massacre that had just happened.
As they carried out this task, they saw the evidence of the massacre with their own eyes. They couldn't believe that two cultivators could have been responsible for all this—it was just too terrifying!
Those who wanted to be free again, tired of working for this strange faction and had intended to flee after receiving their payment, began to reconsider.
"How will you deal with the slaves?" Xiaorong approached Hengsheng and asked.
Hengsheng paused as he was thinking about how to deal with them. These slaves could not be set free anytime soon, since they might leak the news that the Black Shark Pirate group had been completely eliminated.
"I will bring them to the residential district and let the employees there take care of them," Hengsheng said.
Lan Xiaorong nodded in reply and continued to speak to Hengsheng about the details of the operation until there was nothing more to discuss.
Hengsheng thought it was about time he should leave. He handed the space ring he got from the pirates to Xiaorong as extra funds for this operation, and then said.
"I will leave now. If there is anything urgent, send me a message," Hengsheng spoke.
Then, he extended his divine sense across the entire island, locked on all the slaves, and activated the Dimensional Shift ability, bringing them with him to the residential district at the center of Endless Tidal Island.