Chapter 228: Calamity Flame

……

In just one minute, William Jack's forehead was already covered with sweat beads as big as soybeans.

He had realized he had sat in the wrong seat; the seat next to Li Mochen no longer belonged to him.

Fortunately, their bus stopped briefly as it exited the school gate. Carl Holton hurried aboard holding a mobile phone, then unceremoniously sat down on Li Mochen's other side.

"Chu asked me to give this to you. He said there was a call for you just now, from your company's current Chief Information Officer, Jeremy Burt."

Li Mochen found it a bit odd, but he still dialed Jeremy's number immediately.

"Boss, is it convenient to talk now? I have very important news to tell you."

"Go ahead, Jeremy." As he spoke, Li Mochen casually cast a spell to confine the phone's sound within a foot around him.

"I've found Miss Hazel's location. She's underground at the Gerald Refinery in the eastern suburbs, about twenty meters below the surface."

Li Mochen was somewhat surprised. He hadn't expected that Jeremy Burt, who was isolated and without much support, would be the first to find Hazel's whereabouts.

Should he say that this was worthy of the chief detective of the Tianyan Detective Agency?

"The Gerald Refinery? This refinery has nothing to do with Antonio, right?"

"On the surface, no."

Jeremy Burt laughed mockingly: "But I found that Antonio's father, through three shell companies and complex equity relationships, controls at least 76% of the shares in this refinery. It's worth noting that this place is only about a hundred meters from Antonio's main business, the Flame Club. I suspect there's an underground passage connecting these two buildings."

"Jeremy, are you sure it's here?"

A cold glint had already appeared in Li Mochen's eyes: "Keep surveillance, don't get too close to avoid alerting them. Notify me immediately of any changes there."

When he hung up, Carl Holton asked with curiosity: "What's so mysterious? Can you tell me?"

Li Mochen pondered for a moment, but finally shook his head: "Private secret. Allow me to keep it confidential for now."

He had thought it over; although he could use the power of the Nathan Sports Group to verify the accuracy of Jeremy Burt's intelligence, it would also increase the risk of tipping off the enemy.

Before this operation, he would use the power of merit and Ziwei Dou Shu to calculate the truth. If Mr. Burt had any ulterior motives, he couldn't hide them from Li Mochen.

"Alright!"

Carl didn't intend to probe further. He handed a folder to Li Mochen: "This is the latest intelligence gathered by our information department. They believe the Dragon Witch Cult intends to use Hazel's body as a mother vessel to resurrect the Calamity Flame Dragon Lady. She is also known as the Calamity Princess, a demigod-level dragon that once caused millions of casualties in both the Old and New Worlds. She has been hunted and slain by various nations many times, but always manages to resurrect through pre-arranged contingencies."

As he spoke, he also used a sound-binding spell, so that only Li Mochen could hear his words.

"The Calamity Flame Dragon Lady, Adriana?"

Li Mochen had read extensively in Western magical history and knew the Calamity Flame Dragon Lady's fearsome reputation.

What Carl said was actually incorrect; this Calamity Flame Dragon Lady had never truly been slain. Some speculated that this dragon had long hidden her true dragon body in a mysterious place difficult for mortals to find, with only her dragon soul roaming the world.

Thus, what the nations had hunted and killed were merely the Calamity Flame Dragon Lady's dragon soul and the avatars she possessed.

"There is reliable evidence that the Dragon Witch Cult has formed a close alliance with the Calamity Flame Dragon Lady. After her death, the cult will do everything in its power to facilitate her resurrection."

Carl continued explaining: "And this time, the chosen resurrection site is Atlanta. In the era before World War I, the Calamity Flame Dragon Lady once caused a massive fire in this city, resulting in over a hundred thousand deaths. We suspect that back then, Adriana left a resurrection blood pool in a secret location in Atlanta."

Li Mochen frowned as he flipped through the materials Carl provided: "I want to know, why Hazel?"

"This may be related to your family's bloodline. The Calamity Flame Dragon Lady's father was the Calamity Dragon God, Disfalk. The latter was killed by your ancestor, Rudolph Hohenstaufen, who was subsequently canonized."

Carl speculated: "We have reason to believe that after slaying the Calamity Dragon God Disfalk, Rudolph bathed in the dragon god's blood and stole part of his power, which was then passed down through your bloodline. In fact, Hazel might just be a backup. Five months before her, another girl named Catherine from a collateral branch of the Wiltonstein family went missing, and to this day, neither alive nor dead has been found. We suspect she died in an accident during the Calamity Flame Dragon Lady's resurrection ritual. In the following two months, two more Wiltonstein girls suffered the same fate. Their backgrounds are similar—around thirteen or fourteen years old, neglected by the Wiltonstein family, even disowned."

"You know, Amo? We suspect someone within the Wiltonstein family sold them out and helped the Dragon Witch Cult cover up their disappearances. Otherwise, even if these girls were not valued by your family, Mr. Conshuri wouldn't have ignored the matter after a series of disappearances."

When Carl said this, he clearly felt the chilling cold emanating from the young man beside him.

Carl Holton didn't mind; he knew the boy's killing intent wasn't directed at him.

"As soon as Mr. Payton learned of this intelligence, he immediately informed the Light Cathedral and the FBI. Due to you, these two parties have recently been investigating the Dragon Witch Cult and Hazel's disappearance, and they've gone even deeper than we have. This is all thanks to your crackdown on the Blood Hand Gang, which has accelerated our investigation. Much of the information comes from within the Blood Hand Gang itself; they no longer recognize Antonio as one of their own."

"The FBI's Atlanta branch and the Atlanta Light Archbishop have been intervening in this matter since this morning. So, Amo, you can act more boldly from now on. Antonio has really gotten himself into big trouble this time. Neither the Light Church nor the New Church will want to see their mortal enemy, the Calamity Flame Dragon Lady Adriana, resurrected in this world again. The FBI won't sit idly by while such a huge problem arises on American soil. I think the East City Police Department will find it hard to provide them with assistance now. The Blood Hand Gang members should be thanking you; you've separated them from Antonio. Otherwise, the New Church's Knight Order and the FBI's special forces could have wiped them all out today."

"But be careful. According to our information, every time the Calamity Flame Dragon Lady resurrects, she selects thirty people to grant life, extending their lifespan by thirty years. They might use these slots to bribe political circles, even high-ranking members of the New Church. So you still need to avoid leaving too many loose ends during the operation, and don't trust them too much."

"Then there's Halloween. This might speed up their progress—"

Just then, the bus they were riding in suddenly emitted a muffled 'bang.'

Carl Holton looked up in surprise, gazing out the window. He saw that their bus had arrived near Storm Stadium, and on both sides, dozens of bricks and stones were flying toward their vehicle.