I suddenly remembered that Ru Xue kept rummaging through her bag when she left. Now, I realized that she was searching for her mobile phone. Perhaps, the mysterious person had deliberately left his phone behind, and the call history might have been made on purpose. He wanted to create a dispute between us!

Ru Xue was gone, so we had to put everything aside to find her. This gave the ghost plenty of time to kill Li Mazi.

There was still one thing that made me wonder. Ever since Li Mazi had joined this Circle, he was my assistant. He didn’t have any grudges against anyone. If we had offended someone inadvertently, the other party should have targeted me. Why did they exert their efforts to kill Li Mazi?

At this moment, Li Mazi was worried and felt very guilty. He lingered at the hotel entrance, unsure as to what to do.

Ru Xue had left for quite a long time. The camera showed that she got into a taxi, but we didn’t know where she went.

“Little Brother Zhang, do you think Ru Xue will encounter danger?” Li Mazi squatted and looked dispirited. “Ru Xue’s a pregnant woman. She wouldn’t be a threat to anybody. She wouldn’t be in danger, right?”

I frowned as I didn’t know how to answer. The other party had tried their best to split us apart. How could they leave Ru Xue alone? There was no doubt that Ru Xue was kidnapped.

It was like the time Li Mazi and his son were kidnapped. Besides waiting for the other party’s call, we couldn’t do anything.

Moreover, I believed that if they were able to take Ru Xue’s phone right under our noses, they would have to be more than one person. They could be watching every move of ours!

I believed that they would call us soon. I asked Li Mazi to wait for me outside as I went to the hotel toilet to call Chuyi. From what I knew, he had returned to Hong Kong as a rich man had asked him to solve a problem. I hadn’t heard from him since then and didn’t know where he was now. If possible, I hoped he could come to rescue us.

I realized that our enemy wasn’t the female ghost but the living people hiding in the dark. They were likely people from the Longquan Villa!

After the line connected, Chuyi went straight to the matter. “What’s the problem?”

This habit of his would never change. I sighed and quickly briefed him about the situation. “Could you come to Italy to help us?”

With his nature, he would normally agree immediately. However, this time, he kept silent for a while then slowly spoke up. “I can’t come to help you.”

I was bewildered and recognized that his voice was feeble. It sounded like he was wounded. “What happened? Are you all right?”

“Yeah. Zen Master Baimei and I got a case. But we’re in trouble. It seems that the Longquan Villa is behind this. I can’t come there to help you.”

“Take care and be more careful. No need to worry about me here. I know what to do,” I said, then hung up the call.

Chuyi was always frank with me. If he said he couldn’t help us, it meant he was in great trouble. Moreover, Zen Master Baimei and Chuyi’s situation sounded even more perilous than mine. I was now worried about them.

I thought about the situation and clenched my teeth. Then, I called Senior Shu. Unexpectedly, that despicable old man was also busy. His hideout was exposed, and he was now on the run. Despite being a millionaire, he didn’t even have a decent place to stay in.

Senior Shu wasn’t a righteous person, and he liked to fool his juniors. But every time we sought his aide, he would help us. He didn’t need to pretend to refuse to help. I told him to take care, then hung up the call with a discouraged face.

I now recognized that after so many cases, I had never been parted from the help of Chuyi, Zen Master Baimei, Senior Shu, or my grandfather. Since they couldn’t help me now, I was useless!

With this thought, I suddenly realized something. All of us were in trouble at the same time. This had never happened before.

I hoped that everything was just a coincidence.

I worriedly went back to the door to wait there with Li Mazi.

Soon, Ru Xue’s phone rang. Li Mazi resolutely stood up and snatched the phone from me. He accepted the call and shouted crazily, “What do you want? I’ll do whatever you want! Don’t hurt my Ru Xue!”

The people on the other end of the line kept quiet for a long moment before they spoke up. The man’s voice was cold. “You want me to release her? That’s easy. Just come to the Ghost Castle. Come alone!”

I couldn’t help but shout at the phone. “Who are you? Why do you want to harm us?”

The other party sneered. “Zhang Jiulin, if you don’t want to see the girl die, you shouldn’t come! Otherwise, they will both have to die! Of course, Li Mazi can choose not to come. Haha!”

Then, he hung up. Li Mazi glanced at me and asked me to wait in the hotel. He made a turn to the meandering path. I grabbed him and scoffed, “You bastard, you don’t want to live anymore? You want to go there to die?”

Li Mazi halted for a moment. He gave me a wry smile and kept walking away. I was bewildered but didn’t stop him.

His wife and child were kidnapped. It was understandable that he wanted to go there.

In the worst case, he would die together with his beloved. I couldn’t stop him, so I had to follow him from a distance.

Lu Dongbin had wounded the ghost, so the thick layer of fog outside the Ghost Castle was much thinner. Under the pale moonlight, we could see the rows of seats facing the door. We couldn’t see anything beyond that.

“Take care of Li Meng and Ru Xue for me,” said Li Mazi. He didn’t look back and entered the church.

It was his way of telling me to stop following him. There was no need to imagine it. Awaiting us inside was the female ghost and even our enemy. If I went with him, I would be killed too.

Anyway, I was certain that the enemy wasn’t afraid of me. Such being the case, why didn't they want me to enter the church?

I couldn’t figure it out. However, at this moment, I wasn’t the one who was in control of the situation. If Li Mazi couldn’t return, my only hope was that the enemy would keep their words and release Ru Xue.

I would bring her and Yin Xinyue back to China and hide them somewhere. Then, I would try all means to find these people and take revenge for Li Mazi! I would destroy everything that belonged to them, including their families! I swore I would never leave anyone alive!

Just in case, I headed back to the hotel. I needed to ask Yin Xinyue to leave first. If something happened to her, I wouldn’t even be able to take care of Li Mazi’s funeral!

On the way back, I saw two people walking toward me. They were Marco and Dr. Paolo. Dr. Paolo had a wooden scepter in his hand. When he saw me, he exhaled and asked, “What’s going on in there?”

When Marco saw me and Li Mazi worriedly leave the hotel, he realized that we were in trouble. He hurried to bring his father here. From the surveillance camera, they knew we had departed to the Ghost Castle. That was why they hurried to come and help us.

After listening to him, I was so touched that I couldn’t even utter a word. I could only give a deep bow and told them about the mysterious person.

Dr. Paolo laughed. He pointed at the haunted church and said boldly, “In this old castle, no one has the right to speak except for me!”

Then, he carried his scepter and took the lead. He entered the church. Marco followed his father and gave me an OK gesture to comfort me. I gave him a thumbs-up, feeling a little better.

Since Paolo and his son, two experts in the field, were here to deal with those people, there was no need for me to be afraid.

Paolo walked into the church resolutely. I followed after him. Soon, I saw Ru Xue tied to the bench and Li Mazi on the ground. Three people wearing black clothes stood by them. Although they wore black veils that concealed their faces, they couldn’t hide their Asian facial features.

I looked around. The female ghost was nowhere to be seen. I guessed that since Li Mazi was in their hands, these people didn’t need to use the ghost.

They had seen us as soon as we stepped into the church. However, they didn’t stop us nor did they say anything. Right from the start, their eyes were fixed on the scepter in Dr. Paolo’s hand!