A pair of hands that were as old as dead wood slapped heavily on the solid wood table made of agarwood, and an angry gasp came from behind the table.
Three people dressed in black stood upright in front of the table. They were shouted at and dared not move. The room was a bit cold, but the sweat of these three people had already covered their foreheads and soaked their clothes.
"Huh... I gave you nearly twenty years, and you should be able to find even a needle in the haystack! But now you are telling me that you haven't found even a single useful clue!
What’s the use of me raising you!”
"Cough! Cough cough..." Due to his excessive emotion, the old man sitting behind the table coughed violently. The three people who were standing in front of the table being scolded quickly gathered around him.
The old man pushed them away with force. With trembling hands, he took out a small medicine bottle from his clothes. He poured out two pills and drank them. He took a few deep breaths and soon calmed down. His originally pale face
It's also a bit rosy.
"Get out! Get out of here! Don't ever come back here until you find that person!"
The three of them didn't dare to take a breath. At the same time, they bowed deeply to the old man and quickly left the room that made them feel suffocated and stressed.
After closing the door, the three of them looked at each other with a wry smile, feeling that their future was bleak.
After nearly twenty years of searching, almost the whole world has been turned upside down, but there is still no trace of that person. How can such a person be found in such a short time now?
But even if you can't find him, you have to keep looking. After all, the pursuit of that person is one of the reasons why their organization was established.
The three of them looked at the closed door in unison and sighed, feeling as if a weight had been placed on their hearts, feeling extremely depressed.
They all understood that there was only one reason that could explain why this old man who usually kept his emotions and angers secretly and who single-handedly created a huge dark empire was so furious today——
The old man's time is running out.
With heavy hearts, the three of them turned around and left silently, disappearing at the end of the corridor.
…
In the room, the old man leaned weakly on the back of his chair, staring at the ceiling blankly, silent.
He is already a hundred years old this year. In recent years, he has been able to clearly feel that his body functions are declining rapidly, and he may die at any time, and he may even die in his dream after sleeping.
Death is an insurmountable hurdle that everyone will eventually experience. Faced with this hurdle, even this old man who is extremely wealthy and powerful has no way to recover.
"I really don't want to die of old age..." The old man's cloudy eyes were full of desire for life.
His thoughts couldn't help but wander back to that night more than twenty years ago.
At that time, his body had begun to age, but he was still mentally strong. At that time, he was still a frequent visitor to high-society cocktail parties, and often used such occasions to have frequent social interactions with celebrities from all walks of life.
It was also during a very ordinary drinking party that he saw a figure that made him feel inexplicably familiar.
At first, he thought that the young man who had been immersed in hard work and not talking to anyone present was a young man from a certain consortium. He thought that the source of this sense of familiarity should be the acquaintance he had had at a previous upper-class party.
He quickly forgot about this trivial matter and devoted himself to exchanging glasses with the guests.
At the end of the reception, the old man was already tipsy.
The butler helped him say goodbye to the host of the reception and left from the door.
At this time, the old man once again saw the back of the young man who felt familiar to him, and saw the conspicuous dark red birthmark on the back of the young man's neck.
As if a bolt of lightning struck his mind, the old man was stunned for a moment, and regardless of the surprised expressions of his men, he ran towards the door and towards the young man.
But he had an old body after all. He panted and stopped after not running many steps, bending down in pain, but his eyes never left the direction where the young man left.
Seeing that the young man's figure had disappeared into the dim street, the old man anxiously shouted at the housekeeper and bodyguards who were catching up beside him: "Hurry, chase the man in front of you! There is a birthmark on the back of his neck.
that!"
"Quick!" The old man stomped his feet, "mobilize all available personnel and equipment, and dig three feet into the ground to bring him to me at all costs!"
The men dispersed in a hurry. The old man stared at the boundless night, with his heart racing and thoughts abounding.
In a house not far away, an ordinary-looking young man looked at the restless street, his eyes flickering with flickering light. After a long time, he chuckled and tore off the disguise material from the back of his neck and face.
That night was destined to be an uneventful night.
…
That was the closest the old man named Karasuma Renya came to "immortality" in his life.
That night, the Karasuma Group frantically searched for a young man with a birthmark on the back of his neck, shocking both black and white.
But the final result of the search, which lasted for several months and involved tens of thousands of people, was to find nothing and ended without a cure. The young man seemed to have come from nothingness, and after attending the cocktail party, he returned to nothingness.
Karasuma Renye visited everyone who attended the cocktail party, but no one knew the young man, and no one knew when and where he came to the cocktail party.
Including his family, no one knows why Renya Karasuma, the owner of the Twilight Hall, a famous art collector and one of the world's richest men, is so desperate to find someone.
Decades later, most people have forgotten about this incident.
But Karasuma Renye has never stopped pursuing her pursuit over the years.
Let me ask, when a person possesses wealth that can almost never be spent, and possesses illustrious status and power, what does he desire most?
It is immortality, it is getting rid of the shackles of death, it is being able to live forever.
When he saw the birthmark, Renye Karasuma finally remembered where he had seen that young man.
It was a top-secret list of the military that the boss had worked hard to obtain twenty years ago. The list included a piece of information codenamed "Mermaid".
Mermaid is an immortal monster. Eating its flesh can extend your life for thousands of years.
In the file, there is a blurry photo taken from the side. There are corpses lying at the young man's feet, and there is a conspicuous birthmark on the back of his neck. The profile of the face in the photo in the memory is clearly the same as that night at the cocktail party.
Young people you meet by chance are no different.
Twenty years have passed, and time seems to have left no trace on this young man’s body at all!
Realizing this, after the initial shock, Karasuma Renya was left with only ecstasy and desire in her heart - as long as she found the [Mermaid], she might be able to crack the secret of immortality.
Over the past twenty years, he has shifted all his actions from the bright side to the shadows, and established a transnational criminal group - a black organization codenamed after alcohol.
On the one hand, he continues to pursue the mysterious young man through this organization; on the other hand, the black organization uses its connections in all walks of life and secret ways to absorb talents from the financial and medical fields and gather funds.
, establish a drug laboratory and develop mysterious drugs that can reverse life and death.
But what he didn't expect was that more than 20 years later, although the scientists of the Karasuma Group had made great progress in extending lifespan, they had no breakthrough results. As for [Mermaid], it was even more difficult.
No news.
"We can't wait any longer and start preparing the plan immediately."
Making up her mind, Renya Karasuma rang the bell on the table.
While he was waiting for his men to enter the room, the centenarian looked at his skinny hands in a daze.
The door, the floor, the handrails... The Karasuma family's crest, the crow-shaped coat of arms, can be seen everywhere in the room. In the light of the lights, each piece of finely crafted feathers appears a little darker, and is embellished with gems.
His eyes were shining with a strange, scarlet light.
…
In a luxuriously decorated and spacious hall, more than a dozen people gathered in small circles in twos and threes, and soft music floated in the air, "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss Jr., the "King of Waltz".
"Oh my God! Look at this lifelike family crest. Everything here is so finely crafted. Is this the Karasuma family?"
A short, well-dressed middle-aged blond gentleman with a slightly upturned moustache caressed the crow coat of arms on the table.
"Hey, Smith! Look at your worthless look! It's just a few family crests and you're so excited!"
Sitting opposite him was a fat yellow man, teasing his old friend.
"Tsk, Senjian, you, a guy who only knows how to dig in the dirt, will never understand what true art is!"
Smith fired back without hesitation: "This Twilight Hall is full of crow family emblems carefully customized by the Karasuma family. Each family emblem is hand-carved by craftsmen. Do you think this is just a small family emblem?
In fact? It’s taste, it’s heritage! Mr. Karasuma must be an excellent artist..."
Qianjian raised his hand and interrupted his reading impatiently: "I mean, you are so excited now, will you have a myocardial infarction when you see Mr. Karasuma's collection later?"
Can I help you find a doctor in advance?"
"...You're right." Smith also realized that the real highlight was yet to come. He looked away in embarrassment and muttered in a low voice, "It's better to forget about finding a doctor. That would be too embarrassing."
"If you have any medical needs, I will be happy to help."
Suddenly, a third voice interrupted the conversation between the two.
Qianjian and Smith looked up and saw a man in his early thirties walking towards them.
The man has an unkempt beard and messy hair. He looks quite unkempt, but his facial features are handsome and have a kind of classical beauty.
"I don't know any of these people, and I was bored. I vaguely heard the two of them chatting about doctors, so I wanted to come over and get to know them."
The man stretched out his right hand: "I, Qingshan, am a poor medical worker."
Qianjian and Smith looked at each other and laughed.
"Mr. Qingshan, then you have to take good care of this guy in the future, don't let him die suddenly!" Qianjian stretched out his hand and shook Qingshan, "My name is Qingshan Kyousuke, I am an archaeologist. Nice to meet you.
.”
"Smith, collector." The blond gentleman glared at his friend angrily and shook hands with Qingshan.
"Mr. Qingshan, were you also invited here by Mr. Karasuma?" Smith was a little suspicious, feeling that it was unlikely that a medical worker would be invited to do such a treasure hunt.
Qingshan was stunned for a moment, a meaningful smile flashed across his face, and he replied: "Yes, I don't know what you are doing by inviting me here. Isn't it really to protect everyone's lives?"
"Hahahaha!" The three of them laughed at the same time, attracting frequent glances from others.
"Speaking of which, I really don't know why the Karasuma family gathered so many scholars together this time. I only heard a little bit of rumors that they wanted to help the old man Karasuma find something..." Qingshan looked around with some vigilance.
After looking around, he leaned forward and whispered.
"Huh? Didn't Karasuma Group tell you when they invited you?" Qianjian and Smith both looked confused.
"Uh... I was away on a long trip, and the invitation was left in the mailbox at my door." Qingshan scratched his head in embarrassment.
The two of them suddenly understood. Just when they were about to enthusiastically explain to their new doctor friend, the music in the hall suddenly stopped, and a man who looked like a butler appeared at the door of the hall.
"Bah bang bang!"
The butler clapped his hands three times, attracting the attention of everyone in the hall to himself, and said loudly: "The Karasuma family welcomes everyone. Everyone should have arrived. Please follow me to the restaurant first, and use
After lunch, the head of the family will meet with you."
"Let's go, we're a little hungry." Qianjian stood up, "The Karasuma family invited us here to find the treasure left by the head of the family's mother. The specific details will be known later."
"I hope there's no pineapple in the pizza here." Smith, who grew up in Italy, shrugged and followed Qianjian towards the butler.
Qingshan deliberately stayed a few steps behind the two of them, looking at the profound and mysterious crow emblems around him as he walked.
He was indeed "invited", but he did not have an invitation letter.
The moment he saw in the newspaper that the Karasuma family sent out invitations to summon scholars to the Twilight Hall for news, he knew that Renya Karasuma was about to die.
He felt that if the wealthy man who was shrouded in mystery from the outside world knew that he had arrived at the Twilight Pavilion, he might go crazy with joy.
"Brother Qingshan, what are you doing? Let's go!"
Qianjian's call came from ahead, and he quickly quickened his pace and responded loudly: "Coming, coming!"
A heartfelt smile on his face.
Qingshan is his pseudonym.
He named himself "Yuanhuaiyu", after his favorite historical figure, the strategist Guiguzi Wang Xu.
He had been waiting for this invitation letter from the Twilight Hall for sixty years.