Charlie wasn't Vera, after all—if he were, he would have connected Claire's disappearance to Jeevika too. If he started looking into that angle and cross-referenced the timeline to Claire's recent strange behavior, he would have arrived at the same conclusion as Vera. But right now, all he noticed was that Jeevika might have strange motives and would like to meet him for now. Nodding, Nanako said, "In that case, we should meet Master Jeevika and speak with him directly. It's true that there's no reason to suspect anything if he simply noticed my potential by coincidence, and offered guidance out of charity… but I guess it gets complicated if he already knew and was sent to me. That could even mean he had his eyes on you before he actually met me." Her quick thinking seemed to lift a veil—Charlie had to agree that even as a cultivator, you just wouldn't notice potential that easily. So the odds of someone generously helping a hopeful achieve enlightenment on top of that was real

"Yes," Nanako said confidently. "It's what they call 'springing the trap' to avoid suspicion, right? This is the perfect example—feign ignorance so that they repeat the same thing, and then we can catch them in the act."Charlie nodded—Nanako was right.While a simple investigation wouldn't let on much, prying too much into Kiki Zims might set off alarms.With that in mind, Charlie decided against asking Kathleen Fox to look into the woman, instead asking Albert to simply check the utility usage of Kiki's townhouse unit to see if it was still being used. If it's too low, that means the unit was already vacant.Albert worked fast as usual—soon, he reported that there was no water bill and the power bill was the bare minimum for the past month.Naturally, it made sense that there would be no water bill if the house was vacant. But there were plenty of appliances that kept running on electricity such as refrigerators, routers, and the like.A single side-by-side refrigerator account

Having played the role of leadership in different capacities across decades, Yahiko had a good handle on the little tells that exposed his subordinates.If they constantly kept him informed, things were definitely going well.If not, things were pretty bad—as was this situation.But while not finding Claire was bad for Charlie, it was good from Yahiko's perspective.Since Charlie couldn't find Claire, he would sooner or later lose faith in getting her back. And the first gradual step to that was convincing him to give up, after which she would be replaced—as was the natural order of things.Though he felt pleased, Yahiko refrained from showing it and maintained a businesslike demeanor. "Mr. Wade, if you need anything from us, please don't hesitate to ask. We will always do our best to help!""Thank you," Charlie replied offhandedly with a hint of moping.Yahiko was smart.Having gotten what he needed the first time, he wasn't about to pester Charlie further.For Charlie's part

Furthermore, Aomori's geographical location was quite convenient for Ashley. A few hundred miles to the south lie the bustling regions of Kanto and Kansai, and a few hundred miles to the north lie Hokkaido.Separated from Hokkaido only by the Tsugaru Strait and connected by an undersea tunnel, Aomori offers easy access to the Korean Peninsula and Eastern Russia, while the boundless Pacific Ocean lies to the west. In fact, San Francisco was only about 8,000 miles away even or eight thousand kilometers away from Aomori Port, making it a convenient location to move from.Ashley had control over Aomori's apple export business by acquiring large numbers of plantations and driving down export prices and tariffs, making it impossible for competitors to keep up.While others grew apples to make money, she didn't care about profitability—resulting in little to no profits, while consumers enjoyed the privilege of higher cost-effectiveness.After all, the apples were a front for a transnati

Charlie's words filled Vera with unease. While few knew that Jeevika was a cultivator, he was highly respected in Buddhist communities as a venerated monk. Once he returned to Oskia, Charlie would know where to find him and read his mind, in turn learning that Ashley was alive. Having spoken at length with Ashley since meeting her in Rokuon-ji, Ashley maintained that she must not reunite with Charlie just yet, because Fleur Griffin still held suspicions that she survived. That was why Fleur kept her scholars in the Acker household long after Ashley faked her death: to always keep an eye out if Ashley ever returned. In Fleur's mind, Ashley was a threat, not Charlie—some brat who had gone missing since he was eight. Therefore, it was Ashley's strong opinion that appearing before Charlie wouldn't help his revenge. If anything, it was downright detrimental. Vera definitely agreed with her take. Ashley's ability to survive this long was all thanks to her discipline of pers