Xuan Che controlled the expression on his face, not allowing any abnormality to show.
He quickly gathered his Divine Sense and once again carefully scanned the entire City Lord Mansion, "looking around" the entire room.
Indeed, there were only him and Mo Ran here, and there was no third party ntal probe lurking—nor was there any external Magic creating so sort of Blinding Technique.
The expression on Mo Ran’s face was also completely normal, her aura steady, and her Spiritual Wisdom without any abnormalities.
But she clearly believed that she had brought the "Elder Dao Heng" here, and that Elder Dao Heng was currently standing beside her.
With an unchanged expression, Xuan Che nodded lightly, not preventing Mo Ran from leaving, and she departed the room without any suspicion, simply bowing out.
The room fell into silence.
Xuan Che quietly stood before the window, maintaining an outward flow of Divine Sense, facing this voice and silence, while his mind was not as calm as his face.
He quickly thought, and for a mont, he even had a bit of absurd self-doubt—wondering if the "Elder Dao Heng" was really standing in the room, and it was just his observation that went wrong, causing him not to see the other.
But he quickly shook his head, casting aside this bit of self-doubt that arose for no apparent reason, while secretly raising his guard against the Heart Demon, and quietly took out the Lingxi Mirror to begin contacting various places...
...
At the surface of Guard-3, Sun led the engineering team in digging through thick layers of soil, under Yu Sheng’s guidance. The large equipnt temporarily brought over from the Black Forest was extrely efficient, quickly doubling the size of the large hole created when Hu Li fell, then continuing to dig down.
Near this "main excavation pit," there were several other smaller "collection points."
These were places Sun’s team found where it was suitable for sampling crystal clusters—they were dormant Crystal Branches wedged depressingly between soil and rock, fortunately not smashed to dust by Hu Li’s impact when she fell, preserving the shallow crystal material form below, unpolluted.
The civil engineers in yellow heavy engineering power armor carefully expanded the cracks around those crystal branches with small digging arms, then removed the entire crystallized block as completely as possible, and sent it to a temporary storage platform at the edge of the excavation area, around which was a just-arrived recovery team from the Special Service Bureau.
These "hazardous materials experts" processing paranormal materials wore white Protective Armor, with conspicuous Special Service Bureau insignia on their armor. They worked in teams of three, two always handling samples while the other monitored the operators’ ntal states, led by a team leader with red markings on their armor who directed operations and verified all team interactions.
Nearby these recovery teams stood several "deep diver" in heavy Combat Armor—each deep diver fully equipped, followed by their Walking Tactical Robots, each tense and ready as if facing a great enemy.
Among the deep divers was a familiar face.
Xu Jiali opened the outer tallic armor of his helt, revealing his bearded face. Among all the deep divers, he seed the most relaxed—the only one casually chatting with Yu Sheng without the urgency typical when handling "suspected Angel Material."
"They’re all rookies, nervous like anything just hearing the samples this ti might be connected to the Dark Angel," Xu Jiali glanced back at the deep diving team he led, then turned to Yu Sheng, "But you... it’s been a while, you’re making big moves right when we et again?"
"You say it like I did it on purpose," Yu Sheng spread his hands, "How could I know sothing like this would suddenly erge underground..."
Xu Jiali smirked, glanced back at the battered "battlefield" and couldn’t help but sigh, "Even telling , it’s hard to believe that Miss Hu Li could create such a scene, it looks like it was hit by an ’Atlas’ Nova Cannon... good thing she’s on our side."
"She ntioned having a grand move left to use, I didn’t expect it would be this grand," Yu Sheng remarked wryly, then inadvertently glanced behind Xu Jiali, "...what does the girl following you do?"
He referred to an inconspicuous figure behind Xu Jiali—a petite girl about five feet tall, appearing almost child-like next to Xu Jiali’s towering two ters. Despite wearing Protection Armor similar to power armor, her armor was visibly much thinner than the deep divers’, and she carried no weapon, only cradling a strange chanical ball with blue crystal lines in her hands, purpose unknown.
Wherever Xu Jiali went, the stranger girl followed.
Moreover, Yu Sheng noticed every deep diver on site had such a figure trailing them—male and female, tall and short, all having thin armor, even seeming non-combat compared to Combat Armor, carrying similar "chanical balls."
Wherever the deep divers went, these figures with chanical balls followed.
"Oh, this is my Spiritual Servant, forgot to introduce," Xu Jiali tapped his helt, then raised a hand to introduce the petite figure to Yu Sheng, "Her na is Lingdang."
He paused, then added, "Rember what I ntioned? Every deep diver’s ’full deploynt’ during operations includes a Fire Support Shuttle, two Walking Tactical Robots, several light drones, and a Spiritual Servant, so strictly speaking, each deep diver outside effectively forms a complete tactical unit. What you see now is the ’expedition state’... Of course, due to the sudden situation, we didn’t bring the shuttle for this mission..."
Yu Sheng listened to Xu Jiali’s stream of explanations, dumbfounded for a few seconds before recalling that there indeed seed to be such a matter. Then his gaze fell on the girl nad "Lingdang," who also looked up at him and suddenly asked, "Are you friends with the boss?"
"Yes, we’re friends," Xu Jiali cheerfully replied from the side. "He’s called Yu Sheng, a ’Angel Combat Expert’ from the Boundary Land, quite a big shot."
"Oh, hello." Lingdang nodded, continuing to cradle the chanical ball in one hand while extending her other hand to Yu Sheng.
Yu Sheng shook hands with this "Spiritual Servant" and suddenly noticed sothing peculiar about her eyes—they were vertical pupils, just like... a cat’s.
Noticing the curiosity on Yu Sheng’s face, Xu Jiali proactively explained before he could speak, "Lingdang is Gyprolian—most Spiritual Servants are Gyprolians. The Special Service Bureau has a long-term cooperation agreent with this alien race. They provide us with the most talented spiritual ability users, and we supply them with the most potent catnip in the universe."
Yu Sheng’s expression suddenly seed a bit dazed, "...Huh?"
Then he noticed that the sharp structures on Lingdang’s helt didn’t seem to be just decorative...
"Gyprolians are a Terra species, you’ve heard of Terra, right? The ’Academy’ is on it, and it’s also the holand of the Wooden Gold people," Xu Jiali continued to cheerfully introduce, "Gyprolians have so feline traits, they’re very keen—especially in terms of spiritual energy.
"Our deep divers are good at combat but not so great with magic stuff. Spiritual Servants can make up for our shortcomings in this area, and if there’s an attack specifically targeting the mind, they are our first line of ntal defense. Of course, that’s during ’expeditionary operations’ outside. When performing Exotic Realm ’Subrgence’ tasks at the Boundary Land, it’s a different process, and the ’umbilical cord’ can sowhat replace the role of Spiritual Servants..."
Yu Sheng, with a sense of curiosity, listened earnestly to Xu Jiali’s explanations—this was knowledge he had only heard a little about before but had never deeply understood.
During this process, the Spiritual Servant nad "Lingdang" stood quietly behind Xu Jiali, not speaking, only occasionally fiddling with the chanical ball in her hands, seemingly uninterested in the external events.
While Yu Sheng and Xu Jiali were chatting, waiting for Sun’s progress on the excavation, a sudden phone ringtone interrupted their conversation.
Yu Sheng took out his phone and saw on the screen was a fox head squinting with a big toothy grin.
He answered the call, and Hu Li’s joyful voice ca from the other end: "Savior! I’m full~ Open the door, I want to co back~~"
...
Boundary City, Special Service Bureau building.
Returning to work on his first day after completing a task leave, Li Lin stood dazed with a al card in hand at the entrance of employee cafeteria number two.
The cafeteria’s doors were tightly shut, with an electronic screen at the door scrolling a ssage:
"Due to special circumstances, cafeteria number two is closed today. Please proceed to the third-floor main cafeteria for als if needed."
Li Lin blinked. In his ti working at the Special Service Bureau, it was the first ti he’d seen this situation.
Curiously, he peered through the glass window on the door, only to find nothing unusual inside—just spotlessly clean with nothing there.
Several Special Service Bureau officers passed by in the corridor behind him, their voices faintly reaching Li Lin’s ears:
"What’s going on, why’s it suddenly closed?"
"No idea, it was open when I ca this morning."
"I heard it’s because of a fox incident..."
"...Huh?"
"They say it’s the ’travel agency’ fox—I don’t know what that ans either."
Li Lin listened silently, looking down at his al card, then up at the cafeteria, feeling at a loss.
"...So who’s going to make up for the discounted chicken leg I missed?"
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