"What's the situation over there?" Su Chen looked toward Yang Yan and Gu Bing, whose expressions were so gloomy that water could practically drip from them.
"Not only did it verify my speculations, but we also discovered a Statue of Black Buddha," Xia Hanshi said in a deep voice. "Black Buddha is truly preparing to descend via a vessel, and they are in a great hurry."
"A Statue of Black Buddha?" Su Chen revealed an inquiring look. Was this the massive thing he had sensed?
Gu Bing explained for him: "An Evil God Statue, cast with a teoric iron core, which houses the power of an Evil God."
"A super-sized Evil God Artifact?" Su Chen couldn't help but say.
"Yes, but also no." Gu Bing shook her head. "Although Evil God Artifacts also contain the power of Evil Gods, it's rely power. Even though it cos with the corruptive nature of the Evil Gods, its connection to the Evil God itself is very shallow."
"This kind of statue, however, is different. It houses the true consciousness of an Evil God. The Evil God Vessel relies on this consciousness to summon the power of the Evil God's main body."
Understanding dawned on Su Chen. He grew increasingly certain in his heart that it was probably because the panel had devoured his power that this fellow had grown curious and was dead set on finding him.
Xia Hanshi's figure flickered, and he vanished.
"Where is Teacher going?"
"He should be going to keep an eye on Zhang Hongbo." Yang Yan's expression was complex. "The waters in your Nanfeng City... aren't shallow at all."
Gu Bing gave him a rough rundown of the matter.
"The position of City Lord, was just lost just like that?" Su Chen was also quite astonished, unable to stop himself from sighing inwardly.
Zhang Hongbo had done so many things previously, even stealthily targeting him, and to a certain extent, it was all to safeguard his own authority.
But now, he had been stripped of his position so simply?
"Wasn't it supposed to be decided by Yingfeng?" Su Chen didn't understand. Handling Zhou Xian had involved so much dilly-dallying, yet when it ca to Zhang Hongbo, it was even faster.
Yang Yan explained, "Special matters dictate special handling. This incident is too massive. A Priest and a Statue of Black Buddha both appeared, and it involves his imdiate family mber."
"Of course..." Gu Bing added, "It won't be announced to the public for the ti being."
"If Zhang Hongbo himself was truly unaware of these matters, perhaps he might still land an idle post."
"That's Yingfeng's standard procedure..." Yang Yan, beside her, took up the thread again. "But according to Elder Xia's temperant, if Zhang Hongbo takes a single wrong step next, his entire family will have to die."
'His entire family will have to die, huh...' Su Chen recalled the sibling pair, Zhang Hengyu and Zhang Yunqing.
"Additionally..." Gu Bing paused for a mont, her expression turning odd. "Elder Xia has already had us issue an order to summon Yuan Chenyang back. It seems he intends to let him stand in as City Lord temporarily."
"Ah?"
Su Chen only found it funny. Back then, Zhang Hongbo had transferred Yuan Chenyang away to stand in as his Minister of Supervision.
Now the tables had turned, and Yuan Chenyang was actually going to stand in as Zhang Hongbo's City Lord.
"This kind of acting position generally won't be rescinded later," Gu Bing explained. "Yuan Chenyang also has backing from above. Now that he has seized this opportunity, he won't let it go."
"Elder Xia is doing this to gag the Third Chief Inquisitor."
Su Chen also understood. Old Xia wasn't truly acting recklessly; he was crystal clear in his heart about the consequences of his actions, but he still chose to do it anyway.
A portion of that bad reputation was also a way for others to vent their frustration when they couldn't do anything about him.
However, when Su Chen thought of Old Yuan, he also felt a wave of headache coming on.
Old Yuan had treated him quite well too. When the ti ca, he really didn't know how to explain things.
"Don't carry any psychological burdens. He will understand." Seeing this, Gu Bing sighed and couldn't help but console him.
Su Chen nodded and took his leave.
"This is a rare good seedling. Compassion, resoluteness, talent—he lacks none of them. It's just a pity that Elder Xia t him first..." Gu Bing watched Su Chen leave, feeling increasingly regretful.
"It was that Yuan Chenyang who discovered him, but who asked him to be unable to keep him?" Yang Yan shook his head. "Elder Xia giving him the seat of City Lord has already exceeded my expectations."
"Furthermore, he won't necessarily run into problems. Plenty of Elder Xia's students are doing perfectly fine."
"But those three who perished..." Gu Bing couldn't help but say.
"No one has seen their corpses; they simply disappeared..." Yang Yan frowned. "After interacting with him this ti, Elder Xia is different from what I imagined. We shouldn't blindly believe those rumors anymore."
...
"Who, who, who exactly!?"
In the subterranean sewers, the Black Buddha Priest hid within a crevice, forcibly enduring the foul stench surrounding him. The black robe enshrouding his body had already been reduced to re tattered strips of cloth, and the surface of his skin bore inch upon inch of burn marks that brought waves of stabbing pain.
Behind him, the Statue of Black Buddha exuded a dark light, seemingly exceedingly unstable.
"How could the news have leaked? Every single person who knew was a believer! How could Xia Hanshi make a beeline straight for this place!?"
"Where did he get the information from!?" the Priest roared in a low voice. Due to Xia Hanshi's sudden attack this ti, he had been forced to rely on the power of the holy statue to escape.
This triggered a chain reaction in their subsequent plans. Now, the incomplete power of the holy statue would find it very difficult to support the descent of the Holy Lord Black Buddha again.
"Exactly who... exactly who..." The Priest suppressed his fury, forcing himself to calm down, and a na gradually surfaced.
'Zhou Xian!'
He was the only one who wasn't a believer.
As the first high-ranking official of Nanfeng City that he had cultivated, even though his surface identity had been exposed, the other party's familiarity with Nanfeng City remained useful.
Coupled with the death of his biological son, even if Zhou Xian had delayed in becoming a Black Buddha believer, he still maintained a considerable amount of trust in him.
But now, mulling it over repeatedly, it seed there was only this one possibility of a leak.
'This sudden attack didn't utilize anyone from Nanfeng City at all, but rather charged straight here. It's clear they possessed extrely precise information. It definitely wasn't a lucky guess.'
The more the Priest thought about it, the more he felt sothing was amiss. He was almost certain that Zhou Xian had betrayed them!
"Courting death! Courting death!"
...
"How did it go?"
In front of the elevator doors, Sun Tai was still waiting anxiously. Seeing Su Chen return, his hurriedly went up to him and asked repeatedly.
Su Chen whispered, "Secretly, Zhang Hongbo has already been relieved of his position as City Lord. My teacher... Mmm..."
He thought for a mont and added, "Teacher Yuan is already on his way back, probably to stand in as City Lord."
Visibly, Sun Tai's pupils slowly dilated, and his body swayed, bumping against the wall. That large, flat face of his was gradually suffused with a flushed crimson color.
'The City Lord was ousted because of !?'
This single sentence was all that echoed in Sun Tai's brain.
Of course, he knew there were many other key factors involved, but ultimately, his influence had played a part.
Not only that, but his old superior was actually going to stand in as City Lord?
Sun Tai was crystal clear on the unspoken rules here. If Yuan Chenyang didn't have anyone backing him, he would probably only stand in for a period of ti. But Yuan Chenyang hailed from the Adjudication Court, and he had backing in Yingfeng too.
This 'acting' title would likely be removed very soon. When that ti ca, wouldn't he, the 'number one ritorious minister', soar straight into the azure skies?
"Brother Sun..." Su Chen couldn't help calling out. Sun Tai's entire face had turned blood-red, and he was even grinning and chuckling 'hehehe', looking quite terrifying.
"Oh, oh..." Sun Tai snapped back to his senses, his breathing slowly steadying, and his complexion also returning to normal, though he remained extrely excited. "Little Brother, this is truly all thanks to your blessing!"
"This is what you deserve." Su Chen then cautioned again, "It's best not to let news of this matter leak out."
"Understood, understood." Fatty Sun nodded repeatedly. On his way back, he kept grinning and chuckling, attracting a wave of stares, and he hadn't fully cald down even after returning to his office.
"This is the Vice Minister's room..." Su Chen, on the other hand, arrived at a new room. This was practically the highest floor of the Supervision Departnt.
The various setups were extrely luxurious, and the gravity training room could even be cranked up to ten tis gravity. Su Chen gave it a brief try and found he couldn't quite handle it.
"The burden is too heavy. Under such circumstances, the training effects will actually diminish." Su Chen adjusted the multiplier on the panel back down to five before finally adapting to it.
"A whole lot of things really happened tonight."
Finally having quieted down, Su Chen also felt that the rapid changes in the situation caught people off guard.
First encountering an assassination attempt, then Xia Hanshi showing up at the door, straight to Zhang Hongbo being dismissed—all of this took place in a very short span of ti.
"All of this... seems to be because of the Evil God Artifact Qi Chuan led to find... No, it had actually started even earlier." From the words of Yang Yan and the others, Su Chen had gradually sorted out the sequence of events.
"According to what they said, the Black Buddha believers, along with Zhou Xian and the rest, had their own set of plans. Under normal circumstances, it should have been a slow, gradual erosion, eventually harvesting the crops."
"If not for , Jiang He would have died, Qi Chuan would have gained Jiang Rong's support, and Qi Chuan was Zhou Xian's subordinate."
"Also, if the Saint Word Stones were lost, Old Yuan couldn't shirk the bla and perhaps would also be transferred away. The person taking over might even be connected to the Evil God Cults."
"However, all of this was ssed up by . Then an accident occurred with the Evil God Artifact. That Black Buddha presumably wanted to know who devoured his power, so the Black Buddha believers funneled more and more power in, eventually reaching this current state."
Su Chen's brows furrowed deeply. Previously, while caught in the middle of it, he had been bewildered and completely oblivious as to what was actually going on.
Now that his status was growing higher and he knew more and more information, he could gradually deduce the original picture.
Yet, with matters developing to this stage, it seed no one cared anymore about why the Evil God Artifact had been emptied.
"I can't control the developnt of the situation either." Su Chen shook his head, simply choosing not to fret over these things. He downed two mouthfuls of potion and entered his familiar training rhythm.
"However, how should I leak the Priest's coordinates to Old Xia?"
...
"Uncle..." Zhang Yunqing opened the door, looking quite surprised at the middle-aged man who wore a hasty expression.
Zhang Feng bolted in with a head full of sweat. "Quickly, Yunqing, pack your things. Sothing's happened. We have to leave Nanfeng City as soon as possible."
"Hengyu, Hengyu!" he yelled.
Zhang Hengyu erged from the gravity room, looking rather bewildered.
"Quick, hurry up and pack your things!" Zhang Feng urged repeatedly. Zhang Hengyu looked toward his older sister.
"Uncle..." Zhang Yunqing's brows furrowed slightly. "What happened?"
"Don't ask. This is a matter of life and death, we have to leave right now." Zhang Feng looked anxious. "Would I lie to you?"
Zhang Hengyu was visibly a bit at a loss, but Zhang Yunqing remained calm. "Exactly what is the matter? It shouldn't take more than a few words, right?"
"Sigh... Your father is in contact with the Evil God Cults!" Zhang Feng said through gritted teeth.
"What!?" Zhang Hengyu's pupils quaked; this was unimaginable.
Zhang Yunqing's heart also jumped.
"How did it co to this?" A protracted sigh abruptly rang out. Zhang Hongbo stepped out from the shadows. He was angry yet helpless, and restrained murderous intent lurked beneath it all.
"Why did you have to implicate the two of them?"
Zhang Feng's expression also showed shock, and then gradually turned malevolent. "I am your brother, yet you actually investigated secretly!?"
"You think it was ?"
"If it wasn't you investigating secretly, who else could it be? In all of Nanfeng, no one dares to touch the Central Trade Depository!" Zhang Feng gnashed his teeth. "Such an excellent situation, completely ruined by you!"
"What did they promise you?" Zhang Hongbo's tone was placid. "Is this kind of life not enough?"
"Precisely because of this kind of life!" Zhang Feng roared hoarsely. "I can only enjoy it for a few decades—how could that be enough!"
"As expected, it was lifespan." Zhang Hongbo wasn't surprised in the least.
Zhang Yunqing looked at Zhang Feng with shock and fury.
"Big Brother!" Zhang Feng then grew obsequious. "Join . If the two of us brothers join forces, wouldn't Nanfeng be a thing in the palm of our hands?"
"When that ti cos, living on happily forever—wouldn't that be wonderful?"
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