Day Five.
The weather had not improved; it was still gloomy, creating a sense of discomfort.
Yi Chen, accompanied by Mo Yu and others, kept wandering around South City, feeling that the city had beco much more desolate. At the sa ti, a sense of unease began to grow in his heart.
He had felt that sothing was off since yesterday, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.
The reports coming from his subordinates all appeared normal.
"Mo Yu, tell , why are there so few people on the streets lately? Have your n reported anything unusual?" Yi Chen suddenly stopped, furrowed his brow, and spoke to Mo Yu who was following behind him.
"Ah? No, nothing," Mo Yu replied, his mind preoccupied with Xiaoxin and Xiao Wanzi, hesitating over whether to adopt them today. Surprised by Yi Chen's question, he said,
"The data reported by the officials from the yan are all normal, all thanks to the Yi Taoist. South City has been very peaceful these days, and every civilian death can be traced back and accounted for; there have been no special cases of death."
"As for fewer pedestrians on the streets, perhaps it's the backlash from the reporting asures we implented earlier. Many people with a little wealth are reluctant to co out."
"Show the sales statistics for rice, flour, grain, and oil today, as well as the mortality statistics." Hearing Mo Yu's response, Yi Chen still harbored so doubts, yet after carefully examining a stack of ssages, he found no issues and had to let it go.
Despite that, he still ordered that all intelligence reports had to be submitted every half a day going forward.
After making the arrangents, the subtle unease in Yi Chen's heart did not subside; instead, it intensified.
The current situation was actually the most troubleso.
How are you to solve a problem when you don't even know where the problem lies?
He did not believe that the people from the Underworld Sect, the Red Chambers, and Yin Mountain would surrender and yield so easily.
There is no turning back once the bow is drawn.
The three major forces had banded together to offend an empire; how could they possibly end things so anticlimactically?
Today was the fifth day, which ant there were only two days left before the reinforcents arrived.
So far, these devils had only shown one demon insect, with all other sowhat significant figures lurking beneath the surface.
They had caused no major harm yet, but nothing unusual had been detected either.
This lack of the unusual was itself the greatest anomaly.
For Yi Chen, this eerie silence was far more terrifying than if these devils were to hysterically kill and set fires everywhere.
It indicated that sothing he had overlooked was likely being carried out in secret, and he was completely oblivious to it.
Ti ticked away.
Before he knew it, evening on the sixth day had arrived.
Watching the sun set in the west and the Moon Rabbit rise in the east,
Still, no flaws had been found.
With a long sigh, Yi Chen turned to look at the many familiar faces who had followed him for several days and said, "Do not be complacent, everyone; the real trial will co in these next two days."
"The relief forces will be here soon, and these devils will certainly not give up easily. The darkness before dawn is the most terrifying and dangerous."
"If you trust , you may bring your family to the auxiliary residence for the next two days, where I will be staying."
The auxiliary residence was previously used by Yi Chen to interrogate the scholar Li and others; it covered a wide area, despite its less than stellar conditions.
Upon hearing Yi Chen's offer, the crowd showed delighted expressions and thanked him in unison.
Everyone present knew of Yi Chen's astonishing cultivation. If their families could sleep under the protective eye of the Taoist, even on the floor, they were willing to accept it.
Many were already persuaded.
One by one, the crowd bid farewell and left.
This included Mo Yu.
He decided to bring Xiaoxin and Xiao Wanzi over that very night.
As seasoned veterans who had been fighting in the trenches for years, they too could sense that sothing was amiss, despite no one voicing it.
Yi Chen watched their departing figures with an unflappable expression. He stood still for a mont, then turned and entered the auxiliary residence, his thoughts inscrutable.
Yi Chen had decided to have his n bring their families over, out of necessity more than anything else.
Your next journey awaits at empire
Even now, he still had no clue how Underworld Sect and the rest planned to make their move; therefore, his only option was to do everything he could to protect those who had been with him all these days.
Save one more if he could, as a reward for their relentless support.
He couldn't believe that these demonic spirits could cause trouble right under his nose, in his own territory, unobserved by him.
The island was brightly lit inside, the main hall of the auxiliary residence.
Spread out before Yi Chen on the long table were all the reports and intelligence that the Security Bureau had handed him in recent days.
He laid out every piece of intelligence and data on the table and began to study them word by word.
...
...
Ming Yue hung high in the sky, illuminating the streets with its bright light.
Mo Yu strode lightly towards the direction of the welfare institute.
He really hit it off with Xiaoxin and Xiao Wanzi and had initially planned to adopt them after wrapping up this matter.
But today, Yi Chen ntioned that families could temporarily stay in the auxiliary residence for a couple of days, which piqued his interest. After speaking with Yi Chen, he hurried towards the welfare institute.
For so reason, he had a persistent ominous feeling over the past two days, as if sothing bad was about to happen. The welfare institute was not as safe as being under Yi Chen's watchful eye.
As soon as Mo Yu reached the entrance of the welfare institute, his pupils shrank sharply like the point of a needle.
Sothing was wrong.
Tonight, the welfare institute was exceptionally quiet, and even Fu Bo, who always stayed in the gatehouse, had disappeared, replaced by two muscular bald n wielding broad knives.
One wore a huge golden earring, the other a silver one.
"Stop right there, what are you doing?" the one with the golden earring asked, his hand on his waist knife, his tone indifferent.
"Don't recognize the uniform I'm wearing, do you? Get lost," Mo Yu replied with a sinking expression, eting force with force.
The situation before him intensified his unease.
"My apologies, sir, but by the secret command of the Chen Family, no one is allowed to enter or exit the welfare institute at present."
"After all, it is a ti of many troubles, and the institute is weak. The Chen Family Head, being kind-hearted, has thus stationed us here to stand guard. Sir, please turn back."
"You wouldn't be thinking of forcing your way in, would you? This is an order from the Chen Family." The man with golden earrings remained unyielding in the face of Mo Yu who was asserting his official status. His tone cold as ever, he even subtly ntioned the consequences, hoping that Mo Yu would back off knowing the difficulties.
Half a tea hour later, Mo Yu looked around at the dozen hulking n lying disheveled on the ground, trembling with fury.
An orphan with no vulnerabilities, he had acted impulsively in frustration and didn't bother with excuses about the Chen Family anymore. He had simply struck, breaking the bones of the n before him.
Mo Yu, a formidable centurion with mana at his disposal, found the muscular n before him formidable in size, weighing over two hundred catties, but their muscles were as good as dead before him, no match at all.
However, the results of his interrogation sent a chill through his heart.
All the children from the welfare institute had been taken, including the old servant, Fu Bo.
Everyone had been secretly brought to the Chen Family mansion in the city.
Gold and silver earrings and the others had been ordered to stay here and drive away anyone who tried to enter.
Upon learning this, Mo Yu was struck as if by a thunderbolt, his mind going blank.
He wasn't a fool; in fact, he was quite intelligent.
He had climbed to the position of centurion through his own strength, step by step.
The actions of the Chen Family aroused a foreboding feeling in his heart.
Having been stationed in the stability office for so long, he was certainly aware of the dirty deeds the Chen Family, who appeared virtuous on the surface, engaged in behind the scenes.
In an instant, Mo Yu's entire body stiffened.
"How dare you!" Mo Yu murmured to himself, a trace of moisture appearing in his eyes.
"Centurion Mo, this is the Chen Family you're dealing with. Do not make a mistake," the golden earring man warned.
"You're a centurion in the stability office, with a great future ahead. If you leave now, there's still room for the situation to change."
Although the man's arm was twisted at an odd angle, his fierce expression remained unchanged, and he spoke threatfully.
After a mont of silence, Mo Yu's eyes swiftly shifted from struggling in pain to being resolute.
A flash of sword light cut through the still air and several heads tumbled to the ground.
He pulled out two yellow papers from his sleeves, hastily noted down information and conjectures, activated his mana, and in an instant, the papers transford into two agile paper cranes. With the boost of his mana, they flew off in two different directions within the city.
One of those directions was notably towards the location of the side residence.
After doing this, his face expressionless, he stealthily advanced in the direction of the Chen Family mansion.
In the current state of Longjiang Prefecture, the only ones he could trust were Commander Qian Yueru and his current superior, Yi Taoist.
Given the matter involved the Chen Family, he too was anxious about what choices they would make.
Therefore, he wanted to infiltrate the Chen Family to find so stronger evidence.
If the truth was as he suspected, then as long as he could find concrete evidence to blow the whole thing wide open, exposing the truth for all to see, then no matter how powerful the Chen Family was, they would be attacked by the public.
After all, there are things that don't weigh much until they are scaled, but once they are, they beco unbearably heavy.
This was the only solution Mo Yu, an ordinary centurion of the stability office, could think of when confronting the enormous Chen Family.
Only by finding evidence and uncovering the truth could more innocent people be spared from sacrifice.
So tasks simply needed to be undertaken.
Different folks, different strokes.
In this world, the despicable and the servile were not uncommon, yet there were also many who held public spirit, had morals, and shouldered burdens for others.
These individuals may not have high cultivation levels, or they may even be ordinary people...
But it's these people who are nding the tattered world.
Amidst the dark human heart, so still carry lanterns as they walk.
Under the silent sky, a solitary black figure treaded alone on the bluish-gray streets, stepping into an unseen future.
In the well-lit side residence,
Yi Chen slamd his hand down on the long table and stood up abruptly, his eyes glaring with fury!
"Good! Good! Good!"
"Damn it all, the intelligence was fake!"
After ticulous data analysis, he discovered that the information provided by the governnt office, stating stock numbers of staples like rice and oils, followed a dispersed ratio, clearly indicating fabricated data.
The intelligence from the past few days had been too normal, creating a bizarre contrast with the actual atmosphere. Eliminating all impossibilities, the only possibility was that the data was fictitious.
Yi Chen had indeed discovered sothing secret upon further study.
The reasons behind the falsification of intelligence were things that Yi Chen did not even want to contemplate.
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