The Brewing Crisis

Just as Zhao Jin brought another new surprise to Ningcheng,

...the area surrounding the Church of the Earth Mother was lined with three- to five-story buildings.

On the second floor of one of these buildings, a group of foreigners stood inside a room, watching the church through the window.

“This Church of the Earth Mother is too bizarre. It was only established a day or two ago, yet it already has thousands of followers. It’s absolutely unbelievable!” a young white man said, staring at the church through the pouring rain.

Under normal circumstances, they wouldn't have paid attention to something like this.

But their superiors had ordered them to investigate anything unusual in Ningcheng, so this church naturally caught their attention.

Beside the young man, a blonde woman looked through a pair of binoculars toward the Church of the Earth Mother. “Earth Mother, Earth Mother... Do they really believe in the Church of the Earth Mother from that biography? They’ve truly lost their minds over a book.”

“Didn't Bessie sneak in? It's been half an hour. Why hasn't she come out yet?” Sitting on a sofa in the middle of the room was a white man in his thirties wearing a denim jacket.

He was the leader of this group. Including him and Bessie, their surveillance team tasked with keeping an eye on the church consisted of six people.

Bessie was in charge of infiltration, one person was on lookout duty below, and the rest were inside the room.

“It really is strange. It’s just a church and a warehouse inside. It shouldn’t take even five minutes to check the whole place. Should I call her?” the young white man by the window asked, equally puzzled.

“Contact Bessie. If there’s any trouble, we retreat immediately,” the leader, Barry, said, his expression turning grave.

In their line of work, they had to be highly sensitive to everything; otherwise, if they were discovered, they wouldn't even be able to keep their lives.

Seeing Barry give the order, the young white man pulled out his phone and immediately dialed Bessie's number.

The ringtone chimed, causing everyone in the room to freeze.

They turned their heads toward the door. The ringtone was coming from right outside.

“Bessie, what's wrong with you? You didn't even send a message before coming back.” A burly man standing near the door turned to open it.

On the sofa, Barry felt a sudden wave of unease. He quickly shouted, “Don't open the door!”

Hearing this, the burly man holding the doorknob turned around in confusion. “Wh—”

The upper-middle section of the door suddenly exploded as a blade pierced through the wood, stabbing straight into the burly man's head.

Excruciating pain washed over the man's face, replacing his confusion with sheer terror. He stared at Barry and the others, reaching out a hand for help.

The blade violently twisted, piercing completely through his head.

“Jump out the window and run!!!” Without a second thought, Barry leaped to his feet and dashed toward the window.

The lookout he had stationed downstairs hadn't made a sound, and Bessie's phone ringing outside could only mean one thing: they had been compromised.

This was the headquarters of the Church of the Earth Mother. Under these circumstances, facing them head-on in a shootout would be a one-way ticket to a quick death.

Even as he spoke, the man and woman by the window had already pushed it open and jumped without hesitation.

With their physical conditioning, a drop of three or four meters wouldn't kill them.

The three remaining in the room all jumped out.

The wooden door was kicked open, and Liu Zhian walked in, holding a katana.

He glared at the open window, his expression sour. “Fast runners.”

Out on the street.

Heavy landing sounds echoed as the three of them hit the concrete, immediately rolling forward to break their fall.

The rain poured down heavily.

The torrential downpour pelted their bodies, thoroughly soaking their clothes.

Before Barry could assess the situation, the roar of an engine rapidly approached.

Without even looking, he lunged toward a nearby building, but he was a fraction of a second too slow. The vehicle slammed heavily into half of his body.

“Ah!” He screamed in pain, rolling forward across the ground.

The man and woman behind him didn't have his reflexes. They instinctively turned to look.

A sedan was speeding toward them. At this distance, there was absolutely no time to react, and the car slammed violently into both of them.

The impact sent them flying over ten meters away. Their bones shattered and their internal organs ruptured as they rolled across the pavement.

A trail of blood stretched from the car to where they lay over ten meters away, only to be quickly washed out by the rain. Both died on the spot.

Lying on the ground, Barry forced his head to turn toward the car.

He watched as the car door opened and a young man with a buzz cut, a '69' tattooed on his left cheek, and blood-red eyes stepped out.

“Quick reflexes, but it only bought you a few extra seconds,” Liu Qi said with a sneer.

Barry watched this, then looked down both ends of the street. Several cultists in red robes had already appeared.

They were sealing off the road.

Barry's face paled at the sight.

He tried to reach for his gun, but his hand was completely numb. Despair washed over him. “How did you find us? Bessie was highly trained! She would never betray us!”

“How did we find you? Trash like you have no idea what our Church of the Earth Mother is capable of,” Liu Qi sneered. He turned around and pulled a 1.5-meter-long iron sledgehammer from the car.

Seeing the sledgehammer, Barry's face twisted in terror. “No... Don't kill me! Don't you want the intel I have?!”

“Your intel is none of my damn business!” A crazed grin spread across Liu Qi's face.

He raised the sledgehammer and swung it down hard at Barry's knee.

“Ahhh!!!” The strike completely pulverized Barry's knee, turning his face deathly pale as he shrieked in agony.

“Hehehe, what a beautiful sound!” Liu Qi's grin stretched almost from ear to ear. In front of his elders and Liu Zhian, he could still maintain a semblance of sanity.

But outside, he was a notorious madman.

Raising the sledgehammer, he brought it down again, shattering Barry's other knee.

Blood, shredded flesh, and bone fragments washed away in the rain, spreading across the pavement.

“Ahhh!” Barry's agonizing screams echoed down the entire street.

Liu Qi swung the sledgehammer seven or eight more times, completely battering his entire body into a bloody pulp before finally bringing it down on Barry's head.

White matter splattered against the wall behind him.

Staring at the scene, Liu Qi licked his lips, letting the rain wash over him. “Are foreign agents really this pathetic?”

A nearby iron gate opened, and Liu Zhian walked out holding his katana. “They just suffered from a lack of information. After all, who would have expected a highly trained agent to have their mouth pried open in less than half an hour?”

Besides, if anyone were told that Liu Wen could control people's minds, they probably wouldn't believe it.

Just then, Liu Zhian's phone rang.

He picked it up and saw that it was Liu Ziping calling.

The moment he answered, Liu Ziping's steady voice came through. “Brother Zhian, we have news from the Inspector Bureau. They're mobilizing in a hurry and heading toward the church.”