The manager fumbled, quickly pulling out a phone from a safe and handing it to Xu Linyuan, who was struggling to breathe.
...
But clearly, it was useless.
“Can’t get through?” Xu Linyuan gripped the phone tightly, as if asking himself.
He dialed four times in a row, each call met with a busy signal.
Liu Yun still adhered to her usual principle: her phone was unreachable when something was happening.
The last time this happened was before the coal mine incident, when they wanted Liu Yun to recall that stubborn woman, Wan Qianhong.
She was unreachable then too.
Xu Linyuan’s hand tightened on the phone, and the next second, he slammed it to the floor.
“Liu Yun, are you truly showing no mercy at all? You’re one of our Xu family, too!” Xu Linyuan gnashed his teeth, speaking with resentment.
His heart was filled with anxiety now; he couldn't understand what was wrong with Liu Yun.
Could she be dead?
But if she were dead, a disaster of that magnitude would surely have affected Dawn City.
Yet, nothing had happened so far...
The study was silent for a few seconds when the manager’s communicator suddenly vibrated.
He quickly pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and his expression instantly changed.
“Fa—Family Head,” the manager quickly reported, “there’s news from the North District.”
Xu Linyuan whirled around.
“It’s our people who sent it back,” the manager swallowed, “The trucks that went to the Graduation Show in the North District’s outer perimeter are returning.”
A deathly silence fell over the study.
Xu Linyuan stood there, the muscles in his face tensing inch by inch as he lowered his head.
A moment later, he suddenly took a deep breath and said, “Contact the Huang family, the Li family, United Pharmaceuticals, and our own people. Gather our forces.”
“We must prepare for the worst. If necessary, we’ll silence them…”
Truthfully, Xu Linyuan wasn’t entirely confident as he said this.
After all, if even Zhulong couldn’t hold them, could they truly silence them?
But why would Zhulong fail? In his estimation, not even Liu Yun could kill that guy!
Hearing his words, the manager was stunned.
“Wh—What?”
“Is it really necessary to go this far?” the manager tentatively asked. “Those people aren’t particularly strong, and Prophet Liu is one of our own. Making too big a scene would…”
Xu Linyuan turned around, his eyes already bloodshot.
“Didn’t you hear what I said?!”
Before he finished speaking, he instantly appeared beside the manager.
One hand clamped around his neck, and a powerful force erupted, lifting the man directly off the ground.
Xu Linyuan’s fingers dug into his throat, pushing upwards, and the manager’s eyes instantly bulged.
“If things go wrong, it could very well be a fight to the death!” Xu Linyuan’s voice was icy.
“And furthermore, is it your place to question me?”
The manager’s face was purple from the choking; he frantically nodded, then realizing his mistake, quickly shook his head.
“Do it!” Xu Linyuan released his grip, throwing the manager away. He collapsed on the floor, gasping for air.
He didn’t dare stop again, scrambling out of the study, his hurried footsteps fading at the end of the corridor.
Xu Linyuan stood for a moment, then suddenly clenched his fists and spun around, kicking over the desk!
“Damn it, what in the world happened?! How is this possible?!”
...
On the returning vehicles from the North District.
Bai Feifei stood at the very front of the armored vehicle, holding onto the roof railing.
The scenery outside the window changed from the red wasteland to a dusty transition zone, and now, the towering steel walls of the Inner City were faintly visible.
Her expression was calm; although she knew this trip was to stir up trouble, she didn’t feel particularly excited.
Beside her, Wan Qianhong stood ramrod straight, like an erect statue.
Her expression was the complete opposite: a grim, overly tight face that made her look ready for a fight at any moment.
Only now did she suddenly realize that everything that had happened since she started investigating various potions was no accident.
From the coal mine to the North District, from the low-level miners to the students who had aberrated after injecting potions, all clues indicated that the city where she grew up felt utterly rotten.
Her mood was unusually chaotic at this moment.
She wasn’t even sure what role her most respected teacher played.
She had walked through the gates of hell and then become a member of that secretive organization.
What to do, who were the villains, how to punish them—all these questions made Wan Qianhong extremely vexed.
Her expression suggested she was ready to punch anyone she saw once they entered the city.
Just then, the vehicles suddenly slowed down.
Wan Qianhong looked up and saw the towering steel wall at the edge of her vision.
It was the boundary between the Inner City and the Outer City, dozens of meters high, reaching from earth to sky, cleanly dividing the two worlds.
Normally, the colossal steel gate was open, with two rows of guards standing by its sides.
But now, something was off.
The giant steel barrier, dozens of meters high and hundreds of tons heavy, was slowly descending, closing tightly and seamlessly.
It seemed as if it was meant for them, specifically to block their path.
Both sides of the gate were lined with military camps, densely packed with guards in dark grey uniforms.
The vehicles were forced to stop, and someone outside began to shout.
The voice came through a loudspeaker, carrying an intentionally amplified air of authority.
“The North District is heavily contaminated, and strict inspections are required to enter the city.”
“Everyone please disembark within two minutes and submit to a thorough inspection.”
“Please stop immediately and cooperate. The North District is a permanent wartime zone. Violators will be…”
Listening to the blaring voice outside, Xu Mo already found it a bit uninteresting.
He teased Bai Feifei in her mind:
“Look, look, it’s the same old trick again. So troublesome, such rigid NPCs. Why do these stereotypical character settings always exist?”
“Doesn’t it look familiar?”
“Roadblock inspections, then inviting to a meal—it’s already the standard ‘courtesy before force’ procedure.”
Bai Feifei now had some understanding of Dawn City’s system and frowned for a moment.
Wan Qianhong whispered in her ear, “I’ll go check it out.”
Then she simply vanished.
...
Outside the trucks, on the colossal steel wall.
A young soldier stood at the edge of a high platform, looking down at the dense convoy below.
He swallowed and looked at the officer beside him.
“Officer, are we really just going to block them like this?” the soldier whispered.
“These students all have significant backgrounds; they went to the Graduation Show. Are we really going to make things difficult for them?”
The officer, sporting a large belly, was lounging in a recliner.
He didn’t even lift his head as he listened to the soldier.
“What do you mean ‘make things difficult’? It’s just a routine inspection.”
“This is the Xu family’s order. What’s there to be afraid of? Whose background could possibly outweigh theirs?”
The soldier’s facial muscles twitched, and he glanced again at the stopped trucks below.
“What exactly does the Xu family mean by this…”
The officer said nonchalantly:
“Why should you and I bother thinking about it? They said to just stall, and wait until their people arrive.”
“It has nothing to do with us. The longer we stall, the more money the Xu family will give us, hehe.”
With that, he stretched.
“Just let them bake in the sun for a day or two, it’s nothing.”
“This is the North District! We’ll keep the steel gate shut tight. Do they dare force their way through?!”
Rate on N.U.
