About an hour after dinner.
Thud, thud.
The sound of a cane hitting the wooden floor echoed back and forth in the corridor on the second floor of the wooden house.
An old woman, bent over as she walked, carefully checked on the sleeping children in each room.
Gradually, she reached a small room at the end of the second floor. Skillfully, she pushed aside a poster that was blocking the door crack and peered inside with her old eyes.
A young man lay deeply asleep on the bed.
Over the past while, the old woman had been watching "Zhou Tiantian" for a long time. She knew he was one of the rare people who didn’t snore, but judging by his breathing and physical state, he was indeed asleep.
Then, Old Lady Kong turned and left, raising her cane as she walked, making very little noise.
Wang Jixuan rolled over, sensing carefully.
The old woman left the wooden house, walked around for a few minutes, then returned, locked the yard gate, and turned on the alarm inside the yard.
After doing all this, she shakily walked back to her study.
Wang Jixuan pulled out a button-shaped device from under his pillow, clicked to activate it, and a faint light appeared on the button. A palm-sized surveillance screen emerged in the center, showing a narrow room.
The camera angle was directly from above.
About two minutes later, a faint noise came from the study.
In the surveillance view, the landlord old lady sat in her wooden chair, slowly turning halfway around, then slid into a secret room.
The hidden door behind her slowly closed, and Wang Jixuan could see a corner of the bookshelf in the study;
This was a secret room embedded in the study, which Wang Jixuan had discovered early on.
Soft lighting appeared in the secret room. Old Lady Kong pressed a few buttons, and a screen placed at an angle in front of her lit up, revealing a spacious conference room.
A conference table with seven or eight figures, and Old Lady Kong seemed to be sitting at the front of the table.
Wang Jixuan looked closely and soon recognized a familiar face among the figures—the silver-haired old man who had turned into a one-eyed dragon, Wen Heisen.
Wen Heisen still had bandages wrapped around his neck; his previous injuries hadn’t fully healed.
Since he could only see the images, Wang Jixuan couldn’t sense the other’s aura, so he couldn’t tell which two were the spiritual practitioners sent by the Thirteenth Institute, but he chose to remember all these guys, hoping to cherish the connection if he met them again later.
“BOSS.”
A burly old man sitting to the right of Wen Heisen called out in a deep voice:
“You should have received the information. That guy is back.
“This time his attack is aimed at our lower-level staff and that cold storage he attacked last time. But this time he entered the cold storage, and we are trying to salvage the materials inside. Nineteen staff members and one hundred forty-six lackeys have been killed by him, and the losses are heavy.
“I suggest we don’t care about power consumption! We must light up all areas and set a bait to lure him in and shoot him to pieces with machine guns!”
Old Lady Kong responded with a sound, “Are you expressing your anger with a heavier tone?”
“Not at all, BOSS.”
The burly old man’s tone suddenly became much gentler.
Old Lady Kong leaned back in her chair, thinking deeply, and asked slowly, “What about our powerful spiritual practitioners? Can’t they track him down?”
At the end of the conference table, a middle-aged woman and a young man exchanged glances. The elegantly dressed woman nodded at the man, signaling him to speak.
The young man was thin, almost skin and bones, with thick glasses on his nose, looking a bit awkward.
“Dear Ms. Mei, we’ve used different methods, both spiritual and technological.
“But this guy is very cunning.
“My unique ability is to track scents, but his scent is very faint; it seems he consciously hides it. His abilities are very comprehensive.
“The technological detection is also troublesome; his equipment this time can actually block thermal imaging and biological information tracking. Our biological radar can’t lock onto him… I’m sorry.”
Old Lady Kong nodded slowly.
She said softly, “What surprises me now is that such a spiritual practitioner is not under your control at the Thirteenth Institute. Have the other fortresses’ Thirteenth Institute branches been subverted by the Joint Defense Army?”
“Impossible, Ms. Mei.”
The middle-aged woman, who had a long neck, smooth skin, and an arrogant demeanor, replied softly:
“Every branch of the Thirteenth Institute is under absolute control of the headquarters, that’s beyond doubt. Only we can create spiritual practitioners.
“I think this guy might be an experimental product of the Joint Defense Army. They have always wanted to crack our technology.
“Our undercover agents in the Joint Defense Army have started investigating, but so far, there’s no trace.”
“We don’t have time left!”
The fourth leader of the Black Fire Gang cursed:
“The purge team could come down at any moment! That damned Minister of Internal Affairs, Zhou Meiying, has criticized us in the ministerial meeting, saying we have lost control and engaged in organ trafficking beyond military agreements! This affects the powerful in the upper city! And we have weapons that shouldn’t appear in the lower city!”
Old Lady Kong asked, “Did we do it?”
The fourth leader immediately fell silent, stammering, “We did some… a very small part… you know, BOSS, this is unavoidable… many old folks in the upper city believe that changing organs can extend their lives…”
“So that’s where the problem lies.
Old Lady Kong said calmly:
“I knew about this from the start and have recorded all the data of your secret transactions with those old folks in the upper city. Do I need to remind you?
“The twelfth clinic in the 06 nursing home, and the third, sixth, and eighth operating rooms in the 08 nursing home.
“You shouldn’t have reached directly into the upper city; that’s not something we can touch. Now that they have caught us with evidence, we don’t even have a chance to defend ourselves.”
Most of the leaders had somewhat unnatural expressions.
Old Lady Kong said, “Get me your accounts as soon as possible. I need to compare and verify to see if there’s a way to deal with this trouble… If we can’t resolve it, prepare for shedding skin according to the plan.”
The second leader immediately replied, “Okay, BOSS, I’ll send it over right away.”
Wen Heisen said in a hoarse voice, like metal scraping against metal, “That guy won’t let us go. His strength is above mine; we need a C-level spiritual practitioner.”
“Sorry, Senior Wen, I didn’t mean to touch your sore spot.”
The middle-aged woman said calmly:
“But perhaps you haven’t used your power for too long. Based on our analysis of the current surveillance data, this guy’s strength is below ours, at least, not as strong as I am.”
She waved her hand gently, and black spheres began to float around her.
Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow.
He had seen this in books; this was… a telekinetic spiritual practitioner.
Weak arcs of electricity appeared on the black spheres.
The middle-aged woman lifted her proud head, and her elegant dress and outstanding appearance, under the reflection of the floating black spheres, exuded a powerful aura.
Wang Jixuan slightly curled his lips.
Old Lady Kong suddenly spoke, “That’s just the surface of the problem. The core issue is that we are currently being held by opposing factions of the Thirteenth Institute. Even without this ghost-like young man, they would still bring us down! Prepare for shedding skin, and if necessary, we can abandon everything. We did it once twenty-six years ago, and our foundation can start over again.”
The second leader of the Black Fire Gang asked, “The emergency passage is fine, right?”
“I’ll be guarding this end of the passage. When you come over, I’ll signal you to cancel the door restrictions.”
Old Lady Kong instructed:
“Make sure to be quiet when you use the passage later, so you don’t disturb my children’s sleep.”
“Then, BOSS, when do we shed skin?”
“I’m just asking you to be prepared; don’t rush. I’ll first see if I can communicate with our ministers.”
Old Lady Kong sighed gently:
“During this time, you can select a few young people to cultivate. Remember, this inheritance is the most important; we are already old.
“As for these two respected spiritual practitioners, please try to eliminate that mysterious spiritual practitioner.”
“We will,” the middle-aged woman said softly, “Ms. Mei.”
Old Lady Kong pressed a button next to the screen, and the image disappeared with a whoosh.
Then, she slumped in her chair, as if exhausted, quietly thinking about something.
After a moment.
Wang Jixuan was just thinking of saving power and preparing to turn off the monitor in his hand when Old Lady Kong moved again in the image.
She bent down and rummaged through a drawer below, took out a plate the size of a vinegar dish, put on reading glasses, activated the projection screen on the plate, entered a long lock screen password, and brought up a simple operation interface.
She tapped a few times, and a dialing screen appeared.
About half a minute later, a chat box connected, and a well-dressed old man, looking around fifty but full of energy, appeared on the other end of the conversation.
Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow.
He had seen this man’s younger photo in Old Lady Kong’s study.
The man asked, “How have you been lately? Mom.”
“Same as always, no big problems. How strong are those two spiritual practitioners you sent?”
“They are a teacher-student pair. The teacher is excellent, named An Qian. She can even contend with some obviously flawed C-level spiritual practitioners. If we need to mobilize C-level spiritual practitioners, the process will be particularly troublesome and will provoke a strong backlash from the defense forces.”
‘Sending spiritual practitioners?’
Could this old man be the head of the Thirteenth Biological Research Institute stationed at Fortress 76, the biological minister of the fortress?
He is also Old Lady Kong’s son?
Wang Daochang was indeed a bit shocked.
The lower city’s Thomas and others, the upper city’s powerful… how many strong figures has this landlord old lady cultivated?
“I hope these issues can be resolved.”
Old Lady Kong sighed:
“Son, I’m getting old and don’t have the energy to help you build a gang anymore.
“If the Black Fire Gang falls, you might need to ask someone else for help with materials.”
“Don’t worry, Mom. I’m thinking of ways. The Thirteenth Institute has been doing a lot of live material work that can’t be known to outsiders. They will seize every opportunity to resist us, forcing us to disclose the spiritual practitioner patents… because we continuously supply high-quality materials to other fortress experimental centers. I’ve already got the entry ticket from the headquarters; now it’s just waiting for an opportunity…”
Whoosh!
The monitor in Wang Jixuan’s hand automatically turned off, entering a power-saving state.
He immediately stuffed it back under his pillow, returned to his original lying position, and took off the hidden earphone in his ear.
He quietly thought.
The outline of the Black Fire Gang was already very clear. The testimony from Gu Wentang filled in the framework, and Wang Jixuan had personally verified the crimes of the Black Fire Gang.
The Black Fire Gang’s business is divided into three parts.
One is providing organs and blood to the military in the upper city, which belongs to the fortress’s official dark side, not afraid of official investigations.
The second is organ replacements for the powerful in the upper city, extending their lives while seeking more benefits for themselves.
The third is serving the Thirteenth Institute, providing live materials for biological experiments, which means living people.
‘This is worse than ordinary evil cults. Many evil cults like the Hehuan Sect, their greatest crime is actually collecting yin and yang, or even not directly draining the furnace. In the cultivation world, everyone wants to strike them down.’
‘Tsk, if slaying demons could lead to ascension, that would be great…’
Wang Jixuan sighed lightly in his heart and continued to ponder.
After his disturbance, the Black Fire Gang was now under immense pressure and could shed skin at any moment.
The eight people who just attended the meeting would reach this wooden house through the underground passage when they shed their skin.
Facing two D-level spiritual practitioners at the same time would be relatively troublesome, and it might allow one of them to escape.
‘Before they shed skin, I need to take one down first.’
Wang Daochang’s eyes revealed a hint of killing intent.
Thud, thud.
The sound of the cane kissing the wooden floor echoed again in the corridor.
An old eye slowly approached the door crack that had just been poked open…
(End of Chapter)