Chapter 108: Surveilnce Bureau

  “Come again next time.”

  Before he left, Boss Ji Lu still gave An Jing a small stack of Clear Wind Talismans. They could dispel odor and calm one’s qi, making them quite useful for staying hidden or tracking prey in the wilderness. Although these talismans were not very valuable, they were consumed quickly, so they were considered everyday consumables. Thanks to this, An Jing did not suffer too great a loss from the five merit points he had spent.

  “A chip, in essence, is the legal proof of identity in the city’s safe zones. Setting aside any talk of backdoors or other concerns, if I want to delve deeper into the Tianyuan Realm, it will be a must-have.”

  After leaving the shop, An Jing mused to himself, “Five thousand merit points… that isn’t too hard for me. In fact, I already have enough right now.”

  “But as for that meritorious deed, it would require hunting down wanted evil monsters, which is rather troublesome.”

  An Jing’s demands for a chip were indeed high. Apart from facilitating transactions, many spirit mechanisms—such as Magical Artifact firearms and drones—required chip support for more efficient operation.

  An Jing also understood that, in the Tianyuan Realm, a Spirit-Linked Chip was one of those “common but highly sophisticated” items—rather like a smartphone from his previous life.

  Its usefulness was not considered anything special in the Tianyuan Realm, simply because nearly everyone had one. But if it were in the Huaixu Realm…

  Shaking his head slightly, An Jing could only ment that he had not managed to obtain one this time.

  Right then, a sudden explosion, like rolling thunder, burst above everyone’s heads.

  —Boom!!!

  All the shopkeepers and customers within the free trade zone turned pale in unison, staring upward in astonishment. Along with the explosion, cracks spread in all directions, and shards of the ceiling plus swirling dust rained down, forcing everyone to dodge in a hurry.

  Then came a violent tremor akin to an earthquake. Amid excmations and flickering protective spiritual radiance, the bck market’s lights instantly went out. Several seconds ter, backup power activated, and a dim yellow emergency glow resumed. By that time, however, the protective spiritual light around everyone had already illuminated the entire marketpce.

  【Warning! Warning!】 Crimson arm runes flickered, and the bck market’s emergency broadcast sounded: 【Surveilnce Bureau! Surveilnce Bureau!】

  There were no unnecessary words. Just the two words “Surveilnce Bureau” were enough to convey everything.

  In the blink of an eye, every experienced shopkeeper and customer had geared up, hastily packing their assets at top speed and swarming toward the “emergency exits” around the trade district!

  “This…” An Jing blinked, warily scanning his surroundings as countless thoughts raced through his mind. “The Surveilnce Bureau… constables… Has Xuanye City’s official force come to raid the bck market?”

  —But that shouldn’t be the case! This bck market was so legitimate that it scarcely seemed illegal. It definitely had the backing of a major power…

  Wait a minute.

  While he was still perplexed, An Jing suddenly had a fsh of insight. He recalled the unrest that had swept through the entire city right after he first arrived in the Tianyuan Realm—how that Immortal Path warship had descended. “It’s precisely because this bck market has a major power behind it that they’re being purged!”

  Damn it, he had been dragged into Xuanye City’s internal power struggles!

  “This is bad! Really bad!”

  Behind An Jing, Boss Ji Lu, who had been looking rather id-back earlier, now turned deathly pale. A half-smoked cigarette falling from his mouth, he cried, “Why would the Surveilnce Bureau make a move?”

  He had already removed his wraparound goggles, revealing a pair of golden-green heterochromatic spiritual eyes. Anxiously, he packed up his valuables at lightning speed. “We’ve been paying our taxes in full, never once te!”

  Despite the tense situation, An Jing still felt a moment of incredulity: a bck market that even paid taxes? Then wouldn’t that make it hardly a “bck” market?

  Nevertheless, it confirmed his earlier suspicion. This was clearly not a simple case of “w enforcement unit busting up a smuggling gang,” but one of “an officially sanctioned paramilitary force under a rge corporation raiding another rge corporation’s underground trading hub.”

  By now, he had also finished gathering his belongings and followed closely behind Boss Ji Lu. The two of them hurried together toward the nearest safe exit.

  Boss Ji Lu’s physical condition was not the best; his steps were somewhat unsteady, yet his posture was lithe, and he was hardly slow. The belt at his waist even conjured a gentle breeze that swept aside falling sand and stones overhead, nearly letting him “float” forward as he fled.

  An Jing, on the other hand, relied on solid footwork to dodge the debris raining from above. When pebbles occasionally fell his way, he simply brushed them aside with a hand. If he failed to deflect one, it merely struck him with a fsh of white light, causing no real pain at all.

  “You’ve got some skill, kid.” Boss Ji Lu gnced over and could not help but be surprised. Not only did An Jing’s cultivation seem solid, but his deft footwork and swift hand techniques for blocking debris were also remarkably agile.

  With skills like that, the Frontier Expansion Team would gdly recruit him, and even among the barbarians in the wilderness, he would have been noteworthy. So why was he still buying the most basic Css-C package?

  “Store Manager, what’s going on?” An Jing seized the chance to follow up, drawing closer to ask in a low voice, “There’s someone backing our bck market, right? Why did the Surveilnce Bureau suddenly appear?”

  The first question sounded like a casual inquiry, but the second one revealed his true aim. “I recall there was a big commotion in the city a few days ago. Is that reted?”

  By then, the crowd had gathered at the emergency exit. The bck market’s staff had raised a protective shield to block the falling rocks, maintaining the line and preventing any stampede.

  Though the line at the emergency exit was quite long, it moved forward in an orderly fashion with hardly any uproar.

  After all, most of those who came to the bck market were cultivators; they knew that remaining calm was vital at times like these.

  Anyone who caused a disturbance would risk being struck down not only by the bck market’s staff but also by other cultivators nearby, none of whom would go easy on them. Hence, people merely exchanged hushed whispers among themselves, discussing whatever information they knew.

  “That business a few days ago?”

  Lining up in the same queue as An Jing, Boss Ji Lu fell into thought. “It really might be connected. I heard from my family that something crucial—an Ancient Relic—went missing in Luofu’s territory. They say it was forged before the World Tribution, back when the Dao Sect ruled. When that relic went missing, some people from the Shouyang Group were present, and right then, the two sides cshed, plunging the entire city into turmoil.”

  Yet after he finished speaking, he grew frantic. “The Surveilnce Bureau is indeed under Luofu’s control… but what does that have to do with us?!”

  “Our pce here is backed by Xuan—…”

  At that point, Boss Ji Lu realized he had spoken out of turn and immediately fell silent. But An Jing already understood what the word “Xuan” implied. “I see. The bck market here is backed by the Xuandu Group… No wonder they had items on sale, even top-quality things like the Mystic Heaven Thunder Talisman—most likely they’re clearing out old inventory!”

  “But even while clearing inventory, the prices were still sky-high! I really fell for their discount tactic!”

  This was precisely An Jing’s goal. For someone as young as Boss Ji Lu to open a sizable shop in the bck market, he either had extraordinary personal ability or strong family connections—and in either case, he likely had access to information unknown to most people.

  As things stood, Boss Ji Lu most likely came from a well-connected family. As for his abilities, he had no idea why the Surveilnce Bureau would show up until An Jing’s hints led him to piece it together, revealing his somewhat poor intuition for intelligence matters.

  “The Luofu Group lost an Ancient Relic, fought with the Shouyang Group because of it, and now, a week ter, the Surveilnce Bureau—which Luofu controls—is raiding a bck market under the Xuandu Group… I doubt that’s just a random move.”

  While inching forward in line, An Jing thought it over. Many clues seemed to be falling into pce. “A week ago… wasn’t that exactly when the Immortal Path warship nded?”

  “Afterward, enormous chaos and battles erupted at Fuchen Pins and within Xuanye City… Was it all because the Luofu Group lost something?”

  “And as for this current upheaval in the bck market… could that relic have already made its way here, prompting the Luofu Group to track it down? Is that why they’re acting without reservation?”

  “And an Ancient Relic at that?” Another idea came to him. An Jing asked the Sword Spirit inwardly, “Fuxie, could that relic possibly be one of your fragments?”

  “Impossible,” the Sword Spirit replied decisively. “I can sense the approximate distance of My fragments. The one in the Tianyuan Realm is still very far away; it’s definitely not nearby.”

  An Jing was not disappointed; he had expected that recovering Fuxie’s fragments would not be so simple.

  “However,” the Sword Spirit added, “if it truly is an ‘Ancient Relic’ forged during the Dao Sect era, then it would have been made by old methods, with all of its qi contained and concealed. Ordinary searching techniques wouldn’t detect it; people might even mistake it for some dipidated, worn-out vessel.”

  That was true. An Jing recalled that Fuxie’s main body did look quite battered back in the day—“That was a Divine Object deliberately concealing Its aura!” Since he was conversing mentally with the Sword Spirit, his thoughts were overheard, and he heard the other side’s firm yet slightly huffy response: “I was extremely beautiful at the time!”

  Yes, yes, you were very beautiful! An Jing hastily apologized in his mind.

  “In any case,” the Sword Spirit said, “since it’s also an ‘artifact,’ if it were close to Me, I would be able to sense it.”

  “How close are we talking…”

  —BOOM!!!

  Before An Jing could say anything else, an even louder explosion and tremor erupted from above, causing everyone present to stagger.

  Right afterward, the underground bck market’s dome colpsed, splitting apart.

  Ctter—

  Countless chunks of grayish-brown rock and sand poured through the gaping fissures like a downpour, drumming against the protective shield sustaining the bck market.

  Several dark shapes were mixed in with the debris. Like meteors, they smmed heavily into the ground, sending ripples in every direction.

  “Huff… hiss.”

  A heavy breathing sound, brimming with a deep, ocean-like presence, enveloped the entire subterranean space.

  (End of Chapter)