"Central Trade Depository... what's wrong with it?" Su Chen was slightly taken aback.
Seeing him look blank, Fatty Sun then explained, "The fog isolates the pathways. Although there are fixed routes connecting the various cities, and Yingfeng also sends people to clear them every year, there are inevitably still risks."
"Therefore, powerful professionals are needed to provide escorts. Those in charge of this commerce and trade sector are basically all city officials. In our Nanfeng City, the person in charge of this sector is the City Lord's younger brother."
'Zhang Hongbo's younger brother, no wonder...' Su Chen suddenly understood. He knew very little about these interpersonal relationships.
'Does Zhang Hongbo know about it then? Or is it dark under the lamp...'
"If we send people over, we probably wouldn't even be able to get through the main gate of the Depository," Fatty Sun said with a face full of distress, gritting his teeth angrily. "Of all the people to stuff this to, they just had to stuff it to me, and the handwriting is so ugly too!"
These words carried more or less a bit of a personal grudge.
Su Chen's eyes drifted as he asked, "Then what are your thoughts?"
"Me?" Fatty Sun said helplessly. "Aren't I here to discuss it with you, little brother? In the entire Supervision Department, the only person I can trust is you."
"How about you think of a way to stuff it into Zhang Hongbo's house?" Su Chen thought for a moment and said.
Sun Tai's plump face twitched. Su Chen added, "Otherwise, just report it upwards and tell the truth, or just pretend this matter never happened."
"It seems that's the only way..." Fatty Sun sighed. Looking at Su Chen's meaningful gaze, he explained, "It's not that I'm being a coward. The situation is special right now. If I hand this up, who knows what kind of conflict it might trigger."
Sun Tai comforted himself, "Furthermore, Zhang Feng, who is the City Lord's brother, is in charge of commerce and trade. It's a lucrative position; how could he possibly collude with the Evil God Cults?"
Su Chen remained silent, deeply feeling that the words of the lowly carry little weight. If he were Xia Hanshi, why would he need to use this trick of stuffing letters in door cracks? He would just directly fight his way to their door without even needing to find a reason.
But since this involved Zhang Hongbo, no matter who he told this to now, the other party would have to interrogate him to the bottom of the matter.
...
"My Lord..." The Priest looked at the black statue before him. It seemed to be forged from some kind of metal, its entire body exuding a cold luster. Sitting cross-legged on a silver tray, it was only half the height of a person.
It lowered its head, presenting itself with the black vertical pupil on its head.
Zhou Xian, who was beside him, couldn't help but retreat a little. This thing was too sinister and bizarre. While he was receiving and transporting it, he felt dizzy and his vision blurred several times.
Once, after staring at that vertical pupil for a long time, when he suddenly snapped back to his senses, he found himself almost half-kneeling on the ground, breaking out in a cold sweat from shock.
"I have already safely escorted the item in." He spoke in a low voice: "Now, can I go settle my scores?"
The fanaticism in the Priest's demeanor gradually faded, and he tilted his head: "Has Zhang Hengyu already left?"
"En." Zhou Xian nodded. "He has already become a 2nd-tier professional and needs better training grounds. Moreover, since I haven't made a move for so long, the other party should have already relaxed their vigilance."
"Should have?" The Priest's tone was indifferent. "After you are caught, you won't leak my plan, will you?"
Zhou Xian's expression tightened. "I won't act rashly. I will figure out the surrounding situation and only make a move after ensuring nothing can go wrong."
"Xia Hanshi is here. With my current situation, even if I confess all intelligence, I wouldn't have a good end."
"As long as you understand." The Priest once again turned his gaze toward the statue in front of him.
Zhou Xian hesitated for a moment and then asked carefully, "Therefore, could you dispatch a few 2nd-tier professionals to me?"
The Priest let out a sigh: "Why are you unwilling to believe in My Lord? If that were the case, you would be one of our own."
Zhou Xian remained silent, and the Priest didn't continue to force him. "Three 2nd-tier professionals. Take them away."
From the dark shadows all around, three followers with fanatical expressions walked out.
For the matter he was about to undertake next, he also needed some people to jump out and help him divert attention.
"If I find that 'delicious soul'..." Zhou Xian couldn't help but ask.
The Priest didn't turn his head, his voice drifting over: "The promise remains effective."
...
"Elder Xia, Elder Xia, please just say something. What exactly should we do next? Are we really just going to keep waiting like this?" An indescribable anxiety appeared on Zhang Hongbo's face as he paced back and forth.
Xia Hanshi stood before the French windows without saying a word.
"Elder Xia!" Zhang Hongbo gritted his teeth. "I am, at any rate, the lord of a city. Even if the Adjudication Court is executing a mission, you all must also consider the local person in charge..."
Before he could finish speaking, Xia Hanshi tilted his head slightly. That gloomy and cold gaze made one shudder with fear.
"Black Buddha..." he spoke hoarsely. "To spy on human hearts and covet souls. What he most often does is slowly corrupt an area, from low-level personnel to high-level personnel."
"This process takes three to five years. Once the higher management has been corrupted to a certain extent, he will initiate a sacrificial harvest."
Zhang Hongbo froze.
Xia Hanshi said faintly, "They have already been active in Nanfeng City for two to three years. If my deduction isn't wrong, in another year, they would carry out their harvest, but an accident occurred."
"Black Buddha doesn't like fighting head-on. In similar areas, once their conspiracies are exposed, they generally withdraw. But in Nanfeng City, they changed their strategy and unexpectedly didn't withdraw."
"An accident forced them to stay. Even though a Priest arrived, they still haven't made a move. They are still waiting."
"Still waiting..." The blood gradually drained from Gu Bing's face. "For even a Priest to wait, could it be..."
"An Evil God Vessel..." Xia Hanshi spat out four words. The expressions of the three people, including Zhang Hongbo, changed drastically.
Yang Yan couldn't help but exclaim in shock, "How could this happen? The last time an Evil God Vessel of Black Buddha was seen was more than ten years ago, right? What exactly does he want to do!?"
"Backup, we must request backup!" Gu Bing couldn't help but say.
"It's too late..." Xia Hanshi shook his head, his brows tightly furrowed. "Let me tell you the truth. The situation in Nanfeng City has also exceeded my expectations. This is merely an ordinary city, and I also can't figure out why Black Buddha would be so attached to it."
"Since we don't know why they are attached to it, we don't know when they will make a move, or where they will make a move."
The hands and feet of the three turned icy cold. They didn't know if Xia Hanshi was prevaricating, or if he genuinely didn't know.
Switching gears, Xia Hanshi added, "But an Evil God Vessel won't descend so easily. I'll say it again: Black Buddha originally didn't want to do this, so their preparations are insufficient."
"Send people to screen first. Right now... we can only fish for a needle in the ocean."
Fish for a needle in the ocean?
The three looked at each other in dismay. Nanfeng City wasn't small either; how long would they have to fish for?
"There is one more thing," Xia Hanshi abruptly transitioned. "Last time the Supervision Department encircled the Evil God Cultists, didn't you find a corpse burned into charred coal?"
"Charred corpse?" Not reacting in time at first, Zhang Hongbo recalled carefully and nodded. "That's right. His identity was verified just two days ago; it was Yu Xuan from the City Patrol Department."
"According to the careful investigation over these two days, there is a certain probability that he had illicit relations with Evil God Cultists." Zhang Hongbo's expression was very poor. Black Buddha's corruption of Nanfeng City exceeded his expectations.
"Yu Xuan... Where is the corpse? I'm going to take a look," Xia Hanshi ordered.
"Alright, I'll take you there right now." Not daring to delay, Zhang Hongbo led him to the morgue and found Yu Xuan, who was still just charred coal.
"The smell of sulfur... as expected." Xia Hanshi sniffed. A frightening smile surfaced on his gaunt cheeks as he had Zhang Hongbo pull up the main data from that operation.
"...Someone witnessed a red thunderbolt..." He lowered his head and swept his gaze over it. "The source of the information came from the Internal Affairs Section, Sun Tai's informant. The report for the previous operation was also from his informant..."
"What a well-informed informant."
The three behind him didn't understand the reason and were still worrying inwardly about the matter just now.
"Does anyone know who this informant is?" Xia Hanshi suddenly opened his mouth to ask.
Zhang Hongbo hesitated for a moment before realizing the other party was asking him. He shook his head and said, "I'm not too clear on the specific situation. But based on the principle of protection, informants at the lower levels are generally only known to their recruiters."
Zhang Hongbo handled many things every day. For this kind of operation, he would only take a rough look at the briefing. What appeared on paper would probably only be a few words: "According to informant intelligence..."
Xia Hanshi neither agreed nor disagreed as he pushed the corpse back. "I'm going out for a trip."
...
By the time Fatty Sun left, the sky was already turning dark. Worried and laden with anxiety, he was terrified that someone would come and take his life in the middle of the night, to the point of even preparing to entrust his family to others' care.
Although there was a bit of an element of playing the victim, it could still be seen that he was genuinely worried.
"...Central Trade Depository? Zhang Feng..." Su Chen also let out a sigh. He didn't expect there would be such a scene.
"If worst comes to worst, I'll just go near there and cause some commotion."