Book 3, Chapter 95: Trap

After the armored patrol car left the warehouse area, they headed to Elephant Tavern. Sun Rao and Chen Chuan had received a message telling them that the rich siblings hadn’t stayed in the hotel, but had come out again.

The tavern wasn’t a good place, especially now.

Glowing Dew District had the largest number of immigrants in Central City, and its largest gang was the Swordfish Gang, which had risen to power over the past few years. Most of the gang members were from the island nations, and Ferris Wheel stood behind them.

Before the Swordfish Gang, the Elephant Gang was the largest gang in Glowing Dew District. Most of its members were workers who had come from Sheni Peninsula during the Great Expansion. After the Swordfish Gang rose to power, the two often fought, and the Elephant Gang was slowly pushed to the edge of the district.

But not everyone wanted Ferris Wheel to stand unrivaled in Glowing Dew District, so they gave the Elephant Gang money and weapons, which was why while the Elephant Gang was unable to expand their territory, they were able to secure what they had.

The Swordfish Gang didn’t want to make the Elephant Gang desperate either, since they had quite a number of powerful martial artists among them. Hence, after claiming most of the district, they maintained the situation.

But that didn’t mean an end to the conflict between the two gangs. Once every few days, a fight erupted between them. Because of it, Elephant Tavern rejected all foreigners from entering. The conservatives of the gang regarded all those who weren’t from their nation as enemies.

“The siblings’ father has business deals with Ferris Wheel, so they’d be fine in the Swordfish Gang’s territory, but they went to the Elephant Gang instead! Do they not have a single brain cell or what?! Do they really think that the Elephant Gang won’t recognize them? And they just had to pick a time when the two gangs are about to fight again! Retards!”

Sun Rao cursed again. “I really want these two menaces to just die, but the department will have to clean up the mess if something happens to them. The thought of it makes me sick.”

Chen Chuan said nothing. He was pretty sure that the siblings weren’t being stupid but just wanted to see the Resolution Department fight against the gang members for fun.

He could understand Sun Rao’s frustration, but no matter where they were, the ones in charge of doing all the manual labor would always have to face troublesome things like this. They could only be free of these problems and tell their subordinates to take care of them after being promoted.

For martial artists, the easiest way to get promoted was to become Third Limit martial artists. Their superiors wouldn’t ask them to take care of such things then. Even if the department did assign them to such a task, the martial artist could just jump ship and look for employment elsewhere.

As long as they were strong enough, they could live comfortable lives wherever they went. If they weren’t, then no matter where they went, things would end up the same.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at a tower-shaped tavern that reached for the sky. It stood tall and wide and was platinum in color. Even its shadow looked dazzling.

Once they got closer, they heard gunshots, and the noise was getting louder. By the sounds of it, there were at least a hundred people engaged in a fierce fight.

They couldn’t depend on the City Patrol at this point. With how fierce the gunfight was, they wouldn’t be able to get close. Since they were the target of people’s ire for all sorts of random things on a daily basis, why should they put their lives at risk when trouble really happened? They would just be getting yelled at for no reason, then.

Sun Rao’s resonator friend said that he noticed a domain interference around the tavern, so he couldn’t figure out the situation. Meanwhile, the department sent them a message telling them that the siblings were inside, so they were to think of a way to get them out.

“Damn it! I should just let them die!” Sun Rao cursed and turned to Chen Chuan. “Without technical support, we won’t be able to find them. We can’t stop the gang fight on our own either. I won’t risk our lives to save those two. Since I’m the leader, I’ll take full responsibility for this.”

Chen Chuan turned to him, as if he wanted to say something.

Sun Rao dismissed it with a wave. “Don’t say anything. I told you that I’d take responsibility. This is the first time you’re on duty, so you don’t know anything. There’s no reason for you to be held accountable too.”

Chen Chuan tried again. “Senior Sun—”

“Don’t. We’re not in the university. There’s no need for loyalty or brotherhood here. We’ll do things according to the rules. I made the decision, so it has nothing to do with you.”

Chen Chuan attempted yet again to speak. Just when the words were on the tip of his tongue, Sun Rao interrupted him again. “I know what you’re trying to say. The armored patrol car can charge in, but I can’t tell whether there are any good martial artists among those in the gunfight. They’re also heavily armed. It’s too dangerous for us to go in. Staying outside is the right choice!”

Chen Chuan decided to wait until Sun Rao stopped talking before he said, “That’s not what I’ve been trying to say.”

“What have you been trying to say, then?”

“Since the Swordfish Gang and Elephant Gang mobilized this many members for the conflict, do you think Tong Daguang is among them? If he’s not here, would he be back at the base? Does that mean that there isn’t anyone around him now? Could Wei Wusheng try to kill him, if that’s the case?” Chen Chuan asked.

Sun Rao was stunned for a moment, then his expression changed. “You’re right. We need to figure out where he is first.”

He immediately asked his resonator friend to find Tong Daguang, but there seemed to be some sort of interference, since his friend didn’t reply even after a long time had passed.

After twenty minutes or so, they finally got a reply. Tong Daguang wasn’t in the base. He had left in a hurry half an hour ago, but stopped near Ropeway Street.

Sun Rao sensed something amiss and immediately had the driver drive there at top speed.

When the armored patrol car arrived at the street at record speed, they found that the City Patrol cars had already sealed off the place.

When they saw the Resolution Department’s car, they opened up a way for Sun Rao’s team. Once they were inside, they found all sorts of mangled corpses on the road, along with torn limbs. Tissue and implants were splattered all over the street. Interstitial fluid and blood dripped down from torn limbs and body parts hanging off of branches. It was a horrific sight.

A number of people were in the center. Even though they were dressed in casual clothes, they were obviously from the Resolution Department. Once the car came to a stop, Sun Rao got out and called out to one of them.

“Captain Li!”

Chen Chuan recognized the man too. He was Li Fusheng, the captain who had worked together with him in the mission to take down Xiongjian Yi. Chen Chuan examined the place and sank into deep thought.

Li Fusheng took one look at them before walking over and asking in surprise, “Why are you here? I thought the superiors said not to tell you kids.”

When he saw Sun Rao’s expression after he said those words, he figured out what had happened and slapped his forehead. “Damn it. I let it slip. Forget it. Since you’re already here, no point hiding it from you.”

Sun Rao stared at him. “So... the department had set this up a long time ago?”

Li Fusheng looked around. “Let’s talk over there.”

He brought the two of them to the side and said, “Yes. It was a setup. The superiors sent the other members to other districts and only had the two of you on duty here to create a trap that will make Wei Wusheng think that there’s a gap in the defense here.

“The superiors didn’t want to tell you because they were worried that you’re too young and won’t be able to fool Wei Wusheng and his spies. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Captain Li, we’ve stayed the whole time in the car while on duty. You could have told us, and we would have cooperated,” Sun Rao said.

Li Fusheng fell into contemplative silence, as if he was considering something. Then, he looked at Sun Rao and said, “We noticed that someone has been keeping an eye on the resonator working with you, but he’s entirely unaware of that fact.

“Your friend has worked with us often and has a certain degree of authority and inside information. If someone decided to attack us through him, they could easily obtain a lot of information.

“Your friend isn’t the only one. The resonators who have been working with our members are all being watched. That’s why the department decided to make use of this gap in our defense to set up some specific tasks and figure out which resonators are being targeted. By the looks of it now, your friend is being watched.”

Sun Rao’s expression turned dark.

Captain Li patted his shoulder as a sign of comfort. “You’re not at fault here. We allowed you to use the resonator. Besides, we managed to lure Wei Wusheng out. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’d even say that you contributed to our success. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have been able to find him so easily.”

Sun Rao finally remembered what was important. “Wei Wusheng! Did you manage to catch him?”

Li Fusheng sighed. “Wei Wusheng is stronger than we expected. We had two Third Limit martial artists and other specialists providing support, but even so, Wei Wusheng managed to escape.”

Sun Rao felt quite disappointed. “Why won’t the department get more people to help?”

“We wanted to, but the public knows our main fighters, so we had to send most of them to other places in order to lower Wei Wusheng’s guard,” Li Fusheng said in resignation. “The department brought the two Third Limit martial artists from elsewhere. Since we’re talking about Third Limit martial artists, we can’t just ask them to come over for help. We have to go through a lot of troublesome paperwork for that. Considering the short amount of time we had to plan and execute this, we were lucky to get two.”

“Was Wei Wusheng injured, Captain Li?” Chen Chuan asked.

Li Fusheng wasn’t sure about that. “The two Third Limit martial artists we asked for help were injured, but I don’t think Wei Wusheng was. We need to get more manpower to hunt him down...”

Suddenly, he received a message on his Realm Pass, and his expression changed. “Zhe Rong is dead. I need to go and take a look. As for you two...”

He cast a glance at Chen Chuan and seemed to have remembered something. “Forget it. Come with me.”

Then, he hurried back to call for his team members.

Once Chen Chuan was back in the car, he received bits and pieces of information and learned that Wei Wusheng had ambushed Tong Daguang and his group on the way to Elephant Tavern. He killed all twenty-seven of them, but he also ended up surrounded by the Resolution Department.

Wei Wusheng then displayed much greater strength than before, which was why they weren’t able to arrest him. After breaking free of the containment, he didn’t run away immediately or leave Glowing Dew District. Instead, he went to kill Zhe Rong, who was in the exchange.

Chen Chuan had to say that this was a crazy and audacious move.

After some careful thinking, though, he decided that it was a logical choice. Since Wei Wusheng had been able to break free of the Resolution Department’s containment, it was clear that the Resolution Department was only able to spare these people to take him down. There was no one else waiting for him, so this was the perfect time to kill Zhe Rong.

Judging by Wei Wusheng’s actions, the trap hadn’t been able to injure him severely, or he wouldn’t have been able to do this.

This gave something for Chen Chuan to consider. He, too, was on Wei Wusheng’s list. Would he see everything in Glowing Dew District through and come for him next?