Chapter 185: Creepy Speculation
March 6th, 11 PM.
There are still twenty-five hours left until the “Dark Arrow” aerial strike operation.
In the dead of night, Han Jieli remained in a certain office of the Intelligence Department at the headquarters, burning the midnight oil as he continuously sorted through clues regarding the death of Yang Jiu.
In the case of Yang Jiu’s death, there were extremely professional post-handling and falsification of death methods observed, all conducted without alarming the surrounding neighbors. This basically rules out a vendetta between blood clans.
What could satisfy the various elements of sensitive identities, profit motives, and criminal capabilities implies that the probability of an insider working for Dark Arrow being involved is the highest. This is also why Han Jieli wanted to gather information through the headquarters’ Intelligence Bureau as soon as he arrived.
After Meng Huai went missing, Han Jieli had tried to probe Yang Jiu, but the latter firmly denied having any contact with Meng Huai. There might be a defensive mindset at play here on Yang Jiu’s part.
However, if he were to encounter someone willing to use any means to achieve their goals, it would be uncertain whether Yang Jiu would disclose Meng Huai’s whereabouts.
But for now, all of this is mere speculation, and once Meng Huai is involved, it won’t be something that can be clarified quickly.
The Yang Jiu case can be set aside for now, but Han Jieli’s mind did not stop thinking. Instead, he was focused on the large-scale encirclement and annihilation operation that the “Black Dragon Club” would be facing in the West Monitoring District in just over twenty hours.
The entire operation plan, from intelligence collection to implementation scheme, was personally overseen by Zhen Guangquan, and Commander Wang Hongjun had also endorsed it. Moreover, it was said that the action plan had been approved by headquarters.
Even though there are many seemingly coincidental logical flaws within, Han Jieli knew that whatever ideas he might have at this moment could not challenge the correctness of this operation without any solid evidence.
Feeling a strong urge to relieve himself, Han Jieli quickly headed out to the restroom. As soon as he entered the corridor, he noticed that a particular office at the end was brightly lit, and he could vaguely hear some arguing voices.
Chief of Staff Guangquan was still holding a meeting late at night, as related tactical details were being worked on overtime.
After relieving himself, Han Jieli walked out of the restroom and saw Zhen Guangquan, along with several officers from the combat and staff departments, walking past him, all wearing expressions of joy and ease after overcoming a challenge.
“Chief of Staff.”
After thinking for a moment, Han Jieli hurried over.
“Ha ha, Staff Officer Han, you haven’t left work yet? It’s already the weekend.”
Zhen Guangquan looked at his watch and then pointed to Han Jieli’s face. “What’s wrong? No progress on the Yang Jiu case? Don’t push yourself too hard; look at those dark circles under your eyes, and you’re not even that old.”
“I agree with some of your speculations from yesterday. Yang Jiu was definitely not killed by just any ordinary rogue blood clan or black blood clan; otherwise, they wouldn’t have bothered to meticulously cover up the scene.”
“How about this? Here’s a thought. I think you can try investigating the Luo family. After all, they sometimes need to contact Dark Arrow, mostly through Yang Jiu as an intermediary. This means Yang Jiu probably knew quite a bit about the Luo family’s secrets.”
“I heard that the Luo family has suffered great losses in northern Myanmar lately. Could it be that Yang Jiu played a negative role, drawing their ire and facing retaliation? You can delve deeper into that angle.”
Zhen Guangquan patted Han Jieli’s shoulder with a smile and then walked away.
“He gives me a clue; does that mean the Luo family is suspicious?… His logic is the kind that superficially seems reasonable, but is ultimately insufficient.”
Watching Zhen Guangquan disappear around the corner of the corridor, Han Jieli frowned more tightly.
“Tomorrow is the weekend… Should I check the scene during the day?”
Perhaps it was some kind of obsessive-compulsive impulse kicking in, but Han Jieli suddenly had the idea to personally visit the scene in the final twenty-four hours prior to the operation, with the nearest target point being the river port area of City L.
…
March 7th, Saturday
March 7th, Saturday.
At 11 AM, there are still fourteen hours left until the joint operation between the Wang family and the Hermit Alliance.
According to the final operational plan personally drafted by Wang Jiajiao, all members participating in the assault on three strongholds of the Black Dragon Club are to report to the nearest towns by 6 PM on March 7th. Then, in the final hour before the operation, they will gather at their designated departure points.
This is done to prevent the participants from clustering too early and alerting the Black Dragon Club.
Before noon at 12 PM, Wan Yue drove to the famous scenic spot of City L—the Lingyun Buddha scenic area on the eastern bank of the Min River.
Here, the straight-line distance to the target point of this operation is less than twenty kilometers.
Today marks the arrival of a unique “late spring cold” in S Province, with a sudden drop in temperature. Wan Yue’s attire is relatively low-key, with her long hair cascading down, wearing a camel coat, sneakers, a canvas shoulder bag, a beret, and finishing it off with decorative sunglasses.
With a bit less of a sultry allure and more of a refined elegance, she exudes a leisure-loving urban beauty.
The Buddha scenic area is crowded with tourists, and the throngs of people obscure most viewing angles, even preventing Wan Yue from catching a glimpse of the Buddha’s shadow at the cliff’s foot, which makes her feel quite bored.
Glancing at the time, it was almost 1 PM. Wan Yue squeezed out of the Buddha scenic area and decided to take a ferry to the Wuyou Temple on Fengzhou Island in the middle of the river to enjoy the vegetarian meal there, which had received excellent reviews online.
Wuyou Temple is located at the northern part of Fengzhou Island, surrounded by dense vegetation and an elegant environment. The atmosphere during the vegetarian meal is remarkably peaceful; even previously restless infants seem to be calm in the temple’s dining hall.
The vegetarian meal hardly fills one’s stomach, and it is more about the ritualistic pursuit of a tranquil life by urban people rather than related to faith. After the meal, Wan Yue began to take a walk in the woods outside the temple.
Years of tourism development and maintenance have left the temple grounds with a rich variety of greenery, meticulously arranged, with winding paths that twist through, making it feel like a maze.
Wan Yue walked to the end of a secluded path and sat on a long bench. Behind her was a sparse grove of saplings about two meters wide, and opposite was another path in the woods.
After a few minutes, a young man in a suit and glasses appeared on the path beside the grove and sat down on the same bench. The two sat back to back, separated by the grove, unable to see each other’s faces.
They both unintentionally pulled out a travel brochure, looking down at it as if taking a post-meal rest.
“Tonight, do not enter the underground space, and do not approach within a hundred meters of the underground space. Just be responsible for perimeter surveillance; Dark Arrow will conduct precise aerial bombardment.”
A low, slightly hoarse voice sounded behind Wan Yue, thoughtful.
Wan Yue’s hand stopped turning the page as her expression gradually changed. A few seconds later, a cold smile emerged at the corner of her mouth, “Heh, I knew there was something going on. To please Old Master Chu, don’t you have enough blood entry chips in your hand?”
The young man behind her, with a disguised voice, sounded a bit ragged, “Chu Dali has already gone rogue, secretly blood-feeding Elder Shen while he sleeps; he’s almost recovered to the rank of a Viscount.”
“Whether Elder Gao is still alive, I have little hope… He must eliminate Xiang Zuxing and Wu Yuqing to reorganize the Hermit Alliance…”
“Additionally, people from northern Myanmar are also starting to take action, so even if Xiang Zuxing doesn’t die today, he will still be targeted; it will be hard for him to survive in the future.”
As he spoke, the young man’s tone carried a hint of resignation.
So, all those years of busy work and malicious deeds were to gain Chu Dali’s trust… Is the identity of Kong Ming really worth exchanging so many lives for? To complete your mission, you have already walked a road of no return!”
“The Hermit Alliance is merely a group of opportunists, and most of them have dirty hands. But the Wang family? This time, even the elite combat power of the Wang family has to be sacrificed?”
The last massacre at Wan Qiaoli Commercial Plaza resulted in hundreds of lives lost, and now it’s again six Viscounts from the Wang family… How can you be so ruthless? Have you lost your mind?
Wan Yue’s gaze grew increasingly cold as she slowly crumpled one page of the brochure into a ball.
In the quiet woodland path, apart from the occasional bird call, there was no other sound, and the two fell into a state of silence.
A few minutes later, the mysterious young man let out a sigh, his voice even more hoarse, “These are all schemes set up by Chu Dali and Kong Ming, and Chu Dali specifically ordered me to execute them. If they don’t die, I will be suspected, and Cheng Yueshan would have died in vain.
After the Tang family’s secrets were exposed, they have already started to suspect me… This is my best chance to re-establish trust with Chu Dali, perhaps even my last chance.
If Chu Dali kills Elder Gao, he can obtain the Count’s breakthrough potion. Once he starts his advancement into sleep, he will hand over contact with Kong Ming to me.
When the bow is drawn, there is no turning back… If we do not uncover Kong Ming’s true identity, we cannot restore contact with the specially classified action group, and the Ancestor Plan cannot be halted! No matter how many seeds you send out in the future or how many strategic tasks you lay out, it will all be in vain!
The young man’s tone was filled with anxiety, and even a hint of madness, as if the internal pressure that had been building for decades was about to burst.
You don’t take others’ lives seriously, and Cheng Yueshan doesn’t value his own life; you are all going mad… This is the so-called big picture, the absurd strategic mission, how many more lives must be sacrificed…
Wan Yue covered her forehead, masking her increasingly fierce expression, her shoulders trembling slightly.
“I’m leaving; I’ve obtained the formula and manufacturing process for the Yuheng Dan from the Hermit Alliance. You can come pick it up yourself later. Also, keep an eye on northern Myanmar; I suspect it’s still a trap—don’t fall into it.”
The mysterious young man’s voice gradually faded away, and along with it, a faint sense of chaos disappeared.
Not knowing how long it had been, Wan Yue stood up, reaching for the disheveled travel brochure from the bookshelf before slowly turning around.
Before her, within the gap of the grove’s branches and leaves, the opposite bench was already empty.
A few minutes later, Wan Yue circled back to where the mysterious young man had sat. Seeing no one around, she crouched down and groped under the bench for a while, finally retrieving a small rolled-up paper wrapped in transparent tape and plastic film.
Yuheng Dan is one of the few exclusive blood clan secret medicines of the Hermit Alliance, capable of effectively stabilizing the boiling blood of low-level blood servants and significantly reducing accidental death rates caused by boiling blood loss of control. It holds immense significance for newly-developed blood clans.
The only defect is that it is ineffective for blood clans at the Knight level and above, leading it to become less useful within the Hermit Alliance.
Although there are also boiling blood medicines in Europe and America, which are more effective, they are extremely expensive, and their effects last only one or two hours at most. Ultimately, they are only tactical secret medicines aimed at increasing winning odds and offer no assistance for growth.
In the past, even major orthodox blood clan families did not dare to allow their newly developed blood servants to undergo boiling blood control training for fear they would accidentally die from uncontrolled boiling blood. Yet, even with such conservative growth, almost half of newly developed blood servants would fall within a few years.
In this regard, the Hermit Alliance had it much better, as from the blood servant stage they could undergo high-intensity training, combined with other growth medicines, allowing the Hermit Alliance’s Knights to spend slightly fewer years to advance compared to orthodox blood clans, thereby maintaining an elite force primarily consisting of Knights.
Since establishing herself independently, Wan Yue has also relied on past connections to consistently obtain Yuheng Dan, allowing her to cultivate her own base over twenty years, with the growth and death rate of the urban youth blood servants at Fengxin Villa remaining exceptionally low.
Now, the Yuheng Dan has gained new utility, capable of neutralizing the side effects of Sodorcaine, making it even more valuable.
After all, Sodorcaine, which appears to be an expensive veterinary anesthetic, has already been sold in limited quantities in Europe and America and can theoretically be purchased. Once combined with Yuheng Dan, the entire blood clan community in Huaguo could benefit.
Now that she has mastered the formula and production process of Yuheng Dan, if any further improvements can be made to allow it to be effective for Knights as well—perhaps even just increasing the advancement probability for Baron by five percent—its value would be immense.
Clutching the irreplaceable formula and process of Yuheng Dan, Wan Yue turned her gaze toward the direction in which the mysterious young man had disappeared and let out a deep sigh.
Later in the afternoon, more tourists flooded in, making the Lingyun Buddha scenic area even more crowded.
Zhuang Jianfei walked leisurely toward the parking lot with his hands in his pockets, noticing Wei Jun already circling in place, seemingly getting impatient.
“Elder Zhuang, where did you go just now? I couldn’t reach you on your phone…”
Wei Jun looked down slightly while stealing glances at Zhuang Jianfei’s face, curious as to why he had suddenly vanished for half an hour.
“Hehe, ran into an acquaintance… from the Sun family of City L. I chatted with them a bit to expand the market.”
Zhuang Jianfei pulled out a cigarette and tossed one to Wei Jun, lighting one for himself as well.
“The Sun family? Aren’t they close relatives of the Wang family? Do you think they will accept business involving Sodorcaine and Yuheng Dan?”
Wei Jun took a puff from his cigarette, revealing a puzzled expression.
“Hehe, they won’t be looking into that for long. There are no everlasting friendships in this world, only unchanging interests… After tonight, the Wang family’s face won’t be as glorious as before.”
Even if the Sun family has been a generational ally of the Wang family, by the time Wei Jun wants to marry a girl from the Sun family, it’ll be quite easy—the women in S Province are quite appealing, and the Sun family is rich.
Speaking, Zhuang Jianfei discarded his cigarette butt and patted Wei Jun on the shoulder with a sly smile, “Let’s go, it’s still early; let’s head to the city of L and find a nice place to have some fun.”
“Hehe, sounds good!”
Wei Jun understood the meaning in Zhuang Jianfei’s eyes and smiled exaggeratedly.
The Min River waterway has been the only navigable route from S Province to other regions since ancient times. It has now been expanded into a third-class waterway, theoretically allowing a thousand-ton cargo ship to sail directly to Huadong’s City S during flooding.
In the river port area in the southern part of City L, the banks of the Min River are planned as an inland port logistics center of a large industrial park, aimed at creating a new economic belt in the province in conjunction with the industrial park located at the S District airport in northern City Q.
At 2 PM, there are still eleven hours until the “Dark Arrow” aerial strike.
Han Jieli had arrived at the eastern bank of the Min River before noon, climbing onto a small hill known locally as Tongluo Mountain.
First, he used the dense vegetation for cover to observe the far-off industrial park logistics center, which could almost be described as a shell of an unfinished building, for quite some time with binoculars. He then launched a drone, surveying the area several times.
The conclusion was similar to that from several intelligence meetings hosted by Zhen Guangquan; indeed, it was a large-scale chemical storage area nearing completion. Perhaps because the project was approaching completion and no longer rushing towards deadlines, there was hardly a soul around the entire work site on this weekend.
At the moment, there were colleagues from Dark Arrow’s Intelligence Department disguised as L City fire department personnel, continuing investigations under the guise of an annual fire safety inspection and evacuating ordinary people from the surrounding areas.
“This industrial park logistics center would be a great cover if fully constructed and put into operation, but right now, being such an overly ambitious project is too conspicuous…”
Han Jieli scribbled notes in his notebook, occasionally lifting the binoculars to take a look or talking to himself, with more and more confusion showing on his face.
“This is the Sun family’s territory, which could also be considered under Wang family control… If Dark Arrow can detect signs of black blood clan activities, how could the blood clans of the Sun or Wang families not be aware?”
Han Jieli believed his logic was sound; the efficiency with which blood clans detect each other would surpass that of Dark Arrow by far. Moreover, often…
