The sun had already climbed very high in the sky.
The high-grade cup of coffee from Nanzhou Kingdom had already gotten cold.
Situ He remained seated in his chair. He wasn't moving at all.
However, the book he was holding wasn't staying still at all.
Many strange and colorful images were hovering around before his eyes.
Even if he shut his eyes, they would still follow him everywhere.
.
Situ He hadn't moved at all for the past seven hours.
He finally made a decision.
He stood up, picked up the red phone on his office desk, and made a phone call.
After a few moments, the call went through.
"This is Situ He." He said sternly, "I hereby give the command!"
"Check carefully for any human or non-human who is using magic arts illegally!"
"Anyone who goes against this command will be killed without question."
After he hung up the phone, he made another call. The moment the call was connected, he immediately told the party on the other line, "This is Situ He. Please connect me to the Commander in Chief!"
A little more than ten seconds later, a deep, charismatic male voice could be heard on the other end of the line, "Situ, how's the investigation on the Tiger Demon going?"
"Commander in Chief,…" Situ He reported, "I don't have anything conclusive at the moment."
"But…"
He organized his thoughts for a moment before briefly describing what had happened the night before. He also told him about the command he'd just given out.
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone after that.
After some time had passed, Situ He finally heard the Commander in Chief say, "You did the right thing!"
"It's always best to cut off these unknown things' connections with the world outside as soon as possible…"
"To avoid them from appearing in our world."
"I will try to get over there as soon as possible…"
"Before that, you must cut off any human or non-human who might possibly have any connection with this in the real world."
Some years back, the Disaster of Fusang had occurred because a group of ignorant young people had come into contact with demons that were trapped in the space between the realm of dreams and the real world.
After that contact, the demons had made an attempt to get out.
The frightening demon, Tamamo-no-Mae, nearly broke free of its seal and came into the real world.
In the end, everyone had gone all out to salvage the situation quickly. That was how they'd managed to nip the problem in the bud.
But even so, the damage and losses that it had created were still really terrifying to think about.
"But…," Situ He threw in a word of advice, "...if you come here, it will definitely attract the attention of a lot of people…"
The Commander in Chief of the Blackguards was from the world of transcendent beings.
Anything that he did would attract the attention of many others.
There would be a commotion once he arrived here.
This might cause the problem to get out of hand instead of resolving it.
"It doesn't matter…," the person on the other end of the phone laughed quietly, "...in any case, if they want to cause trouble, let them come!"
His voice was filled with incomparable self-confidence and arrogance.
...
Just as always, this day Ling PingAn opened the door to his shop.
He gave his little kitten, Bastet, some cat food, and then he went to buy two trays of steamed dumplings and a bowl of tofu from Aunt Cai next door.
After he'd gotten his food, he returned to the shop and sat at the counter.
He turned on the TV where they were still reporting the morning news.
The sweet-looking newscaster was reading the news.
"According to our sources, there will be public drills on national security and safety among other things. The drill this time will introduce many different national defense weapons and information on national defense, as well as introduce a program on bringing national defense education into the schools…"
Images of the previous drills then appeared on the TV screen.
Most of it was about firefighting, rescue operations, what to do in an explosion, how to get to a safe space, and first aid, among other things.
Ling PingAn watched this for a short while before shrugging and changing the channel.
It was still the news. There was nothing else but news.
"Today..."
"Let's follow our reporter in an interview with the Xisong Kingdom's Grand Secretary of Agriculture, Mister Wang Anming."
A fair, plump, middle-aged man appeared in front of the camera and started talking about the usual stuff.
Something about how the federation was one big family, and all sides would come to the rescue if any one was in trouble.
And something about how the King of the Xisong Kingdom was very certain in his belief that the people of Beizhou Kingdom would definitely be able to get out of their current crisis and start their lives anew.
If those steamed dumplings made by Aunt Cai hadn't been this delicious…
Ling PingAn felt like he might just fall asleep again.
"Then again…" Ling PingAn munched on the steamed dumplings and couldn't speak clearly because his mouth was full... "What's going on with this foot-and-mouth disease in Beizhou Kingdom? They still don't have it under control yet?"
"What are the officials in Beizhou Kingdom doing?"
"Or are they intending to quit by the end of the year?"
As he muttered these words to himself, he switched the TV off.
Then he started to clean the shop.
His idea of cleaning was really just to simply sweep up the place and then empty the trashcan that had been accumulating takeout boxes for the past few days.
So it didn't take too much time before he was finished cleaning up.
He stood by the trashcan and took out his phone. After finding the Laundry Lady in his contact list, he made a phone call, saying, "Aunt Wang, it's PingAn here…"
"I have some clothes that need washing. Could I trouble you to collect them and wash them for me…"
"Of course, I'll transfer the money to you in a moment."
"Thank you so much."
After hanging up the phone, Ling PingAn felt like someone was watching him.
He lifted his head and looked out the window at the shops on both sides of his.
The closed-circuit cameras that were mounted on the front of the shops were turning.
Ling PingAn frowned slightly as he waved his hands and mumbled, "What the heck is going on?"
...
Situ He was standing in the surveillance hall of Jiangcheng City.
The place was filled with screens that showed real-time footage of all the main roads and streets of the city.
His attention was suddenly caught by one of the screens.
"Turn the seventh camera from the left now!" he immediately commanded.
His orders were carried out at full speed.
Then that particular camera's footage was shown on the largest screen in the hall.
Situ He saw that at the edge of where the camera should reach, there was a commercial building that made his hair stand on end when he looked at it.
It was an old-fashioned three-story building, whose walls were made of tiles that were covered with a lot of dirt and dust.
"Do we have any cameras that can see this area more accurately?" he asked as he pointed at the edge of the image where he was looking.
"Yes, we do," answered one of the technicians immediately. "There are a few shop cameras that are connected to our system on the other side of this street."
"Get me the footage now," ordered Situ He.
The image on the large screen was immediately switched off.
Then the images from several of the smaller shop cameras were merged, and the full picture of the shop appeared on the screen.
Then Situ He spotted a very familiar figure.
This person was skinny and wore very simple casual clothes.
He wasn't very tall either.
The camera angle was adjusted and his face came into the picture.
He was a very young man.
His face was very clearly captured by the cameras.
He was clean-shaven. There was nothing special about this young man.
His face was covered by a clearly cheap pair of spectacles.
He stood next to the trashcan by the road and threw a bag of trash into it.
All the staff in the surveillance hall were looking confusedly at Situ He.
They didn't understand what was wrong with this ordinary-looking young man.
But…
Situ He continued to stare straight at the man on the screen.
The morning sun shone on him and created a shadow on the ground. There was really nothing special about him.
Situ He clenched his fists.
Then he spotted a kitten following this young man.
Suddenly, the young man seemed to have noticed something. He lifted his head up and looked toward the cameras.
The high-definition cameras captured his frowning very clearly.
He waved his hand and then said something.
Soon, the entire screen was covered with black-and-white static.
Situ He immediately staggered backward several steps.
His secretary quickly supported him and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Send people to that neighborhood immediately!" Situ He gave a stern order. "Find that trashcan that was in the footage earlier."
"Bring every single item in that trashcan back here. Do not miss anything."
"And remember, don't let anyone there notice what you are doing."
He looked at the mystified people around him and bellowed, "Hurry up and move!!"