After the corpse collectors had finished cleaning up the bodies, the four field agents from Golden Oak Security also left the scene without lingering.
At this moment, no one knew that three mysterious individuals had been observing the ruins of the "Yanbian Clinic" through binoculars from a distant dilapidated clock tower for a long time.
The leader was a middle-aged man in a brown leather jacket, reeking of alcohol and sporting a scruffy beard, looking like an ordinary hunter you could pull out of any pub on Downing Street.
He was accompanied by a young man and a young woman.
The woman had short, neat hair and wore a tight black outfit, with a high-end looking firearm at her waist, and intricate mechanical equipment on her arms and legs.
The young man had a mushroom haircut, wore round glasses, and carried a deerskin backpack. He wasn't very tall and looked like a nerdy student who hadn't yet graduated from a noble academy.
The three had been observing for a long time.
They had been there from the beginning of the clinic battle, witnessing the entire siege.
After waiting for a while, the mushroom-headed young man couldn't hold back any longer. He adjusted his glasses and asked with a puzzled expression, "Captain, the Golden Oak people have left. What are we waiting for?"
The middle-aged man in the leather jacket smiled casually, "We're seeing if we can find any other clues."
At this point, the woman in the tight outfit also asked, "Captain, why don't we just access the Golden Oak archives instead of conducting our own investigation?"
The man's name was Xie Guozhong, a private detective.
However, their true identities were special field operatives for the federal "X Bureau."
The two young people were his assistants. Xie Guozhong didn't mind explaining further, "Ah Wen, Wuzui City is not as simple as it appears. Before the Great Cataclysm, the Old Continent was said to be a place of divine warfare. This city is a necessary passage linking to the Old Continent. The Old God cults in the city aren't limited to just the 'Silver Moon Sect'..."
"Ah... I know that."
Hearing this, the mushroom-headed young man immediately responded like a good student called upon by the teacher.
He recited as if from a textbook, "Our ancient history professor at the academy mentioned that many Old God followers were exiled to Wuzui City. Several Old Gods left their faith legacies here in the last era, such as 'The Lord of Dreams and Delights' Arachne, 'The Source of Plague and Decay' Sehe, 'The Master of the Undead and Darkness'..."
"Hehe."
Xie Guozhong laughed, interrupting the young man's recitation, and said lightly, "You'd better not casually mention those names. Although the Old Gods are a thing of the past, as long as the faith persists, their will can potentially be revived from ancient times. It's not a problem elsewhere, but here, mentioning those names might attract special attention... be careful not to bring trouble with your words."
The young man then belatedly realized, "Ah... okay."
The woman called Ah Wen thought for a moment, seemingly guessing something, and said, "Captain, are you suggesting... there are issues within Golden Oak as well?"
Xie Guozhong didn't answer directly but instead said, "Faith pollution is more troublesome than any physical contamination... Otherwise, Captain Baron, a secret agent from our bureau, wouldn't have defected..."
The three chatted while waiting for nearly another hour.
After the fire on the ruins was extinguished, the light around the Yanbian Clinic dimmed.
Suddenly, through the night vision lens of the binoculars, they saw a sneaky figure appear near the clinic.
The mushroom-headed young man was the first to notice and exclaimed, "Captain, someone went in!"
Xie Guozhong naturally saw it too. His drunken, muddy eyes flashed with a sharp light as if confirming a suspicion, "Sure enough, they're here."
Ah wen urgently asked, "Captain, should we go capture him?"
Xie Guozhong remained unhurried, shaking his head. "No rush. Let's see what he's here for."
The mushroom-headed young man curiously asked, "Captain, how did you know someone would come back? And why come back if all the evidence from the site was taken by Golden Oak?"
Xie Guozhong replied meaningfully, "If no one came back, then there'd be nothing more to find. But since someone did come back, it means there's something at this site that the Golden Oak agents missed. And it's likely something very important to the Silver Moon Sect believers, otherwise, they wouldn't risk returning."
Pausing for a moment, as if he had come to a conclusion, he added, "Interesting... Seems like there's a mysterious 'third party' who took the item."
"Huh... what third party?" The two young assistants were confused, clearly not understanding.
At that moment, they saw the sneaky figure reappear from the ruins.
"Captain, he's coming out again."
"Let's go, follow him!"
As the words fell, the three of them disappeared from the clock tower.
...
On the other hand, Ji Xun had returned to the 18th Team's corpse collector building in North City.
However, this time he didn't immediately consume the piece of the [Mystic Medium]. Instead, he used a knife to cut off a small piece.
Then, he carried it, exposed to the air, all the way up to the dormitory building.
The corpse collector building had many vacant rooms as they were chronically short-staffed.
Ji Xun found a room with no neighbors on either side, entered, and placed the small piece of the mediator inside, like cheese on a mousetrap.
Then he set up a ten-thousand-dollar anti-magic mechanical bomb, using fine steel wires to create an ultra-sensitive tripwire.
Anyone opening that door would instantly trigger the directional bomb.
He was well aware that dealing with this second mediator would be more troublesome than the first.
If someone came looking for it, he wouldn't be able to bluff his way through as easily as last time.
This booby trap might not kill the intruder but would at least buy him some reaction time.
After setting the trap, Ji Xun walked back to the morgue along his original path to ensure overlapping scents.
He didn't wander around. Until he fully absorbed the mediator, nowhere was truly safe.
That's why he hadn't cared whether he could store the mediator in his spatial ring. Keeping it on him was a risk that needed to be mitigated immediately.
Having achieved his initial objective, Ji Xun saw no need to continue with other tasks.
To avoid interruption, he opened an empty metal locker used for storing bodies and climbed inside.
With a clang, the metal locker closed and locked shut.
The large morgue became eerily quiet.
Time was of the essence. In the darkness, Ji Xun lay in the locker lined with blast armor and immediately began the consumption process.
As soon as he activated [Feast], the mediator's extraordinary properties began flooding into his body.
"You have used Feast to consume, Constitution +"
"You have used Feast to consume, Strength +..."
Enlightenment notifications appeared, with even more exaggerated stats than the previous mediator.
...
Hours flew by unnoticed as Ji Xun lay in the darkened metal locker.
He continued to devour the mediator, taking as much as his body could handle.
The previous medium from Tailor Street had taken over ten hours to consume; this one, with almost fifty percent more extraordinary properties, would take even longer.
More energy was a good thing, but it also meant increasing risk.
Unknowingly, his strength value on the panel had surged from 4.9 to 7.1 and was still rising.
Ji Xun's [Demon Feast] was now at Lv1, giving his body greater tolerance and efficiency in devouring energy compared to before.
Even so, after several hours, he still hadn't fully consumed the mediator.
He estimated it would take at least another three hours to complete the process.
"Hopefully, those measures can delay them until morning..."
With that thought, Ji Xun continued his devouring process.
No matter what methods those Outer God worshippers had to sense the mediator, once he fully consumed it, everything would be settled.
However, this time, the enemy arrived sooner than he had anticipated.
...
While Ji Xun was in the morgue cabinet devouring the mediator, a shadow quietly approached the 18th Team's corpse collector dormitory.
The "Plague Doctor" Hei Sen had just checked with the Golden Oak security agents but found no trace of the missing mediator.
Unwilling to give up, he decided to try his luck at the corpse collectors' division.
After all, only these two groups had been to the altar at the site.
Someone must have taken the mediator.
He didn't have much hope, though. The same process had happened at Tailor Street before.
Normally, these low-level corpse collectors wouldn't even notice the miraculous nature of the altar.
Moreover, the mediator would be useless to ordinary people.
However, this time was different!
As Hei Sen approached the dormitory, he caught a trace of the mediator's scent.
It was normal for the sacrificed bodies to retain a mediator's scent...
But to his astonishment, there were two distinct traces this time.
One led to the underground morgue, and the other went upstairs?
Corpse collectors wouldn't take bodies upstairs.
This meant the scent was from the mediator itself!
Hei Sen cursed, "Damn it, it's actually here!"
He couldn't understand why the mediator would appear in a small corpse collector's headquarters.
But the fact was undeniable.
Because he hadn't expected this, he was now so shocked.
He couldn't fathom how a lowly corpse collector could discover the mediator and take it away.
Unable to comprehend, he didn't dwell on it.
With three of their Silver Moon Sect's strongholds exposed, the city was now in full sweep mode against their believers.
Hei Sen had to retrieve the mediator quickly—it was the most crucial medium for communicating with their great deity.
The cloaked man didn't hesitate. He quietly sensed his surroundings and then walked up the stairs.
The scent was faint and intermittent, as if someone had deliberately treated it with deodorizing agents.
Hmph!
If he weren't one of the four deacons of the sect, able to sense the divine resonance in the mediator's aura, others might have been fooled.
Just this alone confirmed it was the mediator!
When he reached the door, Hei Sen looked at the closed door of room 504 and was certain the item was inside.
He observed his surroundings and sensed something amiss.
But retrieving the item was non-negotiable.
The cloaked man took out a card, which transformed into a sharp scalpel in his hand.
With a gentle swipe of the scalpel across the lock, it sliced through the metal as if it were air, and the iron lock fell apart.
However, before he could push open the door, he heard the distinct sound of a grenade pin being pulled.
Hei Sen's expression changed slightly. "A bomb?"