About an hour after dinner.
Thud, thud.
The sound of the cane hitting the wooden planks echoed back and forth in the corridor on the second floor of the wood cabin.
The bent-over old lady carefully observed the sleep quality of each child in the rooms.
Gradually, she reached the small room at the end of the second floor and skillfully poked through the poster paper pasted over the door gap; an old eye peeked in.
A young man lay deeply asleep on the bed.
Over the past period, Mrs. Kong had been observing Zhou Tiantian for a long time and knew he was among the rare few who did not snore, but judging from his breathing rate and physical condition, he was indeed asleep.
Then, Mrs. Kong turned and left, lifting her cane with her as she walked away, her footsteps notably light.
Wang Jixuan turned over and sensitively sensed the surroundings.
Mrs. Kong left the cabin, circled around for a few minutes, and after returning, she locked the yard gate and activated the intrusion alarm in the yard.
After doing these things, she trembled slightly as she walked back to the study.
Wang Jixuan pulled a button-shaped device from under his pillow, clicked to activate it, and a faint light appeared with a palm-sized surveillance screen emerging in the center; the screen showed a narrow room.
The filming angle was a vertical view from directly above.
About two minutes later, faint noises came from the study.
In the surveillance shot, the landlady slowly turned half a circle in her wooden chair before sliding into the secret room with the chair.
The secret door behind her slowly closed, and Wang Jixuan could see a corner of the bookshelf in the study;
It was a secret room embedded in the study, also the first one Wang Jixuan had discovered.
Soft lighting emerged in the secret room, Mrs. Kong pressed a few buttons, and the slantingly placed screen lit up, revealing a spacious conference room.
A conference table, seven or eight figures, Mrs. Kong seemed to be seated at the front end of the table.
Wang Jixuan scrutinized carefully, and soon in these figures, he recognized a familiar face—the silver-haired old man who had become a cyclops, Wen Heisen.
Wen Heisen's neck was still wrapped in bandages, his injury from the last time had not fully healed.
Since he could only see the image, Wang Jixuan could not sense the other's qi, thus he could not identify which two were the Spiritual Ability Users sent by the Thirteenth Institute, but he chose to remember these individuals, valuing any future encounters.
"BOSS,"
the burly old man on Wen Heisen's right, voiced in a deep tone:
"You should have received the information, that guy came again.
"His attacks this round targeted our junior leaders and the cold storage we were hit at last time, but this time he entered the cold storage itself. We are now salvaging materials from the cold storage, nineteen of our leaders and one hundred forty-six minions were killed by him, it's a massive loss.
"I propose, let's not worry about the electricity consumption! Light up everything, then set up a bait and shred him with machine guns when he comes in!"
The landlady grunted, "Are you using your intensified tone to express your anger?"
"Not really, BOSS."
The tone of the burly old man became much gentler.
The landlady leaned back in her chair, pondering, and asked calmly, "What about our powerful Spiritual Ability Users? Couldn't they track them?"
At the end of the meeting table.
A middle-aged woman and a young man exchanged glances; the elegantly dressed woman gestured with her chin for him to speak.
The young man was skinny, almost skin and bones, with a pair of thick glasses perched on his nose, appearing quite timid.
"Respected Ms. Mei, we used different methods, both spiritual and technological.
"But, this guy is very cunning.
"My unique ability is to track scents, but his scent is very faint; he seems to have deliberately concealed it, and his abilities are very comprehensive.
"The technological side also encountered difficulties; his equipment this time actually blocked thermal imaging and biometric tracking, preventing our biological radar from locking onto him… I'm sorry."
The landlady nodded slowly.
She spoke calmly, "What surprises me now is that such a Spiritual Ability User is not under your Thirteenth Institute's control. Has another fortress of the Thirteenth Institute been co-opted by the United Defense Army?"
"That's impossible, Ms. Mei,"
the slender-necked, smooth-skinned, and haughty middle-aged woman spoke calmly:
"Every division of the Thirteenth Institute is under the absolute control of the headquarters, this is beyond doubt, and only we can create Spiritual Ability Users.
"I'm thinking, this guy might be an experimental product of the United Defense Army; they've always wanted to crack our technology.
"Our insiders in the United Defense Army have already started investigating, but so far, no clues have been found."
"We're out of time!"
Number Four of the Black Fire Gang cursed:
"The Clearing Forces might come down at any moment! That damn Minister of Internal Affairs, Zhou Meiyin, has criticized us again at the ministers' meeting, saying we've lost control and engaged in organ trafficking beyond the military agreement! Influencing the elites of Upper City! We also acquired weapons that shouldn't appear in Lower City!"
The landlady asked, "Did we do it?"
Number Four's boss instantly lost steam, stumbling over his words, "We did... a little bit... you know, BOSS, it's inevitable... many old people in Upper City believe that changing organs can make them live longer…"
"So, here lies the problem,
the landlady spoke indifferently:
"I knew about this from the start snd have recorded all the details of your secret dealings with those old people from Upper City. Need I remind you?
"The 12th consultation room of No. 6 Level 3 Nursing Home, and the third, sixth, and eighth operation rooms of No. 8 Nursing Home.
"You should not have directly reached out to Upper City; that's not a place we can meddle with. Now that they've caught us, we don't even have a chance to argue."
The expressions of the several bosses were somewhat unnatural.
The landlady said, "Send your accounts to me as soon as possible; I need to verify and see if there's a way to deal with this mess… if we can't handle it, prepare for shedding as per the contingency plan."
Number Two immediately responded, "Okay BOSS, I'll send it over right away."
Wen Heisen spoke in a raspy voice, as if metal plates were grating against each other, "That guy won't let us go, he's stronger than me, we need a Class C Spiritual Ability User."
"Sorry, Senior Wen, I didn't mean to touch on your wound."
The middle-aged woman calmly stated:
"But perhaps it's because you haven't used your power for too long, we analyzed the existing surveillance data, and this guy's strength is below ours, at least, nowhere near mine," she said.
She waved her hand lightly, and several black spheres floated and danced around her.
Wang Jixuan raised his eyebrows slightly.
He had read about it in the books—she was a Telekinesis Spiritual Ability User.
Faint electrical arcs appeared on those spheres.
The middle-aged woman lifted her proud head, her elegant long dress and striking appearance were accentuated by the floating black spheres, displaying a powerful aura.
Wang Jixuan slightly pursed his lips.
The elderly landlady suddenly spoke, "That's just the surface of the problem; the core issue is that we're now caught by a rival faction of the Thirteenth Institute. Even without this ghost-like young man, they would knock us down! Be prepared to shed everything when necessary—we did it once twenty-six years ago, and we are capable of doing it a second time."
The No.2 boss of the Black Fire Gang asked, "The emergency passage is secure, right?"
"I'm watching over this end of the passage. When you guys come over, I'll give you a signal to cancel the door restriction."
The elderly landlady admonished:
"Try to keep it down when you use the passage later, don't disturb my children from sleeping."
"Then, Boss, when do we shed everything?"
"I'm just telling you to be prepared; don't rush. Let me try if I can communicate with our ministers first."
The elderly landlady sighed softly:
"During this period, you can pick a few young people who can be cultivated. Remember, this legacy is the most important; we're all old now.
"As for these two respected Spiritual Ability Users, please try to eliminate that mysterious Spiritual Ability User."
"We will," the middle-aged woman said softly, "Ms. Mei."
The elderly landlady pressed a button next to the screen, and the display vanished with a whoosh.
She then slumped back in her chair, as if depleted of energy, silently pondering.
About a moment later.
Just as Wang Jixuan was thinking about conserving battery power and was about to turn off the monitor in his hand, Mrs. Kong in the screen made another move.
She looked down and fumbled in the drawer below, pulled out a disc the size of a saucer, put on her reading glasses, activated the projection screen on the disc, entered a long lock screen password, and brought up a simple interface.
She pressed a few buttons in succession, and a dialing screen appeared on the monitor.
About half a minute later, a chat window connected, and an old man wearing a crisp suit, appearing in his forties or fifties but looking energetic, appeared on the other end of the dialogue box.
Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow slightly.
He had seen photos of this man when he was younger in Mrs. Kong's study.
The man asked, "How have you been feeling lately, Mother?"
"Same as usual, no major issues. How capable are those two Spiritual Ability Users you sent?"
"They're a teacher and student pair. The teacher, An Qian, is excellent. She can even contend with some clearly flawed C-level Spiritual Ability Users. It's particularly troublesome to deploy C-level Spiritual Ability Users formally, and doing so would also trigger a strong backlash from the Defense Army," the man explained.
'Sent Spiritual Ability Users?'
Could this old man be the Biological Minister of No.76 Fortress at the 13th Biological Research Institute, and also Mrs. Kong's son?
Heavenly Venerable Wuliang.
Daoist Wang was indeed shocked.
Thomas from Lower City, the elite of Upper City... Just how many formidable figures had this elderly landlady cultivated?
"I hope that solves the problems."
Mrs. Kong sighed,
"Son, Mom is already old, and I don't have the energy to pull together another gang for you.
"If the Black Fire Gang falls, you might have to ask someone else to provide the materials."
"Don't worry, Mom, I'm working on it. The 13th Institute's business with a large volume of living materials mustn't be known publicly; they would use every opportunity to resist us, forcing us to disclose the Spiritual Ability User patents... As we continuously transport high-quality materials to other fortress experiment centers, I've already secured a ticket to headquarters. All that's left is waiting for an opportunity..."
Whoosh!
The monitor in Wang Jixuan's hand automatically shut off, entering power-saving mode.
He immediately stuffed the device back under the pillow, resuming his original lying position, and removed the hidden earpiece from his ear.
He remained in thought.
The contours of the Black Fire Gang had become quite clear; the testimony from Gu Wending had added to the framework, and Wang Jixuan had also personally verified the evils of the Black Fire Gang.
The Black Fire Gang's business was divided into three parts.
One was to provide the Upper City Military with organs and blood, which was part of the official dark side of the Fortress, not fearing an official investigation.
The second was to perform organ transplants for the elites of Upper City, extending their lifespans while also seeking more benefits for themselves.
The third was to serve the 13th Institute by supplying human materials for biological experiments.
'This is even worse than the usual Demon Cults, many of which, like the Joyful Union Sect, are mainly guilty of Yin and Yang harvesting, not even directly draining their subjects dry. That's considered heinous in the Cultivation World.'
'Tch, if only exterminating evils could directly lead to Ascension, how good would that be...'
Daoist Wang sighed inwardly, continuing his contemplation.
After his recent disruption, the Black Fire Gang was under tremendous pressure and might shed every identity at any moment.
The eight people who had attended the meeting would use the underground passage to reach this cabin when shedding their identities.
Facing two Level D Spiritual Ability Users at the same time would be somewhat troublesome and might even allow one to escape.
'Before they shed their identities, I need to eliminate one.'
A murderous intent flickered in Daoist Wang's eyes.
Thump, thump.
The sound of a cane kissing the wooden floorboards echoed in the corridor once again.
An old eye slowly approached the recently pried-open door gap...