That damned wretched woman, she thinks she can escape my control just by clinging to Xu Que. Wait until I sever his limbs and gouge out his eyes; I'll make sure you'll kneel and lick my boots!
Listening to Ji Bodao's angry muttering, Tang Xue smiled and asked, "Shall we take advantage of the moment when the Zhatian company is vulnerable and make our move?"
"Wait a little longer. After all, no one knows how much power Shen Mengchu has hidden behind her," Ji Bodao replied.
Just as Ji Bodao finished speaking, his phone rang.
Seeing the message from Huang Mao, Ji Bodao furrowed his brow.
"What's wrong?" Tang Xue inquired, concerned.
"It's a good thing we didn't act yet; otherwise, we would've been walking into certain death." Ji Bodao displayed a picture on his phone.
"Cai Kun has returned?" Tang Xue asked, surprised.
"This kid is second on the [Heavenly Rankings], and his strength has reached B-level, far surpassing any of us," Ji Bodao said. He then sent Huang Mao a message before continuing, "Now, I want to send a few people to infiltrate their company. Even if it's not successful, we can at least keep an eye on them."
"Agreed, we should proceed with caution. After all, their strength far exceeds that of the official forces," Tang Xue concurred.
Ji Bodao tapped the desk and asked, "How much longer until the experiment at the villa is completed?"
"It should be soon, but strengthening your bloodline power will take a few more days," Tang Xue answered.
"Alright, urge them to speed it up. This place will no longer be safe in a while. We need to prepare for our next move," Ji Bodao said.
Tang Xue nodded, picked up the phone, and quickly walked off to the side.
...
Hezhou City
Since Xu Que had cleared out the alien creatures in Yin City, he had come here to assist.
"Mr. Xu, we've informed the higher-ups, and there are no issues with cooperating with your company. We'll provide our full support when the time comes," a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses said, extending his hand.
"Thank you, Mayor Li. I will dispatch people to close all these dimensional rifts, and the resources we collect will be handed over as per the contract," Xu Que replied, shaking Mayor Li's hand.
Xu Que was indeed interested in second- and third-tier cities like Hezhou, as this would help his company's development. After all, to build a strong core, one couldn't afford to lack these C-B level territorial resources.
"Mr. Xu, I heard you're planning to head to Linan City next. I've prepared something for you. I believe when Old Tang sees it, he'll definitely agree to your request." Mayor Li said as he handed Xu Que a wooden box.
Xu Que didn't open it immediately but expressed his gratitude with another handshake.
After bidding farewell to Mayor Li, Xu Que didn't head straight to Linan City. Instead, he stopped at the Wangjiang Bridge, where the borders of Linan, Hezhou, and Yin City met.
This was Xu Que's second purpose for coming to the Yinzhou area.
Closing his eyes, Xu Que extended his senses through the water and into the river.
"It should be around here… why is there no abnormal fluctuation?"
In his previous life, the dimensional rift in this area had gone unnoticed, leading to a small-scale beast tide a week later. At first, no one had suspected the rift was underwater, but eventually, someone had discovered it.
Although this rift was only B-level, it contained a powerful weapon, and the one who wielded it had secured the tenth-place reward.
Xu Que didn't care about the reward, but the weapon was extraordinarily powerful. If not for the god-level or S-level weapons, this one would definitely rank first!
As Xu Que continued walking along the bridge, his mental energy gradually depleted.
Pulling back his senses, he refrained from wasting any more energy. He was tempted to dive down and check but feared it might be futile.
Just then, a whirlpool 500 meters away caught his attention.
"Where?"
Xu Que swiftly flew toward the whirlpool on his sword.
Releasing his senses once more, Xu Que smiled.
"Splash!"
Xu Que retracted his sword and swiftly dove into the river.
The water was murky, and the further he went down, the darker it became. Yet, strangely, a faint red crack flickered in the darkness.
Xu Que increased his descent, and the moment he touched the dimensional rift, he vanished into the river.
In the dim, damp underground cave, a pungent, nauseating smell nearly sent Xu Que reeling.
He didn't have time to change clothes, and honestly, it wouldn't have made a difference here.
As he carefully examined his surroundings, he heard the sound of footsteps splashing through shallow puddles from deeper within the cave.
Soon after, there was a bizarre, baby-like wail.
Xu Que stood motionless, curious to see what kind of creature was making this noise.
But the next moment, he saw them: the foul fishmen!
More specifically, they were the Reef Dweller fishmen!
Upon encountering these repulsive alien creatures, Xu Que decisively swung his sword to slay them...
...
In the Futian International Building, 48 hours after the rift explosion, many nations had managed to survive the calamity.
However, Z Nation found itself under heavy criticism from other countries for not providing any humanitarian aid.
Z Nation, however, had no time to entertain the empty words of these countries.
"Hey, did you sleep here the whole day?" Qi Kai asked with a smile, looking at Kun Shao.
"You guys are finally back. I missed you so much!" Kun Shao hurried over to Huang Bo and Qi Kai.
"Wait, what's your problem?" Qi Kai quickly stopped Kun Shao.
"Don't even mention it. You guys left, and no one was watching over things. Xu Ge dumped the guarding task on me." Kun Shao said, looking miserable.
Upon hearing that Kun Shao had to guard the first-floor entrance for twenty-four hours to earn a spirit stone, Huang Bo and Qi Kai were dumbfounded.
"Wait, this sounds like a great deal! We're signing up for this!" Huang Bo exclaimed.
Kun Shao was left in a daze. What is going on? Where am I? Who am I? This isn't the script I signed up for!
"No, you go ahead. Give us the spirit stone, and we'll guard for forty-eight hours." Qi Kai extended his hand.
"Wait, so what, my twenty-four hours were for nothing?" Kun Shao retorted.
"You got a spirit stone in twenty-four hours, you're making tens of billions a day!" Huang Bo said enviously.
"That's not the point!" Kun Shao quickly protested.
"Alright, silly kid, don't you know what happiness looks like? Once we've finished our task, we'll rest. You keep guarding," Huang Bo patted Kun Shao's shoulder, then walked into the elevator with Qi Kai.
In truth, both Huang Bo and Qi Kai had a question in mind, but neither of them asked. Some things couldn't be said in front of so many people, so they decided to wait for Xu Que's return to inquire.
"Good work, gentlemen. Here are the resources you earned from your mission." Shen Mengchu said, handing over the resources from the task.
"Thank you, President Shen. But… it seems like we messed up in Yangdong City," Huang Bo said with some embarrassment.
"What happened? Was there an issue with the task?" Shen Mengchu asked.
"It's not that. There was a Mediterranean mayor there who wanted us to rescue the rich district's villa area first, but that wasn't part of our mission. It seems they reported us to the authorities," Qi Kai explained.
"Ah, no worries. As long as you completed your assigned tasks, there's no need to fear those people. As for our background, trust me, no one's got a deeper one than ours!" Shen Mengchu said nonchalantly.
Shen Mengchu was very clear about her company's background, and she was also from the military.
Upon hearing this, Qi Kai and Huang Bo exchanged a knowing glance. Only then did they understand why Xu Que had told them to ignore the officials.