Chapter 52: Shadows Draw Near – Why Is The Strange Artifact Empty?
Sun Fatty’s smile grew even denser, but he waved his hands repeatedly: “No need to be so polite.”
“Right, there’s one more thing.” Sun Fatty subconsciously glanced at the tightly closed room door and said in a low voice: “Do you remember when you first came to the Inspection Department, someone entered your room?”
“Of course I remember.” Su Chen’s heart stirred slightly, not knowing why the other suddenly brought it up.
He hadn’t told Sun Fatty about the letter someone sent him a few days ago; the content wasn’t easy to explain.
Sun Fatty then explained: “The Minister has his eye on the entire South Wind City, but he hasn’t forgotten your matter. He specifically asked me to investigate it secretly, and recently there have been some leads.”
“To avoid ordinary surveillance probes, it definitely wasn’t an ordinary First Order Professional. At that time, there were a total of thirty-two Second Order and above Professionals at Headquarters.”
“Around that time node, those who were alone numbered only seven.”
“Two from Patrol Section, three from Investigation Section, one from Internal Affairs Section, that is, me…” Sun Fatty chuckled, “and one from the Secretary’s office. This is the list; see if there’s anyone familiar.”
Su Chen couldn’t help but look at this seemingly fawning Section Chief Sun. He hadn’t expected this matter to have any results on his own.
The list was purely handwritten, and the names on it weren’t very familiar to Su Chen. The most recognizable were their Patrol Section’s chief and deputy section chief.
“If you have no leads on your side, it’s troublesome.” Sun Fatty scratched his head involuntarily and took back the list. “The Minister is away, and the City Lord is now temporarily in charge of the Inspection Department. It’s not convenient to continue investigating; we can only go this far.”
“Brother Sun, you’ve gone to great trouble.” Su Chen said sincerely, then brought up the other matter he came for. “Brother Sun, I’m running low on Black Flame Potion and Spirit Light Potion here. I want you to help me get some more.”
“Just right, last time out of the city I made some money, not much, about twenty thousand gold.”
This was what Hu Xiang had brought him not long ago; the batch of Green Scaled Lions killed outside the city had finally gone through the process.
Hearing the first half of Su Chen’s sentence, Sun Fatty visibly tensed, but seeing the savings card the other handed over, he relaxed quite a bit.
After a slight pause, he took the savings card and patted his chest in guarantee: “Little Brother, just relax. If Big Brother gets them at a price more than sixty percent above market rate, then all these years of mine have been wasted.”
He naturally trusted Sun Fatty’s ability to handle things. Su Chen took the copy and left amid the other’s enthusiastic farewell.
Just as he exited the elevator, his bracelet beeped, but it was from an unexpected person sending him a message.
“Old Su, looking for you on urgent business. Open temporary access for me in the backstage; I can’t get to your floor.”
It was Han Da, nominally a member of the Seventeenth Patrol Team. Last time when they caught Qi Chuan and the others, they had spoken a few words; this guy was clearly very familiar.
Su Chen thought for a moment, swiped open his bracelet, searched on the virtual screen, and in the Inspection Department backstage, granted him temporary access.
He waited by the elevator. Not long after, Han Da came up.
“Old Su, waiting for me here…” Han Da was quite surprised and greeted him warmly.
“What made you think of finding me.” Su Chen led him to the room.
“Tsk, the old guys’ place is just nice…” Han Da looked around enviously, then hurriedly explained, “Not talking about you.”
After he closed the door, Han Da said in a low voice: “The Captain sent me. He asked me to tell you that someone has been probing sideways about that day… that person’s death.”
Su Chen immediately understood; the other was referring to Qi Chuan.
After that day, Yuan Chenyang had personally issued a gag order, erasing their dispatch records, even Su Chen’s visit to Qi Chuan.
It wasn’t their patrol period that day; it was Sun Fatty’s temporary dispatch, and it was already late at night. After erasing the records, no one should have known.
“…Who?” Su Chen’s heart jumped.
“The captain of the Third Patrol Team.” Han Da relayed Zhao Xiong’s words. “The first time, he noticed our patrol airship from that day was short on energy, but the duty records didn’t match, so he casually asked a few questions.”
“The Captain didn’t take it seriously at first and brushed it off, but later, he secretly asked the Captain if he was stealing and selling energy. The Captain immediately rebuked him, and only later realized that guy was trying to pry words out of him.”
“Patrol Captain? First Order?” Su Chen was slightly stunned, then immediately asked: “Whose man is he?”
Every place has its cliques.
Han Da seemed to have anticipated he would ask this and spat out a name: “Deputy Section Chief—Pan Yu.”
Cross-referencing with the list Sun Fatty gave, it should be him.
“Got it.” Su Chen’s face showed no joy or anger.
As Han Da was leaving, he hesitated and said, “Right, a while ago during our patrol, we got a report in the Refugee Area: quite a few refugees missing, and one of them seems to know you, surname Huang…”
Their patrol team was quite surprised at the time; how could a refugee know Su Chen? But after careful investigation, they found out Su Chen was originally a refugee.
Captain Zhao Xiong immediately sternly scolded them not to spread it casually. Mentioning it now was something Han Da suddenly remembered.
Huang Peng? Su Chen was surprised. The leader of the small group his predecessor was in—he was missing?
Han Da added: “Also, the Refugee Bureau person in charge in that area, seems to be called Zhang Man, asked me to pass on a message: that five hundred gold, consider it his congratulatory gift.”
“Zhang Man? Congratulatory gift?” Su Chen recalled this guy who had acted as matchmaker for him and Jiang He, and asked curiously: “What did you tell him?”
“Just that you’re the Minister’s student now.” Han Da grinned widely: “You should’ve seen his expression; it was hilarious.”
“Heh…” Su Chen chuckled, chatted idly a couple more sentences, and that’s when he learned Lily was already a First Order Professional.
“Also thanks to your blessing, that collective third-class merit allowed her to redeem a precious potion.” Han Da teased: “She’s been thinking of you nonstop lately. Zhou Li is also a flower in our patrol team.”
Su Chen joked around with him for a bit before seeing him off.
Click!
The room door closed, and Su Chen’s face turned gloomy. “Sure enough, they’ve started investigating the Strange Artifact matter.”
Yuan Chenyang and South Wind City high-level thought that Strange Artifact was found empty.
But the Cult of the Strange God knew that thing wasn’t empty at all.
Why did it become empty? Where did the power inside go?
It wasn’t just South Wind City; the Cult of the Strange God was also searching, even more concerned about the truth.
Even if they didn’t know yet that he killed Qi Chuan, because of his entanglement with Qi Chuan, he was undoubtedly a good breakthrough point.
He couldn’t be certain about that letter from before, but the news from Han Da supplemented it, allowing him to be almost sure.
Even that Huang Peng’s disappearance might be because the Cult of the Strange God was secretly investigating him. Though a bit paranoid, it wasn’t impossible.
“Pan Yu…” Su Chen pondered; a venomous snake nearby was always unsettling.
“Once the Snake Shadow Body Tempering Method reaches Master Level, and the Void Ripper Warrior development progress is maxed out, I can advance to Second Order. With my current training efficiency, it shouldn’t take long.”
“However…”
After pondering for a moment, Su Chen opened his bracelet, found Hu Xiang, and sent a message. “Help me with something…”
