Chapter 77: Insignificant Voice: Who Is The Oriole?
“Trade General Warehouse… what’s wrong?” Su Chen was slightly stunned.
Seeing his confusion, Sun Fatty explained: “Mist isolates the passages. Although cities are connected by fixed shipping routes, and Ying Feng sends people to clear them every year, there are still risks.”
“Therefore, powerful professionals are needed for escort. Those responsible for trade are basically from the city official side. The one in charge for our South Wind City is the City Lord’s younger brother.”
Zhang Hongbo’s younger brother, no wonder… Su Chen suddenly understood. He knew very little about these personal relationships.
Did that Zhang Hongbo know? Or was it a blind spot…
“If we send someone over, we probably won’t even get through the gate of the General Warehouse.” Sun Fatty had a face full of worry and gritted his teeth in anger: “Why give it to me of all people? And the handwriting was so ugly!”
These words carried some personal grudge.
Su Chen’s gaze drifted as he asked: “So what are your thoughts?”
“Me?” Sun Fatty said helplessly: “Didn’t I come to discuss with little brother? In the entire Inspection Department, the only one I can trust is you, little brother.”
“How about you try to stuff it into Zhang Hongbo’s family?” Su Chen thought for a moment and said.
Sun Tai’s fat face twitched. Su Chen continued: “Otherwise, just report it upward, tell the truth, or pretend this never happened.”
“Just pretend nothing happened…” Sun Fatty sighed, looking at Su Chen’s meaningful gaze, and explained: “It’s not that I’m cowardly. The situation is special right now. If I hand it up, it might spark some conflict.”
Sun Tai comforted himself: “Besides, Zhang Feng, the City Lord’s younger brother, is in charge of trade, a cushy job. How could he collude with the Cult of the Strange God?”
Su Chen fell silent, deeply feeling his lack of influence. If he were Xia Hanshi, he wouldn’t bother with slipping letters under doors—he’d just go kill them outright, no reason needed.
But involving Zhang Hongbo, no matter who he told now, they’d dig into every detail.
………
“My Lord…” The priest gazed at the black statue before him, seemingly forged from some metal, emanating a cold sheen, sitting cross-legged on a silver tray, only half a person’s height.
It hung its head low, revealing a black vertical pupil on its skull.
Beside him, Zhou Xian couldn’t help but step back. This thing was too eerie. During transport, he’d felt dizzy and nauseous several times.
Once, after staring at that vertical pupil for too long, he snapped back to find himself nearly kneeling on the ground, breaking out in cold sweat.
“I’ve safely escorted the item here.” He spoke lowly: “Now, can I go settle the score?”
The fanaticism in the priest’s expression gradually faded as he turned his head: “Has Zhang Hengyu left?”
“Yes.” Zhou Xian nodded. “He’s become a Second Order Professional and needs a better training ground. Since I haven’t made a move for so long, he should have let his guard down.”
“Should have?” The priest’s tone was indifferent: “After you were caught, you didn’t leak my plan, did you?”
Zhou Xian’s face tightened. “I won’t act rashly. I’ll scout the surroundings and only strike once I’m certain it’s foolproof.”
“With Xia Hanshi here, even if I spilled all the intel in my current state, I wouldn’t have a good end.”
“Good that you understand.” The priest turned his gaze back to the statue.
Zhou Xian hesitated for a moment before carefully asking: “So, can you assign me a few Second Order Professionals?”
The priest sighed: “Why won’t you believe in Our Lord? Then you’d be one of us.”
Zhou Xian fell silent. The priest didn’t press further: “Take three Second Order Professionals.”
From the dark shadows around them emerged three followers with fanatic expressions.
What he needed to do next also required someone to draw attention away.
“If I find that ‘delicious soul’.” Zhou Xian couldn’t help but ask.
The priest didn’t turn around, his voice drifting over: “The promise still holds.”
………
“Old Xia, Old Xia, just say something. What should we do next? Are we really just going to wait?” Zhang Hongbo’s face showed unspeakable anxiety as he paced back and forth.
Xia Hanshi stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, silent.
“Old Xia!” Zhang Hongbo gritted his teeth: “I’m still the City Lord. Even if the Court of Justice is carrying out a mission, they have to consider the local authority…”
Before he finished, Xia Hanshi slightly turned his head, his chilling gaze sending shivers down the spine.
“Heituo…” He rasped: “Peeks into hearts, loves souls. What he does most is slowly erode an area, from low-level personnel to high-level.”
“This process takes three to five years. Once the higher-ups are mostly eroded, it launches sacrifices to harvest.”
Zhang Hongbo was stunned.
Xia Hanshi said darkly: “They’ve been active in South Wind City for two or three years. If I’m not mistaken, in another year they’d harvest, but something unexpected happened.”
“Heituo dislikes direct combat. In similar areas, once plots are exposed, they usually withdraw. But in South Wind City, they changed strategy and didn’t leave.”
“Some accident forced them to stay. Even with the priest here, they haven’t acted—they’re still waiting.”
“Still waiting…” The blood drained from Gu Bing’s face. “Even the priest is waiting. Could it be…”
“Strange God Carrier…” Xia Hanshi spat out the four words. Including Zhang Hongbo, all three paled dramatically.
Yang Yan couldn’t help exclaiming: “How could this be? The last time we saw Heituo’s Strange God Carrier was over a decade ago. What is he planning!?”
“Reinforcements! We must request reinforcements!” Gu Bing couldn’t help saying.
“Too late…” Xia Hanshi shook his head, brows furrowed: “To be honest with you, the situation in South Wind City was beyond my expectation too. It’s just an ordinary city. I can’t figure out why Heituo is so attached to it.”
“Since we don’t know why they’re attached, we don’t know when or where they’ll act.”
The three felt their limbs go cold, unsure if Xia Hanshi was brushing them off or truly in the dark.
Then Xia Hanshi added: “But a Strange God Carrier isn’t so easy to summon. Like I said, Heituo didn’t originally plan this, so their preparations aren’t sufficient.”
“First send people to screen. For now… we can only cast a wide net.”
Cast a wide net?
The three exchanged glances. South Wind City wasn’t small—how long would that take?
“One more thing.” Xia Hanshi abruptly changed tack: “During the Inspection Department’s last raid on Heituo Followers, didn’t they find a corpse burned to charcoal?”
“Charcoal corpse?” Zhang Hongbo was slow to react, but upon thinking, he nodded: “Right, just verified his identity the past couple days. It was Yu Xuan from the Patrol Department.”
“From the detailed investigation these past two days, there’s a good chance he was involved with Strange God cultists.” Zhang Hongbo’s face was grim. Heituo’s erosion of South Wind City exceeded his expectation.
“Yu Xuan… Where’s the corpse? I need to see it.” Xia Hanshi ordered.
“Alright, I’ll take you now.” Zhang Hongbo didn’t dare delay, leading him to the morgue and finding Yu Xuan’s body, still charred.
“Sulfur smell… As expected.” Xia Hanshi sniffed, a horrifying smile creeping onto his gaunt face, instructing Zhang Hongbo to pull the main information from that operation.
“…Someone witnessed red lightning…” He scanned downward. “Source from Internal Affairs Section, Sun Tai’s informant. That operation was also reported by his informant…”
“What a well-informed informant.”
The three behind him were baffled, still worrying about the earlier matter.
“Do we know who this informant is?” Xia Hanshi suddenly asked.
Zhang Hongbo hesitated, realizing it was directed at him, and shook his head: “Not clear on the specifics, but for protection, usually only the recruiter knows their own informants.”
Zhang Hongbo handled many things daily. For such operations, he’d only skim a summary—on paper, it might just say “According to informant intel…”
Xia Hanshi neither confirmed nor denied, pushing the corpse back: “I’m heading out.”
………
When Sun Fatty left, the sky had already darkened. He was deeply worried, fearing someone might take his life in the night—he was even planning to entrust his orphans.
Though there was some exaggeration, it was clear he was genuinely afraid.
“…Trade General Warehouse? Zhang Feng…” Su Chen sighed too. He hadn’t expected this twist.
“If worst comes to worst, I’ll stir up some trouble near there.”
