Chapter 255 - 5: Major Completion of Crimson Fire, Another Breakthrough

[Zheng City: Former Captain of Squad Five]

[Life Energy Development Level: Peak Elite Level—95 points]

[Age 21, an elite genius from the Beiyue City Circle. One of the first members dispatched by the Superpower Bureau to be stationed in the Red Maple City Circle. Accomplishments: Participated in five Rebel arrests...]

[On June 17, Year 51 of the New Alliance Calendar, while investigating members of the "Iron Sand" Warlords, he sacrificed his life heroically to protect the residents of the Red Maple City Circle’s buffer zone!]

The lines of the file appeared before his eyes. After reading it, Lu Chao was silent for several breaths.

He had been an exceptionally talented genius from the Superpower Bureau, and like Lu Chao, he hailed from one of the smaller city circles outside of Yao Capital and East Port.

He had been critically wounded by a high-energy bomb set by warlord members while protecting others, and died after rescue efforts failed.

A strange sense of sorrow washed over him. He thought back to the wartime turmoil in Ring City and began to understand how Gao Hu and the others felt.

As the thought passed, Lu Chao looked out the window.

Skyscrapers crowded the skyline of Satellite City No. 4, and figures bustled back and forth on the streets below.

This so-called prosperity didn’t come from nothing.

Everything has a price.

Thinking of this, he subconsciously looked up in the direction of the main city district.

...

WHIRR!!

A silver flying car descended from the sky, slowly landing inside the City Lord’s Mansion in the main city district.

It was a sprawling manor, situated on the central highlands in the northernmost part of the main city district.

Everything under the glass sky-dome was climate-controlled, and the humidity in the air was perfectly comfortable.

Looking around, groups of people in the City Lord’s Mansion uniforms moved about. Some were well-trained combatants, patrolling the entire manor with guns and keeping watch along the redwood corridors and by the fountain lawns.

Others were butlers and servants who had been trained for years, their expressions solemn as they went in and out of the manor’s various areas.

Occasionally, the auras of Superpower Level individuals could be felt, a sign that the entire City Lord’s Mansion was under absolute protection.

And at this very moment.

In a library within the manor.

"Miss."

Wei Cangming, dressed in a suit, strode quickly down the corridor.

The solid wood floor creaked faintly as warm sunlight streamed in from the carved windows on either side.

The walls on both sides of the room were lined with numerous bookshelves, stacked seven or eight meters high and holding thousands, if not tens of thousands, of books.

Several servants from the City Lord’s Mansion waited to the side, using rolling ladders to retrieve books from specific locations on the shelves.

Then, they would carry them over to the center of the library.

A red wooden table stood there, where Su Muqing, dressed in a light-colored long dress, was seated. So many books were already piled on the table that they nearly hid her from view.

"Uncle Wei?"

Hearing the voice, Su Muqing looked up.

Her golden hair was pinned up with a silver hairpin, and her gentle, beautiful face peeked out from behind the pile of books. Her eyes were clear as she looked at him curiously.

"I’ve finished investigating the matter you assigned to me."

Wei Cangming said softly, his expression serious.

Su Muqing paused, slightly taken aback.

Then, as if remembering something, she gave a quiet order to the surrounding servants. The group quickly bowed their heads and exited the room.

Once the room was completely silent and he was sure they were alone, Wei Cangming took two steps closer and said in a low voice, "When we left Red Maple back then, someone did indeed leak our location."

"Someone in the City Guard Army also turned traitor. They’ve already been executed."

He lowered his head slightly, knowing full well what this implied.

Back then, the old City Lord had been in a coma from a serious illness and had survived an assassination attempt. Compounded by the warlord forces entrenched in the city circle, the situation had become tense, and the people were in a panic.

That was why Miss had no choice but to lead their group out of the city on a risky journey to the Rhombus Ring City Circle to complete the transaction with the Alliance Country.

To avoid attracting attention, none of the Superpower Level experts from the City Lord’s Mansion had accompanied them. Yet even so, they had nearly met with disaster along the way.

An immediate silence fell over them.

A complex look appeared in Su Muqing’s eyes.

"Was it my eldest brother’s people?"

Wei Cangming fell silent, not knowing how to answer.

Seeing his reaction, Su Muqing had her answer. She didn’t speak again for a long time.

She didn’t really believe this answer; no one knew her brother’s temperament better than she did.

But given the circumstances, she couldn’t help but think it over.

For a moment, the library was unusually quiet.

Seeing this, Wei Cangming opened his mouth, but he could only suppress the other matter he had wanted to report.

He retreated quietly. In his peripheral vision, the golden-haired girl remained standing where she was.

He sighed inwardly. ’The City Lord’s Mansion is like a giant vortex right now, with all sorts of factions watching it. If the old City Lord were to pass away... will Miss be able to handle it?’

...

「That evening.」

Lu Chao didn’t rush back to his apartment.

Instead, he parted ways with Zhao Yuanqing and the others and walked into a private room in the Superpower Bureau’s second-floor cafeteria.

The decor wasn’t extravagant, but it was quite elegant.

The windows were carved, and screens partitioned the space.

The interior was spacious, with two or three round redwood tables set near the windows, as well as a separate sofa area for casual conversation.

By now, there were already seventeen or eighteen people inside.

Most were wearing captain or vice-captain uniforms, though some had changed into casual clothes. They were basically all at the Elite Level.

"Captain Lu, over here. You finally made it."

A slender young captain with slicked-back short hair walked over with a smile, leading him toward the sofa area.

The man’s name was Sun Jiayuan. Like Lu Chao, he was a Superpower Captain in Squad Four, and in his early twenties, he was already a veteran Elite Level powerhouse.

They had gotten to know each other gradually over the past few days through work.

The reason he was here tonight was because of Sun Jiayuan’s enthusiastic invitation, which had been hard to refuse.

"This get-together wasn’t easy to arrange. If it weren’t for Leader He from Squad One taking the lead, it would’ve been difficult for all of us to gather like this."