Lord of Prayer - Chapter 74 - 66: Green Tea

Chapter 74: Chapter 66: Green Tea

“I’m okay…”

Li Xiaoxiao replied softly, her body trembling like a frightened little rabbit.

She looked up at Zhou Chen, surprise mingling with her lingering fear. “I-I recognize you. You’re Senior Zhou Chen. I remember you got into the Star Association… Was that person just now… an Ascender?”

“Yes. You’re safe now.” Zhou Chen took out his phone to report the situation, asking the command center to check the park’s surveillance footage and keep an eye out for Wang Ziqian’s movements.

“Thank you,” Li Xiaoxiao said in a low voice.

“Don’t worry about it. The medical team will be here soon. You can have them check you over to make sure you’re not injured.” As he spoke, Zhou Chen walked over to a pebble path in the distance and crouched down to examine the bloodstains on the ground.

’No trace of an Abyssal Creature, no hint of a Curse, no toxins. It’s from a normal human.’

Li Xiaoxiao followed him, pursing her lips. She mustered her courage and asked, “Senior, could I get your contact information? If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been dragged away. I-I’d like to treat you to a meal…”

Zhou Chen calmly refused. “There’s no need. It’s my duty.”

“But, but I still want to thank you…”

Li Xiaoxiao nervously wrung the hem of her clothes and tried a different approach. “What if… what if he comes after me again? I wouldn’t even know who to call for help.”

Zhou Chen mulled it over for a moment, then nodded. “Alright.”

After their little performance, they successfully exchanged contact information. Li Xiaoxiao was satisfied, and so was Zhou Chen.

There was even an unexpected bonus.

—Wish Points.

And not just a few, either. He had gained a large amount of Wish Points when he saved Li Xiaoxiao. After exchanging contact info just now, he’d received a lot of Star Dust. The two combined were enough to condense directly into a Star Seed.

This proved that Li Xiaoxiao had definitely planned this for a while, intentionally showing up to get closer to him.

’As for why she was so sure Wang Ziqian would target her… was she just that confident in her figure?’

’In any case, it didn’t cost her anything to try. No loss if it didn’t work out.’

Zhou Chen pulled his wandering thoughts back to the present. He walked over to a patch of grass stained with blood. If he had enough time, he might have been able to follow the trail to find Wang Ziqian. But several minutes had already passed. Given an Ascender’s escape speed… he probably couldn’t catch up.

Still, with a blood sample in hand, the Star Association had ways to track Wang Ziqian. They would find him sooner or later.

He couldn’t escape.

“Senior, are you an Ascender too?” Li Xiaoxiao asked curiously.

“Yeah, I awakened by accident,” Zhou Chen replied calmly, imitating Jiang Che’s cold and serious demeanor, as if constantly keeping others at a distance.

“Then you must be really strong. You were really, really cool just now…” Li Xiaoxiao said, a bashful, blushing look on her face.

…She’s a green tea bitch! Zhou Chen could tell at a glance that she was feigning weakness. Paired with that pure and shy act, she could definitely stir up the protective instincts in a lot of men.

Too bad he wasn’t interested in that sort of thing right now. Besides, he was a double agent…

·

Soon, the medical team arrived. They collected Wang Ziqian’s blood and gave Li Xiaoxiao a thorough examination. The results showed she had only suffered a minor fright.

After giving Li Xiaoxiao a cold farewell, Zhou Chen left the scene and returned to his car parked on the street.

’I’ll leave Li Xiaoxiao on the back burner for a while and wait for her to contact me. Hmm, I’ll have to keep up the cold and aloof act then. I wonder how she’ll try to test me… Sigh, I still haven’t managed to infiltrate Eternal Fire after all this time. I feel like a bit of a failure as a double agent… They’re so suspicious…’

As Zhou Chen tapped on the steering wheel, lost in thought, his phone suddenly buzzed with an alert. He quickly picked it up. Another Ascender was causing trouble!

He started the car, preparing to head over as backup, but the alert was canceled after he’d only driven two blocks. The rogue Ascender had been captured on the spot by the Special Operations Team.

It wasn’t Wang Ziqian, but another Illegal Ascender who had snuck into Jinzhu. Intel said he had accepted a bounty on the dark web to assassinate the chairman of a Jinzhu corporation.

Zhou Chen had just breathed a sigh of relief when another alert sounded. This time, an Illegal Ascender who had snuck in was discovered at the port. The suspect had escaped in a panic during a firefight.

“What’s going on? Why has it suddenly gotten so chaotic…” Zhou Chen frowned, a feeling that something was wrong nagging at him.

After a moment of thought, he stepped on the gas and headed straight for the Star Association.

「Twenty minutes later.」

Zhou Chen arrived at the office and saw a rare, grave expression on Jiang Che’s face. She had obviously received all the alerts too, and likely many more.

“I saw the alerts. Why are so many people being smuggled in all of a sudden?” Zhou Chen asked, getting straight to the point.

“It’s Eternal Fire’s handiwork.”

Jiang Che said grimly, “According to earlier reports, traces of Eternal Fire’s activity have been found in five cities near Jinzhu City. And these smuggled Illegal Ascenders are all coming through the Birdman’s channels… It’s obvious. Eternal Fire wants to throw Jinzhu into chaos so they can ship ’that thing’ out.”

Zhou Chen asked doubtfully, “I thought they wanted to keep a low profile. Why the sudden…”

“My guess is that everything Eternal Fire is doing now is a diversion. They want people to think they’re about to make a big move ’next,’ but in reality, their operation is already underway ’now,’ or perhaps even started earlier.”

Jiang Che subconsciously picked up her mug, wanting a sip of coffee to refresh herself, but it was already empty.

Zhou Chen stepped forward and refilled her coffee. “What are the higher-ups saying about something this important?”

“All cities are mobilizing on an emergency basis, with priority given to eradicating Eternal Fire. As for ’that thing,’ since we weren’t sure if it even existed, it was difficult to justify a thorough search of maritime shipping. But now, we have a reason,” Jiang Che said.

The numerous smuggled Illegal Ascenders were the reason they needed.

“A storm is brewing…” Zhou Chen sighed.

First, Fu Qing was stirring up trouble. Now Eternal Fire was joining the fray, smuggling in a large number of Illegal Ascenders. And in the shadows, Fallen Paradise still hadn’t shown its face…

It was hard to imagine how chaotic Jinzhu City would become in the near future.

Just then, Zhou Chen received a message from the analysis department.

They had worked fast. Using Wang Ziqian’s blood, they had created an Alchemy Tool for tracking and had already pinpointed his location.

“I’m heading out. Time to get to work.”

After saying goodbye and leaving the office, Zhou Chen returned to his dorm and pulled a large travel bag out of his locker.

This was the main reason he had come back.

With the ZZZIP of a zipper, a sharp, gleaming chainsaw appeared before him.

Perhaps because it hadn’t been used in a long, long time, when Zhou Chen gripped the Bloodthirsty Chainsaw, he could feel a sense of sorrow and grievance coming from it.

—Like a petulant little wife who hadn’t been doted on in ages.

Beyond that, there was also its intense craving to be bathed in blood and its undisguised, ferocious killing intent.

It thrummed with restlessness.

“Don’t be hasty. Your turn to take the stage is coming soon,” Zhou Chen soothed it softly.