Chapter 200: Authorization
Zhou Changwu was somewhat irritated. “Marshal, the Bai family must have noticed. We can’t find anything we were able to uncover before, and many of their connections have been cut off. The accounts on the other side have also been deactivated and deleted. They now show up as nonexistent.”
“We managed to preserve some of the chat records and other things we found earlier, but now...”
But because the evidence was insufficient, although they themselves could determine that the Bai family was behind it, using these materials as evidence would definitely not work. The evidence was incomplete and could easily be deemed fabricated.
Yu Lanfeng did not seem particularly bothered. “It’s fine. As long as we know who it is. Although the Bai family no longer has the favor owed to them by the Emperor, they’re still a great family that has been passed down through several generations. They still have a substantial foundation. Simple methods definitely won’t work against them in the short term, so there’s no need to rush.”
There would be plenty of opportunities in the future!
Yu Lanfeng said, “Although this evidence can’t be put to use this time, preserve it anyway. It’ll become useful eventually.”
However, what the Bai family was doing seemed specifically aimed at his legion. He had no idea what exactly they wanted. It was almost as though they had directly placed themselves in opposition to Yu Lanfeng.
Yu Lanfeng also found it strange, but the Bai family’s intentions had never seemed pure from the very beginning.
Still, he had only truly begun paying attention to the Bai family after Nan Yu’s first kidnapping.
After Nan Yu was kidnapped for the first time, Yu Lanfeng happened to receive the mission related to the incident and began investigating. In the end, his investigation led to the Bai family, but the trail was cut off there, so the matter had eventually come to nothing.
He simply had not expected incidents connected to the Bai family to appear one after another afterward.
There was Bai Zhouyun’s matter, for example.
Although the Bai family publicly claimed that Bai Zhouyun had privately contacted that organization on his own, obtained drugs from them, and voluntarily become one of the organization’s test subjects.
They also claimed that afterward, he had dragged his family into the matter and caused them trouble. Almost everyone who saw the news believed it. After all, while committing his crimes, Bai Zhouyun had even spouted nonsense publicly and dragged Nan Yu into it. The incident had become increasingly serious until it spiraled completely out of control, especially after Bai Zhouyun was rescued.
If it had been anyone else, perhaps it would have been different.
But the people who rescued Bai Zhouyun happened to be members of that organization.
Now not only had the Empire issued a wanted notice for Bai Zhouyun, but the Bai family itself was also having an extremely difficult time.
That was precisely why such a major mistake had occurred on Zhou Teng’s side, causing the Bai family to suffer another heavy loss.
Yu Lanfeng could already guess that this time, some of the people controlled by the Bai family here...
No.
It was not merely some people.
It involved people from two military bases.
The previous Yao Anyang incident and the current Zhou Teng incident—both groups had connections to the Bai family, and Yu Lanfeng believed they were also inseparably connected to that organization.
However, when they tried to trace these two lines back to the Bai family now, neither could be contacted anymore.
The Bai family must already know.
Both lines had been destroyed by him.
There was no telling whether they had planted any other hidden lines in the remaining military bases, but after losing two of them in succession, they certainly would not expose any others willingly.
However, whether those hidden lines were exposed or not was not something the Bai family alone could decide.
He also did not know whether Jiang Youjian’s attendance at the wedding banquet would still be useful. If it was no longer useful, then what Jiang Youjian and his good friend Zhou Baichuan had done would have to be settled as well.
No matter what, a crime was still a crime.
Since they had violated criminal law, regardless of their reasons, they still had to accept punishment. Yu Lanfeng hoped they could face it calmly rather than respond with hatred and resentment. That would be unwise.
Yu Lanfeng understood why they had done it.
Although Jiang Youjian had ultimately passed the assessment through his own strength, altering his records afterward because he feared the consequences of his upbringing was the stupidest thing he could have done.
Sometimes, a person simply needed to have a little more confidence in himself.
Yu Lanfeng walked around the military base and inspected its current condition. He found that things here were more or less settled now.
Especially after Zhou Teng’s group had been arrested, the reason behind everything was revealed, along with the fact that all the evidence Zhou Teng had collected had been falsely synthesized.
The entire military base’s attitude toward Zhou Changwu changed instantly.
No one had expected him to have actually been framed by his own nephew.
Some people said Zhou Teng had done it because he wanted to take the position of general for himself.
But that theory was immediately rejected.
Even if Zhou Changwu ceased to be general, the position would never fall to Zhou Teng. Therefore, Zhou Teng must have done all of this for someone hidden even deeper. Once Zhou Changwu was brought down, that person would have a one hundred percent chance of becoming the general of this military base.
After relentlessly digging deeper, they finally identified two extremely suspicious candidates.
In truth, only these two people at this military base were the most likely to become general after Zhou Changwu left, so everyone’s suspicions immediately focused on them.
Naturally, Yu Lanfeng had also examined this information over the past two days.
They had questioned, interrogated, and even tortured Zhou Teng and the others, but not a single one of them knew who exactly they were supposed to be helping.
Their task had simply been to accept the benefits offered by the Bai family and bring Zhou Changwu down.
Once Zhou Changwu was removed, the person supported by those behind the scenes would naturally emerge, and only then would they learn who they had actually been helping.
But they had been caught before accomplishing their objective.
Now all the members involved had been captured. There were also some minor accomplices outside the military base. Zhou Teng’s group might not have considered them important, but the military authorities did not share that opinion.
Everyone who had participated in the matter was arrested, and whether they required punishment would be determined according to the severity of their crimes.
Naturally, the person who would ultimately authorize their punishment was Yu Lanfeng. After all, this had happened inside his own legion and had not even spread elsewhere.
With so many people involved, Yu Lanfeng felt that sending all of them directly to a military court would definitely be troublesome. It would be much more convenient for his side to interrogate and deal with them directly.
Only after Yu Lanfeng saw that the entire military base was more or less successfully back on track did he decide to leave and head to the next base.
He wrapped Nan Yu completely in a blanket and carried him in his arms, leaving neither his head nor his feet exposed so that no one could see him.
The first reason was that Nan Yu was holding the Nianshen Grass in his hands, which could not be discovered.
But Yu Lanfeng also had his own selfish reasons.
He did not want anyone else seeing Nan Yu like this.
Recently, because of the extremely rapid circulation of his Mental Power, Nan Yu had become capable of perceiving a small amount of information from the outside world, such as indistinct fragments of speech.
He could sense that Yu Lanfeng was carrying him somewhere, and several people nearby were talking. He could not hear them clearly, but Nan Yu knew they must be leaving this military base and heading to the next one!
In other words, he had missed the entire time they spent dealing with matters at one whole military base?
Perhaps he should consider himself lucky that he was currently away on a mission and his family could not contact him whenever they wanted.
Otherwise, Eldest Brother, Second Brother, and Dad would definitely have discovered what had happened.
And then there was no telling how they would bully Yu Lanfeng.
Although Yu Lanfeng was normally incredibly formidable, whenever he faced Nan Yu’s family, he was always exceptionally obedient and well-behaved.
Nan Yu decided that once he woke up, he would properly make it up to him.
Of course, it had to be something he could actually do in his current condition. Anything beyond that was definitely unnecessary.
Yu Lanfeng said, “That’s enough. Hurry back and return to your respective duties. No slacking off!”
Zhou Changwu said, “Understood, Marshal. These people will be escorted directly to Border Region One in a few days and handed over to Deputy General Qin!”
Yu Lanfeng said, “Mm.”
He did not say anything else. He turned around, took the people who had originally come with him, and boarded the aircraft directly.
Before long, they disappeared from sight.
Being able to bypass the spaceport and head directly toward their destination was something the others could only envy.
Yu Lanfeng carried Nan Yu back to the lounge aboard the starship. There was a private lounge specifically reserved for them, and he gently placed Nan Yu on the bed.
Yu Lanfeng adjusted Nan Yu’s position before slowly pulling the blanket over him.
“Rest well. I’ll wait for you to wake up.”
Nan Yu’s complexion had actually improved considerably.
He looked so healthy that it seemed as though he might open his eyes at any moment.
Before leaving the military base, Yu Lanfeng had asked Feng Chengyu to examine Nan Yu again.
After the examination, Feng Chengyu had been so shocked that his expression was filled with disbelief.
Seeing his expression, Yu Lanfeng had almost thought Nan Yu could no longer be saved.
But Feng Chengyu had then said that Nan Yu was recovering extraordinarily well. If he continued recovering at the same rate he had maintained recently, he would probably regain consciousness in another one or two months!
After hearing this, Yu Lanfeng quickly calmed himself down.
Then, in a rare display of mercy, he immediately dismissed Feng Chengyu and departed with Nan Yu.
As for who Zhou Teng and the others had actually been trying to help ascend to the position of general at that military base, Yu Lanfeng had fully authorized Zhou Changwu to investigate the matter himself and told him to investigate without restraint.
As long as Zhou Changwu could send Yu Lanfeng enough evidence to prove conclusively who the person was, Yu Lanfeng would immediately have that person arrested and sent to Border Region One.
Nan Yu was not very clear about what they were thinking right now because he still could not hear their conversations clearly.
All he could hear was a vague murmur of voices.
At most, he could distinguish who was speaking.
Beyond that, he truly could not make out anything.
At the next military base, Yu Lanfeng used the same method as at the previous base.
After giving the general the list, he allowed him to handle everything himself.
Yu Lanfeng had only two requirements.
First, be fast.
Second, kill them all.
Leave no one alive.
This general was somewhat different from the previous ones.
He was comparatively bloodthirsty, but he was intelligent, understood how to judge circumstances, and was also highly skilled at commanding troops. Therefore, Yu Lanfeng tolerated his bloody and violent tendencies.
As long as he did not turn that violence against his own people, Yu Lanfeng could turn a blind eye to it.
After receiving the list, the general could barely control his heavy breathing.
“Really? I really can? I really have to kill all of them? Every single one, right?”
Yu Lanfeng was expressionless, as though he had long since grown accustomed to this man behaving like this.
“Of course you can. Remember this: don’t leave a single person on this list alive. Kill them all!”
“All right! No problem.”
He quickly left with the list.
When he learned that there were spies inside his own military base—and spies from an enemy nation at that—his entire demeanor had become somewhat abnormal.
He had already been holding himself back for a very long time.
Now he could finally get started, and he could even personally take part.
Naturally, his blood was boiling with excitement.
His method was extremely simple and brutal.
First, he compiled the names of everyone on the list. Then he went with them to the area surrounding the dueling grounds.
There were several enormous arenas here.
The general stood in the center of one of them and directly shouted, “Everyone! We’ve discovered this many enemy spies inside our military base! What should we do with them?”
“Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Cries for blood erupted throughout the entire area.
Everyone stared at the captured people with bloodshot eyes.
Some spat at them. Others threw garbage.
They trusted their general completely.
People who had still been comrades fighting alongside them yesterday had been declared spies by their general today, and every single one of them believed it unconditionally.
No one demanded evidence.
They trusted their general.
And they trusted the list the Marshal had brought to their general!
However, this general was no fool.
“All the evidence is on the military base’s official military website. Anyone who has doubts can go check it yourselves. There’s proof in there that these bastards are impostors!”
“Now I’m going to challenge them right here! I’m going to beat every last one of them to death with my own hands! Do you support me?!”
“We support you! We support you! We support you!”
“I want in too!”
“Me too! General, you can’t hog them all! I want some too!”
Once the first person shouted that he wanted to participate, many others immediately joined in.
Seeing his soldiers so full of energy, the general said, “There are two more arenas over there. Take turns yourselves. Anyway, your mission today is to kill every single one of these spies!”
Another wave of cheers erupted.
The atmosphere became scorching hot.
The general immediately shouted, “Send a hundred up here! I’ll make this clear right now—if any of you can kill me in this arena, I’ll let you leave here alive!”
Everyone knew that the general always kept his word.
Whatever he said, he would honor.
Among the spies below, some shouted that they were innocent, some remained silent, some looked around in panic, while others desperately searched for a way to save themselves.
But there was no escape route.
Therefore, they could only place their hopes on what the general had just said.
There were nearly thirteen thousand of them.
A hundred at a time.
No matter how powerful the general was, surely they could exhaust him eventually. Someone would definitely survive.
Then they would see whether they could actually make it out alive.
It was not as though they had never considered gathering everyone together right now and simply breaking through by force.
But this military base was very different from all the others.
Everyone here was exceptionally fond of fighting, to the point where once a battle began, it would not end until one side was dead.
Once they targeted someone, either you died or they did.
They were like this even on the battlefield.
The people who had infiltrated this military base had always found it extremely difficult to adapt to this kind of life and were frequently excluded.
That was precisely why, upon discovering that the people they normally rejected were actually spies, no one objected at all.
Instead, they all looked as though they were thinking:
I fucking knew there was something wrong with those timid, wishy-washy bastards. Sure enough, they aren’t even from our Empire. No wonder they never fit in with us. Great! Now we can openly beat them to death!
And it was not merely one person thinking this way.
By now, practically everyone was cracking their knuckles and preparing for a massive fight.
Although the spies had been gathered together and had the advantage of numbers, there were even more people surrounding them.
More than ten thousand against several hundred thousand.
How were they supposed to win?
How were they supposed to break through?
And this was the enemy’s own military base.
So if these people wanted to leave, their only hope rested on what the general had just said.
The first hundred were quickly driven onto the arena.
Several officers also climbed onto the surrounding arenas and began showing off their strength.
They were not as powerful as the general and could not fight a hundred people at once, but ten at a time was no problem.
Every arena was surrounded by people.
Everyone was howling and screaming, their blood boiling with excitement.
The entire place was in a frenzy, except for the area where the ten thousand or so spies were gathered.
That place was deathly silent.
As a whole, they seemed completely incompatible with the atmosphere of this military base.
Yu Lanfeng stood on the balcony of the room where he was currently staying, which happened to offer a panoramic view of everything.
There were ten combat arenas over there in total.
The largest one belonged to their general, while the other nine were prepared for the other officers.
That brat had definitely chosen this room specifically for him.
Before leaving, he had even said that if Yu Lanfeng stood on the balcony, he would be able to admire this young master’s heroic figure later.
Yu Lanfeng could not help laughing when he remembered it.
He really could see everything very clearly.
The general in the arena was soon drenched in blood.
Of course, it was not because he had been injured.
Rather...
Every one of his opponents had been beaten to death.
His fists were incredibly powerful. A single punch could directly smash an Ability User’s body apart, causing the pulverized flesh and blood to rain down over him.
It did not take long before he was completely covered in blood.
The spies looked extremely uncomfortable.
Some of those who were not combat-oriented were so frightened that their legs went weak, and some even collapsed onto the ground.
Because they knew that sooner or later, it would be their turn!
Looking at the thin layer of blood and mangled flesh already covering the arena, the only people cheering were their own soldiers.
The spies’ faces were ugly, and they could no longer conceal the fear in their eyes.
Some even began running around like headless flies, trying to flee toward the rear.
But every last one of them had been surrounded by soldiers.
No one could escape.
Moreover, all the spies were wearing suppression bracelets capable of suppressing their Ability power to less than one-tenth of its usual level.
Once they entered the arena, all they could rely on was the collision of fists and flesh.
Naturally, whenever soldiers from the military base entered the arena, they also followed the same rule.
They would not break the rules merely because their opponents were spies.
Yu Lanfeng watched that brat going berserk and shook his head.
“He hasn’t changed at all. If anything, he’s become even bloodier...”
He looked at the severed limbs, chunks of flesh, and internal organs scattered throughout the arenas and frowned slightly.
Fortunately, Nan Yu was currently unconscious...
No.
Sleeping.
He could not see any of this.
Otherwise, he might have been disgusted.
But truthfully, someone like this was extremely well suited to being a general and a soldier on the battlefield.
The military base in Border Region Twenty-One had always ranked first in overall combat strength among all of Yu Lanfeng’s military bases!
Of course, Yu Lanfeng’s own presence could potentially overturn those rankings, so he was never included whenever the military bases were ranked.
Naturally, the other bases had refused to accept this ranking at first.
But after sending delegations here several times, they never raised any objections again.
Clearly, they had all been frightened by the atmosphere of this military base.
And...
The general of this military base—the same general who was currently continuing to create a bloody massacre in the arena—had a very pleasant-sounding name.
Bai Linyu.
What an elegant name!
The first time Yu Lanfeng saw that name years ago, he had even thought the man would probably be suited for administrative work.
Unexpectedly, Bai Linyu had given him one enormous sur—prise!
By now, however, Yu Lanfeng had long since grown accustomed to it.
Standing on the balcony, Yu Lanfeng carefully observed the people at this military base.
Basically, anyone capable of truly integrating into this military base was the same kind of person as Bai Linyu.
Those who could not integrate could still find a way to get along harmoniously with them.
That was the way to survive at this military base.
No matter whether someone had been a harmless little rabbit or a shy, timid type before arriving here, the atmosphere of this place could eventually cultivate them into a big bad wolf with a deceptively innocent exterior.
That was actually a very good sign.
While Yu Lanfeng was recalling various things about Bai Linyu, the man himself had already torn off his clothes and thrown them aside.
He reached up, wiped some of the blood covering his body with his hand, and casually flung it away.
Only a little over ten minutes had passed, yet he had already killed all one hundred opponents.
And even now, his breathing remained perfectly even.
He was not tired in the slightest.
But that made sense.
Many of those hundred people had gone down with a single punch or kick.
They had barely taken any time at all.
“Another hundred!!”
He roared excitedly.
Compared with the first round, not a single person volunteered to enter the arena for the second.
Everyone wanted the people ahead of them to go first and exhaust his stamina.
But none of them were fools!
When no one volunteered, Bai Linyu simply stood quietly in the arena and waited.
He did not come down to pick a fight with them.
In the end, the spies who kept stalling were simply lifted off the ground by the soldiers guarding them.
The soldiers randomly selected people from the outermost edge, picked them up one after another, and threw them into the arena.
Only after doing this repeatedly did they finally gather another hundred.
Once someone was thrown into the arena, there was no coming back down unless they won or died.
If they won, they could leave alive.
If they died, cleaning robots would clean up what remained and carry it away.
Naturally, Yu Lanfeng knew perfectly well about the loophole in what Bai Linyu had said.
How could they possibly really let someone go just because they won?!
That was obviously impossible!
Bai Linyu had only said that if they defeated him, he would let them go.
But aside from him, there were several hundred thousand soldiers here.
Even Yu Lanfeng, the Marshal himself, was present!
How could any of them possibly leave alive?
Bai Linyu licked his lips.
“Oh my, just looking at you is getting my blood boiling. So, who’s coming first, hmm? One at a time? Or all together?”
Going one at a time was obviously impossible.
None of them was his match individually.
But if they attacked together...
The first group of one hundred had attacked together too.
Yet the moment the two sides made contact, four of them had died on the spot.
The first had his head kicked apart.
His skull had burst like a smashed watermelon.
The others had half their bodies shattered by Bai Linyu’s fists!
One simple spinning back kick had crushed another man’s chest. Half his chest caved inward, and he ultimately died in agony.
The first group had already tried all kinds of different ways of dying for them.
At this point, perhaps killing themselves would be a little more comfortable?