Chapter 94 - 93: Dark Realm Tree Shepherd
’Holy shit, we’re screwed!’
Everyone in the car had the exact same thought.
They didn’t have any relatives in Huashu Village. It was a subconscious reaction, an attempt to bluff their way through.
"Well? Speak up. Tell me your relatives’ names."
The traffic cop’s tone was clearly different now.
Cui Ying resorted to a trick that had worked for her in many awkward situations: she flashed a sweet smile.
"Heh, well... actually, we don’t have any relatives in Huashu Village. We just wanted to take a shortcut. Officer, can’t you just let us off this one time?"
"Yeah, yeah, we just wanted to take a shortcut. We didn’t mean to lie to you~"
The girl in the passenger seat quickly apologized as well.
The traffic cop took a small notebook from his uniform pocket, jotted something down, then walked to the front of the car and recorded the license plate number.
"Oh, so it was a made-up excuse to take a shortcut?"
"Yes, yes!"
"Where are you headed, and what are you planning to do?"
The traffic cop’s question made everyone in the car freeze.
Three or four traffic cops on duty had already surrounded them, and there were even a few others in uniforms they couldn’t immediately identify.
Their gazes had shifted from questioning to scrutinizing.
"What’s the matter? Did you forget what you were going to do?"
Seeing the atmosphere turning sour, the people in the car blurted out in a panic, all talking at once.
"We’re going on an outing!" "A party!" "To a wedding..."
Cui Ying felt her forehead itch as a drop of cold sweat trickled down.
’Four people, three different destinations. They’re not going to believe we’re just getting dropped off at different points along the way, are they...’
"Turn off the engine. Everyone out of the car."
At some point, the traffic cops had stepped back, replaced by an Officer in dark camouflage fatigues who now stood before the car.
The situation was clearly not normal, but the people in the car didn’t dare crack any more wise. They knew better and quickly got out.
They were then taken away without any chance for further explanation.
About ten minutes later, in a prefabricated building at an unknown location where they were being held, a police officer came in and gave them bottled mineral water.
"We’ve verified your identities. It’s nothing serious. Rest for now. A car will take you to a detention center in Shen City before dawn. You’ll be released in three days, and your IDs and other personal belongings will be returned to you then."
"Huh!?"
"No way! We’re being detained for three days?"
"Officer, you must have made a mistake. We just told a little lie because we wanted to dig up some material for a news story..."
The officer finished checking their IDs and smiled at them.
"It’s because we *didn’t* make a mistake that this is all that’s happening to you. You reporters should stop trying to stir up trouble all the time!"
After saying this, which left Cui Ying and the others completely baffled, the officer left and closed the door.
What they didn’t know was that if their identities hadn’t been quickly verified, they might have been facing charges of "espionage."
Throughout the night, the sound of heavy vehicles passing by could be heard from time to time. Around four or five in the morning, the groggy group was put into a vehicle to be escorted back to Shen City.
As for the car they drove there? Sorry, you can come pick it up yourselves after you get out of the detention center.
Although this trip was a classic case of trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used as bait, it planted a deep seed of doubt in the minds of Cui Ying and her colleagues.
...
At 4:00 AM, as dawn approached, the people outside the encirclement grew increasingly tense.
Several black sedans drove from the main road all the way to a position near the very center of the cordon.
Sentries were posted every ten steps, and temporary, heavily armed defensive lines had been established.
Tao Xingzhi and Huang Jiutian’s group stepped out of the cars, dressed in black uniforms. The outfits were clearly military-style, but with a different design.
Huang Jiutian had a thin red bar and two star insignias on his shoulder. He had somehow become a second lieutenant—though it was impossible to know if the rank was just for show.
Those around who were fully or partially in the know watched these people from the special department, who had traveled a great distance to be here, with a certain amount of awe.
Before today, many local officials and people of a certain standing had never even heard of the "National Special Incident Response and Security Group."
Although only the first batch of police and a few high-level personnel knew some or all of the inside story, from the soldiers and police to the ordinary officials, true idiots were a rare breed. They knew there was no way this was just a chemical leak.
As soon as they arrived on site, a director familiar with the details immediately briefed Tao Xingzhi’s group on the situation and handed them a tablet displaying a live feed from a drone.
Tao Xingzhi quickly compared this new information with the report he’d received on the plane to get a full picture of the situation.
"Jiutian, can you sense anything?"
After getting up to speed, Tao Xingzhi wanted Huang Jiutian to try and get a reading, but when he turned, he saw that his young colleague’s expression was grim.
"What is it, Jiutian? What did you sense?"
Huang Jiutian looked terrible.
It wasn’t because of blood loss, of course. Rather, by using Qin Xiaoxia’s Magic Power, he had sensed something familiar, yet strange.
’Magic Power! There’s something in there that has Magic Power!’
What kind of living being could possess Magic Power? The first requirement was a Soul Essence, and a soul was inextricably linked to things like one’s spirit and will.
"Tao... I don’t know how to describe it. The thing in there... it might have considerable intelligence. Or, you could even say—’sapience’!"
The moment the word "sapience" was spoken, a chill ran through everyone in the special task force.
"Are you sure?"
Tao Xingzhi couldn’t help but press him, but Jiutian, his face still pale, just shook his head.
"No, I’m still not familiar with my own Ability... This is just a guess on my part. But the feeling I’m getting from it is completely different from those insect monsters!"