Chapter 99

Chapter 99

Xie Qingling did not answer Li Tiantian immediately. She lowered her head, unconsciously tapping both hands against Bloodsworn’s blades as though deep in thought.

Li Tiantian did not rush her.

Following the motion of Xie’s hands, Li Tiantian’s gaze was drawn to the pair of snow-white short blades and the striking flash of vivid blue at their pommels. “What beautiful blades. Did you redeem them from the armory at headquarters?”

Hm?

Xie Qingling shook her head. “No. The Director gave them to me.”

Li Tiantian could not bear to tear her gaze away from Bloodsworn.

Not only were the blades inlaid with a mysterious stone of deep, vivid blue whose purpose was unknown, their surfaces were also carved with sorcerous inscriptions.

Tools engraved through sorcery generally carried an additional special function beyond their inherent traits. Sorcerous weapons were consequently in high demand at the armory, and under normal circumstances, they were redeemed almost as soon as they appeared.

Unfortunately, sorcerers were a rare profession, so tools engraved with such inscriptions were scarce.

Li Tiantian was consumed with envy. “Having your Director around must save you so many points.”

“What can points be used for?”

“All kinds of things,” Li Tiantian said. “As long as you have enough, you can redeem anything you want from the armory at headquarters, including but not limited to weapons. Some mysterious items can be requisitioned for free, but resources are limited, and every region deals with numerous special incidents. Applying for their use is always a troublesome process.”

Xie Qingling immediately understood.

The Department had applied to headquarters for personnel or mysterious equipment before. Every application had taken at least two or three days to receive approval. The process truly was slow.

Department members could select some tools from the readiness room before a mission, but even specialized weapons such as the gun Xie Qingling liked to carry, though effective against ghosts and monsters, possessed limited power.

Against a deity or the Eleventh Realm, it was much less useful.

A suitable weapon could ignore the distinctions between deities, ghosts, monsters, and humans, allowing its wielder to sweep away every obstacle.

Xie Qingling realized just how invaluable Ling Fang was. He always replenished their tools in time, and he even made them himself. He saved them an enormous amount of money too…

Their Director was wonderful.

Xie Qingling said, “Thank you for telling me all this, Tiantian. I’m not ready to face a Level Five city yet. The Director must have his reasons for not mentioning it.”

“I’m still young,” Xie Qingling said with a smile.

Li Tiantian looked rather surprised. Xie Qingling ranked first on the Rookie Ranking, so Li Tiantian had never underestimated her. She had not even found Xie’s first introduction arrogant. Still, she had never expected Xie to be so humble in private.

Since Xie Qingling did not want to know more or go there, Li Tiantian let the matter drop. Otherwise, she would only be meddling where she was not wanted.

The conversation ended abruptly, as though it had never happened.

–

Two days later, Xie Qingling stepped out of the lounge and discovered that the office floor had transformed.

Silver-white light flowed across the dark gray marble in streaks, darting everywhere like electric current.

They resembled blood vessels buried inside a body, laid bare beneath the concealing layer of skin.

Xie Qingling stepped onto the floor, her heart leaping into her throat. For an instant, she nearly thought the office had fallen victim to another formidable ambush. Then she remembered how many people now lived here. Even the Eleventh Realm would have difficulty infiltrating without a sound and killing their way inside.

She steadied herself.

By then, people had begun poking their heads out of the other rooms one after another. They stared in astonishment at the silver light flowing over the floor. The interns panicked and froze outright, wearing the stunned, disoriented expressions of people who had gone to sleep only to wake and find their base under attack.

Li Tiantian stared at the faint silver patterns on the floor and said quietly, “A Headquarters Mobilization Order…”

A Headquarters Mobilization Order?

Before Xie Qingling could ask, Ling Fang’s voice came through her earpiece. “All Department members, assemble in the main hall.”

Xie Qingling and the others immediately hurried downstairs.

Ling Fang was already seated at the head of the conference table in the first-floor hall, waiting for them.

Everyone took their seats in turn. About five minutes later, Ye Anran, Dai Xingyu, and Shen Huaizhou arrived as well.

The last three also noticed the change in the office – the silver radiance that had suddenly appeared across the floor. The flowing light looked like flowers bursting into bloom, sketching patterns that did not belong to this world.

They resembled the traces of some kind of array.

But wasn’t the office the safest place in Future City? When had anyone drawn such a vast and elaborate array here?

Ling Fang’s face was dark, his mood visibly low. No one else dared to speak. They simply waited for him to begin.

“A Headquarters Mobilization Order,” Ling Fang said. “The Old Royal City is calling for personnel. They may need reinforcements.”

His opening words struck like a thunderbolt.

The veteran members were steadier. Though each had thoughts of their own, none showed any disturbance. Even Xie Qingling, who had once been the quickest to ask questions, waited in silence.

The newly arrived Lu Ying could not contain herself. “Director, could there be some mistake? Headquarters has five Innate Spirits blessed by progenitor deities holding the line. Headquarters has always reinforced regional cities. How could… how could headquarters need reinforcements?”

Lu Ying’s voice grew softer and softer as her face gradually paled.

Headquarters was filled with talent and had gathered the finest Spirit Wielders. It was their greatest trump card.
If even headquarters needed reinforcements, just how dire had the situation become?

Lu Ying no longer dared imagine it. She could only remain silent.

“We don’t know the specifics yet, but the teleportation array hasn’t been activated in many years,” Ling Fang said. “The notice I received ordered every city to bring its core Department personnel to the Old Royal City.”

“Today’s meeting will be brief. Its main purpose is to settle the Department’s affairs while I’m away.”

Time was short, so Ling Fang offered no further explanation. He looked directly at Li Tiantian and issued his order. “I will be taking Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou away from Future City for a while. During my absence, Li Tiantian will serve as acting Director. Follow her instructions and cooperate with her work.”

With Li Tiantian’s abilities, handling Future City’s routine affairs should pose no problem.

Ye Anran and Dai Xingyu were still too young. They needed more experience and were not yet steady or thorough enough.

“Understood!” everyone answered in unison.

“You two, Ye Anran and Dai Xingyu,” Ling Fang continued. “As veteran members of Future City’s Special Incident Response Department, you are more familiar with local conditions. Do everything you can to help Li Tiantian learn every procedure as quickly as possible.”

Ye Anran and Dai Xingyu answered together, “Understood!”

“As for the four of you interns…” Ling Fang took out four documents. “You performed very well during the assessment period. I’ve already submitted your applications for full membership to the Director of the Administration Department. She will take over your assessments and conduct the final stage. If you pass, you can become full members.”

“Understood!”

After arranging where everyone would go, Ling Fang turned to Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou. In a deep voice, he said, “You two, come with me.”

Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou rose, exchanged a glance, and followed Ling Fang to the readiness room on the second floor.

“Pack your luggage and bring everything you own. We leave in five minutes,” Ling Fang ordered curtly.

“Understood!”

The Headquarters Mobilization Order had come abruptly, but fortunately, they had little luggage and did not need to prepare much.

Xie Qingling chose several sets of clothes and packed them into an ordinary suitcase. Then she placed every mysterious item she could take with her into the silver case. With that, she was ready to depart and simply waited.

Ling Fang picked up his case as well. Seeing that the two were ready, he hurried upstairs to the third floor. They followed without a word.

They arrived at the room that housed the deity shrines.

Incense mist lingered there year-round, and its fragrance always filled the air.

The deities within the shrines wore varied expressions, some compassionate and some wrathful, as they waited in silent stillness for their incense offerings.

Ling Fang’s gaze settled on the wall behind the shrines. He pressed a latch hidden at the back of one shrine. The wall transformed into a door and slowly opened its long-sealed mouth.

Xie Qingling had worked here for so long, yet she had never known another space lay hidden within.

It seemed the Department had contingencies of its own after all, she thought.

Ling Fang entered the cramped room first.

Once Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou had followed him inside, the door closed again. Walls surrounded them on all four sides, and the confined space felt like an elevator.

All the flowing light from the floor converged in this space, finally condensing into stars that floated before their eyes. Within the tiny chamber, specks of light clustered like a compressed galaxy, dazzling the eye.

Even the sensation of the floor beneath their feet became unreal. They seemed to stand on solid ground and yet also on clouds. Amid the alternating brightness and darkness, matter itself had changed beyond recognition.

At that moment, the voice sounded in Xie Qingling’s mind.

[Heaven and earth, dark and yellow; the universe, vast and wild. Sun and moon wax and wane; constellations spread across the sky. The Earth Bureau Star Lord, who arranged the constellations, bestowed their blessing upon the mortal realm. Their Chosen gained the unfathomable Earth-Escape Technique and used the stars and the cosmos to lay a teleportation array capable of crossing mountains and seas.]

As the voice faded, Xie Qingling gained a basic understanding of the array’s function.

She asked, “Director, will we arrive directly in the Old Royal City?”

“Yes. Headquarters arranged the teleportation array in advance, setting anchors in every city outward from the Old Royal City at the center. When necessary, it enables point-to-point teleportation from designated cities. We generally call it ‘taking the elevator.'”

Taking the elevator. That was surprisingly apt.

The light before them gradually faded. The teleportation was likely almost complete.

The journey from Future City to the Old Royal City had taken barely more than a minute.

So fast.

Even a plane couldn’t have matched that speed.

It ignored every objective constraint. It made no sense at all.

Xie Qingling asked again, “If the array is this convenient, why don’t we activate it more often?”

“Because we’d soon be collecting the array caster’s corpse.”

“…Oh.”

There were no perpetual-motion machines in the world. Nor were there perpetual-motion people, much less perpetual-motion Spirit Wielders.

A thread of science ran through all this mysticism. Perfectly reasonable.

The light dispersed, and their surroundings returned to normal. Four ordinary walls enclosed the three of them, as if they stood in a cramped elevator.

Had they not heard Ling Fang’s explanation, they might have thought nothing had happened at all.

“We’re here,” Ling Fang said. “Let’s go.”

Xie Qingling and Shen Huaizhou exchanged a glance, then followed Ling Fang out of the cramped chamber.

This was the Old Royal City, where headquarters stood.