Book 4, Chapter 72: Break In

In just around ten seconds, Safe Shield found the owner and the source of the nutrition cans.

“This house, along with the houses nearby, is illegal property of a gang. Three years ago, this house was rented to a citizen called Mr. Li. He has quite the complicated background. He was once an agent and mercenary. Based on the records, he returned to the house once last month, and it has been more than a month since any word has been heard about him. I can’t find any tracks.

“All the nutrition cans were purchased through public shopping channels in other Central Cities. The buyers were all small companies. The earliest purchase record was from three years ago. You will need to go to the other Central Cities for details, but I’ve deduced that they were transferred into our city in batches and stored here.”

After some thinking, Chen Chuan ordered his team, “Move all these nutrition cans out and lock down the place.”

Once they secured the house, they found another warehouse in less than ten minutes. It had the same layout and was also filled with nutrition cans. Just like the first one, it had some cans already consumed.

The only thing different about this one was that they found fresh tracks. This meant that the Tunneling Queen had been here recently. It should’ve been less than two hours since it left.

The Tunneling Queen had left the area after they arrived, so Chen Chuan immediately had the bioweapons enter the pit it used to leave.

This bioweapon couldn’t erase its tracks, so their chances of finding it were really high.

Chen Chuan was proven right. In just half an hour, the bioweapons that went underground encountered and fought against newly born larvae. He saw videos of the bioweapons fighting and tearing each other apart.

This meant that they were close to the Tunneling Queen.

His teammates sped over to the place Safe Shield pointed out. While the larvae they met stood in their way, their presence created a clear trail as to where the Tunneling Queen might be.

Besides, the larvae were few in number and didn’t get much nutrients after they were born, so they couldn’t win against the endless bioweapons swarming into the pit. Soon, no obstacles remained.

As the bioweapons pressed forward, Chen Chuan’s screen turned black. He didn’t just lose sight of the vanguard. Even the bioweapons behind disappeared in an instant.

The teammates above the bioweapons on the ground perked up. This meant that their chase was effective. It was likely they had found the Tunneling Queen.

Yuan Qiuyuan, Qin Qingque, and Su Wei stood at a spot where the bioweapons had disappeared.

“This is the place.”

They exchanged glances, and Yuan Qiuyuan and Su Wei cast their gazes at Qin Qingque. She lifted an elongated sniper rifle, turned the muzzle at the ground, and sucked in a deep breath.

A moment later, she shoved the rifle into the ground, and three-fifths of it sank into the earth. After a loud shout and a shake of the rifle, the earth started crumbling before sinking to reveal an underground tunnel. The rifle was stuck in a creature, which was around two meters long.

Most of it was covered in dirt, so they couldn’t see its complete form, only a part of its smooth shell that had some spots on it.

While holding onto the rifle, Qin Qingque took two steps back and shouted. Then, she yanked the creature up from the tunnel.

Dirt fell off its body once it was dragged out, and they were finally able to see it clearly. Its body resembled a weight turned upside down, which was covered by a smooth shell. Curled limbs were at its abdomen and sides, and retractable spikes were on its back. Multiple compound eyes stared at them.

The creature let out a strange screech from its abdomen and swung its spikes.

Qin Qingque remained calm. With a light shake of her rifle, she negated the creature’s power, and the spike that came charging at her became limp and powerless. She turned to the side, swung the creature upward, then swung it down hard on the ground.

Crash!

The creature let out a grotesque shrill screech.

“Let me at it!” Yuan Qiuyuan shouted and brought his staff up high before swinging it down at the creature. It was filled with such power that it made the wind howl as it moved.

If he hit the creature, he would destroy at least half of its body.

Yet he suddenly noticed something off. He spun the staff around halfway through to swing it at another side. In an instant, he hit something, and the force of the impact made the tip of the staff move off course.

The thing had been heading for Qin Qingque, and it was highly likely to have hit her. Yuan Qiuyuan pulled back as quickly as he could, but he had been in the middle of an attack, and being able to change the direction of his attack in a hurry once already showed just how outstanding his coordination was. He no longer had the strength to pull his staff back.

Once Su Wei saw this, he threw a lasso over to bind the tip of the staff and yank it back. Even so, they staggered a few steps back because of the power from the thing, and they left behind a few deep footsteps on the ground.

When they finally stopped, they were able to see that the thing that had pushed them to such a sorry state was just a lasso with a few small metal balls attached to it. Shock filled their hearts.

Judging by the situation, the lasso had been thrown over from at least two kilometers away, and yet, it still contained such great power. Whoever did this was definitely strong.

Dawncall let out a screech in the air.

Chen Chuan’s eyes shone. Even though there were buildings blocking his sight, through Dawncall, he was able to see the martial artist who had thrown the lasso over.

The person was covered head-to-toe by a gray overcoat. He was tall and broad, and his coarse, short hair made his hat lift up. It covered the top half of his face, so only his chiselled jaw could be seen.

What caught Chen Chuan’s attention was the saber at his waist, though. Based on the sheath, its breadth was about the size of one and a half palms, so it was really broad, but not too long. There were some patterns on the sheath, but they were terribly damaged.

The person was standing on the roof of a tall building with great balance. This wasn’t due to his center of gravity, but some kind of biofield.

Chen Chuan had a feeling that this person was the captain sent by the United Might.

It was unwise for the captain to show up now since it would expose his existence. After this, the Resolution Department was bound to do their best to capture him, and even if they had no such intentions, they would still pay attention to him from then on.

However, considering the importance of the Tunneling Queen, Chen Chuan wasn’t all that surprised that the captain showed up.

Chen Chuan had come with the goal of baiting the captain out, which was why he stood three kilometers away from where Yuan Qiuyuan and the others were. It was likely that the captain dared to attack them only because he didn’t see anyone strong enough to be a threat to him.

The captain heard Dawncall’s screech and looked up, but due to the thick, dark clouds in the sky full of rain, all he saw was its silhouette.

However, he must have realized that he had been discovered because he released another lasso with metal balls attached to it, spun it twice, and threw it into the air.

In a whoosh, the lasso reached the sky and turned into a barely noticeable black dot.

With a flap of its wings, Dawncall avoided the lasso. It was at least four kilometers high, where an attack from the ground could barely hit a regular bird, much less one with mutated tissue.

Upon seeing this, the captain didn’t insist on taking down Dawncall. Instead, he jumped off the building and started running along an alley full of obstacles that could provide him cover.

Dawncall flapped its wings to chase after him, but in order to see the captain, it had to fly lower. Then, at one point, it suddenly lost sight of the man.

He should have entered a building.

Dawncall circled the area to search for where he went, but the next moment, the sunroof of a skyscraper collapsed, and a lasso came charging out.

It happened abruptly, and the lasso was faster than before. It had also come from an unexpected direction and a higher spot.

In the face of danger, Dawncall closed its wings and tensed its body so much that it practically formed a line. Instead of attempting to dodge, it plunged down and shot through the twisting lasso with the rope only millimetres away from its body. Then, with a whoosh, it opened its wings again and flew behind another building while letting out a long cry.

The captain had wanted to use the buildings as a cover to lure Dawncall down so that he could kill this obvious spy, but Dawncall had also used itself as a lure to draw him out.

Both of them took a risk, but Dawncall was in greater danger. If it had been even a little bit careless, it would have been caught, and the refined force in the lasso would have crushed its tendons, bones, and wings.

When the captain saw that he once again failed to capture Dawncall, he no longer lingered in the fight. He jumped down dozens of meters from the building and landed with a bang completely uninjured. Then, he swiftly ran into a shade-covered alley.

Chen Chuan had already rushed over. Even though they had been a great distance apart, with Dawncall observing from the sky, he had kept heading in the right direction. Besides, he had also asked Safe Shield to analyze and deduce the captain’s possible escape route and destination and send it to his Realm Pass.

While running, he passed by an alley, and his instincts screamed at him.

Boom!

A loud explosion filled the street, and a shockwave enveloped him.

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