He quickly smiled and said, “Xiao Lu, Xiao Hu, Great-grandpa misses you too!”

“But Great-grandpa is a little busy here. I have to go fight some bad guys!”

“Xiao Lu, Xiao Hu, do you remember what Great-grandpa told you?”

As he finished speaking, two childish voices quickly chattered in response.

“Uh-huh, we remember… Bad guys must be punished!”

“And, and… Great-grandpa catches bad guys, so bad guys can’t bully good guys…”

Hearing them, Yang Shushan smiled and nodded. “That’s right. Xiao Lu and Xiao Hu are such good kids!”

“There are bad guys doing bad things outside again. Do you think Great-grandpa should go catch them?”

“Yes! Great-grandpa is the strongest! You have to catch all the bad guys!”

“Great-grandpa, can you take me with you?”

Listening to their words, the smile on Yang Shushan’s face softened a little more.

“Not right now. Xiao Lu and Xiao Hu are still too little. The bad guys won’t be scared of you. When you grow up, you can catch bad guys just like Great-grandpa!”

“By the way, have you been practicing the fist techniques Great-grandpa taught you?”

“Uh-huh, we are! We practice every day!”

“That’s good… Don’t you dare slack off. When Great-grandpa gets back from catching bad guys, I’m going to check on you. If either of you has been lazy, Great-grandpa will not be happy!”

“Don’t worry, Great-grandpa, we’ll definitely practice hard…”

After Yang Shushan exchanged a few more words with his two little great-grandchildren,

Yang Xiaoke took the phone back.

“Go play for a little while. Mommy needs to talk to Great-grandpa for a bit.”

“Okay, bye-bye, Great-grandpa!”

“Hahaha… Bye-bye, bye-bye!”

Yang Shushan said with a laugh, repeating his goodbyes into the phone.

Then, Yang Xiaoke asked, “Grandpa, what exactly are you going to do?”

“Didn’t you already retire?”

You could hear the anxiety in Yang Xiaoke’s voice.

She was genuinely worried about the old man’s health; after all, he was getting on in years.

Besides, he himself had said he wanted to leave the Town Martial Department to spend his golden years with his great-grandchildren and family.

But now, Yang Shushan had gone back on his word.

Hearing his granddaughter’s question over the phone, Yang Shushan chuckled.

“Xiaoke, you’re not a child anymore. Why are you so full of assumptions? In many matters, our hands are often tied!”

“Besides, I still carry a thousand-pound weight on my shoulders. These are heavy responsibilities!”

“If I don’t step forward at a time like this, who will?”

“Once a member of the Town Martial Department, always a member of the Town Martial Department!”

“Alright, don’t overthink it. After I finish this mission, I’ll submit my retirement application to Old He. When that time comes, I won’t meddle in anything anymore!”

“Let those young people handle their own messes!”

“Xiaoke, I’m not going to call your parents. I don’t want to listen to their nagging!”

“You can tell them for me later.”

As he finished, Xiaoke’s sobbing came intermittently through the phone.

The sound of her crying was endless.

Yang Shushan’s brow furrowed deeply. “What are you doing? I’m just going to do my job. What are you crying for?”

“Alright, stop crying. That’s all for now.”

After saying this, Yang Shushan didn’t give Yang Xiaoke another chance to speak.

He hung up the phone directly.

Then he let out a long sigh.

He raised a hand and gently wiped the corner of his eye a few times.

Just as he was about to turn and go back to his office, Qu Yan clapped him on the shoulder.

“What the fuck…”

Yang Shushan was startled and immediately spun around, cursing.

That had really scared the hell out of him.

Qu Yan glanced at him. “How old are you? Why is your mouth still so foul?”

“You scared me! How long have you been eavesdropping behind me?”

Yang Shushan said resentfully.

Qu Yan shot him a look. “Eavesdropping? Why would I eavesdrop on your phone call?”

“I just came out. I was going to tell you not to go back in after your call!”

“Saves us from listening to that bastard He JianShe’s nonsense!”

“Let’s just go straight to the Restricted Area. I’ve already thought it through!”

“We’ll go to the Southeast War Zone. The Elder Celestial Master and Yi Nanshan are all there!”

“Meng Die and Yang Biao are in the Northwest and Northeast War Zones!”

“Besides, I really don’t want to deal with those people from the Martial Arts Alliance!”

After Qu Yan finished speaking, Yang Shushan nodded.

“Mm, that suits me just fine.”

“Of all those old geezers from the Martial Arts Alliance, Yi Nanshan is the only one I’m actually willing to interact with. The rest of them are nothing special.”

“Then let’s go. The sooner we get there, the less chance for more trouble.”

After they finished talking, the two of them walked straight outside.

At that moment, Old He was standing by the window, watching the two men, Elder Qu and Elder Yang, walk out of the building.

A strange sense of sorrow welled up in his heart.

A long time passed. Only after the two old masters had completely disappeared from sight,

did he finally let out a long sigh and return to sit at his desk.

His gaze was somewhat vacant as he stared at a certain spot.

He didn’t look away for a long, long time.

…

「Old District.」

After more than half a month of continuous fighting,

Lin Yi, leading the Right Guard and Tang Zhan’s public security department,

had already cleared out Blood Handprint members from five cities.

“Damn it, there’s no end to killing these bastards!”

“Just how many people did the Blood Handprint recruit?”

Wei Nan walked out of a newly cleared food processing plant.

Ever since Lin Yu was killed and the news reports spread like wildfire,

the members of the Blood Handprint had scattered like birds startled by the twang of a bow.

They were all like headless flies.

But the brand of the Blood Handprint could never be erased from their bodies.

Even though they all hid among the crowds, hoping to escape this calamity,

they were still dug out one by one by Lin Yi and his team.

Lin Yi glanced at Wei Nan and shook his head. “No matter how many are left, we have to wipe them all out. Leave no one behind, and eliminate this threat for good.”

SCREECH—

Suddenly, a large bird was seen circling in the sky, flapping its wings.

The next moment, after a clear cry,

a massive flock of birds, like an air force, dove rapidly in a certain direction.

Seeing this, Lin Yi quickly looked over.

Wei Nan, for his part, grabbed his long staff and hurried over with a dozen or so members of the Right Guard.

When they got closer,

they found several members of the Blood Handprint already dead at the scene.

The multitude of birds quickly dispersed.

By the time Wei Nan reached the Blood Handprint members, only a few skeletons remained.

Not a single drop of blood was left; it had all been sucked dry.

Seeing this, Wei Nan pursed his lips and looked up at the flock of birds circling overhead like a dark cloud.

He shook his head with a smile and said, “Badass. I just want to ask, with our forces on land and sea, who can possibly challenge us now? Who?!”

After he finished shouting, Wei Shang and Feng Lei walked over from a short distance away.

“What are you shouting about? What ‘who else’?”

Hearing this, Wei Nan grinned.

“Nothing, just got carried away!”

“I just think our current team is simply invincible!”

“Ever since Xiaoqi became the Bird King, man… we have an air force now!”

“See these skeletons? These Blood Handprint members escaped. If Xiaoqi and the birds hadn’t spotted them from the sky, they really would have gotten away!”

“You two didn’t see it. A huge flock of birds swooped down, and in the blink of an eye, this is what was left!”

Wei Shang and Feng Lei also glanced at the skeletons.

Their brows couldn’t help but furrow deeply.

The flocks of birds that now followed Xiaoqi were becoming more and more brazen.

From up high, they acted as scouts,

but their ferocious nature meant that neither humans nor demonic beasts could escape their pursuit.

Once targeted, the victim was basically doomed to become a pile of bones.

Feng Lei frowned and said, “What if Xiaoqi loses control in the future? What do we do then?”

“I’m worried about that too. Xiaoqi’s power level isn’t low, and it has such a massive flock. If it really develops a rebellious heart one day, I’m afraid it will be difficult to suppress them.”

At these words, the smile on Wei Nan’s face also vanished.

He looked up at the bird flock in the night sky, which resembled a dark cloud.

After a long moment, he murmured, “Whatever we can think of, Lin Yi has already thought of it.”

“He probably already has a way to deal with it.”

“All we can do is trust him.”

Neither Wei Shang nor Feng Lei said a word.

Instead, they subconsciously raised their heads to gaze at the flock in the night sky.

Their worries were not alleviated by Wei Nan’s words.

On the contrary, they grew even more concerned.

If this flock were to lose control, it would bring about a major disaster.

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