Chapter 31 The Mantis’s Gaze

About an hour after the meal.

Thump, thump.

The sound of the cane striking the wooden planks echoed back and forth in the corridor on the second floor of the wooden house.

The elderly woman, bending over as she walked, carefully observed the quality of sleep for the children in each room.

Gradually, she walked to the small room at the end of the second floor, skillfully poked open the poster paper covering the door crack, and peered inside with one old eye.

The young man lay in bed, fast asleep.

Over the past period of time, the old lady had been observing Zhou Tiantian for a long time and knew that he was one of the few people who did not snore, but judging from his breathing rate and physical condition, he was indeed asleep.

Then, Grandma Kong turned and left, picking up her cane as she went, and her footsteps were very quiet.

Wang Jixuan turned over and carefully sensed the surroundings.

The old lady left the cabin, wandered around for a few minutes, then returned, locked the gate, and activated the intrusion alarm in the yard.

After doing all this, she walked shakily back to her study.

Wang Jixuan pulled out a button-shaped device from under his pillow, clicked to activate it, and a faint light appeared on the button, revealing a palm-sized surveillance screen in the center, showing a narrow room.

The shooting angle is a vertical angle directly above.

About two minutes later, a slight noise came from the study.

From the surveillance footage, the landlady sat on her wooden chair, slowly turned halfway around, and then slid into the secret room.

The hidden door behind her slowly closed, and Wang Jixuan could see a corner of the bookshelf in the study;

This is a secret room embedded in the study, which was also the first one discovered by Wang Jixuan.

Soft light shone into the secret room. Grandma Kong pressed a few buttons, and the screen placed diagonally in front of her lit up, revealing a spacious conference room.

A conference table, seven or eight figures, with Grandma Kong seemingly sitting at the front of the table.

Wang Jixuan carefully examined the figures and soon spotted a familiar face among them—the silver-haired old man who had become a one-eyed dragon, Wen Heisen.

Wen Hessen’s neck was still wrapped in bandages; his previous injury had not yet fully healed.

Because he could only see images, Wang Jixuan couldn’t sense the other party’s aura, so he couldn’t distinguish which two were the psionicists sent by the Thirteenth Institute. However, he chose to remember all of them and cherish the opportunity to meet them again in the future.

“BOSS”.

To Wenhesen’s right, at the very front of the screen, stood a burly old man who shouted in a deep voice:

“You should have received the message by now; that guy is here again.”

“This time, his attacks targeted our lower-level cadres and the cold storage facility he attacked last time. However, this time he entered the cold storage facility, and we are trying to salvage the materials inside. Nineteen cadres and one hundred and forty-six henchmen have been killed by him, resulting in heavy losses.”

“I propose we ignore the power consumption! We must light up everything, then set up a decoy to lure him in and riddle him with machine gun fire!”

The landlady hummed in agreement: “Are you using your exaggerated tone to express your anger?”

“No, Boss.”

The burly old man’s tone immediately softened considerably.

The landlady leaned back in her chair, deep in thought, and asked softly, “What about our powerful psychics? Couldn’t they track them down?”

The last seat at the conference table.

A middle-aged woman and a young man exchanged a glance. The woman in the elegant long dress gestured to the man with her chin, indicating that he should speak.

The young man was rather thin, almost skin and bones, with a pair of thick glasses on his nose, and he seemed somewhat reserved.

“Dear Ms. Mei, we used different methods, both psionic and technological.”

“But this guy is cunning.”

“My unique ability is to track scents, but his scent is very faint. He seems to have consciously concealed it. His abilities are very comprehensive.”

“Detection from the technological side is also troublesome. His equipment this time can even block thermal imaging and bio-information tracking, and our bio-radar cannot lock onto him… I’m sorry.”

The landlady nodded slowly.

She said slowly, “What surprises me now is that such a psionicist is not under the control of your Thirteenth Institute. Have the Thirteenth Institute branches in other fortresses been turned by the Joint Defense Force?”

“Impossible, Ms. Mei.”

The middle-aged woman, with her long neck, smooth skin, and haughty demeanor, spoke slowly:

“Each of the thirteen branches is under the absolute control of the headquarters, without a doubt, and only we can create psionicists.”

“I’m thinking this guy might be an experimental product of the Joint Defense Forces, who have been trying to crack our technology.”

“Our informants within the Joint Defense Forces have begun their investigation, but so far they have not found any clues.”

“We’re out of time!”

The fourth leader of the Blackfire Gang cursed:

“The purge team could come down at any moment! That damned Minister of the Interior, Zhou Meiying, criticized us again at the ministerial meeting, saying that we have lost control and have been involved in organ trafficking outside of military agreements! To influence the powerful in the upper city! And we have obtained weapons that should not be in the lower city!”

The landlady asked, “Have we done it?”

The fourth leader fell silent instantly, stammering, “I did some… a very small part… you know, boss, this is inevitable… many elderly people in the upper city superstitiously believe that organ transplants can prolong their lives…”

“So, that’s the crux of the problem.”

The landlady said calmly:

“I knew about this from the beginning, and I recorded all the information about your secret transactions with those old people in the upper city. Do I need to remind you?”

“Clinic room number 12 of the 06 sanatorium on the third floor, and operating rooms number 3, 6, and 8 of the 08 sanatorium.”

“You shouldn’t have reached into the upper city directly. That’s not a place for us to interfere. Now that they’ve caught us red-handed, we don’t even have a chance to defend ourselves.”

Most of the leaders looked somewhat unnatural.

The landlady said, “Give me your accounts as soon as possible. I need to compare and verify them to see if there’s any way to resolve this trouble… If not, prepare for the molting process according to the contingency plan.”

The second leader immediately replied, “Yes, boss, I’ll send it over right away.”

Wen Hesen said in a hoarse voice, as if metal plates were scraping against each other, “That guy won’t let us go. He’s stronger than me. We need a C-level psychic.”

“I’m sorry, Senior Wen, I didn’t mean to touch your wounds.”

The middle-aged woman said calmly:

“But perhaps it’s because you haven’t used your power for too long. Based on our analysis of the existing surveillance data, this guy’s strength is below ours, at least far inferior to mine.”

She waved her hand gently, and black spheres floated and danced around her.

Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow slightly.

He had read about it in a book; it was… a psychic.

Faint electric arcs appeared on those spheres.

The middle-aged woman raised her head proudly; her elegant long dress and outstanding appearance, set against the backdrop of the floating black spheres, exuded a powerful aura.

Wang Jixuan slightly pursed his lips.

The landlady suddenly spoke up: “That’s just the surface of the problem. The core issue is that we’ve been caught red-handed by the opposing faction of the Thirteenth Institute. Even without this ghostly young man, they would have knocked us out! Be prepared to shed our skin. If necessary, we can abandon everything. We did it once 26 years ago, and our team can do it again.”

The second-in-command of the Blackfire Gang asked, “The emergency exit is fine, right?”

“I’ll be guarding this end of the passage. When you want to come over, I’ll give you a signal to cancel the access control.”

The landlady instructed:

“Please keep your voices down when you use the passageway later, so as not to disturb my children’s sleep.”

“Boss, when do we shed our skin?”

The latest novels are first published on 69shuba!

“I’m just telling you to prepare yourselves. Don’t rush. Let me try to communicate with our ministers first.”

The landlady sighed softly:

“During this time, you can select a few young people who can be trained. Remember, this passing on of the torch is the most important thing. We are all getting old.”

“As for these two respected psychics, please do your best to eliminate that mysterious psychic.”

“We will,” the middle-aged woman said softly, “Ms. Mei.”

The landlady pressed a button next to the screen, and the image disappeared in a flash.

Then, she slumped into the chair, seemingly exhausted, and quietly pondered something.

A short while later.

Just as Wang Jixuan was thinking about saving electricity and preparing to turn off the monitor in his hand, Grandma Kong in the video made another move.

She looked down and rummaged through the drawer below for a while, then took out a round plate about the size of a vinegar dish. She put on her reading glasses, activated the projection screen on the plate, entered a long lock screen password, and brought up a simple operating interface.

She tapped a few times, and a dial pad appeared on the screen.

About half a minute later, the chat window connected, and an older man in his forties or fifties, dressed in a sharp suit but full of energy, appeared on the other end of the chat window.

Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow slightly.

He had seen a photo of this man when he was young in Grandma Kong’s study.

The man asked, “How have you been lately, Mom?”

“Same as always, no major problems. Just how strong are those two psionicists you sent?”

“They are a teacher and student. The teacher is excellent, named Anxi. She can even hold her own against some C-level psionicists with obvious flaws. If you want to mobilize C-level psionicists, the procedure will be particularly troublesome, and it will also provoke a strong counterattack from the defense forces.”

‘A psionicist has been sent?’

Could this old man be the head of the Thirteenth Biological Research Institute stationed at Fortress No. 76, or the biological minister of the fortress?

Is he also the landlady’s son?

The Boundless Heavenly Venerable.

Master Wang was indeed a bit shocked.

Thomas and others in the lower town, the powerful and wealthy in the upper town… Just how many powerful figures did this landlady cultivate?

“Hopefully, these problems can be resolved.”

Grandma Kong sighed:

“Son, your mother is already very old and no longer has the energy to help you build a gang.”

“If the Blackfire Gang falls, you may have to ask others for help in providing material.”

“Don’t worry, Mom, I’m thinking of a way. We can’t let outsiders know that the Thirteenth Institute has been working on a large number of live samples. They’ll find every opportunity to resist us and force us to disclose the psychic patent… Because we’re continuously sending high-quality samples to other fortress experimental centers, I’ve already obtained the admission ticket to headquarters. Now I’m just waiting for an opportunity…”

call out!

The monitor in Wang Jixuan’s hand automatically shut down and entered a regenerative braking state.

He immediately tucked the device back under his pillow, resumed his original lying position, and removed the hidden earphone from his ear.

He pondered quietly.

The outline of the Black Fire Gang is now quite clear. Gu Wenting’s confession filled in the gaps, and Wang Jixuan has personally witnessed the crimes of the Black Fire Gang.

The Black Fire Gang’s business is divided into three parts.

Firstly, they provided organs and blood to the Upper City military, which falls under the shadow of the Fortress’s official operations and they are not afraid of official investigation.

Secondly, they provided organ transplants for the powerful and wealthy in the upper city, thus extending their lives and allowing them to seek more benefits for themselves.

Third, it serves the 13th Institute by providing materials for their biological experiments, namely living people.

“This is even worse than ordinary demonic cults. Many demonic cults, such as the Joyful Union Sect, commit the greatest crime of ‘absorbing yin to replenish yang’ or ‘absorbing yang to replenish yin,’ or even ‘not directly draining the cauldron dry.’ Such practices are universally condemned in the cultivation world.”

‘Tsk, if only I could ascend directly after exorcising too many demons…’

Wang Jixuan sighed softly to himself and continued to ponder.

After his raid, the Blackfire Gang is now under immense pressure and could succumb to its former power at any moment.

The eight people who just attended the meeting will arrive at this wooden house through the underground passage when they molt.

Facing two D-level psionicists at the same time would be relatively troublesome, and it’s possible that one of them might escape.

‘One of them must be removed before they molt.’

A murderous glint appeared in Master Wang’s eyes.

Thump, thump.

The sound of canes kissing the wooden planks echoed again in the corridor.

An old eye slowly peered through the crack in the door that had just been poked open…