In the north of the city, Cloud Warehouse, Warehouse 32.
Three police cars pulled up outside the warehouse doors. Zhang Kai, Yu Xian, and Zhang Shou stepped out, and numerous combat police swiftly cordoned off the building.
Several combat police officers carrying superalloy shields roughly ten centimeters thick formed a shield wall and moved forward with caution, while an officer holding a battering ram stood ready behind the formation.
They reached the warehouse doors, waiting for the order to breach.
Watching their movements, Yu Xian suddenly felt a buzzing in his head, and his vampire heart began pounding faster against his ribs.
"Wait, Captain Zhang. Let me do it. I have a bad feeling about this," Yu Xian said gravely, catching Zhang Kai's hand as it held the communicator.
Seeing Yu Xian's serious expression, Zhang Kai immediately ordered the combat police to fall back.
Once everyone had retreated to a safe distance, a basketball-sized bubble formed in Yu Xian's hand. He guided the bubble toward the door, nudging it open inch by inch.
Click!
The moment a gap formed, a striking sound rang out.
In an instant, the entire warehouse erupted into an explosion, unleashing a terrifying shockwave.
Tens of meters away, despite clutching their heavy shields, several combat police officers were still blown off their feet.
Yu Xian had been prepared. The moment the blast occurred, he shielded himself and those around him inside bubbles. This time, he had deployed three layers, so the blast left them entirely unscathed.
"Holy shit!" Zhang Shou blurted out as he came to his senses.
Beside him, Zhang Kai looked thoroughly grim. Had Yu Xian not stopped the combat police from forcing the door, those comrades would likely have died on the spot.
"Damn it, we have to investigate this. Whose warehouse is this, and who's pulling the strings? If I don't get to the bottom of this, my name isn't Zhang Kai!" Zhang Kai growled, grinding his teeth in fury.
Yu Xian also sensed that things were growing increasingly complicated.
What had started out as catching a few little rats during the night had unexpectedly unraveled into such a major case.
"The other side probably guessed we'd come. This was a warning for us to drop the investigation," Yu Xian mused thoughtfully.
The culprit had likely anticipated this ever since Sun Youhu's crew stole the briefcase. After all, Sun Youhu and his men were roving criminals who had worn hats and masks when breaking into the warehouse, making it difficult for the owner to track them down.
However, as long as Sun Youhu and his crew continued their petty thievery, there was a high probability they would fall into the hands of the Public Security Bureau. Once the syringes were discovered, the warehouse's exposure would merely be a matter of time.
Many might assume that criminal syndicates or underworld forces would have an easier time locating Sun Youhu's crew, but the reality was quite the opposite. Sun Youhu and his companions operated as a tight-knit team, drifting from city to city. They never trusted anyone; even local bosses might not even know such a group existed.
Furthermore, once they struck in a city, they never fenced their loot there. Instead, they would travel to the next city, or even the one after that, before disposing of their stolen goods—and they would never commit another theft in the city where they fenced them.
This meant ordinary factions would find it nearly impossible to catch them, unless they could launch a citywide dragnet before the thieves slipped away.
Yet Silver City had only just lifted its lockdown. Let alone the criminal underworld lurking in the sewers, even prominent figures in broad daylight had to mind their manners for a while. Consequently, Sun Youhu's crew staying in Silver City had actually been exceptionally safe.
Under those circumstances, the likelihood of Sun Youhu and his crew exposing the serum rose to at least eighty percent. It was easy to see why the serum's original owner had done this.
Leaving a squad of combat police to search the surrounding warehouses, Yu Xian and the others returned to the Public Security Bureau.
A while later, the combat police sent to search Sun Youhu and his men's temporary hideout returned, bringing back several vials of serum the thieves had hidden away.
There had been ten vials in total in the briefcase. Sun Youhu's gang had used one on the dog, and each of the five had carried one with them, leaving four vials at their hideout.
Yu Xian and Zhang Shou each took a vial to keep in their storage rings as backups. Of the remaining two, one stayed with the Public Security Bureau to test its components, while Yu Xian took the other to the neighboring branch office for the Qilin personnel to analyze.
When the two walked out of the branch office, Yu Xian sat down on the greenbelt between the Public Security Bureau and the office. Zhang Shou sat down beside him and asked, "Salty Fish, are you waiting for them to make a move?"
"Yeah. The warehouse blew up, so they definitely know the thieves who stole the briefcase have been caught. With how brazen they are, do you think they'll try to silence the witnesses?" Yu Xian nodded, asking in a serious tone.
If only the Public Security Bureau had captured Sun Youhu, the enemy was very likely to attempt it.
Now it all depended on how much the enemy knew. If someone showed up tonight, it would prove the Public Security Bureau was clean. If no one made a move, then the bureau desperately needed another screening.
Still, Yu Xian trusted Jin Sheng's competence. Back when the Public Security Bureau had been infiltrated by aberrant worms, Jin Sheng had turned the entire Silver City bureau inside out. If someone was still compromised under those conditions, that would be a truly massive problem.
Four in the morning.
Both Yu Xian and Zhang Shou remained wide awake and energetic—one stargazing, the other fiddling with his phone.
Suddenly, Yu Xian stood up. Zhang Shou scrambled to his feet and scanned his surroundings. Then, a colossal fireball over three hundred meters in diameter abruptly materialized in the sky above the Public Security Bureau.
It truly appeared out of thin air, so suddenly that no one had time to react.
If that fireball crashed down, the entire Public Security Bureau would probably be incinerated into ash, and everyone inside would perish.
However, in the very next second, an enormous bubble appeared above the Public Security Bureau. The fireball was instantly engulfed by the bubble. If the Transcendent who created the fireball could see a certain large lake hundreds of kilometers outside Silver City, he would witness a giant fireball suddenly appearing at the bottom of the lake, promptly and cleanly extinguished by the lake water.
Roughly two hundred meters away, Scott's eyes went wide, staring up at the sky above the Public Security Bureau in disbelief.
He still held a magic scroll in his hand. Clearly, the scroll had been torn open, and the Great Blazing Sun Fireball should have successfully triggered. This was a high-tier Wolf-rank spell, more than capable of wiping the entire Public Security Bureau off the face of the earth.
The problem was... where was his fireball?
Not good.
There might be an expert in the Public Security Bureau.
Coming back to his senses, Scott's brain finally kicked into gear. Realizing something was horribly wrong, he quickly retrieved a teleportation scroll, tore it open, and vanished in an instant.
Five seconds after his departure, Yu Xian descended from the sky, his body still maintaining his pitch-black form.
"Fled?"
Yu Xian surveyed the surroundings, frowning slightly.
The other party seemed even more loaded with wealth and resources than he had anticipated. Not a trace lingered in the air, not even a scent. He was certain the person was decked out in high-end gear and that the abilities used likely didn't belong to their own power system.
In short, the assailant hadn't revealed a single shred of information about themselves, except for... being rich.
Could it be the Blood Clan?
The thought crossed Yu Xian's mind unbidden, but he shook his head. He couldn't just assume the Blood Clan was responsible simply because they had money.
Chapter 55