Chapter 76: 74 House of Cards (Fourth Update)

74 House of Cards (Fourth Update)

The members of the Tiger Team and Snake Team exhausted their efforts to finally eliminate the remaining maggot-men, and the survivors from both teams gathered one after another.

"Are you alright?" He Jia'an asked with concern when he saw Bu Gaojun hopping back on one foot.

"The bone in my left foot was crushed," Bu Gaojun said with a pale face, forcing a smile. "I can only barely move."

The Tiger Team members were generally unharmed; the most serious injury was Bu Gaojun losing the use of his left foot, while the others only suffered some flesh wounds. Although the wounds looked gruesome and exaggerated, they were not actually too severe.

On the Snake Team's side, only three people managed to rendezvous in the end. She Zi'an looked at Zhao Jing and the other teammate; they were both fine, but the two brothers, Chen Qifeng and Chen Qihai, had not returned.

"They went to be responsible for protecting Xin Junmao, so they should be with Xin Junmao," Zhao Jing said. She glanced at the chaotic scene all around, feeling a bit uneasy. "Let's hurry and find them to rendezvous with them."

"After the rendezvous, you of the Snake Team take Xin Junmao and Bu Gaojun to evacuate together. We of the Tiger Team will go to investigate the situation inside the remaining Stone Gate," He Jia'an said to the Snake Team members after hearing this.

She Zi'an was stunned for a moment, then immediately frowned slightly and said, "Our Snake Team still has strength left. Let those with more serious injuries and the survivors go out first, and the rest of us will continue to investigate together." The other Snake Team members nodded in agreement, their expressions solemn.

He Jia'an met She Zi'an's gaze and said, "Don't misunderstand; I don't look down on the capabilities of your Snake Team, but rather I hope you will go and complete another task."

"Another task?" The Snake Team members were slightly startled, then saw He Jia'an pull a signet ring from his pocket. The pattern on the ring was pieced together from the four common patterns of playing cards: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades.

"Does this symbol have any significance?" She Zi'an asked, puzzled, but the pattern looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

Bu Gaojun dragged his injured foot forward a step and said, "Don't you find it familiar? This is the logo of the world-class conglomerate House of Cards. The ring is crafted from a special metal and can only be worn by the executive level. It is quite clear that one of the Evolution Heaven organization members who turned into a maggot-man just now came from the executive level of the House of Cards."

She Zi'an's expression changed slightly, but he quickly shook his head and said, "But this still doesn't prove that Evolution Heaven is backed by the House of Cards."

"Of course it does," Bu Gaojun said with a grave expression. "Do you know which company the regional government jointly contracted with for the underground transportation facilities in Cuizhu City, and which conglomerate these companies belong to?"

Hearing this, there was no need to say much more; the Snake Team members had all changed their expressions.

If this were truly the case, then the House of Cards was undoubtedly a major cancer on the Shenzhou Region and even the entire world.

"I understand," She Zi'an realized the gravity of the situation and immediately nodded heavily, indicating that he would follow He Jia'an's instructions, notify his superiors after getting out, and then begin investigating the House of Cards.

But when She Zi'an and the others finally found the Chen brothers, the Snake Team members all stood there in pain and grief. Their comrades of over a dozen years, the Chen brothers, were left as nothing but mangled remains, cruelly murdered, while the target they were protecting, Xin Junmao, had vanished.

Even with a thousandfold anger, She Zi'an still clenched his fists and held it back, his eyes red as he looked at He Jia'an.

"I know what must be done, don't worry," He Jia'an looked into the other's eyes, and before the other could speak, he solemnly struck his own chest and promised earnestly, "I will make that thing pay the price."

"Then I leave it to you," She Zi'an nodded heavily, then looked at Bu Gaojun. "Then we will withdraw first."

Bu Gaojun did not speak; supported by She Zi'an, he left with the Snake Team members in the direction they had come from.

"Go check the surrounding area again. In such a short time, even if Xin Junmao was taken away, he should have left some traces. If we can't find them, we will go directly into the Stone Gate," He Jia'an said calmly. Although he did not say it explicitly, everyone could hear that he intended to give up on rescuing Xin Junmao.

After all, Xin Junmao had been entangled by an extremely dangerous Alien God, which was very different from the time they rescued Li Yuning from the hands of the Huogu.

No matter how powerful the Huogu race was, it was at least within the realm of biology that could be slightly understood, and they could be killed by ordinary human weapons.

But Alien Gods were different; they had long since far exceeded the realm of biology, possessing overly incredible vitality and immense power. They were supernatural beings that not only humans, but even advanced and powerful Abnormal races like the Huogu, could not contend with.

Admittedly, everyone in their Xuanmi Group had the ambition to slay gods, but that was not something they could achieve now.

And let alone slaying gods, they didn't even have a way to expel and seal the Daughter of Gluttony.

Why was the Evolution Heaven organization so rampant, repeatedly banned yet growing ever larger, and even able to get involved with world-class conglomerates? It was precisely because they had not found a way to completely expel the Alien God they worshipped from Earth.

After a round of searching, finally, Yu Lianyun discovered a large amount of residual tissue fluid from the Daughter of Gluttony near a row of gutters nearby, which meant that the Daughter of Gluttony had been here.

"It seems he was taken away," Li Yingqi speculated. "If he had been eaten, we should have been able to find Xin Junmao's head, but unfortunately, we didn't see it."

"I've always wanted to ask, why does the Daughter of Gluttony specifically not eat the head?" Yu Lianyun asked curiously. "Excluding the possibility that it's due to dietary preferences or being a picky eater."

"Let's talk while we walk," He Jia'an said. While leading Yu Lianyun and Li Yingqi at a jog toward the location of the giant Stone Gate, he continued the topic from just before. "Regarding the reason why the Daughter of Gluttony doesn't eat heads, our Xuanmi Group's Alien God Research Department has also conducted specialized research."

"Like the blood-men and maggot-men we encountered before, those were thralls created by absorbing tissue from different parts of the Daughter of Gluttony's body. They are no longer human themselves; they are brand-new individuals. As thralls of the Daughter of Gluttony, they have more or less inherited some of the Daughter of Gluttony's characteristics." He Jia'an maintained a steady breathing rhythm, making his words as clear as possible while running. "We discovered that these thralls do eat heads, and are quite fond of them, and these thralls can read or inherit some of the deceased's memories by consuming the head."

"Inherit the deceased's memories?" Yu Lianyun's eyelids twitched. "This... is too absurd."

"So our experts speculate that the reason the Daughter of Gluttony does not want to consume heads is, in all likelihood, because it does not want to acquire the memories of the dead," He Jia'an narrowed his eyes.