Chapter 506: Exactly to His Liking

The Dome has been really quiet lately, just like the night before a storm.

Ying Duo's finger traced in the air, and the engraved Rune lit up again, a familiar Ying Guang Lu color.

A silver‑white humanoid machine, three heads taller than Ying Duo, stepped forward slowly.

Ying Duo's finger traced again, and the humanoid machine moved, like a beast released from a cage, not knowing which direction to run.

It ran in the modest training ground, lifted its arm, stepped forward, and on the third step its left foot caught the right, causing the whole "person" to tumble forward onto the ground with a Boom—.

Ying Duo's finger finally left the keyboard, and the training ground's door happened to be pushed open from outside at that moment; Fang Zhiyan stood in the doorway, his gaze lingered briefly on the silver‑white machine, then returned to Ying Duo.

"Come to the conference hall; those people finally can't sit still."

Although the Dome has seemed calm lately, the turbulent Undercurrent within has never ceased.

Ying Duo casually tapped the keyboard twice more, switching the machine's control system from real‑time operation to standby mode.

Fang Zhiyan straightened up from the doorframe, stepped aside to let Ying Duo exit first, then took long strides, walking ahead of Ying Duo to lead the way.

The route to the conference room was already well known to Fang Zhiyan, but it was Ying Duo's first time.

Facing that heavy door, Fang Zhiyan led Ying Duo inside.

The round conference table's surface was still as mirror‑smooth, with a glass of water placed at intervals; Ying Duo and Fang Zhiyan were, as always, late.

Han Huan crossed his legs, hands clasped on his knees, relaxed as if not at all worried that Yang Yixie had truly obtained evidence of the shady dealings between the Field Operations Department and the Mutation division.

Ying Duo had already converted all the data Yang Yixie left into text, and also backed up the content at Hua Jian Lei's side.

Fang Zhiyan walked to his seat and sat down, Ying Duo stood half a step behind him, and the two sat together.

Han Huan lifted his head and gave Ying Duo a glance.

"Everyone's here," he said, taking the document from the table, extracting a sheet, placing it in the center, "Then let's start."

The paper was Ying Duo's file, not the one Xie Jingnian had presented before, but a newly made one—Ying Guang Lu hair, golden eyes, black hoodie, expressionless face.

Below the photo were lines of text, listing name, age, Aberrant Arts type, department, and tenure.

Bringing out this document also meant that Ying Duo's deputy director position was fully confirmed.

Han Huan leaned back in his chair, hands crossed, looking at Fang Zhiyan.

"Director Fang has a good student."

Fang Zhiyan only gave a light laugh, "Let's get straight to business; holding two meetings back‑to‑back in such a short time can't all be because of my student, can it?"

Xie Jingnian's finger tapped lightly on the tabletop, drawing everyone's attention.

"The people from the Church who came to negotiate have arrived; they wish to cooperate with the Dome."

Han Huan's mouth twitched slightly, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Cooperate—people from the Church would even say that?"

Xie Jingnian ignored him, his gaze staying fixed on Fang Zhiyan's face.

"Because recent Mutations have run rampant, the Church hopes to join forces with the Dome, organizing a deep‑abyss team to probe the source of the Mutation—the Eternal Silent Abyss."

"Hmm... lately the Aberrant Species uprisings have indeed been unusually frequent and abnormal; the Dome's outposts stationed in various cities have already begun to suffer manpower shortages."

Han Huan nodded thoughtfully; this line of work was basically handled by their Field Operations Department, and recently most personnel had been reassigned to it.

Especially since he had previously dispatched a squad to attack Ying Duo, and none of them returned.

Although they used the pretext of avenging fallen comrades and acting independently to dodge the Mutation division's accountability, it still left the Field Operations Department in a manpower crunch.

One can only say that fortunately they had previously trained many ordinary people, which allowed them to hold out for a while.

"That's also a problem we need to solve, but who to send is what we must decide today."

Han Huan sat up straight from his chair, placed his hands on the table, "In my personal opinion, the Mutation division seems the most suitable choice."

"People from the Intelligence Department aren't adept at fighting Aberrant Species in the wild; our Field Operations people are already short‑handed dealing with Aberrant Species near the cities, so now the Mutation division is the best choice?"

"Minister Han, perhaps you forgot that during this period the Mutation division lost several key members, even one who is gravely injured and comatose..."

Fang Zhiyan deliberately shook his head; even if they were to send them, it would depend on how many people the Mutation division could currently field.

Their Mutation division members have almost all been killed by their own Dome personnel, let alone the Church folks who despise them even more.

"But..."

Fang Zhiyan deliberately elongated the word, "We can go, and I will lead the team myself."

Han Huan's eyebrows moved; he looked at Fang Zhiyan, and Fang Zhiyan looked back at him.

Han Huan first averted his gaze, then took a blank sheet from the document on the table, "Since Director Fang voluntarily offered to lead the expedition, we will also show appropriate sincerity."

"Knowing the Mutation division is short of operatives, Director Fang has his eye on someone; we can just borrow them from our two departments."

"Who is the person the Church sent?"

"Yue Chengzhang, he came here sword‑in‑hand alone."

No wonder.

If it's just Yue Chengzhang alone, he could easily make it here in such a short time.

"... I need to think it over."

Han Huan told Fang Zhiyan not to rush; after all it's a joint operation with the Church, and Fang Zhiyan could take his time choosing.

Though he said that, it seemed there was no real difference between sending them to certain death.

First, the antagonistic relationship between the Church and the Dome has always existed, and those who have been pulling strings from the shadows have all happened to be members of their Mutation division.

Now, with the Mutation division suffering heavy losses, yet they are asked to team up with the Church to explore the Eternal Silent Abyss?

Although the Mutation division has a natural terrain advantage there, they might never get deep enough; the Church and the Dome could just fight each other to the death on the outskirts.

I also don't know how Han Huan and Xie Jingnian got together, but it now looks like they are preparing to set a trap for Fang Zhiyan.

Nevertheless, this operation came at an oddly perfect time.

Exactly to his liking.