Chapter 34

Morning news, even when Chén Chén and Jiāng Jiāng were still in the orphanage, Jiāng Jiāng liked watching this.

This world is huge, huge, with monsters larger than skyscrapers, a single slash that can cut down skyscrapers, martial artists who can defeat monsters, airplanes that can circle Earth in just one or two hours, and machine guns that spit blue fire with a 'da-da-da-da-da' sound……

This world has many, many things, and these things little Jiāng Jiāng could only understand through very limited means; morning news is one of them.

Nowadays, even though one can use more accurate smart wristwatches to get real-time news, Jiāng Jiāng still has the habit of listening to the morning news while making breakfast each day.

"The World Tree has stationed in South Africa; the first strategic city of the World Tree in the South African region is under construction……"

"The global ranking event held in California will conclude, the top auction item being the cultivation insights of Dongjun, the powerful one who surpassed the War God of the World Tree."

"Texas has seen protests again, still dissatisfaction with amendments to the World Tree Coordination Act."

"The HR Alliance China Region Executive President Weínīnà·Bōlāìnàsī and the only son of War God Lǐ Yào, Jinqi, were killed while hunting in the Wilderness Area; investigation confirmed it was human-caused; the assassin's strength is around that of a mid-level War God, and could also be a hidden-strength mental cultivator; the victim Lǐ Wēi's parents, grief-stricken, have posted a 100‑billion bounty for information on the assassin; detailed information can be found on relevant HR Alliance sites and websites."

Having just spent ten or so billion, Jiāng Jiāng is still very sensitive to money.

If it's 100 billion, then me and Chén Chén earning ten billion in three months would be a hundred such periods, over twenty years……

Put that way, 100 billion still seems a lot, but it's got nothing to do with me having not a penny.

As for bounties, once you get involved, all kinds of trouble will surely follow one after another.

Leaving aside whether the bounty's issuer or target is good or evil, first, could the one who gets a bounty be an ordinary person? Not to mention being utterly wicked—such people are certainly ruthless; once the bounty is taken, the target's associates can't afford to provoke the powerful figure behind the bounty, so who could they turn to for revenge?

Furthermore, even if one isn't afraid of retaliation, can the bounty money really be collected? Whether the issuer will welch or pull tricks is uncertain.

Finally, even if that 100 billion were in hand, once the world knows you've got that huge sum, envy, jealousy, and even your original connections could be affected, and this chain of events would trigger countless troubles.

And these troubles……

In short, Article 65 of Jiāng Jiāng's Survival Manual: For any matter related to a bounty, keep your distance.

Posting a bounty in the form of news on Central Television is something even a War God rarely qualifies for, and this way the bounty news spread across China in just one morning.

Domestically, from ordinary citizens to high‑level War Gods, even Supervisory Envoys began openly and covertly using their connections to follow this matter; 100 billion is not a small sum even for a War God.

Just as Jiāng Jiāng calculated, many junior War Gods' hunting abilities are even inferior to Chén Chén's, since Chén Chén has a global vision cheat, making finding prey effortless, while a War God's consumption is hardly any less than Jiāng Jiāng spending ten or more billion in a few days.

In the Jiangnan Base City 'Jiangnan Scenery' residential area, the second‑ranked luxury villa in all of China, besides posting the bounty, the bounty's publishers 'Bald Eagle' Lǐ Yào and 'Poison Scorpion' Weínīnà·Bōlāìnàsī are also using their authority to try to track down the killer.

The most direct method would naturally be to mobilize satellite surveillance, but just the time needed to mobilize it would give the assassin enough chance to flee far away; satellite surveillance is unreliable, so only the HR Alliance's backdoor left on martial artists' smart wristwatches can be used.

In recent years, HR Alliance's business in all aspects has suffered heavy blows from the competitor World Tree, except for smart wristwatches, which still hold an absolute monopoly.

Even if the World Tree has its own smart wristwatches, you can't rely solely on its independent network; as long as the wristwatch creates a network link with HR Alliance's intelligence, using each wristwatch's network node as a coordinate, the World Tree‑equipped martial artists' positions can still be reverse‑located.

Of course, that's what the HR Alliance assumes.

「Meng Ze, there's too little information about the World Tree on those wristwatch devices. Use the dark web to the fullest to find it for me. If you find the killer, that hundred billion will be yours. 」

Yes.

After the woman named 「Meng Ze」 left, Weininà·Bolenas said doubtfully:

「Is this person trustworthy? If we entrust this to her, it's easy to leave evidence. 」

「Don't worry, I've been watching this person for three years. As long as there's money, I can control her. And in this world, only we can give her such a sum, and only we need someone like her. 」

「Moreover, I won't entrust her with anything that would truly leave evidence. 」

Li Yao glared viciously at the personal bodyguard's list of names he had collected; not a single one was a War God.

「Have them investigate these people's recent experiences and family backgrounds thoroughly, set up a dedicated investigation team, conduct deep investigations into each person and their associates, analyze their potential as spiritual mind masters—if there's any possibility... 」

Li Yao closed his eyes; he very much wanted to say, "If there's any possibility, just deal with it directly." Weininà·Bolenas beside him could also understand his meaning, but they both fell silent.

He was the sole son of the two, possibly even their only child; the couple's affection for him was certain, but anyone who could sit in that position was certainly not hot-headed.

「Yao, the situation in the Chinese region has not been good these years. 」

Li Yao nodded: "I understand."

「No, I mean we don't need to worry so much. Our only son is dead; even if we have to shed a layer of skin, we must make the killer suffer death by a thousand cuts. 」

Weininà·Bolenas wore a grim expression; her fair skin turned red, and the bulging veins were clearly visible.

Li Yao also said solemnly: "Whatever abnormality is found, clean it up neatly."

Outside the residential complex, the woman named Yun Mengze curled a faint smile.

……

News of the hundred-billion bounty spread quickly across the world; even many forces overseas set their sights on this huge sum, and they all began to use their connections to investigate.

However, all the big figures qualified to eye this huge sum failed to notice that a storm was brewing in the Chinese region.

For ordinary people who toil day and night, whether it's the hundred billion, the wilderness, disasters, or martial artists' grudge killings, these are too far removed from their lives.

However, as the blanket news continued to follow up, the hundred-billion bounty also gradually became a popular after-dinner topic for everyone; even Luofeng's parents were no exception, hearing about it from the neighbors and then discussing it at dinner.

「Little Feng, you should also be careful when you're out. Look at these families' kids—even with such formidable bodyguards they get assassinated; sometimes this heart of theirs... 」

「Speaking of which, this is a hundred billion; being able to pull out that much money shows the kid's family... sigh. 」

Luofeng's parents couldn't help but show worried expressions; after all, other people's children, even if dead, could still post a hundred-billion bounty, but if we lost our son, we'd truly be helpless.

Luofeng: ……

Ordinary folks mostly treat the hundred-billion bounty as a story to gawk at, after all it's a world they can't touch, or they fantasize about leading that hundred billion themselves, or they sigh at the killer's boldness, or they blame the killer's mistakes.

By contrast, the news in the martial artists' circles started out just as a spectacle for ordinary people, but gradually turned into a genuine "hubbub".

「Indeed, they're rich—a hundred billion; how many martial artists in the Chinese region work for their HR Alliance, and being able to produce that much money is only natural. 」

"I'd say they deserve it; you don't know their nicknames—one is 'Vulture', the other 'Scorpion'. Even before they were famous, they had no good reputation, and they've made plenty of enemies."

"Blaming the parents' issue on the child, then on the family? I've never simply blamed the victim like this before; instead, I'm letting the killer off the hook."

"That's right; mutual slaughter among martial artists is expressly forbidden, and this killer didn't just kill one."

"What's wrong with a couple putting up a heavenly-priced bounty to avenge their child? The fault lies with the world, after all—when can a killer be considered justified?"

The two voices went back and forth, spreading from the martial world through online forums to the ordinary world; as time passed, not only did the heat not diminish, but more and more people joined the discussion, nearly becoming common knowledge. Some families even quarreled over differing views, and the usual family gossip gradually turned, as the Li Wei incident progressed, into idle chatter about the Li Yao family, the HR Alliance, the Li Wei incident, and a series of related matters.

Whether for ordinary people or low-level martial artists, such topics are rare, but they're no different from the usual idle chatter; once the matter passes, few truly remember it.

However, if it were merely rumors, that would be fine; but more and more people are joining this discussion, the debate grows ever fiercer, the two differing viewpoints also sharpen, and as time goes on, the heat of the hundred-billion bounty not only hasn't waned, but has become even hotter.

Just like the salty-sweet debate over tofu pudding, when people develop huge differences in opinion on something, the sound of the argument gives a second life to the cause of the argument.

Accompanying the competing reports of individual small media, the focus of the billion‑dollar bounty gradually shifted from the bounty itself to the "righteousness" of issuing this bounty.

"Come on, publicly posting a bounty isn't that just equivalent to publicly announcing murder? When has China ever allowed publicly announcing a murder declaration, let alone openly appearing on public channels?"

"Someone this rational up there surely has no children; I can only say they deserve it."

"If that's the case, then only the wealthy deserve to have children? Really? Then it's fine."

"Let's be frank—shouldn't the focus be on the murderer? In the Wilderness Area, if the state can't reach, does that mean lawlessness? Parents posting a bounty to find the killer is actually elitism; if you keep saying that, the Wilderness Area might as well be called the Mutual Slaughter Zone."

"I'm just saying, you're envy‑rich and crazy; in the Wilderness Area there are people who whitewash the slaughter of fellow humans."

"I advise you people who talk while standing without back pain to go change the national laws—even Central TV reported it and you're still acting like clowns; although the Wilderness Area is a lawless land, justice will eventually arrive."

"This time, even if the Heavenly King himself came, I'd still side with the parents."

"I cannot coexist with evil under the same sky!"

Li Yao and Wei Nina were fine on their end; the longer the bounty news lasted, the greater the chance of finding the killer through the bounty, and both were busy with other means to find the killer, paying no attention to the direction of public opinion.

What surprised Wei Nina was that many media outlets inside China, which usually speak ill of themselves, were also competing to report on the bounty matter.

"These media are no different from merchants; seeing meat, they rush forward like hyenas."

Li Yao also rarely checked whether there had been any progress on the bounty front.

"Although most of the reports we receive are useless, if this continues we will eventually get useful clues, and now the calls for us are high."

"When we catch the killer and let his relatives die one by one before him, I believe the outcry will be even higher."

Wei Nina said through gritted teeth.

The two known as the "Duxiefufu" have never had any reputation in the martial artists' circle, and they never cared about reputation.

But the overall risk leaning toward them is also a good thing, making it easier to find the killer and giving them the upper hand in action; with the just cause of "avenging their son," many overt matters become much easier.

"Wei Nina, this list contains those investigated near whereabouts in Cloud Dream Marsh who were not wearing HR Alliance wristbands, along with complete identity background files for each person."

"Those with no powerful background… just use the family's dead men and dispose of them all."

"Just consider it as burying them with our son."

Wei Nina nodded, giving a hundred percent agreement.

"But can't the Earth Net handle this together?" Wei Nina asked in accented Chinese.

Although the Earth Net is highly confidential, it's still better for us to handle this ourselves, and moreover, the Earth Net refuses any commissions related to those World Tree lunatics; in this regard we HR Alliance have suffered more than once.

Independent of the nations, the World Tree possesses a unique monitoring and investigative means; the most fatal part is that once the World Tree confirms a killer, it never goes through other nations' judicial procedures, but instead captures the suspect directly via its own pursuit channel and conducts a public trial.

Precisely because of this modus operandi, the World Tree was early on seen by many forces as nothing short of a gangster organization.

And even now, although the World Tree has aligned with many international forces, its original set of principles remains unchanged—basically, capture the person first, then let other forces and even national procedures follow later.

And as the worldwide underground organization "Earth Net" once tried to provoke the World Tree's bad luck, the result was that the assassins, contacts, employers and all related persons were altogether captured by the World Tree, or imprisoned, or executed.

Wei Nina looked at the list Li Yao handed her. The Earth Net's intelligence and assassination capabilities are commendable, but after all it is a mercenary network. Inside the organization, the employment relationships are tangled; if any link refuses to risk its life, the whole commission falls through, and the tangled entanglements have formed the Earth Net's "unwritten rule" of not taking on jobs related to the World Tree.

Wei Nina looked at the list Li Yao handed her.

"Son, Mom will first send these people down to accompany you; wait a moment, it won't be long before Mom will surely avenge you."

When the whole world supports you, you will burst forth with courage far beyond the ordinary—especially since the two of you are already bold.

When the whole world supports you, you will also far exceed ordinary foolishness; even if the two of you are normally as sensitive as anyone.