Chapter 3242: Unexpected Gain

A single phrase—"mass blood replacement"—left all the Embroidered Uniform Guards on the platform deeply distressed.

Their families were their greatest motivation for living and risking their lives for the Anti-Qing Society; now, however, they faced an indefinite separation.

After parting, aside from fighting desperately for merit, they did not know if they would ever see their families again in this lifetime.

Seeing everyone dejected and sorrowful, Assistant Commissioner Song furrowed her brows slightly and asked coldly: "What? Didn't you all swear oaths to serve the Wise Lord? How is it that merely being temporarily separated from your families has turned each of you into frost-bitten eggplants?"

Upon hearing this, everyone felt even more indignant.

Yet no one dared to speak against this young woman.

Because she was an Assistant Commissioner of the Commander-in-Chief's Office, a high-ranking official there; though she bore the surname Song rather than Wu, she was still a relative of the Wu family—considered an external kin—and her status within the Commander-in-Chief's Office was quite high.

Moreover, Assistant Commissioner Song was a cultivator whose cultivation far surpassed that of these Embroidered Uniform Guards; not only did she have the qualifications, but she also possessed the ability to slay any one of them, so none dared to express dissatisfaction or opposition in her presence.

At that moment, the distant sound of a train's deep whistle came from afar, and then a voice transmitted from the commander-in-chief's walkie-talkie at his waist: "The train has passed the switch!"

Since they had been waiting all day for this train, the commander-in-chief had already stationed personnel at the junction of the main railway line and the Dukes Mining branch line; upon seeing the train pass the switch, they immediately reported it.

After passing the switch, the train still had several kilometers to go before reaching Dukes Mining—just a few minutes' ride—so the commander-in-chief said to Assistant Commissioner Song: "Assistant Commissioner Song, the train is arriving soon; it will enter the station within minutes. My subordinates will lead the Embroidered Uniform Guards to unload the cargo as quickly as possible and install the surveillance equipment overnight!"

"Hmm." The woman gave a cold reply, and her brows slightly relaxed.

She had been waiting for this train and this shipment; upon the cargo's arrival, she would urge them to finish work quickly while also arranging for them to begin the mass blood replacement immediately. Once the mission was complete, she could return to Naples in Italy—the current headquarters of the Right Army Commander-in-Chief's Office.

A few minutes later, ahead on the dark railway tracks, several bright beams of light appeared.

Accompanied by the train's rumbling sound, the train came into everyone's view.

Ye Chen, in meditation, felt the train begin to slow down, knowing it was about to arrive at the station.

Out of caution, he released his spiritual aura and constantly probed within a radius of about one kilometer around himself.

As the train neared the barrier gate on the railway at Dukes Mining, Ye Chen's brows suddenly knotted into a frown, and his whole body instantly grew tense.

The reason for his tension was that he had originally thought he would not encounter any cultivators on this trip to Dukes Mining, but unexpectedly, at this very moment, there was actually a cultivator standing on the platform within Dukes Mining!

Fortunately, that cultivator's strength was considerably weaker than his own.

If the opponent's strength surpassed his, this probing would likely be detected immediately!

This also sparked Ye Chen's curiosity.

He could not understand why, in this ordinary garrison of dead soldiers at Dukes Mining, there would be a cultivator stationed there.

Fortunately, within the range he could probe, there was no second cultivator, which allowed Ye Chen to relax slightly.

This cultivator, though outside the plan, was fortunately still under Ye Chen's control.

Besides this cultivator, Ye Chen also discovered on the platform a martial artist whose strength had reached the second level of the Hidden Realm; this Hidden Realm martial artist was, aside from that cultivator, the strongest present.

It seemed likely that this cultivator was the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guards here; as for that cultivator, Ye Chen could not yet determine the opponent's identity.

However, combining his prior experience, Ye Chen analyzed that the envoy Duan Liye from the Cyprus line was merely at the third level of the Hidden Realm, and his strength naturally paled in comparison to this cultivator, so this cultivator's position within the Anti-Qing Society must certainly be several ranks higher than that of the envoy.

Since this cultivator was superior to the envoy, he could not possibly be a permanent resident of Dukes Mining; he must have been temporarily dispatched by the Anti-Qing Society to Dukes Mining, and possibly even sent from the headquarters of the Right Army Commander-in-Chief's Office.

This made Ye Chen feel delighted all of a sudden.

The Four Marquesses were at most the highest-ranking Embroidered Uniform Guards; to the Anti-Qing Society, they were nothing more than banners and human bombs, and they actually knew very little about the society's secrets.

But this cultivator was different; if this person truly belonged to the Right Army Commander-in-Chief's Office, then she certainly knew many core secrets of that office.

It seemed that his trip to Dukes Mining would yield unexpected gains!

Thus, Ye Chen immediately stopped meditating, hid himself among the cargo, and prepared to face the upcoming opportunities and challenges.

Just like the driving recorder he had seen earlier on the train, the train first stopped outside the barrier gate of the Dukes Mining railway; then a six-star martial artist from Dukes Mining came up, inspected the locomotive—finding only the driver inside—and after putting his mind at ease, spoke into the walkie-talkie in Chinese: "No abnormalities, open the door."

Immediately afterward, the iron barrier gate opened inward, the train restarted and slowly crept into the factory grounds at a very slow speed; once all carriages had entered the platform area, the train gradually came to a steady stop.

However, the train driver did not turn off the engine; instead, he got off the train and directly uncoupled the locomotive.

The Anti-Qing Society's commander-in-chief said to his nearby subordinates: "You, according to the shipping documents, check the seals and locks on each car; if there are no problems, then first have the driver turn the front of the train around and drive the locomotive back."

The train driver was from Morocco's national railway; it was not that the Anti-Qing Society could not infiltrate Morocco's national railway, but rather that those responsible for infiltration were all scholars, and infiltrating Morocco's national railway was overkill for them.

Moreover, Morocco's national railway train drivers operate on a rotating shift system, with all schedules arranged based on each person's on-duty status and time for the next day; to ensure that every train to Dukes Mining is driven by one of their own, they would need to station at least five or six people in Morocco's national railway.

For the Anti-Qing Society, this would be even less cost-effective.

Several Embroidered Uniform Guards immediately began following their pre-assigned duties, each checking the seals and locks on five carriages; based on their years of practical experience, as long as the seals and locks showed no abnormalities, the cargo inside would not have any issues either, so the process was greatly simplified.

After all twenty carriages were checked and found correct, with the seals and locks not having been opened a second time, that commander-in-chief signed his name on the receipt; then the driver took the return slip to the other side of the locomotive's cab, drove the locomotive forward into the switch, waited for the switch to change tracks, and then slowly drove along the central track of the platform away from the station.

The commander-in-chief dared not delay, so he immediately said to his subordinates who had long been waiting nearby: "Hurry up and unload the cargo; first ignore those few refrigerated carriages, bring out all the surveillance equipment and auxiliary wiring, then, according to our previously agreed list, transport the cargo to the designated locations!"

Everyone immediately responded loudly, then rushed toward the fifteen ordinary carriages.

For ordinary people, the wire-made seals and locks might require pliers to cut, but for these Embroidered Uniform Guards with at least three-star strength, they could tear them open barehanded.

The seal and lock on the carriage where Ye Chen was located were also pulled open by someone; immediately afterward, someone outside urged: "Hurry, check the cargo numbers—unload the matching ones quickly!"