Chapter 543: Old Chen

When the five characters of Purple Gold Mountain Club jumped onto the main screen, the argument in the conference room escalated instantly.

Someone slammed the table and stood up.

"What are we still waiting for?"

"Zhou Ping is right there! The S Ji Weird Object host, with twenty‑seven avengers under his command, has already livestreamed murders and repeatedly flogged the Federation on a pillar of shame!"

"I suggest activating Sky Dome Strike, coordinating with ground lockdown, and eliminating them on the spot!"

As soon as the words fell, another military representative stood up on the spot.

"Are you crazy?"

"The area within three kilometers of Purple Gold Mountain Club is all commercial district, with two underground rail lines. You want to carpet‑bomb with heavy fire? Are you after the Weird, or preparing to evacuate half of the upper tier of Magic City?"

The previous person gritted his teeth.

"That's an S Ji Weird Object!"

"Wait until Zhou Ping wipes out everyone in the club, then starts a second livestream, and you take responsibility?"

"If it's responsibility, then it's responsibility!"

The military representative planted both hands on the table, the veins in his neck bulging.

"Our barrels are meant to aim at real evil ghosts, not for indiscriminate suppression!"

"Zhou Ping should be captured, tried, and contained."

"But the Crown Rules must also be parsed!"

"Now the whole world is watching us; the first reaction is firepower coverage. What will the public think? What will those already oppressed by the manipulators think?"

"They'll say, look, the Federation is panicking, the Federation is scared, the Federation doesn't dare let the trial continue."

In the conference room, the smell of gunpowder made everyone's teeth tingle.

Liang Wen leaned back in his chair and muttered low, "If we use space‑based weapons directly in Magic City, the PR department won't even have time to reincarnate overnight."

Su Ming didn't catch the joke.

He stared at the 3D map of Purple Gold Mountain Club, tapping his finger on the tabletop three times.

"Zhou Ping chose this place deliberately, not at random."

Qin Zhixia looked up.

"Who is inside the club?"

The head of the Technology Department was sweating profusely; just as he was about to retrieve the file, the conference channel flickered twice.

An external access request popped up at the top‑right corner of the main screen.

The permission badge glowed crimson.

Eden Garden.

Wei Gong raised his hand.

"Connect."

The next second, a blue‑white holographic projection unfolded at the far end of the conference table.

Chen Shao stood there, dressed in black, slender, with no hint of courtesy in his brows and eyes.

Behind him swirled a stream of data, along with a half‑profile of Xu An.

"Wei Bureau, everyone, are we done arguing?"

Liang Wen twitched his mouth, "Yo, Boss Chen, dropping by without knocking, that's negative courtesy."

Chen Shao didn't even glance at him.

"I'm here to deliver intelligence."

Su Ming narrowed his eyes.

"So kind?"

Chen Shao's tone was very flat.

"We've already identified the people Zhou Ping plans to kill tonight."

Qin Zhixia said coldly, "Who?"

Chen Shao raised his hand, and the projection flung out an old photograph.

In the photo, an elderly man in worn military uniform stood before the ruins of the Weird Domain, with dozens of rescued civilians and a flag‑lined defensive line behind him.

The old man wore three medals on his chest.

The file name lit up alongside.

Chen Huaiyuan.

Early Federation manipulators.

Codename: Shan Xiao.

Current honorary member of the Weird Investigation Bureau's special advisory panel.

Internally addressed as Chen Lao.

The conference room fell silent for half a beat.

Several people instinctively looked at Wei Gong.

Wei Gong didn't move, only lowered his eyelids.

Chen Shao continued.

"Purple Gold Mountain Club has a private banquet tonight."

"Chen Huaiyuan is on the Second Floor."

"Zhou Ping's ultimate target is him."

The conservative senior executive frowned.

"Old Chen is a Federation hero; when the Weird Domain first erupted, he defended three cities."

Chen Shao's smile was thin.

"Heroic deeds?"

"Your Federation's favorite buzzword is indeed handy."

He raised his hand.

"Send any technician over here and dig up his original file."

In the conference room corner, L, whose presence was so low he was often ignored, nudged his heavy black‑rimmed glasses.

On the cover of the notebook before her, a cat sticker stood out starkly in the red light.

"Received."

The keyboard clicks were faint.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

Several encrypted walls popped up on the screen.

L's expression remained blank.

"Three layers of military sealing, two layers of camouflage, plus one layer of manual tampering."

Liang Wen leaned in.

"Can it be broken?"

L replied, "It's already broken. I was just critiquing how poorly they wrote it."

Liang Wen gave a thumbs‑up: "No wonder he's one of the Technology Department's backbone; even his insults have technical depth."

The main screen switched.

Chen Huaiyuan's file reopened.

The first half remained glorious.

First batch matched a Fierce Ghost.

Defended a city on the Southeast Border.

Crushed a B Ji Weird Domain.

Rescued over seven hundred people.

Scrolling down, L forcibly restored a blacked‑out node.

Early Weird Domain, Heishan County, Locust Tree Ditch.

Deaths: sixty‑three.

Official conclusion: Weird Domain contamination caused collective mutation.

Actual record: Chen Huaiyuan tamed the mountain imp Fierce Ghost inside him, feeding it a contract of living fear, sealing the Locust Tree Ditch villagers in the ancestral hall, and conducting regulated taming for three consecutive nights.

After the third night, sixty‑three people were dead.

Among them were seventeen elders and nine children.

Survivors: none.

In the conference room, someone's cup slipped, spilling tea across the table.

No one wiped it up.

The Technology Department chief's throat tightened.

"Who approved this file back then?"

L continued reading.

"Processing note: target Chen Huaiyuan has completed Fierce Ghost taming; combat power assessed at upper A Ji. During peak Weird Domain activity, he holds scarce strategic value; recommendation: retain."

"External statement: the entire Locust Tree Ditch village perished from uncontrolled contamination."

"Seven personnel participated in the sealing."

"Three are deceased, two retired, one missing, one…"

She paused.

"Still in the special advisory council."

The room temperature dropped to a low.

Qin Zhixia's mechanical prosthetic arm pressed on the table, its metal joints emitting a faint scrape.

She stared at the children's list in the file, her lips a straight line.

"Sixty‑three lives."

No one replied.

Chen Shao's hologram stood at the far end, tone laced with mockery.

"Now, the question arises."

"Zhou Ping kills Chen Huaiyuan; will you intervene?"

"Intervene, and we shelter the Evil Ghost."

"Turn a blind eye, and you acknowledge the Crown's right to judge the Federation."

"Wei Ju, this issue isn't easy, is it?"

Wei Gong finally looked up.

The old man's back remained straight, his greying hair neatly combed.

In those aged eyes there was neither evasion nor excuse.

"Chen Huaiyuan is guilty."

Those who sealed the case back then are also guilty.

As those eight words fell, no one beside the conference table dared to breathe heavily.

Lord Wei continued: "But Zhou Ping cannot enforce the law for the Federation."

Qin Zhixia raised her head: "Lord Wei..."

Lord Wei interrupted her.

"Once the bottom line of order is trampled by vigilante justice, tomorrow someone will wield another set of vigilante justice to judge the innocent."

"Chen Huaiyuan's account is settled within the bureau."

"The avenger must be caught."

"The Sinful Crown must be contained."

He looked toward Jiang Yuan, Su Ming, Liang Wen, and Qin Zhixia.

"The action team departs."

"First objective, cut off the livestream."

"Second objective, protect civilians on scene."

"Third objective, capture Zhou Ping alive."

"If the situation cannot be controlled, lethal force is authorized."

As the final words landed, only the low hum of operating equipment remained in the meeting room.

Jiang Yuan stood up, his waist card bag lightly brushing against his combat uniform.

"Understood."

Su Ming closed the terminal.

Liang Wen popped up the collar of his windcoat, making himself look ready for a fight again.

"Dark-Blooded King requests deployment. Friendly reminder: the enemy specializes in bursting anti-deceiver gear; this king's wave belongs to the reverse-version rank-up."

Qin Zhixia put on black gloves, and the indicator light on her mechanical prosthetic arm shifted from red to white.

"Say less, save your breath for the fight."

Chen Shao's projection had not yet dissipated.

He stared at everyone.

"I will go too."

Su Ming looked over.

"Do you want to seize the crown?"

"I want to confirm one thing."

Chen Shao's tone remained unchanged.

"That crown is not of the same kind as Sai Men."

"There is still someone behind it."

Jiang Yuan's footsteps paused for half a second.

The High-Dimensional Eye of the Extremely Secret Area, Sai Men's dying warning, and the birth of the Deposed Royal Court Crown have already formed a line in everyone's mind.

The projection flickered, and Chen Shao disappeared.

The action team left the meeting room.

In the corridor, alarm lights lit up one by one.

The field team quickly assembled, armored vehicles slid out of the underground parking garage, their bodies stamped with the Investigation Bureau's black emblem.

Jiang Yuan sat in the frontmost part of the cabin, pressing his palm against the card bag.

Shadow undulated lightly beneath his feet, restless yet pressing down on his head.

Su Ming sat opposite, flipping through the structural diagram of the Purple Gold Mountain Clubhouse.

"The second floor has three banquet halls, six private rooms, and one underground lift."

Liang Wen poked his head out.

"Is there a back kitchen? I suspect someone of Old Chen's stature would definitely escape via the back kitchen—TV dramas always show that."

Qin Zhixia watched the streetlights outside the window recede at high speed.

"Don't treat all old people as senile."

Liang Wen spread his hands.

"Qin Team, when old people turn bad they become deadly; experienced villains are the most disgusting."

No one objected.

Because those sixty-three names in the file still weighed overhead in the cabin.

At the same time.

Magic City, Purple Gold Mountain.

On the top floor of the building opposite the clubhouse, the wind was fierce.

Zhou Ping wore black clothes, standing on the edge of the rooftop.

City lights spread beneath his feet, dazzlingly prosperous.

A dark-red crown pattern half-hidden on his forehead, seven red eyes half-open in the void, chains dangling from his back, their ends sinking into shadow.

A scarred man stood behind him.

"King, the livestream link is already set up."

"The Investigation Bureau is also on the way."

Zhou Ping lowered his gaze to look at the second floor of the Purple Gold Mountain Clubhouse.

There the lights were brilliant, and the scent of clothing mingled with the shadows of hair.

Behind the glass window, some raised their glasses, some chatted and laughed, and some clapped beside the piano.

No one would place sixty‑three lives on the dining table.

No one would see the blood of Huai Tree Ditch in a wine glass.

Zhou Ping lifted his hand, and a dark‑red crystal rotated in his palm.

"Tonight we won't interrogate the little fish."

"Interrogate the old ghosts they have offered in the altar."

The scarred man lowered his head.

"Chen Huaiyuan has three A Ji guards by his side, and the club's own rule‑based protection."

Zhou Ping did not turn around.

"The guards will kneel."

"The rules will change surnames."

"As for the Investigation Bureau…"

He paused.

"Let them see clearly."

"How much rot the order they uphold actually hides."

Thirty minutes later.

Outside the Zijinshan Club.

The Investigation Bureau convoy entered the Blockade Line without lights.

Jiang Yuan pushed the door open and stepped out.

The club's main gate was forged of purple copper, its hinges carved into beast heads; the two rows of attendants at the entrance had long fled, leaving only a corner of the red carpet lifted by the night wind.

Su Ming glanced at his wristwatch.

"The live broadcast has twelve minutes left."

Qin Zhixia raised her mechanical arm, the arm armor unfolded, and an embedded rule blade sprang out.

Liang Wen stood at the doorway and lifted a leg to stretch.

"Everyone, bear witness to history."

"The Dark-Blooded King will, with a splendid strike, kick open the gate of the decaying old era!"

Qin Zhixia: "Kick."

Liang Wen kicked with one foot.

The purple‑copper gate swung wide inward.

The door hinges emitted a harsh screech.

The club's hall glittered with lights.

A crystal chandelier hung overhead, and the red carpet stretched all the way to the spiral staircase.

The air carried expensive perfume, red wine, cigars, and some kind of rotten sweet cloyness.

Jiang Yuan stepped over the threshold.

"Shadow Legion."

The shadow spread out from beneath his feet.

One by one, Shadow Soldiers rose from the ground, clad in black armor with long blades, forming ranks, their murderous aura filling the hall.

But at the instant the front‑row soldiers stepped over the threshold—

—a Mutation appeared.

All the Shadow Soldiers stopped in unison.

The next second.

They actually knelt toward the Second Floor.

It was not because they were defeated.

Nor were they torn apart.

It was submission.

Jiang Yuan's pupils contracted, and his fingers clenched the Card Bag.

Behind the Second Floor railing, dark‑red patterns lit up in concentric circles.

Seven eyes opened in the darkness.