Chapter 23

The white mist dissipated and everyone stood there looking at each other in confusion.

"Did you...see what happened just now?" Qin Zunyue broke the silence.

"Look, I see it." Qiao Lang swallowed, "What is that?"

Naturally, the others didn't know either. This question could probably only be answered by the unconscious Liu Huaizhao.

Qin Zunyue's hand was still on Liu Huaizhao's shoulder, but when he thought of the knife in the hand of the man named Kong Yi, he unconsciously tightened his hand.

Liu Huaizhao frowned, and Qin Zunyue immediately loosened his grip, but Liu Huaizhao had already slowly opened his eyes.

"Are you okay?" As soon as Liu Huaizhao opened his eyes, he saw Qin Zunyue's concerned eyes. He unconsciously looked away, said it was okay, stood up and straightened his clothes.

"Liu Huaizhao, just now——"

Liu Huaizhao knew what Tong Le was going to say and interrupted her, "Those should be the memories of Ah Jin before she became spiritually intelligent. However, because her spiritual intelligence was not yet developed at that time, the memories she could retain were limited."

However, even if only this information was left, it would be difficult for them to digest.

Qin Zunyue was most concerned about the knife. He asked, "Is the knife in Kong Yi's hand... very similar to your Lieyang Knife?"

Liu Huaizhao's expression was unclear. He naturally recognized his own sword. "It's the same one. There's a mark on the handle of the Lieyang Sword, and that sword has the same mark. But a weapon usually only recognizes one owner. I don't know why this is so."

"Is this Gongsun Xuan the man in black who entered the safe city before?" Zheng Shu asked. She had never seen the man in black with her own eyes.

Liu Huaizhao nodded. Although his appearance had changed over time, he was certain that the person who had entered the safe city earlier was Gongsun Xuan, not any of his other helpers.

Picking up the ancient book and jade on the ground, Liu Huaizhao said: "Ajin is Kong Yi's jade, and it only reacted after being placed together with this book. I'm afraid this book is also related to Kong Yi."

The Lieyang Sword, ancient books, and white jade are all related to a man named Kong Yi. No, I'm afraid even I am related to Kong Yi.

Thinking of his inexplicable coma just now, Liu Huaizhao sighed.

What exactly is the memory that I am missing?

-

So they got back into the car with a lot of questions in their minds and headed towards Tiancen City's safe city.

Although there is still no clue now, getting so much information after being out of the city for a few days has greatly encouraged several people.

In order to prevent Liu Huaizhao from falling into a coma again, they separated the ancient books and the jade. The ancient books were placed on Qin Zunyue, and the jade was hung around Liu Huaizhao's neck with a rope.

A Jin never appeared again. Liu Huaizhao said that her spirit was severely damaged and could only be repaired quickly inside the jade.

As they drove and talked about new clues, they arrived at the safe city of Tiancen City near dusk.

As soon as he got off the car, Liu Huaizhao felt something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what was wrong. He also didn't feel any foul air. There were only scattered foul monsters wandering outside the city that posed no threat.

He grabbed Qin Zunyue and whispered a few words to him. Qin Zunyue glanced at him and conveyed his meaning to others.

The others looked puzzled, but did not react.

They registered at the gate of the safety city and entered the safety city after inspection.

"Young Master Liu!" Inside the city, a middle-aged man in his forties came forward, extending his right hand to introduce himself to Liu Huaizhao, "My name is Fang Ce, and I'm the person in charge of Tiancen City's security city."

Liu Huaizhao glanced at him but did not reach out.

"Commander Fang." Qin Zunyue shook Fang Ce's hand, his face full of smiles. "Mr. Liu doesn't understand our modern etiquette, please don't be offended."

"I understand. I understand."

"Um... Commander Fang, I'm a little hungry. Can you take us out to eat?" Tong Le jumped in front of them and asked, looking into Fang Ce's eyes.

She saw that Fang Ce was obviously stunned, as if he hadn't reacted. After a few seconds, he smiled again and said, "Of course, this way, please."

He turned and led the way, and the people behind him exchanged glances.

"Oh, look at my brain." Qin Zunyue patted his head and said, "Let's do the business first. Our commander Yan asked us to bring a lot of vegetable seeds this time. Isn't that what you need the most? Let's do the business first."

"Oh, right, right." Fang Ce was still stunned for two seconds before responding, "Xiao Li, take the vegetable seeds first. I'll take Master Liu and the others to eat."

These seeds were newly developed by Tianhai City's safety city, and this time they were distributed to various safety cities along with smoke guns.

Zheng Shu took out the packets of seeds, but didn't even touch the smoke gun next to it. Neither the guard Xiao Li nor Fang Ce mentioned this.

The few people followed Fang Ce with normal expressions into the house that had been vacated for them in advance. The table was already filled with food, which was very sumptuous.

Liu Huaizhao sent Fang Ce away on the grounds that he did not like dining at the same table with strangers.

"Oh my God." Qiao Lang was about to say something when Tong Le twisted his tongue and forced him to say something else, "What a sumptuous dinner."

Immediately afterwards, Liu Huaizhao's voice rang in their heads, "There's something wrong with this safe city. Don't eat any of the food here, and don't show any signs of being wrong. I suspect we've entered some kind of formation, and we must find the center of it."

The others remained silent, pretending to be busy while listening attentively to Liu Huaizhao's words.

Before they entered the safe city, Liu Huaizhao had already sensed something was amiss, so he decided to keep quiet about the smoke gun incident as a test. Fang Ce didn't mention it either. Thinking back to the hours they'd been out of contact with Tiancen City, they felt a chill in their hearts, wondering what Gongsun Xuan had done to the place.

It is easier said than done to find the center of the formation, but they are not familiar with the Tiancen City Safety City, and they have no way to ask Yan Ming for help now. They can only take it one step at a time.

After finishing the food on the table, they went out and prepared to find Fang Ce according to the direction Fang Ce gave them.

When we arrived at the Tiancen City Command Center, it was already dark. There were few pedestrians on the road, and only faint moonlight illuminated the road.

Qiao Lang rubbed his arms and moved closer to Qin Zunyue, saying, "It's still quite cold, haha."

Qin Zunyue glanced at Qiao Lang and found that his smile was uglier than crying. He knew that the boy was scared. He had no choice but to put his arm around his shoulders and shake him, saying, "Jump a few times to warm yourself up."

Tong Le huddled close to Yan Liao, muttering something.

Liu Huaizhao looked at the two men and thought that he must find the center of the formation as soon as possible, otherwise Gongsun Xuan would not have to do anything bad, and these two men would scare themselves to death.

The lights were on in Fang Ce's office, and he was concentrating on looking at the document in his hand. But when Qiao Lang took a glance, he found that the document in his hand was upside down. He instantly got goosebumps and rushed behind Liu Huaizhao.

Qin Zunyue also noticed this, but pretended not to see anything and said with a smile, "Commander Fang is still busy so late."

Fang Ce raised his head, as if he had just noticed them, and said with a smile: "It's so late, why are you here?"

Qin Zunyue glanced at Liu Huaizhao and continued, "It's like this. Didn't the General Command Center issue an order to re-plan the safe city? This time when we came to Tiancen City, our Commander Yan hoped that we could visit and learn from Tiancen City's defenses, so as to learn from their strengths and overcome their weaknesses."

Fang Ce's eyes revealed a hint of confusion, "Visiting and studying?"

"Yes, didn't Commander Yan contact you before?"

Fang Ce suddenly realized, "That's right, I forgot."

Qiao Lang and Tong Le, who were at the back, glanced at each other secretly and saw the despair in each other's eyes.

I was originally holding out a glimmer of hope, thinking that Wan Fangce was planning to bring up the smoke gun issue the next day, but it turned out that the conversation just now was all made up by Qin Zunyue, and the other party didn't even have any doubts at all!

When they returned to their residence, they did not rush to rest. Instead, they sat together in the living room. They seemed to be chatting, but in fact they were listening carefully to what Liu Huaizhao said to them in his mind.

"Tomorrow we'll walk around the city under the pretext of visiting and learning about their defenses, and see if there's anything amiss. Don't interact too much with others; the more you talk, the more mistakes you make. We can't let Gongsun Xuan notice anything's amiss."

Qiao Lang shuddered and wanted to ask them why they couldn't just run away.

Liu Huaizhao seemed to have guessed his thoughts and continued, "This formation is most likely a psychedelic formation based on Tiancen City. It consumes the least spiritual energy among all the killing formations. The reason he used this formation is that his current spiritual energy cannot allow him to set up a higher-level killing formation. But since he went to so much trouble to lure us in, he will definitely not let us leave easily. I'm afraid that if we show any intention of leaving, this formation will immediately turn into a killing formation."

Seeing their solemn expressions, Liu Huaizhao comforted them, "It's not all bad. He chose this circuitous formation to kill us, which proves that the injuries he suffered last time haven't healed. Although I don't know why he didn't use his spiritual power to heal his wounds, this is a good sign for us. It means that he is still mortal and not that difficult to kill."

The difficulty lies in how to completely eliminate the heavy and turbid air, Liu Huaizhao added in his heart, but did not say it out loud for fear of further damaging them.

Sure enough, after he finished saying this, Tong Le and Qiao Lang, who had the most serious expressions, obviously breathed a sigh of relief.

After a few people chatted about all sorts of things, Qin Zunyue said, "Okay, stop chatting and go to bed early."

For safety reasons, they only had two rooms for men and women. Qiao Lang even tried to hide his tiredness by saying that they slept together because they didn't want to clean up the room.

Liu Huaizhao also gave the white jade to Zheng Shu and the others, telling them to call A Jin out if they were in danger.

Fortunately, the night passed peacefully.

The next morning, Qiao Lang had big dark circles under his eyes and looked at the dishes on the table with resentment - they found excuses to refuse the meal that Fang Ce had asked people to prepare, and the breakfast dishes were casually made by Qin Zunyue.

He patted Qiao Lang on the back of the head and said, "It's good to have something to eat. Don't be picky."

"It's not about breakfast," said Joram.

He hesitated for a moment, then told me his dream last night as if he were chatting casually. "Do you know what I dreamed about last night? I dreamed of a child crying and shouting that I slept in his bed and that he kept chasing me. He chased me all night long."

Everyone was amused by him, packed up briefly, and prepared to go out to find the center of the formation.

Qiao Lang no longer thought about the dream. He walked to the sofa and picked up his coat, but found something under the coat. He picked it up and took a look, and immediately broke out in a cold sweat.