Chapter 696: Invincible? ! !
Song Cao was stunned for a long while after hearing this, and finally let out a helpless sigh:
"You...ah, you have such a cruel heart."
Song Bangyan smiled, comforted his wife with a few gentle words, then called the maid and sent her back to her room to rest.
In the huge main hall, Song Bangyan was the only one left.
The gentle look on his face gradually faded away. He slowly walked to the window and looked at the mist on the artificial lake outside with a distant gaze.
After a moment, he snapped his fingers lightly.
In the corner of the wall, a pool of shadow that was originally inconspicuous suddenly began to wriggle strangely like a living thing, and quickly condensed into a vague black human figure.
The dark figure knelt silently behind Song Bangyan. It had no facial features and seemed to be just a silhouette formed by the lack of light, emitting a cold and strange aura.
Song Bangyan didn't look back, still looking out the window, his voice was flat and emotionless:
"How's the investigation going?"
The dark figure on the ground made a strange voice, neither male nor female, and replied:
"Reporting to the master, a maid who was in charge of serving tea did die two days ago.
While eating the grapes given by the young master, she accidentally drank the rooting water used to cultivate spiritual plants, causing the grape seeds in her stomach to sprout and grow rapidly. Eventually... her belly burst, her internal organs shattered, and she died.
Song Bangyan had no expression on his face:
"And then? How did Kuang Yi react?"
The dark figure continued to reply in a strange voice:
"The young master was kind and generous. Upon learning of this, he sighed three times in public, his face filled with sorrow, and ordered the maid to be buried with honor in the vineyards within his mansion.
He also sent a very generous pension to his family, enough to ensure that they would have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of their lives.
Everyone in the palace praised the young master's benevolence."
Song Bangyan remained silent for a long time, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the window frame. After a while, he spoke softly, his tone unable to tell whether it was praise or dissatisfaction:
“We didn’t do things neatly enough, and left some unfinished business.
Now that the talkative maid has been sent away, we should do it more cleanly and send her and her family off to a clean end to avoid any trouble in the future.
You, go and clean up this matter."
"yes!"
The dark figure obeyed the order without hesitation, and its body collapsed again like melted wax, turning into a pool of flowing shadow, sliding into the deeper darkness in the corner and disappearing as if it had never appeared.
Now, Song Bangyan was the only one left in the room.
He still stood by the window, looking at the meticulously decorated, flawless scenery outside, sighed softly, and said to someone unknown:
"Don't blame me for being cruel...it's just that in this world, raising a son is like raising a tiger.
How can you survive in this cannibalistic family if you don't raise the most ferocious, cunning and fang-hiding tiger?
How can I lead Sanfang forward in the future, all the way to that chair…”
After leaving the hall, Song Cao was still worried and her feet involuntarily turned towards the courtyard where her eldest son Song Kuangyi lived.
Song Kuangyi was currently in his study, methodically making final preparations before his trip.
In fact, he didn't need to worry about trivial matters such as itinerary planning, deployment of accompanying personnel, material support, etc., as his teachers and subordinates would naturally take care of them for him.
The only thing he had to do himself was to select the books he needed to take with him.
Outsiders cannot help you make the choice between what to bring and what not to bring.
Everyone in the Third House knew that what their young master valued most was not some magical weapon or rare treasure, but the various books that filled several huge bookshelves.
Moreover, none of them were secret manuals of magical skills, but mostly just miscellaneous books. In the eyes of many servants, they were worthless. But in Song Kuangyi's eyes, they were more valuable than anything else.
Not only did he classify these books and organize them in an orderly manner, he also did not allow outsiders to touch them easily.
At this moment, he was standing in front of a tall bookshelf, his eyes scanning the rows of book spines intently, carefully taking a few books from the shelf and gently placing them into a special bookcase that was opened on the side.
The bookcase is lined with soft silk to protect the books from damage during travel.
Just then, the sound of footsteps came from far away and reached his ears.
"It's Mother."
He didn't even need to turn around; he made his judgment based on the rhythm and strength of the footsteps.
He immediately put down the ancient book he had just picked up, straightened his robe, and walked out of the study quickly.
Sure enough, Song Cao appeared at the door, with worry still between her brows.
She saw her son and forced a smile:
"My son, I suddenly remembered that there is something important I need to tell you, and it concerns your younger brother Kuang Yan.
The thing is, a few days before he disappeared, he called me and mentioned that he seemed to have accidentally obtained something in District 9, a parchment scroll…”
As Song Cao recounted the information she knew, Song Kuangyi's face showed a hint of shock, and his brows slightly furrowed:
"Mother suddenly mentioned this matter. Could it be that she suspects that Kuang Yan's disappearance is related to this parchment scroll?"
Song Cao was actually not sure in her heart. This was just a guess based on limited information.
"Maybe it's related, or maybe it's just a coincidence. I can't really say. But this is a clue after all. When you go to District 9, you might want to keep an eye out in this direction."
Song Kuangyi pondered for a moment, then a smile of comfort to his mother appeared on his face again and he said in a deep voice:
"Don't worry, mother. I've made note of this. I promise you that if my brother's disappearance is truly related to this parchment scroll, then no one in the ninth district of the Lower City who has anything to do with it will survive."
Upon hearing this, Song Cao's face showed relief, and then she clapped her hands and said:
"Green slave, you must come along on this trip and make sure Kuang Yi is safe for me."
Before he finished speaking, Song Kuangyi couldn't even see the movements of the person who came. He only felt an extremely light breeze with the fresh scent of grass and trees blowing past his face.
A slender and graceful figure appeared silently like a ghost, half a step behind him, bowing to him in a respectful manner.
Even though Song Kuangyi knew clearly in his heart that this girl was a maid brought by his mother as a dowry, and was absolutely loyal to his mother, there was no way she would harm him in the slightest.
However, a sense of crisis originating from the warrior's instinct still swept over his body uncontrollably in an instant, and the hairs on his back stood up at this moment.
"Seventh-grade high-level? Extraordinary and inhuman!"
Song Kuangyi suppressed the throbbing in his heart, turned around slowly, and restored his gentlemanly smile as gentle as jade on his face. He calmly met a pair of eyes... as deep and enchanting as the finest emerald green.
Taking a seventh-grade warrior to the ninth district of the lower city, I can probably make it through smoothly, right? ! !
…….
To go from the upper city to the lower city, you need to take the "ladder".
The main body of the ladder is composed of several huge silver-white boxes shaped like bullet heads, running along a cylindrical pipe with an astonishing diameter that runs through the base of the upper city.
When not in use, the pipe shrinks and folds into the complex structure of the upper city base, merging with the exposed surface of the "butt".
Only when passage is needed will the pipe slowly open like a blooming mechanical flower and fall to the designated connection point on the ground.
But after the "Tianqing Incident", although many specific details were strictly blocked by the Upper City Council, the results that were revealed could not be hidden from those who were interested.
The upper city's precision control central system suffered extensive damage, and nearly one-third of the device array located at the bottom of the upper city that provided the core floating power and energy for the entire suspended city was severely damaged or completely destroyed.
It is no exaggeration to say that if the upper city had not secretly buried a reserve energy system at the beginning of its construction for precautionary measures, and had not urgently activated it immediately after the incident, it would have barely taken over some of the functions.
Then it would not just be a matter of dysfunction in certain areas; at least one-fifth of the building structures in the entire upper city would completely collapse due to the loss of sufficient lift.
Like a mountain whose roots were cut off, it collapsed and created a new sinkhole on the surface of the lower city.
That would be a true "heaven-falling" event.
Unfortunately, no... fortunately [Fate] failed!
Even so, the situation is by no means optimistic.
The so-called backup energy system is, after all, an old device that was installed when the upper city was first built three hundred years ago. Its technology level has long been outdated. The buzzing sound it makes every second is hoarse with a dying struggle, and it can't last for too long.
Therefore, the Upper City Council mobilized all available forces to repair the damaged core energy device day and night;
On the other hand, in order to minimize the burden on the system and ensure the stability of the upper city, they had to shut down a large number of non-core, energy-intensive functional buildings and facilities.
By the way, this is also the reason why an air tax is collected from the lower city - the upper city needs to unload the weight, and air also has "weight" and cannot be given to the lower city for free.
Of course, there are other factors involved, which we will not discuss for now.
The ladder connecting the upper and lower cities is also a functional building that has been closed.
Therefore, if people in the upper city want to enter the lower city, the ladder is no longer accessible, and they only have one other option - taking the escalator.
It is similar to the emergency passage in a shopping mall, but it is also hundreds of times larger and winds down layer by layer.
It's like a zigzag ramp attached to a giant pillar, wide enough to accommodate large vehicles running in parallel, but when walking on it, you can feel the biting wind from high altitude and the buzzing vibration generated by the operation of the city's suspension system under your feet.
Even this, [fate] did not let go.
When they were evacuating, they also blew it up, and several key connections in the middle were blown off. The huge gap was like the ferocious fangs of a giant beast, with countless broken steel bars or wires hanging in the middle.
Indeed, for individuals, especially martial artists with extraordinary skills, these fault zones are not insurmountable chasms.
With their agile skills, they can jump and shuttle between the remaining structures, having a dangerous and exciting "jumping fun" and jumping all the way.
However, this route is not feasible for large family convoys that need to carry large amounts of supplies and equipment.
Not to mention that the vehicle has no "bouncing" function at all, the key point is that letting the nobles and dignitaries climb and jump between broken passages like monkeys is really unbecoming and inappropriate.
Therefore, the Song family's convoy can only stay at the exit platform of the upper city, constantly urging the engineering team to reconnect the broken "escalator" passage.
It is estimated that this will take two to three days.
However, Song Kuangyi did not just sit there and wait.
He sent his teacher and several selected trusted warriors to go ahead.
These people, lightly equipped, have begun their dangerous "jumping" journey, preparing to sneak into District 9 first to pave the way for the arrival of subsequent large groups of people, collect intelligence, and understand the situation.
Those who set out earlier and acted faster than the old man in black clothes were naturally the people secretly sent by the main branch of the Song family.
In the ninth district of the downtown area, deep in a remote and dirty alley filled with the stench of mold and corruption.
The rusty round manhole cover was moved open to create a narrow gap by a hand that was so skinny that it was almost just skin and bones.
Then, a figure, like a weightless ghost, or a flat animal whose bones could be twisted at will, slid quietly through the gap in an irrational manner and landed in the underground shaft.
This was also an old man, his figure even more shriveled and hunched than the Xiao Jiuzi who had appeared before, as if he was always carrying some invisible huge weight on his back, pressing his spine into a thrilling arc.
His face was a horrible waxy yellow, as stiff as the leather weathered for a thousand years in a museum. Only his eyes, sunken in his eye sockets, flashed a cold, sharp light in the dim light.
He stepped into ankle-deep filthy water. Strangely, the muddy and smelly sewage seemed to be actively avoiding his footsteps. Wherever he passed, the water surface naturally parted, and his shoes and trouser legs remained unusually dry, without a drop of dirt on them.
As the old man walked, he took out a positioning device with a faint metallic luster from his arms.
His dry fingers gently moved on several bumps on the side of the device, adjusting a certain special frequency.
Soon, an indicator light the size of a grain of rice on the top of the locator began to emit a faint red light, flickering, like an eye hidden in the darkness, blinking and spying on the surroundings.
The old man held the locator and began to walk along the path that Xiao Jiuzi had taken before, step by step towards the deeper darkness of the pipe.
The red light was sometimes strong and sometimes weak, guiding him in a clear direction.
After walking for about a few dozen meters, the old man stopped precisely at the location where Xiao Jiuzi had stopped and hidden the items.
The red light on the locator also lights up steadily and no longer flashes.
The old man put away the locator and slowly extended his right hand.
The hand was as dry as the branch of an old tree, with the skin close to the bones, but the nails were unusually long and sharp, and had a metallic luster similar to that of an alloy.
He placed his fingertips on the wall, and the cracks on the wall instantly melted like wax, flowing out in all directions, revealing a fist-sized hole.
Then, a dead eyeball covered in dust and stains rolled out of the hole and fell into the palm of his hand that had been waiting for him.
Following closely behind was a parchment scroll that was dark in color and had some torn edges.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
