The Kate family is not considered a big family in West Virginia, and is not even middle class. Because three generations of them moved to Texas, their influence in West Virginia has gradually shrunk, and most of them have switched to business.
"But the industries they're involved in are quite interesting." Lian Cheng dumped the information he'd gathered from the day's research onto the table. The spread-out page listed a dozen or so business areas. "They specialize in medical devices, jade jewelry, rare mineral resources, tourism, metal manufacturing... Do you find them familiar?"
He smiled meaningfully.
Even Qing Teng, who disliked business, saw the clue immediately. "These industries may seem unrelated, but when you connect them together, they're exactly what alchemists look for in their daily quest for materials."
The purpose of traveling is to check out the jade, metal, mining resources, and even medical equipment. Almost everything serves the alchemists and the god-maker organization.
"And their business performance doesn't match their wealth rankings." Nan Xu tossed out another report, pointing to the figures. "The Kate family's companies have been expanding, leading to significant losses, yet their family wealth has steadily climbed on the Forbes list, currently breaking into the top five and almost catching up with my husband."
Although it is still very impressive that Xiao Yunting can defeat an entire family alone, this is a situation that is not allowed to happen for the high-demanding Xuanzong Elders Group.
They even felt that third place was too low.
After all, Ye Lan is just keeping a low profile and not participating in the competition. If he really makes the list, he will definitely be number one.
However, a family business that has been in the red for years is now on the list, which is obviously abnormal.
Where do those extra assets come from?
"Perhaps the information I have here can provide an answer." Caroline then produced a list and smiled at the group, saying, "I asked the noble lady of Siden to look it up. Although the Kate family is not of high status, they do business with many aristocrats. Their jewelry business is a regular supplier for charity galas, and the profits behind it are immeasurable."
As the wife of a former nobleman, she had her own connections and way of thinking. She knew that the wealth of the entire Western Kingdom was mainly concentrated in the hands of the nobles, so she followed the clues and found them.
Ye Lan flipped through the auction quotes and found that the starting prices of those jewels were already exaggerated enough, but the auction prices were often thousands of times higher.
It looks... more like the aristocracy is providing blood transfusion to Kate's family.
"What kind of deal did they make to warrant such a hefty reward?" Nan Xu scoffed, a hint of coldness creeping into his face. "It seems these nobles have also joined that idiotic God-Maker organization. Clan leader, if we agree to the official demands, we'll be breaking our promise."
When he set out earlier, Ye Lan only said that he came to pick up something so as not to alarm the local nobles.
But now looking at the list, Xidian might have fallen.
However, Ye Lan shook his head, his eyes calm as he said, "There's no need to alarm these people. Since they don't appear to have any connection with the Kate family, they won't take the initiative to help if something goes wrong. And our goal isn't to deal with Kate, but to follow the clues and find their leader."
To catch a thief, you must first catch the leader.
If the leader is caught, this force will naturally collapse.
Everyone understood and followed the timeline to explore the past of Kate's family in Xidian.
Two days later, news suddenly came that a volcano in the Xidian Mountains had erupted.
"This volcanic eruption was caused by the movement of the earth's crust. It's not just in the West German region, but many dormant volcanoes at the junction of the Eurasian plates have been activated, causing countless casualties."
"The Xidian Geological Research Bureau recommends that residents living near dormant volcanoes around the world relocate as soon as possible and stay away from the volcanoes! Please move away from the volcanoes immediately!"
Early in the morning, the news was reporting on the post-disaster situation. A layer of gray particles was floating in the sky outside the window. The thick smoke from the volcanic eruption was drifting in the wind.
Rescue planes flew low one after another, making explosive noises, as if adding a touch of ominous color to the entire city.
Before noon, the elders who had gone out to investigate the situation and Caroline and others rushed over.
As soon as we entered the room, everyone's faces looked solemn.
"Chief, not only is the volcano in Xidian erupting, the entire ancient European plate is shaking, and Asia is also beginning to enter an emergency alert state. I have a feeling the situation is a bit ominous."
The way of heaven has rules.
Just like earthquakes and flash floods, they occur from time to time for the reproduction of species and the survival of all things. It is similar to clearing an area, changing its landscape so that more creatures can exist for a long time.
What seems to be a disaster for mankind now is actually a blessing for animals and plants for millions of years.
But the situation is obviously different now.
The multiple volcanic eruptions have caused devastating damage over a wide area, not only harming humans but also forcing vegetation to spend hundreds of years under the cooling volcanic rocks before new green can emerge. This is no longer in line with the laws of nature.
"Well, stop what you are doing for a moment." Before they entered the door, Ye Lan had found a world map, marked the areas where volcanoes are currently located, and drew a route with a red line.
Everyone walked over to take a look and said hesitantly: "Is this... an earthquake zone?!"
"Yeah." Ye Lan responded and kept writing.
Everyone here is highly educated and has some understanding of geography. If we were to talk about earthquake zones where plate movements are frequent, they could roughly draw a few.
But the line Ye Lan was drawing now was not in the familiar area at all.
Emma, who is not a good student, didn't understand why, so she asked, "Why did you connect all the dormant volcanoes together and span the Atlantic Ocean? It looks very strange."
Ye Lan, who was just reaching the ocean surface, explained in advance, "A dormant volcano is also a seismic belt. It's just that it hasn't erupted in tens of millions of years, so it's considered low-risk. But compared to the active volcanic belts we're familiar with today, these volcanoes that erupted tens of millions of years ago represent the most complete connection between the plates."
"When they merged and joined together, the squeezed land became uplifted mountains, and the flowing ground fire erupted from the intersecting soil to form volcanoes. Then the ground fire was blocked by the mountains and flowed to other places, becoming active volcanoes."
"In fact, the direction of the Earth's Mars has always been along only one route. It connects the ocean and the land, and circles the Earth."
Accompanied by the cold words, the red brushstroke finally returned to the original red dot, and a clear line spanned the entire earth, shockingly dividing the northern and southern hemispheres into two halves.
Everyone looked down at the several clearly marked locations on the line where the volcano was erupting, and they felt an ominous premonition inexplicably emerge in their hearts, which was extremely terrifying.
"Chief, you're not saying that the underground fire has become active again..." Qing Teng swallowed his saliva and spoke in a difficult tone, feeling that even the words were doubly difficult. "All the volcanoes along this line will come back to life, right?"
After adding the second half of the sentence, his voice couldn't help but tremble.
“…”
There was silence in the room for a few seconds, and then Ye Lan nodded gently, "Yeah."
Everyone instantly felt a chill coming out of the top of their heads, and felt cold from head to toe.
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