With the car gone, getting back was a major problem.
Fortunately, there was a profession on Terra called a courier.
After Texas made an emergency call, a courier from the nearby nation of Minos rushed over on a Land-runner. After all, this was a big order—from Minos to Lungmen, and the cargo seemed quite heavy, a full several hundred catties. Transporting such a large load over such a long distance, the earnings from one trip would be enough for her to live lavishly for half a year.
Terra was different from Earth.
Earth had highways and was relatively safe, but Terra had no such thing, especially for long-distance international transport. The prices were basically sky-high.
However.
When the Minos courier drove over, she only saw four very beautiful young women, with no cargo in sight.
When she asked where the cargo was.
The four young women climbed directly into the vehicle's cargo bed, leaving the courier completely baffled.
It took several days to return to Lungmen. During this time, Lucas Reeve absorbed the blade fragment and the soul fragment from his bracelet.
After gaining the power of another part of the Ancient God of Flame, Laevatain's strength increased considerably. And after absorbing his own soul fragment, Lucas Reeve's own spiritual strength also rose a little. All in all, it was a win-win.
"Ah~~"
Upon arriving in Lungmen.
Exusiai was the first to jump off the Land-runner.
This Land-runner was too ordinary and very small. The four of them had been crammed into the small cargo space for several days, and the constant jolting had made them miserably uncomfortable.
"We're finally here!! I wonder if the boss will reimburse us for the broken Land-runner and the transportation fees back."
At the mention of money, such a sensitive topic, Croissant, who had been listless and ready to go home to sleep, suddenly perked up.
"Definitely! He'll definitely reimburse us, the boss has to! I don't have the money to go Dutch!! This is all money I earned from my part-time stall... ah... the money I work so hard for in a month isn't even a few hundredths of what the boss makes."
"Shouldn't we just get our rich boss to reimburse such a small amount of money?"
Croissant clutched her pathetic wallet.
Texas sighed and patted the head of the money-grubbing Croissant. How could the boss really make them go Dutch?
The mission was over.
The girls from Penguin Logistics planned to head back to report in, but Lucas Reeve didn't intend to go with them. According to their initial agreement, this mission was considered a failure, and the blade fragment was obtained by Lucas Reeve.
This trip to Lungmen had been quite fruitful.
Surtr had eaten her fill of the ice cream she had been craving. It was about time to leave, to go to the location of another memory.
The memory fragment from the Lungmen area seemed to be in... a civilian residential area.
Surtr decided to take a look around the place indicated by the memory fragment before leaving Lungmen.
——————
Lin Qingyan had had it much easier these past few days.
Ever since moving to a new apartment, she hadn't encountered that red-haired girl again. After about a week, Lin Qingyan had more or less completed her inspection mission. All that was left was to inspect the most important areas: the civilian district and the slums.
In theory.
The slums were not part of the inspection, but the righteous and incorruptible Lin Qingyan decided to investigate the slums as an extra measure.
Urban inspection.
It meant putting herself in the shoes of an ordinary person, starting with squeezing onto the bus in the morning to experience Lungmen's specific lifestyle and level of comfort. So Lin Qingyan got up early. As the sun began to rise, she changed into a plain, thick overcoat and scarf she had bought the day before, and just like an ordinary Lungmen office worker, went out to conduct her field inspection.
In Lungmen.
The upper city was just a small part.
Those who could live there were either absolute tycoons or at least from the petty bourgeoisie with a high annual income. The vast majority of the other areas were civilian districts. These were the most important areas of Lungmen and the ones that most needed inspection. They chronicled the day in the life of an ordinary person and their way of living.
First, in terms of rent and housing prices.
Lin Qingyan felt it was acceptable.
The 50-square-meter, fully-equipped small studio apartment she rented in the upper city cost about eight thousand a month, and this was in a good location. If it were an apartment on the edge of the upper city, it would probably only be around four or five thousand. This price was considered normal even in Yan—not remote, but not exactly right either. After all, it was located in the city center, catering to elite professionals. Like her neighbor, the young idol Miss Sora, whose annual income was at least seven figures.
As for the other neighbors on the same floor of that apartment, Lin Qingyan had also investigated them. They were either senior programmers with annual salaries in the high six or seven figures, or they were in management at some corporation.
The rental prices in the civilian districts were relatively more affordable.
The civilian district was a large area.
Naturally, it was divided into suburbs and a central area.
The rent for an apartment in the suburbs was around a thousand, while a 50-square-meter apartment in the central area was about 3,000. This price was also quite normal.
Lin Qingyan was very satisfied with the prices. Lungmen had this aspect under good control.
When Lin Qingyan stepped out of her home, the sun had just risen. A new ray of sunlight draped over her like golden gauze, outlining her figure in a saintly glow. While waiting for the bus with other young office workers, many young men in their early twenties who had just graduated would occasionally glance her way. But the inherently superior aura she carried made these ordinary young men keep their distance.
They could only fantasize in their hearts about some chance encounter.
The morning bus was crowded and packed. Fortunately, Lin Qingyan got on quickly and managed to find a seat.
Her gaze was sharp, her brow slightly furrowed. She constantly scanned the inside of the bus, silently jotting things down in her notebook. The bus wasn't fast. After arriving at the nearest office building, many people got off, and many more got on from outside. The middle-aged woman sitting next to Lin Qingyan also got up and left, and then, a pretty young girl with dark blue long hair sat down beside her.
A Draco?
Lin Qingyan's gaze suddenly sharpened.
In Yan, the Draco race was almost an absolute taboo, because in Yan, the Draco were the royal family. Could this blue-haired girl be...
However.
She was dressed in casual clothes and carried a fashionable, feminine handbag...
The Draco girl beside her seemed to notice the way she was being looked at and just gave her a nonchalant glance, but inwardly, she grew wary of this girl.
Lin Qingyan knew that her own race, the Kylin, was also very rare in Yan. Ordinary citizens might not know, but the upper echelons of Lungmen could surely guess. That's why she wore a hat daily in Lungmen to cover her Kylin horns.
The two girls sat together, yet in such a crowded space, they weren't touching. Both had become a little wary.
The bus was noisy, and the two of them closed their eyes, observing their noses and hearts, entering a simple meditation.
Suddenly.
A loud noise erupted inside the bus, followed by screams and the sound of a baby crying.
*Swish...*
The Draco girl and Lin Qingyan opened their eyes at the same time.
Inside the bus, several thugs had appeared. They were all uniformly armed with standard-issue crossbows or blades, and they held a middle-school-aged girl as a hostage.
"Damn Lungmen! This city shouldn't even exist in the first place!!"
One of the thugs knocked out the driver and threw him to the floor, while he himself sat in the driver's seat and began driving the bus recklessly. Fortunately, there weren't many pedestrians this early in the morning, otherwise who knows how many innocent people would have been killed or injured by such reckless driving. It seemed they wanted to drive the bus out of Lungmen.
Someone was actually hijacking a bus.
Lin Qingyan silently shook her head, then calmly took out her notebook and drew a large cross in it.
Just then, the Draco girl beside her suddenly stood up.
When everyone else on the bus was terrified, she walked to the very front alone.
"You damn bitch!! Get down!! Or I'll shoot you!!"
The hijacker aimed his one-handed crossbow at the Draco girl.
But the Draco girl was unmoved. She calmly took a booklet out of her pocket. The black booklet was opened.
"Lungmen Guard Department... Senior Superintendent and leader of the Special Operations Unit, Ch'en. I'm announcing here and now, you are under arrest!!"
*Tsk...*
Ch'en?
Lin Qingyan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly remembered that the second-in-command of the Lungmen Guard Department was indeed someone named Ch'en. She just hadn't expected her to be a girl of about her own age.
"It's Officer Ch'en!!!"
Officer Ch'en's reputation was quite well-known among the populace, though not many knew what she looked like. They hadn't expected Officer Ch'en to be on the bus as well. They were saved, saved!
Many people let out a huge sigh of relief.
The hijackers' expressions turned ugly. They hadn't expected such a high-ranking superintendent to be on the bus!!
You're a high-ranking official in Lungmen, and you're taking the bus?!!
Shouldn't you be riding in your own car, with a dedicated driver?!!
Why the hell are you on a bus.
"I'll count to three! If you surrender, you still have a chance. But if you refuse to repent, as a Senior Superintendent, I have the authority to execute you on the spot!"
Officer Ch'en reached a hand into her bag. Her longsword and Chi Xiao were obviously not with her, but she would definitely carry another small self-defense weapon.
A red light flashed.
Officer Ch'en drew her weapon from her bag.
The hijacker was startled, however.
When everyone got a clear look.
Lipstick...
"....."
A rare silence fell over the once noisy bus.
Officer Ch'en's eyes widened.
This lipstick!!
Could it be!!
*Lungmen Profanity*
Damn!! That damn roast-pork cat!!!
And sitting in her original seat, Lin Qingyan was also frozen. The corner of her eye twitched uncontrollably as she silently wrote a sentence in her notebook.
[Lungmen Guard Department Senior Superintendent, Ch'en Hui-chieh (X), Inspector's recommendation: "Strongly suspect she obtained the position of Senior Superintendent through connections. A thorough investigation is required in the future. For even the position of Senior Superintendent to be treated so casually shows the corruption within Lungmen's high-level officials..."]
At this moment, the hijacker quickly snapped out of his daze and immediately pulled the trigger of the crossbow in his hand, aiming at Officer Ch'en.
Officer Ch'en's expression was ugly. She angrily threw the lipstick hard at the man's face, then tilted her body to the side to dodge the crossbow bolt. With a single grab, she easily caught the bolt fired at such close range. She immediately flipped over, preparing to punch him square in the head.
However, when the hijacker aimed the crossbow at the hostage again, Ch'en was forced to stop her attack. She had already notified the L.G.D. through a special code at the first opportunity. She believed it wouldn't be long before L.G.D. personnel arrived.
"I never thought such an important position as Lungmen's Senior Superintendent would be given to a wet-behind-the-ears brat. It seems Lungmen has truly gone to the dogs."
"What is your objective?"
The lead hijacker sneered, "We don't want money. We just want to bring panic to Lungmen. And since a high-ranking Lungmen official is on the bus, that's even better. You can just order the border guards to let us out, otherwise, everyone on this bus will have to die!"
Is it a foreign power again?
Officer Ch'en narrowed her eyes. Over the past few months, the interference of foreign powers had been increasing. It seemed some force was deliberately targeting Lungmen. These panic-inducing attacks were purely premeditated.
Officer Ch'en didn't dare to act rashly.
Because they still had a hostage. She was thinking about how to resolve the situation.
Looking at the recklessly speeding bus, many pedestrians on the roadside quickly dodged out of the way. And just then.
A red figure appeared at the side of the road, obediently waiting for the red light. This red figure seemed not to have noticed anything unusual about the bus and continued to wait leisurely.
The hijacker driving the bus saw this and, excited, suddenly stomped on the accelerator, preparing to send this red figure to the afterlife.
Officer Ch'en also saw it through the window, her expression incredibly ugly. At this speed, it would be absolutely impossible to dodge!! Damn it.
Just as Lin Qingyan was about to make a move.
Suddenly.
Through the window, she saw the red-haired figure who was about to be hit.
So familiar....
*Hiss!!!*
No way. Lin Qingyan seemed to have thought of something.
Damn it!
Couldn't be her again, right??
What a coincidence!!
I've already moved here, how did I run into her again? Is Lungmen that small?
The red-haired girl casually looked up at the approaching bus, her eyes devoid of any emotion, only boredom and calm.
"Huh?"
With a loud bang.
The red-haired girl was sent flying by the bus. Because the bus was going so fast, the red-haired girl flew forward like a kite with a broken string, landing on the ground with a thud, motionless.
"Hahaha! So satisfying!!"
The hijacker driving shouted in exhilaration, then prepared to run over her body for good measure.
"Damn it!!"
Looking at the girl who had just been sent flying, Officer Ch'en gritted her teeth in anger. With the force of that impact, any other person would have been killed instantly.
She was right here at the scene, yet the first casualty had already occurred...
But Lin Qingyan was unconcerned.
If a Divine Fragment could be killed by a bus, then Yan might as well get rid of the Sui Regulator Commission and just have the Celestial Masters become bus drivers.
And just as the bus was about to run over the girl's 'corpse'.
Suddenly!
The girl's eyes snapped open. She rubbed her back and neck and stood up, a flicker of anger flashing in her cold eyes.
In the next second.
Her other eye turned a deep, profound black.
In an instant, she disappeared from the spot. Accompanied by a crisscrossing flash of sword light, the bus was instantly disassembled into countless small, square blocks and fell apart.
The hijacker holding the hostage was frozen on the spot. Ch'en seized the opportunity and landed a high kick viciously on his neck. With a crisp *crack* of bone, the hijacker collapsed to the ground on the spot.