“Is that an earthquake?” Someone besides the group asked his partner but the cultivators who had been through various battles knew the feeling. There was no earthquake or tremor.
It was an explosion.
And to make things worse, another went off in the distance and this time around, the group could feel a slight aftershock as compared to the first one. Only then, the fire alarm goes off and everyone started panicking.
“Sorry, guys. Looks like my babysitting ends here.” Yu Xuan said as he speed dialled his boss with regards to the current situation.
“We will go with you. If this incident is the same as that previous one, you would definitely need a few Demon Exorcists by yourself.” Lein proposed that going to safety was not exactly their style.
“Hmm. Fine. You guys are after all Jin’s official employees and all of you had proven yourselves previously.” Yu Xuan nodded his head and told them to follow him. “Let’s hope that it’s just some cultivator causing some ruckus.”
While the security forces seemed to be on high alert, the symposium participants seemed to be quite oblivious to it and in fact, wanted to see what was going on. Perhaps it was because of the fighting that the Demon Exorcists group had gone through, they were a little frustrated how the public was taking this so nonchalantly. But at the same time, the group honestly hoped that they had severely overestimated the incident.
Even as they tried to walk through the crowd, Yu Xuan’s phone rang a few times and it was apparent he was talking to his higher ups as they relayed information between each other while the Demon Exorcist group continued to scan the area. Su Zhen had also taken the opportunity to contact the main branch stating that there was an explosion happening in Shenzhen World’s Exhibition and Convention Centre where the Symposium was taking place in half of the total halls. The rest were supposedly used as buffer areas to support the Symposium as well as a concert hall for the end of the Symposium.
And with the modern Dungeon Suppliers’ heavy reliance on machines, there was a hall that had been dedicated to the technical aspects so it was easier to keep track of the servers as well as maintain a cooling system for the machines rather than spreading them out in several halls. The Demon Exorcists did not know this initially until they informed the System with regards to it and were immediately given the floor plan of the Shenzhen World’s Expo.
“More eyes would be on your way,” Jin said as he summoned Que Er, the Magpie Queen to get her birds to the scene as soon as possible. Even though he was busy with the preparation of PandaVerse and the Farming World, he could not ignore if it was a threat similar to the incident related to the Banned Emperors. Thus, with the help of the System’s teleportation, a team of magpies and ravens had already gone to Shenzhen’s World Expo to have a look.
From the bird’s eye view, images of the fire came from Hall 13 which was kilometres away from the South Entrance which they were at. Lein quickly informed Yu Xuan that he did not question where he got his information and decided to use his chi so that they could do massive jumps across the convention centre’s large hallway to the site of the incident.
However, as much as they tried to activate their chi, it was not coming out from the Dian Tian. There was a ‘what the fuck’ moment from the entire group but Yu Xuan kept calm and started chanting. It looked like he too knew a bit of magic though he was not a full hybrid like Jin. The magic spell fizzled too and thus the last resort he had was taking out a scroll from his storage ring.
Seeing how prepared and how calm Yu Xuan was despite his demeanour kind of brought a little awe to the Demon Exorcists when they were not as prepared or as versatile as him. The inscription scroll somehow worked.
“Looks like it’s no normal fire. There’s an anti chi and magic barrier in the works but for some reason, the inscription scroll works so I had no idea what kind of barrier this is.” Yu Xuan said as he took out exactly four more scrolls and passed them to the Demon Exorcist group.
Once activated, they would have a “Fleeting Foot” buff which allowed them to travel similar to how one would Qing Gong through the halls. (Qing Gong is a kind of martial art that is visually reminiscent of parkour.) Yu Xuan decided to give another call to his reporting officer but as it tried to dial through, the connection snapped as well.
“Fuck. Are you serious? Even a satellite line can be disrupted?” Yu Xuan said as he tried to call once more. Unlike the public who now had trouble sending out calls because the comms towers could be busy, the State Agents all have a special line and a dedicated military satellite to handle their queries. To have it cut off meant that something dangerous was pending and it was not a good sign.
Fortunately, the supposed barrier could not cut the line between the signed contracted employees of the System. Lein was close enough to discern that Yu Xuan had troubles connecting his phone and he also noticed his phones were not receiving any signal bars.
“Yu Xuan Sir! We still have a connection to our boss! Then my boss can inform yours!” Lein shouted as he requested Yu Xuan to tell him what to say so as to not expose the System too much. The State Agents might know a thing or two about it but Lein did not know how much they knew.
“How do you even have a connection up?!” Yu Xuan stopped for a while at the side of the convention main hallway.
“Our Boss had set up a blood pact of some sort with us. Nasty stuff but he said it is the best way of communicating.” Su Zhen tried to bluff since this was the closest thing similar to a celestial type communication network that was not affected by magic, chi nor technology.
“Wow, you guys are so sure to be his employees till death? Not that I can say it’s the best way to live. But I will do anything to take any information out of this fucked up situation.” Yu Xuan said as he relayed whatever he could to Lein. On the other hand, the System had already connected Kong Rong to a separate channel to the Exorcists Group and he was hearing what Yu Xuan said in real time.
“Shit. This kind of barrier spells lots of trouble. Inform the Defence Ministry and Home Affairs. We are not going to be idle this time around as well. A barrier of this kind would definitely have an activation point like a totem or relic. Send the alarm out and call up the off duty teams! Get me the blueprints for not just Shenzhen Exhibition Center but the area surrounding it as well as the underground maps if there’s any!” Kong Rong ordered and in his mind, he wondered if Jin had to be involved once more.
