In Luoyang City, several people were conspiring inside a dark room.
In the dim lighting, a person said calmly, “I suspect your Kong Consortium did not even bring out your trump card this time. If three of your teams can’t even handle taking Hope Media, what’s the point of our cooperation?”
“Didn’t your Zhou Consortium’s people also fail to take Qinghe University?” A middle-aged man sneered and said, “We all encountered the same superhuman, so we should know full well that person is not that easy to deal with. Instead of blaming each other, why don’t we focus on planning what comes next?”
Next to them, a young man burst into laughter and said, “Second Brother Kong is absolutely right. That superhuman from the Northwest is far stronger than we expected, so it can be considered an unforeseen hiccup in the plan. However, his strength alone is still limited. Actually, the three of our consortiums still have more aces up our sleeves, so why don’t we think about how we should play our cards next?”
“I think that person from the Northwest isn’t here for the satellites.” The middle-aged man said, “It feels more like he’s here to help. Or, it could also be that he’s hoping to add to the chaos in Luoyang City like we are.”
“No matter what, he stands against us. Who knows, the Northwest might end up losing one of their high-ranking officers tonight.” The person from the Kong Consortium said calmly, “Summon the Xu clan members and ask them if there have been any strange happenings with the Qinghe Group and the Riders recently. Since we didn’t manage to capture Jiang Xu, we’ll have to find out any other clues we can. We need to get ahold of some of their important figures so we can continue restricting the movements of the garrison troops and the Riders. After all, this is the Qinghe Group’s home field, so we had better not be careless. We should take them out one by one.”
After saying that, he ordered his subordinates to bring in the Xu clan members. The Kong Consortium’s representative looked up and asked sternly, “We only came to Luoyang City this time to help you all seize authority because you needed our help. Don’t just make us do all the hard work while you watch and not contribute to the cause at all. Let me ask you, did the Qinghe Group and the Riders do anything unusual recently?”
The representative of the Xu clan members thought for a moment and said, “There really was something like that. You should also know that the Qinghe Group has a telecommunications business arm that sells satellite phones to the rest of the world. The person in charge of this business is named Yang Ruilin. As I have business dealings with him, I had a meal with him several days ago. After the meal, I had my private chauffeur send him home. However, he did not return to his own home but went to stay at a hotel instead.”
The Kong Consortium’s representative was speechless. “What’s so unusual about a secret rendezvous with a lover at a hotel? If you don’t have anything important, don’t use such gossip to make up something for us to hear.”
But the young man from the Wang Consortium interrupted, “Second Brother Kong, let’s continue listening to him first.”
“As he did not go back home that night, I also thought he had kept a lover at the hotel.” The Xu clan representative explained, “In our line of work, we always prefer having leverage over others. So after the chauffeur returned and told me about this, I sent someone to the hotel to get a few clandestine photos of him and his lover’s secret rendezvous. But I discovered their entire family of three were all staying in the hotel. It wasn’t some secret rendezvous with his lover at all. That Yang Ruilin is Xu Ke’s trusted aide, so I suspect the hotel is used as a secret base for protecting the core members of the Qinghe Group.”
“The problem is not with the hotel.” Second Brother Kong frowned. He was not an idiot and immediately figured out what was illogical. As stronghold residents, they did not live in their own home but stayed at a hotel instead? “Look, isn’t this how a temporary safe house is usually arranged? When a stranger enters a new stronghold, in order not to be discovered, the informants use their own residences as temporary safe houses for the other party. Or perhaps there’s a more important person that needs to be secretly protected. As there’s the worry of the existing safe houses getting exposed, they temporarily vacate a location where people have been living.”
No one present at this meeting was average, and no average person would get sent here to handle something this important either. Second Brother Kong had only relied on a simple clue to deduce what was really going on.
Of course, this was also a common tactic used by the intelligence agencies for many years, so it was not considered odd at all.
The young man from the Wang Consortium looked at the Xu clan representative. “Indeed, it does look like that’s the case. Where is Yang Ruilin’s family home? We’ll send someone over right away. Regardless of who might be living there now, we need to quickly figure it out first.”
The Xu clan representative smiled and said, “I’ve already checked that out for you guys. A young woman and a group of teenagers are living at Yang Ruilin’s house now.”
Second Brother Kong laughed and said, “Haha! We’ve been searching high and low all this while only to find it this easily. They’re probably the family and children of a core member of the Qinghe Group. They must be very important for the group to have kept them tucked away so well. As long as we can get our hands on them, so what if we can’t capture Jiang Xu?”
The Wang Consortium’s representative heaved a sigh of relief. It had to be said that the failure to capture Jiang Xu had put everyone under a lot of pressure, so much so that their subsequent plans were temporarily halted. He said to the others, “Send a few more people over. We must ensure that nothing goes wrong in this operation.”
As he spoke, a subordinate was already delivering the orders. The covert operatives hidden in Luoyang City started moving, and even the superhumans rushed off towards Junmin Alley.
Second Brother Kong looked at the Xu clan spokesman and said amiably, “You wanted to settle down at the Wang Consortium’s stronghold in the future, right? Let me welcome you on behalf of the Wang Consortium. After this operation is complete, the Wang Consortium will be sure to reward you handsomely.”
Then a different member of the Xu clan said, “I also noticed something strange. I’m in charge of the Civil Affairs Department of Luoyang City. Yesterday, someone from the Riders suddenly came to inform me that one of the orphanages will no longer fall under the jurisdiction of the Civil Affairs Department. After that, the Riders even transferred a sum of money directly into that orphanage’s account. Does that count as abnormal?”
“Of course, of course it counts!” Second Brother Kong started laughing heartily. “At a critical moment like this, anything the Riders do is surely not a small matter.”
With a major war imminent, the Riders were actually giving their attention to this small orphanage? How could this be normal? Shouldn’t they be putting aside all matters that were not related to the war for now?
Therefore, there had to be something about this orphanage as well!
“Go, tell Xin Yi to lead his men to the orphanage and round up everyone there. Failure is not an option!” Second Brother Kong said fiercely.
Although everyone did not show it on their faces when Ren Xiaosu exerted pressure on them, they were actually very nervous and worried their operation would fail.
But now everyone felt like they had finally found a way out of this predicament!
Instantly, countless sleeper agents started rushing towards Junmin Alley and the orphanage, and this included quite a few supernatural beings too.
It was unknown how many superhumans the other forces had sent, but the Kong Consortium’s superhumans made up 60% of them.
Of course, they still had their aces up their sleeves. Those were for when they started fighting the other two consortiums after they had taken care of the Qinghe Group.
The Zhou Consortium’s, the Kong Consortium’s, and the Wang Consortium’s representatives sat in the room and looked at each other with smiles. All of them had their own agenda in this war.
