Gao Wu: I inherited the evil organization in the game

Chapter 696 Invincible?!

Upon hearing this, Lady Cao of Song was stunned for a long time, and finally let out a helpless sigh:

"You... sigh, you have such a cruel heart."

Song Bangyan smiled, offered his wife a few more words of comfort, and then called a maid to escort her back to her room to rest.

The huge main hall was suddenly left with only Song Bangyan.

The gentle expression on his face gradually faded. He slowly walked to the window, gazing at the mist rising from the artificial lake outside, his eyes distant and thoughtful.

A moment later, he snapped his fingers lightly.

In the corner, a previously inconspicuous shadow suddenly began to writhe eerily as if it were alive, quickly coalescing into a blurry, pitch-black human figure.

The shadowy figure knelt silently behind Song Bangyan, without facial features, seemingly just a silhouette formed by the lack of light, exuding a cold and eerie aura.

Song Bangyan did not turn around, still looking out the window, his voice flat and emotionless:
"How's the investigation going?"

The pitch-black humanoid figure on the ground, emitting a strange, neither-male-nor-female voice, replied:

"Reporting to my lord, a maid who was in charge of serving tea did indeed die two days ago in the young master's service."

He ate the grapes the young master had bestowed upon him, but accidentally drank the root-promoting water used to cultivate spiritual plants. This caused the grape seeds he had eaten to sprout and grow rapidly, ultimately leading to his stomach rupture and his internal organs breaking apart, resulting in his death.

Song Bangyan remained expressionless.
"And then? How did Kuang Yi react?"

The pitch-black humanoid figure continued to reply in a strange voice:
"The young master was kind and compassionate. Upon learning of this, he sighed three times in front of everyone, his face filled with sorrow. He then ordered that the maid be given a proper burial in the vineyard within the manor."

They also sent a very generous sum of money to his family, enough to ensure they would be well-fed and clothed for the rest of their lives.

Everyone in the household praised the young master's benevolence and virtue.

Song Bangyan remained silent for a long time, his fingers unconsciously tapping on the window frame. After a while, he finally spoke softly, his tone unreadable, neither approving nor displeased:
"I'm still not efficient enough in doing things, leaving loose ends."

Now that the talkative maid has been sent away, we should do it even more thoroughly and send her and her family off in an orderly fashion to avoid any future trouble.

"You go and clean this up."

"Yes!"

Without hesitation, the pitch-black humanoid obeyed the order. Its body, like melting wax, collapsed again, turning into a flowing shadow that slid into the deeper darkness of the corner and disappeared, as if it had never existed.

Now, Song Bangyan was truly the only one left in the room.

He remained standing by the window, gazing at the meticulously crafted, flawless scenery outside, and sighed softly, as if speaking to someone unseen:

"Don't blame your father for being heartless... but in this world, raising a son is like raising a tiger."

How can one survive in this cannibalistic family without raising the fiercest, most cunning, and most skilled at hiding their fangs?

How can we lead the third wife's family through the future, all the way to that chair...?

After leaving the hall, Madam Song was still worried and her feet involuntarily turned towards the courtyard where her eldest son, Song Kuangyi, lived.

At this moment, Song Kuangyi was in his study, methodically making the final preparations before his trip.

In fact, he didn't need to worry about trivial matters such as itinerary planning, the allocation of accompanying personnel, and the supply of materials; his teachers and subordinates took care of everything perfectly for him.

The only thing he needed to take care of himself was choosing the books he needed to carry with him.

What to bring and what not to bring—these are decisions that no outsider can make for you.

Everyone in the third branch of the family knew that what their young master valued most was not some divine weapon or rare treasure, but rather the various books piled up on several huge bookshelves.

Moreover, none of them were divine martial arts manuals; they were mostly just miscellaneous books, which were worthless in the eyes of many servants. But in Song Kuangyi's eyes, they were more valuable than anything else.

He not only categorized and organized these books meticulously, but also forbade outsiders from touching them easily.

At this moment, he was standing in front of the tall bookshelf, his gaze intently sweeping over the rows of book spines, carefully taking a few books off the shelf and gently placing them into a specially made book box that was open to the side.

The book box was lined with soft silk to protect the books from damage during the journey.

Just then, the sound of footsteps approached and reached his ears.

"It's Mother."

He didn't even need to turn around; he made a judgment based solely on the rhythm and force of the footsteps.

He immediately put down the ancient book he had just picked up, straightened his robes, and strode out of the study.

Sure enough, Madam Song appeared at the door, her brows still furrowed with worry.

She saw her son and managed a weak smile.
“My son, I suddenly remembered that there is something important I need to tell you, which concerns your younger brother Kuangyan.”

Here's what happened: a few days before he disappeared, he called me and mentioned that he seemed to have unexpectedly obtained something in District Nine—a parchment scroll…”

As Madam Song Cao recounted the information she knew, Song Kuangyi's face revealed a perfectly timed expression of shock, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Mother suddenly brought this up. Could it be that she suspects that Kuang Yan's disappearance is related to this parchment scroll?"

In truth, Lady Cao was not entirely certain; this was merely a guess based on limited information.
"Perhaps it's related, or perhaps it's just a coincidence. I can't say for sure. But it's still a clue. When you go to the Ninth District, you might want to keep an eye out in this direction."

After a moment of contemplation, Song Kuangyi smiled again, a smile of comfort returning to his mother, and said in a deep voice:

“Mother, please rest assured, I have noted this matter down. I assure you, if my brother’s disappearance is indeed related to this parchment, then everyone in the Ninth District of the Lower City who is connected with this parchment will not survive.”

Upon hearing this, Madam Cao's face showed relief, and then she clapped her hands and said:
"Green Slave, you must come along with me on this trip and make sure you protect Kuang Yi."

Before the words were even finished, Song Kuangyi couldn't even see the person's movements clearly. He only felt a very slight breeze, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees, brush past his face.

A tall, slender figure appeared silently half a step behind him, like a ghost, and bowed respectfully to him.

Even though Song Kuangyi knew perfectly well that this woman was his mother's dowry maid who was absolutely loyal to his mother and would never harm him in the slightest, he still felt deeply grateful.

Yet, an instinctive sense of crisis, stemming from his martial arts background, still swept over his entire body uncontrollably, causing the hairs on his back to stand on end.

"Seventh-grade high-level? Extraordinary!"

Suppressing the tremor in his heart, Song Kuangyi slowly turned around, his face regaining its gentle, jade-like smile. His gaze calmly met a pair of eyes… a deep, eerie green, like the finest emerald. Taking a seventh-rank soldier to the Ninth District of the Lower City… well, if not invincible, he could probably handle it all, right?!

.......
To travel from the upper town to the lower town, you need to take the "Sky Ladder".

The main body of the Heavenly Ladder consists of several huge, bullet-shaped, silver-white boxes that run along a cylindrical pipe with an astonishing diameter that runs through the base of the upper city.

When not in use, this pipe retracts and folds into the complex structure of the upper city base, blending seamlessly with the exposed "buttocks" surface.

Only when passage is needed will the pipe slowly open like a blooming mechanical flower, descending to the designated connection point on the ground.

However, after the "Skyfall Incident," although many specific details were strictly kept under wraps by the Upper City Council, the results that were revealed could not be kept from those who were interested.

The sophisticated control center system of the upper city was extensively damaged. Nearly one-third of the array of devices located at the bottom of the upper city, which provides the core levitation power and energy for the entire floating city, was severely damaged or completely destroyed.

It is no exaggeration to say that if the Upper City had not secretly installed a reserve energy system at the beginning of its construction, and had not activated it immediately after the incident to barely take over some of its functions, the city would have been in dire need of such a system.

Then it's not just a problem of dysfunction in certain areas; at least one-fifth of the buildings in the entire Upper City will completely disintegrate due to the loss of sufficient lift.

Like a mountain whose foundation has been severed, it crashed down, creating a new sinkhole on the surface of the lower city.

That would be a true "collapse of the heavens".

Unfortunately, no... it's fortunate that [fate] failed!

Even so, the situation is far from optimistic.

The so-called backup energy system is ultimately an old device from when the city was first built three hundred years ago. Its technology is outdated and the buzzing sound it emits every second is a hoarse, dying struggle. It simply cannot last long.

Therefore, the Upper City Council mobilized all available resources to work day and night to repair the damaged core energy facilities.

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.

Incidentally, this is also one of the reasons for charging an air tax to the lower city—the upper city needs to unload its burdens, and air also has "weight," so it cannot be given to the lower city for free.

Of course, there are other factors involved, which we will not discuss for now.

The celestial ladder connecting the upper and lower cities was also a functional building that was shut down.

Therefore, if people in the upper city want to enter the lower city, the Heavenly Ladder is no longer an option; they are left with only one choice—the escalator.

Similar to the emergency exits in a shopping mall, but hundreds of times larger, winding down in layers.

It's like a zigzag ramp attached to a giant pillar, wide enough to accommodate large vehicles side by side, but walking on it, you can feel the biting wind from high above and the buzzing vibrations from the city's levitation system as it operates.

Even so, fate did not spare them.

As they were leaving, they also blew up the area, severing several key connections. The huge gaps resembled the menacing fangs of a giant beast, with countless broken steel bars or wires hanging in between.

Admittedly, for individuals, especially skilled martial artists, these fault lines are not insurmountable barriers.

With their agile skills, they can leap and dart among the remaining structures, engaging in a dangerous and thrilling "jumping adventure" as they jump all the way down.

However, this route is not feasible for large family convoys that need to carry a lot of supplies and equipment.

Not to mention that the vehicles don't have a "bouncing" function at all, the key point is that it's really beneath the dignity and indecent to make the distinguished and powerful climb and jump between the broken passages like monkeys.

Therefore, the Song family's convoy is currently stuck at the exit platform of Shangcheng, constantly urging the construction team to reconnect the broken "escalator" passage.

It is estimated that this will take another two to three days.

However, Song Kuangyi did not wait idly.

He dispatched his teacher with a few carefully selected trusted warriors to go ahead.

These people, traveling light, have already begun their dangerous "jumping adventure," preparing to infiltrate District Nine first, paving the way for the arrival of the main force, gathering intelligence, and understanding the situation.

Those who set off earlier and acted more quickly than the old man in black were naturally the people secretly dispatched by the main branch of the Song family.

In the depths of a secluded, filthy alley in the Ninth District of Lower City, permeated with the stench of mildew and decay.

A rusty, round manhole cover was moved open through a narrow gap by a hand that was so thin it was almost nothing but skin and bones.

Immediately afterwards, a figure, like a weightless ghost or a flat animal whose bones could be twisted at will, slipped silently through the gap in an illogical manner and landed in the underground shaft.

This was also an old man, whose figure was even more withered and hunched over than that of Xiao Jiuzi who had appeared before. It was as if he was always carrying some kind of unseen huge weight on his back, which pressed his spine into a terrifying arc.

His face was a terrifying waxy yellow, stiff as leather weathered for thousands of years in a museum. Only his eyes, sunken deep in their sockets, gleamed with a cold, sharp light in the dim light.

He stepped into the ankle-deep, filthy water. Strangely, the murky, foul-smelling sewage seemed to deliberately avoid his steps. 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 that gleamed with a faint metallic luster from his pocket.

His withered fingers gently fiddled with several protrusions on the side of the device, adjusting a certain special frequency.

Soon, a tiny indicator light, about the size of a grain of rice, on the top of the locator began to emit a faint red light, flickering and shifting, like an eye hidden in the darkness, blinking and peering into the surroundings.

The old man, carrying the locator, began to walk step by step into the deeper darkness of the pipe, following the path that Xiao Jiuzi had taken earlier.

The red light, sometimes strong and sometimes weak, guided him in a clear direction.

After walking for about several dozen meters, the old man stopped precisely at the exact same spot where Xiao Jiuzi had stopped to hide the items.

The red light on the locator also lit up steadily and stopped flashing.

The old man put away the locator and slowly extended his right hand.

The hand was as withered as the branches of an old tree, the skin clinging to the bone, but the nails were unusually long and sharp, with a metallic sheen like an alloy.

He placed his fingertip on the wall, and the cracks in the wall instantly melted like wax, flowing outwards to reveal a hole the size of a fist.

Immediately afterwards, a dead man's eyeball, covered in dust and grime, rolled out of the hole and landed in his waiting palm.

Following closely behind was a dark-colored parchment scroll with some tears at the edges.

(End of this chapter)