As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 234 Cutting the Chain
If Gao Ce was merely "surprised" when Xu Yan revealed that he possessed a banned card, then...

He now felt as if he had been completely seen through, inside and out, and he was almost "furious with embarrassment".

For a fleeting moment, everyone present seemed to hallucinate, as if they saw Gao Ce drawing his gun and pulling the trigger.

This was because his vigilance and hostility had reached an extreme, disturbing everyone's retinas and optic nerves.

Even Long Jianhuan took a step to the side and moved between the two.

Xu Yan remained motionless, his face completely calm.

The suffocating atmosphere lasted for a long time, so long that the air almost froze, before Gao Ce finally let out a low laugh.

"The helpers that Captain Long recruited are indeed no ordinary people."

He let out a long sigh, as if he had finally resolved some kind of knot in his heart. "Okay, there was a slight discrepancy in my self-introduction just now—I am indeed a mechanic and gunner of the Spirit Guard Corps, and it is true that due to the intelligence officer's oversight and my superior's greed, my comrades and I were trapped in the unknown Echoing Land, where we were all wiped out, and I was the only one who escaped from hell."

"But then, I didn't return to the barracks, nor did I manage to smash the intelligence officer's knee or knock off my superior's ear."

"At that time, I was seriously injured and lost my way in the wilderness. I was eventually rescued by a bandit gang and forced to become a member of the gang."

"After the bandit gang I belonged to was attacked by the Swamp Gang because of a batch of priceless secret goods, and everyone was killed by the Swamp Gang, I once again became a stray dog ​​and could only wander in the wilderness, becoming a mercenary whose life was uncertain."

"It wasn't until the Swamp Gang suffered a great loss at Rolling Stone Fortress and Captain Dragon ventured deep into the wilderness to hunt down the remnants of the Swamp Gang that I had the opportunity to avenge that day. I dug out the seven bullets that the Swamp Gang had shot into my body, recast them, reloaded them, and then shot the heads of seven Swamp Gang remnants."

"Unfortunately, the intelligence officer who initially caused our total annihilation and also ruined my life, along with his greedy and incompetent superior, are still living a carefree life in the military camp."

"So you mean, unless I actually smash the intelligence officer's knees and my boss's ears, I can't get over this and be free from the influence of 'Deadshot'?"

Xu Yan thought for a moment.

"I can help you adjust the card and engrave new illusion runes on it, so that you can taste the joy of revenge in your dream, vent your emotions in this way, and ensure mental stability when you are awake."

He said, "But this approach is a double-edged sword. It may allow you to vent your negative emotions and gradually forget those unpleasant things in the past; but it may also cause negative emotions to pile up and eventually solidify into a deep-seated hatred. At that time, it will not be as simple as blowing the intelligence officer's knee and the superior's ear. Perhaps you will have to completely kill them in order to fully return to normal—or you may never be able to return to normal."

"can."

Gao Ce took out the sealing card and handed it to Xu Yan, expressing his approval and trust in this way. "Then I'll have to trouble you. Don't worry, Captain Long helped me a lot when he was chasing the Swamp Gang. I won't make any rash moves until I help her find out the problems in Dawn City."

Even the unruly Gao Ce was subdued by Xu Yan's few words.

Long Jianhuan and Li Xinglan exchanged a glance, both seeing the surprise in each other's eyes. They hadn't expected that Xu Yan would grow to such an amazing level in just two or three months.

"Now that everyone knows each other, if there are no problems, let's briefly introduce the next task!"

Long Jianhuan gestured to Li Xinglan to use a "Phantom Butterfly" to project the information he had collected and organized over the past few days into a waterfall-like information flow among everyone.

As a torrent of complex information and fluctuating figures poured down, Long Jianhuan began his introduction.

It all started with that blood-stained crystal coin.

Of course, Ryūken didn't say that it was a gift from the "gravedigger".

They only said that the security department discovered it at the scene.

Considering Sheikh Krat's financial situation and the large sums of cash that mysteriously disappeared from the Shattered Star Club's corporate accounts.

The Security Bureau's initial suspicion is that there is a very secretive money laundering, or even asset transfer, industry chain in Dawn City. This chain helps those well-informed individuals who foresee that Dawn City will be abandoned by the Heroic Spirit Alliance due to resource depletion to transform the wealth they have accumulated through the tireless efforts of all citizens—fixed assets, goodwill, connections, and even advance payments from customers that are inconvenient to transfer—into small, high-value, untraceable, yet easily portable premium crystals. They then take this wealth, which rightfully belongs to the entire Dawn City, and disappear without a trace.

"This kind of behavior is absolutely intolerable."

Long Jianhuan said, "The depletion of resources in Dawn City is merely a guess. With the continuous development of exploration, mining and smelting technologies, who can say that new mineral veins cannot be discovered around seemingly depleted veins? And those poor mines that were once extremely costly to mine and smelt may instantly become rich mines with great mining value after a certain new technology is invented."

"Even if resources are truly depleted, as long as the Heroic Spirit Alliance changes its decades-long strategy of complacency and timidity, and launches a major offensive into the wilderness, planting the Alliance's banner deep into the wilderness and even the polluted areas, Dawn City, located on the southeastern border, may still be reborn as a 'forward base'."

"But if all the big shots secretly drain all the funds here and leave beforehand, then it's all over."

"Although their careers are the result of decades of hard work, they also owe a great deal to the support of countless citizens of Liming City."

"Especially the miners who work day and night in the deep underground mines, sweating profusely, not only give their labor, but also risk their lives. They should not be discarded by anyone as garbage that has been squeezed dry of all its value."

"Not to mention guys like Sheikh Krat, who, in the process of transferring assets, also engaged in vicious and undisguised fraud, which not only caused the Shattered Star Club to close down, but also caused countless employees and customers to go bankrupt, indirectly leading to frequent violent incidents in Dawn City and a deteriorating security and business environment. This, in turn, prompted many big shots to accelerate the pace of transferring assets, plunging Dawn City into an extremely dangerous death spiral."

"If this situation continues, even if the Alliance does not officially abandon Dawn City, this once glorious mining star city will turn into a lawless crime city or even a chaotic and disorderly death city."

"Our mission is to find and sever this underground asset transfer chain, so that those who try to abscond with the money will at least leave behind all the illegal gains they have made by exploiting Dawn City!"

(End of this chapter)