High-level martial arts: Long spear with black flames to suppress demons.

The following morning, the Night Division headquarters in Modu Town officially held a handover ceremony for the acting general manager, with all existing personnel at the level of first-level inspector and above in attendance.

Thanks to support from various regions and joint defense by the military, many unfamiliar faces appeared in the auditorium.

Nearly half of them are support personnel urgently drawn from various places in recent days to fill the huge gaps left by the war.

At nine o'clock in the morning, a convoy from the Beijing headquarters drove into the headquarters plaza on time.

The black car at the front came to a stop, and Gu Lian was the first to push open the door and get out.

He looked to be in his early forties, with a tall and straight figure, wearing the black uniform of the Chief Commander of the Kyoto City Night Division, with no extra decorations on his shoulder straps or chest insignia.

Unlike the stereotypical image of a scion of a prominent family in the capital, he showed no signs of arrogance; his expression was calm and his eyes were reserved.

Two third-level inspectors from Beijing accompanied Gu Lian into the headquarters.

One was Zhou Jingyue, from the Zhou family, who looked to be around forty years old, with a square face, tall stature, and a serious expression; the other was Baili Heng, a member of the Baili family, who was about the same age, but had a more composed aura, and hardly looked around after entering the hall.

Both are genuine eighth-realm cultivators, temporarily transferred to Shanghai by orders from headquarters in the capital to fill the high-level combat force vacated after the great war. Whether they will remain in their posts after three months depends on the situation in Shanghai.

After Fang Jiming gave a brief introduction, Gu Lian walked to the front of the auditorium and began his inaugural speech.

"Everyone, I am Gu Lian. Starting today, I will temporarily serve as the Chief Commander of the Night Division of Shanghai."

"The city paid a heavy price in this Dead Zone incident. Many of our comrades in the Eighth Realm died in battle, and many more are still receiving treatment. It is meaningless to talk about welcoming and celebrating at this time."

"I'm here to do three things: First, restore the headquarters to normal operation as soon as possible and complete the compensation for the casualties and personnel rotation; second, cooperate with the military to re-stabilize the outer defenses of Donghai and Shanghai; and third, investigate the issues that have not yet been clarified in the Dead Zone incident to prevent the same thing from happening again."

Gu Lian's gaze slowly swept over the crowd below the stage: "My term of office is tentatively set for three months. During these three months, I will not arbitrarily overturn the existing arrangements in Shanghai, nor will I adjust important positions without cause. If Chief Commander Wang awakens ahead of schedule, I will immediately complete the handover of power."

"Shanghai can't afford internal strife right now. I just hope everyone here can clean up the rest of the issues."

That's all.

After the handover of the company seal by the acting general manager was completed, the brief ceremony came to an end.

The first-level inspectors left one after another, while the deputy general manager and the third-level inspectors moved to the conference room on the top floor to begin the formal handover of their work.

Fang Jiming reported on the latest changes in the East China Sea rift, Su Yuan submitted the personnel roster and supplementary list, and Lü Nan presented all the information on casualties, compensation, and meritorious service.

The demon realm delegation, Du Yue, and the 7th Legion of the Second Army Group were also included in the reporting scope.

Gu Lian listened attentively, but did not rashly change the existing deployment in Shanghai throughout the process. He only offered suggestions for adjustments to the rotation frequency of several defensive lines and the reserve forces. Zhou Jingyue and Baili Heng were temporarily assigned to the high-level action sequence, respectively filling the two weakest points in terms of strength.

Two hours later, the meeting gradually came to an end.

Gu Lian closed the last document: "That's all for now. All departments should continue to proceed according to the existing plan. If there are any problems, report them directly to the General Office."

The crowd gradually stood up.

Just as Shen Chang'an was about to leave, Gu Lian's voice came from behind him: "Inspector Shen, please stay for a moment."

Shen Chang'an paused slightly.

Murong Yan, who was standing next to him, turned around and glanced at him. Their eyes met briefly, and Shen Chang'an nodded gently with a normal expression.

After everyone else had left, the conference room door closed again, and the isolation array was activated.

Gu Lian did not stay in the main conference room, but led Shen Chang'an through the side door into a small internal reception room next door.

"sit."

Shen Chang'an pulled out a chair and sat down on the other side of the long table.

Gu Lian sat down as well, without exchanging pleasantries, and raised his hand to pull up a top-secret investigation file from the headquarters in Beijing.

The light screen unfolds.

There are no complete images, only a few fragmented pieces forcibly restored from different surveillance and battlefield records.

In the first segment, less than a second in, the image is covered by large areas of gray-black noise, and the entire sky seems to be forcibly distorted by some force. Only a blurry human figure can be vaguely seen in the sky, and then all the images break at the same time.

The second segment was even more severe, with the monitoring footage over Shanghai freezing completely at a certain moment, followed by all observation equipment losing response.

The third segment originates from the East China Sea.

Only Shen Chang'an's figure could be barely discerned in the footage. As for the unknown expert, no complete record of his identity was left from beginning to end.

The only thing that can be confirmed by the existing information is that an unknown powerful figure with an unidentified identity did appear in Shanghai that night, and Shen Chang'an had a long period of contact with him.

Gu Lian turned off the video and got straight to the point: "After the headquarters in the capital sent me down, the top priority was to find out about this unknown expert."

"All the existing monitoring data has been corrupted, and we can't even confirm what he looks like. But one thing is certain: he was alone with you that night."

"Afterwards, your power underwent a tremendous change, and you went to the East Sea to slay the Primal Species that had completed its second metamorphosis. So I need to know what exactly happened back then."

Shen Chang'an looked at the now-closed light screen and spoke according to his only remaining memory: "That unknown powerful figure sensed that I had mastered a soul-type technique, and then forcibly invaded my sea of ​​consciousness. I didn't know who he was, the difference in their cultivation levels was too great, and I had no ability to resist at the time."

Beside Gu Lian was a small statue of a Bi'an, no bigger than a fist, with two dark green crystal eyes that gleamed faintly.

Did he tell you his name?

"no."

"Have you had a relationship before?"

"no."

Gu Lian continued, "If that's the case, why did he choose you specifically?"

Shen Chang'an frowned slightly, as if recalling something seriously: "I don't know. I was near Du Yue at the time. He might have just chosen me by chance, or he might have discovered the soul technique I was cultivating. After that, he directly left an extremely strong external will deep within my soul."

"What is the purpose of that will?"

Shen Chang'an said, "During that time, I was conscious, but I couldn't fully control my body. What happened later was that he used my body to do it."

"The original species of the East Sea, was it killed by that will?"

"Yes, at least most of the power used at that time did not belong to me."

"Where's the stone slab?"

"It was destroyed by that same force as everyone else."

Gu Lian's gaze darkened slightly: "Then how do you explain your breakthrough to the seventh realm?"

"After the original species died, an extremely powerful force suddenly surged into my body, directly breaking through the bottleneck of my cultivation realm."

"What happened to the large amount of demonic energy that suddenly disappeared over the East China Sea?"

"I don't know, but it's probably related to that unknown powerful figure."

Gu Lian didn't pause, continuing to ask several questions: "Why was he able to restore Shanghai? Did he mention his background? Did he ever talk about the Abyss or the Black Swan?"

Shen Chang'an answered "I don't know" to all these questions, showing a complete lack of knowledge.