The three at the front were all too familiar to Li Yuanshan, they were the former captain of the city defense force and the second and sixth squad leaders, all of whom he had dismissed and exiled from the city just days ago.
“City Lord Li, it’s been a while.” Captain Fu Yang hobbled into view on his crutch, immediately stirring up an uproar among the crowd.
“Didn’t Captain Fu die fighting the aberrants a few days ago?”
“And the second and sixth squad leaders, they’re alive too?”
People exchanged bewildered glances, all wearing expressions of utter disbelief. After all, the death notices declaring these three had died in the line of duty had been posted on the bulletin board for three full days.
Because their bodies had never been recovered, the citizens had even organized groups to lay flowers outside the city walls. The Ministry of Compensation had sent officials to console the grieving families, and the families’ heart-wrenching wails were a scene everyone still remembered vividly.
Hearing the citizens’ shock that he was still alive, Fu Yang glared at Li Yuanshan with undisguised hatred: “Fellow citizens, four days ago, the Xihe Squad delivered fifty giant spirit stones to our city defense force. All eleven of us squad leaders were present, and we jointly counted and transported them to the warehouse. But…”
Fu Yang paused, his fury at Li Yuanshan intensifying: “The spirit stones weren’t stolen by the Xihe Squad. They were forcibly seized by Li Yuanshan for himself. The three of us were dismissed and exiled from the city because we refused to go along with his scheme. We never died fighting aberrants!”
At the words “dismissed and exiled from the city,” everyone drew in a sharp breath.
In this post-apocalyptic world, being exiled from the safe zone was tantamount to being killed indirectly. Even before the apocalypse, criminals weren’t summarily executed without due process. Li Yuanshan’s actions were truly vicious and utterly beyond the pale.
“Just now, I heard City Lord Li say in the house that you don’t have an ability and couldn’t possibly hide fifty-one spirit stones, right?” Fu Yang sneered, ruthlessly exposing him. “Not having an ability doesn’t mean not having a system. As far as I know, City Lord Li’s system has already been upgraded to the secondary tier, and secondary-tier systems come with system storage space. Dare you deny it?”
“Nonsense! How would I not know I have a system, let alone that it’s been upgraded?” Li Yuanshan broke out in a cold sweat, stubbornly refusing to admit anything.
“Fine then. If you won’t admit to the storage space, then what about the spirit stone sculpture in your bedroom?”
At that moment, a photo appeared on the giant screen, a spirit stone carved into an artistic sculpture. Li Yuanshan recognized it at once as the one in his room.
The emerald necklace on the spirit stone sculpture was something he had personally placed on it this very morning. The antique clock behind it also showed the time: 9:51 AM today.
Exactly when Lu Xihe had gone to the restroom.
“…” Li Yuanshan was completely panicked now. He glared at Lu Xihe, his eyes filled with venom and malice.
Li Yuanshan wanted to keep making excuses, but the tide had already turned against him, it was too late. Besides, Fu Yang had no intention of giving him any breathing room.
“And what about the spirit stones in the homes of the current eleven city defense squad leaders? How do you explain those?” Fu Yang’s words hammered the final nail into the coffin. He ground his teeth and said, “If anyone doesn’t believe me, you can go see for yourselves at City Lord Li’s house and the squad leaders’ homes.”
“Especially City Lord Li’s, a broken-arm Venus statue carved so lifelike, so exquisitely detailed.” Fu Yang glared at him, each word practically squeezed out between clenched teeth.
The crowd immediately stirred into action. At the Li residence, every area except Li Yuanshan’s bedroom had been protected by Cheng Yuchuan’s ability, so when the crowd surged into the house, they could only follow the designated route straight to Li Yuanshan’s room.
On the surface, the room looked perfectly normal. If only a few people had entered and no one triggered the mechanism, the hidden chamber with the spirit stone sculpture would never have been discovered, and Li Yuanshan might still have had a sliver of hope.
But now, the agitated crowd only wanted to uncover the truth as quickly as possible. They flooded in all at once, touching this and feeling that, and before long, someone opened the door to the hidden chamber.
The rosewood door swung open slowly, revealing a dazzling new world within. And there, in the very center of the hidden chamber, stood the towering spirit stone goddess statue.
Meanwhile, those who had rushed into the homes of the city defense squad leaders also discovered giant spirit stones hidden in their houses. Some who couldn’t squeeze into those homes instead charged into the residences of Li Yuanshan’s assistants and bodyguards, and sure enough, they found spirit stones of various sizes there too.
Seeing the situation spiral to an irredeemable point, some who had accepted Li Yuanshan’s bribes began to turn on him, throwing him under the bus.
The first to betray Li Yuanshan was his own assistant: “I can testify. Li Yuanshan embezzled the fifty-one spirit stones meant for border reinforcement and tried to recruit the Xihe Squad to monopolize their sale. I have records and audio recordings of both the whereabouts of the spirit stones and the negotiation process.”
Misfortunes never come alone. The current captain of the city defense force also stepped forward to report: “I was originally the deputy captain of the city defense force. Li Yuanshan threatened me with my seven-year-old daughter, forcing me to help him fabricate testimony. My daughter is still missing to this day, I beg everyone to help me find her.”
The man, standing nearly two meters tall, burst into tears on the spot, clutching the little rabbit plushie hanging over his left chest as he pleaded desperately with the crowd.
“I’m the one who’s been leading the smear campaign against the Xihe squad outside the villa these past few days. I’m turning myself in, Li Yuanshan paid me to do it. I have no money, no job, I can’t even afford to eat every day. I had no choice, I was starving. I’m sorry to the Xihe squad, please forgive me!”
Once someone took the lead, more and more people stepped forward to accuse Li Yuanshan. Soon, his crimes of embezzling spirit stones, framing Li Qing, and conspiring against the Xihe squad were laid bare for all to see.
Every charge was hammered home thoroughly, and Li Yuanshan had no chance of turning things around. Li Qing immediately ordered him expelled from the city, drawing cheers from the crowd.
“No! You can’t throw me out! I still have 30 spirit stones in my space. If you dare touch me, I’ll destroy them all, none of you will get a single one!” Li Yuanshan, at the end of his rope, began lashing out wildly.
His words did cause a moment of panic, but it lasted only a brief second before being smoothed over by a light chuckle from Lu Xihe.
“You really think I, Lu Xihe, would fight a battle without preparation?” Lu Xihe snapped her fingers and called out loudly, “Yu Yicheng!”
“Who calls for this young master?” Yu Yicheng made his entrance, striding over to Li Yuanshan with sunglasses on, swiping a thumb across his nose in a showy manner. “001.”
[I’m here.]
“Get everything in his space out for me.”
[Understood.] After responding, 001 switched to a stern, cold voice, [S250.]
The moment 001 finished speaking, a pile of items came crashing down from above Li Yuanshan’s head out of thin air. The spirit stones that fell first nearly crushed him into pulp, scaring him into a sprint. But the system hung right above him, each stone grazing his back as it fell, forcing him to run for dear life.
“Help! Help!” Li Yuanshan cried out desperately, but no one paid him any mind. The crowd stared in shock at the items spilling from his space, jaws dropping one by one.
With people all around, Li Yuanshan had nowhere to run. To prevent items from his space from falling and injuring the crowd, Cheng Yuchuan withdrew his ability barrier, allowing him to circle the villa instead.
Running back to the villa’s front gate again, Li Yuanshan screamed in desperation, “Xiao Qing, save me, Xiao Qing! I’m your uncle!”
Li Qing remained unmoved. When he circled back once more, he actually begged Lu Xihe for help: “Lu Xihe, Master Lu, I was wrong. Please, I beg you, save me, I really can’t run anymore.”
Spirit stones fell like small mountains behind him. He sprinted around the villa a full four laps before everything in his space finally hit the ground. Li Yuanshan collapsed in terror, his lower body soaked cold.
Besides spirit stones, Li Yuanshan’s space contained plenty of food, firearms, gold and silver jewelry, and… countless women’s undergarments.
“Ah Pervert!!”
Someone in the crowd shouted, and the scene erupted again. A jumble of miscellaneous items was hurled at Li Yuanshan, first gloves and hats, then eggs and vegetable leaves, and finally a few knives.
One cleaver landed squarely between Li Yuanshan’s legs, just two centimeters short of hitting his manhood. His face went deathly pale, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted from sheer terror.
Li Qing had him carried off and locked in the outer city, to be expelled at noon the next day when the sun was high. Whether he lived or died after leaving the city was no longer their concern, not throwing him out in the dead of night was already more than merciful.
The processed spirit stone in Li Yuanshan’s secret chamber was essentially ruined. Too much of its material had been shaved away, and who knew how much range it could still cover against the aberrants, but it could still protect a villa, so it stayed at the Li residence as a house guardian.
Of the 20 spirit stones Li Yuanshan had given away, 13 were returned intact. The rest had been split into smaller pieces, useless for reinforcing A City’s defenses.
Looking at the 43 giant spirit stones before her, Lu Xihe rubbed her brow in frustration, then pulled 7 more giant spirit stones from her space to fill the hole Li Yuanshan’s stupidity had torn open.
In front of the entire city, Lu Xihe handed over 50 giant spirit stones to Li Qing once again.
The current captain team of the city guard had abandoned their original purpose and aided the villain. As the saying goes, once disloyal, never trusted again. Li Qing dismissed them all without exception and appointed Fu Yang and two others as the new captains, tasking them with the transfer, safekeeping, and implementation of the spirit stones.
With the whole city watching this time, surely no one would dare harbor any crooked thoughts.
With the Li Yuanshan affair settled and the crowd dispersed, Li Qing followed the others back to the villa. After half a month apart, seeing Cheng Yuchuan again still filled her with a warm sense of reunion.
She never trusted a stranger easily, but with Cheng Yuchuan, she inexplicably felt at ease, inexplicably trusting.
“Does Captain Cheng plan to settle down in our A City?” Li Qing asked proactively.
“…” Cheng Yuchuan was first taken aback by her address, then realized this was no longer the previous life. A wave of bitterness spread through his heart.
He chuckled lightly and said, “You can just call me Yuchuan. We do currently plan to settle in City A, though it’s hard to say once the new safe zone is completed.”
“You’re planning to build a new safe zone? Where? Near that Spirit Stone Mountain?” Li Qing asked in surprise. “With the aberrants running rampant now, isn’t that a bit difficult?”
The existing safe zones were all enclosed in the early days of the apocalypse, and they already held massive advantages in manpower, material, and resources. In this end-times world, building a new safe zone in an abandoned or undeveloped area was no easy feat, let alone with only seven people.
“It’s difficult, but it must be done, which is why I need your help, Li Qing.” Cheng Yuchuan said frankly.
Li Qing nodded in understanding, and after a moment of thought, said sincerely, “Technical team, construction workers, building materials, whatever you need, just say the word. I’ll do everything I can to help.”
Since Li Qing had shown her sincerity, Cheng Yuchuan laid out his plans one by one for her.
Develop the Spirit Stone mine, transport the Spirit Stones to various safe zones to strengthen national defenses, form Spirit Stone rescue teams, gradually restore social order with the aid of the stones, and finally launch a full-scale purge to eliminate the aberrants and restore peace to the world.
Hearing Cheng Yuchuan’s general plan, Li Qing seemed to see the dawn of victory. She stood up, extended her hand toward the group, and said with a graceful smile, “Humanity will definitely triumph over this aberrant apocalypse. Let’s work hard together, let’s go!”
“Yeah, let’s work hard together.” Cheng Yuchuan’s voice was steady and resolute.
The eight of them exchanged a knowing glance, then reached out and stacked their hands tightly together. The warmth of each other’s skin passed through, as if an invisible force was gathering and flowing in their palms.
They lowered their heads slightly, their eyes resting on the stacked hands, then looked up to meet the determination in each other’s eyes. Silent encouragement passed through the air, and in that moment, an alliance of unity was quietly forged.
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
“Charge, charge, charge!!”