Chapter 4399 — Secret Investigation

As the young master of the Qingtian Escort Agency, Qi Wenmo had picked up a certain young-lord air, yet he was at heart a steady man who understood the larger picture. Since Wei Zhao had gone out of his way to warn him, he simply shut himself away in seclusion, devoting himself to studying the files on every rival house, determined to lay out his forces well at the coming South Isle Escort Gathering and seize a good ranking.

Wei Zhao had likewise withdrawn with the utmost care, believing his identity sufficiently concealed that none would take notice. Yet it never once crossed his mind that the Central Chamber of Commerce understood him far more deeply than he could ever have imagined.

At this moment, on the third and topmost floor of the Central Chamber of Commerce—closed to all idlers—stood the black-clad man and Ma Tianlang as before, except that neither of them was entitled to the seat of honor any longer. Instead they stood to one side, trembling with dread, cold sweat breaking out down their backs.

Seated now in the seat of honor was a woman, and behind her stood a mysterious figure wholly shrouded beneath a black wide-brimmed hat.

"Wang Dayuan, you are the shopkeeper of the Moleng branch and the one responsible for this whole district. What happened here this time—explain it to me clearly, and properly." The woman's voice was utterly calm, seemingly devoid of any emotion, yet the air in the room abruptly froze solid.

This was no true suppression by force of cultivation, but simply the aura of a superior born of authority alone. Even a Xuan Ascension expert—one whose strength men like Wei Zhao could never dream of approaching—could not help drawing his neck in, scarcely daring to breathe too loudly, for fear of provoking the woman's displeasure.

The Wang Dayuan of whom the woman spoke was Ma Tianlang's superior, and at her words the black-clad man grew more terrified still, until he could not even stop himself from shivering and shaking.

"This... this... your subordinate..." Wang Dayuan stammered, unable for the longest time to get out a coherent word.

"Is it that you do not know? Or that you do not wish to say?" The woman's brow furrowed slightly, and killing intent flickered in her gaze. "It seems you no longer wish to keep this shopkeeper's post. Very well. My laboratory happens to be short of volunteers. Xuan Ascension experts have not yet been included in the scope of my research, but that is only a matter of time. Why not let you have a taste of it first?"

"No, no—your subordinate would not dare, would not dare." Wang Dayuan dropped to his knees in fright. The success rate of human experiments was abysmally low; once one was marked as a test subject, nine and a half out of ten were dead. And he still wanted to live long and enjoy himself.

"Then speak, and be quick about it. After a disaster of this magnitude, do you still mean to shirk responsibility?" the woman rebuked him coldly.

Given her rank and standing within the organization, trifles of this sort should never have required her attention at all. Even if some branch of the Central Chamber of Commerce were razed to the ground, she need not have appeared in person. But this incident had seen several dozen test samples escape at a single stroke—an enormous blow to experiments that had just reached their critical stage. Even she could not help but fret and fume over it.

"This..." To this day, Wang Dayuan had still not fully grasped what had happened. But if he could not produce a proper account now, his fate was plainly grim. He could only brace himself and say, "Your subordinate has heard that it was a martial artist brought in recently. He seems to have used some remarkably powerful great technique and blown the dungeon wide open..."

This was purely hearsay, and vague at that, with no telling whether it was true or false. If it proved true afterward, well and good. But if it proved false, then matters today would be grave indeed—and should she fly into a rage and truly hand him over for human experimentation, there would be nowhere to go to weep.

"Exactly what happened? Tell me clearly," the woman said, her brow indeed furrowing. She gave a cold snort. "From whom did you hear this? Who is this martial artist, what is his strength, and what technique did he use that could be powerful enough to blast open a dungeon reinforced with a protective formation?"

The defensive measures of that dungeon had been taken into account from the very outset. Since it was meant to hold Golden Core experts in concentrated custody, its protective formation was powerful enough to withstand experts one tier higher, at the Nascent Soul stage. So long as no Xuan Ascension giant was locked inside, in theory it was utterly foolproof. Who could ever have imagined that such a thing would come to pass?

"This... this is what the people we captured and brought back said..." Wang Dayuan stammered, cold sweat streaming down.

The truth of the matter was that he had indeed handled this poorly. Had he truly set his mind to investigating, everything would long since have come to light. But the past few days he had been away from Moleng City, busy contending with other branches over the supply of common goods, each scheming against the others—how could he spare a thought for affairs back home, much less anticipate that his own house would suddenly catch fire?

He was the branch shopkeeper, and running the branch well was not only a mark of achievement but also an opportunity to skim a little for himself and turn a tidy profit on the side. By comparison, the dungeon holding all those Golden Core samples, though technically within his purview as well, offered nothing to be gained, and so he had never paid it much mind.

But now that such a calamity had struck, Wang Dayuan was filled with regret too late. True, there was no profit to be had from the dungeon, but it was a project the entire organization held in the highest regard. Nothing going wrong was merely his duty; but once something did go wrong and could not be remedied in time, heads would truly roll.

Just as at present—having made such a mess and being unable to clean it up, his life and death now rested entirely in the woman's hands. Whether he lived or died lay in a single thought of hers.

"And the man? Bring him here," the woman said with a frown. She could see that Wang Dayuan did not know the inside story, and rather than keep questioning this muddled creature, she might as well interrogate the man herself.

"Ah?" Wang Dayuan gave a start and, his face twisted with misery, did not dare raise his head. "That man... that man has already been sent for human experimentation..."

When the dungeon had been blown open, the experts left on guard had rushed from every direction to seize the fugitives at the first moment. But there were too few of them, and too many had escaped from the dungeon, every one of them a Golden Core expert. When such men fought for their lives, their speed in flight was nothing to sneeze at—and they had scattered as they fled. In the end, the number actually recaptured was in truth very limited.

And in the spirit of minimizing the affair, the matter had not been reported at once. After all, for men like Wang Dayuan, once those above learned of it, a severe demerit was inevitable. But if, before the higher-ups received word, they could hurry and catch more Golden Core experts to replenish the test samples, then merit could offset fault.

It happened that the experiments were at a critical stage just now, with an especially great demand for samples. So those who had been recaptured were provided as usual for human experimentation, and by now they were doubtless all corpses... (ps recommendation: recommending a fine urban novel, "Top-Class War Soldier"—hot-blooded and thoroughly satisfying. If you like this kind of thing, be sure to go take a look!) (To be continued..)