The Unity Society's Lair

"Take it easy, old man, take your time."

Yang Gan looked at the elderly man who had just been released from the restroom, his expression gentle and pleasant.

Beside him stood a female investigator wearing a mask and a black trench coat.

At Huting Park, over a dozen Anomaly Bureau armored vehicles had completely surrounded the area, with hundreds of investigators forming a three-layer security perimeter, including snipers on distant residential buildings, all watching their surroundings with vigilance.

Upon detecting that the abnormal psychic radiation in Huting Park had rapidly diminished and then vanished entirely, Yang Gan had rushed over immediately.

The Zhun Brothers remained on the perimeter, standing guard.

Reinforcements from the Bureau arrived almost simultaneously, and that was when Yang Gan found the old man who had been locked inside the public restroom.

"Officer, I'm telling you, I've never seen people so wicked! They nearly suffocated me to death—do you know how foul this public restroom is?! I'm telling you, our municipal department really needs to improve things; can't they make public restrooms smell nice?"

The old man's face was wrinkled like an orange peel from the stench, and he grabbed Yang Gan's hand to vent his grievances.

Calmly pulling his hand away, Yang Gan continued to ask:

"Tell me, who exactly was it that locked you in there? The government will stand up for you!"

The old man composed himself and continued:

"I was just using the stall when I suddenly heard Auntie Zhao and the others dancing in the square start screaming. I peeked through the door and saw everyone running away. Then, two figures zipped in, moving on all fours like dogs."

"I didn't know what was going on, and I was scared, so I just watched through the door. It looked like two people doing parkour, but not quite—maybe they escaped from Qingyang Hospital? They were climbing on the pavilion, jumping around, and then one of them just floated up."

Yang Gan frowned: "Floated up? How did he float? What is Qingyang Hospital?"

"He just suddenly floated up several meters, hovering in the air—maybe he was on stilts? The power was out, so it was hard to see. Later, one of them knelt down and kowtowed to the other, and the one who was floating fell down. Qingyang Hospital is the psychiatric rehabilitation center on the outskirts of the city, a mental hospital!"

After finishing, the old man looked up at Yang Gan with impatience. How could a young person these days not know about Qingyang Hospital?

"Then one of them ran over, opened the door, and asked me what I'd seen. He was an ugly man, maybe forty or fifty years old. He called me 'old man,' but I'm only in my fifties! I told him what I saw, and he just slammed the door shut and ran off! Isn't that just plain mean?"

Yang Gan nodded slightly, while the recorder beside him took notes rapidly.

The old man kept rambling: "Really, the smell made my eyes water. I never thought mental patients could be so wicked... Hey, that fishing rod of yours is nice, isn't it? Good for silver carp."

Yang Gan immediately became interested: "You bet, this is custom-made, carbon fiber, one of a kind. You know that time at Huaishan Reservoir..."

"Yang Gan." The woman in the trench coat, wearing a mask and sunglasses, spoke up.

Yang Gan immediately shut his mouth and retreated to the side, acting obedient.

The woman removed her sunglasses and looked at the old man, speaking softly:

"Is what you said the truth?"

There seemed to be a faint glimmer in her eyes, and her voice was as gentle as a breeze blowing across one's heart, causing everyone present in Huting Park to become calm and relaxed.

The old man was stunned, then muttered:

"Everything I said is true. You really look like my daughter... They were truly two lunatics, weird and wicked..."

The woman carefully observed the old man's eyes for a moment, put her sunglasses back on, and said:

"He isn't lying. Though, ordinary people can't see the intense battle on the psychic level; there are still residual waves of psychic radiation at the scene."

Yang Gan quickly arranged for investigators to send the old man home, then asked the woman:

"Sister Lan, what is going on here? An internal conflict among anomalies?"

The woman shook her head:

"The moment the psychic radiation here at Huting Park vanished, the remaining two hundred or so abnormal infectees across Gu City all returned to normal. Whoever was eliminated must have been the source of this large-scale abnormal infection. The one who removed the source might be an Awakened."

"You mean a powerful rogue Awakened? Someone who doesn't want to be tied down by the organization, but steps up to help the masses in times of crisis?" Yang Gan instantly understood her meaning and exclaimed in admiration:

"He's smart, isn't he? Doesn't this mean he can go fishing whenever he wants?"

The woman gave him a blank, icy stare and said:

"Pack up. Come with me to Cloud Mountain. Since that mastermind has been creating diversions in the city, it means their ultimate goal lies within Cloud Mountain. This is a critical moment; we cannot afford any mistakes."

Yang Gan hurriedly followed behind, fawning:

"What exactly is the Bureau's plan now? I'm completely in the dark. Did you find something on Cloud Mountain? I recall there being a reservoir on the mountain, right?"

In the hospital, Li Fan looked at the sincere expression on Liu Dalong's face, his heart feeling as if it were being twisted by a knife.

You are being ungrateful, treacherous, and biting the hand that feeds you!

I just saved your life, and you want to make me a deputy director?

Do you have any humanity left!?

Are you really trying to push me into a pit of fire like this?

Why are people like this nowadays?

Suppressing the emotional turmoil within, Li Fan quickly waved his hands and said:

"Director Liu, what are you saying! I've only been working for a few days! Deputy director? People will laugh at me! Besides, you are so dedicated and hardworking; who in the department doesn't know how committed you are to your job?"

As he spoke, Li Fan stood up abruptly, his face already showing signs of anger:

"I saw everything tonight. You were fighting the anomaly with your life on the line, and you fell into a coma because of your severe injuries—you're a hero! If you step back to the second line and I take the position of deputy director, wouldn't people be stabbing me in the back? I might as well just resign!"

Changing his tone, Li Fan continued:

"Besides, our Dissection Department is the backbone of the entire Anomaly Bureau, and you are our department's technical master. Everyone knows your dissection skills; you are the pillar of this place. If you stop being the deputy director, our department will fall apart, and if our department falls apart, the Anomaly Bureau will fall apart! You'd be a sinner, I'm telling you!"

Li Fan spoke with passion, his face flushed red, appearing utterly righteous and indignant.

Liu Dalong, who had been feeling dejected and fearful, was instantly filled with excitement and emotion at Li Fan's words.

So, all those years of showing up at three in the morning and leaving before five, focusing entirely on making money at his family's butcher shop, were all for the purpose of honing his top-tier dissection skills to become the technical backbone of the bureau!

If Section Chief Li hadn't reminded him, he would have forgotten that himself.

Seeing Li Fan looking as if he would rather die than take the deputy director position, Liu Dalong's eyes turned red, and tears began to stream down. The burly butcher could only hurriedly pull up the quilt to wipe them away:

"Oh, my eyes—dry eye syndrome. I can't watch TV for too long."

He saved his life, pushed away the credit, refused to take advantage of the situation for a promotion, and even gave him a way to save face.

This young man is truly, just too good.

Too rare!

No matter what, he had to find a way for Li Fan to get the reward he deserved.

The more humble and kind he was, the less he could let him feel discouraged!

Seeing that Liu Dalong had been temporarily persuaded and had abandoned the idea of making him deputy director, Li Fan couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

He had been breaking into a cold sweat just now.

He only possessed a sliver of the Tiger Pillar God's power right now and was still a weakling; if he were promoted repeatedly within a few days, something would definitely go wrong.

He had managed to get through this hurdle without any real danger.

The Unity Society must be eliminated immediately!

Just then, his phone suddenly rang.

It showed an empty number.

Li Fan frowned, picked up the phone, walked into the corridor outside the room, and pressed the answer button.

Auntie Zhang's voice came through:

"Reporting to you, the general location of the Unity Society's lair has been confirmed. It is deep within the Gu City subway system."

Li Fan nodded slightly and asked in a hoarse, dull voice:

"Specific location?"

Auntie Zhang's voice sounded somewhat uneasy:

"Not yet confirmed, but we are accelerating the search."

Li Fan furrowed his brows:

"Useless."