An inside man

"What?"

"Those two, Baruk and his partner, haven't dealt with Lu Zhan? They're waiting until that bastard advances to the intermediate class before making their move?"

"Do those two bastards even respect me as their branch leader?"

While Lu Zhan was hard at work practicing Basic Combat, Ma Yancheng received the pair's "mission report"—or rather, their response.

In his report, Baruk described Lu Zhan as a crafty old hand who knew how to exploit the Training Center's rules.

The two of them had nearly fallen into his trap.

Moreover, according to the information they had gathered, Lu Zhan was an expert at sucking up to people and had secured Lu Guanhong's patronage.

Lu Guanhong was the Training Center's only Alchemy instructor, as well as the instructor for their intermediate class.

That was the main reason they could not conveniently make a move at this stage.

"Utter bullshit!"

"Branch leader, those two are just fobbing you off!"

"I know better than anyone what Lu Zhan is like."

"How could an honest-to-a-fault idiot like him possibly be good at flattery, let alone get an Alchemy master to back him?"

"Those two are clearly making excuses."

Seeing his branch leader fly into a rage, Lin Kexian immediately jumped in with his criticism, thinking himself clever.

He believed he knew Lu Zhan inside out and had spotted the holes in the report at a glance.

But the moment he opened his mouth, Ma Yancheng's fury turned on him.

"Lin Kexian, what the hell are you playing at?"

"Didn't you tell me that brat Lu Zhan was sly and treacherous? Why are you calling him honest now?"

"He had the nerve to run away right under my nose. How could a little wolf like that be an honest man?"

Ma Yancheng glared viciously at Lin Kexian, struggling to suppress his urge to kill.

Had the brat not been so useful, he would have liked to swallow him whole.

Lin Kexian had not expected his branch leader to have such a good memory.

Out of jealousy, he had previously slandered Lu Zhan just a "little." Now it had come back to bite him.

But heaven was his witness: everything he had told his branch leader this time was true.

If Lu Zhan really knew how to flatter people and find powerful patrons, how could Lin Kexian have been the one standing here today?

"Branch leader, I'm utterly loyal to you. I've risked my life carrying out every task you've given me."

"The very day you ordered Lu Zhan's capture, I tracked down that taxi driver and learned where Lu Zhan had gone."

"I even spent seven days staking out District 13's Recruitment Office, risking having both my legs broken by the Blood Fox Gang."

"I really never imagined that little wolf Lu Zhan would be such a coward that he'd hide in the Training Center that very day."

Faced with Ma Yancheng's furious questioning, Lin Kexian did not dare argue. Instead, he began proclaiming his loyalty.

At that moment, he almost regretted being so cautious in District 13 that the local Blood Fox Gang had never caught him slipping and broken his legs.

That would have made today's ordeal easier to survive.

After "serving" Ma Yancheng for so long, Lin Kexian knew all too well how brutal this branch leader could be.

Several of his previous "competitors" had vanished without a trace after Ma Yancheng flew into a rage.

Their fate was easy enough to imagine.

"That damned little wolf actually knew to enlist in District 13."

"What does that tell us? It tells us that bastard had been planning to betray us all along."

"Doing that was a slap in the Wutu Gang's face!"

Mentioning District 13 only made Ma Yancheng burn with even greater fury.

He had handled the entire Lu Zhan affair from the beginning.

Originally, it had been a minor matter. The gang had merely learned from an "inside man" that Lu Zhan had tested positive for "Armored Warrior talent."

That meant Lu Zhan had been "sold too cheaply" by the gang, so naturally, he needed to be reclaimed.

As usual, matters like this generally fell to him.

Ma Yancheng had also thought it would be a walk in the park.

He had never imagined there would be so many complications, or that the repercussions would keep growing.

Letting Lu Zhan escape was not the only setback Ma Yancheng had encountered.

There had also been trouble with the inside man the gang had planted in the Public Security Office.

To confirm whether Lu Zhan was connected to the "bloody incident," Ma Yancheng had specifically sent an "inquiry" to their inside man in the Public Security Office.

Yet the inside man had failed to respond.

At first, Ma Yancheng had not thought much of it.

But after a whole week without a reply, he had begun to grow uneasy.

Only then had he realized, with alarm, that they had "lost contact" with their inside man.

That had truly stirred up a hornet's nest. Compared with losing contact with their "inside man," Lu Zhan's escape was nothing.

As luck would have it, that was precisely when Lin Kexian finally discovered that Lu Zhan had hidden in the Training Center long ago.

At the time, Ma Yancheng had been busy tracing the missing inside man. He had no time to bother with Lu Zhan.

Only in the past few days, after they found a lead on the inside man, had he had the time to turn his attention back to Lu Zhan.

But by then, it was already too late.

In fact, the moment Ma Yancheng learned that Lu Zhan had enlisted in District 13, he knew he had botched the job.

However arrogant Ma Yancheng and the Wutu Gang might be, they did not dare fight the military over a recruit.

Yet Ma Yancheng could not swallow his anger and simply let the matter go.

So he planned to have someone teach Lu Zhan a lesson first, restoring a little of the Wutu Gang's dignity.

But Baruk and his partner had actually dared to pay lip service to his orders while defying them behind his back.

"Bastards! Every last one of them!"

"Useless! A whole pack of useless idiots!"

The more Ma Yancheng thought about it, the angrier and more frustrated he became.

As his emotions spiraled out of control, his left hand began trembling uncontrollably.

In the next instant...

"He scared me to death. The way the branch leader looked just now, it was like he wanted to eat me alive."

"Thank goodness the gang—"

"—had urgent business and suddenly summoned him."

"No, Ma Yancheng is far too unpredictable. I need to find another powerful patron."

Outside Ma Yancheng's residence, a badly shaken Lin Kexian fled in panic.

Just moments earlier, the furious Ma Yancheng had seized him by the throat with his left hand.

At that moment, Lin Kexian had been terrified out of his wits, convinced he was about to die.

Instinctively, Lin Kexian had struggled with all his might.

With his strength, it should have been utterly futile.

But then, against all expectations, a miracle had occurred: someone from the gang arrived.

The messenger's arrival interrupted Ma Yancheng's brutality, allowing Lin Kexian to escape with his life.

"Although my mind went completely blank from lack of oxygen, if I heard correctly, the messenger reported that [the inside man the gang planted in the Public Security Office had been arrested by the Inspection Office]."

"Ma Yancheng's face turned green with fright when he heard that."

"Ah, in the inner city of Yeluo, the Inspection Office really is the most powerful."

"If I could get the Inspection Office to back me, Ma Yancheng wouldn't mean shit!"

As Lin Kexian indulged in his daydream, he suddenly remembered his "good brother," Lu Zhan.

If he remembered correctly, Lu Zhan had bragged about winning the favor of a commissioner from the Inspection Office.

Even an ordinary commissioner was a big shot to people like them!