Chapter 40: Return and Contingency Plans

Discarding the last item in hand.

Zheng Zha sat slumped on the steps, looking weak and completely unconcerned with his appearance.

He looked at the person beside him and complained

"Only this Ruyi scepter actually looks like a treasure. Look at these other two; if I saw this stone seal lying on the side of the road, I wouldn't even bother picking it up."

"Oh, and that Golden Mask of yours that suddenly recognized its master—it looks alright, at least it's better than these two things."

After saying this, Zheng Zha spoke with a hint of disappointment

"What I didn't expect was that out of thousands of items, there were only four Magic-Legendary class items in total. It's far too few."

"I was thinking we could bring enough back so that everyone could have a great sword."

Li Xiao, watching Zheng Zha's growing frustration, smiled faintly and said

"You can't calculate it that way. The remaining items might not necessarily be useless. Some might be missing important components, and others might be too severely damaged."

"It's also possible they simply don't react to internal energy or Vampiric energy. In any case, these things should be left for the state."

"To be honest, if our storage space weren't so limited, I'd really want to take all of them back to the God Space."

Zheng Zha rubbed his head with a bitter smile

"Alright, you have a point."

"Just wait, there's one last test."

As Li Xiao finished speaking, under Zheng Zha's puzzled gaze, he began picking through the items scattered across the plaza.

Five minutes later, Li Xiao set down a pile of things.

Seeing what he had brought back, Zheng Zha was even more bewildered. He pointed at the items on the ground and said

"I already tried all of these; there was no reaction at all, and several of them are already torn or broken."

Zheng Zha looked at the torn silk pouches, belts, jade rings, rings, hairpins, and two wooden pendants on the ground.

In short, every piece of jewelry on the entire plaza, whether good or bad, had been gathered by Li Xiao.

Li Xiao gave a bright smile

"This time, let's try a different method."

"Captain, clear some space in your storage ring first and put these inside."

Only then did Zheng Zha realize what was happening.

Indeed, this method was simple and efficient, though its drawback was that it might only filter out Magic-Legendary items that contained internal spatial dimensions.

And sometimes, surprises come quite suddenly.

Zheng Zha, who thought this trip was over, didn't expect to actually catch three "fish that slipped through the net" at the very end.

Looking at the three silk pouches (ragged bags) that refused to be stored no matter what, Zheng Zha finally confirmed that all three were Magic-Legendary items possessing internal space or spatial compression capabilities.

Clutching them in their palms and rubbing the fabric, Zheng Zha said uncertainly

"I remember in the God Space, there is an item called a 'Spatial Bag.' It requires a C-rank side story to exchange for, but it doesn't cost points."

"Could these three actually be Spatial Bags?"

Li Xiao looked at the soft-textured cloth bags in his hands.

Examining them closely, all three bags were riddled with holes, but without exception, each had a single golden thread at the opening. However, the threads were all broken into two pieces.

"It's quite possible."

"If these really are Spatial Bags, and they've been damaged to this extent..."

"One can only say that our predecessors fought quite ruthlessly!"

Zheng Zha was speechless

"Fine, you have a point!"

Having completely given up on treasure hunting, the two sat in meditation in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony for a while. Only after recovering some internal energy did they walk out of the Forbidden City.

The three ragged bags were kept in Li Xiao's arms, while the three suspected Magic-Legendary items were stored in Zheng Zha's storage ring.

As for why they kept them separate, one could only say that Li Xiao's paranoia had flared up again.

After all, one must always be wary of others.

Looking at Zheng Zha, who was about to get into the car, Li Xiao asked out of the blue

"Did they not ask you for that thing?"

Zheng Zha froze for a moment, then realized what Li Xiao was referring to. He stood there and shook his head

"No."

Li Xiao's expression showed surprise, followed by a hint of relief

"It seems that leader is quite steady."

"And if they had asked? Would you have given it to them?"

Zheng Zha lowered his eyes and shook his head, seemingly unwilling to say more, before getting into the car and leaving.

Whether that head shake meant "no" or "I don't know" was anyone's guess.

Some questions are simply too annoying to even think about—what a terrible headache!

"Let's go, sir. The helicopter is ready."

Li Xiao thought to himself that being able to take a helicopter inside the Forbidden City probably made him one of a kind!

"Si~r~, we're almost there. Preparing to land..."

The roar of the helicopter wind was loud. It wasn't until the communications officer turned around to speak that they realized Li Xiao had already vanished from the back seat.

Instead, the wide-open cabin door was letting in the cold wind.

After landing, Li Xiao looked at the brightly lit residential building and took a deep breath.

He said loudly and with great satisfaction

"So this is the legendary 'scent of human life'!"

With his heightened senses, he could even see and hear a gentle woman on the first floor tutoring her child.

(Hmm, the Tang suit she's wearing looks quite nice.)

On the second floor, a husband, having returned late from work, was complaining to his family about the terrible environment at his company.

And on the third floor, there seemed to be the smell of braised pork.

Yes, it smelled delicious (it made him crave it).

Perhaps because the soundproofing was poor, as Li Xiao went upstairs, he suddenly heard a carefree child's voice coming from a half-open security door...

"On the banyan tree by the pond, The cicadas cry out the summer one by one. On the swings by the playground, Only the butterflies rest upon them. The teacher's chalk on the blackboard, Is still working hard, chirping and writing incessantly, Waiting for class to end, Waiting for..."

"Gin, let's go!"

"Yes, sir."

At this moment, five kilometers away at a certain location within the National Security Bureau.

"Captain, the target has disappeared!"

"Good. Your mission is complete. Return to base."

"Communication Z, check if Z has disappeared as well."

As the two completely vanished from this world, everything seemed to return to its original state.

This ancient Eastern nation fell silent once more.

Only the brightly lit Institute of Engineering remained.

It was surrounded by layers upon layers of troops, blocking all exits, with armed defenses and martial law levels repeatedly heightened.

It had begun its path of silent development.

Tianhe Supercomputing Technology Building.

Service Room 12-7.

The characteristic hum of the computer running never ceased.

And just as the National Security Bureau confirmed that both parties had disappeared, "Xiao Qin," who had intercepted this layer of information, acted as if a certain switch had been flipped.

In the empty machine room, the large screen continuously flashed through layer after layer of garbled code.

Finally, it transformed into small square windows playing surveillance footage.

In every instant, the faces of countless individuals flickered by.

And every single person within those frames had their own troubles.

Some were melancholy, some were resentful, and some were filled with hopelessness regarding life!

In the images

A distracted young man practicing archery, who, despite his casual manner, hit the bullseye with every shot.

A beautiful woman in a bar, intoxicated, with a voluptuous figure and striking features.

A tall scholar in a library.

A short-haired middle school student admiring her fingernails.

A twelve-year-old boy in a hospital gown.

A young man in military uniform, laughing and joking.

A dark shadow surrounded by insects.

A burly soldier.

A young girl with her eyes closed.

And... and...

(End of Chapter)