195: Chapter 195 The Wildfire

The secret vault of Zhenhuang Pass.

Qin Ce stood before the heavy alloy door, gripping the Commander's Token in his hand.

On the black surface of the token, the two characters for 'Unfettered' emitted a dim luster under the faint light.

Administrative permissions were still sealed, but the access rights to the secret vault—as the nominal master of Zhenhuang Pass—were open.

This was one of the few practical benefits he had gained from this privilege proposal.

The door opened.

The secret vault wasn't large, only about twenty square meters, with thick alloy walls on all four sides embedded with rows of storage compartments.

Qin Ce walked inside, pulled out one of the three Bright Moon Level materials from his marching bag, and placed it in the innermost storage compartment.

Spirit Soul Silver Star, a Bright Moon Level healing material. It was entirely silver-white, with fine golden patterns flowing across its surface like a solidified star.

Holding it in his hand, he could feel a warm energy flowing slowly, like holding a beating heart.

He placed it in the most conspicuous position. Then, he closed the storage compartment, walked out of the vault, and locked the door.

Next, it was time to wait.

The Wang Family had more manpower in Zhenhuang Pass than Qin Ce did himself.

This was no secret; from the first day of the withdrawal from the Federal administrative system, the Wang Family's 'Consultant Group' had moved into every department of Zhenhuang Pass.

They managed taxes, security, customs, logistics, and everything else Qin Ce couldn't reach.

Qin Ce's Autonomous Committee was nothing more than a decoration.

These people would see what was in the vault. They certainly would.

Three days later.

The Wang Family's informant in Zhenhuang Pass, a middle-aged man named Sun Mao, discovered the Spirit Soul Silver Star during a routine inspection of the vault's supplies.

His eyes bulged wider than copper bells, his hands trembled, and his heart pounded louder than a war drum.

A Bright Moon Level healing material, something not seen even once a year in all of Fengling City—how could it appear in the secret vault of Zhenhuang Pass?

He didn't make a sound.

He quietly exited the vault, locked the door, and then sent the news back to the Wang Family's main base overnight via encrypted communication.

"Bright Moon Level healing material, Spirit Soul Silver Star, discovered in the Zhenhuang Pass secret vault. Appearance intact, energy abundant."

When the news reached the Wang Family, Second Elder Wang Chong was in his study reading battle reports from the north. He put down the documents, looked at the line of text on the communicator screen, and remained silent for a long time. Then he picked up the communicator and replied: "Retrieve it."

"Yes."

Sun Mao organized the most elite transport team: five people and five Pet Beasts, all Silver Rank or higher.

He packed the Spirit Soul Silver Star into a specially made sealed box, applied a seal, stamped it with the Wang Family's exclusive wax seal, and then personally escorted it, departing quietly from the side gate of Zhenhuang Pass under the cover of night.

The convoy moved very slowly and carefully.

They didn't dare take the main roads, the familiar smuggling routes, or any path where they might be spotted.

They chose the most remote, dangerous, and smallest path, bypassing all checkpoints and patrols, moving toward the Wang Family's main base bit by bit like five mice hiding in the dark.

Qin Ce lay prone on a hill three kilometers outside the west gate of Zhenhuang Pass. In the vision of his Nine-Star Insight, the convoy looked like five beetles crawling in the darkness; their speed was slow, but their direction was clear. He had been lying here for an entire night.

"They're here," Qin Ce whispered. Behind him, the breathing of twenty-four people tightened simultaneously.

Qin Ce's gaze fell on the person at the very back of the convoy.

That person's Pet Beast was a Shadow Ferret, pitch-black and only the size of a house cat. It excelled at lurking in shadows and was extremely fast, making it an excellent choice for assassination and sneak attacks. The man led the Shadow Ferret, walking at the rear of the team, vigilantly scanning the surroundings.

Qin Ce raised his hand and made a gesture.

A member of the Seventh Squad named Zhao Tie crouched behind him. His Pet Beast was a Shadow Cat, which belonged to the same dark element as the Shadow Ferret but was smaller and faster, though its attack power was weaker.

Qin Ce chose him not because his Pet Beast was strong, but because the Shadow Cat had a skill the Shadow Ferret did not—Panic Screech.

It wasn't an attack; it was a scare.

Emitting a piercing scream at close range was enough to make any creature below Silver Rank instinctively react with fear.

Zhao Tie patted the Shadow Cat's head.

The Shadow Cat slid down the hill soundlessly, like a shadow blending into the night, rapidly approaching the convoy close to the ground.

Its movements were so light that even Qin Ce's Nine-Star Insight could only capture a faint, blurry outline. It bypassed the convoy's perimeter, the scent range of the Iron-Backed Azure Wolf, and the detection range of the Detection Butterfly, lurking in the shadows of a bush by the side of the road the convoy had to pass.

As the convoy passed the bushes, the Shadow Cat lunged out from the shadows, rushed into the middle of the team, and opened its mouth—

Screee—!!!

The sound was so high-pitched that it made human eardrums vibrate.

The five Pet Beasts were startled simultaneously. The Iron-Backed Azure Wolf lunged backward, knocking over the nearby sealed box. The Detection Butterfly's wings flapped frantically, its light flashing erratically and disrupting everyone's vision.

The Shadow Ferret reacted the fastest; instead of running, it lunged directly at the Shadow Cat, its claws carving several cold glints into the night air.

The Shadow Cat turned and fled.

The Shadow Ferret gave chase. The two small dark-element beasts chased and bit at each other on the mountain road, throwing the entire convoy into chaos.

The owner of the Iron-Backed Azure Wolf desperately pulled on the reins, but the wolf had been badly spooked by the Shadow Cat's scream and couldn't be restrained.

The sealed box rolled off the vehicle and hit the ground; the latch shattered, and the lid popped open.

The Spirit Soul Silver Star rolled out of the box, shimmering with a silver-white light under the moon.

Sun Mao's face turned deathly pale in an instant.

A few hours later, the news reached the Zhao Family training grounds.

Zhao Tieshan was practicing against a Starlight Rank Iron-Armed Ape.

The Iron-Armed Ape was a training beast raised by the Zhao Family. At low-grade Starlight, it possessed immense strength and thick hide, serving as a living target for Zhao Tieshan to hone his boxing techniques.

The Iron-Armed Ape threw a punch, and Zhao Tieshan didn't dodge.

He tilted his body, letting the force of the punch pass, and with the fingers of his right hand pressed together, he delivered a palm strike to the ape's wrist.

With a crack, the Iron-Armed Ape's wrist bone snapped.

The Iron-Armed Ape let out a miserable shriek as its other fist swung toward him. Zhao Tieshan grabbed the fist with both hands, twisted, pulled, and yanked—the ape's entire arm was torn from its shoulder joint, blood geysering out and staining his battle robes red.

Zhao Tieshan didn't stop. He grabbed the Iron-Armed Ape's head, slammed it down, and drove his knee up; the ape's skull shattered.

Zhao Tieshan let go, and the Iron-Armed Ape's corpse crashed to the ground.

He turned around, grabbed a towel from a nearby rack, and wiped the blood from his face.

His chest was heaving violently, not from fatigue, but from worry.

A kind of worry that felt stifled in his chest with nowhere to vent.

Because there was no news regarding a matter he was very concerned about!

Just then, a subordinate ran in from outside the training grounds holding a secret report, his face looking very grim.

"Family Head, the situation at Zhenhuang Pass has been confirmed."

Zhao Tieshan's movements paused. "Speak."

"Our smuggling team—nine people—are all dead. The goods are gone too."

"What?"

The subordinate's throat bobbed, his voice kept very low. "All three Bright Moon Level materials... contact has been lost."

Zhao Tieshan's towel dropped to the ground.

He turned around and stared at the subordinate, the bloodshot veins in his eyes like a red web. "Say that again."

"Three Bright Moon Level materials. All contact lost." The subordinate's voice was trembling.

Zhao Tieshan's fists clenched until they cracked.

His foundation had suffered severe damage in his youth; his meridians were torn, and his dantian was damaged. He had been stuck at the peak of Starlight for over a decade, unable to cross that threshold.

Those three Bright Moon Level healing materials were things he had spent five years and used all of the Zhao Family's resource channels to obtain from three different cities.

The Spirit Soul Silver Star was to repair his meridians, while the other two were to nourish his dantian and reconstruct his foundation. This was his last hope to break through to the Bright Moon Level.

"Who did it?"

The subordinate handed over the secret report. "The intelligence says the Spirit Soul Silver Star appeared in the Zhenhuang Pass secret vault. When the Wang Family's transport team was smuggling it out of the pass, they were stumbled upon by a passerby, and the item was exposed."

"The Wang Family?" Zhao Tieshan's voice squeezed out of his throat like an enraged beast.

"The intelligence doesn't have direct evidence saying it was the Wang Family, but that transport route is a dedicated Wang Family line, the escorts were Wang Family direct descendants, and the seal was the Wang Family's wax stamp."

Zhao Tieshan crumpled the secret report into a ball. "Inquire with the Wang Family. Make them hand over those three items."

The Zhao Family's letter of inquiry was delivered to the Wang Family's main base that same day.

The wording was severe, the attitude firm, with no room for negotiation.

"The Wang Family's unauthorized detention of Zhao Family goods is a serious violation of our mutual agreement. You are given three days to return all missing items, otherwise, the Wang Family will bear all consequences."

The Wang Family's reply was even faster.

Early the next morning, an even more severely worded reply was slammed onto Zhao Tieshan's desk.

The content had only three points: First, the Spirit Soul Silver Star thing is a rumor; the Wang Family never transported such a thing!

Second, the incident occurred at Zhenhuang Pass, which is Qin Ce's property and has nothing to do with the Wang Family.

Third, the Wang Family has never seen any other Bright Moon Level treasures.

Bullshit!

Zhao Tieshan's fist smashed onto the desk, and the solid wood table shattered in half.

Who didn't know that Zhenhuang Pass was currently being managed by the Wang Family?

Qin Ce is a commander in name only; he can't even enter the gates of Zhenhuang Pass, so how could he manage anything?

Wasn't that transport team's route the Wang Family's? Who stamped the wax seal on the closure?

This was clearly the Wang Family's bandit logic!

Zhao Tieshan paced back and forth in the training grounds, every step making the floor thud. Only one thought was in his mind—those three items were his life.

He had waited five years and planned for five years, relying on those three items to cross that threshold. Now the items were gone, and the Wang Family refused to admit it.

“Family Head, what do we do next?” the subordinate asked cautiously.

Zhao Tieshan stopped in his tracks, turned around, and stared toward the north.

That was the Wang Family's territory and also the area where the Zhao Family's smuggling routes were most concentrated.

His eyes turned red—not with emotion, but with killing intent.

"Since they won't let us have a good life, then no one will have one." Zhao Tieshan's voice was calm, as calm as the last breath of wind before a storm.

That afternoon, the Zhao Family's industries in the east began to move against the Wang Family.

It wasn't an overt declaration of war, but covert suppression—resource procurement was obstructed, transport routes were blocked, shops were maliciously reported, and suppliers were threatened with supply cuts.

Every action was within the scope of the rules, yet every action left the Wang Family people suffering in silence.

Meanwhile, in the north.

The Zhao Family's private armed forces began to enter the area east of Beimang Mountain on a large scale.

They didn't enter sneakily; they entered with great fanfare. One battalion, two battalions, three battalions—the troops grew more numerous, the defensive lines pushed closer, and at least seven skirmishes occurred with the Wang Family's patrols.

Outside Zhenhuang Pass, the Zhou Family's trade caravans also ran into trouble.

Seventeen trade caravans disappeared within the same week.

Some were walking on the main roads and vanished into thin air.

Some were on mountain paths and rolled off cliffs along with their goods.

Some were on official roads and were hijacked by a group of masked men; the people were released, but the goods were gone.

The methods varied, but they had one thing in common—all the disappearance sites were near the Wang Family's sphere of influence.

Zhou Wenyuan sat in his office at the Chamber of Commerce Alliance headquarters, looking at the seventeen disappearance reports on his desk, silent for a long time.

He was the helmsman of the Fengling City Chamber of Commerce Alliance. The Zhou Family's business spanned the entire north, and their annual profits accounted for more than thirty percent of Fengling City's tax revenue.

The disappearance of seventeen caravans meant the loss of goods worth enough to cover the Zhou Family's expenses for a year.

More importantly, the paths those caravans took were secret routes the Zhou Family had operated for decades; outsiders simply didn't know about them.

But the Wang Family knew.

The Wang Family knew everything.

Zhou Wenyuan closed the report and said to the person beside him: "Suspend all trade routes in the north. Without my order, not a single caravan is allowed to leave the city."

The person beside him was stunned. "Family Head, suspend everything? Then the business in the north—"

"Is business more important, or is life?" Zhou Wenyuan's tone was flat, but the person beside him didn't dare ask further.

On the Lin Family's side, their plants in the administrative system also ran into problems.

Government officials placed by the Lin Family in the north, especially in several key positions near Zhenhuang Pass, were attacked one after another.

It wasn't assassination; they were knocked unconscious.

No one died, but after waking up, they found that all documents, files, and records had been thoroughly ransacked.

Among those things were all of the Lin Family's hidden cards in the north—which official took whose money, which project was being throttled by whom, and which policy's terms were altered by whom.

Lin Zhengqing sat in his study all night, the lamp on his desk remaining lit.

He wasn't angry; he was thinking.

The Lin Family had built itself on administration, relying on rules, systems, and laws.

The Wang Family had operated in the north for three generations and was deeply rooted, but the Lin Family had never had a direct conflict with them.

But now, the Wang Family had touched the Lin Family's plants. This was crossing the line.

"Withdraw our people from the north," Lin Zhengqing said to the butler. "Withdraw as many as possible. For those who can't be withdrawn, tell them to be careful."

As for the City Lord's Mansion—

Qin Ce didn't touch the people of the City Lord's Mansion.

He targeted the City Lord's Mansion's crystal core team that hunted Gold Rank beasts.

They found a Gold Rank beast's nest on the northern wilderness, home to a high-grade Gold Iron-backed Grey Wolf King, just one step away from the peak of Gold Rank.

Then he deliberately exposed his tracks near a Wang Family mercenary group, leading them to the edge of the Iron-backed Grey Wolf King's territory.

The people from the mercenary group later got embroiled in the battle with the Iron-backed Grey Wolf King.

After a three-hour battle, seven people from the mercenary group were dead, and over a dozen were heavily injured.

The Iron-backed Grey Wolf King fled while wounded.

The City Lord's Mansion's crystal core team was driven mad with rage, thinking it was the Wang Family's people plotting against them to prevent them from completing their crystal core energy accumulation.

As for those small forces—the small to medium-sized families and rogue teams that had flooded in from surrounding cities hoping for a piece of the God-level Ruins—they also suffered.

Some were hijacked on the road. Some were robbed in their camps. Some were cheated at the trading markets. All the perpetrators carried weapons with Wang Family markings, wore Wang Family-style military uniforms, and displayed exclusive Wang Family Pet Beast badges.

Those items were things Qin Ce had Feng violence and Sun strong strip from the corpses when they attacked the Wang Family's transport team.

Using Wang Family items to impersonate Wang Family people was perfectly logical.

All of a sudden, the Wang Family became the target of universal condemnation in the north.

The Zhao Family suppressed the Wang Family's industries in the east, the Zhou Family halted all trade routes in the north, the Lin Family withdrew their administrative staff from the north, and while the City Lord's Mansion didn't make a direct statement, their patrols had at least three skirmishes with Wang Family mercenary groups in the north.

And those small and medium forces—those who had been robbed, stolen from, or cheated—were even more united in their hatred, wishing they could swallow the Wang Family alive.

All forces began to target the Wang Family.

...