ctnovel Chapter 23 Undercurrents
Chapter 23 Undercurrents
"There's news from Tiandu City."
As soon as the call connected, Professor Xu's slightly excited voice came through: "Your intelligence is correct. Someone in their upper echelons has leaked information that they are indeed planning a large-scale crackdown and elimination of the black market, which will inevitably lead to conflict with Yunqi City."
"The news is currently only circulating within a small circle, but its impact will become much greater in time!"
Jiang Yong nodded slightly.
That's how the black market works. Once something goes wrong, the real beneficiaries get wind of it much earlier and run away, while those who end up being wiped out are mostly the low-level white gloves who only get the scraps and the lower-middle class who pick up the leftovers—they take the smallest share of the profits but bear the biggest burden. Moreover, the city lord of Tiandu City only wants to create chaos; he even fabricated the charges against the black market on the spot. He doesn't care about the actual effect of cracking down on it.
It's estimated that in a few days, Tiandu City will issue an official statement condemning Yunqi City, which will escalate the situation.
"I understand."
Jiang Yong replied, "So how are your preparations going?"
"Very smoothly."
Upon hearing this, Professor Xu couldn't help but feel even more respect for Jiang Yong. When Jiang Yong had asked him to be the introducer, he had already trusted 70% of Jiang Yong's information. He had invested a lot of resources in preparation over the past few days, but since it was still unverified information, he was still not entirely at ease. Therefore, when he verified the information through his own channels and felt relieved, all the anxiety that had accumulated over the past few days dissipated, and the feeling was simply wonderful.
Similarly, Jiang Yong's image in his mind became increasingly mysterious and unpredictable.
"You must have made this call to discuss more than just this one thing," Jiang Yong said after a pause.
"That's right—someone wants to hire you for an escort mission."
"Is your business doing so well?"
Jiang Yong was slightly surprised.
Logically, those who receive the news immediately are usually people with some power and background. Such people have generally already paved their own way out in secret, and don't need to leave any leverage over themselves through other channels. Professor Xu himself must have made similar arrangements.
Not only that, the other party spent a lot of money to hire experts to escort them even before they took action in Tiandu City, as if they were certain that they would encounter danger.
"To be honest, I was a little surprised too."
Professor Xu, on the other end of the call, scratched his head: "I just gave them a brief introduction as you requested, and they decided to hire me without hesitation. They hope to meet with you as soon as possible today to discuss the price, at the same teahouse as last time."
"...I understand, I'll be right there."
Jiang Yong hung up the call thoughtfully—he felt that his first task was a bit strange and might not be easy.
But he was happy with it. The more complex the task, the more experience he would gain. And who knew, he might even get some hidden extra rewards.
After tidying up his equipment, he dispelled the fusion with the Spirit Cocoon, stored it in the fusion sphere, and then fused Kotia into his body and attached a stabilizer. He also used the experience he had gained from training over the past few days to level up Kotia, bringing it to level 15.
There was a significant chance of encountering armed personnel from Tiandu City during this operation, and he didn't want to use necromancy powers lightly. Besides, the Cortia were, after all, a rare lower-level race, and their combat strength was already quite sufficient.
After straightening his clothes, Jiang Yong left home and walked for a while before arriving at Professor Xu's teahouse.
The teahouse remained spacious and tidy, seemingly devoid of business and merely a meeting point. It's unclear why Professor Xu would make such a grand entrance.
The shopkeeper from last time was nowhere to be seen. Besides Professor Xu, there were three other people sitting in the teahouse. One was a man in his thirties, whose face showed a hint of unease. The other two were a woman and a little girl, all wearing sunglasses and masks to cover their faces; they appeared to be a family of three.
Several backpacks and a suitcase were placed at their feet, clearly indicating that they had already prepared their luggage and planned to leave that day after negotiating the price.
"Good heavens, isn't this just plain asking to be ripped off?"
Jiang Yong clicked his tongue – he had no idea why this family was in such a hurry.
After pushing open the door, all four of them turned to look at Jiang Yong.
"This is Mr. Jiang, whom I'm introducing. His abilities are absolutely reliable."
Professor Xu was the first to stand up and greet him, giving Jiang Yong a wink. Jiang Yong immediately understood, his gaze sharpened, and he suddenly unleashed the aura of a level 15 contractor. Pale flames burned fiercely, and Cortia's cold body appeared behind him, appearing and disappearing in the flames.
It's commonly known as striking a JoJo pose.
He had exquisite control over his aura, managing to target only that man without affecting others. The man's body trembled violently, and he involuntarily took a few steps back, his face turning pale.
"...I am Jiang Yong."
Having confirmed their strength, Jiang Yong immediately put away his imposing manner and began to discuss serious matters: "Where are we going? When are we leaving? Are there any other people with us?"
"Go, go to Linshan City, just the three of us, the sooner the better."
The man, being a member of the black market himself, quickly recovered and said...
Jiang Yong nodded. Linshan City was also a small city-state, located northwest of Yunqi City, more than a hundred kilometers away. The terrain between them was not complicated and it was not difficult to travel.
His current location is in the southern satellite city of Yunqi City, separated from Linshan City by an entire main urban area of Yunqi City. It is generally a smuggling port for those heading to Tiandu City and Cuifeng City in the east, but because of this, its smuggling methods are the most complete and professional. Using this channel to go north is somewhat rare, but not surprising.
He then turned to Professor Xu and asked, "How did you plan the route?"
"They requested to travel through the southern mountains."
Professor Xu shrugged: "Leave from the South Gate, take a car into the southern mountains, drive along the route for about a day and a half, then turn north, and drive for another day or so to reach the southwest gate of Linshan City."
"Why does it have to be such a long way?"
Jiang Yong frowned and looked at the man: "Who wants to get you? If you don't explain the danger clearly, I'll have a hard time accepting your job."
"...Tiandu City".
Jiang Yong raised an eyebrow – “Are you also an enemy of Tiandu City?”
The man gritted his teeth, then lowered his voice: "You've heard about what happened in the Eastern Territory recently, haven't you? That smuggling team of elite races... I'm their contact."
"Oh?"
Jiang Yong exclaimed in surprise, a mixture of feigned and genuine.
"The other members have definitely already betrayed me. If I don't run now, I'll be the first one Tiandu City will arrest..."
After the man finished speaking, he nervously observed Jiang Yong's reaction, as if afraid that he would turn around and leave.
"……I see."
Jiang Yong remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he had already become quietly wary.
—While others might not know that the idea of smuggling elite races is completely fabricated, doesn't he know that too?