On the bumpy road, the truck’s canvas cover flapped noisily in the wind.

{Boss, is your mission dangerous over there? Want me to come and secretly protect you? }

Anxi was ecstatic to learn that Yang Zicang had returned. He was terrified that Yang would decide to settle in another hotel and never come back.

｛No need, protect the journalist well. Don’t contact me unless it’s important. If something comes up, I’ll leave a cut for you. By the way, how’s your job going?｝

{Just found a decent one in front of the newsstand—can do my surveillance hit and go to work at the same time. }

｛Alright then, we’ll still liaise sharp at 11:30 PM.｝

Yang Zicang, having severed the Mind Link, turned his head to look at the two people inside the carriage frame.

The two were also staring blankly at him.

“Ahem. Gentlemen, how should I address you? ” Yang Zicang fanned some air into his collar with his hand, covering his chest.

“I’m called Darui, ” said a young surveying assistant, skinny as a bamboo pole, raising his hand.

He was hugging a wooden surveying rod nearly as tall as himself, pressing himself into a corner to avoid being jostled by the bumpy carriage. He instantly lowered his head once having flinched, pretensively busy collecting his dusty work jacket’s pockets the moment he alluded to noticed himself contemmplated from his eyes.

The man sitting up front in the passenger seat, around thirty, said, “Fog-man friend, when we get there, you’re responsible for protecting us and the surveying equipment in the back. Also, kick the villagers out of the occupied vacant rooms. Don’t worry about the rest. “

Yang Zicang recognized him. This was Nuoneike, the deputy director of the Land Administration Office. Hearing this, Yang Zicang looked at the two wooden crates by his feet, containing sealing strips, special locks, and coils of wired gear.

-｛Distributor Loki·Tata Mingqi is monitoring my surroundings.｝

In a corner of the carriage was also a man in his fifties or sixties, wearing a slightly worn-out coat, non-chantly puffing lazily on a gnarled pipe in an older demobilised ranger outrrannned from car it seemed did far more bitter as former survyed military time considered likely veteran man the worn rank given.

“Samson. “

Yang Zicang finished his scan and let his gaze fall outside the carriage, just in time to see the delivery truck driving away from the towering, thick city walls of White Violet City, passing rows of grey brick houses.

— “Rear Support Glory! ” the large white lime-scrawled characters read on the brick wall.

……

Yang Zicang pulled down the brim of his hat and let his eyelids droop slightly, feigning slumber amidst the bumps for a moment.

“Bridge Stone Village, here we are. ” the driver’s voice came from the front cabin.

The truck stopped on an overgrown, weed-chained threshing ground. A few emaciated stray dogs sat in the distance, while one scratched its ear with a hind leg.

“Hey? ” Old Pipe-smoker was the first to jump out of the truck. “This village really needs us to seal ’em up? “

Yang Zicang also jumped down, stretching his stiff neck and shoulders from the jolting ride. Then, he froze for a moment, calling up to the driver on the truck, “You sure you didn’t take a wrong turn? “

“How could he possibly take a wrong turn? Last time, he got a beating right here. ” the old man chuckled, tapping his pipe stem against the truck.

The driver also frowned, but he didn’t appear to be lying.

Yang Zicang turned his attention to Darui, who was holding the house number chart.

According to the sequence number circled in thick black ink on the file, the first target this time was the lone, standing rock house at the west end of this village. It was marked in the file as the most valuable property in Bridge Stone Village because the other nine out of ten houses were still made of mud walls.

-｛Distributor February·Dian cast a glance my way.｝

“This…” The deputy chief who opened the door and got out of the car was dumbfounded. In the spot that should have been occupied by a sturdy stone house, all that remained was a messy, half-height foundation outline.

A few twisted, broken, and half-rotted thick wooden beams were scattered haphazardly to the side, along with a solitary door frame standing defiantly erect in the wind…

This scene looked just like one of those lawn check-in spots where couples can wrap their arms around the two doorjambs, tilt their heads inward, and stick out their feet sideways for a picture.

“The house here is gone?!“

……

“House, huh? Gone?!“

Darui sprinted to another earth-walled house a few dozen meters away, glanced inside, and shouted, “This house is also supposed to be sealed. Now there’s nothing left but the stove!“

A few of them trotted over quickly. Sure enough, the interior was nothing but garbage. Nuoneike approached the stove, gave it a look, and instantly erupted with frustration, “They even took all the pots away!“

“Took them away?“

Yang Zicang knitted his brows. Initially, he had thought they might encounter something mystical—maybe linked to “Bloodline” or “Nightmares.” That prospect had gotten him all excited for no small stretch of time.

But after taking a closer look, he was sure astounded yes-yes—every brick strip and timber before their eyes had clearly been dismantled by the hand of man at its pristine effort. And that baggy old field! To say no part; foot gave more prints gave y, find saw criss crossing all counts through self impressed page.

The three men from the Deputy hall other minister looked at each position all standing cought agape. Dawei clamp forehead: his closed- a face Look barely restrain oneself inches and was suddenly a weeping near break moments along they…

Deputy Director Nuoneike took a few steps forward and kicked at a broken chunk of wood. On the grass beside the house foundation, there was a clearly visible patch of bare circular ground where no grass grew.

“They even took the stone mill! “

“What exactly are they trying to do, move the entire village away? ” Old Samson let out a puff of smoke and said.

Yang Zicang, who was following behind, took off his hat. “You mean… the villagers moved all this stuff out themselves? “

“In theory, yes, that’s exactly what I mean! ” The old pipe-smoker at the back said, chuckling cheerfully.

A wave of bitter resentment surged in the deputy director’s chest, rushing up to his throat. He charged toward the ruined foundation, his boots kicking aside scattered rubble and tiles.

Finally, he spotted something valuable.

A pair of fire-blackened tongs.

……

Even the few decent houses on the south side had been dismantled.

The village felt as dead as a doornail.

Darui and the others trudged through the village, panting heavily. Most of the earthen walls were still standing, but the thatched roofs, tiles, and rafters had been stripped clean. Doors and window frames were all gone, leaving only hollow, gaping holes that whistled mournfully in the wind.

The driver, who was reluctantly keeping up, shouted to the deputy director walking beside Yang Zicang, “Did all the folks from this village work on the demolition crew in your city or somethin’? “

The deputy director was already feeling stifled. Hit with that question, he rolled his eyes so hard they nearly got stuck in his head. “Go screw yourself. “

However, just as the three of them were feeling dejected, a wisp of slender gray-white smoke rose from the depths of the desolate village, silently merging into the frigid air.

“There’s still someone in Qiaoshi Village! “

A glimmer of joy immediately appeared on Deputy Director Nuoneike’s face—at the very least, they could find a witness.

……

The crude wooden door was pushed open, and a strange smell mixed with warmth hit their faces. Several tattered garments hung on the wall, and a stooped figure was standing by the stove with its back to the door.

“Why have you come back again? I told you, I’m not going. This old body can’t take any more trouble, and there’s nothing left here to dismantle… ” the old woman said without turning her head. Then, sensing something off in the atmosphere, she turned around and took a careful look, panic flooding her voice: “You… you are people from the Office of Territorial Affairs. “

-｛Distributor Loki Tata Mingqi has expressed “concernment. “｝

The old woman’s cloudy pupils darted around in a panic. Only for a fleeting moment did her gaze clash with Yang Zi’s, before she quickly, fearfully looked away, and her body instinctively curled up.

“Mom, who’s there? “

At that moment, a metallic clatter came from behind the house.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Dust stirred within the shadows, and the outline of a tall, burly figure slowly came shuffling from the darkness of the back room.

Only then did the old woman’s trembling body straighten slightly.

Below the man’s right knee, a clumsy prosthetic limb was cobbled together from thick iron bars and metal pieces, bound to his remaining thigh with torn cloth strips and rough iron wire.

“Hah, ” the man, clad in an old military coat of indistinguishable original color, let his gaze linger on the youth’s ear contours for a few seconds before turning to look at the Deputy Director of the Administrative Hall.

“You’ve even brought the Fogfolk here. “

-｛Tataminchi, with their wealth of experience, indicates that I am gestating a brilliant new prelude.｝

-｛Tataminchi indicates ‘over there.’｝

Yang Zicang instinctively let his eyes fall on the man’s wounds and prosthetic stump—could Mr. January, the Distributor, possibly want him to treat this person?

Originally, he never would have entertained such a thought… but if he relied on the Ability Spheres, it was doubtful they could still birth a Radiance; otherwise, by now, both he and Yao Xiaoqin, who was laboring by the seaside, should have had dozens in hand.

The man’s robust build and brutally shorn head made the scar running from his lower jaw to his forehead starkly savage. Despite his disability, the hand he raised managed to calm the trembling of his old mother.

Indeed, he must have been a very imposing soldier once.

“So, Stone, you’re back… ” the Deputy Director muttered, his hands floundering awkwardly as if wanting to caress the man before him, finally coming to rest softly on his shoulder. “I heard your unit was shelled…, I thought you had… “

Yang Zicang glanced sideways at the Deputy Director.

The man named Stone took a closer look against the light, a flicker of change in his expression quickly fading.

“So it’s you. You’ve actually become an official now. You’re here to take back those houses and lands abandoned by the ‘bosses,’ aren’t you? “

“Exactly, brother Stone! “

The deputy director, as if grasping at a lifeline, asked urgently.

“What happened here? Who tore down the village houses? ” Nuoneike pointed to the ruined village outside. “I need to report this. Can you sign for me? “

The faint curve at the corner of Stone’s mouth vanished.

“Hmph, sir, they’ve all settled in the stone mill now, ” the man in the tattered military uniform said with sarcasm. “Everyone figures their only chance to survive is to band together—and go to that land where the dukes hold no sway. “

Yang Zicang stepped outside, leaving them to talk alone.