Zhong Huiyun also acted swiftly.
During such special missions, members of the Spiritual Power Special Service Bureau were authorized to request military intervention. Specifically, they called upon a special combat unit that gradually formed after the Spiritual Qi resurgence—the Cultivator Combat Team.
Its full name was the Cultivator Special Operations Team.
A unit composed entirely of elite Cultivator soldiers equipped with specially modified modern weaponry, truly maximizing individual combat power to the extreme. In the three years since the Spiritual Qi resurgence, this team had been a nightmare looming over Cultivator criminals.
It was also a fist that defended order.
Now, to tackle the massive abduction case in East City, two entire elite battalions had been deployed here well in advance. Each battalion consisted of a hundred men, among whom five had cultivated Divine Thought. One had to realize that according to the latest official statistics, there were less than a thousand Cultivators nationwide who had reached the Divine Thought Stage.
That was nearly a genius ratio of one in ten thousand Cultivators!
Factoring in ordinary people who couldn't cultivate, it was a true one in a million!
"Can the fortuitous encounter He Anhe obtained actually mass-produce Divine Thought Stage experts?" asked a lieutenant colonel standing beside Zhong Huiyun. He was the commander of one of the Cultivator combat battalions.
"Mass production is an exaggeration, but there's every reason to believe he can help Cultivators reach this stage quickly." Zhong Huiyun herself was a Divine Thought expert. Therefore, she deeply understood the difficulty of such a breakthrough. Take her own experience, for instance. Only after her son sacrificed his life in the military did she spend a full month in utter despair before finally walking out of the gloom. When the clouds parted to reveal the sun, she stepped into the Divine Thought Stage and advanced steadily from then on, eventually becoming one of the deputy directors of the Spiritual Power Special Service Bureau.
But if given a choice, she would rather not have had this opportunity.
"Speaking of which, this Master Leiting is truly formidable!" The lieutenant colonel beside her looked at the stream of text messages on Zhong Huiyun's phone, his eyes inevitably showing obvious admiration and longing.
"Indeed," Zhong Huiyun sighed in agreement. "It's a stroke of luck for the people of East City."
The entire East City had a population of nearly five million! Trying to pinpoint a few hidden Divine Thought Stage experts among a crowd of that size was enough to make their scalps tingle just thinking about it. This was something that originally would have been impossible to include in any operational plan. Yet, Shen Yun had created a miracle.
Zhong Huiyun had already consulted her superiors. The two Golden Core cultivators within the system both stated that they were completely incapable of locking onto suspects as quickly as Shen Yun. His Divine Thought was powerful to a terrifying degree. The preliminary guess was that it might be related to the fortuitous encounter Shen Yun had obtained.
But the fortuitous encounter wasn't the issue. Who among those able to become Golden Cores within these three years didn't have a fortuitous encounter?
As long as Shen Yun was strong enough, he was worthy of being highly valued!
"The seventh criminal suspect has appeared." The lieutenant colonel glanced at Zhong Huiyun's phone resting on the table, took off his military cap, tucked it under his arm, and gave a sharp salute. "I must go execute my mission as well. Director Zhong, I'll leave the command to you."
"Understood," Zhong Huiyun nodded solemnly. "Master Miaoyun is also ready to provide backup."
For this battle involving the safety of hundreds of thousands of citizens, as long as they could keep the number of civilian and military casualties under a thousand, it would be considered a victory.
However, Zhong Huiyun hoped more than anything to bring that number infinitely close to zero.
Messages continuously poured into her personal command tablet in front of her.
"Squad Three plainclothes members stand ready."
"Squad Five sniper in position. Target locked."
"Squad Two reports a large number of civilians on-site. Recommend preparing emergency dispersal protocols."
"Squad Two sniper unable to lock on..."
Beneath this city, which barely maintained a surface calm, everything was being rapidly and silently deployed. An inescapable net was encompassing He Anhe and his subordinates, waiting for the moment to close in.
Then, they would deliver a fatal strike.
Meanwhile.
In a high-end apartment exclusively reserved for VIPs, a middle-aged man with a slightly gloomy expression stood before the window. He gazed at the twilight sky, watching the flashes of lightning that occasionally illuminated the city.
He was He Anhe, the chairman of the Sanyao Corporation.
In this era, official power was a joke—at least, that was what he had always believed. Even if they locked down the entirety of East City and dispatched the Cultivator combat team, he never took them seriously. On the contrary, the fact that he could remain in East City and stir up trouble under such circumstances only greatly enhanced his reputation among the masses—a reputation of omnipotence.
That was until last night, when a Golden Core appeared.
"Just a little bit more." He Anhe forcefully punched the wall, smashing a visible crack into it.
He had been just a tiny bit away from reaching the peak of the Divine Thought Stage. Then he could have caught the fortuitous encounter of yesterday's Heavenly Dao reshaping, soaring into the sky like those people and becoming a Golden Core. From then on, absolutely no one would be able to threaten him.
But in the end, he failed to cross that final threshold. He couldn't just sit here and wait for death any longer. Madness flickered in He Anhe's eyes. Hesitation would only lead to defeat!
Suddenly, there were two light taps on the door behind him, and a girl walked in. She had a round face and looked lively and adorable, still bearing a hint of childish innocence.
"Anhe," the girl walked over, crinkling her nose as she looked at the middle-aged man in front of her. "Why did you change into this appearance again?"
"Hehe, a lot of people are looking for me outside, after all." The skin on He Anhe's face rippled continuously. In less than half a minute, he transformed into a pale, handsome young man.
This was the exact appearance of the number one wanted criminal, He Anhe, thirty-two years of age.
The girl's face immediately filled with an enamored, lovestruck expression.
"Speaking of which, I have a matter I need your help with." He Anhe walked over to a nearby table and picked up a wrapped gift box. "Take me to the hospital."
"But..." A trace of hesitation appeared on the girl's face.
"It's alright," He Anhe's tone grew gentle. "I will transform into your father's appearance. Once everything here is settled, I'll take you away. I'll pass the Golden-Winged King Insect onto you and help you step onto the path of cultivation. We'll be an immortal couple..."
The girl's gaze gradually turned crazed with infatuation. Her mind completely bewitched by the man's beauty, she never noticed that deep within the handsome young man's eyes, there was only thick disdain when he looked at her.
Subsequently, He Anhe lightly tapped his phone. A pre-recorded video was sent out.
In less than a few short minutes, the video appeared online, even popping up on many people's phones. It featured He Anhe's slightly hyper and arrogant voice:
"I regret to inform you all, to inform everyone in East City! From this moment on, your lives are in the palm of my hand! Elites of the Gu Sect, it's time to announce to the world who the true kings of this era are!"