Chapter 1467: Contact

Chapter 1469: Contact

Author: Sanyinjian

Hearing this, the boss’s eyebrows subtly raised.

Gulp— The large black dog beside them released the cup from its mouth, contentedly licked its lips, and barked at the boss, as if thanking him for his hospitality.

“Alright, the wine’s finished. You should leave now,” the boss said slowly. “Recently, the human domains have been requisitioning labor everywhere to expand their infrastructure teams and rebuild the territories. Some places have even begun forcibly conscripting people... Be careful when you’re out. Don’t strut around openly on the roads; it’s very dangerous.”

“Got it, got it,” the red-haired girl said nonchalantly, waving a hand at the boss. “If there’s any news from the Red King, let me know promptly~”

“Alright.”

As the girl and the dog disappeared outside the door, the old tavern fell silent once more.

In the dim light, the boss slowly withdrew his gaze, a profound look appearing in his eyes...

He raised a fingertip and lightly peeled something from his cheek.

A mask silently dissolved into the air.

“This girl is quite sincere,” a girl in a black dress silently emerged from the dark corner of the tavern.

A red-backed, black-patterned opera robe fluttered gently in the darkness. Chen Ling’s fingers lightly picked up a translucent wine glass; the next second, the glass transformed into a thin playing card…

The 10 of Hearts.

“Such a personality is indeed rare in our Twilight Society,” Chen Ling said calmly. “But compared to the 10 of Hearts, the 10 of Spades is more interesting… It seems to have discovered me.”

“It? It actually discovered you?”

“The intuition of a Calamity is always unexpectedly keen,” Chen Ling glanced at the perfectly licked-clean wine glass nearby, a hint of helplessness in his expression. “Or perhaps… the wine I mixed was so awful that it noticed.”

Chen Ling then pulled out a 10 of Spades from somewhere, stacked it with the original 10 of Hearts, and shuffled them into the numerous playing cards in his other hand.

He walked directly to the bar’s storeroom, opened the door, and found the real tavern “boss”—the Twilight Society contact—lying quietly on a table, unconscious.

Chen Ling lightly raised a fingertip, and the mind-serpent that had stolen the man’s memories crawled back onto the boss, bit his head, and returned the memories…

“Let’s go,” Chen Ling said calmly.

“All the number cards have been secretly contacted. Next, are we going to contact the face cards?” Liu Qingyan asked, following behind.

“No need,” Chen Ling shook his head. “Jack and Queen are not ordinary people. If they were to discover us on the spot, it might be counterproductive…”

“Then…”

“Perhaps, we should try a different approach.”

Chen Ling walked to the bar counter and picked up the newspaper left by the 10 of Hearts. He looked thoughtfully at the section reporting his slaying of the Thought Calamity.

“Interesting…”

“—Woof!”

On the streets of Tianshu Domain, the red-haired girl was startled by the sudden bark beside her. She slapped the 10 of Spades and snapped:

“What are you barking for, out of nowhere!”

The large black dog panted, its tongue out, its mouth stretched into what looked like a grin.

“Stupid dog!”

“Woof!”

“Still barking!”

“Woof!!”

The red-haired girl ignored it, about to say something, when she suddenly seemed to sense something. She immediately pulled the 10 of Spades into a nearby alley.

A few seconds later, several figures hurried past.

“How is it?”

“It’s been confirmed. There are indeed no able-bodied young adults among the survivors in these two street areas… The Lingxu Domain’s three rounds of conscription have taken most of those capable of working.”

“I don’t understand. The Lingxu Domain isn’t even at war and doesn’t need rebuilding, so why do they need so many people?”

“I don’t know… Apparently, they’re building something.”

“But our own reconstruction teams don’t have enough people! He’s taken our able-bodied young adults; who will rebuild our homes? This is too much!”

“At this rate, rebuilding Tianshu Domain will probably take twenty years…”

“Oh, let’s keep it down. We’ll go back and report honestly to Red Dust Lord.”

“Alright then…”

Only after these people left did the 10 of Hearts cautiously poke her head out from around the corner.

She blinked, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

“Are there no people left?” Su Zhiwei looked at the reporting staff member in surprise.

“Yes…” the staff member said bitterly. “We organized our own reconstruction engineering team and had one round of conscription. Then Lingxu Domain had two more rounds… Now, only women, the elderly, and children are left in the city. It’s impossible for us to form another reconstruction team.”

Su Zhiwei frowned slightly, lost in thought.

“Red Dust Lord, even if our Tianshu Domain has a large population, we can’t withstand Lingxu Domain taking so many people, can we? Those survivors were all saved by Mr. Han with his life; this is…”

The conscription in recent days had filled the government staff member with grievances, but before he could voice them, Su Zhiwei waved her hand:

“I’ll discuss this matter with Lord Lingxu… What’s the situation with the plague?”

At the mention of “plague,” the staff member’s face immediately turned grave:

“It’s not good… The Kite Rescue Society has thoroughly investigated the source of this plague, but they can’t find it at all… It’s not a disease spread by Calamities, nor by humans. We suspect the emergence of these diseases might be related to… to the Red Star.”

“Can it be controlled?”

“…It’s very difficult. Currently, more than one type of virus is circulating within the domain. According to incomplete statistics, there are already twelve… Even some of the Divine Physicians from the Kite Rescue Society have fallen ill.”

“Even they can’t cure it?”

“Not all Divine Physicians specialize in dealing with viruses. Only a small fraction of them are capable of curing viruses… And even this small fraction needs a lot of time for research when faced with so many complex and diverse viruses.”

“…I understand.”

Su Zhiwei waved the staff member away. Only after he left did her expression become heavy.

She immediately walked out of the temporary office and headed towards the ruins of the Heavenly Spire nearby. Although the surface part of the Heavenly Spire was completely destroyed, the Tianshu Base below had not suffered significant damage.

She walked through corridors, finally arriving at a small room.

This was the radio wave room of the Tianshu Base. Tianshu Domain had always relied on the radio waves here to transmit messages to other domains.

The few staff members inside stood up when they saw Su Zhiwei arrive:

“Red Dust Lord, what are your instructions?”

Su Zhiwei spoke without hesitation:

“Connect me to Lord Lingxu.”