"In our Secret Bureau, there’s an annual event. All the major branch bureaus will each select a team to go to the Capital City to compete for a good ranking. The Capital City headquarters then evaluates the strength of each local bureau based on those rankings, and decides how much support to give. So before that, Director Zeng wants to make one last push, to raise everyone’s overall strength as much as possible," Ma Jiantao said.

What Ma Jiantao said wasn’t hard to understand. Basically, the higher-ups were organizing a capability competition.

Whoever wins will get the leaders’ attention and, in turn, more resources allocated.

There are plenty of similar examples in everyday life; it’s easy to understand.

"So that’s how it is. No wonder you suddenly came to me for Body-tempering Elixirs," Chen Yang said with a smile.

"Yeah. Originally we were quite confident about this year’s competition. After all, Lisa and the others are pretty strong among the younger generation."

"Who knew that a round of investigation some time ago would leave us dumbfounded. The new generation in all the other bureaus this year—who knows what’s going on—are almost all in the Qi Cultivation Realm. Totally different from previous years. We had no choice but to force their growth and try to boost them."

Ma Jiantao shook his head with a wry smile, clearly helpless.

"Then you really do need to boost them. The Qi Cultivation Realm and Profound Force aren’t even on the same level. If you don’t raise them, you’re basically guaranteed last place," Chen Yang said, smiling.

"Ah, stop making fun of me. I’m in a hurry to get back and help them raise their strength. I’ll head off first; we’ll be in touch if anything comes up." After saying a few words, Ma Jiantao didn’t want to stay any longer and hurriedly prepared to leave with the Body-tempering Elixirs.

Seeing this, Chen Yang didn’t insist on chatting more. He just nodded and watched Ma Jiantao leave.

The money for the Body-tempering Elixirs was transferred in one go—two billion in total.

The price wasn’t low, but given such a big batch, he had to give a bit of a discount.

In just a day and a night, he had made two billion.

Even Chen Yang himself couldn’t help smacking his tongue at how fast the money had come.

Should he just rely on Alchemy to make money from now on?

Better not. Customers like Ma Jiantao don’t show up every day.

After seeing Ma Jiantao off, Chen Yang had nothing else to do, so he simply started cultivating in the backyard.

The Triple Slash Sword Technique still hadn’t been fully grasped. Only after he completely mastered it would he be able to move on to researching other arts.

Bite off more than you can chew, and you choke.

He still had three Cultivation Techniques on him that he’d never even looked at; he’d need a lot of time to study them.

There were also two Formations he hadn’t had time to research.

"Might as well go into seclusion. I’ll focus on raising my strength for a while."

Since he had nothing else going on, he decided to go into seclusion and not leave the house for the next few days.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed.

During those two days, Chen Yang really did not step outside once; he was in bitter cultivation the whole time.

According to his original plan, he hadn’t intended to go out afterward either.

But that night, the sudden ringing of his phone disrupted his cultivation.

He opened his eyes, took out his phone, and saw that it was He Xiran calling!

The moment he saw He Xiran’s name on the screen, a very bad feeling surged up in Chen Yang’s heart!

Since the Revenge Alliance’s operations were so secretive, for He Xiran to contact him directly, something had definitely happened—and it had to be related to his second uncle.

Chen Yang hurriedly answered the call.

And things were exactly as he’d thought—a huge incident had occurred!

"Hello, is this Chen Yang?"

As soon as the call connected, He Xiran’s anxious voice came from the other end.

"It’s me." Considering the many inconveniences involving the Revenge Alliance, Chen Yang didn’t say much; he just acknowledged that it was him. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Chen Yang, Uncle Chen and the others are in trouble!" The instant she heard it was Chen Yang, He Xiran’s voice turned choked with sobs; she had clearly been forcing herself to stay calm before!

Bang!

At those words, Chen Yang’s aura burst outward.

"What happened? Speak slowly, don’t panic!" Chen Yang asked urgently.

"Uncle Chen and the others were ambushed by people from Blood Bat Hall again. The situation is really serious; our Revenge Alliance headquarters has been destroyed," He Xiran said, sobbing.

The headquarters of the Revenge Alliance was gone?

Hearing that, Chen Yang was shocked!

That meant the situation was extremely grave. As the Vice Alliance Hierarch of the Revenge Alliance, his second uncle was definitely in mortal danger.

"Where are my second uncle and the others now? I’ll come find you right away!" Chen Yang could no longer stay calm. His second uncle was his only remaining family; no matter what, he could not let anything happen to him!

Chen Yang immediately stood up, ready to rush over to help.

"Uu-uu... Uncle Chen originally brought me along when he was fleeing, but the people from Blood Bat Hall were too fast. They caught up in no time. To draw their attention away, we split up. I don’t even know exactly where I am right now. I’ll send you my location," He Xiran cried on the phone.

From her tone, the situation sounded extremely dire.

Killing intent surged in Chen Yang’s heart!

The people of Blood Bat Hall truly deserved to die!

"Alright, send me your location. I’ll come to you immediately!" At that moment, Chen Yang only wanted to get there as fast as possible. Every second earlier he arrived was a second sooner he might be able to help.

With his second uncle’s life or death unknown, he could not stay calm.

"Okay."

He Xiran managed a tearful "okay," then hung up and sent over a location.

Chen Yang quickly opened it and saw that she wasn’t that far away; He Xiran was in a town more than eighty kilometers from Liuhe Village.

The provincial capital was more than two hundred kilometers from where he was.

Which meant that He Xiran and the others had already been chased for over a hundred kilometers.

After more than a hundred kilometers, He Xiran and Chen Tianmin had gotten separated, and she’d gone into hiding before calling him.

Just from that bit of information, he could imagine how severe the situation was.

The Revenge Alliance had suffered a devastating blow!

"Everyone chasing my second uncle today is going to die!"

Killing intent blazed in Chen Yang’s eyes. After taking a good look at the location, he vanished from where he stood and rushed toward the scene!

He didn’t drive; he chose to go on foot!

Because when he pushed his speed to the limit, he was faster than a car!

Alongside him were Ao Min, Little Black, Brother Diao, and Wangcai.

He had no idea what the situation was like on Blood Bat Hall’s side or how many people had been sent to hunt down Chen Tianmin and the others.

Naturally, he had to bring as much help as he could.

Little Black and Ao Min were both Gathering Spirit experts, top-tier combat power.

Although Wangcai and Brother Diao were still only in the Profound Force Realm and not of much use in direct battle, they each had their strengths: one could search from high in the sky, and the other had an extremely keen sense of smell. Both were very helpful for tracking people, so he brought them along as well.

On the way, Ao Min and Little Black didn’t know exactly what had happened, but neither dared to ask.

They just followed Chen Yang and raced along madly.

Because the killing intent emanating from Chen Yang was terrifying!

Forget those two—even Wangcai and Brother Diao were hurrying along with solemn expressions, not daring to make a sound.

This was the first time they’d ever seen Chen Yang like this.

After more than half an hour of frantic travel, they finished the eighty-plus-kilometer journey.

Chen Yang arrived at the location He Xiran had sent.

In a hidden, abandoned house, he found a disheveled He Xiran.

Right now, He Xiran’s hair was messy, and the expensive lolita outfit she wore had several tears in it, clear signs of battle.

Fortunately, though she looked bedraggled, she wasn’t actually injured.

"Chen Yang!"

When she saw Chen Yang, He Xiran’s tears started flowing uncontrollably again.

To see someone she knew at such a critical moment gave her an immense sense of safety.

Though she was powerful, she was, in the end, just a girl in her early twenties, who’d never experienced any true great storms.