Chapter 532 - Pyro and Riders (2/2)

This was the data of the life sciences research the Pyro Company had been conducting before The Cataclysm. More importantly, the Anjing House claimed there was already a breakthrough in this field of research, so the implication was that it was ready for industrial application.

Meanwhile, the Zhou Consortium had started setting up checkpoints around Stronghold 73. They even planned to deploy two brigades of troops and station them outside the stronghold.

You could say they were taking this matter very seriously.

However, it would take time to mobilize the troops, and the two brigades would take at least three days to get here from the other strongholds. This military operation was not just a matter of sending out the troops, but also required the logistics lines to be ready.

But to the surprise of all the various forces, the two brigades were redirected to garrison at the Zhou Consortium’s stronghold in the farthest west before they could arrive at Stronghold 73.

This puzzled everyone a great deal. Was the Zhou Consortium planning to ignore the situation at Stronghold 73?

But there was nothing at Stronghold 74 in the farthest west. There was only a mountain range a 100 kilometers farther west of that stronghold, so why was the Zhou Consortium garrisoning their troops there?

Could there be anything more important than what was going to happen at Stronghold 73?

Of course, no one knew the Qing Consortium had already sent even more important intelligence to the Zhou Consortium.

As such, after the two brigades were redeployed to the west, the Zhou Consortium mobilized other troops to rush to Stronghold 73.

However, it did not matter to the underworld criminals. They were only concerned about where the Pyro Company’s Pre-Cataclysm research lab was.

During the past few days when the Zhou Consortium was busily redeploying its troops, all kinds of criminal figures had entered Stronghold 73 through their own means before martial law was enforced.

As they did not dare to check in to the hotels, they could only hide in houses and quietly observe the situation from there.

Some of them were so pathetic they had nowhere else to go and could only hide in the spa center every day. They even had to make sure to avoid the patrols of Stronghold 73. After all, not everyone had a safe house in Stronghold 73.

Meanwhile, Ren Xiaosu was already tucking into his takeout hot dry noodles[1] inside a safe house. This was the first safe house Wu Tong had arranged for them to rendezvous at during the previous mission.

This safe house used to belong to Wu Tong, but it belonged to Ren Xiaosu now. After all, Wu Tong was dead. Since the house was without an owner, Ren Xiaosu gladly occupied it as his own.

Ren Xiaosu did not find it difficult to get into the stronghold. However, he had observed something outside earlier. At some point, Ren Xiaosu felt the Zhou Consortium had even relaxed their inspection of the people entering the stronghold. It was as though they were deliberately letting this mixed bag of people into the stronghold.

But why was that? Did they intend to use these people to keep the Pyro Company in check?

In Ren Xiaosu’s opinion, wouldn’t it be much safer to just station the troops inside the stronghold itself? What was the Zhou Consortium planning?

A curfew had already been temporarily enforced within Stronghold 73, something that was still rarely seen in the Central Plains. Some of the strongholds here were even known to be sleepless cities, with bustling sights lasting throughout the night and into the morning.

After finishing his hot dry noodles, Ren Xiaosu headed out again. The Anjing House had appended more information about the mission and indicated that the Pyro Company had arrived in the vicinity of East Lake near Stronghold 73. Although they had lost track of their whereabouts, it was very possible the research laboratory was located right next to East Lake. However, it was likely the Pyro Company had not discovered the entrance of the research laboratory yet.

Ren Xiaosu was parkouring freely up on the roofs. Occasionally, he would notice there were also others up on the roofs looking at something.

Vanilla was walking with the elderly sugar painter in the shadows on the streets not far away. Dressed in his smart suit, he seemed wholly unrelated to the old man beside him.

The old man muttered, “There’s too many formidable people this time. You should tell me in advance what the Anjing House is planning. I don’t want to take too many risks.”

Vanilla adjusted his tie and said with a smile, “With you and me working together, and the other Anjing House members supporting us, who would be a match for us in this stronghold?”

[1] Hot dry noodles, also known as reganmian, is a traditional dish of Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province in central China. |