Chapter 31: The Heavens Perceive the Might of an Immortal

A gust of wind swept by, causing the newspaper page plastered against the wall to flutter noisily. The eye-catching headline, "Why So?", flipped back and forth in the breeze.

It was, in a way, quite fitting for their current state of mind.

The two men atop the clock tower widened their eyes, staring fixedly at the newspaper on the wall. They didn't even dare to blink, terrified of missing a single detail.

One minute... two minutes... ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye, yet nothing happened.

There were no flashes of spiritual light, no array patterns, not even the common spiritual flames seen when talismans are activated. Their eyes grew sore from staring, but the newspaper page remained completely unchanged.

The wind continued to howl around them, extinguishing their fiery anticipation. The face of the specialist beside him alternated between pale and flushed, until he finally couldn't hold back any longer.

"He really was just playing us for fools!" he burst out, frustration rising. "He even called it 'payment' for our previous investigation... What kind of payment is this?"

Lu Zhenhai’s expression was complex. Having climbed to his position, he had seen all sorts of people and was not prone to losing his composure like his subordinate. However, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment; witnessing this scene, he could not help but cast a shadow of doubt upon Zhou Qing in his heart.

"Forget it. Consider it a favor to him."

He sighed and stood up. "Although his behavior is indeed a bit abrasive, the fact that someone like Jiuli holds him in such high regard means his strength and status are genuine. It is better to appease him if possible. Even if we cannot be friends, we should at least avoid becoming enemies."

The specialist suppressed his anger and offered a grunt of acknowledgement. No longer wanting to look at the frustrating sight, he turned to head downstairs to the car.

But the moment he turned, a flash of light pierced his eyes.

"Captain... Captain Lu!"

Lu Zhenhai turned at the sound. He saw his subordinate’s face frozen, his features twitching and his lips trembling. It was as if the strength to speak had been abruptly drained from him. After stammering for a long time, he finally forced out two words:

"The sky... look at the sky!"

Lu Zhenhai followed his gaze upward. The moment he saw the scene before him, his pupils dilated in shock.

In the mere ten minutes that had passed, the once clear, azure sky had been engulfed by crimson clouds, glowing like the light of dawn.

However, this radiance did not spread from the horizon; instead, like ink dropped into water, it bloomed outward from their location, saturating the entire sky above the city. At a glance, it looked as if a second sun had appeared within the clouds.

The rosy light spilled down in abundance, casting the surrounding skyscrapers into a hazy filter, creating an inexplicable sense of unreality.

Looking around, many pedestrians on the sidewalk had stopped to gaze upward, with many holding up their phones to take pictures.

Lu Zhenhai suddenly remembered something. "Did you bring the spiritual imaging device? Give it to me."

His subordinate was still dazed; it took three calls from Lu Zhenhai before he snapped out of his trance, hurriedly pulling out a telescope-like device and handing it over.

Lu Zhenhai held it to his eyes and triggered the imaging button. A fluorescent green scan appeared before him.

Under the scan, all the buildings in the city were simplified into black-and-white lines. Above those lines surged a massive tidal wave.

Yes, a tidal wave.

Centered on the newspaper on the clock tower, a colossal wave of spiritual energy was surging outward, sweeping across the entire city. Even through the imaging screen, the sheer, overwhelming momentum made one's scalp tingle.

The entire city now seemed to be a water surface, and that newspaper was a giant boulder dropped into its midst!

If a high-level cultivator were present, they would realize that this transformation contained no active spiritual intervention, nor could they sense the aura of a caster—this was not a spell at all. It was an order issued to this corner of the world, where the spirituality of heaven and earth flowed according to a single will!

Lu Zhenhai’s fingers, gripping the device, began to tremble. He didn't even bother to wipe the sweat from his brow, focusing intently on the screen.

Wherever the giant wave passed, tiny points of light emerged from all corners of the city, like countless dancing peach blossom petals. There must have been thousands, if not tens of thousands, densely blanketing the streets and alleys.

Each petal was composed of pure spiritual energy; each filament of energy represented a 'Peach Blossom Spring' brand once implanted into a human soul. Under normal circumstances, after some time, these brands would have been enough to turn tens of thousands of people into puppets, plunging the entire Liangzhou City into unprecedented chaos.

But now, under some irresistible pressure, they were being forced out of their hosts like parasites under a scorching sun. Drifting chaotically in all directions, the rosy light ignited them in the air, filling the sky with burning petals.

After only a few breaths, the petals dissipated, the flames vanished, and the world returned to peace.

Lu Zhenhai slowly lowered the imaging device. To the naked eye, the city remained as calm as ever; the tidal wave and the rain of burning petals seemed to have never existed. Only the drifting clouds overhead remained stained by the rosy light, hanging silently over the city as a vast expanse of fire-red clouds.

But he knew he would never forget what he had just seen for the rest of his life.

The phone in his pocket vibrated at that moment. He picked it up; the number displayed was indeed from within the Sanitation Bureau.

"Captain Lu, the Intelligence Division reports that seven locations within the city have consecutively sent messages. Multiple intense spiritual energy reactions have been detected, suspected to be the emergence of high-level cultivators from the Peach Blossom Spring."

The brands scattered throughout the city had been wiped out in an instant, and the big fish hiding in the shadows could no longer sit still.

Just as that man had said: if you can't find the enemy, make them come out themselves.

In this regard, he was just like that Jiuli guest from a thousand years ago—direct and brutal.

"Notify the command center. We are entering a state of emergency effective immediately. Authorize the declassification of the Big Dipper system and all spiritual combat equipment."

Lu Zhenhai wiped the sweat from his jaw, his tone returning to a steady calm within seconds. "All site leads are to be granted full deployment authority. A five-kilometer radius around each incident site is now a restricted zone. All local squads are to provide unconditional support. Specific details will be reported once I return to the command center."

"Understood. Also, the Public Opinion Center just reported that the abnormal celestial phenomenon in Liangzhou is trending on social media. Should we intervene?"

Lu Zhenhai pondered for a moment, looking up at the fire-red clouds dyed by the rosy light.

"A celestial phenomenon alone shouldn't be enough to arouse public suspicion. Do not suppress it forcefully, but keep a close watch to ensure no opportunistic factions use this incident to stir up trouble."

"Yes, it has been conveyed to the Public Opinion Center."

Hanging up, Lu Zhenhai looked back. The newspaper was still fluttering lazily in its place. The changes in heaven and earth, the surge of spiritual energy, and the powerful enemies in the city—none of it had affected that thin slip of paper in the slightest.

Zhou Qing... He silently repeated the name over and over in his heart, engraving it and everything he had seen today firmly into his memory, before waking his dazed subordinate and heading toward the motorcade waiting below.