Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

After Wen Jin stated his name, the whole room was, of course, silent for a moment. DaDao's usually calm face was shocked, as he stared at Wen Jin strangely for a long time. Then he reluctantly withdrew and made a gesture to casually let them in. Wen Jin felt that DaDao's expression was not right. He had no feeling of respect and sympathy for Wen Jin's new name.

That was too much.

So, Wen Jin's face went stoic, and he did not clearly show curiosity he had had at first. He was acting very serious, putting on airs. His eyes swept to a woman in the corner who was laughing at him secretly; hearing her laughter, his little feeling of unhappiness leavened and grew.

Seeing the little girl laughing and whispering with her colleagues, Wen Jin turned his head with a cold huff and then tried to listen in on them. However, he wasn't quick enough and only heard the last two words, “… YingJun.”

Not only was his false name disapproved of, and people laughed behind his back; he even failed at eavesdropping!

Wen Jin wrinkled his nose, turned his head and stared at the silent Dewitt next to him. “How prestigious are you?”

He said he was a friend of Dewitt's, yet these people still acted this way towards him.

Dewitt turned around and before he could speak, he saw Wen Jin waving his response away. “Forget it. Don't say my name. I don't want anyone to know.”

All thousand-year-old demons are a little attached to their names, and the words 'famous all over the world' were negative to Wen Jin. It was an accident that Dewitt had found out, but now the relations.h.i.+p between his little tail and him was different. It was okay for him to know, but the others were a different story.

“Alright.” Dewitt looked at Wen Jin's small appearance and raised the corners of his lips as he nodded.

Wen Jin patted his clothes, put his hands behind him, looking like a big fox patrolling.

Dewitt followed suit, like a small tail, and he looked at women who had glanced at Wen Jin's face several times. DaDao might not be very interested in a face like Wen Jin's, but the women was different. Her eyes were bright. Dewitt then looked thoughtfully at the scarf around Wen Jin's neck.

“Right over there?” Wen Jin came to the middle row of arc-shaped tables, glanced at the circle of glowing screens, and his eyes fell on the largest one. There seemed to be a surveillance camera connected on top; it was monitoring a place similar to an abandoned warehouse.

The warehouse matched the surroundings very well. It looked dark, old and humble.

“Has no-one else found it?” There wasn't even a decent door, it should be easy to find such a large group of contract beasts when they were moved here, right?

DaDao was standing at the table, listening to his subordinate's report. He took a look at Wen Jin, then shot a glance at Dewitt standing behind Wen Jin. It was unclear what Dewitt was thinking. He opened his mouth and explained, “Although it looks like an old warehouse, it has been transformed. The underground s.p.a.ce is quite abundant, and the building facilities are all the most advanced.”

It meant that somebody gave shelter to the contract beasts and had the capability to make such a bas.e.m.e.nt. Even if they were found someday, they could be able to escape.

“Have you ever tried to attack?” Wen Jin stared at the warehouse on the screen. He was curious about just how advanced the so-said 'most advanced' warehouse was.

DaDao frowned when he heard his words. He looked at Wen Jin and the dark warehouse on the glowing screen. His tone was a little disrespectful. “We will not resort to a strong attack unless a  crucial point is reached.”

“Can the attack succeed?” Wen Jin didn't detect something was wrong with DaDao's tone and asked again.

Dewitt had never mentioned the name of the person behind him, so Wen Jin guessed that he could not find out about it himself. After all, when he was in the suburbs that day, Chen Xiong was still in a desperate state, and Tiger King was scarred.

Although those injuries had been cured, the desperate situation of the Qi herd at that time could not have been fake; otherwise, Chen Xiong would not let himself fall into his present situation. Especially on the day the beasts were sold, so when they had to change their routes, a large number of beasts were killed and injured. According to the degree to which the beasts cared about each other, Chen Xiong told him that the sale should be true.

If they followed this line of thinking, Tiger King might not have long been in contact with the forces now sheltering them. The people behind it could be roughly judged according to the strength of the bas.e.m.e.nt.

DaDao heard Wen Jin continue to persevere in asking, and he showed a little anxious face, looking at the Marshal who did not stop his words at all. This made him even more anxious. He was afraid that Wen Jin would move Dewitt and break their previous non-aggressive rules, but he could not fathom Wen Jin's ident.i.ty, so he couldn't help looking down. “What does Mr. Wen mean?”

Wen Jin paused, his thoughts interrupted, and he turned to look at him.

“We can.” Without waiting for Wen Jin to speak, and without waiting for DaDao to continue questioning, Dewitt spoke up, “But it's a little difficult.”

DaDao's eyes were dark and his body was straight. “Marshal—”

“This is the next step,” Dewitt looked at him and continued, “Not the end.”

This sentence was like a rea.s.surance pill. DaDao stared at Dewitt for a while, and his body relaxed slightly.

Wen Jin heard the hostility from DaDao this time; he looked at Dewitt again, and stopped asking.

Looking around the room again, Wen Jin found that DaDao's men might be a very disciplined and competent group. They talked here quietly, but most of the people around them were doing their own things. Except for a few people sitting in the farthest corner whose eyes were slightly drifting, the others were concentrating on what everyone was doing, especially those closest to them.

Looking at DaDao who continued to stare at the screen, Wen Jin closed his heart and looked at the screen as well. After watching it for a long time, Wen Jin would almost doubt whether he was indeed watching a surveillance feed, if it weren't for the old trees at the gate of the warehouse shaking in the wind.

Didn't Dewitt get a message that they were “moving” when he brought him here before? Didn't Dewitt also explain that the beasts had come into contact with the Uttar?

Then… Who was there? And how did they get in touch?

Previously, Chen Xiong was still in contact with them, negotiating and so on. He could understand this method.

But now, Chen Xiong was under house arrest at the House of Representatives and under constant watch, even his method was cut off. So how did the beasts continue to connect with people, getting such things as a hiding place, and then coming into contact with the Uttar people?

Wen Jin thought about it and could not help asking the question.

Dewitt shook his head. “Contact is judged by wave frequencies. There are few people near the warehouse. It's easy to lock onto.” And how they came into contact with the Uttar… “It may have something to do with the people who provided them with shelter.” But they didn't know who this person was, and naturally they didn't know how it happened.

The wave frequency could only show that there was a communication being broadcast, and through a.s.syria's own database, the traces of Uttar were detected, but that was it. They couldn't listen in on the wave-frequency communication in that warehouse.

“Did Chen Xiong save a trump card?” Wen Jin thought of the black bear spirit in the laboratory. He thought of several plans and then tilted his head. That did not seem to be it, either.

But… Thinking about it the other way round… Wen Jin recalled the last time he saw Chen Xiong at the Academy of Sciences.

Chen Xiong was usually an easy-going man, but seeing how furious he was for Professor Lin that night, even he would bite if provoked. There was no reason why he had been put under house arrest in a scientific research inst.i.tute. The matter of contract beasts had not been solved. Why was he so good-tempered?

He remembered that day when Melson made Dewitt stay in his office, he jumped out to look for Chen Xiong, wanting to know what he meant by ‘Honghuang DaLu'. The latter still looked rather depressed.

So… Why was Chen Xiong staying so quiet at the Research Inst.i.tute now?

“Chen Xiong has no face-to-face contact with them,” Dewitt seemed to see through what Wen Jin was thinking and shook his head at him. “He has been very safe; there may have been no correspondence, but he has not left the House of Representatives.”

Maybe it was because of Professor Lin.

The House of Representatives first put Chen Xiong beside Professor Lin; that was something they had to take into account. After all, the appearance of Chen Xiong and the rebellion of the contract beasts were quite shocking for a.s.syria. The House also needed time to digest and deal with it. Maybe for his own sake, Melson was unwilling to go to the extremes. While Chen Xiong was under house arrest, Melson also gave him access to Professor Lin. However, since he did not leave the scope of monitoring, it meant that he had nothing to do with the contract beasts, the forces behind them, and the contact with Uttar people. 

As he thought about Chen Xiong's relaxed look…

Wen Jin frowned, wondering if the other party would be so relaxed because he knew who the beasts were conspiring with and trusted the man who arranged for the beasts properly.

That was to say, Chen Xiong was not afraid of the person behind it doing anything… Wasn't this too strange?

Just then, a crisp voice chimed in with a degree of anxiety, “Brother DaDao, the waves are moving again.” It was the little girl beside them.

“Can you decipher it?” 

The little girl shook her head hesitantly. “It doesn't seem very good. Their wave-frequency defense system is very high; they were connected to the Uttar people, but their anti-spy defense is too strong.”

Both JU and Karst attended the banquet at Melson's side, along with the people they brought, so the ones in contact with the Qi beasts at this time should be the Uttar people who had been hiding in a.s.syria for a long time. This kind of person was the most troublesome to deal with. They had both the strong advantages of the Uttar in the investigation, and the profound understanding of a.s.syria.

“Think of a way!” DaDao's voice was cold.

“Yes!”

“Brother DaDao,” someone on the other side said as soon as the reply came, “Yota sent people directly in there!”

DaDao's face turned grim. They had been waiting here for a long time, and they had already discovered it and had a communication with the contract beasts once.

The other side used a voice changer. They stated they were on the Marshal's side and that they wanted to talk. It was unclear what the beast was thinking. Although they refused to contact them, they allowed them to stay.

So they always felt hopeful, but now… the Uttar contacted the contract beasts.

DaDao's hands clutched the edge of the table. He didn't know what the Uttar people and the beasts wanted to do, but at the heart of the struggle, he recalled that the scientific research inst.i.tute had been blown up before.

Wen Jin blinked and looked over at Dewitt.

Dewitt stood here in order to gain contact with the Qi beasts, but in theory, the Qi beast's power was not too strong; it could not match neither with the Uttar nor the Zerg. At best, it could only be regarded as a newly developed seedling.

So why did Dewitt put so much importance onto the contract beasts and this contact between them and the Uttar?

Was it really just for a long-term benefit?

“DaDao is not my trusted aide.” Noticing that the temperature in the room had dropped to freezing point, and everyone's faces were disheartened, Dewitt took Wen Jin along and began walking towards the balcony. 

“Hm?” Wen Jin looked at him.

“Most of the captains have been around me before. Everyone is responsible for different fields, but DaDao is different. He came to me with information and finally got the post through examination and verification.” So, unlike Ca.s.sey, DaDao had one hundred percent of Dewitt's trust. Rather than a superior-subordinate relations.h.i.+p, they were more like partners, each getting what they wanted from it.

“They're going to act in a minute.” By the time Dewitt said this, he had brought Wen Jin to the balcony. “That crucial point was the Uttar coming in contact with the Qi beasts.”

Wen Jin heard this sentence, a little stunned, and then frowned, “I'll go too.” 

Dewitt touched Wen Jin's head and then gently embraced him. The gesture was not ambiguous. It was clearly a hug. After that, he reached out and touched his terminal. “The news that DaDao was leaking information, as I've mentioned previously, originated from here.” In the moonlight, Dewitt's eyes were gentle. “I know about beasts and… all the contracts are here."

Contracts? Wen Jin was stunned.

“You have a choice.” When Dewitt finished, he kissed Wen Jin firmly on the forehead and took a step backwards.

“It's just a piece of information. Why are you acting like it's a matter of life and death?” Wen Jin's face didn't look good because of the kiss. He noticed the abnormality in Dewitt's tone, and that made him feel bad. “I've promised to marry you. In your eyes, am I only a rebellious, disobedient fox?"

Dewitt looked at Wen Jin for a long time, then he looked in the direction of DaDao. “It will take time. So, you should take your time.”

Wen Jin's eyes fell on Dewitt's face, and his heart beat a little fast. “Why do you even have to go?”

Again, didn't they only get in touch once? Why did Dewitt care so much? He and DaDao clearly didn't want to see the image of the a.s.sault. Why did the contact between Uttar and the beasts become their last bottom line?

What did this contact mean?