Fei Yunlai was quite lucky; the battlefield where he and the Grand Priest of the Holy Church fought was only a bit over sixty miles from the secret base in Wang City.
There was a complete surgery cabin there, facilitating Lin Rui to perform more precise surgeries to help old Fei recover faster without leaving any hidden injuries.
However, when Lin Rui tried to place Fei Yunlai into the surgery cabin, Fei Yunlai tightly clutched his hand, refusing to let go.
Lin Rui pondered for a long while, then realized, "Don’t worry, the seventh realm battle dragon counts as yours, and the thirty thousand silver notes on the Grand Priest, as well as his belongings, are also yours."
Sure enough, upon hearing this, Fei Yunlai released his hand.
Lin Rui didn’t plan to take advantage of old Fei; neither did he have the heart to. Considering that Fei Yunlai had indeed taken a hit for him, he decided not to charge old Fei’s surgery and medicine fees.
The problem was that the items on the Grand Priest added up still fell short of covering Fei Yunlai’s expenses for two months, and considering his compounded injuries, it was estimated he wouldn’t recover for two or three months.
Lin Rui also felt conflicted, unsure whether to feel happy or worried, as the kite that had flown away had somehow come back.
While Lin Rui was performing surgery on Fei Yunlai, Lin Xi was in the Zhou family’s basement, her eyes full of expectation as she gazed at the ’Danxin Indestructible Dragon’ in front of her.
Although the tier of this battle dragon had decreased, its body was still an impressive seventy feet tall.
Its severely damaged heart and most of its organs had healed, and the hole in its forehead was gone, but its body was still incomplete, having only one arm and one leg.
This was because the battle dragon’s energy was insufficient, allowing it to only prioritize the restoration of more critical parts within its body.
It was surprising that this originally all-red dragon, edged with dark gold, now had dark golden patterns on its breastplate as well, resembling runes—mysterious, wonderful, cool, and magnificent.
—This was indeed a characteristic of a battle dragon entering the super-emperor stage.
At the emperor stage, these dark golden patterns would only wrap around the edges and corners, but entering the super-emperor stage, these patterns could spread all over the body.
Lin Xi’s face turned slightly pale, due to the excessive amount of blood she had just spilled.
Each time she fed the battle dragon with her blood over the past few days for the sacrificial refining, its consciousness had fiercely tried to awaken, yet it had not succeeded.
Lin Xi knew it was just short of the final step for a complete awakening, so today she had invested heavily.
With Lin Rui’s imminent entry into the capital and the upcoming dangerous confrontations, she had to make sure this battle dragon recovered as soon as possible before her brother set out.
To Lin Xi’s disappointment, she had been waiting here for 30 minutes, and the battle dragon remained motionless.
Its consciousness was active, erratically transmitting messages to Lin Xi, yet it was still unable to wake.
"Still unable to awaken?"
Lin Xi sighed silently, turning to look at her Swordbone Daemon.
"An Lao, that’s enough for now, the remaining few, let’s kill them tomorrow."
The Swordbone Daemon was helping her slaughter the Tianji Star cows and transport the meat into storage.
Lin Xi had received the battle dragon’s intense hunger consciousness more than once, so in the past two days, she had continuously bought over forty Tianji Star cows, slaughtered them, and stored their meat in this basement for the battle dragon’s consumption upon awakening.
The Tianji Star cows were much larger than Earth cows, and just those thirty-seven cows nearly filled up this underground space that was thirty feet in length and width.
Lin Xi figured that since the battle dragon was not waking anytime soon, she should take it easy.
After all, it was the blazing summer, and even if the meat was stored in a cellar, it would still decompose rather quickly.
But just as Lin Xi turned around, the Swordbone Daemon’s eyes flickered with ghostly fire, looking towards her back.
"Hmm?"
Lin Xi suddenly looked back and saw that within the pupil of the ’Danxin Indestructible Dragon’ behind her, a blue gleam had formed.
Lin Xi’s pupils dilated slightly, showing a look of surprise.
Her Danxin Indestructible Dragon had come to life!
Simultaneously, Lin Xi also noticed that within the originally blue eyes of this battle dragon, a trace of barely perceptible crimson light had appeared.
Lin Xi smiled bitterly, knowing that this battle dragon was still under the influence of her origin substance—destruction essence!
Her essence’s appearance was despair, its substance destruction, leading to destruction due to despair.
Her sister Lin Yi’s appearance was pain, its substance distortion, leading to distortion due to pain.
They indeed possessed the essences of despair and pain, but these were just keys to unlocking the door to their powers.
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Meanwhile, in the underground of Yinyue County, Xue Lingxue walked over to the half-kneeling, slumbering Imperial Flame Dragon in the subterranean hall filled with purple radiance crystals, holding a scroll in her hand.
As Xue Lingxue approached within twenty feet of the dragon, the Imperial Flame Dragon suddenly opened its eyes, coldly staring at her with a pair of crimson eyes.
In that instant, the surrounding thirty feet turned into a sea of fire.
"I mean no harm!"
Xue Lingxue didn’t know if the battle dragon on the other side could understand her, she unrolled the scroll in her hand, raising it towards the dragon’s face.
"This is a directive from your master, she is commanding you to follow me."
Xue Lingxue’s mind was actually quite muddled.
Before coming here, she had investigated, and this Imperial Flame Dragon’s owner should have died, having self-sealed for six thousand seven hundred years and then perishing in an incident a few months ago, leaving not even a corpse behind.
Although this Imperial Flame Dragon had awakened its sentience, which was extremely rare among battle dragons,
following the death of its master, this dragon should have gradually faded into oblivion within a month or two.
To Xue Lingxue’s surprise, the war dragon was still alive and fully conscious.
Moreover, she didn’t know if the scroll she held would be of any use.
It was given to her by Lin Rui, instructing her to show it to the war dragon. The handwriting on it was delicate yet forceful, with each character connected as if in a fierce blaze.
What relieved Xue Lingxue was that, after a moment of focused discernment, the war dragon stood up, its gaze steadily fixed upon her.
Xue Lingxue understood that the Imperial Flame War Dragon wanted her to lead the way.
Without hesitation, she took the lead, escorting the war dragon out of the vast underground mine.
Next, she was to lead the war dragon all the way to the bank of Tianxiang River, place it on a specially prepared vessel, lock it inside a dark box in the cabin, and transport it to the capital.
Lin Rui had specifically instructed that no foreign agents should learn of this war dragon’s existence, so before securing the Imperial Flame War Dragon inside the dark box, she had to personally handle everything.
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While Xue Lingxue hastened on her way, she received several messages on her communication system.
Zhang Long: Xiao Xue, please have the chief review these twenty-odd documents as soon as possible and handle them promptly.
Currently, constrained by his status and lack of time, Lin Rui hardly managed the office affairs, leaving Xue Lingxue to oversee all official duties there.
She kept a tight watch, not relaxing her management even though Zhang Long was an old comrade of her father.
Although the current focus of the Third Special Operations Department was on the Xue Bogao case and smuggling cases, both led by Zhang Long, Xue Lingxue did not delegate responsibility for other important departmental issues.
Xue Lingxue glanced through the documents, her eyes narrowing slightly.
These were over a dozen requests for arrest warrants.
Zhang Long had been deeply involved in the smuggling investigation, with the Special Operations Department continuously interrogating suspects, making the lower floors of the office building brightly lit.
His progress seemed substantial, evident from these arrest warrants, which implicated many leaders of the Six Streets Gang, customs officials, base defense forces, and even naval officers, including two federal commodores serving as destroyer captains.
All these arrest warrants required Lin Rui’s signature before they could be submitted to the courts and prosecutors for approval.
Xue Lingxue had already established good personal contacts with several judges and prosecutors under the care of General Zhou, all of whom were sympathetic to the East Asian Republic. So long as the arrest requests submitted by the Third Special Operations Department weren’t too outrageous, they were generally approved promptly.
Just then, Xue Lingxue’s supervisor also sent her a message.
Gu Ying Tiandao (Lin Rui): Xiao Xue, I’m assigning you a task. Look over these pieces of intelligence. If you were the "Nursery Rhyme Killer," where would you say is the easiest spot to strike? How could you take control of that place in the shortest time without alerting the parties involved?
Gu Ying Tiandao (Lin Rui): You should be familiar with the style of the Nursery Rhyme Killer, who leaves no survivors. We need to use this person as a hypothetical adversary and be prepared.
After reading this, Xue Lingxue’s expression darkened.
Recently, the notoriety of the "Nursery Rhyme Killer" had been rampant in the base city.
It was said that many gang strongholds were massacred by a killer who liked to sing nursery rhymes.
This person was not only adept at using poison but also had the assistance of a master trained up to the seventh realm.
This was currently the most troublesome case for the entire federal security bureau.
Mainly because too many were killed, by now, there were already more than 2,000 victims, a truly staggering number.
Although the government tried to guide public opinion and minimize impact, it still alarmed various parties.
Not long ago, the mayor and city council had summoned the police and security bureau chiefs for questioning. General Zhou Yunfei had managed to keep his hands clean, as he was not in charge of the major crimes investigation department or the special service center, but including him, several top officials within the security bureau were severely reprimanded.
As the serial killings continued, several deputy ministers were under tremendous pressure.
The special service center, major crimes investigation department, and anti-terrorism department were reportedly extremely busy recently, searching everywhere for clues about the Nursery Rhyme Killer.
The deputy ministers also had no time to deal with the Third Special Operations Department or the ongoing smuggling investigation, suddenly smoothing out conflicts among various departments.
However, Xue Lingxue knew who this Nursery Rhyme Killer, sought by all sides, truly was—it was none other than Major General Lin Rui of their own Third Special Operations Department!
After sighing, she first sent the several arrest warrant requests she deemed approvable to Lin Rui for his signature, then opened the documents Lin Rui had provided and began to examine them carefully.
Xue Lingxue studied them intently, occasionally accessing the internal intelligence database of the security bureau to confirm details.
In fact, she had already planned three operational schemes for Lin Rui.
With all parties intensifying their investigations and search, Xue Lingxue had to ensure that every aspect of their operations was flawless.
Xue Lingxue knew that she and Lin Rui were tied together, and she absolutely did not want anything to happen to him.
What gave her some relief was that Lin Rui had recently shifted his focus to the lower district.
The guy adopted a method of tackling the more difficult tasks first, clearing the upper district’s scum and then moving on to the lower district, which was more enclosed and less monitored.
In the underworld, although the various gang forces were formidable, government power was relatively weak.
The extensive network of underground tunnels also provided Lin Rui with space to maneuver.
At this moment, Lin Rui was requesting leave for Fei Yunlai, who wouldn’t be up and about for two or three days and temporarily unfit to serve as a martial arts society coach.
After performing surgery on them, Lin Rui also had to notify Yu Feicui to not rely on old Fei in the next couple of days.
Just then, Lin Rui uttered a startled cry—it was because the imperial transfer order had finally reached Wang City.
To Lin Rui’s surprise, the person who had brought him the transfer order was an acquaintance and benefactor—the current Deputy Supervisor of the Imperial City’s Sixth Division, Zhuang Mingyue.