Chapter 954: Chapter 822: An Overlooked Flaw That’s Not a Flaw
This large area of dark clouds is Granny Jia’s creation of "Stillness Overcomes Motion."
She has done this in the Hope Star Realm before, but on a much smaller scale, driven by combat needs.
The old lady’s actual strength is far beyond this, after all, her cultivation level is Supreme.
Recently, she has been adjusting her Inner Breath and now that adjustment is complete, it’s time to swap the elements within her body.
Other Supreme beings might not be so willing to use their Inner Breath this way, but for her, it’s almost a necessity.
She intended to investigate other Supremes while consuming Inner Breath, but Qu Jianlei thought it was unnecessary and suggested creating a long-term rain weather instead.
The gradual change in weather didn’t attract much attention from others.
This is partly related to the old lady’s micro operation ability, and also because no one expected a Supreme to consume their Inner Breath like this.
However, because of this, in the short term, Granny Jia’s combat power is almost unreliable.
Qu Jianlei and the Paranoid believe this isn’t a problem, as the two of them can protect the manor.
The old lady only needs to focus on consuming her Inner Breath, and when she can’t hold on, she can use the Spirit Gathering Array to replenish Qi.
Being inside the manor makes replenishing Spiritual Qi easy and safer compared to going out to verify with other Supremes.
Dark clouds gradually formed, and within this area of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, nothing escaped the old lady’s notice.
Granny Jia created five days of dark clouds, with water vapor thickening in some areas, occasionally causing light rain naturally.
On the sixth day, she ended her control of the Water Element and went to rest in the Spirit Gathering Array.
After two days, since no one deliberately controlled the Water Element, the clouds began to disperse.
But the old lady had already recovered eighty percent of her Spiritual Qi and resumed controlling the Water Element.
In this manner, unknowingly, half a month passed.
Granny Jia’s Inner Breath never returned to its optimal state, but the accumulation of the Water Element steadily increased.
Eventually, a relative balance emerged; she controlled the Water Element for three days, rested for half a day, and replenished Qi for the other half.
Due to her continuous control, her body gradually showed signs of fatigue.
Persisting this way could likely cause some damage due to exhaustion.
Considering the old lady’s advanced age, she may not have enough time to heal injuries, so Qu Jianlei and the Paranoid occasionally assisted her.
Xiang Xue was slightly less skilled; although she was A-level with Water Attribute, her micro operation ability was somewhat lacking.
However, during this time, she’s been observing the old lady’s micro operations, which greatly benefited her.
Not everyone gets the chance to observe a Supreme of the same attribute for a long time, so she truly gained from this experience.
A month later, the clouds completely stabilized, with rain falling daily, and the sun rarely seen otherwise.
The meteorological department had become numb to the weather, unable to provide answers when asked when the rain would end.
This isn’t a bad thing, though; before, the air quality was somewhat polluted, but now it’s much better.
The government certainly had no reason to forcibly interfere with this weather.
That day, Qu Jianlei finally perfected the ordinary Qi Gathering Array—though it still had room for improvement, it was now usable.
The team included three Supreme beings, four A-levels, two B-levels, and one C-level, so one Qi Gathering Array was sufficient.
Qu Jianlei decided to rest for two days, then asked Xiao Qin, "Has Qinghu sent any news of Balrog yet?"
"There were two instances before," Xiao Qin replied in a low voice, "but they weren’t precise enough, so I didn’t inform you..."
"He’s frequently moving now, rarely staying in one place for long, and he’s quite cautious."
A Supreme with the Spiritual Attribute has a stronger perception ability of danger than ordinary Supremes, so this is not surprising.
During this time, no one has been monitoring this manor, which Granny Jia is very certain about.
What Qu Jianlei doesn’t know is that just the day before, the Patrol Headquarters carried out a bomb disposal operation.
Harman had completely disappeared, likely experiencing a mishap, leading the patrol guards to check his resting area.
Being sufficiently vigilant, they discovered the deputy’s firebomb device left behind.
The device was too precise; someone suggested inviting a Supreme to carefully perceive it and neutralize the danger.
Regrettably, Supremes aren’t easy to invite, especially for bomb disposal tasks.
Ultimately, they had to manually explode the device after dismantling part of the explosives.
The firebomb’s power wasn’t very strong, and the surrounding protective measures minimized its impact on the Patrol Headquarters.
Granny Jia, monitoring the surroundings, noticed this scene, but Qu Jianlei didn’t pay attention due to its small commotion.
The old lady also doesn’t know what the patrol guards were doing, but she felt there’s no need to inform Panda of everything.
As a member of the same group, one must bear some responsibility, as that’s the principle of being human.
Group members must support and assist each other to go further; the pride of a Supreme prevents her from remaining uninvolved.
The Patrol Guard’s explosion was minor, but the erupted powder was toxic and foul-smelling, almost catching them off guard.
The powder was a toxin cocktail, notably even containing paraquat.
This puzzled some people, as Harman himself was of Wood Attribute; why mix a poison specific to his attribute?
But the boss of the patrol guards saw another layer, "This... I’m afraid Harman used it for suicide!"
Harman buried explosives in his resting room, which was shocking enough—who would do such a thing?
The patrol guards all agreed that he must have encountered a formidable enemy. But the key question is—who is this formidable enemy?
They tried to use surveillance to investigate when Harman planted the explosives.
Even if you don’t talk about carrying the explosives in, just referring to the construction in the resting room, how could it be hidden from people?
However, unfortunately, the patrol guards didn’t find much useful information because the footage related to Harman wasn’t complete!
This incompleteness wasn’t due to a surveillance issue at headquarters, but because the related materials were manually deleted.
The one who did it wasn’t Little Lake, but Harman himself.
Patrol Headquarters is a security fortress; generally, related materials must be preserved for future reference.
But that’s only "generally," for the patrol’s higher-ups, they can delete information related to themselves.
This goes against principles, but as a big shot, who wouldn’t occasionally find themselves in inconvenient situations?
Records merely involving oneself and not related to headquarters affairs, if deleted, so be it.
Harman is the second-in-command of the patrol, so deleting some records was very convenient for him.
He didn’t delete too many records; over decades, he only deleted four or five segments.
Yet, this left the patrol guards clueless; they genuinely couldn’t see when Harman’s office was modified.
Moreover, the second-in-command being Wood Attribute, changing underground structures was convenient, a quiet alteration wouldn’t make much noise.
Finally, everyone speculated that the segment deleted over a month ago was most suspicious.
After all, besides this instance, the last time Harman deleted records was eight years ago.
Theoretically speaking, nobody likes to lay on explosives for years, right?
Now that the head honcho voiced speculation, everyone was even more curious.
Within just over a month, what kind of formidable enemy did Harman provoke to consider suicide?
Some have already thought about it—recently Balrog has been targeting Rhodiola rosea; could the second-in-command have gotten involved?
However, anyone who can think of this isn’t foolish; who would openly suggest this speculation?
Whether Rhodiola rosea is easy to provoke is secondary; the key is the name Supreme cannot be directly invoked.
Moreover, two forces possessing Supreme clashing, this kind of super whirlpool, who would dare meddle lightly?
They were even very puzzled: Harman was about to retire soon, why involve himself in such matters?
Yet, although no one openly suggested speculation, some felt they discovered the truth, inevitably murmuring privately.
So, the word-of-mouth spread accordingly.
Subsequently, almost conclusive evidence emerged—it was due to the tragic death of the landlord’s family.
The intermediary who spread the word at the time was found by the City Guards—found as a corpse.
There was no doubt, this person was silenced by a lower-level thug.
However, the one silenced wasn’t a good character either; he set a timed message to be released soon after his death.
This person was unaware of the insider details, and wasn’t even entirely certain who the superior thug was, only providing speculation.
But anyway, he was very clear on why he threatened the landlord and what words were exchanged.
These pieces of information were released—if he couldn’t be at ease, then no one would be.
What the landlord had been desperately concealing was exposed by others.
No matter how meticulous the plan, flaws can appear; human nature is truly too complex.
The landlord’s family massacre definitely counts as a major case; once the news broke, no one could suppress it.
—If Harman hadn’t died, perhaps it could have been suppressed, but now there’s really no one to take charge.
Therefore, the patrol guards received the news: someone intended to use the landlord’s kidnapping to force Rhodiola rosea’s team to leave.
If someone merges the two cases, the explanation becomes clear: the kidnapping’s planner was Harman, leading to his murder.
If Rhodiola rosea’s team indeed took action, it’s normal for the four to disappear silently, and Harman’s suicide preparation is even more plausible.
As for Harman’s motive for taking action, it remains a mystery, but it isn’t very important.
What’s important is that these two cases are very likely related.
However, even so, the patrol guards couldn’t actively merge the cases—none had lived long enough yet.
But Harman as an experienced A-level had numerous interest connections and acquaintances on Celestial Blade Star.
Regarding his disappearance, the Patrol Headquarters had to give an explanation.
So not long after, they submitted an investigation report to the Planet Governor.
The report contained no speculation about Rhodiola rosea’s team; it was a pure investigation report, not even mentioning the landlord’s case.
This was clearly a statement: We couldn’t investigate the other matters, so please send someone from above who can make decisions.
