"Hou Fei, can I have a private talk with you?" Jin asked as if he was considering the lucrative proposal that Hou Fei had thought out of the blue.

"It's fine, we're already done with our food and had planned to leave anyway. There are some post-battle debriefings we need to do with our respective platoons." Kan Jian said, and the rest nodded their heads, giving their General and the Dungeon Supplier some time to sort things out.

"Thanks, guys." Hou Fei said as he waved goodbye to his men and asked Jin if he could light another cigarette.

"You know, even if you are a high-grade cultivator, it doesn't mean you should smoke that much. You haven't forgotten that Grandpa Ming died from cancer, have you? …Speaking of, I do not remember seeing you at his funeral." Jin suddenly realised.

Aside from a few of his past neighbours and friends from other provinces, Jin did not recall seeing Hou Fei at the funeral procession.

"I was in an overseas conference…discussing on- Never mind. Not something you should worry about. Still, that doesn't mean it came as a surprise. Before his passing, Ming called and told me that his time was soon to be up. That he was going to leave soon without giving you any notice and asked me to look after you when possible. We had a great dinner talking all about the old times we ever had." Hou Fei somehow stopped abruptly and took a deep breath from his lit cigarette.

"In any case, why would you like to talk to me in person? Not because of this issue, right?" Hou Fei asked, and Jin shook his head even though he had a number of questions pertaining to Ming and especially in regards to Grandma Yuan.

It's just that he did not know where to start.

"When I asked about the worst-case scenario, your expression turned for the worse and eventually got so serious. I doubt that you had some sudden epiphany that led the whole conversation this way." Jin questioned, and Hou Fei returned a puzzled look.

"Aren't you the one who gave me the System report? I thought that was what you were hinting at when we all thought it would not be a big deal. You know the one where the System reported that it had captured the monkey but not the Bone Spirit Demon infused with it?" Hou Fei answered, and Jin gave a blank look at that point of time.

"Ah. That I did not know it was an issue for contention. I thought the System could not capture it in time or something."

"Nonsense. System's capturing rates had always been 100%. If System is unable to fully control or convert someone or something, it will store the monsters just like was done for Diabolos, King Hamu and Fae Princess Maeve."

"Says the one who could not catch the Demon Rats… Hahaha- Wait a minute, why didn't you list King Baal?" Jin was curious what happened to him.

"He has come to his senses, and the information flow between the System and him caused Baal to acknowledge that he had really been blinded by the lies Kiva had fed him over the years. However, he does not wish to be disturbed as of right now and had asked for some solitary time out." The System reported, and Jin was surprised. He thought that King Baal would be stored the same way as the other villains they had met.

"System likes to iterate once more, Demon Rats are not the same living entity." The System emphasised that the monkey had signs of being possessed and its DNA strain slightly altered after infusion. However, there was nothing that would impede the livelihood of the said monkeys.

"So, there you go. I thought you were hinting to me, which brought me to believe this was not just a monster horde. It could be international terrorism in the works. Or well, domestic terrorism… Either way, if the System was unable to capture it, means that the Bone Spirit Demon was not exactly a demon but possibly an enchantment of some sort." Hou Fei deduced.

"Sorry, that's out of my hands for now. I am not going to interfere with what you guys are fighting but saving people would be a different issue. I initially thought the Demon Exorcists will get some pretty nifty demon monsters, but I guess it was a waste of effort." Jin shrugged his shoulders.

"Nah. At least the System's report and Su Zhen's report helped a lot in our preparations though we have less than a week or so…"

"Yeah, it sure helped a lot when I asked you specifically to NOT spread the message to other people. And of all people, Su Zhen's mother! The COO of the JODE organisation!"

"It's my responsibility. You cannot override the fact that protecting this nation is my duty and calling. Aside from serving you that is. Heh!" Hou Fei argued as he flicked the ashes of his cigarette into the ashtray and coughed a bit.

"So, what is the bright idea you have in mind, General." Jin asked since he honestly did not want to be sent to Dongguan.

"Since Pandapolis has yet to be announced, we can use the hotels and those classy yet empty condominiums your minions have built as a place for any refugees if things really go south. Heh, no pun intended. I have yet to properly check the infrastructure in Huizhou, but I believe the city doesn't have any proper bunkers against this kind of natural disaster." Hou Fei explained.

"And if those Bone Spirit 'Demons' ever overflow into the dungeon instances, your monsters can be the guards to protect the people. This will give me peace of mind when we fight."

"You are already expecting that things will go bad very quickly?"

"The private contractors, who we had hired, were previously Special State Agents. Usually, they would have accomplished the job almost immediately. But to think that there was no news except for occasional reports worries me. At first, I thought that it was because they got the whole mountains to track and stuff, but this additional report has confirmed otherwise."

"You know, I thought you guys should already have scouted with air surveillance or something," Jin asked as if he was stating an obvious fact.

"Hah! As if we did not think of that. Our support drones reported no further movement of any sorts after our elimination of their nests. Even with infrared, we were not able to spot anything. Otherwise, we would not have needed eyes on the ground to check this discrepancy. The funny thing is we had been receiving reports that the Borders Guards were still getting hit despite the contractors' reports that the coast was clear." Hou Fei told him, and suddenly it started to make no sense to him when he pieced all the information together.

"I am not on the scene, but I can already smell something fishy," Jin said and Hou Fei snorted.

"So, this is really not a monster horde but indeed an attack on our sovereignty…" Hou Fei whispered to himself.

"In any case, are you willing to accept my proposal? I promise the Tigers and Snakes will pay you handsomely."

"Like I said, I'm not going to do any fighting for you. As for saving people? Sure. However, you gotta protect the trucks and portal devices within it! There is only so much I can do if the portal devices get damaged…or stolen." Jin mumbled the last part before ignoring it for a moment and shook hands with Hou Fei.

For once, fate had allowed him to take the backseat… (For now?)

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