On screen, Wu Liang acted without a shred of hesitation; the crisp sound of bone fractures emanating from his maneuvers was terrifying.
As Wu Liang broke the legs of all the officials, the screen suddenly darkened, and a message about his official role popped up from the side.
It seemed that everything was implying that his actions were officially guided, if not officially sanctioned.
Minister Long’s fingers rhythmically tapped the table, pondering what exactly was happening.
"Did someone set a trap for the Wu brothers? Or perhaps... set a trap for the officials?"
To him, Wu Liang alone couldn’t orchestrate such an astounding precision strike.
This must have been Wu Ming’s doing; his brother remains hidden in the shadows.
Moreover, Minister Long had a bad premonition.
In the last second before the screen vanished, he sharply noticed Wu Liang making a discreet leg-bending motion, as if preparing to leap.
This wasn’t a move one would expect to see in normal circumstances.
Could there be something off-camera that these brothers were readying to confront?
Minister Long hadn’t personally witnessed Wu Ming’s true power as a Symbiont.
But he vividly remembered the immense, explosive spiritual power when he tried to help Wu Ming with spiritual expansion.
This only proved that the Fierce Ghost symbiotic with him was quite formidable, leading to the earlier deduction that Sun Zhoushan might not necessarily defeat Wu Ming.
In this situation, whatever Wu Ming needed to take seriously was likely unsettling.
"Awakened or supernatural issues?"
After a few seconds of contemplation, he picked up the phone, dialed a number, and calmly said:
"I’ll trouble the tech department to hack into the TV station’s internal network and cut tonight’s broadcast content completely. Make sure the other side doesn’t know about the operation; they’re likely having internal issues. Treat it entirely as a hacker intrusion."
After hanging up with the network information technology department, Minister Long swiftly called another department.
"Have the two captains of the Supernatural Handling Squad lead their unoccupied members to seal off the Dongri Grand Hotel, without using any police forces."
"Notify Sheep to come to my office; I need her to handle something."
"Take the list submitted by Wu Liang last time and verify it against the footage from the banquet. See how many of the injured match, and report back to me within ten minutes."
In just about ten seconds of news footage, Minister Long immediately issued orders with urgency.
Perhaps even Wu Xiaoyao wouldn’t have imagined it.
That within the official ranks, there was someone who dared to start preventive and containment actions solely based on preliminary judgments from television news.
What he couldn’t foresee was this: Googlᴇ search noⅴelfire.net
The White-faced Ghost and Hundred-mouthed Ghost left to stall Wu Liang at the venue could only delay him for less than ten minutes.
After dealing with these two ghosts, Wu Liang even tried to feed them to the Oil Paper Umbrella within the Ghost Compendium.
Unfortunately, he failed.
However, they weren’t returned entirely useless; they could still be consumed by Fierce Ghost Minions, although the effect was far from the enhancement gained from devouring true Fierce Ghosts, resembling more like consuming useless supernatural objects.
"Ha, of course, these things themselves were just a mix of supernatural objects, so it’s reasonable."
After neutralizing the threat at the banquet venue, Wu Liang remained unaware that his actions had been reported out of context.
Because on site, he didn’t even notice any photographic equipment for interviews.
Under these circumstances, no one knew where the footage for the report came from.
He was also clueless about the speculations and curses against him starting to ferment online.
At this moment, all Wu Liang knew was—the Fierce Ghost Minions had returned with their report!
Within the hotel, even the sewers a rat crawled through were inspected; the Fierce Ghost Minions found five places with issues!
These five places all emitted dense Fierce Ghost auras; without careful discernment, one might assume various Fierce Ghosts were hidden there.
"Two in the basement, two in the adjacent venue, and one on the rooftop?" Wu Liang frowned, pondering where his father might be hiding.
Logically, if he were hiding in a regular room or on the road, it wouldn’t escape the Nightmare’s city-wide spiritual perception.
Then he must be hiding in one of these five anomalous places!
"Alright, Nightmare and Mist to the basement, Evil Bell and Puppet to the adjacent venue. Locate the sources emitting abnormal Fierce Ghost aura and try every means to destroy them." Wu Liang paused momentarily before continuing, "Remember, avoid hurting the innocent as much as possible."
After all, if he didn’t say this, he was truly worried about some reckless Fierce Ghost Minion causing casualties that would be hard to resolve!
After instructing the Fierce Ghost Minions, Wu Liang grabbed a rust-covered kitchen knife and sprinted toward the rooftop!
As he hurried upstairs, Wu Xiaoyao sat at the edge of the rooftop, seemingly ready to fall off at any moment, looking down at the array of streets below.
Centered around the Dongri Grand Hotel, the commercial street spread out, from bustling to ordinary, and finally to leisure centers and even suburban areas.
"Human society’s structure is commercial street, branching outwards from the center based on salary and social status, ultimately categorizing people into various classes." He mused to himself.
"But it won’t be long before we achieve true unity worldwide! No one will be superior to others!"
Then he took out his phone and looked at the news report about Wu Liang’s hostage-taking of the banquet’s esteemed guests.
A gleam of anticipation flashed in Wu Xiaoyao’s eyes as he continued, "The first step of the plan—who will win this trust game of ours?"
In his scheming plan, the previous Monkey Claw incident would lead to widespread skepticism among Chengyang City’s officials, as they didn’t know whose memories had been compromised.
The subsequent base community invasion incident, though accidental, perfectly intensified the tensions between officials and the authorities.
Communication and trust issues arose between the two sides.
On this basis, Wu Xiaoyao now intended to further compromise the trust between the government and the public.
Making the public feel that the authorities were becoming corrupt, filled with unsavory, dirty deeds.
To undermine the Awakened’s image as heroes in the eyes of the people, blurring the boundaries between ordinary individuals and Awakened.
He wanted the common folk to think—if only I could protect myself.
Only this way could supernatural objects gradually flow into most people’s hands, slowly consolidating his position.
Winning hearts wins the world.
This saying is not just idle talk.
Today, the outcome of trust between the authorities and the public, Awakened and ordinary individuals, officials and civilians becomes crucial.
If victorious, nothing will happen; if defeated, they’ll exploit the void.
"So, whom will you trust?"