In the afternoon, amidst the anticipation of many, the State Security Bureau's Flower Morning Festival Special Case Team and the Special Task Force sent from the governing district made a low-key entrance into the city.
Fang Ze, following orders, didn't put on a grand welcoming ceremony and instead discreetly brought them to the conference room on the fourth floor.
There was, however, a small welcome meeting in the conference room. But... it was all about reports from various departments regarding the Flower Morning Festival case.
And accompanying the reports were all sorts of materials, clues, evidence, and investigation reports that Fang Ze had already prepared.
This pragmatic style indeed made quite an impression on the officials from the state and the members of the Special Task Force.
After the meeting, the Special Case Team and the Special Task Force specifically asked Fang Ze to stay behind and then inquired about some details.
The team from the state was once again led by Qingping, and the head of the Judicial Department mentioned by the female director also arrived.
He was an elderly man with white hair, a face full of wrinkles, rarely smiled, had a somewhat limping gait, but his eyes sparkled with a fierce light.
Despite his advanced age, he still conveyed the presence of an old steed still longing for battle.
Even... though he limped, his walk was still vigorous and brisk.
No wonder the female director always kept him on board.
After all, in Fang Ze's past life, such "just aged" individuals were encouraged by the state to remain in employment...
As for the leader of the Special Task Force, it was a middle-aged man named Fire Tree.
He was said to be a Mortality-Shedding-stage master and a confidant of the head of the district Security Bureau.
With a square face, he exuded a strong sense of integrity.
Although he was silent and serious, he seemed to be a decent person. During the subordinate's report to Fang Ze, he actively intervened to soothe and defuse any tension.
The dispatched team consisted of altogether seven members.
Aside from him, there were eight other members, seven men and one woman.
It was said that among these eight, there were two Yang Transformation-stage masters and six Spirit Ascension-stage members. Anyway, their strength was no small matter, and flattening Emerald City would pose no problem.
According to the Special Task Force, a demigod's power would suffer a significant weakening upon their arrival; to reach Yang Transformation would be quite impressive.
And among the demigods, the Flower God was not the strongest kind. Even after laying preparations for so many years, the Flower God would likely only reach the peak of Yang Transformation at best. The Special Task Force was certainly up to the challenge.
In case of emergency, let's not forget the demigod-level military base still hovering near Emerald City.
Just a few minutes' delay would be enough for them to arrive as backup. Thus, the arrangement was virtually fail-safe.
After hearing this, Fang Ze nodded earnestly.
Indeed, it was fail-safe. Because... the Flower God really had no way to descend—what could possibly go wrong?
And so, the State Security Bureau's Flower Morning Festival Special Case Team and the Special Task Force from the governing district kept Fang Ze back to ask some more details and, after signing the handover forms with all the documents, evidence, and clues, officially transferred the case to them.
When the handover was completed, it was already evening.
At this time, the Governing Hall, as the hosting party, invited the Special Task Force to a dinner.
As the messenger from the governing district, naturally, Jiang Cheng, the First Commissioner, was the one to welcome them.
Thus, half a day later, Fang Ze saw him again.
Jiang Cheng maintained the friendly attitude from the morning, nodded to Fang Ze, then led everyone to the dinner.
Of course, while it was called a dinner, it was quite small in scale for the sake of modesty.
Present at the dinner were only the nine members of the Special Task Force, Qingping, the head of the State Judicial Office, Fang Ze, and... Jiang Cheng.
Logically, as the hosts, all six Municipal Councilors of Emerald City should have attended.
But... the other four council members had all been arrested by Fang Ze, hadn't they?
So, it was just Fang Ze and Jiang Cheng left, two pitiable lone souls.
This naturally gave the banquet an odd atmosphere. Despite Jiang Cheng's best efforts, the mood remained somewhat subdued...
In this way, the meal was finished. While the fruit was being served, one of the usually silent Special Task Force members suddenly spoke up.
The speaker was the only young woman among the nine Special Task Force members.
She had drunk a little, her face flushed, looking like a red apple.
Before speaking, she glanced around the room, and finally, her eyes rested on Fang Ze.
"Hello, Director Fang."
Before then, almost no one had spoken during the dinner.
So, as soon as the young woman started speaking, all eyes involuntarily turned toward her.
Seemingly used to being the center of attention, she wasn't perturbed by the staring and crisply asked, "Director Fang, I looked at your resume, you were promoted to Director because of this Flower Morning Festival case, right?"
Fang Ze wasn't fond of such socialising and had spent most of the dinner in his own world. Now, suddenly seeing someone addressing him, he came back to his senses.
He looked at the young woman, unclear about the purpose of her question.
But... the reason for his directorship was public knowledge and nothing untoward, so he nodded and replied, "Yes."
The young woman nodded and then said, "Then do you know that for a high-level city Director, the minimum qualification requirement is at least the fifth stage of Fusion?"
"Even for a promotion beyond the typical qualifications, a minimum of the third stage of Fusion is required, with the expectation of rapid advancement shortly thereafter."
"Otherwise, there could likely be discontent among the rest of the staff."
If earlier the young woman's question to Fang Ze left the attendees unsure of her intent, her remarks now made everyone present understand.