Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 256 The Unexpected Responder
"The location is in the vicinity... Xun'an Town."

On a low hillside, Guan Tong gazed at the small town that had been destroyed in the earthquake not far away.

Based on the login location of the "Desperate" account, he located the device within the town.

The town of Xun'an is located on the northern border. Guan Tong traveled from Pinglu, a mountain town in the west, and it took him quite a while to get here.

What he's certain of now is that the "desperate" person who sent him a private message on the website is in the small town. As for whether "Big Sister" Jiang Lanying is there, he's still unsure.

Moreover, during his previous investigation, he discovered that the network devices used by "Desperate" were mostly offline, only connecting to the internet when sending messages.

This suggests that the town may have electronic jamming devices that are only temporarily shut down when communication with the outside world is needed.

Guan Tong wasn't sure if this town was a trap.

But now that he's come all this way, he definitely won't leave until he gets to the bottom of things.

"Let's put the shadow in and see."

As Guan Tong was thinking, her ears twitched, and she turned to look into the distance.

Looking into the distance, he saw large helicopters flying in this direction on the horizon.

This made him wary, so he retreated to a distance and lay in ambush.

Then, under his watchful eye, the helicopter landed some distance from the town, and a dozen or so people in full special forces uniforms appeared.

Could it be the contact person mentioned in "Desperate Situation"?

Guan Tong felt something was wrong again.

The person that guy mentioned was a foreigner. If he was from overseas, why would he come from the south? He should have come from the north.

After getting off the plane, the dozen or so people quickly jogged forward, and judging by their speed, they were undoubtedly all Ascended Beings.

Could it be an official pursuit force?

Guan Tong speculated. Given Jiang Lanying's stature and the numerous heinous crimes she committed, the higher-ups would certainly not allow her to defect and continue endangering the country.

The squad quickly approached the town, and Guan Tong manipulated his shadow to follow.

He planned to figure out the situation in the town before taking action himself.

"Team Leader Long, all communication equipment has failed."

As soon as Dragon Soul's team entered the town's boundaries, one of the team members noticed this.

Not only long-range communications, but also medium- and short-range radio communications are all being jammed.

"This isn't an ordinary jamming device; it must be the effect of some kind of special mental power item," Dragon Soul deduced.

"Everyone spread out in formation and follow my hand signals."

Long Hun used hand gestures to direct the team members. After advancing some distance into the town, he signaled to Chen Na.

Chen Na understood immediately, closed her eyes, and activated her abilities.

Sudden——

A special field, invisible to the naked eye, unfolds.

The perception domain centered on Chen Na is rapidly expanding, and anyone active within the domain will absolutely not escape her perception.

Before long, she made some progress.

Because the team members were in a group, she directly shared the information she perceived with her teammates.

The next moment, everyone received a location information.

Near a building more than 700 meters away at the two o'clock position, there were more than a dozen people moving around.

The number of people matches, confirming that it is the target and his subordinates.

Dragon Soul signaled for advance and encirclement, and the team immediately began moving towards the target direction.

After opening her eyes, Chen Na turned around and glanced uncertainly at the corner of the ruins not far behind her.

"What's wrong?" Silver Fox, who was always watching her, asked in a low voice.

Chen Na shook her head uncertainly: "It's nothing, I think I made a mistake."

"Let's go then."

After the two left, a shadow slowly emerged from the corner where Chen Na had been looking.

Guan Tong, who was remotely controlling the device, muttered to himself, "Did that person sense the presence of the shadow? So perceptive... I need to keep the shadow away."

Because Chen Na and the others were all wearing full-body combat suits and helmets, Guan Tong didn't know that the person was Chen Na.

He continued to manipulate the shadow to follow from a distance, and soon discovered the team's destination.

It is a bank in the northern part of the town.

The town was destroyed by an earthquake a few months ago, leaving only ruins and few buildings standing.

This bank is one of them; to be precise, the bank's vault is still intact, but the front hall and courtyard have collapsed.

At this moment, in the vault area, the short-haired women were all gathered together waiting.

Today is the day they meet their contact and leave the country. They will leave together once the commander gives the order, and they don't know if they'll ever have the chance to return.

One of the women appeared calm on the surface, but was inwardly anxious and frustrated.

She was at her wit's end.

She kept a miniature network device hidden away.

She knew that the Commander would temporarily stop using signal jamming devices whenever he contacted his contact. During these times, she would secretly use her personal devices to connect to the network and contact Shadow on the House of Ascended.

She had initially thought that Shadow would agree to her proposal. But to her surprise, Shadow had not replied to her since the last time he contacted her to ask for a guarantee.

She sent several more messages after that, but received no response.

This made her realize that the shadow wouldn't vouch for her.

In that case, she certainly wouldn't reveal her location.

However, this meant she knew she would have to flee the country with the commander, which was not the outcome she wanted.

She chose to betray the commander because she wanted to survive. The deaths of Han Ling and others made her realize that, to the commander, they could be used as pawns at any time if necessary.

Moreover, the safest place in the world right now is Beixing. Leaving here and going abroad will only lead to the danger of being pursued globally by Beixing authorities, as well as the danger of violating regulations and the environment.

This was not what she wanted, so she secretly contacted Shadow and the station chief, hoping to gain leverage to escape punishment and survive by betraying them.

However, it now appears that this attempt has ended in failure.

Once we get outside, all we can do is...

"Boom!!!"

"Puff puff puff!"

Suddenly, a piercing buzzing sound was accompanied by low but dense gunfire.

They're using stun grenades and silenced rifles!
"Enemy attack!"

"Look for cover!"

"Protect the Commander!"

The women on the perimeter were knocked down, and the rest who reacted quickly immediately hid inside the vault door.

Commander Jiang Lanying was resting with her eyes closed when she heard the noise outside and suddenly opened them.

Why today of all days?
She glanced at her mechanical watch; the contact would arrive in ten minutes. Unexpectedly, something unexpected happened at this time.

Just then, a shout came from outside.

"Listen up, you people inside the vault! We are a special pursuit team dispatched by the authorities. You are surrounded. You have no choice but to come out and surrender. If you resist, you will be wiped out!"

It's Dragon Soul... Jiang Lanying recognized the speaker immediately upon hearing the voice. Back when she was in that position, she naturally had the authority to access information on several official Ascendant teams, and she knew the Dragon Soul team intimately.

"Commander, what should we do?"

There were only nine people in the vault, including Jiang Lanying; the other five had already been defeated and were outside.

If the enemy really comes with overwhelming force, it will probably be difficult to hold out.

How did the enemy find this place?

"We must protect the commander and ensure his safe evacuation!"

"What's the panic?" Jiang Lanying calmly took out an item from the storage box, which looked like a bell.

"Don't stay more than eight meters away from me."

After Jiang Lanying finished speaking, her subordinates immediately moved within eight meters of her. Then, she used her mental energy to rapidly expand the bell in her hand, turning it into a huge, semi-transparent bell that enveloped everything within an eight-meter radius.

"With this bell here, they can't do anything to us outside for eight minutes."

After Jiang Lanying finished speaking, she looked at her trusted confidants and slowly opened her mouth.

“Some of you have betrayed me.”

Outside the vault.

As soon as the translucent bell-shaped shadow appeared, the Dragon Soul immediately ordered a full-scale attack.

In an instant, a barrage of attacks from various individual heavy firepower and powerful tools was unleashed, but all of them were blocked by the layer of bell shadow.

"Team Dragon, it looks like a barrier-type defensive item."

“That’s right.” Dragon Soul stared at the bell’s shadow. “Judging from its defensive strength, it should be a top-tier barrier item.”

Barrier-type items are already rare, and top-tier ones are incredibly expensive and extremely uncommon.

However, before Jiang Lanying was exposed, she had used her position and authority to acquire Ascension Coins through various channels. Coupled with the secret and illegal collection by the Qingmei Society, she possessed a massive amount of Ascension Coins.

For ordinary people, some props that cost astronomical sums on the market are acceptable to her.

Therefore, she possesses not just one top-tier prop, but many.

However, many top-tier items require a high consumption of mental energy to use, so Dragon Soul and the others are not too wary.

“Barrier-type items generally have short durations and long cooldowns, so we just need to wait for it to end,” Dragon Soul said, then asked, “Is the teleportation blockade complete?”

"It's done." A young man's voice said, holding a compass with its needle constantly turning.

"As long as my compass needle keeps moving, no teleportation items can be used in this area."

It's not scary if the enemy holds their ground and doesn't come out, but it's troublesome if they hold their ground while using teleportation items to escape.

With this in mind, the team specifically included this young man who possessed the "Blocking Compass" item.

His compass item's ability is to block teleportation. Once the compass needle starts spinning, as long as his mental energy isn't completely depleted, no teleportation can occur within the designated area.

"Team Leader Long, is our only option to stall until the barrier expires?"

"Yes."

Dragon Soul ordered his men to be on alert of the surroundings, for he had not forgotten that the enemy might send reinforcements.

Time passed second by second, and the illusory image of the clock gradually weakened.

After about ten minutes, the phantom completely disappeared.

At this moment, two groups of people, one inside and one outside, acted simultaneously.

The team led by Long Hun stormed the vault, while Jiang Lanying's subordinates took the initiative to attack. The two sides immediately clashed, with items and abilities flying everywhere along with blood.

The advantage of Dragon Soul and others lies in their professional Ascendant combat training, which gives them strong individual combat skills.

Jiang Lanying's subordinates had the advantage of possessing a large number of highly lethal weapons and being fearless in the face of death.

After a short-haired woman was knocked to the ground by a member of the Dragon Soul team, instead of begging for mercy, she used a bomb hidden in her clothes to instantly kill both of them!

This scene greatly shocked Chen Na, who was watching from the sidelines, and she finally understood the meaning of the "suicide squad" that someone had mentioned on the plane.

Silver Fox, who was also not involved in the battle and was responsible for protecting her, had an extremely serious expression and his eyes were full of worry.

"puff!"

Dragon Soul used his exclusive mental power item, a Mitsubishi military dagger, to kill the enemy in front of him.

He looked up and saw that the women who had rushed out of the vault were all lying on the ground. His own side had also suffered three dead and two wounded.

At this moment, Jiang Lanying came out.

She was left with only two girls protecting her, while the Dragon Soul side still had at least eight people capable of fighting, making the difference in strength between the two sides obvious.

“Jiang Lanying, stop resisting. It’s pointless,” Long Hun said.

Jiang Lanying looked at Long Hun and the others expressionlessly and said, "The signal jamming has been lifted. I need to contact your superiors."

Dragon Soul's heart stirred, and he glanced at his wristwatch; indeed, there was a signal notification.

"Captain, she's stalling for time. Ignore her and take action."

Silver Fox's voice came through the Dragon Soul headset. He nodded slightly and ordered, "Immediately capture the target."

Several people, including him, rushed forward. Jiang Lanying glanced at her two subordinates. One of them stepped forward to block, while the other suddenly ran away in the opposite direction!

This situation was unexpected even by Longhun and the others. After the previous bloody battle, they never thought that someone would choose to betray Jiang Lanying.

A hint of surprise flashed in Jiang Lanying's eyes as she looked at the woman's retreating figure: "So you're the one who betrayed me..."

Desperate and fleeing, she had secretly placed her miniature network device on another person before even entering the vault.

So, inside the vault, when Jiang Lanying was searching for the traitor, she escaped death, while another person, completely unaware of the situation, was executed in her place.

Now that they were cornered, the commander's gaze was clearly meant to buy time for the two remaining men.

But she didn't want to die at the hands of Dragon Soul and the others!

She used a speed boost before escaping, and in just a few breaths she ran over a hundred meters, a truly astonishing speed.

Caught off guard, Long Hun and the others were momentarily stunned, allowing her to escape the encirclement. However, knowing she couldn't escape, they didn't pursue her, prioritizing completing their mission and capturing Jiang Lanying.

Jiang Lanying now only had one subordinate left to buy her time, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of her efforts. The woman only lasted for a dozen seconds before dying in the Dragon Soul Squad's attack.

Jiang Lanying was left all alone, and it seemed she had no choice but to surrender. Even though she had many tools at her disposal, her mental strength was insufficient, so no matter how many tools she had, they wouldn't be effective.

"Sister Silver Fox, is the mission about to end?" Chen Na asked.

"Yes... Be careful!"

Silver Fox's expression suddenly changed, and he shoved Chen Na away.

The next moment a black shadow flashed by, and her right arm instantly detached from her body and fell off, blood gushing out after a brief pause!
"Silver Fox Sister!" Chen Na screamed.

Just as Dragon Soul was about to arrest Jiang Lanying, he heard a scream in his earpiece and was shocked: "What's going on?! Chen Na! Silver Fox!"

"what!!!"

"There are enemies!"

"exist--"

Several screams rang out in succession. Dragon Soul's mind went blank for a moment. When he came to his senses, he saw that his five teammates had become five corpses and had fallen down.

The culprit had already landed beside Jiang Lanying, his pale face radiating a bloodthirsty coldness: "Ms. Jiang, you didn't tell me that I was supposed to be there to support you and fight for you."

Jiang Lanying smiled and said, "I'll give you extra money."

Dragon Soul stared at the tall man, at the pair of jet-black wings behind him, and a notorious name struck his brain like lightning, squeezing out through clenched teeth: "Lucifer...you were the one who contacted us..."

(End of this chapter)