Chapter 199: Changes in Bianliu County

"We have conducted over thirty precognitions. This meeting is primarily geared toward the tier-one to tier-three player dungeons, given the sheer number of participants involved."

The long-haired woman sitting to the right of the Vice Domain Chief appeared to be in her thirties. Dressed in white with her hair cascading over her shoulders, she spoke slowly:

"Among them, the 'Ordinary Township' in the Eerie Capital has an 80.4% probability of being selected as the domain for this tier-one to tier-three Super-Large Dungeon."

As she finished speaking, the crowd broke into hushed murmurs.

The 'Ordinary Township' was the domain corresponding to several central municipalities in the most prosperous region of the Fifth Ring Domain. It contained only one primary pathway: Order. Framed as a backward township in a modern setting, it housed multiple smaller domains within it.

"However..."

Just as everyone was murmuring about how this would be the home ground of the Public Security Association—which relied primarily on the Order ritual—the long-haired woman spoke again, her tone indifferent.

"What I just mentioned was only the average probability."

"Because Super-Large Dungeons are selected based on the highest recent survival rates and overall ratings, the probabilities have shifted significantly since yesterday."

"In the five precognitions conducted between eight o'clock last night and noon today, every single result was the same."

"Minhu. Bianliu County and its surrounding areas."

!!!

Upon hearing her words, the eyes of everyone in the audience went wide.

No one expected the Super-Large Dungeon to fall outside the Eerie Capital. After all, the domains corresponding to the entire Fifth Ring Domain were located within the Eerie Capital, whereas Minhu corresponded to the Third Ring Domain and Second Ring Domain.

An immense distance separated the two.

This meant certain players from the Fifth Ring Domain had recently been inadvertently assigned to a dungeon in Minhu—and had achieved an extremely high survival rate.

"That's impossible!"

A female voice rang out.

Yan Jing looked over. It was the same girl who had laughed earlier during Fan Jue's explanation; Shen Youran had mentioned she was from the Third Ring Domain.

The girl's eyes were full of astonishment.

"Bianliu County has always been one of the dungeons with the lowest survival rates in the Third Ring Domain. How could it possibly be selected?"

The lowest survival rate?!!

As soon as she said this, a single stone stirred up a thousand waves. The vast majority of the audience had never even heard the name Bianliu County before, and hearing such a claim left them absolutely shocked.

Discussions immediately erupted across the room.

"What did I tell you?"

With her head still covered, Shen Youran whispered into Yan Jing's ear.

"Xiao Yanzi is awesome!"

"Teacher Shen is awesome too."

Yan Jing smiled and gave her a thumbs-up.

The two exchanged a knowing smile.

"Ahem..."

On stage, the Vice Domain Chief coughed lightly, instantly suppressing the noise from the crowd.

"Quiet."

He looked toward the woman beside him, a hint of doubt in his expression.

He had also just received this news. Even though the people from the Precognition Society were here to help, they couldn't be expected to report in at every single moment.

"Could something have gone wrong, President Xiao?"

The woman shook her head.

"At first, I also thought there was an error, so I conducted two consecutive precognitions this morning. I even handed it over to one of our subordinates—a rising star who excels at precognition—and the result was exactly the same."

"Are you referring to the rising star who made a name for herself in your Precognition Society a few years ago?"

"Yes."

The woman nodded. "Qiao'er will also be participating in this Super-Large Dungeon. Domain Chief Cheng, of the two quotas your Fifth Ring Domain gave our Fourth Ring Domain, she will be leading the tier-one to tier-three dungeon team."

Leading?

The Vice Domain Chief's eyes flickered.

The implications of those words were far from simple.

It meant this rising star named Qiao'er, even if she wasn't at the third tier, possessed formidable strength; otherwise, she wouldn't be qualified to lead a team.

"Very well. I hope you can continue to follow up on this."

After speaking, the Vice Domain Chief looked back at the audience.

"Since it is the Minhu domain, I expect all participating players to take this seriously. We absolutely cannot allow a repeat of the Huang Family Village incident."

"In a moment, the heads of the player forums will post this news online. After that, Secretary Wu, report this matter to the Federal General Bureau."

"If it is confirmed to be Minhu, we will arrange for people to enter the Minhu dungeons to communicate with their higher-ups."

"We will see if we can guide the dungeon tasks to transform into a type that benefits both sides."

"Are there any other questions?"

Silence blanketed the audience.

Naturally, they had none.

It seemed like they were the ones attending the meeting, but in reality, the true decision-makers were the elders and higher-ups backing them.

Many matters had already been decided in advance; they had no real say.

"Then we will end here."

The Vice Domain Chief stood up and placed his microphone in front of the president of the Fifth Ring Domain Inner World Summit to his left.

As he had said, he was very busy. Although the higher-ups placed great importance on this Super-Large Dungeon, they cared even more about the fourth tier to sixth tier dungeons.

Now that the directives had been given, the upcoming commendation ceremony for outstanding players was entirely dispensable to him.

Equally uninterested in the commendations were Yan Jing and Shen Youran. The reward items certainly wouldn't be distributed to them, and simply coming out today and gleaning some insider information about the Surface and Inner Worlds was already a massive win.

And so, the two of them also left the venue.

"There's some news that even I only just learned about."

Outside the venue, the two found a sofa to sit on. Shen Youran looked at Yan Jing. "However, it's obvious that a lot of people have their eyes on the piece of cake that is this Super-Large Dungeon."

"Rainbow City and its surrounding areas have already been placed under martial law, barring too many outsiders from entering. But the Fourth Ring Domain and Third Ring Domain were each given one or two quotas."

"Coupled with the people from some prosperous municipalities, the difficulty of the next dungeon won't be small."

"Yeah, it's fine."

Leaning his back against a pillar behind the sofa, Yan Jing narrowed his eyes slightly.

After injecting the Potion of Heracles, the physical agony in his body had eased, but his consciousness still throbbed with a tearing pain. Knowing he had to return to Bianliu County around evening, all he wanted to do right now was rest.

Seeing this, Shen Youran said no more, giving Yan Jing ample time to recuperate.

She looked down at her phone and started making trades with her group members.

The two of them sat there in peace.

Several tens of minutes later, Yan Jing opened his eyes and gazed toward a distant corner.

"Someone over there is watching us."

"Is that so?"

Shen Youran's eyes flashed. "I'll handle it."

"It's fine, let me do it."

Yan Jing stood up and took a few steps forward, quickly arriving in front of the person in the corner. It was a bespectacled man in his twenties holding a notebook, scribbling something down. Yan Jing leaned in for a look and found that it was an evaluation of himself.

From combat and intellect to dungeon performance and rumors—finally, an overall rating of 73 was written at the bottom.

"You rated me quite highly."

Yan Jing's sudden remark gave the man a fright.

The weird energy inside the man nearly rioted in an instant. Ultimately, seeing that Yan Jing was making no further moves, he regained his composure.

He quickly ran away.

Not long after, the meeting adjourned. Yan Jing and Shen Youran joined Fan Jue, Xu Weizhou, and Chen Dalang for a meal.

At the dinner table, Yan Jing brought up the incident, and Chen Dalang spoke up.

"I know about them. They're a team from Longhe City. Rumor has it that in their corresponding Inner World domain, the primary pathway is called Absurdity."

Fan Jue chimed in at this moment.

"For this low-tier large-scale dungeon, apart from the people from our Rainbow City and a few neighboring municipalities, two other teams from the Fifth Ring Domain are participating. Then there's one team from the Third Ring Domain, and one from the Fourth Ring Domain."

"As for our Ling'an, there's only one team from the Public Security Association and three from the Eight Major Families. Four teams in total."

"The remaining players are just making up the numbers."

"So, Brother Yan, do you want to join our Chen Family team?" Chen Dalang laughed. "Our Chen Family is the only one among the Eight Major Families to field an exclusive team, you know."

"I'll think about it," Yan Jing smiled.

It was clear that the higher the tier, the less viable it was to fight alone. However, for him, unless they were people he trusted absolutely, joining a team would only hinder his flexibility.

"Alright. If you change your mind, contact us anytime."

After dinner, Yan Jing and Shen Youran returned to her house in the city. They rested for the afternoon, during which Shen Youran showed off her culinary skills. When night fell, the two covertly circled back to the detached housing area.

"Xiao Yanzi, I'll regularly leave your Body-Forging Water and the weird energy stimulant pills by the door during this period. Make sure to get enough rest, and don't ruin your health by staying in seclusion. As for the dungeon, we'll discuss it once the Super-Large Dungeon is finalized."

Shen Youran said.

Although they both knew it was highly likely to be Bianliu County, nothing was ever entirely set in stone.

"Alright."

The two parted ways at the door to Yan Jing's house. Yan Jing went inside, closed his eyes, selected 'Luo Sheng', and logged into the Inner World.

When he opened his eyes, he was in a pitch-black cavern where only a few rocks on the walls emitted a faint purple glow.

He pushed the door open and stepped out, spotting the light of a fire.

"Young Master."

Sitting by the campfire, the Old Man saw Yan Jing and stood up in excitement.

He had returned to the Silent Valley yesterday, but after hearing from Fei Yu that Luo Sheng had been in seclusion these past few days to fully master the domain, he had simply waited here for Luo Sheng to recover.

"Master Liu."

Yan Jing nodded and looked toward Fei Yu, who was also smiling.

"Xiao Yu, brew a pot of tea. I'm a bit thirsty."

"Right away."

Fei Yu went to prepare the tea.

Yan Jing pulled the Old Man down to sit beside him.

"Master Liu, it's all thanks to your friend's Pathway Seed that I managed to secure this piece of land. I owe him a massive favor."

"If you ask me, Young Master, that kid Yi Ji shouldn't have given that thing to you at all."

The Old Man wore a bitter look on his face.

"It's a blessing that Bianliu County is in utter chaos right now, otherwise Across the Lake might have sent an inspector our way."

"What is the situation in Bianliu County right now?"

Yan Jing looked at the Old Man.

And so, the Old Man started from the beginning, recounting the entire incident of Wei Nantian's murder in full before continuing.

"Young Master, do you know how many people died in Bianliu County because of this incident?"

"How many?"

The Old Man raised his hand and extended three fingers.

"At least thirty percent!"

"That many?"

Yan Jing was somewhat caught off guard.

"When Wei Nantian erupted with that blood aura, anyone living nearby who breathed it in fell deathly ill. Then there were the agricultural crops Lin Changgui summoned. He was heavily injured, so naturally he didn't bother controlling them. Those watermelon vines barged straight into people's homes and just started slaughtering them."

"With the commotion caused by those at the Fourth Tier, how could people who had just entered the ranks possibly block the fallout?"

"There are so many dead that the corpses can't even fit in the city anymore. The stench is overpowering!"

"Why not transport them out? Or just burn them?" Yan Jing asked.

Unexpectedly, the Old Man waved his hand.

"They aren't allowing them to be transported anymore."

"Why is that?"

"An inspector has arrived!" the Old Man declared. "You might not be clear on this. Didn't I just say that halfway through the fight, aside from the southern side you mentioned, a pillar of light this huge also shot up in the north?"

The Old Man stretched out his hand, circling his thumb and index finger to gesture something extremely thick.

"Do you know what they found there?"

"What did they find?"

"Corpses!!"

The Old Man continued.

"At least several hundred corpses!!!"

"No wonder those farmers working under Landlord Lin fell ill so often. We only just realized it's because the entire underground area near North Street is filled with the dead!"

"I see." Yan Jing's eyes flickered before he asked, "Who found them?"

"My old friend, Bi Jie!"

The Old Man smacked his lips, flicking the ashes from his Smoking Pipe.

"I kept saying that kid's arrival in Bianliu County wasn't right. I thought he was here to vie for the county magistrate position, but he wasn't. Then I thought he came to drive up prices, but that wasn't it either. Now I finally understand. He came to Bianliu County to investigate a case!"

"There are simply too many corpses. Something is wrong, very wrong. No wonder as soon as I came back, I heard that Bianliu County has constantly been losing people over the past few years."