Chapter 124 Clues to the Mountain City

Half an hour later, in the activity hall, in the temporary interrogation room.

Chen Jian sat opposite the woman and asked:
“Your name is Jixing?”

“Correct.”

The woman nodded in response.

“Are you an Origin Blood?”

“Yes.”

“Now you are the guard of this Huadu man named Bai Xu?”

“Yes.”

“And you tied up your employer?”

“I just had to.”

“You want to join us?”

“There is no choice.”

“Is this Bai Xu your token of surrender?”

“.I don’t know what a pledge of allegiance is, but I think it’s more appropriate to hand him over to you rather than just killing him.”

Hearing Ji Xing’s answer, Chen Jian nodded slowly.

The story told by Ji Xing was quite reasonable. A guard who had escaped from the Temple of Holy Blood accidentally discovered Huadu’s conspiracy during the mission. After confirming that he had no other way out and could only be bound to Huadu, he simply tied up his employer and ran to surrender to Huangshi City.

The whole logic is coherent and the motive is reasonable. Theoretically, Chen Jian should not have any doubts about her.

But the fact is that Chen Jian is equally suspicious of all inexplicable outsiders.

Even if you say something fantastic, I will just pretend you never said it.

Because what you say is not important, what you do is important.

The reason why Zeng Yi and his men were accepted was not because of their simple words, but because of the loyalty they showed in battle.

Therefore, Chen Jian still looked at Ji Xing with a bit of coldness in his eyes.

He thought for a moment, motioned Zeng Yi, who was standing beside him, to move the knife from Ji Xing’s neck, and then continued to ask:
“How do you prove that what you say is true? How do you make us accept you?”

Ji Xing was stunned for a moment and asked back:
“I’ve already kidnapped the person, isn’t that enough?”

“not enough.”

Chen Jian spread his hands and said:
“This can’t bring us any real benefits. On the contrary, arresting someone from Huadu would be a nuisance to us.”

After he finished speaking, Ji Xing suddenly realized that his actions did seem a bit…
Wishful thinking.

She took a deep breath and continued:
“The Origin Blood itself is a benefit. I am very strong, there is no doubt about that.”

“At least, I am much stronger than the two Holy Bloods beside you.”

“If they can join, why can’t I?”

“They can join us not because they are holy blood.”

Chen Jian shook his head and replied:
“In short, the things you are proud of are not that important to me.”

“Now you need us to help you solve the problem, and you are seeking refuge from us. If you can’t come up with something more convincing, then I can only say forget it.”

“Go back to where you came from, and take your spoils with you.”

“We don’t need a Huadu person as a bargaining chip. He has no value to us.”

“But you killed their people and ruined their plans!”

Jisung said eagerly.

“So what? Come, he’s right here, Shen Yue, untie the cloth from his mouth.”

“Let him speak for himself. Does he dare to hold us accountable?”

Upon hearing this, Shen Yue released Bai Xu from his restraints, and the latter could not wait to say:

“This is a misunderstanding!”

“I think you have seen that camp. Yes, we are indeed trying to conduct research on the Blood Skulls, but we have never targeted civilians!”

“It was just an accident, and we are willing to take responsibility for it!”

“You are just destroying monsters. All our losses have nothing to do with you. This is just our own mistake!”

“We can even cooperate! Just like we cooperate with the Adeptus Mechanicus.”

“All right.”

Chen Jian raised his hand and interrupted Bai Xu’s speech.

Then, he looked at Ji Xing and said:
“You see, for us, the situation is very clear.”

“His value is far higher than yours. Tell me, why should we favor you?”

“.”

Ji Xing was speechless. After a long time, she finally spoke again.

“So you’re not going to intervene?”

“That’s not necessarily the case.”

Chen Jian smiled slightly and replied:
“If you can come up with a convincing enough reason, we can also help you solve this problem.”

After he finished speaking, Ji Xing fell silent again.

She originally thought that Huangshi City and Huadu were enemies. Based on this judgment, it was natural for her to join Huangshi City.

But from Chen Jian’s words, she could clearly feel that there was no contradiction between the two forces.

Or at least there are no irreconcilable contradictions.

In this case, my decision was indeed wrong.

But it’s too late to regret now.

His malicious intentions have been exposed. As long as he lets Bai Xu go back alive, he will definitely be stuck in a deadlock with no way out.

At that time, will it really be like what Bai Xu said, hiding in the mountains and living out the rest of his life under an assumed name?
I still have important things to do.

It absolutely cannot end here.

If I had known earlier, I would have killed him directly. At least I would have had some time to prepare before Huadu reacted and held me, the guard, accountable.

And now?

There is a communication device in the box behind Bai Xu. As long as he is freed, he will probably report the situation here to Huadu on the spot.

They may even ask Yellowstone City to “handle it on their behalf” in exchange for cooperation.
Ji Xing took a deep breath and made a decision in his heart.

Then, she said solemnly:
“My worth is more than who I am.”

“I have a message, and I can guarantee that it’s a message that everyone wants.”

“I’ll use this information to exchange for my life.”

“speak out.”

Chen Jian looked normal.

“I can say it, but I can’t say it in front of Bai Xu.”

“Get him away first.”

Hearing his words, Chen Jian gave a look to Huang Yu who was waiting on the side, and the latter immediately took people to escort Bai Xu out.

After confirming that only the real “decision maker” was left in the room, Ji Xing spoke:
“I heard that you have cooperation with the Circle Chamber of Commerce, but you must not know what they want to do.”

“And as it happens, I know.”

“.We know that too.”

Chen Jian spread his hands helplessly and said:

“They want to restart the ring. Although I don’t know what this goal means, it’s not a secret, right?”

“Do not.”

Ji Xing shook his head and replied:

“That’s a secret.”

“The ring is not an ethereal thing, nor is it an ‘intention’ in a religious sense. It is a device that exists in reality.”

“Of course, I don’t know the specific purpose of the device, but I know that the device is in their base camp, in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.”

“And that’s not really the point I’m making.”

Before Chen Jian could interrupt, Ji Xing continued:
“Restarting the Circle is the lifelong pursuit of the Circle merchants, but they need to do many things before achieving this goal.”

“And the most important one is to unlock the treasure of the mountain city.” “I guess they must have told you about this goal. In fact, all the organizations that have had in-depth cooperation with them have heard them talk about this goal, and many people have pursued this goal because of their rewards.”

“The Basilica of the Holy Blood is one of them, and I am one of them.”

“But unlike the others, I went further than them.”

“I have a clue.”

“Clues on how to unlock the treasure of the mountain city.”

After Ji Xing finished speaking, Chen Jian’s eyes changed immediately.

Mountain city, a mountain city again!
So what’s out there?
The city before the Cataclysm is said to be unaffected by the passage of time and has remained intact for hundreds of years.
What happened there?
Over the past three hundred years, one force after another has tried to find the truth, but until now, it is still shrouded in mystery.

And now, Ji-sung says she has a clue to enter the mountain city and unlock the treasure?
Chen Jian looked at her with some suspicion.

Ji Xing seemed to have guessed his reaction long ago. Not only was he not panicked at all, but he seemed to have let go of a burden and spoke in a carefree manner:
“I have no other choice but to cooperate with you.”

“Everyone here has heard the legend of the mountain city, but everyone has a different judgment of the mountain city.”

“The Ring Chamber of Commerce believes that there is the secret to restarting the ring there, the Mechanicus believes that it is the residence of the Holy Trinity, and the Holy Blood Temple believes that it may be the source of the Holy Blood and the source of the monsters.”

“But it’s more like a new world for ordinary people like me.”

“A new world we can’t enter.”

“Maybe there are still people alive there, living a life completely different from that in the wasteland.”

“Compared to the wasteland, that place might be… heaven.”

“I want to go there and take a look. Even if I find out that it is not the same as the legend says, I still want to go and take a look.”

“But to get there, my own strength is not enough.”

“The reason why I want to be a guard is to accumulate resources as quickly as possible, build my own team, and then track down clues and open up a path when the time is right.”

“But unfortunately, this matter is really not as easy as I thought.”

“I just had to ask for help”

“Why don’t you look for the Holy Blood Temple?”

Chen Jian questioned:
“You are originally from the Holy Blood Temple. You are obviously more familiar with them. It would be better for you to cooperate with us.”

“Do you think I was the only one who found this clue?”

Ji Xing interrupted Chen Jian and said:

“I just survived the scramble for clues, that’s all.”

“From that moment on, the Basilica of the Holy Blood was no longer my home.”

“So you’re a betrayer?”

Zeng Yi interrupted and asked.

“There are still traitors in the Holy Blood Temple? Are you kidding?”

Ji Xing looked at Zeng Yi mockingly, and then said:
“You are a member of the Holy Blood, how could you not know that? This is a broken organization that is falling apart.”

“We are not betraying, we are just being exiled in another way.”

“.I can’t argue with that.”

Zeng Yi nodded at Chen Jian, and then said:

“This is indeed the current situation of the Basilica of the Holy Blood.”

“clear.”

Chen Jian answered casually, and after a moment of silence, he turned to Ji Xing and said:
“Then let’s get straight to the point.”

“What’s your clue?”

“You must first promise to ensure my safety, and you must promise not to cooperate with Bai Xu.”

“We had no intention of cooperating with him.”

Chen Jian answered without hesitation.

Ji Xing suddenly felt that he had been fooled, but it seemed too late to take back what he had said.

So she said:
“The clue is in Jinling.”

“Somewhere in Jinling lies the secret that can unlock the treasure of the mountain city.”

“No, to be precise, not just in Jinling.”

“There is more than one way to enter the mountain city, but I happen to know that there is such a clue hidden in the ruins of Jinling City.”

“How did you know?”

Chen Jian was not distracted by the key word “Jinling”, but continued to ask calmly.

“As I said, the Basilica of the Holy Blood once pursued the treasure of the mountain city.”

“Our team has reached the edge of the mountain city, but before we could get any closer, we suffered heavy losses.”

“We encountered a level one monster while we were resting there, and our 36-man team was almost wiped out.”

“After we finally escaped, we found traces of human life in an underground ruin.”

“Those people have died in the ruins, but from the records they left behind, we are sure that they also tried to enter the mountain city.”

“They mentioned a lot of place names.”

“Jinling, Guangshen, Chuansha, Chang’an, Yongzhou, Xingyang and some other place names we don’t know what they refer to.”

“Most of these place names are not currently human activity areas. Only Jinling is the most suitable target.”

“This is why I chose Jinling. How about that? Have I convinced you?”

Chen Jian neither nodded nor shook his head.

He just continued to ask:

“You had a team of 36 people, and you were the only one who survived? How did they die?”

“Killing each other.”

Ji Xing answered without any reservation:

“Only six people survived the attack by the first-level monster, and everyone believed that the value of this clue exceeded the reward we could get from the Holy Blood Temple.”

“Logical error.”

Chen Jian interrupted Ji Xing and questioned:
“I don’t believe that among these six people, there is not a single loyalist to the Basilica of the Holy Blood.”

“The loyalists all died in the clash with the first-level monsters. You haven’t seen those horrible monsters. How loyal can you be if you escape from them?”

Another answer that cannot be falsified.

Chen Jian nodded slowly and looked at Shen Yue and others standing beside him.

The four-member team left the interrogation room and after a brief discussion, they finally reached a unanimous conclusion.

Afterwards, Chen Jian returned to the interrogation room and ordered Huang Yu to untie Ji Xing.

The latter moved his slightly numb hands and feet, and said in a teasing tone:

“You are much more cautious than I thought. Or should I say, timid?”

“Watch your mouth.”

Chen Jian warned calmly:

“It could get you into a lot of trouble.”

Ji Xing shrugged and said indifferently:

“We are just an alliance of interests. Does it matter what I say? If you want to find a way to unlock the treasure of Shancheng, you must come with me to Jinling.”

“I haven’t told you the location of the clue yet, so you won’t do anything to me, right?”

“Not always.”

Chen Jian answered without comment.

Ji Xing suddenly felt her hair stand on end, and she realized that she really couldn’t act recklessly in front of this group of killers.

So she coughed and decisively changed the subject.

“What about that Huadu guy? What are you going to do with him?”

“We’re not going to deal with him.”

Chen Jian shook his head and replied:
“He is dead.”

“Died in Wushan Lake, died in the monster riot.”

“His body has been torn to pieces by the monsters. What else can we do?”

(End of this chapter)