757: They've gone mad, they've all gone mad.

"We only need to patrol, and don't need to manage things?" Lin Yang was a bit surprised.

Li Rui nodded: "Yes, there are too many people fighting and causing trouble; it's completely impossible to manage them all. If we tried to manage them, it would greatly reduce the efficiency of our patrol. That's why Lord Zhen Ge specially approved that our Squad only needs to patrol and doesn't need to intervene in these messy affairs."

Lin Yang didn't say anything more after hearing this. He figured that Lord Zhen Ge also wanted him to try his best to find any hidden members of the Ancient Night Clan and didn't want him to waste time dealing with these troublemakers.

The Squad continued to patrol.

Lin Yang also quickly discovered that Li Rui was right; there were many instances of friction and fighting.

As long as it didn't involve many people, basically no Prefecture Army Squad would go over to manage it.

Currently, the Prefecture Army Squads in Baichi City couldn't manage it at all.

Outside the city, it was in total chaos.

"Captain, don't you really find it strange? During the last treasure-hunting craze, there were also many people, but there weren't many fights or disturbances. This time, it's visible everywhere." Lin Yang couldn't help but speak up.

Li Rui retorted: "What's strange about it? Although it is indeed a bit chaotic this time, what exactly do you find strange?"

Lin Yang was slightly stunned.

For a moment, he really didn't know how to answer Li Rui's question.

It was indeed chaotic, but if he had to insist it was strange, he really couldn't articulate the reason.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it," Lin Yang said softly.

"Don't think too much. It's possible that since the treasure hasn't appeared for a long time, people are a bit impatient, and their tempers have flared up a bit. That's quite normal," Li Rui said with a smile.

Lin Yang nodded slightly.

Suddenly, an argument broke out among some people beside them, and they immediately started fighting.

Lin Yang couldn't help but frown.

Although their Squad didn't need to manage these matters, the conflict was right beside them. He was just thinking about whether he should deal with it while he was at it, but a Squad member had already stepped forward.

"What are you fighting for? Everyone stop!" Liu Ling shouted, reprimanding the people who were fighting.

Anger rose between his brows, and power surged, striking toward both of them separately.

Seeing this, Lin Yang was a bit surprised, and Li Rui shouted: "Liu Ling, stop! We don't need to manage these things!"

However, Li Rui's words were a beat too late.

Liu Ling had already started fighting with the two people who were scuffling.

Li Rui had no choice but to have the entire Squad step in to stop them.

After separating the three, Li Rui first scolded the two who had been fighting, telling them to behave and stop causing trouble. Then, he looked at Liu Ling, brows tightly locked, and said unhappily: "Liu Ling, what is wrong with you? We said we don't need to manage these things, so why did you suddenly step in?"

Li Rui was a bit angry.

Their Squad had their own mission. Even if the people fighting were right beside them and could be managed while they were at it, Liu Ling should have requested permission from him first.

Yet not only did Liu Ling not request permission, he had charged in on his own accord.

Charging in was one thing, but instead of stopping the two, he had joined the chaotic brawl.

If it weren't for the fact that he was wearing the Prefecture Army uniform, anyone unaware of the situation would have thought it was a three-way brawl.

After being reprimanded, Liu Ling's eye twitched. He seemed to want to say something subconsciously, but meeting Li Rui's gaze, he finally took a deep breath and said: "Sorry, Captain, it was my dereliction of duty. I thought that since the incident happened right beside us, I would just handle it while I was at it."

Li Rui snorted: "Handling it is fine, but look at how you handled it! It turned straight into a three-way brawl!"

Liu Ling lowered his head slightly: "Sorry, Captain. Once I started fighting, I couldn't quite hold back. I will be careful."

Li Rui wanted to say more, but after thinking about it, he didn't continue the reprimand. He sighed and said: "Forget it, forget it. It's not a big deal, and you meant well. Just remember, our Squad's mission is to patrol. Do not manage any other matters, and do not break the mission regulations."

"Understood, Captain," Liu Ling replied with his head down.

Li Rui didn't say anything more.

The Squad continued to patrol.

After a while, seeing that Liu Ling's expression had calmed down somewhat, Lin Yang couldn't help it and secretly sent a voice transmission to Liu Ling: "Big Brother Liu Ling, what happened to you just now? Is it convenient to tell me? I'm asking presumptuously, but why did you lose yourself the moment you started fighting and joined the brawl?"

Liu Ling's mouth opened slightly as he looked at Lin Yang, seemingly surprised that Lin Yang would send him a voice transmission. But he didn't think much of it and replied via voice transmission as well: "Lin Yang, to tell you the truth, I don't know why either. I'm not a belligerent person by nature, and you should know my personality."

"Just now, I really did think that since the incident was right beside us, I would just handle it. But once I started, I felt like I couldn't control my emotions."

Lin Yang's eyes flickered: "I know your temper isn't like this, Big Brother Liu Ling. Can you specifically describe what it felt like when you couldn't control your emotions?"

"This..." Liu Ling hesitated for a moment and replied: "I can't say what the feeling was. At the time, I just wanted to teach them a lesson."

Lin Yang's eyes flashed again: "Alright, I understand. Big Brother Liu Ling, you should relax for now. We will just patrol and not worry about those messy affairs."

"Mm, I will be careful," Liu Ling replied.

Lin Yang did not continue conversing with Liu Ling via voice transmission.

He was thinking.

Given Liu Ling's temperament, let alone losing control of his emotions while fighting.

In his view, it was already abnormal from the moment Liu Ling shouted to stop them without asking Li Rui first.

In other words, Liu Ling's impulsiveness didn't start after joining the fight; it existed from the very beginning.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have just shouted at the two of them on his own and then started fighting without further ado.

Liu Ling was relatively steady.

Many ten-thousands of years had passed since he joined the Squad.

He understood the situations of the Squad members quite well.

However, this was not the first time Liu Ling had acted so impulsively.

If Lin Yang remembered correctly, Liu Ling had previously had two instances of inexplicable impulsiveness.

At that time, Liu Ling also said he couldn't quite control his emotions.

Everyone hadn't paid attention to it at the time, and Li Rui even comforted Liu Ling, asking if he was too tired or under pressure.

But thinking about it now, Lin Yang felt that this abnormality might have had early signs.

He couldn't help but look around; within his field of vision, there were still people fighting.

"Liu Ling losing control of his emotions and becoming impulsive, and these people who came for treasure hunting becoming irritable and short-tempered, fighting at the slightest disagreement—the two are very similar."

Lin Yang thought secretly.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

He was now absolutely certain that there were some abnormalities in the situation, but he had no clue for the moment as to where the abnormality lay.

He paused, and out of caution, he said to Li Rui and the others in the Squad: "Captain, everyone, I think we need to be careful. There are fights everywhere now. Seeing so many, it's inevitable that we will feel irritable, so let's all pay attention to controlling our emotions."

To tell the truth, saying this was a bit rash.

But Lin Yang always felt there was a problem and had to speak up to warn them.

Fortunately, the team members didn't take it to heart and all indicated they would be careful.

"Lin Yang, did you discover some problem?" Cheng Fu suddenly sent a voice transmission to Lin Yang.

Lin Yang turned his head slightly to look at him: "What do you want to say?"

"Nothing, I just feel that with your caution, you wouldn't say those words just now for no reason."

Cheng Fu smiled and continued: "Actually, I also feel that things are not quite normal, but I can't say exactly where the problem is. Just like you said before, it seems everyone's temper is very irritable."

Lin Yang was a bit surprised: "When I said that before, didn't you think it was normal? You said there were too many people and there were all kinds of tempers."

"I did think that at the time, but now I vaguely feel something is wrong."

Cheng Fu spoke bluntly, looked at Lin Yang, and continued the voice transmission: "Given the relationship between us, if you really discovered that something is wrong, just tell me so we can plan ahead."

Lin Yang pondered slightly and replied: "The problem I discovered is still this: people's tempers seem to have inexplicably flared up. They attack at the slightest provocation, and when they do, it's like they've gone crazy. I said this before and you didn't believe it; what is your view now?"

Cheng Fu also pondered for a while before replying via voice transmission: "People's tempers have flared up and they have become more impulsive, but why is that?"

Lin Yang was speechless: "I want to know that too."

He had currently only discovered the problem, but he had no clue what was causing it.

Cheng Fu said: "I see the Captain and the others don't seem to be taking it to heart, or perhaps they have sensed something is wrong but can't explain it. Lin Yang, what are your plans?"

"For now, wait and see, but we ourselves must stay vigilant and prepared, and even..."

Lin Yang looked at the dense crowd and said solemnly: "Stay away from the crowd!"

"Stay away from the crowd?" Cheng Fu was stunned.

"Yes, we must find a way to leave places with many people." Lin Yang nodded, his tone revealing gravity and solemnity.

He was not joking, nor was he speaking casually.

Now that even Cheng Fu had discovered this problem, it proved that it wasn't just Lin Yang overthinking it.

If it was truly because of some unknown reason that was constantly affecting everyone, causing people's tempers to flare and become angry, then as time passed, these small-scale fights could very likely evolve into large-scale mass events.

Although there were no existences of very strong power among the dense crowd here.

But there were just too many people.

If it really turned into a mass conflict event and they were caught up in it, given their current strength, it was very likely they would meet with misfortune.

Once people all started fighting and even became bloodthirsty, the danger in crowded places would be too high.

Cheng Fu also quickly understood Lin Yang's meaning, his eyes becoming sharp and grave: "But we have to patrol now, especially in crowded places. How can we go to places with fewer people? That would be a bit like disobeying orders, right?"

Lin Yang looked at him quite helplessly: "At a time like this, why worry about whether you're disobeying orders? Your own life is more important!"

Cheng Fu immediately said: "Right! Life is more important. Let's go quickly. I keep feeling a bit terrified."

Lin Yang stopped communicating with Cheng Fu and turned to look at Li Rui: "Captain, shall we go to the peripheral areas to patrol and see?"

He recognized Li Rui and the others in the Squad quite well.

At this time, he also wanted to try his best to let the entire Squad survive.

"Go to the peripheral areas?" Li Rui frowned. "We haven't finished patrolling the crowded places yet. Those Ancient Night Clan infiltrators are best at hiding in crowds."

"Captain!" Lin Yang deepened his tone: "I will be blunt. Cheng Fu and I both believe that the fights happening here from time to time are not normal. People's tempers have become inexplicably flared; there must be something abnormal."

"It might evolve into a large-scale mass event. If we continue to stay in the crowd, once such a major event happens, we will inevitably fall into danger."

"Therefore, just in case, we must first stay away from the crowd. If nothing happens, that's naturally for the best. If we are unfortunately proven right, then we might escape death."

As he spoke, Lin Yang looked at the members of the Squad, sweeping his gaze over them one by one, lingering on Liu Ling for a moment, waiting for their reply.

The Squad fell into silence.

Although everyone felt that the fights happening frequently now were quite normal, after Lin Yang said this, they thought about it carefully and felt that it wasn't without reason.

Not long after, Li Rui made the decision: "Alright, then we will try to go to the peripheral areas first. That way, if nothing happens afterwards and the higher-ups investigate, we can still say we went to patrol."

"Although we didn't follow the rules to patrol the crowded areas first, we can say that Lin Yang had some intuition, so we went to the peripheral areas. How about that?"

His follow-up "How about that?" was asking for Lin Yang's opinion.

Lin Yang naturally had no objection: "That's fine. Just say that I sensed suspected members of the Ancient Night Clan in the peripheral areas."

This was also the reason he had thought of earlier to get the Squad to go together.

In any case, with this reason, no matter what happens afterwards, it can be explained.

After the Squad reached a consensus, they immediately rushed toward the peripheral areas.

Of course, calling it the peripheral areas just meant areas with relatively fewer people.

Currently, in the entire area around Baichi City, there was no place without people.

And the deeper into the mountains and forests, the more people there were.

They could only choose places that were relatively less crowded.

It was not that simple to pass through the bustling areas.

People's tempers were not good now, and even the Prefecture Army Squad would be obstructed.

Lin Yang and the others tried their best not to conflict with people and did not manage those increasingly intense and frequent conflicts, moving away from crowded places as if fleeing for their lives.

Boom.

In a place not far from Lin Yang and his Squad, a battle involving dozens of people suddenly erupted.

"Faster, we need to be faster. We must leave the center of the crowd as soon as possible. I feel like something big is really about to happen," Lin Yang said in a deep voice.

He was in a terrible mood.

They had just thought about leaving to go to the peripheral areas.

But people's tempers seemed to have been completely ignited by something unknown at this very moment.

The riot had begun!

First, small-scale conflicts erupted in one or two places, and then, like a prairie fire, it spread rapidly.

Initially, it was just individual conflicts, but it quickly turned into small group fights of dozens of people, and then into group battles of hundreds.

It didn't take long before it completely evolved into a large-scale regional brawl.

The number of people caught in the battle was impossible to count anymore.

"Die! Everyone die!"

Someone roared with bloodshot eyes, acting like a madman.

"Crazy, these people are all crazy!"

Li Rui, Cheng Fu, and the others were all horrified.

(End of chapter)