351: Chapter 352 Bringing Back Three Big Shots as Security Guards, Salaries Only Include Meals

D-3 Region, evening of the third day.

The setting sun spread across the dark golden ground.

Instructor Su Qing hadn't closed her eyes for over forty hours.

The three Federation space-type professionals Chen Shu had called in spent a day and a half scanning the D-3 surroundings, but found nothing. Abyssal Fang's pre-embedded spatial anchor points were either not within this range at all, or their concealment completely exceeded the detection limits of Federation instruments and professionals.

The result wasn't good, but Instructor Su Qing didn't panic.

She immediately switched D-3's defense system to combat mode. All twelve Law Creature patrol units were pulled back to within a 300-meter radius of the core area, the physical barrier power was raised two levels, and everyone's (including the prisoners of war) activity range was strictly limited to within 500 meters of the core array.

After Zhang Wei was forcibly deprived of his spiritual spring quota, his stomach finally settled. Although his face was full of unwillingness and grievance, he knew that now was definitely not the time to make a fuss.

What truly bothered him was the

"Sister Su, when is Brother Qi coming back?" Zhang Wei stood at the entrance of the command center, losing count of how many times he had asked this question.

"I said three days, and today is the third day." Instructor Su Qing's answer was exactly the same as the previous times, without even a change in tone.

"But he didn't leave a phone number, and our communicators can't connect to the Eastern Continent mining area either..."

"Then wait."

Zhang Wei's mouth was bitter. He wasn't good at waiting; businessmen were used to taking the initiative, and sitting idly, waiting for the boss to come back to settle accounts, was torture. But he also knew that this was all he could do.

Twenty minutes later, an emergency occurred.

Patrol unit A-07 emitted a piercing alarm. Instructor Su Qing's terminal simultaneously 'beeped', and the light spot for A-07 on the projection instantly turned red, fixed approximately 800 meters northeast of the D-3 outer barrier.

"Something's there."

Instructor Su Qing abruptly stood up and called up A-07's detection data.

Eight hundred meters northeast of the barrier, an extremely faint spatial fluctuation was detected. The amplitude was tiny, almost classifiable as natural disturbance. However, Law Creatures' perception accuracy far exceeded human instruments; A-07 would never give a false alarm.

Instructor Su Qing's hand immediately pressed against the golden token placed close to her waist.

"Zhang Wei."

"Here!"

"Get into the core array immediately."

Zhang Wei didn't ask a single superfluous question, turned and ran, his plump body moving with surprising agility thanks to his mecha.

Instructor Su Qing gripped her long and short double blades in reverse, quickly exited the command center, and walked to the edge of the core array, her gaze fixed on the northeast direction. Eight hundred meters away, through the dark golden barrier light curtain, nothing could be seen with the naked eye, but A-07's data showed that the spatial fluctuation was continuing and tending to strengthen.

Instructor Su Qing's thumb was already resting on the token's activation rune. As soon as she pressed it, D-3 would fold into subspace, isolated from the world for a full seven days.

Three seconds, five seconds, ten seconds.

Unexpectedly, the fluctuation did not continue to strengthen; instead, it began to weaken and completely disappeared after twenty seconds. A-07's light spot also returned to normal.

A false alarm?

Instructor Su Qing took a deep breath, her thumb slightly relaxing, but just then, a familiar voice came from outside the barrier. It was far away, but she heard it clearly:

"Open the door, I'm back."

Instructor Su Qing's mind went blank for less than half a second. A crack automatically opened in the barrier's light curtain—this was triggered by D-3's low-level authority, and only Lin Qi's Dao Source frequency could open this mechanism from the outside.

The crack widened, and a young man in a casual jacket, carrying a black backpack and an entrenching tool, walked in. His face was a little dusty, but his spirits were good.

However, he was followed by

A two-meter-tall bald strong man covered in scars; a pale-faced, stern-looking slender woman; and a dark purple, constantly squirming lump of mud-like substance on the ground.

Instructor Su Qing didn't put away her dagger: "Boss, who are these three?"

"Newly hired guards, a bit more Advanced than our twelve tin cans," Lin Qi answered casually.

Shi Gu behind him surveyed the dark golden ground and the patrolling Law Creatures in the distance, muttering to himself:

"This is your home? Much better than that broken mine pit, at least it's clean. And there's essence in the air, right? Awesome."

Annihilation didn't speak, quietly observing everything in D-3, her gaze finally falling on Instructor Su Qing, tilting her head slightly. The two women met each other's eyes for a second; although there was no hostility, both maintained a natural vigilance.

Hearing the commotion, Zhang Wei rushed over from the core array, panting:

"Brother Qi! You're really back! Where's the High Priest? Did you win? Is the passage broken? Is the law seed destroyed?"

Lin Qi didn't waste words, directly pulling out the dull, inactive law seed from his pocket and tossing it to Zhang Wei.

Zhang Wei fumbled to catch it, then lowered his head to examine it: "This is a law seed? Why is it so dull and gray? Can it be sold for money?"

"Energy depleted, dead, worthless."

"Tsk... then I'll keep it as a souvenir." Zhang Wei pouted, then noticed the strange beings behind Lin Qi, swallowed, and pointed at the mud on the ground, "Brother Qi... what is this lump?"

"A dog."

"...A dog?!"

The dark purple substance on the ground seemed to cooperate, emitting a sticky

"Brother Qi, you went out for three days, wiped out the whole thing, and brought back three former Church of Calamity inner deacons as employees?" Zhang Wei pulled out his terminal and opened his accounting software, his mouth twitching, "How do we calculate their salary?"

"Food only."

"Five insurances and one housing fund..."

"Scram."

Zhang Wei shrank his neck, typing rapidly on his terminal: [New Employees x3, salary includes food and lodging, no benefits. Note: Former church big shots, extremely dangerous.]

Lin Qi leaned the entrenching tool against the wall, walked into the command center, and sat in the rocking chair.

Instructor Su Qing followed him in, quickly reporting the intelligence Shadowbox had provided over the past two days, as well as the recent fluctuation.

Lin Qi listened, then closed his eyes, one hand resting casually on the armrest of the chair.

Dao Source seeped from his palm, spreading silently like ripples across the dark golden floor, instantly connecting to D-3's entire geomantic network.

Using the Domain perception of My Body is the World, he was conducting a carpet search of the underlying spatial structure within a ten-kilometer radius.

Thirty seconds later, he opened his eyes: "Northeast direction, 620 meters outside the barrier, there is indeed a spatial anchor point. That fluctuation just now was it performing a regular self-check; the next self-check will be in about 72 hours."

Instructor Su Qing's hand tightened suddenly: "Can it be dismantled?"

"Yes. But I'll have to go outside; precise cross-boundary positioning isn't possible from inside the barrier." Lin Qi stood up, picked up the entrenching tool again, and walked out.

Just outside the door, he saw Shi Gu looking bewilderedly at the passing Law Creature A-03.

"Shi Gu, your armor can sense spatial fluctuations, right?"

"Not highly accurate, but I can determine the direction within fifty meters."

"Come with me, to dismantle a time bomb left by your former colleague." Lin Qi winked. Shi Gu paused for a second, then iron-gray armor plates quickly covered his body, and he followed.

Fifteen minutes later, 620 meters outside the barrier.

Guided by Shi Gu's armor, Lin Qi squatted on a patch of barren land that looked completely normal.

He plunged the entrenching tool into the soil, and Dao Source flowed along the blade, directly cutting into the underlying spatial code.

A grain of sand-sized spatial marker, bearing the Law signature of the Church of Calamity, was precisely located.

A sweep of dark golden light passed over, and the anchor point was forcibly erased, cleanly, without leaving any Karma traces.

"Done?" Shi Gu sensed the spatial anomaly instantly return to zero, a bit dazed.

"Otherwise?"

"You guys here... are you all so violent?"

"Too fast for you?" Lin Qi glanced at him.

"No, no, high efficiency is good." Shi Gu shook his head repeatedly. He had now realized a truth: in front of this new boss, shutting up and doing work was the only way to survive.

The two returned inside the barrier. Seeing Lin Qi return safely, Instructor Su Qing finally completely loosened her tightly gripped token.

"A ten-kilometer radius has been thoroughly checked. Regular scans will suffice from now on." Lin Qi leaned the entrenching tool back against the wall and rotated his neck.

"Boss, you should get some sleep. Three days without sleep, Dao Source circulation cannot completely replace mental relaxation." Instructor Su Qing's tone carried a rare hint of insistence.

Lin Qi looked at her, knowing that his chief executive's protective temper had flared up, and didn't argue: "Alright, I'll sleep for two hours."

He walked towards the temporary dormitory behind the command center, and before pushing open the door, he looked back at the base courtyard:

The dark golden ground reflected the afterglow of the setting sun, and twelve Law Creatures patrolled tirelessly; Annihilation sat in a corner in a daze, and the lump of mud was still wriggling;

Meanwhile, Zhang Wei was holding a glass of plain water, sticking to Shi Gu's backside like a piece of taffy, incessantly asking if his internal organs would be squeezed when his armor retracted into his body.

Everything was orderly, yet chaotic and full of vitality.

Lin Qi closed the door, lay on the hard bed, and looked at the ceiling. The High Priest was dead, the passage was broken, and the six law seeds and remaining passages had a thirty-seven-day buffer period. He closed his eyes.

There were still too many landmines in this world to dismantle, and evil gods waiting to descend.

It didn't matter, he had a shovel.