160: Chapter 160: A Big Fish Has Been Caught...!

When Lu Cheng walked back from the Arena to the commentary booth, his pace was unhurried.

He stepped up the stairs, reached out to pull the microphone over, sat in the chair, and crossed his legs.

The 150,000 spectators in the venue were still immersed in the shock of that slap. A buzzing sound of discussion surged in from all directions, and the four giant screens on the dome were playing back the scene of Qin Zhaobai being slapped away in slow motion.

Lu Cheng brought the microphone to his lips, and his voice spread to every corner through the Arena's sound system.

"That's about the situation, I suppose."

He paused, his tone as casual as if he were chatting about what to eat for lunch in the cafeteria.

"It seems Student Qin needs more practice."

As soon as these words were spoken, there was another commotion in the spectator stands.

In the fan area for Imperial Capital No. 1 High School, those deep blue cheering sticks all drooped down; no one was waving them anymore.

When Qin Zhaobai was carried away by the medical team, black gas was still seeping out from the two tears in the back of his school uniform caused by the wings, and he was unconscious.

Sister Bai stood beside the commentary booth, took a deep breath, and forcibly brought back her professional demeanor.

"Well... next is the awards ceremony for this year's National High School Competition."

When she said this, there was a hint of awkwardness in her voice that even she didn't notice.

The awards podium had already been set up in the very center of the Arena.

The golden championship trophy was placed on the podium, surrounded by a circle of flowers. When the lights hit it, the glare reflected from the trophy's surface made people's eyes ache.

The other four team members from Imperial Capital No. 1 High School stood at the edge of the Arena.

Their school uniforms were tidied up, and their hair was combed again, but the expressions on everyone's faces were extremely stiff.

The championship was theirs.

But just a moment ago, their captain had been slapped away by a commentary guest who had suppressed his strength to the early Source Gathering Realm.

Winning this championship felt burning on their faces...

Sister Bai cleared her throat and raised her voice: "The champion of this tournament is—Imperial Capital No. 1 High School!"

Applause rang out from the spectator stands.

But that applause... to put it nicely, it was polite; to put it bluntly, it was perfunctory.

The awards ceremony followed the procedure to the end. Director Wang from the Education Bureau personally went on stage to present the awards. When he handed the trophy to the members of Imperial Capital No. 1 High School, he could barely maintain the smile on his face.

He patted Lin Yu's shoulder, said "Keep working hard," and then quickly walked off the stage.

The people from Imperial Capital No. 1 High School had no face left. Being the same age as high school students, Lu Cheng alone could probably slaughter them all.

The result of this so-called high school competition... the gold content was really a bit low...

On the west side of the Arena, less than 300 meters from the main venue, was a three-story old building.

The sign hanging outside the building read "Arena Equipment Maintenance Center," and two engineering vehicles were parked at the entrance.

The windows of the entire building were covered with dark reflective film, making it completely impossible to see the situation inside from the outside.

But the inside of the building had completely changed.

On the floor of the first-floor lobby, a dozen or so people wearing black combat uniforms were pressed to the ground with their arms tied behind their backs.

Their masks had all been torn off, and each person's face bore some kind of abnormal dark purple markings. The markings spread from their cheeks all the way to their necks, looking like wriggling worms under the dim light.

At least thirty robots surrounded them.

These machines were military-standard tactical models, each one meter and eighty centimeters tall, equipped with twin-barreled Source Power cannons on their shoulders and high-frequency vibration blades on their mechanical arms.

Their sensor arrays were conducting full-body scans of the people on the ground, and every gaze was red, like dozens of dark red beads floating in mid-air.

In the control room on the second floor, Dean Mei stood in front of a row of holographic screens.

Her silver-blue hair shimmered with a cold light under the screen's glow. Hundreds of small reconnaissance drones flew out from the window behind her, spreading out like a swarm of metal bees, covering an area with a radius of five kilometers around the Arena.

The feedback data from each reconnaissance drone was refreshing in real-time on the screen.

Dean Mei watched the markers popping up on the screen, with red light points lighting up one after another.

"Seventeen."

Her voice was cold.

"Seventeen seeds buried; they were hidden quite well."

The tactical robot beside her sent a confirmation signal.

Among those pressed on the first floor, some were disguised as cleaners, some as security personnel, and others had mixed in disguised as spectators.

High concentrations of Black Seed energy residue were detected on every one of them.

Dean Mei stood up from the console and brushed the non-existent dust off her hands.

She walked to the first floor and looked down at the people on the ground.

The leading middle-aged man raised his head; the dark purple markings had already spread to the whites of his eyes, and his entire eyeballs looked like two glass beads soaked in ink.

He stared at Dean Mei, his mouth twisting into a strange arc.

"Navigator Academy... Dean of the Mechanical Institute..."

His voice was extremely hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against metal.

"You think that by catching us... it's over?"

Dean Mei squatted down to look him in the eye.

"No, no, no."

She held up a finger and shook it.

"You don't even count as an appetizer."

She stood up and waved at the robots behind her.

"Take them away."

The sensors of the thirty tactical robots flashed simultaneously.

Their mechanical arms extended restraint devices, locking the seventeen people on the ground into special Source Power suppression cages, and then lifted the cages as if they were carrying luggage.

When Dean Mei walked out of the Equipment Maintenance Center, the sunlight outside was just right.

She looked up in the direction of the Arena, where the four giant screens above the dome were still scrolling through the highlights of this year's competition.

"Daring to do such things in the Imperial Capital..."

Her eyes narrowed, and her silver-blue hair fluttered slightly in the wind.

"I hope you are prepared to be discovered..."

This time, a big fish was caught... daring to do such things in the Imperial Capital...

She didn't believe that those people in the Public Security Bureau were all fools...

This time... at least a batch of people must be dragged down...

She stepped onto that silver-white mecha. The moment the cockpit door closed, the mecha's back armor deployed six floating wing panels.

Hundreds of small reconnaissance drones returned into the mecha like a flock of birds returning to their nest, each carrying complete reconnaissance data.

The mecha's engine emitted a low roar.

Dean Mei pushed down the propulsion lever.

The mecha soared into the sky, dragging thirty robots across the sky of the Imperial Capital.

When pedestrians on the ground looked up, they only saw a silver-white trail streaking across the clouds, along with those metallic figures following behind the trail, carrying cages.

The office building of the Imperial Capital Public Security Bureau was in the eastern district of the city, a three-story building covering a vast area.

The gray exterior wall had no decoration, and two three-meter-tall stone statues of Lu Chen stood at the entrance. A line of bold, gold-stamped characters hung from the eaves: "Dragon Kingdom Imperial Capital Public Security Bureau."

When Dean Mei's mecha landed outside the main gate of the Public Security Bureau, the heat wave from the thrusters scorched a patch of charred marks on the road.

Thirty tactical robots descended behind it, their feet hitting the stone slabs with a uniform dull thud. The cages they carried cast a row of dense shadows in the sunlight.

The sentries in front of the Public Security Bureau immediately heightened their vigilance.

But after the duty guards saw the insignia on that silver-white mecha, their hands holding the Source Power guns froze.

The Navigator Academy's logo—no one in the Dragon Kingdom's martial arts circle didn't recognize this logo.

Dean Mei jumped out of the mecha cockpit, her landing on the stone floor making a crisp sound.

The sensors of the thirty robots behind her all lit up with red light, like thirty dark red eyes looking straight at the Public Security Bureau's main gate.

She strode to the door and pushed open the three-meter-high alloy security door.

The door was pushed open by her with one hand, slamming against the wall with a loud bang.

The staff in the lobby all stopped what they were doing and looked up at the door.

Dean Mei spoke with full breath.

"Tell Chen Fu to get out here and see me!"

The voice reverberated several times in the empty lobby, and the chandelier on the ceiling swayed slightly from the roar.

Several people in uniforms behind the reception desk looked at each other, and no one dared to step forward.

Someone quietly pressed the alarm button under the table.

Less than thirty seconds later.

Steady footsteps walked down from upstairs.

The Chief of the Imperial Capital Public Security Bureau, at the peak of the War King Realm.

Chen Fu walked out from the corner of the stairs, wearing a deep blue Chief's uniform, with three silver-white five-pointed stars on his shoulder straps.

He was in his early fifties, his hair was cut extremely short, and the wrinkles on his face were as deep as if carved by a knife.

His gaze swept over Dean Mei and then over the robots carrying the cages behind her, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Who is acting presumptuously?"

His voice was not loud, but every word carried the unique oppressive pressure of a War King Realm expert.

Several ordinary people in the lobby could no longer withstand that aura; their legs went weak, and they almost knelt on the ground.

Dean Mei looked at Chen Fu, her expression unchanged.

"Are you acting presumptuously? Or is it your people?"

Chen Fu's gaze fell on the men in black in those cages.

When he saw the dark purple markings on their faces, his brows furrowed even deeper.

"Why have you come here?"

Dean Mei clapped her hands.

The robots behind her simultaneously released the cages, and the seventeen Source Power suppression cages slammed onto the lobby floor, emitting a dull metallic clanging sound.

The men in black in the cages were thrown around, and someone's face hit the electromagnetic fence of the cage wall, letting out a scream.

Dean Mei walked to the nearest cage and reached out to tap on the cage wall.

The sound of metal vibrating echoed in the lobby, like a question mark.

"Chief Chen, take a look..."

She turned her head and stared at Chen Fu.

"Tell me... under the Imperial Capital... how could there be such things?"

Cold sweat began to break out on Chen Fu's back, and he forced himself to steady his nerves.

"Dean Mei, don't talk nonsense..."

Dean Mei interrupted him.

"Harboring Black Seed, attempting to attack spectators during the National High School Competition? How is this crime judged..."

She took her finger off the cage and turned to face Chen Fu.

"It's so hard to guess."

Chen Fu's face turned livid.

"Bullshit! How could I do such a thing! Without evidence, don't mess around!"

But even he felt no confidence when saying this...

He naturally knew about some movements... otherwise, it would have been impossible for the Black Seed to have any deployment in the Imperial Capital...

It was just that someone above told him not to pay attention to those situations...

Plus, those people had someone backing them... so he didn't dare to interfere...

Now trouble had come, and it was Dean Mei who had come forward personally.

This woman was the Dean of the Mechanical Institute at Navigator Academy. Who didn't know that she managed the most advanced tactical robot cluster in the Dragon Kingdom? Not to mention himself... even among those in the War Emperor Realm, no one dared to say they could definitely beat her...

She was the well-deserved number one person in the War King Realm...

And this person never played by the rules... this was going to be difficult...

Just at this moment, a heavier aura pressed down from upstairs.

The moment that aura fell, the lights in the lobby dimmed for a moment.

The chandelier swayed violently twice, and the decorative paintings on the wall fell directly to the ground, shattering the glass frames all over the floor.

War Emperor Realm.

Head of the Chen family, Chen Yuangang.

The thirty robots behind Dean Mei simultaneously entered combat status, their shoulder-mounted twin-barreled Source Power cannons all charging, and the blue light beams at the muzzles pointing straight at the stairwell.

An old man in a dark blue robe walked down the stairs.

His hair was completely white, but the skin on his face was as firm as that of a forty-year-old.

Every time he stepped down, the soles of his feet left a very faint dark red mark on the ground, a phenomenon that only appeared when Source Power overflowed to a visible degree.

He looked at the cages on the ground, then looked at Dean Mei.

"What, Family Head Chen..."

Dean Mei turned around, meeting Chen Yuangang's gaze, her mouth pulling into an arc.

"Are you planning to use force to suppress others?"

Chen Yuangang slowly withdrew his leaking aura.

"I wouldn't."

He tried to make his tone sound as amicable as possible.

"Dean Mei... you must be clear that the situation in the Imperial Capital is not for us to decide."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the men in black in the cages.

"Sometimes, people like us can also have our eyes blinded..."

His words were very clear... it wasn't just their Chen family involved in this matter...

If you want to do something, you have to weigh your own weight first...

Navigator Academy is strong, that's true... but... for the person behind this matter, it's still not enough...

As the words fell, the side door of the lobby was pushed open.

A man wearing a gray Zhongshan suit walked in from the side door.

Navigator Academy, Dean of the Martial Dao Institute, Principal Xue Zhenting.

The moment Chen Yuangang saw Principal Xue Zhenting, the smile on his face froze.

Damn it.

Another fucking lunatic.

Principal Xue Zhenting walked to Dean Mei's side, looked down at the men in black in the cages, and then looked up at Chen Yuangang.

"Oh?"

His voice was neither high nor low, but everyone present got goosebumps.

"Is that so?"

He took a step forward.

Chen Yuangang subconsciously took a half-step back.

Principal Xue Zhenting continued to speak.

"Then we shall go to the Dragon Kingdom Council. Let's see... who exactly blinded the eyes of the Public Security Bureau Chief."

Chen Yuangang's forehead began to sweat, and he turned his head to look at Chen Fu.

Chen Fu froze in the center of the lobby.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But in the end, he didn't say anything.

No one knew what exactly happened in the Public Security Bureau that day.

It was only known that that evening, the Chief of the Imperial Capital Public Security Bureau, Chen Fu, submitted his resignation.

The next morning, the Dragon Kingdom Council issued a transfer order, transferring a Major General named He Beichuan from the Southeast War Zone to take over as the Chief of the Imperial Capital Public Security Bureau.