78: Chapter 78 Isn't all of this your fault?

Chu Xiuxiu was being led by a policewoman, standing behind several law enforcement officers. Her small face was pale, and her eyes still looked a bit dazed.

The members of the Zhou Family were all staring at her.

Zhou Tingyue stood at the very front, his expression gloomy, the veins on the back of his hands bulging.

The few core members of the Zhou Family beside him even softened their breathing, terrified that this little girl might raise her hand and point, exposing them.

"Xiuxiu, don't be afraid." The policewoman half-knelt, her voice as gentle as possible.

"Take a look, among the people who captured you before, are any of them here?"

Chu Xiuxiu pursed her lips, her gaze sweeping across Zhou Tingyue's face before falling onto the few people behind him.

She looked very slowly.

Every time she looked at someone, the hearts of those on the Zhou Family side would leap.

Lu Cheng stood beside her and could feel the little girl's hand still trembling slightly.

Xiuxiu looked around again, a touch of confusion slowly appearing in her eyes, and finally, she shook her head gently.

"None..." Her voice was very small.

But in this setting, it was enough for everyone to hear clearly.

On the side of the Zhou Family, someone clearly let out a long sigh of relief. Even Zhou Tingyue's tense shoulders relaxed slightly.

Lu Cheng narrowed his eyes. He didn't speak.

Zhou Lize had died too quickly, and his reaction before death had been too strange. Since Chu Xiuxiu hadn't identified any core members of the Zhou Family, on the surface, it seemed the Zhou Family could indeed continue to distance themselves from this matter.

The scene was quiet for a few seconds. Chen Wenjie raised his head, his voice hard and heavy, crashing down directly.

"Although the person is dead, it doesn't mean the Zhou Family is innocent." He looked at Zhou Tingyue and said, word by word:

"The authorities have already issued a notice. From now on, all personnel of the Zhou Family are prohibited from leaving Rong City. All their assets, capital flows, subsidiaries, and partner pharmaceutical companies will be placed on the priority investigation list."

"Before the investigation results are out, anyone who dares to leave the city without authorization will be treated as a fugitive."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of the Zhou Family members changed again. Zhou Tingyue stared at Chen Wenjie, his gaze icy.

"Captain Chen, are you trying to force dirty water onto the Zhou Family?"

Chen Wenjie was expressionless. "I am acting according to the rules."

"The underground cell is part of the industrial chain associated with your Zhou Family. Zhou Lize was a direct descendant of your Zhou Family. The reagents, experimental records, and transfer ledgers at the scene all intersect with your Zhou Family's subsidiary pharmaceutical companies."

"If you want to claim injustice, you can go ahead and shout it slowly when the Supervisory Committee and the military conduct their joint investigation."

Zhou Tingyue's mouth twitched, but he ultimately swallowed his words. No matter how arrogant the Zhou Family was, they didn't dare to confront the military and the Supervisory Committee head-on at this time.

People from the Lin Family and the Cheng Family stood to the side, their expressions varied. Some were calculating how to cut ties, while others were wondering if the fire would spread to them.

Just when everyone thought this standoff had reached this point...

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Crisp applause suddenly came from outside the blockade line. The sound wasn't loud, but it was like a needle, piercing directly into everyone's ears.

Everyone turned their heads in unison.

"Is it over already?"

The person speaking walked out slowly. It was Cheng Shaohe.

He was wearing a black martial arts training uniform. His face was slightly pale, but there was a cold fire suppressed in his eyes.

Standing beside him were Instructor Qin Feng and Commander Ji Yunlan, followed by dozens of soldiers in camouflage uniforms.

Instructor Qin Feng's expression was cold and stern, and he was carrying a black metal case in his hand. Commander Ji Yunlan held her blade, her gaze sweeping over everyone in the area, her eyes terrifyingly sharp.

Cheng Fusi saw who it was, his expression darkened on the spot. "Shaohe, what are you doing here?"

Cheng Shaohe didn't even look at him and walked straight into the middle of the area. He stopped and raised his hand.

Instructor Qin Feng placed the black metal case on the hood of a car and opened it with a click.

Inside, more than a dozen vials of reagent were neatly arranged. Some were dark red, some were purple, and extremely fine black filaments floated in the liquid, making people uncomfortable just looking at them.

There was also a stack of documents, test reports, internal training records for Yanghe Martial Arts Hall, and several copied surveillance chips.

Many people on the scene could tell something was wrong at a glance. Chen Wenjie frowned: "What is this?"

Cheng Shaohe picked up a vial of reagent, his voice calm to the point of being cold.

"Aren't you curious why the recent batch of students at Yanghe Martial Arts Hall progressed so quickly?"

"In just half a month, their blood energy surged, their fist strength skyrocketed, and some students who were originally stuck at the flesh stage of the Body Refining Realm were forcibly pushed to the visceral level."

"Rumors are spreading outside that Yanghe Martial Arts Hall obtained some new training method, and that my Cheng Family knows how to teach."

He tugged at the corner of his mouth, his smile full of sarcasm. "Teach, my ass."

"This is what they relied on." He held the reagent up a little higher.

"Using contamination to inflate the blood energy within the body, creating a false increase in blood energy."

"After taking it, strength increases in the short term, speed increases, and even the test data can look very good."

"But the price is also very simple." Cheng Shaohe's gaze swept over the crowd, his voice sinking bit by bit.

"These students' Source Power vein foundations have already been eroded by contamination."

"It's estimated that they will never be able to break through to the Source Gathering Realm in their lifetime."

This statement landed like a bomb, and the surroundings instantly erupted. "What?!" "Contamination reagent?!" "Yanghe Martial Arts Hall is using students for experiments?!" "Are they crazy?!"

Even a few police officers accustomed to big scenes changed their expressions. For these children who were still in school, this was equivalent to destroying their future directly!

Lu Cheng looked at those vials of reagent, his eyes darkening as well. Looking at the black filaments floating in the reagent... he immediately thought of the black contamination inside Zhou Lize before he died. Same origin. There was definitely a connection.

Cheng Shaohe threw the test report forward. "The preliminary test results from the military laboratory are here."

"The contamination factor activity is extremely high, and the source is highly similar to some of the reagents found in the underground cell."

"Are you not planning to investigate?"

This sentence made the target clear. Cheng Fusi's face turned green instantly. "Cheng Shaohe, what are you talking about?!"

He took a step forward, his eyes already filled with uncontrollable anger. "Do you know what you are doing?!"

Cheng Shaohe finally turned his head to look at him. His gaze was terrifyingly cold.

"What am I saying?"

"I'm talking about the things the Lin Family, the Zhou Family, and the Cheng Family have been doing behind the scenes."

"I'm talking about how you have been cooperating with the Black Seed."

Black Seed. As soon as these two words came out, many people's expressions in the crowd changed.

Instructor Qin Feng immediately shouted: "Seal off the scene! Everyone stay where you are!" Swish! Guns were instantly raised all around. Even the people brought by the Lin Family and the Cheng Family were suppressed.

Cheng Fusi's face was livid, staring fixedly at Cheng Shaohe. "Why are you doing this?" "I am your father!"

Upon hearing this, Cheng Shaohe suddenly laughed. It was a cold, mocking laugh. "Father?" "Isn't all of this caused by you?"

"I believe you know better than anyone how my mother died."

The air suddenly went quiet. Cheng Fusi's pupils shrank violently. The faces of several Cheng Family members nearby turned deathly pale; clearly, some of them knew something.

Cheng Shaohe continued: "Back then, she discovered what you were doing and wanted to send the information out." "Then she died."

"I saw with my own eyes that the vial of reagent she drank before she died was something you personally had someone deliver to her."

Veins bulged on Cheng Fusi's forehead, and he said sharply: "You are talking nonsense!"

"Nonsense?" Cheng Shaohe pulled an old chip from the bottom of the case and tossed it to Chen Wenjie.

"This is a backup my mother left behind back then." "It contains the times, locations, and financial transactions of the secret meetings between the Cheng Family, the Lin Family, and the Zhou Family, as well as a list."

"On that list, they are labeled as 'Convertible Samples'." "The youngest was nine years old."

Chen Wenjie caught the chip, his hand tightening. Commander Ji Yunlan finally spoke, her voice cold:

"The military has already verified part of the content; it is authentic and valid."

"It involves human trafficking, the spread of contamination reagents, illegal martial arts experiments, and contact records with the forbidden contaminated entity 'Black Seed'."

"From now on, this matter will be jointly taken over by the military and the Supervisory Committee."

Instructor Qin Feng took a step forward and threw out several documents stamped with red seals. "Special Investigation Order from the Supervisory Committee." "Military Assistance Order."

"From this moment on, all core members of the Cheng Family, the Lin Family, and the Zhou Family will be interrogated separately, communications will be cut off, accounts will be frozen, and all their martial arts halls, pharmaceutical companies, and storage points will be sealed."

"Anyone who dares to resist will be treated as colluding with contamination forces."

This statement carried too much weight. Colluding with contamination forces, in this era, was no longer just a common crime. It was a serious felony that could directly lead to losing one's head.

Zhou Tingyue's expression finally changed. He had been able to force himself to appear calm before, but now he couldn't suppress the panic in his eyes.

On the Lin Family side, some wanted to speak, some wanted to retreat, and others were already stealthily reaching for their communicators.

The next second, several military martial artists stepped forward, their Source Power vibrating, instantly suppressing all small movements.

Lu Cheng stood to the side, glancing at Cheng Shaohe, feeling a bit surprised. This guy usually looked quite low-key at Yanghe Martial Arts Hall, but when he finally made a move, he completely uncovered his own family's ancestral grave.

In the following hours, the entire upper echelon of Rong City was alarmed. Military vehicles drove in one after another. Personnel from the Supervisory Committee also arrived.

An interrogation area, evidence sealing area, and medical quarantine area were temporarily set up at the scene. People from the Cheng Family, the Zhou Family, and the Lin Family were taken away in batches.

But what was frustrating was that these three families were indeed ridiculously cautious. Many key chains had been multi-layered and cut off.

Those responsible on the surface were all peripheral companies, white gloves, and dead accounts. There wasn't actually that much direct evidence that could definitively nail the family head-level figures.

After reading the first round of summaries, Chen Wenjie's face turned dark. "These old bastards really know how to hide things."

A specialist from the Supervisory Committee nearby said coldly: "No matter how deep they hide, it's useless. Accounts can be laundered, but people cannot be washed away. As long as we investigate down the line of the contamination reagents and the contact records with the Black Seed, we will always be able to dig them out."

Lu Cheng stood at the edge of the temporary blockade area, listening to them talk, and casually unscrewed a bottle of water to take two gulps. He had just fought all night and then followed along until now, his whole body feeling a bit parched.

Chu Xiuxiu had been sent back to the protection zone. Her condition was very poor, and she didn't participate in the subsequent matters. Lu Cheng actually thought that was good. The little girl had already suffered enough; the less she saw of these dirty things, the better.

Not far away, there were still people from the Lin Family arguing. A military martial artist sneered.

"You Lin Family members, if I recall correctly, you are a branch that split off from the capital, right?" "If the main branch in the capital knew you were doing this kind of thing in Rong City, they would have to send people down to wipe out the Lin Family."

Colluding with the Black Seed, touching contamination experiments, using children and students as samples. If this kind of thing reached the main branch in the capital, the branch would very likely be directly purged.

In the following days, the sky in Rong City completely changed. The Zhou Family was the first to be hit.

The underground cell, Zhou Lize's mutation, the subsidiary pharmaceutical company ledgers, the child disappearance cases—all these things were pressed onto them. Even if the core main branch was still holding on, the industrial chain on the outside was being cut off one blade at a time.

More than a dozen pharmaceutical companies were sealed. Three storage points were raided. Several core managers went directly into the Supervisory Committee.

The members of the Zhou Family's main branch managed to save their lives by relying on early cutting off of ties and scapegoats, but their major arteries had already been hacked to pieces. The entire Zhou Family suddenly fell from the position of a top-tier family in Rong City.

Whether they could climb back up in the future, no one could say for sure.

The Lin Family didn't fare much better. They were involved a bit less deeply than the Zhou Family, but the branch had been running rampant in Rong City for years using the main branch's name, secretly consuming too many gray profits. With this investigation, many dirty ledgers were all turned up.

The Lin Family sent messages overnight to the main branch in the capital seeking protection. The result from the main branch was extremely cold. "Cut ties, protect the reputation of the main branch."

Expel those who should be expelled, cripple those who should be crippled, and send those who should be sent in. The main branch left them one breath, but it was all that remained.

As for the Cheng Family... their influence wasn't large, but their contact surface with the public was the widest. Cheng Shaohe sat in the position of the Cheng Family head, and Cheng Shaoyang caused a stir at Yanghe Martial Arts Hall for a while before being arrested for the crime of endangering public safety.

Those students who had used the problematic reagents were also sent for unified testing. After the results came out, the entire Rong City was in an uproar.

Most of the students' blood energy foundations had suffered varying degrees of contamination damage. Some were lighter and had a chance to slowly recover later. For those who were more serious, their martial arts path was almost completely cut off.

For several consecutive days, people blocked the entrance of Yanghe Martial Arts Hall to curse. Parents cried, students made a scene... The reputation the Cheng Family had accumulated over many years was completely ruined.

Lu Cheng later heard that Cheng Shaohe handed over everything he could, even supplying several secret lines within the Cheng Family. With this, the Cheng Family also suffered a major blow to their vitality.

The three great families of Rong City, in just a few short days, fell from their pedestals; they survived, but from then on, they could only linger on in a precarious state.