303: First cleaning

"District 24 Detachment, District 24 Detachment, report the real-time status of the first cleanup."

"Report, Eastern District 24 has been suppressed."

"Report, some resistance elements found in Western District 24, requesting backup."

"Report, Southern District 24 has been suppressed."

"Report, Northern District 24 encountered an emergency, operation terminated."

"Northern District, what is going on with you?"

Northern District 24, Taiyi Sect Church.

"Mr. Mo, please do not interfere with our work, alright?"

A tall and sturdy young man was looking at Mo Ran, who was a head shorter than him, with a flattering expression.

Mo Ran just stood quietly, blocking the way in front of a group of homeless people.

At this moment, the Detachment leader, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, arrived at the north and immediately saw Mo Ran obstructing the operation.

He first pushed the tall young man aside with an angry face, wanting to teach the other party a lesson, but then he suddenly glimpsed the business card of Wilde hanging on the other's chest.

The fury on his face instantly turned into flattery.

"This..." The captain's expression stiffened, then he remembered how his subordinate had just addressed him and quickly followed up, "This Mr. Mo, is there some misunderstanding between us?"

Mo Ran remained silent.

Faced with such an unreasonable figure, the captain was at a loss for a moment.

As a cleanup operative of the kill line, although he had significant authority to carry out cleanup missions in cities within his jurisdiction, Grace City had long since been upgraded to a third-tier city and was not actually under his jurisdiction.

Even though he was currently allowed to conduct activities here, he was merely an operative and had no power to touch the people under a big shot.

So he could only keep smiling, trying to make one last effort.

"Sir, if I may be blunt, you can protect them for a moment, but you cannot protect them forever."

"Furthermore, your company's Young Master Wang frequently visits the Changle Palace for amusement."

"We understand the Young Master's approach toward those people, and we hope you can understand our work."

"If it really doesn't work, you can discuss it with Young Master Wang; he should support us as well."

"Get out."

Mo Ran's expression was cold as he pushed the business card forward, forcing the other party to step back several paces.

Upon seeing the other party take out a flag printed with the Grace Group logo and hang it up, the Detachment leader knew that Northern District 24 could not be taken in the short term.

He could only swallow his anger and go back to find another way; the fact that the first round of operations was so unsuccessful meant the follow-up would likely be even harder to carry out.

"Phew... They're finally gone."

Mo Ran breathed a sigh of relief.

That tough stance just now was entirely performed under Qing Xuan's personal guidance.

To prevent Mo Ran from slipping up, Qing Xuan didn't even give him lines, only telling him to speak as little as possible.

Fortunately, the first time was considered a success.

But Mo Ran felt a surge of suppressed anger in his heart.

The way those people treated life as if it were grass made him, who was deeply influenced by Zhou Yan's thoughts and had begun to absorb the Power Of Faith, incredibly furious, wishing he could tear them apart with his own hands, but... "Everyone, please come inside first. We have prepared food. Please eat something to calm your nerves, and then follow Bishop Qing's arrangements."

Mo Ran turned around, showing a gentle smile to soothe the crowd who were frightened by the bloody scenes.

Only then did they enter the church one after another, still feeling lingering fear.

Mo Ran swept his Divine Sense across the scene of corpses strewn everywhere outside, and his heart couldn't help but grow heavy.

Until—

"Big Brother Mo, can you let me in to take shelter for a while too?"

Mo Ran turned back in surprise and saw the person he had been waiting for.

"4399, I knew you'd be fine. Quick, come in."

The newcomer was indeed 4399.

He was still in poor condition, with bloodstains on his body, but he wasn't injured, having clearly evaded the first wave of the cleanup.

After 4399 entered the church, Mo Ran closed the main doors.

The originally spacious church was now crowded with people.

Benches had been dismantled and prioritized for those with more severe injuries; most of the others were resting quietly on cardboard, either lying down or leaning against things.

Mo Ran walked toward the busy white figure in the crowd.

"Senior, it's over outside."

Hearing Mo Ran's voice, the white-haired figure turned around. It was dressed in a white robe with white hair falling to its shoulders; when it turned its face, it revealed a countenance that was neither clearly male nor female, along with a pair of slightly jarring grey eyes.

This appearance, brimming with Immortal Qi, seemed somewhat out of sync with its downturned mouth and the words it was about to speak.

"What's the situation?"

"Even reading from a script would be—no, no, you didn't even have a script and you're still this slow!"

"There are over two hundred people here, are they all relying on me alone?"

This person was none other than Qing Xuan.

Mo Ran scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Qing Xuan then looked at the little beggar beside Mo Ran and understood what was happening.

"And you, kid."

"You should have seen what kind of character Mo Ran has by now."

"He wants to take you as his disciple, why are you being so stubborn?"

4399 opened his mouth, about to speak, but was interrupted by Qing Xuan raising a hand.

"Don't explain, I don't want to hear it. You can tell Mo Ran later."

"Find a place to stay for now, Mo Ran and I still have things to discuss."

Hearing this, 4399 bowed to Mo Ran and silently walked to a corner to rest.

Qing Xuan pulled Mo Ran into the church's confessional.

Although the Taiyi Sect had no use for this place, it was still built according to standards during construction.

Now, it had become one of the few places in the church where they could talk quietly.

"Sigh, not having the Power Of Faith is really a hassle."

"If time weren't so tight, I really wouldn't want to give those savings to that stupid lion."

As if finally unloading a heavy burden, Qing Xuan's form dispersed like smoke, changing from a white-haired handsome man back into the semi-transparent form of a crow.

"So Senior, what exactly was going on with that appearance just now?"

"When you transformed like that this morning, it really gave me a fright."

Qing Xuan flapped his wings with a "you really lack worldliness" expression.

"That Divine Dao cultivation method—if you're allowed to learn it, am I not allowed to learn it?"

"It's strange, really. Logically, a Book Spirit shouldn't be able to Cultivate a Cultivation Technique; perhaps that Divine Dao technique is quite special."

"You should remember that when I first came here, I essentially entered your consciousness in the form of 'knowledge,' and only you could see me."

"At that time, I could only occasionally knock on your dull head and talk to you; I couldn't do anything practical."

"But yesterday, I was the one who closed the doors and hung the sign."

Only then did Mo Ran recall that yesterday Qing Xuan had been busy running around, both greeting people and setting up the ritual; not only did he close the doors personally, but he even placed some of the ritual props.

Previously, he had to rely on Mo Ran's hands to touch physical objects, at most manifesting some small props in the main city or connecting to a phone outside to browse the internet.

But yesterday, he indeed had a physical entity.

At first, Mo Ran didn't think it was strange, assuming Qing Xuan could always do it but was just too lazy to bother.

Now he realized that Qing Xuan seemed to truly be able to manifest a physical entity in the Eastern Region.

"Don't make a fuss, I was quite surprised by this myself."

"Anyway, ever since Holy Brother enlightened me, I felt like something extra was in my consciousness. Later, after reading the Divine Dao technique and absorbing a bit of the Power Of Faith, I could condense a physical entity."

"I can even transform into a human form for fun, but as you saw, it's just a human exterior, and maintaining it is very taxing on my spirit."

"Maybe if there's more Power Of Faith, I can research something else."

"But the situation is urgent now, so there's no time for research."

At this point, Qing Xuan's expression became serious.

"You saw the situation outside, it's pretty bad, isn't it?"

Mo Ran recalled the cycle this morning of saving people everywhere, showing the business card, saving more people, and showing the card again, ultimately only saving a few hundred people.

Originally, due to Wilde's actions, a large number of new people had come to the Pastoral Area, but after this cleanup, the number was actually lower than before, and this was just the situation in District 24.

"The situation is worse than your earliest predictions."

"So what exactly is this 'kill line'?"

"The kill line, as the name suggests, is a boundary."

"The Pastoral Area is already at the bottom of Grace City; the people living here are nominally the walking dead."

"Since they are the walking dead, their value is no different from livestock, which is why this place is called the Pastoral Area."

"Based on the fragments of information in the materials you gave me, I've pieced together some clues."

"Every so often, they clear out the lowest-level people in the Pastoral Area."

"It's perfectly normal for the Demonic Path to obtain cultivation resources this way."

"But the situation this time is exceptionally abnormal."

"That kind of large-scale massacre itself feels sinister and illogical."

"No matter how unscrupulous they are, they shouldn't be so blatant, otherwise it would be impossible for there to be no records of it."

"Combining what Wilde has done and the internal information your friend told me while you were away, I speculate that they are targeting the entire Pastoral Area for cleanup this time, and not just the bottom layer."

"That's why they're being so reckless."

"Is Uncle Chu awake?"

Smack! "Ouch—"

After having a physical entity, Qing Xuan's hits really hurt. Mo Ran clutched his head, grimacing.

"Is that the point!"

"The point is they are going to strike the entire Pastoral Area, and we are within the target range."

"God knows what they want to do."

"So, the power of that stupid lion might not be enough anymore."

Qing Xuan's eyes shifted, and he suddenly began talking to himself with a headache.

"Our deity only has Core Formation Stage combat power; if a fight really breaks out, he can't protect us."

"What to do... it seems we still have to retreat."

"Forget it, how about we abandon the church and contact Wilde."

"The church hasn't officially opened yet anyway, so nominally it hasn't started; he should still be willing to build another one for us in a normal district of Grace City."

"At worst, we shorten the time; as long as it can run after construction, we'll give him the Spiritual Root."

Mo Ran listened with a look of utter confusion.

He understood every word Qing Xuan said, but when put together, he didn't understand at all.

Isn't their god the Taiyi God?

Why does it sound like he's talking about Senior Yuan?

And isn't that divine statue their trump card?

Qing Xuan said before that this would be their Foundation, and if they held it, they could at least summon two Nascent Soul level combatants... why is everything a mess now?

Mo Ran was full of doubts, but he didn't dare to ask directly, because Qing Xuan was clearly very anxious right now.

*Cough, cough, cough.*

A light cough came from outside the door.

Then a slightly weathered figure pushed the door open and entered; it was Chu Tianci.

He still looked a bit weak as he looked at the two of them apologetically.

"Am I interrupting you?"