Chapter 1151: Gradual Change of the Era

Ring-a-ling—

In the lingering light rain, the urgent ringing of a cell phone kept sounding from Shen Nan's pocket, but he acted as if he didn't hear it.

The phone screen flickered on and off, with a caller ID marked in the center, buzzing along with the phone's vibration:

749 Bureau Director Sun.

Only after getting completely away from the old house and when there was no one around did Shen Nan press the answer button.

"...Hello?"

"Shen Nan, do you know what you're doing?" On the other side of the phone, a deep, middle-aged man's voice sounded. "I've been calling you for ages and you haven't picked up. If you don't pick up this time, your name will be on the blacklist soon."

"I'm picking up now, aren't I..." Shen Nan replied vaguely.

"Where are you?"

"Went back to my hometown... What's up?"

"Tell me the truth." Director Sun paused for a moment. "What exactly is your relationship with the Ghost Mockery Annihilating the World?"

Shen Nan held his umbrella, glanced at the direction of the old house from the corner of his eye, and let out a long sigh.

"No relationship at all..."

"You saved him in front of so many people, and you say there's no relationship?"

"I smelled the aptitude of a [Nuon] on him, so I didn't want him to just die like that, so I went to talk to him alone... The result you already know: we had a falling out, and he was blown to pieces by a missile from you guys on the cliff. That's how it is." Shen Nan's tone was very indifferent, as if he had almost forgotten about the matter.

"...Do you know how many people in the Bureau are dissatisfied with you? If I hadn't been bearing the pressure from all sides to protect you, you would already be on your way to being arrested... And yet you still don't answer my calls for half a day."

"I know I was wrong, Director Sun." Shen Nan gave a dry laugh.

"...Let's not talk about that. I'm calling you this time for another matter."

"What?"

"Two days from now, the Wushan Conference. You must come."

Shen Nan was stunned and asked in confusion, "Is it the Intangible Cultural Heritage Exchange Conference? Why did it move to Wushan... And it shouldn't be the date yet this year, right?"

"For some reason, the conference has been moved up." Director Sun's tone was extremely serious. "This conference is different from previous years... All registered possessors of the Divine Path are required to attend. Especially you—the others in the Bureau have strong opinions about you right now. Don't mess this up, understand?"

"...I understand."

Shen Nan hung up the phone, his gaze passing through the edge of the umbrella where raindrops were sliding off, looking at the dim, foggy sky in the distance... Director Sun's mysterious tone and the inexplicably moved-up Wushan Conference gave him an ominous premonition for some reason.

……

"The call didn't go through..."

Lu Xun put down his phone. Three consecutive missed call notifications lit up on the screen, and his expression was somewhat ugly.

If it weren't for Chu Changqing's help, it would have been very difficult for Lu Xun to break out of the laboratory at that time and seek help from Chen Ling... If Chu Changqing fell into a crisis because of his departure, Lu Xun would be filled with guilt.

"It seems his situation isn't very good." Chen Ling said slowly.

"Lu Xun, don't you know the director of the 749 Bureau? Why not call him directly and question him?" Su Zhiwei's brows were locked tight.

"...No, I can't." Lu Xun's thinking was very clear.

"If the 749 Bureau really takes action against Chu Changqing, calling Director Sun at this time will only alert the enemy... It would be troublesome if they secretly transferred him."

"Exactly." Chen Ling nodded slightly. "Right now, we can't trust anyone but ourselves."

Chen Ling didn't have a good impression of the 749 Bureau. He hadn't heard of this organization in the era after the Great Cataclysm, which meant that this organization hadn't made any outstanding contributions during the Great Cataclysm period. Now was not the time for everyone to sit down and chat amicably...

Chen Ling's goal was simple: rescue the Nanhai Lord, protect his safety, and get him on the same front as himself.

After a brief discussion, the group reached a consensus and quickly got into the car.

"What about Shen Nan?" Su Zhiwei sat in the back seat and only then realized she hadn't seen Shen Nan until now, asking in confusion.

"He's not coming with us."

Chen Ling sat in the driver's seat and patted the surface of the car lightly. Electricity surged across the car body, instantly modifying an ordinary sedan into a 12-cylinder performance monster. He stepped on the pedal lightly, and it let out a beast-like roar.

Chen Ling looked at the foggy sky behind through the rearview mirror.

"For him, the less he's involved with us, the safer he is."

"Indeed..."

Chen Ling drove the car straight out of the village. Many villagers looked over in confusion along the way, but because Chen Ling had modified the car's appearance, no one knew when this car had arrived; they just watched the taillights disappear into the hazy mist and rain in confusion.

Chen Ling drove straight along the main road, then suddenly turned his head to look at Lu Xun in the passenger seat:

"Dr. Lu, you should know the location of the laboratory, right?"

"I do, but I'm not very familiar with the road into the city from here... Wait a moment, let me turn on the navigation."

As he spoke, Lu Xun took out his phone, his fingertips swiping rapidly as if searching for something.

A moment later, his brows furrowed tightly, and he let out a soft "Huh?"

"What's wrong?"

"Strange... why isn't the navigation working?" Lu Xun opened the car window and held his phone out. "There's clearly a signal..."

Hearing this, Yang Xiao raised his eyebrows in surprise. He reached out: "Let me see."

Lu Xun handed the phone to Yang Xiao, who fiddled with it for a moment, his own brows furrowing as well:

"It's not a network signal issue... the satellite signal is cut off."

"How could the satellite signal have a problem all of a sudden?" Su Zhiwei also looked at the phone. "Try a different navigation app?"

"I've tried, it's no use... It's not that a single satellite has a problem, but that the signals from all satellites are cut off, as if... as if all the satellites broke at the same time."

Although Yang Xiao had mastered magnetic field theory, he was also at a loss for the situation at hand.

"Yang Xiao is right. We aren't the only ones encountering this problem."

Chen Ling's voice suddenly sounded.

Everyone looked up at the same time and saw that on both sides of the road into the city, many cars had stopped at some point.

Yellow hazard lights flashed one after another in the water mist. A group of figures were holding their phones high, walking back and forth on the side of the road, occasionally cursing, as if asking after the parents of the navigation software developers.

Chen Ling slowed down and drove slowly through the torrent of hazard lights...

Facts proved that modern people had basically lost the ability to find their way while driving; without the guidance of navigation, they were unable to move an inch in the complex urban traffic.

"The satellite signal should recover in a while, right?" Lu Xun's brows were locked tight. "Otherwise... half of the ground traffic will be paralyzed."

In Chen Ling's deep eyes, the flashing hazard lights around were reflected. He didn't answer the question, but calmly shifted the gear to the fastest S+...

"We need to hurry."