Chapter 269: Cold

Aurora City.

Courtyard.

Chu Muyun glanced at the time on his pocket watch and gently closed the metal lid, which made a crisp "ding" sound.

"It's been almost six hours... still no movement." Chu Muyun muttered to himself. "It seems the operation didn't go as smoothly as imagined."

"Operation? What operation?"

A lazy voice came from the roof. Chu Muyun raised an eyebrow and looked up.

He sighed helplessly. "Do you have to be on the roof every time you appear?"

"The view is good from the roof. If an enemy approaches, I can know immediately." Bai Ye shrugged, his pair of silver snake-shaped earrings swaying gently. "This is the basic quality of our Path of the Thief; you wouldn't understand."

"Are you done with the business over at the Fire-Tamers?"

"Done." Bai Ye lay on the roof, sounding a bit exhausted. "Running back and forth between two domains—perhaps this is the price of a dual identity..."

"Then why don't you just leave the Fire-Tamers?"

"I originally planned to, but the Red King said that staying with the Fire-Tamers allows me to obtain first-hand intelligence, and this identity is very valuable... He won't let me leave." Bai Ye muttered, as if remembering something. "It's time for the Red King to give me a raise; being a spy is too tiring."

Chu Muyun: ...

"By the way, what was the mission you just mentioned?"

"While you were away, there was another newcomer, and now they've gone to the Aurora base with Heart 6."

"Aurora base?" Bai Ye said in surprise. "Even I can't get into that place. Are those two newcomers going to be okay?"

"How should I put it... the two of them were practically born to infiltrate the Aurora base. In the entire Twilight Society, they are the only ones who could sneak in."

"I can understand Heart 6; he's very good at infiltration and lurking... Is that newcomer also from the Path of the Playwright?"

"...No, you'll see when you meet them."

Seeing this, Bai Ye didn't bother to ask further. Instead, he lay quietly on the roof, yawning lazily, as if preparing for a nap.

His eyes, which were about to close, suddenly opened as if he had sensed something!

He stared at the aurora flowing endlessly above his head, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter...

"Did I see that wrong?"

"What?"

"Just now, the aurora seemed to flicker..."

Chu Muyun was stunned and immediately looked up at the sky. The aurora was still flowing quietly in the sky, like a gorgeous piece of cloth dancing in the wind, covering the entire Aurora City.

"It seems much fainter than before?" Chu Muyun also noticed something was wrong. For the past few days, he had been paying attention to the changes in the aurora because, to a certain extent, it reflected the state of the Aurora Lord... But Chu Muyun hadn't looked for only an hour or so, and the color and thickness were significantly thinner than before.

"Those two newcomers... they shouldn't have done anything outrageous in the Aurora base, right?"

Bai Ye looked at Chu Muyun suspiciously.

Chen Ling and Jian Changsheng's figures appeared in Chu Muyun's mind, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly. "Hard to say."

"When I returned to the Aurora Domain, I specifically took a turn outside. The water of the Forbidden Sea has almost spread to the outskirts of the city. Except for the tracks of the Domain Train, almost everything else is frozen by the cold air. There really isn't much time left for Aurora City."

"Aurora City is indeed unusually cold this year." Chu Muyun rubbed his hands gently. "Summer just ended, but the temperature is already like winter..."

"You're so rich, why don't you turn on the heating?"

"I did turn it on."

Bai Ye glanced at him and casually threw a pebble toward the ground. The pebble landed on the frost-covered earth and slid several meters away in an instant.

"You call this 'on'?"

Chu Muyun was stunned. He looked at the frost that had covered the ground at some point and muttered to himself:

"That's impossible... Aurora City has centralized heating; generally, the heat wouldn't be cut off arbitrarily..."

Chu Muyun seemed to remember something and suddenly got up and walked out the door.

As soon as he opened the door, he saw many residents wrapped in thick clothes, shrinking their necks and complaining outside:

"What's going on? Why is the heating gone??"

"Yeah... in this cold weather, no heating is going to kill people, right?"

"That's not right. I saw the smoke from the boiler plant burning brightly; why don't we have any warmth here?"

"Is the pipe broken?"

"I just came back from the west side of the city, and there's no heating there either. Even if one or two pipes were broken, it shouldn't affect the entire Aurora City, right?"

"Oh my... hurry up and restore the heating. No heating in this weather is deadly."

"I'm going to buy some coal to burn myself; the child is freezing in the room..."

"Hey, hey, wait for me, I'm going to buy some too..."

“……”

Seeing this, Chu Muyun's face darkened.

He retreated into the room and closed the door behind him, his brow furrowed with unprecedented gravity.

"What's wrong?" Bai Ye asked suspiciously.

"Damn it..."

Chu Muyun looked up at the sky. "Why now of all times??"

……

"Chen Xin, have you discovered any abnormalities?"

"Nothing on my end for now."

"Don't let your guard down. Be careful of people hiding in blind spots."

"Yes."

Chen Ling, wearing a law enforcer's trench coat, was searching carefully on the third floor. He searched room after room, and after catching a glimpse of the room opposite, he pushed the door open.

In the room, there was a row of neat beds, but most of them were empty. Only one figure was crouching by the head of the bed with his hands pressed against his head, looking like a strange mushroom.

Seeing Chen Ling come in, Jian Changsheng's eyes lit up, and he asked in a low voice:

"How is it? Did you get it?"

"Got it."

Hearing these three words, Jian Changsheng finally felt relieved. "Then how are we going to get out?"

"The alert is too tight right now; I can't find a suitable opportunity." Chen Ling shook his head.

"But if we drag this out, we'll be exposed sooner or later." Jian Changsheng pointed to the restraints by the bed. "My straps are already broken. If the white coats come to take me for an experiment again, I won't be able to explain..."

"Aren't you a mushroom? Do mushrooms need to explain?"

“……”

Just as the two were talking, several white coats pushed a hospital bed and walked slowly out of Laboratory 1.

"What are you doing?" A law enforcer who was searching asked vigilantly.

"Going to dispose of the test subject that failed the experiment just now. He had too much serum in his body; if he rots, it will cause the spread of germs. We must send him to the surface for incineration immediately." One of the white coats replied.

The law enforcer's face changed slightly. He lifted the white sheet on the hospital bed to take a look and almost vomited on the spot. He immediately waved his hand at them:

"Go, go..."

As the figures of the white coats gradually moved away, Chen Ling's eyes behind the door lit up slightly.

He turned to Jian Changsheng. "I have a plan..."

……

……

The first volume is coming to an end. Sanjiu needs to reorganize the outline for the rest, so only two chapters today~