NOVPUBThe cathedral of the Mechanicus was in the north.
A convoy journeyed southward toward City No. 10 in the Central Plains, finally reaching the outskirts of the city at 12 at night, and from afar they could see the silhouette of the city.
The atmosphere inside the vehicles was grave, and the expressions of everyone aboard seemed shrouded in a layer of dark mist.
The Central Plains Mechanicus had suffered consecutive setbacks, which had already displeased the high priest greatly: first, the Red-robed Bishop of City 18 had been captured.
Then, multiple Red clergy from City No. 10 had been seized by Intelligence Department One and thrown into the Secret Prison.
This had led the Mechanicus to sense a whiff of danger.
The high priest speculated it was very likely they had hindered some powerful figure in the consortium, and now the other party wanted to eradicate them.
Indeed, the Mechanicus was also aware that they were like a tool to the consortium; showered with support when useful, and readily discarded when not.
Now that the Mechanicus was growing stronger and becoming less compliant, it was possible they had fallen out of favor with some high-ranking individuals in the consortium.
Otherwise, why would the Parents’ Meeting have been able to spread so quickly?
Otherwise, how could Intelligence Department One dare to wipe out their Red clergy in City No. 10 in one fell swoop?
Perhaps the Parents’ Meeting was the substitute for the Mechanicus; the consortium had found a more obedient organization to assist with their profit-making and control over the populace.
Of course, the Mechanicus did not know that although the consortium had indeed tacitly consented to these events, people were now more concerned with the internal war of the Federation and had no interest in dealing with them.
The occurrence of all this was as unexpected to that Parent as it was to the others...
In the most luxurious vehicle, a middle-aged man said, "Has any of those captured Parent Association Members talked yet?"
Following the attack on the headquarters in City 18, the Mechanicus had indiscriminately captured dozens of Parent Association Members, all of whom had their identities exposed during the operation.
A young man in the passenger seat spoke in a low voice, "Only three have talked, the rest haven’t... These Parent Association Members are more troublesome than we expected. No matter how we interrogate them, they keep repeating some nonsensical phrases."
"What phrases?" the middle-aged man asked with a frown.
"May the youth of the Federation shake off the chill, and only ascend, not listening to the words of those who have given up on themselves. Those who can work, let them work; those who can speak out, let them speak. If you have even a little warmth, give off a little light. It’s like being a firefly, even if only a little light can be emitted in the darkness; there’s no need to wait for a torch..."
"Enough," the middle-aged man interrupted coldly. "You seem to have memorized it quite well. So many from the Parents’ Meeting in City 18 were captured, and only three were forced to speak—a bunch of useless people. If we can’t deal with this Parents’ Meeting, you and I won’t need to return to face the high priest. Just destroy our energy cores and end it ourselves."
"It’s not that there’s no gain whatsoever," the young man said. "At least through these three members of the Parents’ Meeting, we’ve located that Black Family Member."
Thinking, the middle-aged man said, "Is there any chance these three are lying to us, deliberately leading us into some kind of trap?"
"It shouldn’t be," the young man said. "The testimonies of the three match up. They were captured in haste; there was no opportunity for them to coordinate their stories."
"That could also mean someone intentionally allowed us to capture them," the middle-aged man said.
After a moment of thought, the young man said, "Who would want to suffer such torture willingly? I don’t think the Parent Association, only having developed for a few months, would have so many members willing to endure such torture on purpose just to set a trap for us."
The young man was considering it from the perspective of a Mechanicus member; at least within their own ranks, they did not yet have so many utterly loyal grassroots believers.
The middle-aged man sneered, "Tonight we quickly deal with this so-called Black Family Member, then I can go negotiate with the consortium."
The young man in the passenger seat continued, "Moreover, we’ve more or less figured out what happened in City 18. That Red clergy named Qing Shuli betrayed the faith, leading members of the Parents’ Meeting to take advantage of the headquarters being unguarded and abduct the Red-robed Bishop."
"The appearance of a traitor within our ranks should serve as a warning to us," the middle-aged man said coldly. "We don’t even know the origins of the Parents’ Meeting, yet their influence on the minds of their members far exceeds the control of our faith. This is something we must learn from."
"Judge, should we take direct action tonight? What if the consortium is aiding them?" the young man asked.
The Judge said, "Do not engage with anyone outside the Parents’ Meeting. I’ve come to the south partly to negotiate with the consortium on behalf of the high priest. Tonight’s focus is just on killing the Black Family Member."
Those around him were somewhat puzzled, "But... it could very well be the consortium targeting us."
The Judge explained, "We are here to take down the Parents’ Meeting to show them that we can be more useful than they can. It is not yet time for them to discard us. Just delay a little longer; if the new plan of the high priest works out, perhaps we might become the sixth major financial group."
In the vehicle, everyone was invigorated, not bothering to discern how much truth was in those words.
The vehicle approached the immigration control tunnel checkpoint and passed directly through the inspection-exempt channel.
The young man in the passenger seat made a call, "Is that Black Family Member still under surveillance?"
Someone on the phone replied, "Still under surveillance, confirmed to be in District 5, we have 12 people tracking him around the clock, and we’re keeping a 24-hour behavior log on him."
"How many of them are there?" the young man asked, "Is there any master among them?"
"There is a suspected C-Class master."
"No problem, the Judge himself is coming this time, so a C-Class isn’t much," the young man reassured the other party.
The driver shared his location with the person on the phone, and they sped towards the city center.
No one noticed that two figures were calmly watching them from the sky above.
...
...
It was half past midnight, the busiest time of the night in the Federation.
The Mechanicus’s vehicles had just entered District Five...
In an instant, a slender figure dropped down from the sky.
All the members of the Mechanicus in the vehicle saw the figure fall onto the roof of the front car, denting it with a hard smash.
As if trying to embed the car into the earth.
Piercing screeching of brakes filled the street as the long convoy came to an abrupt halt.
"What’s going on?" the Judge was taken aback.
In their view, the figure was lying quietly on the roof, embedded in it, now silent. 𝓃ℴ𝓋𝓹𝓊𝓫.𝒸𝓸𝓂
Everything happened so fast, as if someone had jumped to their death, just so happened to land on their vehicle, and crushed the people inside to death...
"Go take a look," the Judge said calmly from the back seat.
But just at that moment, someone suddenly exclaimed over the car’s intercom, "Vehicles are rapidly approaching from behind, there’s a Silver Ginkgo emblem on them!"
The Judge internally cursed, wondering if this was a trap set up by Qing’s specifically for him, "Prepare for battle, everyone get ready! But remember, send one person to ask what’s happening first, do not engage rashly!"
But before they could send anyone, a burst of gunfire erupted from somewhere.
The Judge felt a shock of alarm, his instincts urging him to take evasive action.
But he quickly realized something was off, the bullets weren’t aimed at him.
They were directed at the Qing’s Financial Group’s convoy behind them.
Wait, in that moment the Judge understood many things.
One of his previous suspicions turned out to be true, the Parent Association Members were captured because someone wanted to set this trap for him.
Those people were truly willing to endure the severe torture from the Mechanicus just to execute this plan.
And that Black Family Member had exposed himself just to lure them here.
Why, why did such a newly formed Parent Association possess such unity?! What kind of organization was this?
And that Black Family Member, who exactly was he?
In the past two days of surveillance on that Black Family Member, they hadn’t sensed anything special about him.
No, that’s not right.
The Judge couldn’t even be sure if the Black Family Member they had found was the true Black Family Member.
At that moment, the Judge turned his head back to look at the front of the vehicle that had just been hit.
The ’corpse’ that should have been lying there had already disappeared.
...
Another chapter at 11 PM
