The First Order

After the war in the Southwest, it gradually returned to its former prosperity.

The outside world was under the impression that the Southwest was probably shrouded by the shadow of the Qing Consortium’s rule. But in actual fact, after the Qing Consortium gained control of more than 30 strongholds in the Southwest, they did not increase taxes or excessively settle scores with the previous people in charge.

In the Southwest, many important figures from both the political and business world had thought the Qing Consortium would continue on their expansion path, and as a result, they felt that all the industries in the Southwest would get dragged into the resulting wars and be set back further.

However, the Qing Consortium did not do that. The first thing Qing Zhen did was to try to revive the Southwest.

First, he standardized the currency before organizing transport routes.

The entire Southwest was connected through basic roads, while the Qing Consortium established a specialized department to oversee the maintenance of roads linking the various strongholds.

After the road network was well established, Qing Zhen began to encourage the various strongholds to build trade relations with one another.

The merchants thought that since the Qing Consortium had spent so much money to build the roads, the road maintenance fees must be very expensive.

But on the contrary, the toll collection rates were much cheaper than they had expected. At this moment, the merchants realized that the Qing Consortium was really doing their part for the Southwest.

But everyone still adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

After that, the Qing Consortium merged all of the agricultural departments and established the Ministry of Agricultural Development. They started researching how to improve the enthusiasm for farming among the refugees. One of the most controversial plans proposed was to allow the refugees to share the rights to the farms.

Before this, the various consortiums were firmly in control of the land and the refugees. No one could have expected that the Qing Consortium, as a consortium, would come to a decision like that.

It was not only the rest of the world that was surprised. There were also voices of resistance within the Qing Consortium.

Unfortunately, the Qing Consortium was now controlled by Qing Zhen alone, and the entire Southwest Army was also his to command, so the voices of resistance were quickly silenced.

After all, everyone knew exactly how Qing Zhen had gotten his position as the head of the Qing Consortium. He was no pushover. He had slowly conquered this vast territory, and rumor had it that the blood of those who died in the process could even make the rivers run red.

The Qing Consortium’s reforms were too many. If the Qing Consortium were located in the Central Plains, Hope Media would probably have started publishing full-length reports covering them.

Immediately after, the trade routes between the Qing Consortium and the Northwest were also opened up. Not only could the merchants take this opportunity to sell their goods to the Northwest and the Central Plains, but they were also able to import goods back from there.

All of a sudden, supply and demand changed. When the goods from the Southwest were sold to the entire Alliance of Strongholds, they could barely meet demand. This also greatly stimulated the industrial development in the Southwest.

As a result, the industrial reforms the merchants had been waiting for finally arrived. They were even allowed to set up their own factories outside the strongholds.

For the past year or so, all of the ambitious people in the Southwest were in a state of excitement. They received good news almost every day.

Immediately, everyone praised Qing Zhen and said he was a wise leader of the modern day.

However, when everyone wanted to go and look for Qing Zhen to sing praises of him and pledge their loyalty, they could not even get to see him. Qing Zhen was either living in the military base most of the time or on an inspection tour of the troops.

They were only able to meet the seven principal secretaries of Qing Zhen.

Gradually, everyone started wondering what the Qing Consortium’s head was doing. Why was he suddenly behaving so mysteriously?

Sometimes, Qing Zhen would conduct visitations to see how the agricultural reforms were going. But when everyone rushed over there after receiving news of his visits, Qing Zhen had already left. Moreover, he constantly had an elite unit following him. It was as though he was defending against something.

Everyone thought the head of the Qing Consortium must cherish his life too greatly. Could it be that it was perhaps still dangerous in the Southwest?

As such, some astute people realized the Qing Consortium had also been mobilizing its troops frequently. No matter how they looked at it, it felt like a war was about to break out.

At this moment, four people were traversing the forested mountain range at the Southwest’s border.

If Ren Xiaosu were there, he would surely have been surprised, because he knew all four of them.

Cheng Yu, the previous leader of Ren Xiaosu’s group and a witness to the song and dance during the expedition to the Sacred Mountains, was here.

Luo Xinyu, Yang Xiaojin’s old partner, was here.

Dong Funan, who had awakened the powers of a vampire and lost two of her blood-sucking fangs to Chen Wudi’s armor and become a “vegetarian” for more than a year as a result before finally growing back her teeth, was here.

And rounding out the group was Yang Xiaojin’s aunt, Yang Anjing, the leader of the Anjing House and the Saboteurs.

“Boss,” Cheng Yu said to Yang Anjing in front of him, “where’s Tang Hualong and Vanilla? Why aren’t they here?”

Today, Yang Anjing was still dressed in a black combat uniform. Her shoulder-length hair was tied into a ponytail, and it made her look extremely neat and tidy.

She answered, “Tang Hualong and Vanilla were assigned a last-minute mission at Luoyang City, so they can’t participate in this operation.”

Cheng Yu nodded. He was wondering what mission Tang Hualong and Vanilla had to deal with at Luoyang City that caused them to even miss out on such an important operation in the Southwest.

At this moment, Yang Anjing took out some earpieces from her backpack and distributed them to the other three. “We’ll be entering the Qing Consortium’s secure zone in another 800 meters. Our operation this time is mainly to confuse the Qing Consortium’s garrison troops while the final objective is handled by someone else. Understood? Once we get pursued, don’t get caught up in the battle and just carry out the plan as I’ve drafted.”

“Understood.”

“Understood.”

“Understood.”

When everyone put on their earpieces, Yang Anjing did a simple radio check with them. After confirming there were no issues with the communications, she said to Cheng Yu, “Let’s begin.”

A myriad of colors suddenly appeared within Cheng Yu’s dark pupils, which resembled a kaleidoscope from up close.

Then the four people’s presence in the mountains suddenly vanished. If one were to look over here, they would only see the mountains.

This was Cheng Yu’s power of illusion.

Moreover, this superpower was not a hypnotism-based method that affected the brain waves in a human. It really changed what was projected in the vicinity, so even if one were to look here through a surveillance camera, they would fall for the illusion as well.

Initially, Cheng Yu had a combat style of grandeur, and he was extremely good at creating projections of terrifying flying birds and beasts.

But after getting crushed at the Sacred Mountains, Wang Yun had reminded Cheng Yu that his illusions should be more grounded in reality. He should create an environment that could pass off as something real, rather than making exaggerated projections like before.

Yang Anjing looked around and said calmly, “You’ve improved, but don’t get careless. The Qing Consortium troops stationed here will definitely be equipped with thermal cams. Such illusions can’t trick them. Xinyu, head to our designated pick-up point. I’ll call for you when we need you to fetch us.”

“Roger.” Luo Xinyu turned around and left.

At this moment, no one at the huge nuclear test site hidden in the mountains up ahead had realized the impending danger.

Yang Anjing examined her surroundings and thought that if it weren’t for Zero, they would probably not have found such a well-hidden spot.