“Yuyan, sorry about that.” Xia Lei apologized. “I just can’t bear to see him pressure and bully you like that…”

Tang Yuyan grasped his palm underneath the table. “Hubby, I’m alright. There’s no need to apologize. I’m aware of what they’re trying to do… Mm, yeah. Let’s return to the matter on hand.”

Xia Lei offered a sheepish smile to the other man. “Big Brother Yang, I’m sorry you had to see that. My brother-in-law wasn’t behaving well.”

Yang Changhai reassured, “It’s alright, we all have family issues. Let’s focus on the main agenda, shall we?”

“Sure, go ahead,” said Xia Lei.

Yang Changhai shifted in his seat. “Before we begin, I’d like to show you something.”

One expert team member brought out a laptop and placed it in front of Xia Lei and Tang Yuyan. With a swift click, a prepared video was played.

The video’s location was in Nigeria’s Jungle of No Return, taken from a mining yard within Alliance Mining’s premise.

This place was no stranger to Xia Lei, the man was able to recognize it in a glance.

The mining yard was filled to the brim with what looked like black stone bricks. Those were evidently bricks from the underground pyramid. Loaders were seen busy transporting those black bricks onto the Galaxy C5 transport plane. This plane was the largest strategic transport aircraft produced by Lockheed Martin to date. Its maximum take-off weight was around three hundred and seventy-nine tonnes and was able to hold more than two hundred tonnes worth of cargo. It was a transport aircraft with the largest take-off weight in the current era.

It wasn’t alone. There were several Galaxy C5 transport planes parked on the edge of the mining yard. When the camera was pointed to the end of the area, a newly-constructed track was shown on the screen. For the ease of transporting those stone bricks away, the Americans had actually built a runway.

The American military’s tanks and armoured vehicles were scattered along both sides of the runway along with fully armed Special Force soldiers. What used to be the Alliance Mining was now converted into a military base.

Xia Lei thought darkly, “Is the underground pyramid no longer useful to Zhu Xuanyue? Is that why she decided to tear it down? What is she trying to achieve by doing so? To extract the rare metal so Keston can create the Dragon Slayer? If that’s the case, what does she need the Dragon Slayer jet for?”

Abruptly, the scene was switched back to the Jungle of No Return. A few construction machines were seen excavating among the trees. On the side of one of the unfinished holes were a few thousands of corpses. There were youngsters, the elderly and the children. Upon closer inspection, there were two dug pits beside the unfinished one. A machine was seen filling up the bigger pit that was filled with countless bodies.

These were three mass graves.

The scene was once again switched away to a slum in New Delhi, India. Several healthcare personnel dressed in tight PPE were using spray guns to disinfect the slums. Dead bodies were scattered everywhere on the streets. A child fell to the ground after taking a few steps and never got up again. His mother began to weep beside his lifeless body, heartbroken by her loss. The healthcare personnel numbly sprayed disinfecting liquid on her body and then brushed past her. On the other end of the slum, a group of people had gone berserk. Without the slightest warning, they began attacking everyone around them. The group had consisted of both men and women, there were even children. Unhinged, they assaulted others with rocks and sticks. Some were even doing inhuman things to the women.

The third switch came and the location was now a small city in Mexico. The Mexican army and police force had locked the city borders up. No one was permitted to enter or leave the city. On one of the obstructed roads, some people attempted to force their way out but only to be killed by bullets mercilessly. A girl carrying a schoolbag sobbed and hobbled towards the cordon. Before she could even get close to the cordon, she slumped to the ground; dead. Behind her, a group of people were frantically attacking another group without the slightest premonition. It was a scene full of blood and gore.

That was the end of the video.

Xia Lei felt chills running down his spine.

Tang Yuyan wasn’t feeling any better either. She grabbed his hand tightly, finding it difficult to suppress the terror and anxiety she felt.

There was a beat of solemn silence before Xia Lei spoke, “Brother Yang, this video is…?”

“We got this from our clandestine agents.” Yang Changhai elaborated, “These were obtained from different spies. This video is a compilation of their findings. Five spies were sacrificed for this video.”

Spies were fundamentally different from special agents. The former would lurk in an environment to execute secret tasks and their missions were usually long-term and hidden under the wraps. Yang Changhai had mentioned that five spies were sacrificed. This was a clear indication that the expert group already had targets early on.

Xia Lei placed his gaze on Yang Changhai’s body, hesitant whether to infiltrate the man’s brain and extract information. If this was an enemy or a stranger, Xia Lei would’ve probably already done so. However, Yang Changhai was obviously a friend and it wasn’t exactly a glorious thing to steal information from someone else’s mind.

The man gave up the thought. Instead, he decided to observe the situation and act after further explanations from Yang Changhai. Xia Lei asked, “Brother Yang, can you tell me the focus of your team? When was this expert team formed?”

Yang Changhai answered, “Our expert team was formed long before your Thunder Horse Organization even came into the picture. It’s known as the Dawn Office and I’m its director. Our focus is the ancient alloys and, of course, the expert group members who died bizarrely after studying it.”

Everything made sense now. The country had never once given up its efforts on looking into the ancient alloys. For a while back then, Xia Lei was even one of the study’s subjects. It was his Sweeper Infantry Vehicle and ZTZ Main Battle Tank that brought greater benefits to the country than to study him, which was why he was exempted from the research. But from the looks of it, the Dawn Office had always been on the move. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for its intel to even reach Bureau 101.

The surfacing of the Dawn Office and them initiating to meet Xia Lei had clearly meant that the situation was dire.

It was then that Xia Lei thought of Zhu Xuanyue. He couldn’t help but question if this was part of her plan. Could it be that her kind had already entered this world?

If so, this was indeed the end of the world!

Yang Changhai stated, “About the ancient alloy expert team from before… Within moments of their deaths, the experts’ brains were shrivelled and decayed. The same was seen in all bodies shown in the video. These particular deaths had always been our constant interest. Some months earlier, there were similar deaths in America and we investigated it. The Americans think that a serial killer is behind those murders and the CIA had even given the murderer a codename- Killer X. We shared the same thought in the beginning, thinking that a terrifying criminal was behind the act. But after going through the footage, our assumptions were debunked. We think that the mastermind behind this is an organization, an anti-human terrorist organization to be exact and they have their hands on a dangerous virus. This organization was presumably formed after the emergence of the ancient alloy. All clues seemed to point that the ancient alloy is relevant.”

Xia Lei was silent, his expression morphing into something odd. He wanted to find out what else Yang Changhai found, the situation of the Dawn Office members and the current progress of their investigations. Judging from Yang Changhai’s description, the Dawn Office’s findings and deductions were frankly trustworthy.

“Xia Lei, you have studied the ancient alloy and I’m confident that you know something about it. We came here to understand more information on your part. As you can see, things are not looking good. While the virus is still contained within Mexico, India and Nigeria, there’s no guarantee that China will be safe from it. Before that happens, we need to be well-prepared.”

Before Yang Changhe’s voice died, Xia Lei was already done extracting information from his brain. The Dawn Office wasn’t huge, consisting of a handful of archaeologists, biologists, physicists along with veteran detectives and spies. Yang Changhai was the leader of the clandestine division and was placed directly under that particular chief. Shockingly, this Yang Changhai wasn’t hiding anything from Xia Lei. Everything he had said was real.

There was some information on Ning Jing inside Yang Changhai’s mind but the man didn’t know much.

“Based on our analyses and studies, we suspect that the organization’s virus is associated with the ancient alloy. Xia Lei, I’m sure you remember this person.” Yang Changhai was staring straight into Xia Lei’s soul.

Xia Lei knew exactly who he was going to mention. Yet, he feigned confusion. “Who?”

“Ning Jing.” Yang Changhai continued, “She’s the only survivor out of the entire expert team but she had disappeared out of thin air. We suspect that the terrorist organization had wiped out our experts using the virus and Ning Jing should bear some kind of antibody against it. She is very important to us. Do you know where she is?”

There was a moment of silence before Xia Lei shook his head. “I don’t know where she is.”

Frankly, Ning Jing was no longer existent in a sense. She was now part of Zhu Xuanyue and if he were to tell everyone in the Dawn Office that Zhu Xuanyue was in America or Nigeria, it would be equivalent to sending them to their deaths. How could the Dawn Office defeat an enemy that Xia Lei couldn’t even touch?

“I know you have your ways around this. Can you please assist us in locating her?”

“That shouldn’t be an issue. I will do my best to find her.” Xia Lei paused. “But… I can’t guarantee success.”

“Knowing that you’re willing to help is good enough for me. Just do you best, okay?” Yang Changhai asked, “Also, how is your research on the ancient alloy so far?”

Xia Lei smiled slightly. “Alloy X is the outcome of the ancient alloy research. It’s already a remarkable result. Surely, you can’t be asking for more in such a short time frame? If you need anything else, I’ll need more time.”

“No problem. That’s all for today. I’ll look forward to good things from you,” said Yang Changhai.

“I’ll go make relevant arrangements right away.” Xia Lei shook his hand and left the conference room.

Tang Yuyan trailed behind Xia Lei closely.

In the conference room, the other expert accompanying Yang Changhai couldn’t help but question, “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

The query earned a tight smile from Yang Changhai. “I don’t know. I can’t seem to tell anything from his body language. But our goal was to tell him everything that has transpired till this date and he should know what to do next. After all, he is the protector of our country.”