Chapter 50: Aftershocks
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
Luo Qiang’s attention was perked. Intact meteorites were worth a lot of money! From what he could gleam from Old Man Li’s story, the size of this particular meteorite should be pretty big!
In that moment, Luo Qiang dropped all his work and reported the matter to his superiors. The police department similarly viewed this matter with high importance. In a short moment, Luo Qiang along with the other three officers on shift were dispatched to the location.
"My god! What a terrible force!"
A police officer with a small mustache stared at the piece of desolate land with open mouth and shock in his eyes.
"Let’s go, we have to look at the meteorite first. I heard this stuff’s value is measured by the gram!"
The other officers were visibly excited. Without a doubt, them being the first ones to discover this meteorite would be of great use when showing off to their brothers when they talked over a meal!
"It’ll be best not to get too close. I’ve heard that some meteorites give off very high levels of radiation! If we’re not careful, we might all be hit by it and become the new Fantastic Four!" A mousy looking youth with a crew cut said nervously as he wiped away the sweat on his forehead, causing the other three who had been extremely enthusiastic to suddenly shrink backwards.
"The f*ck? Err, on second thoughts, I think I’m not going to go and see the meteorite," another officer laughed awkwardly even as he quickly backed off several steps in succession.
In the end, the four officers ended up backing off a large distance from the crater and forming a cordon to prevent others from entering the site.
"Where’s the meteorite?"
A large group of people rushed over about half an hour later. At their forefront were several very important-looking old men! It was one of them that went up excitedly to Luo Qiang and asked.
"Chief?"
Luo Qiang looked nervously at the police chief who was standing behind the old man and asked. He could not for the life of him determine the identity of the old man in front of him!
"Xiao Luo, this person is an elder from the Geological Office from the county," the police chief nodded his head, indicating that the old man wasn’t someone they had to stop or restrict in any way.
A few old men walked forward and scanned the air with strange handheld devices, constantly muttering some words to each other indistinctly.
"All clear. There’s no radiation!"
Following that the old men hurried past Luo Qiang and the rest as they peered into the crater eagerly.
"Where’s the meteorite?!"
The excited smiles on their faces had completely disappeared. Apart from a chunk of soil which had been baked into bricks, there were no signs of any meteorite inside the crater.
"That cannot be! After we reached this place, there was no one else who came here!"
Luo Qiang and the other three officers looked at each other helplessly.
"Well, was the meteorite here when you arrived?" An old man immediately questioned.
"We were afraid of being hit by possible radiation and did not dare to get too close," Luo Qiang reported honestly.
"That’s strange, a meteorite which could cause so much damage would definitely not be small. How could there be no traces of it?"
The several old men stood around the crater, gazing speechlessly at each other, clearly confused.
"Could… could this hole be created by an explosion? Maybe a big explosion?" A trembling voice floated out from within the crowd.
"Eh?!"
A shocking thought appeared in the minds of the crowd. This crater was indeed too smooth; it didn’t look like something that was created by a meteorite impacting the earth!
In fact, now that they looked at it, this scene was more typical of ones created by an explosion, where everything around the point of explosion was blasted clean off by the shockwave!
But still, the crater before their eyes was simply too big! Just how much explosives were necessary to create such a wide area of destruction?!
A man-made explosion and a natural occurrence like a meteor strike were two completely different matters! As everyone started to panic, the village police chief was the first one to react as he immediately reported the matter to his superiors.
The area was soon sealed off with incredible speed and soldiers armed with live ammunition were also deployed around the area.
"How was it? What's the result of the investigation?"
A young man in uniform asked. From the surface, the young man looked green and inexperienced. But impressively, this young man was actually a Lt. Colonel!
"Reporting, sir! We have not found any leads. There wasn't even a hint of shrapnel in the blast zone! The only strange thing we found was that the ground was tested to contain large amounts of electric currents!" The Corporal reported dutifully.
"How can that be? Lightning does not contain that much power! Perhaps it’s a special weapon?" Xiao Wu muttered to himself.
Leading a few men, Xiao Wu looked at the group of soldiers busy in the crater and slowly walked around the edge of the crater to see if he could find anything himself.
However, despite all his efforts, Xiao Wu was ultimately disappointed. The group of men within range of the Thunder Pulse Pearl had been directly decimated. Not even their bones had remained! Naturally, Xiao Wu was unable to find anything.
In the end, the city police had no choice but to close the case and let it remain a mystery. However, it was so only on the surface!
Instead of relenting, the investigation continued in secret by the military became even more fervent! Not to mention a weapon with such destructive strength, when it came to the security of the country, every unstable factor had to be eliminated!
***
As for the culprit, Bei Feng was completely oblivious to the aftershocks he had created by igniting the Thunder Pulse Pearl. He was currently swaggering down the mountain on his way back to the old mansion.
With all his fears and worries gone, Bei Feng was enjoying an extremely leisurely afternoon. He was lazing comfortably under the Banyan tree with a nice deck chair and a pristine pot of tea, bathing in the sunlight which leaked through the leaves.
The two tiny wolfdogs lay beside Bei Feng’s deck chair, dozing off. They would open their eyes drowsily each time the leaves of the trees rustled in the wind, looking about with confusion in their beady eyes.
Bei Feng had decided to stop cultivating the Minor Illumination Breathing Technique for the next few days. If his foundation wasn’t properly stabilized and his body did not have the necessary supplements, forcibly cultivating the Minor Illumination Breathing Technique would cause more harm than good.
Time passed extremely quickly when one was lazing about. In the blink of an eye, two days had passed. In these two days, Bei Feng had managed to calm his mind and lived a life like that of a landlord tycoon.
This day, he was reclining lazily on his deck chair beneath the Banyan tree as usual, dozing off, when he was awoken by the sound of his phone ringing.
"Hello? Who’s this?" Bei Feng’s lazy voice drifted into the phone.
"Hello, esteemed customer, I’m Jin Wu! A new batch of golden cicadas has just come in. Are you interested?"
For the sake of this VIP customer of his, Jin Wu had exhausted himself, running all over the place and pestering his suppliers non-stop for golden cicadas.
"Oh, so it’s Boss Jin! Of course! Hmm, give me everything you have!" Bei Feng said with a slight pause in the middle.
"Excellent! I’ll have someone bring it over to you in the afternoon! You can expect around 100,000 golden cicadas this time."
Jin Wu was finally able to breathe easily after getting Bei Feng’s confirmation. He had taken a huge risk this time. If Bei Feng did not take the cicadas, he would be stuck with over 100,000 golden cicadas!
‘With this batch of golden cicadas, it should be enough for the Blood Origin Fruit to fully mature, right?’
A smile appeared on Bei Feng’s face. The Blood Origin Fruit was the perfect supplement he needed to continue practicing the Minor Illumination Breathing Technique without suffering a backlash.
Jin Wu was very efficient and, in just thirty minutes, Bei Feng received a call informing him that the golden cicadas had been delivered to Qing Ling Village.
Jin Wu had come personally this time with several workers in preparation to carry the goods to Bei Feng’s house. One had to understand that these over 100,000 golden cicadas weighed over 3,000 jin!
Bei Feng summoned Bai Xiang over and the two quickly left for the village.
As he made his way to the village, Bei Feng transferred 160,000 yuan to Jin Wu. In all honesty, a dollar forty for each golden cicada was not considered expensive at all.
Thirty cicadas weighed around a jin. Based on this method of calculation, one jin of golden cicadas only costed around forty yuan. That was a wholesale price!
This time, Bei Feng did not reject Jin Wu’s kind intentions. There was simply too much for him and Bai Xiang to carry alone! The two would have to make at least three trips if they were to carry it by themselves.
"Huuu… boss, huu, huu… you gotta increase the pay a little bit! This is too far!"
Several workers stood panting in the yard as they finally reached the old mansion.
"Huff, huff… fine, I’ll double your pay for this time! Ok?"
Jin Wu had almost broken his back on the way as well. How could he know that his best customer actually lived in such a secluded place?!
It took another trip before all the golden cicadas were safely delivered to Bei Feng’s old mansion. Shaking Jin Wu’s hand gratefully, Bei Feng thanked him for his help and informed him that as long as there was stock, he would continue buying everything in the future!
When Jin Wu’s group finally left, Bei Feng unsealed the bags with over 100,000 golden cicadas and directly poured everything before the Vampiric Vine.