Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 386 - 379: No Breakthrough

Chapter 386: Chapter 379: No Breakthrough

At her words, Luo’er stumbled and nearly fell. He widened his eyes at Tangmo, asking in surprise: "How did you..."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized he’d misspoken, hurriedly closing it. He then asked guiltily: "What are you blabbering about?"

Tangmo stared at him with a deep gaze, her smile slowly fading. After a while, she began to pout, muttering under her breath: "You heartless rascal!"

"Erm..." Luo’er turned somewhat bashful at her huffiness. Scratching his head, he confessed, "We ran into a little girl while on a mission. She was begging...and...uh... we, we took her in to do some work, and we thought we could...send her to the Headquarters if necessary..."

"She was just begging?" Tangmo glared at him, causing Luo’er to break out in a cold sweat.

"Of course, what else!" Luo’er replied, with a guilty grin.

Tangmo gazed at him, sighed softly, and let the matter drop: "Why keep it a secret? You wait for me to expose it?"

"No, I just forgot to tell you." Luo’er answered. In all honesty, his nervousness was mainly due to her unexpected questioning.

"I don’t really care about this kind of thing at all. Why are you acting all mysterious?" Tangmo grumbled.

"Uh...I’ll go now. You two continue studying in here!" Luo’er scratched his head and said.

"Stay safe!" Tangmo didn’t try to stop him, instead granting permission willingly.

"Alright!" Luo’er nodded, then hurriedly left. Despite the reluctance, Tangmo didn’t hold onto him.

"How did she guess? That’s so bizarre..." Once he’d put some distance between them, Luo’er looked back and muttered to himself apprehensively.

"What did she guess?" Hu Daoke suddenly appeared and asked.

"Did you perhaps spill the beans to Sister Moumou?" Luo’er asked Hu Daoke.

"What whistle-blowing? I haven’t even seen Sister Moumou!" Hu Daoke said, with a look of innocence on his face.

"Let it go, let’s get back quickly, we still have a heap of troubles to deal with!" Luo’er waved his hand, not wanting to dwell on the matter.

"What did Shariya say?" Following Luo’er, Hu Daoke asked.

"Can’t do anything about it..." With a sigh of powerlessness, Luo’er shrugged.

"Just as I thought, we can’t rely on these Church Court people!" Hu Daoke grumbled and cursed.

"It’s not really Shariya’s fault. The key issue is the bishop of Holy Heart City refuses to act. We are helpless against his flip-flopping." Luo’er explained.

"If he refuses to act, then the Church Court’s promises are worthless, no? They are always saying they’ll help us, but not a single one of them lifts a finger." Hu Daoke complained, finding it hard to comprehend.

"Never mind, our relationship with the Church Court isn’t as solid as we’d hoped. The fact they’re even willing to deal with us is already quite something. The reason Shariya cares so much, I suspect, is because of her gratitude towards the headquarters for saving her life." Luo’er sighed.

"So this leaves us in a difficult position — we’re stuck somewhere in the middle. The Church Court won’t aid us, the Hound Gang can’t help us either. Feels like we’re being rejected everywhere." Hu Daoke shook his head, feeling vexed.

"No big deal, we have so many people. There’s no way we can’t solve this problem. If it comes down to it, we’ll let Ziang and Yalunte seize Azita and hold him hostage to get our people back. In any case, they’ll only cross our path once, no need to worry about feelings or any such nonsense." Luo’er suggested after some thought.

"Hey, that’s a good idea, we should have done that already!" Hu Daoke nodded in agreement, highly praising Luo’er’s suggestion.

"But ideally, we’d want to negotiate if we can. Doing this would effectively burn our bridges with them. We may end up losing more than we gain." Luo’er cautioned.

"Talking about feelings with a gang leader, please! If you hadn’t insisted against it, I would have already gone up to that Azita and given him a good beatdown. Trying to pass himself off as a big shot when he’s just a small-time gang boss!" Hu Daoke grumbled unhappily.

The two of them got back on the carriage to the eastern district. The coachman was curious about their actions but didn’t dare to pry, and just focused on driving.

When they got off the carriage, it was already the afternoon. The two instinctively looked around. Once they were certain they weren’t being followed, they made their way to their rented room in the inn.

When they pushed open the door, they found Xuzhong Qi sitting on the bed, engrossed in a book. Seeing them enter, a slight smile appeared on his ordinarily stoic face.

"Yo, Old Xu, studying so diligently!" Hu Daoke teased as he entered the room.

"Oh, I’m learning... some knowledge, I don’t want to be a drag." Xuzhong Qi said shyly.

Luo’er entered the room and looked around before asking, "Has the Truth girl returned?"

"Not, not yet!" Xuzhong Qi honestly replied.

"I believe I had assigned you to Murong’s team, right?" Luo’er asked him.

"Oh, yes!" Xuzhong Qi hastily nodded.

"Where are they?" Luo’er asked.

"Across the room." Xuzhong Qi pointed across the room and replied.

"Alright, I got it!" Learning that Murong’s team had returned, Luo’er finally put his worries to rest.

"Did you find out anything?" Xuzhong Qi stood in place for a long time before he managed to force out this sentence.

"It isn’t that easy," Hu Daoke said as he lamentingly flopped onto the bed. He groaned, "The people from the Church Court ignore us, and the Hound Gang doesn’t want to deal with us either. We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. If all else fails, I’ll just go and kidnap that Azita guy and see if they’ll release people then."

"We are Earthlings and they are residents of Otherworld, so it’s normal that they don’t want to deal with us." Even though Luo’er knew Hu Daoke was just venting, he couldn’t help but add.

"Hey, what are Old Cheng and the others up to? They aren’t in trouble, are they?" Hu Daoke suddenly thought of something and muttered to himself.

"Oh, they’re fine. I just saw them outside the window." Xuzhong Qi said.

"Is that so? Let me see." Hu Daoke made his way to the window.

Indeed, out on the street, two black figures were walking on a stretch of road that wasn’t too crowded. They were like plague carriers, with everyone who saw them scrambling to avoid them.

Cheng Ziyang looked around and couldn’t help but shake his head, "The reputation of our patrol isn’t that great."

"No choice, these people are used to bribery." Yalunte said as he casually chewed on the fruit in his hand that he’d just taken from a vendor.

"Even if this is an undercover mission, your behaviour is against the rules." Cheng Ziyang looked at him and frowned.

"No choice, I wanted to pay, but they didn’t want to accept it." Yalunte shrugged, feigning innocence.

As he spoke, he stopped a man who hurriedly passed by him, and asked with furrowed brows, "Why are you running so fast?"

"I, I need to... use the toilet..." The man answered, pale as a sheet, in response to the patrol officer’s interrogation.

"Hand over your toilet paper, give me half!" Yalunte demanded imperiously.

The man didn’t resist and just handed over the toilet paper he was holding to Yalunte, who took a fair share before the man quickly ran off.

"You see, that’s how it is. The reputation of the patrol is tainted and there’s no hope of changing it." Yalunte said as he casually wiped his mouth and threw the toilet paper away.

The concept of toilet paper didn’t exist in Otherworld at first. They had myriad ways of dealing with cleaning themselves. It was only after they came into contact with Earth people that they started using toilet paper.

In a sense, Luo’er and his team are quite lucky. This is because thirty years ago, when Otherworld first came into contact with Earth, many Earth concepts had not yet reached Otherworld. At that time, the entire Otherworld city was almost shrouded in a foul stench as the streets were flooded with excrement and mounds of waste.

Before the concept of public health introduced by Earth was adopted, the sanitation conditions in the cities of Otherworld were extremely worrying and outbreaks of plague were common. It was the Earth people who taught them, step by step, how to build sewage systems, to deal with excrement, so that the cities in Otherworld were no longer covered in foul odours.

The influence of Earth can be seen in many cities across Otherworld. Perhaps due to its distance from the Otherworld Gate, Holy Heart City generally feels more ’Otherworldly’, but roads made of concrete have begun to appear on its streets.

As a pioneer in communication between the two worlds, Yazhi City is perhaps the one that has assimilated Earth’s culture most completely, with little difference to be noticed between it and Ulysses City. The people of Otherworld, after experiencing the culture and customs of Earth, feel a strange unfamiliarity with their own ’Otherworldly’ style. Especially the Blaiqi people, who pride themselves on being ’Earth-like’, a symbol of their embracing advanced Earth concepts.

Cheng Ziyang and Yalunte couldn’t return to the hotel wearing their patrol uniforms, as it would cause chaos. Hence, they had to find a secluded corner to change their clothes before heading to the hotel.

As a former legion commander, Yalunte had lived in Holy Heart City for a long time. The Holy Heart City of today appeared much cleaner to him, but apart from that, everything was as familiar as before.

When he was a legion commander, he lived in Western District, where local security was relatively good and the patrol didn’t act as oppressively as they did in the Eastern District. Therefore, he had a pretty strong aversion to all forms of bribery. However, considering that he had a mission to carry out, he wasn’t as strict about it.

In the Eastern District, a patrol officer who doesn’t take things from others is considered abnormal. Therefore, fitting in with them required taking things against one’s conscience. Cheng Ziyang didn’t want to do such things, so he had to take on the task, though he was greatly averse to it but found the experience somewhat agreeable.

As for the Hound Gang, Luo’er was momentarily at their mercy, caught between a rock and a hard place. Hu Daoke’s suggestion might not be a bad one, but Luo’er believes that it should only be used as a last resort.