CHAPTER 40: 40. EARTH-SHATTERING THUNDER

Anling City.

Daybreak has arrived.

Yang Fan had no idea that his actions of hunting the mutated macaque had stirred a massive undercurrent within Great Xia Kingdom.

At this moment, he was wandering around with his backpack in a street market.

The so-called "street market" is actually a small market spontaneously organized by the residents of one or more communities.

Residents bring out idle items like phones and other electronic products, or frozen meats, even gold and silver jewelry to sell at the stalls.

Of course.

Some residents sell frozen meat not because they have too much to finish at home but because they’re reluctant to eat it and want to exchange for more food.

Yang Fan looked at the bustling market and sighed inwardly, "In a new era, humanity will always spontaneously form new social ecologies."

In technical terms, this is—productivity determines the relations of production.

After wandering for a while, Yang Fan quickly noticed two things.

First—there are more patrol soldiers.

He walked for less than ten minutes and encountered two teams of soldiers, each armed with guns.

A thought couldn’t help but pop into his mind, "Has something happened again in Great Xia?"

Second—there are quite a few foreigners here.

After strolling for a while, he saw at least thirty foreigners with blonde hair and blue eyes, either setting up a little stall or blending into the crowd to buy things.

Yang Fan found a friendly-looking aunt and inquired, "Why are there so many foreigners here?"

The aunt glanced at him, "Young man, are you from out of town?"

Yang Fan gave a reason, "Visiting relatives."

Only then did the aunt reply, "These foreigners exchanged a lot of materials for Great Xia residency certificates, and the officials settled over a thousand people in Anling City."

Yang Fan remembered his upstairs neighbors and realized, "These foreigners are quite smart, aren’t they!"

The aunt looked proud, "Great Xia is the safest country in the world. I’ve read a lot of international news lately; other countries are in complete chaos."

Yang Fan nodded, "Indeed."

The aunt, being quite talkative, mentioned another piece of news, "I recently heard that the officials plan to initiate the first batch of large-scale immigration early.

"It’s said that the first batch involves thirty million people, all from the most remote regions, with Hedong Province settling at least two million immigrants."

The aunt further shared her opinion, "I really don’t understand why the officials are in such a hurry? The houses prepared for the immigrants aren’t ready, yet they’re rushing to bring people over."

Yang Fan chimed in, "Yeah, the immigrants can only live in tents when they arrive, that’s pretty pitiful."

The aunt was just an ordinary person and didn’t understand the underlying reasons.

But he knew in his heart that it was definitely linked to the poisonous mosquito plague.

After all, Great Xia’s territory is so vast, if the mosquito disaster were to fully break out, the officials wouldn’t be able to focus on remote areas.

To minimize civilian casualties, moving the population in advance while the mosquito swarms haven’t appeared on a large scale is the best choice.

The two were chatting happily.

Suddenly, there was a commotion not far away.

"Woof!"

A bark was heard.

A huge snow-white dog, apparently a foreign breed, suddenly bolted off.

A quarrel broke out immediately.

"Your dog bit my stuff and ruined it."

"Dogs don’t know any better, ruined it means ruined it."

"It’s your dog, you should take responsibility!"

"What’s wrong with you? Arguing with a dog as an adult, embarrassing or not?"

Yang Fan looked over at the sound and saw a young woman arguing with a skinny old lady.

The old lady seemed to be the dog’s owner, showing a shameless and unreasonable attitude.

The young woman was trembling with anger, tears welled up at her eyes, yet she couldn’t do anything about the old lady.

Yang Fan withdrew his gaze and asked softly, "What’s up with that old lady?"

In this time of material shortage, the fact that the old lady could afford to raise a dog implied her status was not simple.

The aunt lowered her voice, her tone full of disdain, "That old hag’s son used to be a thug, but he suddenly awakened a superpower not too long ago.

"This dog causing trouble is not a one-time thing; the old lady always protects it, and the Patrol Police Station can’t do much."

Yang Fan suddenly understood.

Great Xia provides quite generous benefits for superpower users, and direct relatives receive additional support.

The old lady’s son had hit the jackpot, instantly becoming rich, allowing his mother to live well too.

But her character was very poor; instead of doing good deeds, she bullied others, and seemed to take pleasure in it.

After a while.

The quarrel ended.

The young woman admitted her misfortune, wiped her tears, and left the stall.

The old lady looked smug.

The big dog ran back, circling the old lady, wagging its tail happily.

Yang Fan bid farewell to the aunt and walked along the side, coughing lightly.

The big dog twitched its ears and instinctively looked over.

Yang Fan subtly glanced and locked eyes with the dog’s pair of eyes.

In that instant.

There was a flicker in his eyes.

Afterwards.

Yang Fan turned his head, walked over unhurriedly.

Five seconds later.

"Ah~"

A shrill scream rang out.

The arrogant old lady earlier fell onto the filthy ground, clutching her right hand and started sobbing.

A large amount of blood had already flowed through her fingers.

Everyone around was stunned.

It was clear to the bystanders that the big dog suddenly went berserk and bit the old lady’s right hand fiercely, tearing off a large chunk of flesh.

Yet out of some unspoken agreement, no one wanted to step forward to help.

Many even had expressions of relief and enjoyment.

"Woof! Woof!"

The big dog barked several times and sprinted away into the distance.

Passersby dared not intervene and quickly avoided it.

Yang Fan watched this scene, with a slight curve on his lips.

This was naturally his handiwork.

After a while.

A piece of news was delivered — the big dog committed suicide!

The big dog charged to the riverbank at the east side of the community, jumped over the guardrail, and leapt down.

As a result, the ice layer on the river surface broke, and the big dog drowned in the icy water.

Many who heard the news clapped in delight.

Yang Fan gently nodded: "The ice layer has thinned considerably, just as I expected, the first flock of Poisonous Mosquito is about to appear."

He glanced at his wristwatch and mumbled in a very low voice: "In a quarter of an hour, the Red Lightning will arrive."

*

Ten minutes later.

A few patrol officers received the alarm and rushed to the scene.

The leading patrol inspector, Miao Jiancheng, sighed helplessly as he looked at the crying old lady.

For the troublemaking old lady, Inspector Miao truly felt a headache.

Punish her?

The higher-ups said that superpower users contribute to the country, and their families should be properly cared for.

The Patrol Police Station had no choice but to muddle through.

A patrol officer whispered: "So much blood flowing, and crying so vigorously, clearly not lacking in nutrition usually."

Inspector Miao glared fiercely at his subordinate, warning: "Do you want to be complained about?"

The patrol officer promptly shut his mouth.

Inspector Miao coaxed the old lady for a while, kindly saying: "Aunt Li, shall I use the patrol car to take you to the hospital?"

The old lady, however, acted unruly: "I can’t move now; you call the doctor here."

Inspector Miao held back his irritation and continued to comfort the old lady: "Aunt Li..."

Before he could finish.

"Boom!"

A thunderous roar.

The originally cloudy sky suddenly darkened considerably, looking like dusk.

Inspector Miao shivered all over, instinctively looked towards the sky.

The next moment.

Including the patrol officers, within a radius of several dozen meters, the hair of over two hundred people stood upright, transforming into frizzy hairstyles.

Inspector Miao was shocked, quickly shouting: "Beware of lightning strike!"

As soon as the words fell.

Dozens of red lightning bolts, like divine judgment, descended from the high sky.

Inspector Miao personally saw the sky flash once, and a particularly thick bolt of lightning struck straight towards him.

He couldn’t help but close his eyes, thinking silently: "It’s over!"

Inspector Miao had seen a lot of internal information; recently there had been numerous bizarre red lightning incidents nationwide, and eight hundred people had been killed by the strikes thus far.

He never imagined he would encounter such an event one day.

Moreover.

Inspector Miao caught a whiff of a nasty smell on his nose.

Without opening his eyes, he knew it was surely the obnoxious old lady who had been frightened into wetting her pants.

A strange thought popped into his mind: If the old lady got struck dead, the lightning would have done a good deed.

However.

Inspector Miao waited for several seconds.

Yet nothing happened.

He couldn’t help but open his eyes, discovering the frizzy-haired crowd had returned to normal.

Inspector Miao was momentarily stunned, feeling like he had narrowly escaped death.

The lightning didn’t come!

I’m still alive!