The First Order

Chapter 1005: A new intelligence agency emerges

Translator: Legge

The reason Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were on the rankings was because there were more narratives of them than the others. It could even be said that the combined narratives of Li Shentan and Chen Wudi were not as many as these two.

The main reason was that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were involved more often in public incidents than the others, and their interpersonal relationships were also relatively complicated.

The pricing of this publication was very interesting as it only cost one yuan per copy.

Many people thought they might as well just save the money and not buy it since they only wanted to check the rankings. But when they saw a copy of it in other people’s hands, they realized it was actually filled with a lot of content and felt that listening to others describe it did not seem as interesting as reading it for themselves. When they wanted to borrow a copy to read, they could not even get their hands on one as the others had not finished reading it yet.

Seeing that a lot of people were enthusiastically discussing the rankings and that they did not have a copy themselves, those who did not buy it immediately felt awkward.

Since it was not expensive, they might as well get a copy.

Multiple incidents that Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had participated in were recorded in the magazine. Many people from the world of superhumans could tell from the descriptions in this publication that they had to have been written by someone who was also a superhuman.Otherwise, they would never have found out about those matters.

Most people still did not know what Ren Xiaosu looked like. With the news of Ren Xiaosu’s background also spreading like wildfire, no one knew the truth from the rumors.

Some people said he was Zhang Jinglin’s godson, while others said he was just an ordinary refugee. The most exaggerated ones even said he was born out of a rock…

In this magazine, Ren Xiaosu’s origins were actually recorded. It listed his time as a refugee at Stronghold 113, the period when he was a member of the Li Consortium’s 1st Military Corps’ Special Investigations Division, to the time when he spied for the Qing Consortium, then how he went on to serve in the Northwest Army’s Razor Sharp Company where he became known as the Stronghold Destroyer, and finally taking the reins as the future commander of the Northwest Army.

Although the write-up was very simple, it allowed many people to clearly understand how Ren Xiaosu rose to power.

Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were involved in many of the incidents, such as the cave-in at Stronghold 73’s East Lake, the incident in the Pyro Company’s Sacred Mountains, the battle to defend Luoyang City, the crisis at Stronghold 74, the Pyro Company’s resistance of the northern barbarians, and the Battle of Mt. Zuoyun.

It could be said that Ren Xiaosu was involved in most incidents that could affect the stability of the Alliance of Strongholds.

This made the readers suddenly wonder why the future commander of the Northwest did not remain in the Northwest but ran everywhere instead.

The future commander of the Northwest had only been in the Northwest for a few months. For the rest of his time, he had spent it outside fighting here and there.

Moreover, what was strange was that Li Shentan was described with very simple words in the author’s writeup of him in the magazine. But when it came to Ren Xiaosu, the wordings suddenly became very elegant. It was as though the author regarded Ren Xiaosu very highly.

But when he wrote about the multiple strange identities Ren Xiaosu had, he gave him a negative evaluation: “This kid is very cunning and does whatever he likes. After he was conferred those identities, he used them as cover to do all sorts of illegal things.”

Then, in fourth place was Yan Liuyuan. His description was a little simpler. It only mentioned that Yan Liuyuan had unified the Northern Plains and that he was the one who breached the walls of Stronghold 176. During the war with the foreign enemies, he reinforced the Northwest Army at Mt. Zuoyun and would be defending the North from further attacks in the future.

In fifth place were Yang Anjing, Vanilla, Tang Hualong, Cheng Yu, Luo Xinyu, and the other key members of the Anjing House.

There was quite a bit of information missing here, but one of the main points brought up was the relationship between the Anjing House and the Saboteurs. The assessment of Yang Anjing’s actual strength was a little vague because the head of the Anjing House rarely made a move personally.

Number six: The Riders.

Number seven: Zhou Yingxue and the Eight Vajras.1

Number eight: Luo Lan and Zhou Qi.

The rankings went on until 100th place, and the magazine was over 50 pages thick. Reading it left the common folks of the Alliance of Strongholds in awe.

Then, when it was flipped to the last page, fine print appeared where it should have been signed off: “This was a Nonsense1 writeup.”

When many of the residents saw this, they did not know whether to laugh or cry. However, a lot of the superhumans realized Hu Shuo and Zhang Baogen’s names did not appear in the top 100.

Anyone who had experienced the battle in Luoyang City would know that Hu Shuo had also been involved and that he was very strong as well.

Since the author knew so much about the details of the battle in Luoyang City, there was no reason why Hu Shuo and Zhang Baogen were left out of the rankings.

Therefore, this magazine was clearly written by Hu Shuo!

Some of the strongholds started investigating the origins of the publication. In the end, the printing factory said the job was custom-ordered ten days ago by a young child.

The other party negotiated a conveyance fee with the printing factory and left after agreeing on a price, and the author did not participate in the subsequent sales of the publication.

The person who printed this run of magazines had disappeared somewhere.

The situation was the same at almost all of the strongholds. Some of the more discerning people went to the welfare home in Luoyang City and observed from the outside if there were any activities. However, they realized the welfare home was empty. Meanwhile, the hundreds of children of all ages living there had also disappeared along with Zhang Baogen and Hu Shuo.

Someone suddenly realized that a completely neutral intelligence agency would probably emerge soon. As for the purpose of this intelligence agency’s creation, no one knew.

Hu Shuo was originally the director of the Li Consortium’s intelligence agency and held the rank of lieutenant general.

After the destruction of the Li Consortium, his network of field operatives in the Central Plains did not suffer much of a disruption. Right now, they were all being supported by Hu Shuo.

An organization like this still caught the attention of a lot of those who wanted to find some clues about them. However, Hu Shuo seemed to have evaporated into thin air and gone into hiding among the shadows.

This was a very experienced intelligence agent. He was a sly old fox.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin were walking on the streets of Stronghold 144 with a magazine in their hands.

After they returned to the Northwest, they did not alert anyone that they were back. Because they both wanted to rest up and lead a peaceful life. They did not want to be disturbed by anyone.

Ren Xiaosu chuckled as he read through the magazine, “Look, the description of me in the rankings list was pretty good. I was worried earlier that if an outsider had written this, they wouldn’t know how to praise me properly.”

Yang Xiaojin glanced at him. “This person knows too many of your secrets.”

“Don’t worry, it’s obvious that this was written by Grandpa Hu Shuo. Other than him, almost no one else knows of my identity as an officer in the Li Consortium’s Special Investigations Division.” Ren Xiaosu said nonchalantly, “Moreover, he was also quite careful with what he wrote. He did not mention any details of the battles that I partook in. He still bothered to write about the types of powers that the others have, but he did not give any description of my powers. I guess that’s his way of protecting me.”

Yang Xiaojin scoffed, “Isn’t that because you have too many superpowers? Not even the old man’s sure of what powers you possess.”

No one recognized these two people as they walked down the streets of Stronghold 144.

However, two pedestrians could be heard saying, “I think our future commander should be ranked first. This magazine got the rankings wrong!”