Novel Full Chapter 306: Red Thread Routes
Chapter 306: Chapter 306: Red Thread Routes
The Red Thread Charity House had vanished in one night.
Its public building still stood in a market district two provinces away, painted white and red, with banners promising education for poor children, free medicine, orphan support, and talent foundation testing.
But when regional inspectors entered at dawn, they found empty rooms, burned ledgers, and sleeping incense residue.
No children.
No staff.
No obvious blood.
Too clean.
Lin Xian’er’s network reconstructed the escape within six hours.
The charity house had split into three routes:
Records Route — paper ledgers, identity seals, donor contracts, and child-path evaluation charts.
Personnel Route — core staff, handlers, false teachers, and contract scribes.
Children Route — suspected transport of twelve children marked as "scholarship candidates."
The problem was distance.
They could not catch all three with one strike force.
The council framework activated.
Yu Qingmei took command of the legal evidence response for the Records Route.
Military scouts and local authorities pursued the Personnel Route.
Qin Yuheng would lead the Children Route strike.
Lin Xian’er objected.
"Records may reveal the whole network."
Qin Yuheng understood.
But children came first.
Yu Qingmei supported him.
"We can lose records and still rebuild evidence. We cannot gamble children."
Lin Xian’er exhaled.
"I know. I dislike knowing."
Qin Mo studied the map.
"The escaped courier likely warned them. That means the Children Route may be bait."
"Likely," Qin Yuheng said.
Qin Yuchen looked at him.
"We go anyway."
"Yes. With precautions."
The Children Route moved toward White Reed Ferry, a river crossing used by merchant boats and charity caravans. From there, children could vanish into three provinces.
Qin Yuheng’s strike group included Qin Yuchen, Qin Lian, Qin Mo, two academy enforcement officers, four local guards, and hidden Silent Heaven backup. Lin Xian’er sent one trusted agent named Shu Yan, a quiet woman skilled in document disguise and market signs.
Before departure, Qin Yuheng reviewed relevant tools:
True Voice Soul Resonance Bell.
Familiar Voice Verification Pearl.
Child Talent Root Protection Core.
Sovereign Network Command Suppression Crystal.
Public Truth Resonance Mirror.
Future Obligation Severing Blade.
Self That Cannot Be Owned Core.
War Without Crown Command Crystal.
Command Weapon Embryo, now stabilized at 82%.
He would not rely on the embryo recklessly, but this would be its first controlled real-world resonance if necessary.
White Reed Ferry was crowded.
That made it dangerous.
Merchants shouted, boatmen cursed, children ran between carts, and ferry officials inspected goods lazily. The Red Thread convoy could hide inside normal movement.
Qin Lian found the first trace near a tea stall: red thread fibers tied beneath a cart axle.
Not decorative.
Marker.
Qin Mo inspected it.
"Route marker with dream sedation residue."
Shu Yan looked toward the ferry dock.
"There are six carts with similar axle height. Three are decoys."
Qin Yuheng did not move immediately.
This was not a Tower floor where enemies waited in open form. Here, one wrong strike could endanger civilians.
They split.
Qin Lian shadowed the carts.
Qin Mo set suppression formation near the ferry gate.
Qin Yuchen positioned with local guards.
Qin Yuheng walked openly toward the ferry inspector.
The inspector looked bored until Qin Yuheng showed academy authority.
Then he became too nervous.
Suspicious.
The True Identity Reflection Mirror revealed borrowed identity overlay.
Qin Yuheng’s eyes sharpened.
The inspector was false.
Before Qin Yuheng could seize him, the man bit something in his mouth.
Self-collapse pill.
Qin Yuheng moved faster.
Future Obligation Severing Blade cut the oath trigger. Qin Yuchen slammed the man’s jaw shut before poison fully activated. Qin Mo’s suppression crystal pulsed.
The false inspector collapsed alive.
That triggered the convoy.
Three carts exploded—not with fire, but red smoke.
Crowd panic erupted.
Qin Yuheng shouted through a local command pulse, not domination but urgent instruction.
"Evacuate left! Guards, close ferry ropes! No boat leaves!"
Qin Yuchen led guards to stop the boats.
Qin Lian marked the true cart.
Inside were grain sacks.
Beneath the sacks: a hidden compartment.
Children.
Twelve.
Sedated but alive.
Qin Mo reached the cart and began disabling the dream locks.
Then the river moved.
From beneath the ferry, red-thread puppets rose out of the water.
[Red Thread River Puppet]
[Combat Equivalent:
Level 45–50]
[Function:
Delay, capture, water-route extraction.]
The puppets did not attack Qin Yuheng first.
They attacked civilians.
Classic distraction.
Qin Yuheng’s eyes grew cold.
"Yuchen, civilians. Lian, puppeteer. Mo, children. I hold river."
He stepped onto the dock.
The Command Weapon Embryo pulsed faintly in his inventory.
Not yet.
He drew his sword and released thunder.
The first wave of puppets reached the dock. Qin Yuheng cut through them with controlled strikes, avoiding damage to boats and civilians. Red threads tried to wrap his wrists. The Self That Cannot Be Owned Core burned them away.
The puppeteer hid under a ferry boat using borrowed face and voice illusions.
Qin Lian found him by shadow delay.
She struck, but he split into three red-thread bodies.
Shu Yan exposed the real one with market scent powder.
Qin Lian cut his escape thread.
The puppeteer laughed.
"You chose children. Records are gone."
Qin Yuheng heard it through the field.
A partial success.
The Records Route had likely burned or escaped.
The enemy had forced a choice and gained something.
Qin Yuheng did not let anger break focus.
"Children first," he said.
Qin Mo completed the lock release.
All twelve children were stabilized.
But one had a red thread buried near the talent root.
Not active yet.
A delayed marker.
Qin Mo’s face went pale.
"This is new."
Qin Yuheng arrived.
The red thread pulsed once.
A remote signal.
The Sovereign Network Command Suppression Crystal flared, blocking most of it.
Not all.
Somewhere, someone received confirmation that the child had been intercepted.
Mo Cangyan, or another handler, had wanted to know which rescue team appeared.
Qin Yuheng looked at the thread.
This was not merely child capture.
It was reconnaissance.
The children were alive.
The Records Route was lost.
And the enemy had gained partial information about Qin Yuheng’s response pattern.
The strike succeeded.
But not completely.
That was real war.