The wrap-up work was proceeding in an orderly manner.
This operation had wiped out all the local criminal syndicates in one fell swoop, arresting hundreds of suspects. Such a massive achievement was more than enough to warrant a grand internal commendation ceremony.
Cheng Gang was quickly loaded onto an ambulance and sent to the best local hospital, with Liu Yutong personally accompanying him in the vehicle.
The rest of the Ten Thousand Dragons Society members left in an orderly fashion in batches, after the police completed basic statements and identity registrations.
Before they left, the deputy chief specifically walked up to Ma Da, who was leading the team, and patted him on the shoulder. "Thank you all for your hard work. Please cooperate with the follow-up investigation. Ensure the wounded are treated with the utmost care; we won't skimp a single cent on the medical expenses for our heroes."
Ma Da nodded. "Thank you, officers, for upholding justice! Our Ten Thousand Dragons Society has always been a legally operating enterprise, and we firmly support the crackdown on all evil forces! We will fully cooperate with the investigation and reserve the right to file a civil lawsuit for compensation against Liu Shui and his associates!"
Liu Shui, who had just been escorted into a police car, almost twisted his mouth in anger when he heard this. "You beat us to a pulp, and you still want us to pay compensation? So what if you have a huge background!"
The most infuriating part was that the other side's people had actually become heroes? Damn it, do they have no shame? We are the ones who got beaten up, okay?
He also roughly understood in his heart why Elder Jiang's connections were useless at this time; the other party was actually able to mobilize an investigation team from above. Was this still a damn gang? Their connections reached the heavens!
What they didn't know was that Liu Yutong was able to push for the establishment of the investigation team because she carried enough weight in the hearts of the higher-ups. Coupled with the evidence she provided of local gang involvement in Huaicheng, it wasn't difficult to go with the flow and send an investigation team down.
In any case, the conclusive evidence was an ironclad fact.
Gao Min had now been promoted to police captain, and her next goal was the position of district deputy chief. Arranging for her to serve as the deputy team leader this time was also to add a layer of gold to her resume.
The team leader was a superior sent from above, responsible for overall coordination, while Gao Min was in charge of uniting the local police station for specific execution.
Gao Min originally wanted to find her sister Liu Yutong for a quick chat, but seeing her leave so anxiously with the ambulance, she had to drop the idea for now.
............
After the dust settled on the results in the Development Zone, the news quickly spread out through various channels.
Many prominent local figures had actually sent people to secretly keep an eye on this massive battle. Elder Jiang's proxy had united almost all the local underworld bosses to engage in a turf war with an outside force called the Ten Thousand Dragons Society. With such a huge lineup, it was impossible for them to miss it.
They sent people to secretly monitor the outcome of this battle of the century. Of course, the vast majority of people favored Liu Shui's side.
After all, Liu Shui had united so many bosses and reportedly assembled six or seven hundred people. How could he possibly lose?
However, the results made everyone's jaws drop.
Soon, the informants sent back urgent reports one after another.
"Boss! Something huge happened! Liu Shui went down! He's completely finished!"
"What happened? Did people die on the Ten Thousand Dragons Society's side? Did things blow up?"
"No, it's Liu Shui and his guys who went down! The Ten Thousand Dragons Society seems completely fine. Even when the cops arrived, they didn't do anything to them."
"Bullshit, with so many of them, how could the other side be fine?"
"They really are fine, Boss. The cops only arrested Liu Shui's people. Boss Big Lei was even shot dead by the cops. Word is that those men in black deliberately orchestrated it to establish their dominance!"
"R-really?"
"As real as it gets. Those outsiders have connections that reach the sky; even the cops are in cahoots with them."
"Got it."
The phone was hung up abruptly.
In a high-end private club in Huaicheng, several well-dressed individuals were leisurely drinking tea. After receiving the news, every single one of them was shocked.
"President Zhang, Chairman Li, the news has been verified. Over at the Development Zone, Liu Shui is completely finished. His backer, Elder Jiang, will probably not be able to protect himself either."
"The Ten Thousand Dragons Society, that faction from Pearl City, are they really that powerful?"
"More than powerful, it's simply absurd. We'll have to be careful from now on, too. After all, even Elder Jiang went down."
"Elder Jiang has been entrenched in Huaicheng for so many years, with intricate and complex connections. Being uprooted this time, do you know how many people will be implicated? In the past, for the sake of our projects, we all had some involvement with him, more or less... Sigh!"
"Hurry up and do a self-inspection. Pay any outstanding taxes, and quickly cut off any ties that need to be cut. In the future, in Huaicheng, and even in the entire region, we can only befriend the Ten Thousand Dragons Society and absolutely must not offend them! No, we have to find a way to connect with them!"
"........"
Not long after these big shots received the news, it also spread rapidly like wildfire among the common people.
Some petty thugs, taxi drivers, night market vendors, and so on, all heard various versions of the rumors, and these rumors grew increasingly outrageous.
"Did you hear? Over at the East District warehouse, Liu Shui gathered over seven hundred people to take on the Ten Thousand Dragons Society. In the end, the other side showed up with thousands of people, and all of them were..."
"All of them were what? Spit it out, stop keeping us in suspense!"
"All of them were ruthless, black-hearted badasses! They are so much darker than these Huaicheng gangsters who only know how to bluster and constantly ask 'What are you looking at'!"
"Hiss~ Is that true?"
"Of course it's true! A buddy of mine who drives in that area saw it with his own eyes. There's a gang boss in the north of the city named Big Lei, you guys know him, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, the one with the fierce-looking face."
"Right, that's him! He got his hands on a homemade shotgun from god knows where, wanting to blast the head of the Ten Thousand Dragons Society. But guess what happened?"
"As soon as the gun went off, not only was the other guy fine, but Big Lei's head was slapped flying by a man in black using the Iron Sand Palm!"
"Slapped his head flying? Is he a damn superhero?!"
"Right? But how come I heard he was shot dead by the police?"
"That's a rumor! My buddy saw it with his own eyes, how could it be fake? Anyway, with just one strike, Big Lei's head was like a rotten watermelon—splat!—and it went flying! Red and white matter splattered all over the ground, it was so gruesome!"
"Mother of god, that's too brutal! Didn't the cops arrest them when they got there?"
"Brother, you're too naive. This is the scariest part. When those men in black saw the cops coming, they didn't panic at all. Instead..."
"Instead what? Can you just finish it in one breath, damn it? You're killing us with anxiety!"
"Instead, a few of the leading men in black, right in front of all those cops, pulled out several dark pieces from their coats—not homemade shotguns, but proper real guns! They aimed at the bosses on the ground who weren't completely dead yet and still wanted to resist, and went pew! pew! pew! A burst of fire, and they finished them all off!"
"Holy shit! Right in front of the cops?"
"Yeah! My buddy said those cops acted like they didn't even see it. They tacitly allowed them to do it, and both sides even exchanged friendly greetings."
"It was only after those men in black had finished venting that the cops finally rounded up and arrested the rest of the people who hadn't been killed."
At this point in the conversation, the exact same movie line popped into everyone's mind at the same time.
"Police, come out and clean up the mess!"
Even though the rumors grew increasingly outrageous as they spread from person to person, they, along with those prominent bosses, all came to the exact same realization.
The skies over Huaicheng had truly gone pitch black!
