"Everyone, take a blade or sword as your weapon!"
Ian Song spoke up. With these divine weapons, it would be much easier next time they ran into those giant rats or snakes.
Above the underground palace, Ryan Zhou and the others saw this batch of blades and couldn't help but have their eyes light up.
"Captain Zhou, how about we split these blades fifty-fifty?" Henry Yun looked at Ryan Zhou and said quietly.
"Dream on! The most you'll get is twenty percent!" Ryan Zhou glanced at Henry Yun.
"No way! These blades and swords belong to the Cultural Relics Bureau!" Director Arthur Chen heard the two trying to split the loot and immediately jumped in, protesting.
With weapons this sharp and with such historical value, if they went up for auction, the price would easily break a million each.
"Cultural Relics Bureau, huh!"
Ryan Zhou gave him a cool look. "We sacrificed so many special police, and now you want the Cultural Relics Bureau to take all the spoils? Do you think we're idiots?"
"Director Chen, you really can't call these blades cultural relics!" Henry Yun quickly followed up, his tone much more tactful.
Seeing the two determined to keep the blades, Arthur Chen grew anxious and angry. "If you dare to privately take cultural relics, aren't you afraid of Deputy Governor Victor Zhang holding you accountable?"
Ryan Zhou curled his lip. "Even Deputy Governor Zhang should be reasonable! If your Bureau had gotten these blades, I'd let you take them no questions asked. But we lost dozens of officers to get these, so that's a different story!"
"You... Fine, just wait, I'll call Deputy Governor Zhang right now!"
Watching Arthur Chen storm off angrily, Ryan Zhou just gave a contemptuous smile.
Henry Yun didn't take it seriously either, and with a flattering smile said, "Captain Zhou, twenty percent is a bit stingy. How about a sixty-forty split? After all, Southriver County was the first to discover this underground palace, right?"
Above the underground palace, the argument over the ownership of the blades continued.
Meanwhile, Ian Song was already leading the Mech Squad down another passage.
This tunnel was wider and taller—even ten people walking side by side didn't feel crowded at all.
After about fifteen minutes of walking, they reached the end of the passage.
When they saw what lay below, everyone except Ian Song was utterly shocked, their skin crawling with chills.
At the end of the passage was a flight of stairs—there were seventeen more just like it around the chamber.
Below the stairs lay a vast chamber, its domed ceiling rising nearly a hundred meters high, inlaid with fist-sized luminous pearls that made the whole space as bright as daylight.
The floor of this chamber spanned about five thousand square meters, split into two distinct zones.
One zone was filled with snakes of all sizes, while the other was the territory of countless gray-furred giant rats. The two sides were sharply divided, with no sign of attacking each other.
At the exact center stood a stone pillar more than three meters tall, topped with a box containing a fist-sized pearl that glowed with red light.
That pearl seemed to have a powerful attraction for the snakes and rats—the closer their lairs were to the pillar, the bigger those beasts grew.
The giant snake closest to the pillar was at least fifty meters long, coiled up like a small hill, while the largest gray-furred rat was almost the size of a calf.
So why were there so many snakes and rats here?
Most likely, they were all drawn in by that red pearl.
With a thought, Ian Song activated the Omniversal God-Eye and focused on the pearl. Instantly, a stream of information appeared in his mind: Evolution Divine Pearl—long-term proximity causes a living being's body to continuously evolve.
Above ground, Ryan Zhou and the others were also staring intently at the Evolution Divine Pearl, secretly guessing what it could be.
"Let's go! We're pulling out!"
Ian Song said.
He was very interested in the Evolution Divine Pearl, but now wasn't the time to take it.
In less than half an hour, Ian Song and the Mech Squad returned to the surface carrying several crates of blades and swords.
There were five hundred weapons in total. After some bargaining, Henry Yun ended up with a hundred and fifty, while the rest went to the City Special Police.
"Leon Liu, take all these blades and swords back to the Special Police base!" Ryan Zhou ordered.
"Yes, sir!"
Leon Liu quickly called over a few special police officers to load the weapons onto the police flyer.
"What are you doing? Put those down—those are cultural relics!"
Arthur Chen jumped in to stop them.
Ryan Zhou's face darkened, and he barked, "Someone, take Director Chen aside to rest!"
Two special police officers immediately stepped forward and escorted Arthur Chen away.
"Let go of me! Ryan Zhou, Henry Yun, if you dare to steal cultural relics, the Cultural Relics Bureau won't let this go!" Arthur Chen shouted, but no one paid him any mind.
The special police might be under government authority, but they have a lot of autonomy. Besides, the leaders of Shanmei City couldn't possibly ignore the value of those blades and swords.
If the Cultural Relics Bureau took them away, the special police wouldn't even get a taste.
But if the weapons stayed at the Special Police base, they'd all get a share.
As for Deputy Governor Victor Zhang, he didn't have jurisdiction over the Special Police base.
That's exactly why Ryan Zhou was so bold.
"Landon, you did a great job this time!"
Afterwards, Ryan Zhou patted Ian Song on the shoulder and praised him.
Ian Song just smiled and said nothing.
Next, the City Special Police leaders and Southriver County Special Police leaders held another meeting.
They were determined to get that mysterious pearl in the chamber, but with so many giant snakes and rats, their numbers weren't enough. They had to request reinforcements from the city.
And everyone coming had to wear mechs—without them, the strange energies in the underground palace would kill you.
Harvey Zhang, the minister, took this very seriously. Upon hearing the news, he called in the captains and vice-captains of the other nine battalions for a meeting.
In the end, they assembled a hundred-strong Mech Battalion, personally led by Harvey Zhang to Southriver County.
An hour later, the reinforcements arrived.
Every member carried a large laser cannon—each energy cell could fire a hundred shots, easily enough to kill a giant snake with a single blast. They were issued twenty energy cells apiece.
There were also high-explosive grenades and other personal weapons.
This time, Ryan Zhou personally commanded the underground palace team, while Harvey Zhang oversaw things from above.
Since Ian Song's Mech Squad had already gone down once, they led the charge this time.
As soon as they entered the main hall, thousands of giant rats appeared again.
"Use cold weapons—go!"
Ryan Zhou waved his arm, and more than a hundred Mech warriors surged forward, swinging their blades and swords at the giant rats.
All these blades and swords were brought up from the underground palace—razor-sharp, able to slice a giant rat clean in two with a single strike.