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Chapter 1166: Five Hundred

Other than Yang Haoran, their boss, no one in the Guardian District truly knew the whereabouts of Jing Qi and Jing Miao on a daily basis. Everyone had their own busy affairs, and their usual work rarely overlapped with the siblings. Thus, even if a long time passed without seeing the two, no one would think of them. Because of this, for the past year, aside from making appearances to carry out missions, no one else knew the siblings' true whereabouts, instinctively believing they were cultivating in their respective rooms. Given the siblings' personalities, had Yang Haoran not assigned them tasks, they truly would have stayed in their rooms to cultivate, just as others imagined. However, throughout this past year, Yang Haoran not only sent them out on several missions but also secretly assigned them additional tasks. It was precisely these covert missions from Yang Haoran that often kept them at this secret base over the past year. "Boss! " The siblings, clad in red, stood before Yang Haoran and bowed respectfully. Yang Haoran softly hummed in acknowledgement. After taking a drag from his cigarette, he smiled and asked them, "It's been a while since I last came. How are your tasks progressing? " Upon hearing Yang Haoran's question, Jing Miao remained silent, while Jing Qi stepped forward and reported respectfully to Yang Haoran. "The task is progressing very smoothly. The arrival of this batch of people today precisely meets the number Boss requested—exactly five hundred people, no more, no less. Furthermore, these five hundred individuals were also meticulously selected according to Boss's requirements; their personalities and ages are all within the scope Boss specified. We only recently completed this task and were just about to return to the Guardian District to report back to Boss, but we didn't expect Boss to arrive here at precisely this time. " As Jing Qi delivered this report to Yang Haoran, his expression, besides respect, also carried a faint hint of pride. The reason for this subtle pride was that Yang Haoran had given the siblings a much longer deadline to complete this task, yet they had finished it today. Therefore, he couldn't help but feel a touch of pride in his heart. The site selection and construction of this secret base, including all the various facilities and interior finishing within it, were tasks Yang Haoran secretly entrusted to them. They did not disappoint Yang Haoran and quickly found a large mountain within Lecheng's borders, hollowed out its interior, and successfully constructed a secret base. The footprint of this secret base was in no way inferior to the Myriad Ghost Grotto before its expansion. As this matter required complete secrecy, Yang Haoran only entrusted the construction of this secret base to the two siblings, without any third party interfering. The siblings were exceedingly experienced in killing, so asking them to handle construction was naturally a bit of a challenge for them, as they knew nothing about it. Fortunately, Yang Haoran's demands for the finished secret base were not particularly high, and since the secret base was built inside a mountain, there were no requirements for aesthetics either. For the siblings, this was a blessing in disguise. Thus, after consulting a large amount of reference material, the siblings spent several months successfully building this secret base. If not for the powerful strength the siblings possessed that ordinary people did not, it would have been impossible for them to complete this secret base in just a few months. In this process, Jing Miao's contribution far surpassed Jing Qi's. Although Jing Miao, like Jing Qi, had no prior experience in this area, Jing Miao was relatively more meticulous than Jing Qi, and her learning ability in this field was significantly stronger. Therefore, when constructing this secret base, Jing Miao solved many difficult problems, and Jing Miao also arranged the construction of some facilities. Jing Qi, on the other hand, fully played the role of a laborer; whatever Jing Miao told him to do, he did. With their cooperation, they finally succeeded in building this secret base. Although both contributed significantly, in truth, Jing Miao, who used her brain, had a greater contribution. Without Jing Miao's ingenuity, Jing Qi surely wouldn't have known how to start, and even with all his strength, it would have been to no avail; the secret base they built would definitely have had numerous shortcomings. The secret base built by the siblings' combined efforts naturally couldn't compare to one built by a true expert in construction. However, this secret base had all the necessary facilities, and its appearance wasn't too bad either. Therefore, Yang Haoran was quite satisfied with this secret base constructed by the siblings. After all, Yang Haoran knew that the siblings had been completely ignorant in this area before. Furthermore, his demands for this secret base were not too high; all the various facilities he wanted were present. Apart from the slight lack in aesthetics, the siblings had fulfilled all his requests, so he indeed had no reason to be dissatisfied. After the secret base was completed, Yang Haoran gave the siblings another task: to find five hundred people and bring them back to this newly built secret base. These five hundred people, of course, couldn't be just anyone used to make up the numbers; they also had certain conditions. Firstly, their age could not exceed fourteen. Secondly, their personalities could not be weak. Finally, they had to possess a certain aptitude for cultivating demonic arts. As for gender, there were no restrictions; both male and female were acceptable. When Yang Haoran issued this order to the siblings, he didn't explicitly state his intentions, but the siblings weren't foolish; they could naturally guess some of Yang Haoran's thoughts. However, neither of them asked any unnecessary questions and immediately set about handling the matter according to Yang Haoran's command. But just as the siblings were about to set off on this task, Yang Haoran added a new requirement: the selected targets must be homeless orphans. In this era of war, many people died tragically every day, and many children consequently became orphans. So, even with Yang Haoran's additional requirement, it wouldn't significantly impact Jing Qi and Jing Miao's search for suitable targets. Today, Yang Haoran came to this secret base wanting to see how the task was progressing and how many people the siblings had selected according to his requirements and brought to the base. To his great surprise, the siblings had coincidentally completed this task today. One must know that Yang Haoran had given the siblings a year's time. As long as they could bring five hundred people back to the secret base within a year according to his requirements, then the task would be considered perfectly completed. But from the start of the task until now, only half a year had passed—only half of the deadline Yang Haoran had given. To complete the task in such a short time truly astonished Yang Haoran, and also left him a bit puzzled. "Heh heh, completed so quickly? You two aren't making up the numbers, are you? " Yang Haoran asked with a faint smile, his expression unchanged, without the slightest hint of coldness or displeasure, but instead, gentle and amicable, like a warm winter sun. The siblings' expressions subtly shifted, and the faint pride in Jing Qi's heart vanished into thin air. "Your subordinates wouldn't dare! These five hundred people, without exception, were meticulously selected by us according to Boss's requirements. Absolutely not a single one is there to make up the numbers! We stake our lives on this! " Jing Qi quickly declared, but Yang Haoran waved his hand with a smile. "Heh heh, no need to get agitated. I was just casually remarking; I didn't truly think that. The two of you were personally nurtured by me, so I understand your characters well. I simply don't believe you would do something as foolish as making up the numbers. Besides, if I didn't absolutely trust the two of you, how could I possibly entrust this matter solely to you? " Hearing this, Jing Qi and Jing Miao immediately nodded in agreement. Seeing their reaction, Yang Haoran stood up and continued, "Since the people have been gathered, it's time for them to know who they are to pledge their loyalty to. Lead me to them. " Yang Haoran said with a smile. Understanding Yang Haoran's intent, Jing Qi respectfully led Yang Haoran towards a certain direction. Jing Miao, after requesting Yang Haoran's permission and receiving his assent, left ahead of them, as she needed to gather these five hundred people together in the shortest possible time. Since these five hundred individuals all lived within the secret base, and in a unified area, gathering them wouldn't take too long. When Yang Haoran arrived at an open space, led by Jing Qi, Jing Miao was already standing there, waiting respectfully. Behind Jing Miao, a considerable number of people stood neatly arranged. These individuals included both males and females, tall and short, plump and thin. The oldest were no more than fourteen, while the youngest were only five or six years old. They stood neatly behind Jing Miao. When Jing Qi respectfully led Yang Haoran to appear, all their gazes converged on Yang Haoran. Although they were all young, none of them made a ruckus, nor did they whisper amongst themselves; they appeared very well-behaved. Most importantly, when they looked at Yang Haoran, their gazes held no fear, and certainly no awe; only curiosity. Because they were still blank slates, Yang Haoran's image had not yet been established in their minds, so their gazes towards Yang Haoran naturally wouldn't hold the slightest trace of awe. Yang Haoran understood this, so he felt not even the slightest displeasure, but instead, he was quite satisfied. He noticed that there was no fear in these children's eyes, which indicated that these children were very courageous. Otherwise, having arrived in a strange place, they would have long been trembling with fright; how would they dare to look at him with curious gazes? This perfectly aligned with his requirements—these were exactly the kind of children he wanted!