Xie Litang was very strong.
But there was no need to be arrogant enough to abandon her home-field advantage.
Fumu City was the home the two of them had worked so hard to settle into; there was no way she would draw the flames of war back to her own doorstep.
She opened the map.
At the same time, she opened an online chat with Chen Linling, simply too lazy to go downstairs to find her younger sister.
"Linling, do you have any suggestions for a place at least two hundred kilometers away from us, with high-rise buildings, dense construction, and plenty of alleys?"
Ding-dong~
"Is this to deal with the people from the Department of Military Affairs?"
"Yes."
"Then your idea is great, Sis. A place with tall buildings and dense alleys is indeed much better than mountains or forests. Let me send you some files to check out."
Soon, Xie Litang received a set of documents.
They included, but were not limited to, Old Era cities within a five-hundred-kilometer radius centered around Fumu City, complete with high-definition photos.
After comparing them, Xie Litang finally settled on an Old Era city.
"Luoyang City."
"I've decided on this place."
Luoyang City's urban layout was a classic representation of certain Old Era places trying to have their cake and eat it too.
Before the cataclysm, it had a permanent population of fewer than three hundred thousand, yet over a hundred thousand housing units had been developed.
Crucially, to save money, they didn't demolish the old district, but directly designated a new district to push real estate development aggressively.
It resulted in both the intricate, tangled alleys of residential houses in the Old Era's old district and densely packed high-rise coffin apartments, making it a place where she could play her home-field advantage to perfection.
The two of them headed straight for Luoyang City.
As soon as they arrived, Chen Linling deployed her drones.
Spending nearly two days, she filmed every building, street, and alley in Luoyang City in meticulous detail before uploading the footage to her computer for urban 3D modeling.
"Sis, I have a plan."
"Go ahead, what plan?"
"I mean, is there a chance we could lure them all into a single building, set off a controlled demolition, and wipe them all out in one go?"
"Your suggestion is great, Linling, but you forgot a very important parameter."
"What parameter?"
"The ones coming to surround and suppress me this time won't be ordinary soldiers. They'll likely be special forces troops who have all awakened abilities."
Chen Linling typed on her keyboard for a moment, her brow furrowing as she said, "That really was my oversight, but I stand by my suggestion."
"Because based on the computational results, demolishing the building might not wipe out the entire team, but it can still effectively inflict heavy casualties on their active forces."
"And by doing so, narrow the gap in numbers between us and the enemy."
Chen Linling paused her typing for a moment before continuing, "Of course, if you want a deterrent demonstration, slaughtering them face-to-face would be far more shocking."
Xie Litang simply waved her hand and said, "There's no need for that."
Chen Linling twitched the corner of her mouth, chuckling softly. "Indeed, there's no need. From a probabilistic standpoint, they won't give up simply because of a single failure."
"So hiding your true power is far more cost-effective than exposing it directly."
"Once they grit their teeth and raise the stakes, we can hit them with a devastating blow. Tee-hee."
Xie Litang glanced at her, clicked her tongue, and said, "Sister, you're so wicked."
Chen Linling countered playfully, "Don't you like it, Sis?"
Xie Litang couldn't help but palm her forehead, saying helplessly, "Yes, yes, yes, I love my little sister the most."
Chen Linling nodded with a radiant smile, responding, "I love Sis the most too!"
The two didn't linger around doing nothing.
Xie Litang went out to walk the streets directly; there was no faster way to familiarize herself with the city than walking through it personally.
Meanwhile, Chen Linling held her computer, installing cameras, base stations, and rapid solar charging docks everywhere, while most importantly conducting demolition calculations on several targeted buildings.
The two lived almost like wanderers.
Aside from being far from crowds and lonely, there didn't seem to be anything bad about it. At least Chen Linling looked very happy.
As for Xie Litang, she didn't really like this old city—because there was no network here, unlike Fumu City, which was connected to an intranet where a single phone was enough.
Two days later.
The moonlight was soft at night.
A cool, small hand gently brushed Xie Litang's cheek. "Sis, wake up. There's news." Chen Linling softly woke Xie Litang, who had already fallen asleep.
"Mmm, what is it?"
"There's movement from the Department of Military Affairs."
Perhaps due to the chilly night breeze, Chen Linling slipped straight under Xie Litang's blanket. The two huddled together to listen to the broadcast. Since Luoyang City had no network, they could only rely on a radio.
This was a satellite signal broadcast channel for demon beast hunters out in the field.
"Jianghai City will initiate a joint military exercise starting tomorrow. Demon beast hunters in the field are strongly advised to note the following published areas, which will be designated as temporary restricted zones..."
The main zone of the joint military exercise was a mountainous region overrun with demon beasts, hundreds of kilometers away from Luoyang City, which on the surface didn't seem directed at Xie Litang at all.
But both of their expressions turned grave.
Xie Litang pondered for a moment before coming to a conclusion: "So they aren't sending a massive army to encircle me, but rather hunting me down in the form of special forces squads?"
Chen Linling leaned closer to Xie Litang, resting her head on her sister's shoulder. "They're underestimating you, Sis. I'm afraid they'll have to pay a massive price this time."
Chen Linling wasn't stupid.
At the very least, her Cyber Intelligence told her that her elder sister wasn't weak at all—in fact, she was likely extraordinarily strong.
Data didn't lie. The mini ammunition production line Chen Linling built produced over a thousand rounds of ammunition every single day just for her sister's training.
She swore that someone who trained in front of glowing machine gun muzzles couldn't possibly be weak.
Xie Litang pulled the blanket tight and yawned, saying, "Let's sleep first."
Chen Linling turned off the radio and said, "Sleep together."
"Don't you have your own bed?"
"I'm disabled. Are you going to carry me over?"
"I don't want to move, so let's just sleep together."
"Sis, share some blanket with me, or I'll just sleep while hugging you."
"Whatever."
Xie Litang treated her as if she had gained an extra bolster.
The next day.
Xie Litang followed her previous trick and shut Chen Linling inside a bank vault.
It was true that she was durable herself, but she couldn't leave her sister exposed to danger.
Chen Linling didn't complain or make a fuss, calmly accepting it.
After all, they had the signal base stations. Although she couldn't connect to the city's intranet, monitoring everything through the cameras was enough.
The two hugged each other.
"Sis, please be careful."
"Mm, I will."
"Sis, back in Fumu City, I planted a stalk of Danggui. Originally, I had a stalk of Duhuo too, but later I felt Duhuo was too hard to raise, so I threw it away."
"I know, I know. When we go back, I'll definitely make you a stew with Danggui."
"Sis, do you really know what I'm talking about?"
"I know. I will definitely come back."
Of course she knew what Chen Linling meant between the lines. It was simply her way of telling Xie Litang that if she died, Chen Linling would not go on living alone.
Chen Linling had expressed this intention of not surviving alone more than once.
Her younger sister was truly a troubled little sister.
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