Ice Age Apocalypse: I Hoard Billions of Supplies Chapter 1556: Qin Qigong's Concerns

Lu Chengyuan said calmly, "The Howler-IV massive torpedo is indeed our newest underwater super-weapon. But there is no way to prove it was fired from one of our nation's warships!"

"After the apocalypse, human activities in the ocean domain were restricted by deep-sea aberrations. This dealt a heavy blow to all major naval powers, and quite a few warships and submarines went missing."

Lu Chengyuan cleared his throat.

"So, the warship that launched the massive torpedo was one we had lost!"

The scene erupted in commotion. This excuse was far too flimsy, and absolutely no one believed it.

Yet ironically, this possibility did exist in theory.

Lu Chengyuan looked at everyone and carefully explained the sequence of events.

"The sequence of events is already very clear!"

"After the apocalypse, during the turbulent period in the ocean domain, someone stole warships from our nation's navy! Those warships were loaded with massive torpedoes of this devastating lethality."

"This caused our Huaxu Nation to be mistaken as the mastermind behind everything, and we have borne this injustice!"

The jeering from the audience grew even louder. Anyone who heard this speech would think it was complete nonsense.

But after finishing, Lu Chengyuan sat back in his chair with an unruffled air, and said to everyone with a sincere expression on his face:

"For this incident, our Huaxu Nation is willing to fully cooperate with the investigation! We will make sure to find the real culprit!"

The representative from Prussia spread his hands and looked around, speaking in a low voice, "This is utterly ridiculous! I absolutely do not believe such claims. How could there possibly be this many coincidences in the world?"

But Lu Chengyuan pointed at him and said, "Ah, Mr. Goebbels, I completely agree with your statement! This matter is absolutely not a coincidence, but a deliberately designed frame-up! Someone has used these conditions to try and sling mud at our Huaxu Nation!"

The conference center erupted into clamor. Although most people believed that Lu Chengyuan was lying.

Especially the representatives seated in the central area of the round table, who knew the truth of the matter all too well.

Yet no one had concrete evidence, so as the meeting dragged on, the matter could only be dropped without resolution.

No one cared about Neon's losses, after all, their collusion with the underground civilization was real.

But the representative from Colombia still said to Lu Chengyuan, "Mr. Lu, we can let this incident go for now. But I hope you understand one thing!"

He placed his Parker gold pen on the table, stared into Lu Chengyuan's eyes, and spoke with a grave tone.

"The Star Island region now has our Colombian navy stationed there as well! Don't treat it as if it's your property!"

"The regions where those underground civilizations reside are a massive treasure trove! If you plan on hogging it all for yourselves, I can tell you with certainty! The Colombian navy will absolutely not stand for it!"

At the end of the day, it was all a struggle over interests.

Colombia's intervention was merely because they believed their own interests had been infringed upon.

"A treasure trove, is it? Heh, indeed it is. But Mr. Krupp, you should also remember! Those unknown worlds contain not only treasures, but also enormous dangers."

"You had best not underestimate those mysterious and unknown entities."

Krupp grinned widely, a hint of disdain on his expression.

"Thank you for the reminder! But that doesn't scare me. If there were a crisis that even the most powerful military on this planet, the Colombian armed forces, could not overcome, I doubt there would be anyone else capable of dealing with it either!"

Lu Chengyuan smiled faintly, "Mr. Krupp, what you're saying is outdated news from the old calendar! And besides," he shifted his tone, "right now, you have no standing to speak such words to us from a position of strength!"

...

The meeting broke up on bad terms, having lasted an entire morning.

Most of the time was spent in heated verbal sparring, to put it simply, mudslinging. Yet like all meetings around the world, truly important matters are never resolved through meetings, and the things that can be resolved through meetings are all minor issues.

Due to the existence of the underground civilization, no matter how one looked at it, Zhang Yi and his team had done nothing wrong. They had solid grounds and sound reasoning.

So countries like Colombia could only resort to blustering threats.

Lu Chengyuan was already accustomed to this sort of thing, and naturally wouldn't be intimidated by them.

After the meeting concluded, he immediately went to the central command center to report to Qin Qigong, the supreme commander of the Shengjing District.

After hearing the full report, Qin Qigong merely nodded indifferently without offering much commentary.

It was only after Lu Chengyuan left that he furrowed his brows and said, "That wild brat from the Jiangnan Region really has some nerve, stirring up trouble everywhere he goes!"

The "wild brat" he referred to was, of course, Zhang Yi.

He was also the only Epsilon-class Transcendent in the entire Huaxu Nation who was not under official control.

Because Zhang Yi had not grown by relying on a district, the districts' ability to restrain him was also very weak.

The Jiangnan Region could practically be described as Zhang Yi's one-man show, and Zhu Zheng did not dare defy his words at all.

But this in turn gave others a headache.

For instance, previously Zhang Yi had brought the Transcendents around him to the Southwest Region. In principle, this violated the fundamental rule that districts must not interfere with one another.

And this time, when he went to Neon, he had also failed to notify Blizzard City or the Shengjing authorities in advance.

This was no small matter. One careless move could trigger a conflict at the international level!

Qin Qigong was a career soldier, and he did not like such uncontrollable and powerful forces.

At present, Zhang Yi's behavior was exemplary, but there was no guarantee that one day in the future, his maverick ways might affect the interests of the district, or even the entire Huaxu Nation.

Any sliver of possibility was something Qin Qigong, as the supreme commander of the Huaxu Nation's foremost district, was unwilling to accept.

With these thoughts, he picked up his military overcoat, draped it over his shoulders, and headed toward the Earth God Temple.

Through the swirling snow, across the massive blue-brick square, Qin Qigong arrived beneath the eaves of the Earth God Temple.

He stamped his feet at the door, and the snowflakes on his coat fell to the ground, gathering into a small pile.

After a servant announced his arrival, he stepped into the dwelling place of Shengjing's guardian deity, Houtu.

Inside the room shrouded in gauze curtains, Houtu was sitting among her precious statues, wearing a black nightgown and revealing two small feet as fair as jade.

Her black hair cascaded down like silk, nearly enveloping her entire body.

Her dark pupils were focused intently on a piece of sandalwood in her hand, while the carving knife in her right hand chiseled away with meticulous care.

The wooden figurine in her hands had already taken its initial shape. If one looked closely, they would notice that the doll bore an extraordinary resemblance to Yang Xinxin.