Chapter 74: The Qin Family of Qinshan
Half a month later, sunlight streamed through the glass window and into the living room. Zhou Ming was shirtless, drenched in sweat as he practiced the Mad Python Martial Way.
Under the sunlight, the streamlined muscles on his body shimmered faintly with a fluorescent sheen from the sweat.
Each move and stance was incredibly slow, like an old ox dragging a broken cart through muddy ground.
His entire body’s muscles, tightly coiled like steel wires, twisted and tensed with his slow movements—every single fiber being refined and tempered.
Although martial arts mainly trained the body and refined techniques of exerting force, for Zhou Ming, who was still at the Apprentice Rank, it provided significant help.
Even after becoming an Official Rank Beast Tamer, martial arts still served as an important auxiliary method. For professions like Beast Knight, it was even more crucial for unleashing one’s true strength.
“Ding, ding…”
The phone on the side suddenly rang.
Zhou Ming withdrew his stance, steadied his breathing, and picked up a towel to wipe off his sweat while grabbing the vibrating phone.
“Wang Yan? Could it be that he found out which high-ranking figures in Qinshan Base have close ties to Xin Hui Construction Group?”
Seeing the caller ID, Zhou Ming guessed the reason behind Wang Yan’s call.
“Hello.”
“Zhou Ming, I’ve figured out which upper-level members of Qinshan Base are connected with Xin Hui Construction Group.”
Wang Yan’s tone was filled with excitement—it seemed he, too, cared deeply about uncovering who had been secretly working against them.
“Oh, that fast? Don’t tell me you went and hired someone to gather this intel?”
Zhou Ming truly feared that Wang Yan might have ignored his warning and sought outside help to collect information. Considering the power of the forces behind the scenes, they could easily notice any small movements.
“How could I?”
Perhaps hearing the concern in Zhou Ming’s voice, Wang Yan immediately continued explaining.
“I found it all online. After all, none of this is really a secret. Qinshan Base is so big, and the media is always watching the higher-ups for any eye-catching news.”
“That’s good.”
Hearing the explanation, Zhou Ming felt relieved.
As for the “network” Wang Yan mentioned, it was more like a large local area network that connected all computer users within Qinshan Base.
Only a few top-level figures could access the network that connected the entire Blue Star Alliance. Due to the difficulty of wireless communication, information transfer speed was very slow.
If the entire Qinshan Base were integrated into the Blue Star Alliance’s network, no one could use it normally.
Aside from those upper figures, only a handful of wealthy individuals could pay the exorbitant connection fees for such access.
It was said that in large bases, all networks were linked directly to the Blue Star Alliance’s main network.
Thus, Zhou Ming usually only used his computer to read news or play games to relax.
“I’ve already organized the data and sent it straight to your email.”
After saying that, Wang Yan added,
“By the way, my old man is taking me to the Black Pine Small Base to oversee the progress of a construction project. You won’t be able to reach me for a while.”
Because of a project they had previously accepted, Wang Yan had to leave Qinshan Base temporarily. He mentioned it to prevent Zhou Ming from misunderstanding his sudden disappearance.
“All right, I got it. It’s a good chance for you to step out of this whirlpool anyway.”
Even if Wang Yan hadn’t planned to leave, Zhou Ming would have advised him to temporarily get out of Qinshan Base.
After chatting briefly, they ended the call.
Putting down his phone, Zhou Ming draped the towel over his neck, picked up a glass of water, and went to his bedroom. Sitting at his computer desk, he turned on the computer and logged into his seldom-used email.
Immediately, he noticed a red flashing notification.
Opening the email from Wang Yan, Zhou Ming drank water to replenish what he had lost through training while browsing through the message.
There wasn’t much content. Wang Yan had even highlighted the key points. After reading it, Zhou Ming’s expression grew heavy.
Although Xin Hui Construction Group had many normal connections with the base’s upper echelons, one power stood out—the Qin Family.
According to Wang Yan’s findings, the Qin Family was not only a major shareholder of Xin Hui Construction Group but also its primary backer within Qinshan Base.
Zhou Ming knew a fair bit about the Qin Family.
The Qin Family was too famous in Qinshan Base. Even if he didn’t deliberately investigate, he would still hear news about them from time to time.
Since the founding of Qinshan Base, the Qin Family had been part of its leadership, holding a permanent seat in the nine-member council of Qinshan Base.
Their industries were deeply entrenched across nearly every field in the base, and they had close to ten Official Rank Beast Tamers within the family. They were the undisputed overlords among the local powers of Qinshan Base.
If it weren’t for the rule that the Council Leader could not be selected from local council members and must instead be appointed directly by the Alliance, the Qin Family would have long since become the de facto rulers of Qinshan Base.
As for why the Qin Family wanted to form a marital alliance with the Xiao Family, Zhou Ming could roughly guess the reason. Besides wanting Xiao Lei’s help in obtaining the Transcendent Master Ritual, they also didn’t want other forces leveraging Xiao Lei’s talent and connections to threaten their standing in Qinshan Base.
“All under heaven bustle for profit, all under heaven strive for gain.”
“Even the Qin Family cannot escape the word ‘benefit.’”
For Zhou Ming, the only good news was that the Qin Family didn’t truly regard him as a threat—this was likely just a casual probe.
Otherwise, with the Qin Family’s influence, if they truly wanted to move against him, his only chance of survival would be to leave Qinshan Base immediately.
“Seems like I’m still too weak.”
Zhou Ming could see it clearly—if his strength were sufficient, even if his relationship with Xiao Yun were real, others would only offer blessings, not plot tricks behind his back.
Deleting the data from his computer, Zhou Ming decided not to stir up further trouble. Without strength, everything else was meaningless.
His current goal was to find a way to become an Official Rank Beast Tamer as soon as possible.
There was a popular saying throughout the Blue Star Alliance: Only an Official Rank Beast Tamer truly steps through the door of the Beast Tamer’s path.
Once one became an Official Rank Beast Tamer, both status and identity underwent a qualitative transformation—such individuals belonged to the privileged class across the entire Alliance.
Zhou Ming’s investigation into the connections behind Xin Hui Construction Group was merely a precaution, a way to stay ahead and protect himself.
He had no desire to fall into trouble unknowingly, not even knowing who had struck against him.
After understanding the cause and effect behind the arena incident, Zhou Ming decided not to waste further effort on it.
Closing his email, he opened the Qinshan Base Hunter Forum to check whether anything major had happened in or around Qinshan Base.
Though he preferred staying at home to cultivate, Zhou Ming was not indifferent to the world. After relaxing through games, he would often browse the local forum.
Even though the network was just a local intranet, some people had remarkably sharp sources—occasionally, bits of sensitive information would surface online for everyone to see.