by <unknown>
"Because I didn't trust you." Lu Zui was still as frank as ever. "You were likely Abyss!"
Guo Chunfeng was dazed. "Abyss… What is that?"
"The Children of the Nether World are classified into different levels. Those you were told about before are at the bottom level. The most confidential one of them, who is also of the highest rank, has the code name Abyss.
"Later, you will be given higher permissions and have access to the information about Abyss. You will know after reading the files how perfectly you match the description of Abyss."
Guo Chunfeng hesitated for a moment. "Are you suggesting that you arranged another hunting squad, led by 'Death Ray' Ye Changkong, because you were suspicious that there are traitors in the Demon Execution Division?"
"I was not suspicious; I was certain." Lu Zui looked Guo Chunfeng in the eye as if he were staring at his subordinate's soul. "More than one Child of the Nether World must've infiltrated the Secret Sword Bureau. As for whether or not Abyss is among them, and who exactly Abyss is, we are not clear yet.
"We only know that both the Children of the Nether World and Abyss should be no more than a hundred years old.
"So, I trust nobody, and suspect everyone, except for those above a hundred years old.
"The hunting squad led by 'Death Ray' Ye Changkong is made of experienced Cultivators above a hundred years old. They are the only ones that are definitely not Children of the Nether World or Abyss."
Guo Chunfeng was silent for a long time before he smiled bitterly. "I understand now. I am willing to suspend my work and receive investigation to wash my suspicions."
"That will not be necessary. You've proven your loyalty with your actions," Lu Zui remarked. "But there are so many Secret Sword Agents in the Demon Execution Division. Do you absolutely trust every one of them?"
Guo Chunfeng was lost for words.
Lu Zui finished his cigarette. Gazing at the glimmer on the butt, he asked, "Do you feel wronged, angry, and disgusting?"
Guo Chunfeng was staring at his cigarette butt, too. "No."
Lu Zui smiled sadly. "You are free to feel disgusting. Sometimes, when I wash my face after I get up in the morning, I feel like throwing up as I look at the detesting old man in the mirror.
"However, that's how it is for us. We must be suspicious of everyone, including those who are most trusted and closest to us, and those who have made great contributions to the federation!
"This is a job in the dirt and darkness. Perhaps, even the whores on the street are cleaner than us.
"But… somebody has got to do such dirty, dark jobs so that more people can live in a clean, bright world, right?"
Guo Chunfeng took a long breath and replied, "Of course, Director. If I were in your place, after I learned of the existence of the Children of the Nether World and Abyss, I would've doubted the young men working in the important posts and dispatched a hunting team that is more reliable and inconspicuous, too."
"That's good." Lu Zui patted his subordinate's shoulder hard. He said earnestly, "I cannot promise you much now except for one thing.
"I, Lu Zui, director of the Secret Sword Bureau, am a real patriot. Everything I did was meant to slay the evilness and defend the federation!
"I, together with countless real patriots, will burn my life, soul, and everything to fight until the last moment. I will not allow any evil beings to sully our sacred motherland, the great Star Glory Federation!"
Guo Chunfeng was greatly touched.
Stared at by Lu Zui's sharp eyes, the last shield in him seemed to be breaking apart.
Right then, his portable crystal processor uttered the loudest alarm.
Glancing at it, Guo Chunfeng's face blanched. "My daughter is in the ICU!"
…
Soon, Guo Chunfeng arrived at the Fifth Hospital of the capital city.
Because of the explosions, the hospitals in the city large and small, and even the clinics in the neighborhoods, were all packed with people.
Not only were the wards fully-occupied, even the corridors were filed with patients who were soaked in blood and crying in pain.
Some of the patients were still bleeding, and others had lost their hearing while they were moaning. It was quite a gory scene.
A middle-aged, sloppy-looking man, whose hair was so greasy it there must have been at least ten days since he last took a shower or slept, squeezed through the crowd. Dirty water was flowing down his cheeks. There was no telling whether it was his sweat or his tears.
He staggered to the third floor and rushed to the ICU, almost tripping himself over, but he could not find his daughter at all. In the end, he was about to collapse to the ground.
"Old Guo."
Yao Li called her husband from behind him.
Guo Chunfeng suddenly trembled. He slowly turned around like a rusted machine, only to discover that his wife was standing on the corridor as softly as a ghost.
"Xiaohe is alright," Yao Li said softly. "She is being observed in the ward."
After having such an accident, she did not even have the strength to fight with Guo Chunfeng now.
"What happened?" Guo Chunfeng's voice didn't sound like his own. "Do we need to take her to the hospital of our bureau?"
"That won't be necessary. Xiaohe went to the memorial ceremony with her classmates. According to her classmates, they were not affected by the explosions and were about to run out when Xiaohe saw an old lady being stepped on by the crowd. She went back to save her, only to fall over, too. The old lady was saved in the end, but she… she was injured herself."
Yao Li tried to stop her body from shivering and said, "She was not in a good condition when she was brought here. Even her heartbeat… Anyway, she is back now."
"Where is she? Take me there!"
In the ward, sticking to the transparent glass on the medical cabin, Guo Chunfeng stared at his daughter who was floating in the bright green medication drugs.
Every wound on her daughter made his eyelid tremble violently.
Perhaps because of the telepathic connection between a father and a daughter, Guo Xiaohe, who was in a coma a moment ago, slightly opened her eyes and saw her father. She beamed with joy and grinned, extending her hand.
Blocked by the glass, the hands of the father and daughter, one large and the other small, reached together.
Guo Chunfeng finally could not hold back his tears any longer as they flooded uncontrollably on his pale face. In his eyes that were almost pure black now, unprecedented sharpness and determination were taking shape!
"Can you come? I have something for you."
Kissing his daughter's forehead against the glass, he left the ward with his wife.
On the crowded corridor, Guo Chunfeng gave a jade chip to his wife. "The divorce agreement, both the spiritual version and the paper version, is inside. All our assets will be left for you and our daughter. I have signed and made the soul stamp. After you sign it, find a law firm, and confirm the agreement. It will go effective immediately."
"Old Guo!" Yao Li looked at her husband with surprise. Somewhat at a loss, she asked in a low voice, "You not being at home for months, is that related to what happened today? If it is, I can understand."
Guo Chunfeng smiled bitterly. "You know the rules. I cannot say it."
Yao Li stared at her husband and touched the new wrinkles on his forehead. "Old Guo, you are keeping something from me."
Guo Chunfeng's pupils constricted violently. "People of my trade keep a lot of things from their wives."
"No!" Yao Li examined the brilliance in his eyes carefully and remarked, "This is different. This is different from all the things that you kept from me in the past. You are not right. Very not right!"
Guo Chunfeng was silent.
Yao Li held Guo Chunfeng's hands hard and gritted his teeth. "I haven't signed the paper yet. We are not divorced yet. I am still your wife. I am still the wife of… a hero! Old Guo, what is the matter with you? What has happened? Tell m
e. Let's shoulder it together!"
Guo Chunfeng took a deep breath. All the brilliance deep inside his eyes was gone, and his eyes turned into two immeasurable swirls. He shrugged off his wife's hands and shook his head stubbornly. "I'm fine. Even if I'm not, it is none of your business. Go and finish the divorce procedures quickly. The sooner, the better. It will be best if you can get everything done tomorrow morning!"
Looking at his daughter in the medical cabin through the gap in the door of the ward for the last time, Guo Chunfeng turned around and left.
"Old Guo, what's the meaning of this? Where are you going?" Yao Li was crying.
However, his wife's cries did not stop Guo Chunfeng's footstep, nor did they make the most terrifying demon hunter of the Heaven's Origin Sector shed any more drop of tears.
I am going to fulfill the responsibility as a father and a husband. Guo Chunfeng walked forward step after step in the dense crowd. I am going to fight for a bright future for you and our daughter!
Chapter 1093: Evilness Rises Again! |
In the south of the capital city, in a temporary medical camp dedicated to the lightly wounded…
According to later statistics, more than five million people were gathered in the Federal Square and the ten or so blocks nearby. Even more people lingered in the blocks further away.
The explosion of the crystal bombs turned the gathered citizens into panicked bees. Everybody pushed, stepped on, and crashed into each other. The number of casualties soon surpassed twenty thousand.
The heavily wounded were sent to the major hospitals in the capital city. As for the 'lightly wounded', who had nothing more than broken bones, there were not enough medical facilities to accommodate them at all. They could only be treated in the temporary medical camps by part of the medical staff and the civilian volunteers with some knowledge of first aid.
The unprecedented disaster in fact facilitated Li Yao's escape.
So many people were killed, injured, or missing after the explosions. Still more people covered their faces with bandages after getting hurt.
As for loss of language ability and even temporary amnesia, they were perfectly normal phenomena.
Most of the police officers were deployed to maintain the order of the central area. They had no time to bother with the blocks in the suburb, either.
Li Yao picked quite a few portable crystal processors in the chaos and managed to remember the faces of a few civilians. He then covered half of his face with bloodstained bandages and snuck to the medical camp with the crowd.
On one side of the medical camp, dozens of light beams were floating, displaying the latest updates of the situation and soothing public anxiety.
To aid in the rescue work, the government did not cut off the Spiritual Nexus on a large scale. The civilians gathered in the temporary medical camp could still get the news through the Spiritual Nexus.
Most of the media did not elaborate on the horror of the explosions but paid attention to the reactions of different parties after the Speaker was assassinated, including the speech of some tough representatives and the actions of the federal army.
Crouching deep inside the medical camp, Li Yao felt that his body was burning and his heart had been minced.
The scent of a scheme seemed to have turned into a black swamp that was about to swallow him.
"Fooled. We've been fooled!"
Deep inside his brain, the mental devil desperately shouted, "It's a trap! We've been set up, and now, everybody thinks that we assassinated the Speaker! Plot! A shameless plot!"
The mental devil expanded incessantly in roars. Bloody hurricanes blew out of its body and shook Li Yao's brain hard.
"Don't you understand, fool?" The mental devil heartbreakingly declared, "We were wrong since the beginning! Our enemies were not Elder Nether Spring and his Children of the Nether World, at least not just them!
"Elder Nether Spring is nothing more than a stray dog. Even if he has swallowed the Divine Blood of Chaos, changed his appearance, and fled to the Heaven's Origin Sector, he won't have any supporters here at all. How could a few Children of the Nether World plan such a great scheme? How could they kill the Speaker without anybody foreseeing it and blame it on us?
"Think about it. The sniper in the Nascent Soul Stage who shot us!
"I can feel that he is not far away yet. He is waiting for us right here to blow up our head!
"A Nascent Soul Stage sniper must be at least a hundred years old. How can he be Elder Nether Spring's subordinate? Absolutely impossible!
"Throwing away all the interferences, there can only be one answer. It is not Elder Nether Spring who set us up but the federal government! Only the federal government had the capability to make today happen!"
Li Yao was trembling and breathing hard. The dangerous redness in his left eye was gradually infiltrating his right eye!
Deep inside his brain, he struggled to resist. "It was a scheme but not made by the entire federation. Some of the bad guys in the federation… at best!"
"Face reality and stop fooling yourself. We've been abandoned!" the mental devil sneered. "The federation does not need a living Ultra-Level Federal Hero. A dead hero is the best hero! Right now, the greatest blame is on our head. Nobody is going to believe us!
"Not worth it. Not worth it at all! Think about it. We went through life and death and saved the entire federation, only to be sacrificed immediately when we are no longer needed!"
Li Yao gnashed his teeth. "Somebody must be behind the curtain, but they cannot fool everyone! Ding Lingdang will trust me, Professor Mo Xuan will trust me, the people of the Flying Star Sector will trust me, and 99% of the federal citizens will trust me!"
"Do they? Then, where they are now? Where were they when we were framed, hunted, and shot?" The mental devil grinned hideously. "Didn't you say that Ding Lingdang loved you? Weren't you training yourself hard for ten years because you wanted to meet her again back in the Heaven's Origin Sector? What's the result of your wait? Where is she when you need her most?
"People of the Flying Star Sector? Hehe. When you were in the Flying Star Sector, you helped them without hesitation. But now? Their warship activated the self-defense sword array of the highest level, a clear sign that they did not want you in.
"Don't be silly. Ding Lingdang, Mo Xuan, and all the other people of the Heaven's Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector… nobody will trust you. In their eyes, you are the Blood Devil. The most horrid Blood Devil!"
"Ding Lingdang…" Li Yao felt that his head became a container of magma. He could not tell reality from illusions anymore. He snatched the air, only to grab nothing. "She just doesn't know it yet. After she knows the truth, she will certainly find me and fight with me!"
"Give me a break!" the mental devil rebuffed. "At a time like this, the only one who will fight with you is me!
"Wake up, fool!
"Mercilessness for mercilessness! Now that everybody has abandoned us, we must abandon them. Chop off everything from the past and be reborn!
"No more hesitation. No more concessions. No more petty kindness!
"Whoever wants to kill us, we will kill them first! After the two of us are melted, who in the three Sectors will be a match for us?"
Li Yao struggled. "Most people don't know anything. They were fooled. I cannot attack them!"
The mental devil sneered, "It is their problem that they don't know anything. They were fooled because they were idiots. One must pay a price for their idiocy!
"There is no road ahead of you. Come on. Let go of the body and try my path!
"Didn't you want to save the federation? How can you save it when you are so soft-minded?
"Let me take your place. Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill everyone until heads are rolling on the ground. Maybe, we can make a strong empire that is a union of the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Flying Star Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector, and we will be the supreme dominator of the empire! That is the only satisfying way of life!"
/>
Li Yao cramped hard. His left hand bounced up beyond his control. His right hand clutched it so hard that the fingers pierced into its flesh, and yet it could not be stopped!
Half of his right eye turned crimson. Blood stains were even leaking out of the bandages covering his left eye. It was truly a devastating view!
The mental devil grinned hideously. "Start with the Nascent Soul Stage sniper. Set up a trap here and take him down!"
"No. Too many innocent civilians are here. Thousands of people will die if we fight here!" Li Yao shouted, but his voice was becoming weaker and weaker.
"Idiot, how can you defeat them if you are always indecisive? Wars always come with sacrifices. Some people might die, so what? After we succeed, the majority of the people will be saved!" The mental devil expanded to the maximum, raising an overwhelming tsunami of blood that swept across 99% of Li Yao's brain. Only 1% of it was still illuminated by Li Yao's shining belief.
However, the glimmer was also dying like the candle in the wind!
"Yes. That's right. Painful as it is, one has to face the reality in the end. Everybody has abandoned you!
"If you refuse to change, your head will be shot through by a bullet, and you will be dead forever in humiliation! Nobody will pity you! Nobody will care about you!
"Come on. Let me settle everything. Let's be completely melted. Let's be the most brutal vulture and the most magnificent dominator!"
Li Yao crouched and covered his eyes hard, shuddering violently.
It was a shame that there were many more patients than medical staff in the camp. Nobody noticed him at all.
Just when his soul was about to be completely swallowed by the mental devil, a thunderous roar suddenly burst out not far away.
"*sshole!"
Li Yao was so shocked that he jumped up from the ground.
It was Ding Lingdang's voice!
Holding his head that was about to explode, he staggered to the source of the sound, only to discover that a guy was watching a video with his portable crystal processor.
"What's this? What's this?"