Chapter 57: It's Your Turn, Little Dragon!_1

In the darkness, there was silence.

Only the sound of chewing broke the stillness, incessant and persistent.

The faint light illuminated the figure seated in the chair, as if deep in thought, eyes cast downward, listening to distant sounds.

After a while, a sigh was heard.

"The Qi Family has betrayed us."

He murmured softly, "But it doesn't matter... Fickle as the Qi Family is, they were never worthy of trust. Betrayal was expected."

"Compared to such an ally, unworthy of concern, it's an incompetent subordinate that is more troubling."

The chewing abruptly stopped.

The darkness, like a gaping maw, slowly opened and spewed out a naked, emaciated shell that violently coughed on the ground, emitting a pitiful wail and cry.

After a long time, he finally woke from the nightmare, crawling on the ground like a dog, and lunged towards the figure, frantically kowtowing.

"Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy..."

He cried out, pleading, "It was my hubris, me, all my fault... Give me another chance."

In the silence, no one spoke.

The Lord seemed to be pondering.

After a while, he slowly shook his head.

"No, King Ocean."

He said, "If a Hunting Dog's bounty is due to the Hunter's directives, then the lackey's failure must also be attributed to the supervisor's negligence. This is my mistake."

"I misjudged your insolence and arrogance, after all, you know nothing of the real world."

King Ocean stiffened on the spot, as if he couldn't bear the chill in the shadows, shaking violently, with only the sound of whimpers emerging from his throat.

"Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy... Give me another chance... I will not fail again... I will not..."

"No, you have not failed,"

The Lord shook his head slowly, speaking calmly, "In fact, you perfectly attracted the attention of the Astronomical Society and the Special Affairs Department. Even without causing turmoil, you achieved the minimal objective.

The Absolute Punishment came upon you because of the disdain in your heart for the Sacred Spirit."

He reached out his hand, stroking King Ocean's head, "You were deluded by the currency of mortals, showing no respect for true power, nor have you ever offered faith and loyalty to a true God.

You, are beyond redemption."

"..."

King Ocean's body trembled, feeling the chill and terror from that hand, unable even to scream, simply shedding tears in silence.

From his throat, he mustered all his strength to wail.

"Lord... mercy... mercy..."

"The Sacred Spirit is never cruel, King Ocean. Believers must also possess Pieta," said the Lord looking down at him. "If you beseech my mercy, then I shall grant you mercy, and power as well."

With that, the shadow rose slowly from the chair, crouched down, and looked eye to eye with an astonished King Ocean, pulling out a dagger from within his robes and placing it gently before him.

King Ocean's smile froze on his face.

"Isn't revenge upon those zombies of the Astronomical Society what you've tirelessly sought?" the Lord whispered in his ear. "But now it seems, what better way than to do it with your own hands, rather than through others?"

The Lord slowly stood up, giving him one final glance.

"Before destruction comes, you have plenty of time to make a choice. To die submissively, or to accept the Blessing of the gods, either option is the Sacred Spirit's final generosity to you."

He said, "If you can attract even a little attention afterwards, jump around to your heart's content. After all, a grasshopper after autumn can only be so useful."

"Should you fulfill your desire before death, it would not be in vain—the Sacred Spirit's compassion for you."

He turned and left, disappearing into the darkness.

In the deathly silence, only King Ocean remained, collapsed on the ground, sweat pouring down.

The pitch-black dagger silently reflected a cold light.

.

.

From afar, Huai Shi saw a pitch-black car emerge from behind the high walls and drive away. There seemed to be someone inside, but the reflective stickers prevented any clear view.

He hunkered down in the shade of a tree, peering quietly at the silent warehouse in the distance, seeing nothing despite looking for a long time.

The transfer warehouse was vast; from the outside one could only see high walls and individual storage buildings. One could barely make out employees' dormitories, a two-story office building, and various discolored shipping containers piled haphazardly.

In the suburbs here, without any tall buildings, there was no vantage point to see from afar. If he really wanted to see something, he would have to go inside.

But sneaking in was not an option.

Realizing this, Huai Shi sighed, took out a spray bottle given to him by Raven from his pocket, and evenly sprayed its contents over himself.

The sense of Border Variant species usually far surpasses that of canine species; some even have infrared vision, and evading these creatures' noses and eyes would necessitate the assistance of an Alchemy Potion.

Of course, this was just a deodorizing spray refined and formulated by Raven; it lacked the function to block infrared, but as long as he remained unseen, it would suffice.

After ensuring an even coat over every corner of his body, Huai Shi rubbed his hands, took a deep breath, leaped up, and using the edges and gaps on the wall for grip, he climbed over the high wall.

Luckily, he found cut-resistant gloves in the storage room before leaving; otherwise, he'd have taken a harsh toll on the barbed wire and glass shards atop the wall.

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After landing and seeing no one around, he breathed a sigh of relief and, taking advantage of the night at nine o'clock, slipped into that place resembling an office building.

The two-story office building wasn't large, with only a few scattered departments, but no one was around, and the doors were hardly locked.

This transfer warehouse hadn't seen business in who knows how long, so there was no need for these things.

Huai Shi got himself covered in dust, but found nothing.

Peeking out through a window, he could see the brightly lit warehouse and the adjacent employee dormitories—perhaps the real search would have to be there?

However, people coming in and out were wearing strangely white uniforms, making it quite troublesome to blend in.

Logically, this kind of physical labor would avoid wearing any white or dirt-showing color, but it seemed to be completely different here.

The white coats were excessively large, even coming with hoods, adorned only with a never-before-seen Snake enveloping a body emblem on the chest.

Huai Shi stared for a long time, then smacked his palm:

Alright, need to get my hands on a damn set!

Then, the target became critical...

He hid behind the window for a long time, until he saw someone walk to the nearby wall, lift their hem, and start relieving themselves right there.

"Wow, what a lack of public morality?"

Huai Shi, dumbfounded, made out the indescribable part of the person in the dim light and couldn't help but sigh with compassion, "It's you, Little Dragon..."

To avoid startling the enemy, he quietly climbed out from the other side of the room, but just as he leapt from the window, he felt a beam of light directly hit his face.

Huai Shi looked up in shock to see another security guard, also leaning against a corner and peeing.

How could he hide so well!

At that instant, their eyes met.

"Who are you?!" The patrolling security guard widened his eyes and reached for his baton, "Where did this thief come from?"

"Don't misunderstand!"

Huai Shi's mind raced, and before the guard could call for help, he raised his hand to stop him, "I'm from the Gospel Class!"

"What the heck?" The guard was taken aback, seemingly having heard of it before, then suspiciously asked, "Aren't they supposed to come tomorrow?"

"Of course, it's true, look! Dong cha-cha, dong cha-cha..."

As he spoke, Huai Shi incongruously started to twist, taking three steps back and two forward as he sang, "Entering God's house, sitting beside the Lord, sweeter than our own mothers, hallelujah to Heaven~"

Stepping forward two paces, closing the distance, Huai Shi suddenly kicked up his leg and slammed the guard against the wall; before he could fall, Huai Shi covered his mouth with a handful of Apocalypse, stuffing it all in.

The guard's eyes rolled back, and he instantly passed out.

"This handful cost at least four or five thousand, you've made a fortune."

Huai Shi dusted off the remnants on his hands, shook his head in resignation, and dragged the guard back through the window into the room. When he emerged again, he donned their ghostly white uniform, with a baton at his waist and a flashlight in hand.

If he wore the hood, he would pass for another security guard entirely.

No one would notice if they didn't look closely.

He could only be thankful that The Purified People's corporate culture was so well executed, with the Gospel Choir's routine unchanged, and even their hymn dance was the same set without variation.

Luckily he still remembered the tune of the Gospel duet, otherwise what a waste today would've been!

Huai Shi whistled, lifted his flashlight, and slowly ambled toward the center of the transfer warehouse.

Everything looked normal; no strange situations arose, no gory scenes to be seen, just robed figures coming and going, some even lying in their dorms picking their feet and playing mobile games.

It was too normal.

If not for these ghostly clothes, it would have appeared to be just another factory.

The entire transfer warehouse was too large, and as he aimlessly wandered, he couldn't find any targets or gain any insights. He even began to doubt whether he was getting nervous over nothing, or if King Ocean was really hiding here.

It wasn't until he stopped abruptly outside a warehouse in the southwest corner—which seemed unremarkable—that he looked down.

He saw the Apocalypse slowly gathering in his hands.

It was the dispersing Source Substance, emanating despair and death.

Someone had died here.

In an instant, his hair stood on end, and not just because of one person!

Under the attraction of the Hand of Confinement, they kept gathering, and quickly formed a small pile in Huai Shi's hand. He paused, walked around the warehouse, and found that the dispersing Source Substance was indeed emanating from within.

He kicked the accumulated Apocalypse into his pocket and began looking for a way in.

The entire warehouse was sealed from the inside as if there were no other way to enter but the large door outside. But Huai Shi found a ventilation window about four meters from the ground on the backside of the warehouse.

As he contemplated finding something to step on to climb in, he suddenly sniffed an eerily familiar smell.

The scent of blood.

When he turned back and lifted the door panel covering some trash, he saw the hidden corpse underneath...

He froze.

Was it another security guard?

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