Chapter Thirty-Three: Undercurrents Stirring

It was already afternoon.

Gongsun Ce had a faint feeling that something was wrong. He decided to go home first and read the letter, then, as a matter of course, search for the painter and solve the riddle.

Shi Yu Lian, his heart turned to dead ashes, was dazed and at a loss. Not knowing what else to do, he dragged his exhausted body back home.

Thanks to Qiluo’s consolation, the two who had proclaimed themselves a pair of love-lorn souls felt a little better.

Qian Bai said goodbye to the other two at the entrance. She planned to buy a small gift for the neighbor and apologize that evening together with it. Qiluo wanted to follow, but Kaldesia kindly held her back. She decided to wander around a bit and then send Qiluo home, and the two headed for the central district.

At this point, the five members of the small circle had happened to part ways.

Was that a coincidence? Not necessarily. Friends did not have to remain together all day. As for where each of them would go next, that was even less likely to be the result of deliberate planning: no one lived their life like a strategy game, brooding over every choice for long.

In daily life, people often approached unimportant decisions with a casual, impulsive attitude, and were easily swayed by outside information: hearing a catchy jingle, they ordered the food from the advertisement; troubled by worries, they saw advice on television and decided to try it out… These were only isolated cases by chance. More often, useless information obtained from the environment would be filtered and trimmed by the brain, just as a traveler would not remember every passerby’s conversation.

Still, the residual information left behind after the brain’s processing also occupied a part of memory… a very small part. Hidden, barely noticeable, but still there.

·

Someone was considering their next move.

The dragon-blooded were all in poor condition. Their twisted minds and the city’s environment made them fearless in battle, yet timid and indecisive in small matters.

The children, after repeated failed escapes, had become frightened and lost. That emotion, as they acted, spread to others unrelated to the prison break, draping the air in unease. It did not take much… only enough to cover several districts.

The mysterious weaver in Dragonhead District had already been misled by the fog. The Heavenly Pole remained shut away. The Dark Walker still roamed about; he was the greatest unstable factor, and could also serve as the trigger pulled at the very last moment.

Only half a day remained before it was all over. How should one choose?

"An idle piece may be discarded without regret. Do not lose the great in pursuit of the small."

But even idle pieces take effort to play.

Let us observe the situation for now…

And see how the rest progresses.

·

In the district called Savage Wing, the other dragon wing opposite Steady Wing, a superhuman was listening to his subordinates’ report.

He was tall and powerfully built, muscles coiled beneath a black leather coat, his face hidden behind a skull-like iron mask.

No one knew his name. People only dared to mention his title with unease: Skullhead.

Long ago, when Skullhead had only just founded his organization, many reckless fools had mocked his appearance. He executed those enemies one by one, tearing open their mouths with iron tongs and stripping away their skin with knives, until the living skeletons could make no sound at all. Then he put bullets through their skulls and smashed their bodies with iron hammers, adding yet another corpse to the back of the dragon corpse.

After that, no one dared laugh at him again. Except those three.

The demon man, the Red Lion… and that superhuman…

"Ha…"

Seated in a steel chair, he listened to the report from his yellow-haired subordinate. The absurd tale they recounted brought a bitter taste of the past to Skullhead’s mouth.

"...Boss, that’s what happened to us this morning."

The yellow-haired punk carefully told the whole story, leaving out no detail, including the shameful words and actions of the three.

"Hah… hah…"

Heavy breathing came through the metal mask.

The three of them remained silent, waiting for their leader’s words.

At last, Skullhead spoke.

"Who has the cassette player?"

The buzz-cut man answered honestly, "Boss, we don’t know either. What we heard was only from the mouths of that brat and the woman. It might still be with that long-haired guy."

"No."

The leader of Death Wing shook his head in denial.

Da Wu gritted his teeth and stepped forward. "Boss! Then what exactly was on that cassette—"

He felt Skullhead’s gaze on him. In an instant, the daring thug no longer dared to say another word.

"Find Cecile."

He extended a hand. One of the underlings hurriedly bent low and placed the receiver of an old-fashioned telephone into the leader’s hand.

After the bell rang several times, a young woman’s voice reached his ear.

"The doctor is busy. If you’ve got something, just say it. Did you find the test subject?"

Skullhead’s voice was deep and hoarse, unpleasant to hear, enough to raise gooseflesh all over the body.

"The deal is off."

"Hey, hey, you kidding me? Is that all Death Wing can do?"

"The demon man and the Red Lion have entered the field."

"Tsk… wait a sec!" The woman on the other end raised her voice as if talking to someone else. "Doctor, Doctor Cecile! Subject 293… this little thing, you want me to handle it myself? Hey, Doctor, th— all right, all right, you’re busy, you’re busy, I won’t bother you…"

The woman muttered a few curses under her breath, then said, "Double the payment. I’ll handle the demon man. You just get the person out from under the lion’s hands."

"Goodbye."

"Don’t hang up! What do you want?"

Skullhead said nothing. In consideration of the laboratory, he had already shown enough patience. He would not answer meaningless questions.

"Tsk…" The woman clicked her tongue loudly. "Fine, fine. No payment then! Five slots. Whether you take them or not is up to you."

He had not expected this client to offer such a high price—a price that rendered even the "negotiation material" in the cassette meaningless.

He knew it, and everyone in this city knew it: the people in white coats did not lie. They would always hand over everything they promised; whether one could swallow that reward depended on the trader’s own ability.

Skullhead made his decision. There were now more urgent matters to attend to.

"Fine."

"Good. Then that’s settled. Don’t worry about damage; I only want the live test subject. Finish it quickly."

Skullhead hung up.

He swept his gaze over the black-clad men around him. They were the core of the organization, the elite he had carefully selected. Some of them may not have been bright, but each and every one was loyal to him.

The leader of Death Wing spoke.

"You will each receive one of four slots to leave Sky Capital."

The black-clad men’s breathing stopped for a moment.

They understood that there were far more than four members present. Even if this haul succeeded, fierce competition would still await them. But those were matters for later. First they had to secure the slots; only then could they think about how to divide them. First they had to secure the slots; only then could there be hope of leaving.

Hope—precious hope—for those living in darkness, it was the spark worth sacrificing everything for.

The yellow-haired punk asked on everyone’s behalf.

"Boss, what do we do?"

Skullhead rose from his chair.

He walked past each member in turn, peering into their eyes through the holes in his mask. In them he saw greed, fear, and loyalty. Loyalty to the organization, loyalty to him.

"Not you…"

He entered the weapons depot and mounted the mechanical arm he had not used in a long time onto his right arm. His weapon was maintained every day, its silver-white surface shining like new.

Skullhead stood at the center of the crowd and raised his weapon.

"Us."

·

Skyhead District, Integrated Administration Building, sixtysixth floor.

Liu Zhongwu was listening to a subordinate’s report.

"Today we attempted to convert the biochem monkey’s memories into visual imagery. The results show…"

He patiently heard the whole thing through, then summed it up: "Still no progress at all."

Director Liu waved a hand and did not make things difficult for the subordinate any further. "Xiao Li, how is the Dark Walker’s trail being traced?"

Xiao Li handed over a stack of files he had long prepared.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Gongsun Ce, Shi Yu Ling, Death Wing, Yan Qi… they really never sit still." He carefully read the recent actions of a certain wuchang mage, his fingertip lingering on a page from this morning.

Liu Zhongwu pointed at the photograph of the pink-haired girl. "Who is this?"

Xiao Li softly explained the relevant intelligence, part of it provided courtesy of a well-informed private source.

The middle-aged man drummed his fingers on the table, then suddenly asked, "The morning of the fifteenth day ago… when we received the intelligence and urgently activated the contingency plan?"

His confidant immediately understood. "Yes, Director. Due to the pre-reserve energy switching test, many institutions and laboratories filed protests that day."

"Give the photo to the monkey first. Bring me a citywide map."

Xiao Li quickly found a map and thoughtfully brought a pencil and eraser along with it.

Liu Zhongwu flipped through the materials, comparing them with the map, from time to time making marks with the pencil. He worked for quite a while before sighing in distress.

"This is strange…"

The plump director asked his subordinate again, "What does the monkey think?"

Xiao Li said softly, "The biochem monkey is very confused. It seems like it has seen her before, but not as though it knows her."

Liu Zhongwu pondered for a while, then slowly arranged the work.

"Follow this line of inquiry. Send a copy of the materials to Old Ao. Let me know if there are any results."

He set down the pen, paper, and map on the table, rubbed his eyes, announced that he needed to rest for a while, and then left the large conference room, entering his small room.

Everyone in the Ritual Hall knew that Director Liu was an old-school wuchang mage. He did not much like modern technology and used almost nothing in daily life beyond a mobile phone, and even that was a model from several years ago. Asking such a man to work in Sky Capital was truly putting him through the wringer.

There were no cameras in his room either, one of the few privileges he had.

Liu Zhongwu entered the small room, lay down on the bed, and tucked his phone under the pillow. For safety’s sake, he remained theatrically still for a while longer before getting up again.

The director’s eyes were bright and alert. He walked to the desk, pulled a pencil, eraser, and a fresh map from the drawer. After thinking over it for a long while, he very uncertainly made a black dot on the map with the pencil.

From that black dot, the pencil traced winding curves along the roads. He drew very slowly, erasing and redrawing from time to time, sometimes even needing to start over from the beginning.

In his heart, Liu Zhongwu sighed, "At my age, and I still have to play hide-and-seek…"

This was a job that took stamina.

－－－－－－题外话－－－－－－

(Transition chapter; there will be another update tonight)