Xu Chuyao stepped lightly over the outermost layer of ruins. What had once been a perimeter wall was now nothing more than a field of shattered bricks.
There had originally been an alleyway leading to the residential area, but now, the only path forward was whatever ground remained walkable.
“It’s a nightmare. God knows what kind of grudge they had to have such a violent internal conflict.”
“Maybe they just got heated during a post-mission review.”
As they ventured further into the wreckage, Xu Chuyao encountered the first survivor on the outskirts.
“Help… help me.”
Yu Jing instantly moved in front of Xu Chuyao, her body tensed in a defensive stance.
However, there was no immediate danger—at least not on the surface. There was only a woman with the lower half of her body missing, crawling over the broken bricks while a faint sound rasped from her throat.
“Help me, please. I… I won’t ever again…”
Xu Chuyao knelt down and took a closer look. She observed the woman’s blood-stained face before pulling out her mobile phone, opening the photo gallery, and cross-referencing the face with her list.
“Li Moer, right?”
The woman opened her mouth with great difficulty, seemingly trying to say “yes.”
“Hmm, your profile is right here. You’re a 42-year-old, though you don’t look it; you’ve maintained yourself well. Your personality is described as seemingly quiet but actually prone to stirring up trouble. It says here you enjoy causing chaos.”
Xu Chuyao compared the woman to the photo repeatedly, confirming she had the right person.
The current Li Moer lacked even a hint of the smugness she must have felt while stirring up trouble. She looked like nothing more than a person on the verge of a miserable death.
It was obvious that whoever had attacked her had been harboring a grudge for a long time.
They were likely restrained by the fact that they were partners, but once the internal strife broke out, they had struck to kill.
“So, Li Moer—or should I say, Miss Moli—tell me what happened. You had an internal conflict? How did the fighting start?”
“We… we had been hiding outside, following orders… Everyone was being quiet, as if something had happened, but I didn’t know the details… This morning, the Team Captain suddenly went insane.”
‘It wasn’t just the Team Captain who went insane,’ Xu Chuyao judged quickly.
If only one person had lost their mind, the others would have teamed up to suppress them. Something must have happened within a short window of time that caused several people to go mad simultaneously.
But with current information being insufficient, they had to keep moving deeper.
Yu Jing noticed the girl beginning to move and hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to whisper, “Aren’t you going to save her?”
It wasn’t out of kindness; she simply felt the woman might still be useful for interrogation if she lived.
Xu Chuyao curled her lip. “She’s beyond saving. Half her body is gone. She’s only hanging on by a thread; her breath could stop at any second.”
If they brought Shen Ning here and used the Restoration Monsoon, she might be saved, but that would mean exposing their trump card prematurely. It wasn’t worth it.
*Zzzt, zzzt, zzzt!*
A bolt of lightning blasted through a wall blocking their path. Xu Chuyao and Yu Jing moved inside, one behind the other. Knowing there were potentially several dangerous Rank 4 experts inside, they had to remain vigilant and cover each other’s blind spots.
After breaking through the bottleneck of Rank 4, Yu Jing’s talent, which had been stagnant for ten years, had entered a period of explosive growth.
She had currently reached the mid-stage of Rank 4 and had acquired three characteristics: “Combustion,” “Melting,” and “Interment.”
The final philosophical characteristic originated from crematoriums. Ever since modern cremation became the mainstream method for handling the deceased, fire had gained the attribute of burying both life and death.
That was why, during the previous mission to hunt down Zhuang Su at the Management Department, the cleanup work had been left to her.
On one hand, it allowed her to take her revenge personally; on the other, the “Interment” characteristic was the most suitable for the job.
Regardless, the two of them faced a minor problem—
“Head Teacher,” Xu Chuyao whispered, “do you know any skills with composite characteristics?”
A composite characteristic involved fusing two or more Rank 4 characteristics together.
Yu Jing shook her head. “I don’t know any yet.”
Xu Chuyao sighed. “Sigh, I don’t know any yet either.”
The Head Teacher didn’t know any because she hadn’t had enough time; she hadn’t had the chance to practice. Under normal circumstances, it was common for someone to spend years practicing a single composite skill.
Chuyao didn’t know any because she hadn’t drawn one yet. Those damn composite skills were classified as golden rewards by the System.
If her luck was bad, she would have to rely on the pity guarantee.
As they moved deeper, they encountered two more people—or more accurately, two corpses. One body had grown into the house, becoming part of the concrete. The other had been charred to a crisp, the body covered in cooled tar.
These matched the reports of “Earth Shaking” and “Fire Dragon Emergence.”
Xu Chuyao used her phone to cross-reference them and found that both were on the list.
Without a doubt, they were high-ranking members of the Supreme Society, Rank 4 experts who were now nothing more than rotting bones in a grave.
“Good news: we don’t have to fight those two.”
The bad news was that there were two fewer mouths to talk, meaning they had gained no useful information.
Xu Chuyao wanted to keep going; surely they wouldn’t fail to find a single living person. They continued their exploration and soon discovered something new.
A blood-stained sleeve lay on the ground, looking as if it had been torn off someone.
“Emmm, the list mentions that one person specifically wears only one sleeve.”
‘He should be nearby.’
It had to be his. Xu Chuyao felt a surge of resolve; she needed to find a living witness to get the full story.
9 minutes later, they found a pant leg in another part of the ruins, similarly stained with blood.
Yu Jing picked up the pant leg while holding the sleeve they had found earlier in her other hand. Placing the two items together, it was clear they belonged to the same outfit.
Xu Chuyao looked back at where they had found the sleeve, then looked down at their current location. The two spots were roughly 100 meters apart.
“I’m just saying… is it possible this guy is dead in pieces, and that’s why his clothes are scattered everywhere?”
Yu Jing nodded silently, agreeing with the girl’s guess.
There wasn’t much else to say, so they continued searching.
The destruction spanned across three blocks. Moving from the outskirts, they gradually approached the central area. It was then that a voice drifted toward them from ahead—
“No, they’re all dead! I asked Jasmine, but she refused to admit it even in death.
I didn’t want it to come to this; they were the ones who attacked first! And you… are you also…? If it wasn’t for your command, how would Jasmine have dared to order those people…”
It sounded like someone was on the phone, saying things that weren’t entirely clear.
Xu Chuyao looked at the photo on her phone and compared it. Her heart instantly began to race. The man crouching by a reinforced concrete wall while making a call was the Team Captain of this six-person team, one of the three Rank 4 peak experts. His code name was “Huang Yu.”
“Who’s there!”
The moment Huang Yu hung up the phone, his sharp intuition detected someone nearby. A murderous, ferocious gaze locked onto them, making Chuyao’s heart skip a beat.
But in the next moment, the murderous aura vanished, replaced by a glimmer of clarity.
“Second Miss, Miss Xu,” he called out hurriedly. “You are people who have influence. Can I defect right now and join your side?”
“What’s going on? What do you mean?”
Xu Chuyao was stunned. She asked him, “What happened here?”
Huang Yu lowered his head slightly, the skin of his face twitching like a mottled stone wall.
“Chu Cang is a liar. He’s always playing the good guy, feeding us empty promises. This time, he finally couldn’t keep up the act anymore. He made his move.”
“Wait, why do you say that? What did he do?”
Xu Chuyao didn’t quite understand. From her perspective, Chu Cang had spent this entire period locked in a struggle within the Council, clashing in a battle of wits and courage against Wen Shengqing.
Even if he wasn’t looking after the members of the Ghost Party, he certainly hadn’t had the time to plot anything against them.
Thus, she was completely bewildered by the claim that he had “finally made his move.”
“Isn’t it obvious? On the surface, he said he was fighting for our survival, but in reality, it was just a delaying tactic to keep us spinning around like headless flies. Meanwhile, he had already secretly prepared a purge.”
Huang Yu spoke through gritted teeth, the veins at his temples bulging. The ground around him vibrated slightly in response to his emotions.
“Just yesterday, my entire family was murdered! It was those clowns sent by Jasmine! I received word… there were Earth-type ability users nearby at the time…”
He spoke with absolute certainty, but Chuyao responded with equal conviction.
“How could the Clown Gang have done it? The Clown Gang was wiped out a long time ago; Morris admitted it himself. As for what you said about Jasmine sending them, it’s probably because Jasmine served as Morris’s superior for a few days recently, and Morris was the Leader of the Clown Gang.”
But then again… If the Clown Gang was truly gone, yet this was related to the Soulstones, then… ‘Could it have something to do with my people?’
Xu Chuyao suddenly considered this, falling into deep thought.
Huang Yu continued, “Miss Xu, you don’t understand. That is exactly the kind of person Chu Cang is. There’s no need to say more; my mind is made up. I will go back with you right now and follow your orders. Since Chu Cang won’t give us a path to live, I’ll drag him down to the grave with me even if I die!”
“No, wait! Don’t!”
Xu Chuyao snapped out of her thoughts and tried to stop him, but it was already too late.
The moment Huang Yu finished his “declaration of regicide,” his eyes widened. His body straightened uncontrollably, and a massive amount of dark green water erupted from his nose and ears, rapidly submerging his entire body.
*Splash, splash!*
Yu Jing’s expression tightened. “What’s happening to him?”
“Nothing much. He’s just a goner.” Xu Chuyao waved her small hand, gesturing for the Head Teacher to retreat a safe distance with her.
Chu Cang, who possessed a water attribute, had gained a rule-based ability upon reaching Rank 5. In ancient times, people often used water as a witness to their oaths—vows of eternal love were compared to the drying of seas and the rotting of stones, as the ceaseless flow of a river symbolized eternity.
The subordinates who swore loyalty to him were essentially entering a binding covenant. Traitors would die by drowning.
As a member of the Ghost Party and the Supreme Society, Huang Yu had sworn loyalty to Chu Cang countless times.
Therefore, the moment he uttered those treacherous words, he suffered an immediate backlash, enduring the agony of a dissolving soul.
Partners who shared a common goal were like those who had signed a treaty; those who betrayed the pact would suffer the pain of bone-deep erosion.
The treaty between Wen Shengqing and Chu Cang stipulated that there would be no settlement of old scores against the Ghost Party, which was why Wen Shengqing had to play word games and find Xu Chuyao to handle the job.
But now, the party protected by that treaty no longer existed.
Watching Huang Yu draw his final breath while drowning in the tide, Xu Chuyao sighed softly and shook her head as she turned to leave.
“Let’s go back, Head Teacher. We need to tell them what happened here.”