87: Chapter 87 Join Us, Become the Spear Bearers Before the Throne

Linhai, Eastern Suburbs.

Outside the abandoned freight station, the rain had not yet fallen.

The sky hung very low.

Thick cumulonimbus clouds, like a sodden black cloth, blanketed the eastern edge of the city.

Wild grass grew on both sides of the railroad tracks.

The tin walls of the old warehouse rattled in the sea breeze, emitting a series of teeth-gritting friction sounds.

In the distance, several long-abandoned high-mast lights stood askew, their covers filled with dust and insect carcasses.

This place was once one of the largest freight transfer stations in Linhai City.

Later, as Abyss rifts occurred frequently and the eastern suburb logistics lines relocated, this place became completely deserted.

Few people came here even during the day.

Now, it was even quieter, like a graveyard forgotten by the city.

Executive Jiang Xu stood on an abandoned signal tower.

His white trench coat was pressed against his back by the wind, the hem flapping loudly.

His face was calm.

So calm that it did not seem like he was here to face six unknown S-Level entities.

It looked more like a routine inspection of an unauthorized warehouse.

He looked down below.

Warehouse. Railroad tracks. Shipping containers. Scrapped cold-chain trucks. And the six auras hidden in that shadow.

Five were volatile. One was pitch black.

Just as Ye Zhiwei had said.

There really was a troublesome fellow here.

Executive Jiang Xu raised his hand.

The Void Realm twisted slightly.

A dark golden spear slid out from the rift and landed in his palm.

The surface of the spear shaft had concentric black-gold patterns, like cracks left behind after a gravitational collapse.

The patterns were irregular.

They were like living things, slowly contracting with Executive Jiang Xu's breathing.

This was the "gift" left behind by Su Yun.

It was also a humiliation.

Executive Jiang Xu did not like gifts.

Especially gifts stuffed into his body without permission.

He liked it even less that his flesh, Spirit Energy, and Awakening core had been reconfigured like experimental Materials by some unspeakable monster.

Even if the result did indeed allow him to survive.

Even if this dark golden spear was indeed ridiculously powerful.

Even if he, at present, had become the first hybrid in human history where the Spirit Energy and Awakening systems stably coexisted with the rules of Strange Tales.

But Executive Jiang Xu still did not like it.

He was an Investigation Bureau Executive.

He was not someone's collectible.

He was not someone's creation.

And he was certainly not a toy casually modified by someone.

But he would use it.

Because weapons have no good or evil.

Power itself has no stance.

Being able to kill the enemy is part of order.

Being able to protect Great Xia makes it a tool that can be temporarily tolerated.

As for who left this tool behind.

Executive Jiang Xu would keep an account.

He would remember it clearly, item by item.

When humanity had enough chips, he would personally pay back this debt with interest.

At the warehouse entrance.

Two Neon Strange Talk Sequence entities were conversing.

A Headless Samurai.

A youth wearing a student uniform.

The Headless Samurai was tall, wearing tattered armor, with a katana hanging at his waist.

His head was not on his neck.

Instead, he held it in his arms.

The head was pale, with cyan lips, yet the eyeballs were still moving.

Headless Samurai. Sequence 021.

Yomi Boy stood beside him.

He looked only fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing a Neon student uniform, with a tattered schoolbag on his back.

The schoolbag was bulging.

Faint crying sounds came from inside from time to time.

Like countless children sobbing in low voices inside.

Headless Samurai held his head, and the head was speaking.

"The paper crane has already entered the city."

Yomi Boy tilted his head.

More intense crying sounds came from the schoolbag on his back.

"Will the King like the gift?"

Headless Samurai's head paused.

His grayish-white eyes looked toward the direction of the Linhai City center.

"The King will not show such low-level emotions."

Yomi Boy was stunned.

Headless Samurai continued: "The King only knows how to devour."

Yomi Boy laughed.

The laughter was as crisp as a normal youth.

But when combined with the crying sounds from his schoolbag, it made one's scalp tingle.

"Then that is right."

"Let the King devour the fear we offer."

"Devour the Queen's blood."

"Devour the dignity of the Great Xia Investigation Bureau."

"Devour the screams of all the Mortals in this city."

Yomi Boy stuck out the tip of his tongue and licked the corner of his mouth.

"Only then is it like an ascension to the throne."

Headless Samurai did not refute.

Neon has already sunk.

The old nation is dead.

They, the remnants who crawled out of the ruins, no longer believed in human order.

They only believed in stronger Strange Tales.

Higher sequences.

And that King who was engraved into their Souls by the instinct of the Abyss.

Lord of Blind Idiot God.

That entity that devoured a Half-step King Level in front of the reservoir rift.

That was not a monster.

That was the only new god worth following on the ruins of the old nation.

On the signal tower.

Executive Jiang Xu finished listening, his eyes unchanged.

He still did not know where the paper crane went.

Nor did he know who was written on the gift list.

But he understood one thing.

This group of people wanted to create large-scale panic in Linhai.

That was enough.

No trial needed.

No debate needed.

No need to wait until they actually acted, only to stand in the ruins and say "We are late" to the list of victims.

Executive Jiang Xu never believed in such belated justice.

He only believed in preemptive execution.

Executive Jiang Xu loosened his fingers.

The dark golden spear fell silently.

No sound of breaking the air.

No Spirit Energy fluctuations.

Not even killing intent.

It just fell from above, quietly smashing toward the top of Yomi Boy's head.

As if it were a fountain pen accidentally dropped by someone.

But at the moment it fell.

Gravity lost its common sense.

The ground beneath Yomi Boy's feet collapsed first.

The air around him collapsed inward.

Several pieces of rubble at the warehouse entrance were crushed into powder by an invisible force.

The crying inside the schoolbag stopped abruptly.

Yomi Boy looked up violently.

A flash of dark gold was reflected in his pupils.

Too late.

The dark golden spear was already pressed against his brow.

The spear tip pierced the skin.

A drop of black blood oozed out.

If this spear fell, the core of Sequence 019 would be nailed and shattered on the spot.

Executive Jiang Xu's choice was simple.

Kill one first.

Then talk about the situation.

But just before the spear tip was about to pierce Yomi Boy's skull.

A pale hand reached out from the side.

Two fingers pinched the spear tip.

Boom!

The entire warehouse sank downward.

The ground cracked with spiderweb-like fissures.

The rusty railroad tracks were forcefully bent.

The windows of several cold-chain trucks parked nearby exploded simultaneously, and glass fragments splattered like raindrops.

Yomi Boy was blown away by the aftermath, slamming hard into the wall.

The tin wall was dented with a human-shaped crater.

Yet he was not angry.

He slid down from the wall, looking at that hand, his face instead showing fear and awe.

"Lord Tsukuyomi."

The man in the black suit stood in place.

His figure was slender, his skin pale, as if he hadn't seen the sun for years.

The black suit was meticulous.

The tie was also tied perfectly straight.

Only his right eye did not look human.

That was a pitch-black moon.

No light.

Only bottomless black.

Tsukuyomi pinched the dark golden spear, blood oozing from his fingertips.

The blood was not red.

It was black.

After dripping onto the ground, it spread like ink, slowly crawling along the cracks in the ground.

Executive Jiang Xu walked down from the signal tower.

One step.

The ground gravity doubled.

Second step.

All the wild grass outside the warehouse flattened to the ground.

Third step.

All the tin in the abandoned freight station groaned under the unbearable weight.

The five Neon S-Levels looked at him simultaneously.

The Noh mask on Faceless Lady's face turned half an inch.

The copper coins in the eyes of the Elder of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade made a light sound.

Inverse Buddha pressed his palms together, whispering the Strange Talk Sequence numbers.

Headless Samurai turned his head toward Executive Jiang Xu.

Yomi Boy climbed up from the wall, the smile on his face disappearing.

Executive Jiang Xu stopped in front of the warehouse door.

He looked at Tsukuyomi.

"Sequence 007?"

Tsukuyomi released the spear tip.

The dark golden spear returned to Executive Jiang Xu's hand.

Tsukuyomi did not attack immediately.

He even bowed slightly.

His posture was as elegant as a nobleman attending a banquet.

"Tsukuyomi."

"Neon remnants."

Executive Jiang Xu scanned the six people.

His gaze did not linger too long.

In his eyes, these people were not diplomatic targets.

Not negotiation targets.

Nor were they so-called remnants of a fallen nation.

They were hazardous sources who had infiltrated Great Xia territory carrying high-risk Strange Talk Sequence entities.

"Carrying high-risk Strange Talk Sequence entities."

"Illegal infiltration of Linhai."

"Suspected of planning a city-level terrorist attack."

Executive Jiang Xu slowly raised the dark golden spear in his hand, the spear tip pointing straight ahead.

"According to Great Xia's temporary wartime regulations."

"Execution on the spot is authorized."

Yomi Boy grinned, just about to take a step forward.

Tsukuyomi raised his hand, stopping him.

"Do not be impatient."

Tsukuyomi looked at Executive Jiang Xu.

The black moon in his right eye slowly rotated.

His tone revealed a touch of inexplicable fanaticism and compassion.

"You have the aura of the King on you."

Executive Jiang Xu's hand gripping the spear paused for half a second.

The air became heavier in this instant.

Tsukuyomi seemed not to have sensed the danger.

Or rather, he sensed it, yet remained immersed in his own fanaticism.

"Lord of Blind Idiot God."

Tsukuyomi looked straight into Executive Jiang Xu's eyes.

"The balance of power within you does not belong to human technology."

"Your Abyss rules have been touched, combed through, and bestowed by a higher-order existence."

"You are the King's work."

"Work..."

Executive Jiang Xu recited these two words.

His voice was very light.

But a wave of physiological disgust rose uncontrollably in his stomach.

That was not fear.

It was nausea from being offended.

Tsukuyomi continued to step forward.

"The King is already in the human world."

"He walks in the cities of Mortals, yet no one can see the true divinity."

"He uses devouring to seal the Abyss, uses hunger to protect the pasture, and uses unspeakable compassion to farm humanity."

"That you were able to survive is not an accident."

"You are a sharp blade carved by the King's own hands."

"Join us."

Tsukuyomi's voice became lower and lower, yet increasingly fanatical.

"You have the qualifications to obtain a place in the future new world."

"Become the Spear-Wielder before the Throne."

"Become the human executioner outside the Kingdom of God."