I'll Be Watching from the Sidelines

"Those scum who worship the ancient gods are all beasts without a shred of humanity!"

"I, Zhao Shengshen, will kill every one of them I encounter!"

It was the first time Su Yang had seen Zhao Shengshen so agitated.

But on second thought, it was no overreaction. Hundreds of thousands of lives had been lost!

Hundreds of thousands...

Had hundreds of thousands of people all died in that war?

Gai Fengyan's wife had been one of those hundreds of thousands...

Su Yang was stunned for a moment.

Ten years ago, he had been eight, old enough to remember things.

A hundred thousand people suddenly vanishing off the face of the earth would have been an earth-shattering event in any country.

Yet Su Yang had no memory of a single news report about a hundred thousand people dying or going missing.

There was only one explanation...

To avoid causing panic, the Soul-Reaping Bureau and the people from other mysterious organizations had forcibly erased the event from ordinary people's minds.

A Demigod had that ability!

But a hundred thousand lives had quietly vanished from the world just like that, and it left a bitter feeling in Su Yang's heart.

While Su Yang was lost in thought, he felt someone gently pat his shoulder.

He turned his head and caught a pleasant scent of perfume.

"Little brother Su Yang, these things are still too far removed from you. You don't need to dwell on them."

"Casualties on such a massive scale have only occurred once in the past few hundred years."

Concern showed on Lina's face.

She was afraid Su Yang would dwell on it, so she walked over to his side and gently comforted him.

Seeing the concern in Lina's eyes, Su Yang felt a warmth in his heart.

"Sister Lina, I'm fine. I'll run into these things sooner or later, so it won't hurt me to learn about them early."

"That's right. As a Sword-Bearer of the Soul-Reaping Bureau, Su Yang is bound to deal with those people in the future. It'll do him good to learn about them early."

Zhao Shengshen tossed the half-burned cigarette in his hand to the ground and stamped it out.

"All right, let's put that aside for now! Our most urgent task is dealing with the corpses in the cemetery that are about to mutate."

Lina and Su Yang nodded and followed Zhao Shengshen toward the Northern Suburb Cemetery.

As they walked, Su Yang asked Lina, who was beside him, a question.

"Sister Lina, do dead possessors of the last three Sequence Abilities mutate too?"

"Yes. The three Sequences—Extraction, Omniscience, and Eternal Life—have all been corrupted. Even their possessors will mutate after death."

Extraction, Omniscience, Eternal Life...

Su Yang silently committed the three Sequences Lina had mentioned to memory.

"I can understand Eternal Life and Omniscience, but Sister Lina, what exactly does the Sequence of condensation refer to?"

Seeing Su Yang's puzzled expression, Lina's lips gradually curved upward.

"Condensation is the process of extracting a Sequence Ability from its vessel."

"The gods bestowed their authorities upon the world. You can think of everyone who possesses a Sequence Ability as carrying a fragment of a god's authority."

"Those containment objects with miraculous effects in the Soul-Reaping Bureau were formed when possessors of the fifth Ability Sequence condensed fragments of authority and fused them into objects."

"Do you understand now, little brother Su Yang?"

Realization dawned on Su Yang. So that was what "condensation" meant.

Was the essence of a Sequence Ability a "fragment of ability" bestowed by a god?

The gods really were generous. No wonder so many people worshipped them.

"I understand, but looking at it that way, there isn't much variation in the last three Ability Sequences!"

"The first four Ability Sequences—Destruction, Domain, Enhancement, and Restoration—have countless variations."

"For example..."

Su Yang pondered for a moment, searching his mind for someone he could use as an example.

"Take the Domain Sequence. Different possessors' abilities manifest in different ways, right?"

"Mr. Director's Domain is psychological, while Uncle Wang, whom I met at the Soul-Reaping Bureau last time, can use his Domain to teleport people all around it."

"Those are two completely different manifestations!"

Lina looked a little surprised at Su Yang's question.

"You're clever, little brother Su Yang! You noticed the differences between the Ability Sequences so quickly. You're much cleverer than I was back then."

Su Yang scratched his head. Lina's unreserved praise left him a little embarrassed.

"It's just as you said. The farther down the Ability Sequences you go, the more limited their forms of manifestation become."

"By the time you reach Eternal Life, there's almost no variation at all. The trait its possessors display is everlasting youth and longevity."

"But after the last three Sequences were corrupted, the Eternal Life Sequence became somewhat..."

At this point, Lina's expression grew a little strange.

After thinking for a long time, Lina finally found a word to describe the seventh Ability Sequence.

"It's actually a little ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?"

Su Yang was taken aback. He never would have imagined

that the word "ridiculous" could be used to describe a possessor of a Sequence Ability.

"Yes! Think about it, little brother Su Yang. Originally, this Sequence just let you live a long time, but once it's corrupted, how could you possibly live forever?"

"The moment you mutate, the Soul-Reaping Bureau kills you."

That was true.

Su Yang nodded.

Put that way, the Eternal Life Ability Sequence did seem a little ridiculous, even a little sad.

Luckily, he hadn't awakened one of the last three Ability Sequences. Thanks, Mom and Dad...

As they walked on, their surroundings grew increasingly familiar.

They would soon reach the Northern Suburb Cemetery.

Finally, after they passed through a dense forest, a yellow barrier appeared before Su Yang's eyes.

"This is..."

"This is the Soul-Reaping Bureau's Class C containment object, the Suffocation Screen, code name C-0311."

Zhao Shengshen turned his head, took a yellow disc from inside his clothes, and explained it to Su Yang.

The yellow disc emitted a faint glow, yet even in the sunlight, Su Yang found it somewhat dazzling.

"A Class C containment object..."

Su Yang remembered clearly that the Maiden's Soul was also a Class C containment object of the Soul-Reaping Bureau, code name C-0188.

But the Maiden's Soul had now been recorded in the Dead Man's Book...

Su Yang shook his head and put the Dead Man's Book out of his mind.

He was about to face monsters formed by mutated corpses!

In the mere two or three days since joining the Soul-Reaping Bureau, Su Yang had heard its members talk about mutations more than once.

And this would be the first battle of Su Yang's life!

For a moment, Su Yang felt a little nervous.

But then he remembered that he had a fifth-tier Sword-Guardian big shot and a third-tier Sword-Guardian big sister beside him.

Only then did Su Yang's nerves settle a little.

Even if the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up. What did a little first-tier Sword-Bearer newbie like him have to fear?

"All right, Su Yang! Get ready for battle!"

"In a moment, you'll be facing those mutated monsters all by yourself."

Zhao Shengshen's mood had shifted quickly. Just a moment ago, he had been cursing the Fierce Ghosts, but now he was all smiles.

What he said, however, threw Su Yang off a little.

What did he mean, all by himself?

"Wait, Mr. Director, aren't the three of us on this mission?"

Seeing Su Yang's stunned expression, Lina gave a sly smile.

"Yes! There are three of us. Little brother Su Yang, you'll go up and fight, while Mr. Director and I watch from the sidelines."