Burdened by Sin

The actual number of rioters was around 10,000, but the number of civilians who simply participated in the marches was much larger. Some of the more emotionally charged people went to the local government center and started causing trouble, and criminals took advantage of the situation to unleash their malice.

It's easy to imagine how bad the situation must have been for Yakarta, a city with a population of only one million.

Honkai Cultist proselytized, bewitching the increasingly weakened civilians and constantly expanding the seeds they had sown beforehand.

Extremists are like endless bursts of burning fireworks, consuming countless lives and setting fire to everything in their path.

To make matters worse, problems began to emerge within the Moth to Fire Unit. Some of the personnel involved in the suppression began to defect without any reason, not only using their weapons to indiscriminately kill civilians but also attacking their comrades, causing even greater chaos and casualties.

After the news spread, an irreconcilable conflict arose between the army and the survivors.

The recurring traitors, disregarding their own lives, continued to add fuel to the fire, further escalating the situation.

It wasn't until the first mob or civilian picked up a weapon from a soldier's corpse and killed the first person that Yakarta truly entered an era of rampant chaos.

It's not surprising that the local branch of the Moth to Fire was infiltrated by missionaries, as most of the soldiers in the branch were local civilians with sufficient Honkai Energy skills who had passed basic training.

After missionaries gradually infiltrated all the high-ranking government officials, it became even easier for them to contact these soldiers, which led to the bizarre and absurd situation we see today.

Su Qing'an could choose not to act, and could choose not to kill.

This was originally none of his business. In this era where emotions are so detached, Su Qing'an has lost the ability to empathize with strangers.

Even as he witnessed life being extinguished like a spark in his eyes, the boy felt no extra emotion.

Death is simply a reality presented before our eyes; the sight of corpses connected to corpses has no impact whatsoever. The greasy bloodstains smeared on the earth leave little impression after a glance. These are all unnecessary and irrelevant matters.

If it were the Su Qing'an of the past, he probably wouldn't have been able to resist taking action before understanding the consequences of personally intervening on such a large scale.

But the reasons why the young man now chooses to enter [Udu-dust • Critical Point] are mixed with any emotions.

Even though the intention was to ease Fu Hua's grief and allow her to return to the funeral sooner, his Mind Lake remained deathly still.

The pressure on the soul is enough to cause rioters, demonstrators, and troublemakers in different areas to fall into a short-term coma.

However, if the external factors that instigated this trouble are not identified, even if this group is perfectly suppressed, things will only repeat themselves, plunging Yakarta into a difficult situation of internal and external troubles.

After observing for a few minutes, Su Qing'an, who had traversed most of the city, was able to confirm that the civilians or soldiers whose souls were mixed with that strange aura were deliberately provoking internal conflicts, and some were even killing people with guns.

Some of these people may appear normal, but they are likely holding back, waiting for the best opportunity to turn against you.

Strangely, at this moment, there was no lingering interest to dwell on the true identity of the culprit.

These time bombs cannot be allowed to remain. If we don't seize this opportunity to wipe them all out, it will be impossible for the subsequent official reassurance to have any real effect.

Yakarta will only become a semi-abandoned land filled with constant turmoil and internal strife.

What's needed to capture them all in one fell swoop is Su Qing'an's precise and perfect judgment and the excellent cooperation of the authorities in finding the cause of the anomaly and resolving it.

But the boy held no hope for this. The existence of the soul was too ethereal and elusive; even observing it in a short time with current technology would be difficult enough, let alone eliminating the lesion.

Even Su Qing'an himself was powerless to do anything about it, and he didn't think anyone could surprise him in this area.

Whether the higher authorities would be willing to expend resources to study these matters depends on the premise that they trust everything Su Qing'an says; otherwise, those countermeasures would be nothing more than empty words.

It's impossible for the authorities to trust Su Qing'an.

To put it bluntly, the relationship between the two is one of mutual helplessness, forcing them to weigh the pros and cons.

Therefore, he could only use his own methods to eradicate the lesion, at the cost of those hundreds of souls that were about to dissipate into the world.

Su Qing'an was well aware that such violent actions would create greater conflict between the region and the authorities, and might even make the authorities, with whom he already had a complicated relationship, dislike him even more.

After all, both sides are currently in the initial probing phase.

Su Qing'an was observing the treatment the authorities would give him, while the authorities were also watching his every move and secretly making a character assessment.

The boy's current actions are a way of telling the other party about his recklessness and instability.

Because no one can prove that the people Su Qing'an killed were necessarily problematic, and no one can prove whether he had psychological issues and used this as an excuse to kill his compatriots.

Therefore, even murder crimes will be listed against him one by one. At that time, even if the authorities consider the pros and cons and choose not to cause trouble for him, the period of mutual indifference may be prolonged again.

But it doesn't matter.

Su Qing'an wouldn't cause trouble for the authorities, but he also had no intention of sitting down and having a heart-to-heart talk with them, or putting on a friendly front.

Both sides simply need to avoid crossing each other's red lines and cooperate appropriately on the issue of Honkai.

As for anything else, Su Qing'an didn't think any unnecessary communication or internal opinions were important.

After making these mental preparations, soon after unfolding [Udu-dust • Critical Point], the oppressive force of the soul covered a large area like a tide. The oppressive feeling, which did not rely on any medium and had no loss, bent the spine of everything and forcibly froze each scene into a state of utter silence.

In the stage where all souls are stagnant, the abnormal fluctuations that are still emanating become particularly obvious and become fatal flaws.

Death, death, death...

The soldier with a ferocious expression suddenly collapsed to the ground; the middle-aged man holding the knife lost his gaze; the woman who was praying stopped moving her lips; the child who had raised the knife to his family lost all life...

Strictly speaking, Su Qing'an was engaging in a frenzied killing under the control of his own will.

Anyone who witnessed this scene would only think that he was wielding his power, arbitrarily and ruthlessly conducting a brutal trial on innocent people without regard to the law.

The facts? They don't matter.

Su Qing'an also thought it was unimportant.

Perhaps there are other ways to save them; perhaps careful study and exploration of the Soul Essence can reveal a solution; perhaps not everyone with a strange soul aura necessarily has a problem...

If his emotions were intact, the boy would never have been able to make such a ruthless and indifferent decision.

We must carefully verify the truth, seriously consider the methods, do everything in our power to avoid harming the innocent, and strive for a win-win situation.

These seemingly indecisive thoughts all stem from Su Qing'an's personality. Even though his appearance and temperament are rather cold, he is essentially a very gentle person. He will work hard for something that touches him, he dislikes seeing tragedy, and he will deliberately help those in need within his power.

The boy was very emotional; he was someone who valued emotions highly, otherwise he wouldn't have worn himself down so quickly.

The more you care, the easier it is to get hurt; the gentler you are, the easier it is to perceive cruelty.

But now, the immortal stands high in the sky, and with a slight twitch of his fingertips, he has already plundered hundreds of lives.

Without hesitation, Su Qing'an chose the most realistic method that would best avoid harm.

But this is not gentle at all, and no one would think that this approach is gentle.

This is nothing like him, at least not like the person he used to be.

Twenty minutes later, the entire city fell silent.

The Yakarta riot was thus forcibly suppressed by the Martial Immortal using inexplicable means, and the banquet of burning life came to an end.

Only the official military is quietly cleaning up the mess.

The boy glanced at the man who stood like a statue on the ground, his life gone.

This was the last person he killed.

Su Qing'an felt no emotion arising in his chest. He covered his fingers, feeling the slight coolness of his body temperature, and suddenly understood a fact like never before.

It turns out that the lives of ordinary people are already as fragile as glass submerged in the deep sea, right before their eyes.

Even if it were broken into pieces, those transparent, dust-like particles would drift in the ocean currents and disappear without a trace.

But they have indeed settled on the seabed, quietly waiting for the day when they accumulate into mountains and see the light of day again.

Even though he couldn't understand the emotions that should be expressed at that moment, the boy still briefly sensed a subtle unease and doubt.

Sometimes the line between right and wrong is so blurred that even drowning in the deep sea cannot confirm whether it is a dream or reality.

"This can't happen again," Su Qing'an rationally analyzed the pros and cons, reminding herself.

This practice may lead to subtle changes in one's personality after it returns to normal, unlike before.

This is a conference room of unknown location, where virtual figures of light and shadow sit in their respective positions, their specific faces indistinct.

"He's dangerous," someone whispered, breaking the ice in the meeting.

"That's an obvious fact," another figure chimed in.

"He can withstand Honkai Fission Bomb without dying, can confront the Third Herrscher head-on, possesses the ability to control the mental state of humans on a large scale, and also has the power to interfere with existing technology and conceal his presence."

"And most importantly, at least for now, he appears to be human."

"Therefore, there is no doubt that he possesses the corresponding wisdom."

After stating the available information, the person added quietly:

"If someone like him chooses to betray us, the damage he would cause to civilization would be far more terrible than that caused by a normal Herrscher."

The atmosphere in the room froze; everyone present understood the implications.

Su Qing'an's existence is undoubtedly a double-edged sword.

The pros and cons, the good and the bad, are all laid out before us.

"It might have been a mistake not to notice his survival before. If we had taken measures to control him when he was seriously injured, none of you here would be in this predicament now."

Given the official style of disliking unexpected factors and the tradition of centralized power, individual heroism is not something to be encouraged.

Moreover, this so-called hero was someone who was caught in the Honkai Fission Bomb ordered by them; no one could be sure if there was any resentment in his heart.

The most crucial point is that Su Qing'an is simply too mysterious.

The United Nations has a high degree of control over the world. In this era of widespread artificial intelligence, it is impossible to find any trace of a person's life over the past ten years.

But this boy did it; after tracing his life trajectory back about a year, no trace of his existence could be found.

Some people even suspected that Su Qing'an might be a humanoid Honkai Beast.

Clearly, based on our current understanding of Honkai...

Only beings as powerful as the Herrscher can resemble humanoid figures.

While the two are indeed quite similar in terms of power and threat, the reality that the birth of Herrscher requires Herrscher body renders this assumption invalid.

Therefore, the so-called humanoid Honkai Beast is just an unprecedented speculation. Considering the fact that it previously fought against the Herrscher and is currently in the state of the Moth to Fire, the possibility that Su Qing'an is on the Honkai side is very low.

Even so, it was still difficult for them to accept that such powerful forces were in the hands of people whose backgrounds were unknown.

If it can be controlled, that would be the best outcome, but choosing to destroy it when it cannot be controlled conflicts with one's own interests and makes the current state of the world order even worse.

Without a foolproof method to kill their opponent, acting rashly would mean facing the unnoticed depletion of the world's population and precise, terrifying assassinations.

From Su Qing'an's quelling of the Yakarta unrest, the upper echelons not only saw his recklessness but also his incomprehensible power.

This may not have been the boy's original intention, but after they found out, they were indeed more hesitant to act against him.

Since Su Qing'an was able to perfectly quell the chaos within twenty minutes, and silently kill nearly a thousand people in the process, it means he is capable of even more terrifying things.

Even though the Martial Immortal had stated that those killed were all traitors with ties to the Honkai, the sensitive authorities couldn't help but suspect that this was a deliberate killing stunt, intended as a demonstration and warning to their side, to prevent them from doing anything unnecessary.

"Regardless of whether what the other party says is true or false, directly confronting them is not a choice that aligns with the current situation."

"Let's cooperate appropriately within the bounds of tolerance; we need his strength now."

After he finished speaking, the impromptu meeting was adjourned with several people nodding in agreement.

Meanwhile, Mei, whose experimental pilot project had been completely destroyed, dialed Su Qing'an's number...