Volume Four: Withering in the Mortal World - Chapter 315: Successful Infiltration
"All those wishing to enter the city, please abide by the rules and undergo inspection by the Divine Spellcaster. I repeat, please..."
At the checkpoint Torres City, all sorts of vehicles and pedestrians lined up neatly and slowly moved forward for inspection.
"... No problem, next one!"
Next to be inspected were a large truck loaded with used books and a van that appeared to be carrying meat.
"Stop here and show your identification first."
The truck carrying the books stopped at a checkpoint, and two Divine Spellcaster dressed in prosecutor's uniforms immediately approached, both looking impatient. The driver rolled down the window and handed over the vehicle registration and cargo manifest. One of the Divine Spellcaster took them, glanced at them a few times, and then looked away, his face hardening.
"Hey, hey, hey... I'm saying, something seems off about these certificates?"
Do you know the consequences of presenting forged documents?
The two Divine Spellcaster spoke in unison, their expressions increasingly terrifying.
That's what they say, but it's obviously a lie; they didn't find anything wrong with the documents and list at all.
"I'm sorry, sir, perhaps the identification is too old. It must be very tiring for you to guard this place all this time... Would you like to try some of the pastries my wife made?"
The shrewd truck driver immediately handed over a small cardboard box containing snacks. A Divine Spellcaster casually opened the box and then, with astonishing speed, snatched a few bills from inside and stuffed them into his pocket.
This is a fairly common unspoken rule among long-time drivers. At places like security checkpoints, they always pretend to find something wrong during the inspection to skim some extra money; everyone knows it.
"Hmm... it seems the documents are fine. Next is the routine scan with divine magic, just a formality, please cooperate."
Feeling the thickness of the bill, the Divine Spellcaster's attitude immediately improved, and he even wanted to let the sensible driver go directly. However, the routine sorcerer scan was still unavoidable. After all, the Rebel Army had been too rampant lately, and if something really happened, they would be in big trouble.
Each of them held a Spirit Artifact engraved with Divine Word, and silently chanted incantations. Immediately, two pale golden beams of light swept across the truck, one from front to back and the other from back to front.
"Hmm... no reaction to contraband, and no signs of life from the stowaway. Move on, next one!"
"Ah, wait a minute, sir, the meat truck behind us is with me, please—" As he spoke, the driver handed over a small cigarette case, which made a rustling sound, like paper rubbing together, as he shook it slightly.
"Heh, you guys are really sensible."
Having accepted the cigarette case stuffed with money, the two Divine Spellcaster merely glanced at the identification documents before returning them to the next vehicle, proceeding directly to the security check and scanning process.
"Hmm... it is indeed a meat truck, full of chilled beef and mutton. There's nothing not on the delivery slip, no contraband, no signs of life... Alright, move on, next one!"
"Thank you, sir!"
"Stop talking nonsense and don't waste my time!"
The meat truck driver gave an awkward smile and immediately followed the book truck into the territory of Sadington City.
And inside the cargo box of the meat truck—
The cargo box uses high-quality ice stone for refrigeration, which keeps the meat inside as fresh and tender as possible without spoiling or freezing. Among the piles of fresh meat, several oddly shaped objects are hidden inside.
Those things should theoretically be human, with beautiful long hair and slender bodies. But their limbs were bent in strange directions, and they were just like large chunks of meat, lying haphazardly on the metal bottom of the cargo box, completely unrecognizable as human. The low temperature generated by the refrigeration made their body temperature almost the same as the frozen meat around them, and for some reason, the blood in their bodies had almost stopped flowing, and their organs had entered a near-dormant state. Even the divine magic used for security checks could not detect any signs of life.
A long time.
The two vehicles turned into a small alley. After confirming that no one was around, the meat truck driver, Sasin, and the book truck driver, Dorothy, along with two co-drivers who were also members of the Seventh Division in disguise, got out of the vehicles and opened the cargo boxes.
"Hey-- Blood Emperor, we made it through safely~~~"
As Dorothy called softly, the pink-haired thing in the pile of flesh moved strangely.
Glug, glug, glug. The blood, which had nearly stagnated, resumed its flow, and the frozen skin gradually regained its warmth. She seemed to have done something else, causing the blood in the other two groups of things next to her to begin flowing as well. The white-haired thing recovered first; as soon as she emerged from her near-dormant state, her deliberately dislocated joints immediately and rapidly returned to normal. She put back the dislocated joints of the pink-haired and black-haired things, which had also been deliberately bent in strange directions, back in place, like assembling building blocks. Soon, the two of them were also completely restored to normal.
"Ugh—it feels so bad!"
"Your bodies are so stiff..."
"You're too soft, you delinquent."
Haoyue stretched lazily, her bones cracking and popping. Even with her flexibility, being forcibly dislocated and curled up was quite difficult. Xiao Wu, on the other hand, looked relaxed. She could disassemble all her joints using only muscle strength, which seemed to be a secret technique called Bone Shrinking Technique passed down among the Oni Ghost Clan.
By hiding in meat trucks to fool the meat quality inspection, by dislocating joints and twisting limbs to fool the human-shaped object inspection, by making the blood flow infinitely sluggish to fool the life response inspection, and with the Seventh Division's skillful acting, we were able to enter Sadington City so smoothly.
"Now that we're here, let's not waste any more time and start the teleportation!"
The truck carrying books was opened from the back, and a large stack of books was unloaded and laid out on the ground. As the books were unpacked, Xiao, far away in Torres City, received the signal.
"They've opened the book! Looks like they've successfully entered the city!"
Xiao excitedly sent out the message, and everyone immediately erupted in excitement.
"Very well! With that, the first step of this great battle is complete! Men of the Seventh Division, heed my command!"
The other members of the Seventh Division who were waiting there immediately stood up straight, all looking at their great leader with solemnity and fervor in their eyes.
"You are the vanguard in this operation. Your mission is to control the Great Teleportation Array and isolate Sadington from the other cities at the start of the battle! This mission will inevitably be fraught with unpredictable dangers, but you are all battle-hardened elite warriors, capable of taking on hundreds single-handedly. You will surely achieve the most dazzling results! Long live the revolution!!!"
"Long live the revolution!!!!"
"Then-- Miss Xiao!"
"Ah, ah--Yes! I'm starting!"
Xiao immediately slammed the large stack of books in front of her onto the ground. As she did so, the pages of these books emitted a dazzling light, like doors leading to another world.
"It's done. Now, you just need to get close enough to the glowing pages to automatically enter them and then come out from their side!"
"Excellent! The time has finally come! Advance, warriors! You are the most unstoppable vanguard!"
"Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh!!!!!!"
"Alright, now it's time for a new round of task assignments..."
As we watched the soldiers of the Seventh Division emerge from the glowing pages of the book, our pink, black, and white trio began to discuss. I kept observing the appearance of the soldiers who were being transported from the book, but I was somewhat disappointed to find that they didn't have the severe motion sickness I had experienced.
Does that mean motion sickness (car sickness, seasickness, airsickness) is a privilege unique to humans?
"Hey, Ye! Did you hear what we just said?"
"Yes, yes, yes... In short, we'll promote No to the whole world in the future."
"Pantsism, huh?"
"What are you listening to?!" "Xiao Ye, good job! I'll take my clothes off right now!"
Just kidding, but these two are reacting really strongly, and in completely different ways. By the way, Haoyue, why don't you tie the rope that's holding your underwear back up first?
"Speaking of which, it seems our mission after entering the city is to cooperate with the Revolutionary Army, which means we won't have anything to do until the operation begins."
"Tomorrow is the first day of the Sadington Holy Spirit Festival Holy Spirit Festival, which lasts for four days. The Revolutionary Army will launch a general offensive on the last day. That day is the climax of the Holy Spirit Festival, and it seems that Big Figure will be present. Who is it?"
"Each time, Saintess from the neighboring province will grace us with her presence. The three provinces take turns visiting. According to Nid, this year it will be... Virgo Saintess."
"In short, there are only four days left until the official operation. At dawn on the fourth day, the Revolutionary Army's elite troops will enter the city in force through Xiaoshu. At the same time, the Seventh Division must take control of the large teleportation array; it can't be any earlier or later."
"Then let's proceed with the operation. Xiao Wu will assist the Seventh Division in breaching the teleportation array that day, while Haoyue and I will go, one to kidnap the Saintess and hold back the Papal Army, and the other to join forces with the Revolutionary Army to attack the enemy."
"Let's settle on that."
"So..."
Now the problem arises.
"There are three days of Holy Spirit Festival before the operation begins. How should we pass the time?"
"Dating with Xiao Ye, shopping together, eating delicious food together, buying new clothes together, celebrating youth together, flirting with innocent women together, corrupting pure girls together, rolling around in bed together, deep kissing together, doing naughty things in alleys together, kicking the balls of men who hit on us together, living in presidential suites together, getting married together, buying a house on a mortgage together, having children together, changing diapers together, attending parent-teacher conferences together--"
Stop, you're thinking too much, too far ahead, and it's terrible.
"You guys do your thing, I'm just wandering around."
Hey, is that all you have to say? Why are you two always at opposite ends of the spectrum?!
Unbeknownst to them, almost at the same time they passed through security, a petite, gray-haired girl also arrived in Sadington City.
The method of sneaking in was simple: find an old-fashioned carriage, crawl inside a horse to mask your scent, and you'd be in. Although she failed to communicate with the horse because she didn't understand its language, she believed that as long as she didn't hurt it, it would accept her.
She had simply found a new robe—though new, it was really just something she'd picked up from a trash can. She wrapped herself up tightly in it, her face hidden in the shadow of the hood. Silently, she walked along the city streets. Anyone who passed her would assume she was just a little beggar and wouldn't give her a second glance, though whispers would occasionally escape her ears.
"Tsk, tomorrow is the Holy Spirit Festival and I still see such a wretched commoner. What bad luck."
"Don't beggars and vagrants get rid of the Holy Spirit before the Holy Spirit Festival?"
"Where's the patrol? We've all paid our taxes, so why aren't they kicking her out?"
"So dirty..."
These kinds of words always got into her ears, but Sin Annihilation certainly wouldn't waste her energy on them. Having grown up as a killing machine, she didn't understand the so-called "distinction between noble and lowly." All she was thinking about now was how to find the pink-haired girl's trail most efficiently. She was certain the pink-haired girl and her group had entered Sadington City, but the question was...?
At this time--
"Hey, you! Stop right there!"
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It's the fourth day without Monthly Votes... but my remaining integrity won't allow me to throw myself into it.