Chapter 58

The countless bloodlines that were trying to capture Ye Jiang suddenly froze, solidifying in the air into a chaotic and ominous still picture.

Ye Jiang stopped dodging, looked up at the sky and then at the Blood Knight. The Blood Knight, clad in heavy armor, seemed to be stuck; his armor trembled as if he had been attacked. But Ye Jiang didn't attack; he just kept dodging. What could attack the Blood Knight? Words?

"Your sword is nothing but pretty; it's useless and superfluous."

Was it this sentence?

Ye Jiang tilted her head in confusion, wanting to get closer to check on the Blood Knight's condition, but the Blood Knight's blood-based superpowers activated again, attacking Ye Jiang.

But the attack has become much weaker, like a sudden...

It suddenly seemed to rust, becoming less maneuverable.

Ye Jiang dodged the bloodline, but then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed her employer watching her and the Blood Knight. Remembering her purpose, she touched her nose and got down to business. Her employer wanted to confirm if the Blood Knight was the person he was looking for. How could he confirm? The Blood Knight was completely encased in armor from head to toe; how could he possibly confirm that?

Ye Jiang's gaze fell on the Blood Knight's helmet. With a thought, she flashed behind the Blood Knight Blood Knight and reached out a hand to pull at the helmet. Hmm, she couldn't budge it. The helmet didn't look like it was put on, but rather welded on.

She gave up and returned to the ground.

"Halftime break," Ye Jiang said to the Blood Knight, not caring whether the Blood Knight listened or not, because she was going to find her employer and discuss how to confirm the method.

She had just turned around when her employer, who had been in a safe place, suddenly appeared, brushed past her, and ran straight towards the Blood Knight, the wind whipping up and hitting Ye Jiang's face.

A streak of blood shot out, heading straight for the man's chest. Ye Jiang raised her sword, ready to step forward.

Is that you?

The man's hoarse voice carried through the air, and the streak of blood that shot out paused for the second time in mid-air.

Silence.

Realizing something, the man's dry, chapped lips trembled, and his eyes turned bloodshot.

"... Is that you?"

He spoke again, but in an even softer voice, as if afraid of disturbing something.

The bloodline in the air suddenly dissipated, turning into a blood mist that vanished under the scorching sun. The Blood Knight trembled again, the sound growing louder. Crack! A crack appeared in the helmet. Crack! Another crack appeared, and a pair of empty eyes appeared behind the crack, eyelashes fluttering, a red mole at the corner of each eye.

Ji Jia stayed.

It's her.

He was the hero he had been searching for...

Memories drift back ten years.

The sleeping boy was startled awake by a tremor and found himself lying in the ruins. The steel and mud had provided him with a small shelter, but they had also injured his leg.

Polluted?

Where are his parents?

The boy was bewildered and terrified.

Thump--thump--

The Polluted lingered around, his footsteps sounding as if they were pounding on his heart.

I'm so scared.

I'm so scared.

He covered his ears.

A beam of light shone on his face--

Oh, you're here.

The girl in uniform bent down and peered into the hole. "Are you hurt?"

"Don't be afraid, it's just a minor injury. There are healing-type ability users outside; your injury is nothing." The girl held out her hand to him. "Little brother, come out; your parents are looking for you outside."

The girl, who had only recently joined the Ability Control Bureau, was full of energy. She loved to laugh, and when she did, her eyes crinkled into crescents and sparkled.

The boy looked at her, bewildered. The light from the flashlight shining on his face made him feel as if he were seeing the sun in the darkness. His fear vanished because of the girl's smile. That day, he asked around and finally learned the girl's name—

Chen Zhuozhuo.

She was only a few years older than him, but she was already a capable member of the Bureau of the Ability Control Bureau's Operations Team. The boy's heart began to beat for her.

Later, the boy often went to the gate of the Ability Control Bureau to peek at the girl. He watched her and her colleagues go in and out of the Ability Control Bureau, and a smile was always on her face. After the girl noticed him, she would sometimes walk up to him and ask him how he did on his exams and why she was acting like that. The boy felt ashamed of the terrible grades he had just received. That was the last time he was a bad student.

The boy later grew into a man and became a scholar.

Years have passed, but she remains the undying sun in his heart, the hero who occupies his soul.

He simply wanted to silently observe his hero.

But the girl never appeared again that day; she disappeared.

The man was extremely anxious and went to the Ability Control Bureau to inquire, only to be told that she had gone on a secret mission and her return date was uncertain. The man had a premonition that his hero was doing something very, very dangerous, and he couldn't sleep all night.

One day, a letter appeared on his desk. He didn't know who wrote it or who put it there.

The person you're looking for is in City S.

That's what the letter said.

This is a hook, a very straight hook, with the scent of bait and intrigue.

But so what? Even so, he went ahead without hesitation.

"It's you," the man said hoarsely. He had finally seen his sun.

The Blood Knight swayed, a glimmer of light appearing in her empty eyes. She saw the man before her, and the city further behind him. The ruined city before her eyes was a desolate gray, broken as if dismembered, devoid of life. And all of this... all of this... the blazing sun, the lava, the flames...

The man took a step forward, and the Blood Knight abruptly retreated. She ran away without looking back, running straight ahead until she reached the edge of the Sun District. Her heavy body crashed into an invisible barrier. She kept crashing and crashing until suddenly the air vibrated, and she broke through the barrier. In that instant, the blazing sun of the Sun District distorted. She ran forward, but before she could get far, she was swept into the distortion and disappeared.

The Blood Knight landed in a dilapidated building. After a moment, she recognized it as the place she returned to after each time she went out to protect her love.

There was no one in the room, only some gravel scattered on the floor.

Ahead was a door, an utterly ordinary door. Behind that door was her lover, who had become Polluted. It was to protect him that she raised her sword.

Her love was as fiery as magma, as intense as flames, as blazing as the sun.

She stood stiffly at the door, where her lover was, but her heart was gripped by fear; she was terrified of what lay behind the door.

Mechanically reaching out, the old door creaked open a crack with a creaking sound.

She paused, her hand, which could easily lift a heavy sword weighing dozens of kilograms, trembled uncontrollably as if it could not bear the weight.

She pushed the door open suddenly, and the room opened wide to her.

She looked into the room.

There was nothing inside.

Her tormented lover was not inside as she had hoped.

Her lover unexpectedly became Polluted, and he was misunderstood by the world, so she wanted to kill everyone in the world.

But her lover wasn't inside.

Her lover does not exist.

What was she protecting all along? A hollow "noun," a fabricated "noun." The friends, neighbors, and meddlesome strangers who threatened her lover in her eyes were actually just ordinary people. She killed ordinary people.

She is a murderer.

"Huh... uh..."

A hissing sound came from her throat.

Click--

Click--

Click--

The heavy helmet cracked in several places, and she clutched her head in pain as memories began to flood back.

She was selected from the school to enter the trial grounds because of her outstanding potential. She awakened her supernatural abilities, entered the Ability Control Bureau Ability Control Bureau training, and became a formal member. She killed the first Polluted, she saved the first life, then the second, the third... She once swore that her hands would forever protect her fellow human beings. She... she killed the first ordinary person, killed the second, the third...

"Ah!"

She groaned in pain, looking down at her hands, blood dripping down, her hands stained with the blood of the people she truly wanted to protect.

"Ahh!"

She rubbed her hands vigorously, but there was so much blood that she fell to the ground in fright.

Why?

Why is this happening?

Is this a nightmare?

"Aaaaaaah!"

She ran out of the place in a panic, out of this nightmare. As she stumbled out of the building, a cacophony of voices rushed towards her. She steadied herself and realized she had stumbled into a makeshift settlement of thousands of people, who were working in the ruins, cleaning up the damage caused by the previous strange phenomenon.

She... she actually broke into the protective base that the Ability Control Bureau had built for the public, and the building she had been staying in was right next to the Bureau of the Ability Control Bureau's base!

The people were struggling to survive, while the Blood Knight slaughtered them were resting in the nearby high-rise buildings.

The Blood Knight stood motionless, her blood running cold. At this moment, she deeply felt a kind of malice; someone was toying with her, and with all the people in the city.

Her soul was roaring in fury--

Monster!

She remembered that she had come to the city to investigate the monster "Writer," a routine annual investigation. But as soon as she arrived, she lost her memory and was filled with an obsession. Someone had created a persona for her and fabricated a malicious story for her.

Unaware that she was lost in the story, her bloodline powers brought devastation wherever they went.

straight

Then someone came before her and took her sword. The complete knight's outfit was part of her persona. With the sword gone, the perfectly fitting persona was no longer complete. In that instant, her true will briefly awakened, resisting the false persona that didn't belong to her. Later, that person attacked her persona, saying her sword was useless and superfluous. In fact, it was useless and superfluous to begin with. This attack was an attack on the creator himself, and it was very effective. Her will was further released. Just then, she encountered her old friend, her younger brother who had followed her and revered her as a hero. The rift was created.