Something Seemed Wrong
June 7, the day of the college entrance exam.
Beneath Jiangzhou City Psychiatric Hospital, all the cultists had stayed awake through the night, praying before the statue of their god.
Lu Yuan was praying too, though he was praying that the Internal Affairs Bureau would come through.
Yesterday, Lu Yuan had originally planned to drop the note on the road, hoping the god of luck would bless him and a kindhearted person would pick it up and deliver it to the Internal Affairs Bureau in time. Though he knew the odds were that a sanitation worker would simply sweep it into the trash.
To his surprise, he had run into his younger sister outside the exam venue and managed to slip the note into Xiao Bing's hand without drawing Guo Huai's attention.
That wasn't just a blessing from the god of luck. The god of luck had practically descended in person.
But now, Lu Yuan found himself torn between hope and fear. He had been prepared to die, but now he desperately wanted to live.
The information on the note was fairly complete, and he trusted that the Internal Affairs Bureau wouldn't let the cult succeed. But it lacked the most important detail: the cult's base was at Jiangzhou City Psychiatric Hospital.
He had written down the information in his cell yesterday, but he hadn't known where he was at the time. By the time he was brought aboveground and figured it out, he had no chance at all to write it down.
That meant the Internal Affairs Bureau had no way to find him here and rescue him.
He could only hope the Internal Affairs Bureau would make its move on the road and, preferably, not take too long. He still had an exam to take...
In the prayer hall, Guo Huai arrived late, nodding repeatedly as he held a phone to his ear:
"Understood, understood! We certainly will!"
After hanging up, he walked to the statue of the god and called out:
"Today will be a great day!"
"Lord Protector is praying for us. He asked me to tell everyone that the Divine Lord has answered his prayers. Every believer taking part in today's operation will enter the Divine Lord's divine kingdom!"
"Holy!"
At the news of such grace, the cultists throughout the prayer hall erupted in cheers, the last traces of their fear vanishing completely.
Lu Yuan joined in the cheering, throwing himself into it with gusto.
Guo Huai nodded and ordered Lu Yuan and the other three forward, then took four boxes from Sheng Hong.
Lu Yuan opened his box and found a pair of leather shoes inside. They were heavy, with thick heels, like elevator shoes. Lu Yuan was baffled. At 1.82 meters tall, he really didn't need these things.
"Your assignment is the most important, so listen carefully."
Guo Huai began to explain.
The shoes had been specially modified, with one kilogram of explosives hidden in the two soles. They could pass through the exam venue's security checkpoint.
The security gate at the exam venue would normally have detected what was hidden in the soles, but it had been tampered with during installation, raising the entire gate by three centimeters.
"So remember, don't lift your feet when you pass through the security gate. Walk through with your soles brushing the ground. There will be lots of examinees going in together. Blend into the crowd and don't draw attention."
Xu Wenbin and the others nodded to show they understood.
Guo Huai and Sheng Hong each had a detonator. When the bell signaling the start of the exam rang, they would detonate the bombs simultaneously.
But as a precaution against the exam venue's electromagnetic shielding system interfering with the detonation signal, the bombs disguised as shoes also had a manual detonation function.
"You can turn the heel by applying force. If the bombs still haven't gone off by the time the bell stops ringing, detonate them yourselves immediately. The fuse lasts five seconds, so you only need to wait a moment."
At this point, Guo Huai asked, still uneasy:
"None of you are afraid to die, are you?"
Xu Wenbin and the others smiled.
"The Holy Church endures forever, and I shall never perish!"
The Divine Lord's glorious divine kingdom awaited them. They had already seen it with their own eyes in their dreams, so how could they still be afraid?
The last cult guard would lead the other cultists in an attack on the students' parents outside the exam venue.
The explosion inside the venue would be the signal to act. When it happened, the cultivators would surely all rush inside to save the students, giving the cultists more time to slaughter.
With all the assignments given out, the cultists drank a toast before setting off. They piled into three vans and left their lair in a grand procession.
Jiangzhou First Hospital, 8 a.m.
Li Tailai put on his white coat, entered the examination room, and began his day's work.
He was always stern and rarely smiled, making it hard for others to tell what he was really thinking.
But today, the corners of Li Tailai's mouth kept curling up slightly, betraying the joy in his heart.
Today would be a great day.
The exam venue would explode, countless examinees would die horrible deaths, and the Hua People Cultivators' Federation would lose all credibility.
And he, Li Tailai, would be promoted by the Holy Church for such a tremendous achievement, leaving this place that was barely clinging to life behind for good.
Even others could see his joy. The assistant doctor in the examination room patted him on the shoulder and asked:
"Director Li, got some good news?"
Li Tailai frowned. The assistant was being a little too familiar, patting him on the shoulder like that. But he was in a good mood today and didn't intend to make an issue of it.
"Mm, some good news," Li Tailai said dismissively. "How many patients have appointments today?"
"There aren't any appointments for now," the assistant replied.
Li Tailai's eyebrows rose slightly at that. This was a rare occurrence.
Li Tailai's public identity was a Twilight Syndrome specialist at Jiangzhou First Hospital. He had used that position to recruit many believers from among his desperate patients.
But there was one troublesome thing about that identity: he had so many patients that he was often too busy to get away.
To think he had no patients today. He had some rare free time. After a moment's thought, Li Tailai told his assistant:
"I'm going upstairs to look at the scenery. Call me if anyone comes."
"All right."
The scenery Li Tailai wanted to see was naturally the spectacular sight of the exam venue exploding. There was a large open-air terrace upstairs at Jiangzhou First Hospital, with a view over all of Jiangzhou City. That was where Li Tailai was headed.
The terrace was only one flight of stairs from his examination room. Seeing that the elevator was still on the first floor, Li Tailai, in a cheerful mood, took the stairs beside it instead.
As he walked, Li Tailai thought.
*After today's operation, the Cultivators' Federation will certainly search all over Jiangzhou City like mad dogs.
If I leave at a time like this, it'll definitely arouse suspicion. I'll need to wait a while.*
The stairs were long. Li Tailai stopped to catch his breath, then continued climbing, still working things out in his head.
*Some of the believers know my true identity. I absolutely can't leave any of them alive to fall into the Internal Affairs Bureau's hands.
I hope Guo Huai does a clean job.
If things get dangerous, I can flee to Shaoxian City. I'll book a ticket there later and have it on hand, then act according to the situation.*
Li Tailai thought about many things for a long time.
But the stairs beneath his feet never seemed to end. He looked up. In the pitch-black surroundings, the staircase spiraled upward, stretching infinitely into the starry sky.
Li Tailai's steps grew halting. After climbing for who knew how long, his strength gradually began to fail him, and he was drenched in sweat.
"These stairs... why are they so long...?"
He gasped for breath, his vision darkening and his consciousness gradually growing hazy.
In the final second before he lost consciousness, Li Tailai suddenly felt a little puzzled.
Something seemed wrong.