Questioning

Fei Tong sensed something was wrong. While still midair, he tried his best to twist and adjust his body, but before he could regain full control, a figure flashed before him, and another fist came smashing in. With a resounding boom, he flew backward at an even greater speed and slammed into the wall of the open corridor behind him, punching a massive crater directly into it as flakes of plaster, bricks, and masonry came clattering down. Relying on his body, which was now reinforced by the mutated tendrils, he straightened up and let out a furious roar, about to counterattack. But Chen Chuan's next kick had already landed squarely on his cheek. This kick was packed with immense force and carried an upward-surging jin, sending his body soaring uncontrollably into the air. At that moment, he saw Chen Chuan below looking up at him, eyes dead calm. Then Chen Chuan's figure suddenly magnified before his eyes. Every hair on Fei Tong's body stood on end, and he hurriedly crossed his arms in front of him to block. A fist slammed into them an instant later. With two sharp cracks, both of his arms snapped, and the sheer force of the impact embedded him into the ceiling above. Having expended all his force, Chen Chuan plummeted back down. The moment his feet touched the ground, he sank his center of gravity, and an instant later sprang back up. A driving knee smashed into Fei Tong's chest and abdomen. Fei Tong's eyes bulged violently, and a torrent of fluids and blood spewed from his mouth. While still in midair, Chen Chuan grabbed hold of the tendrils on Fei Tong's body, then slammed him violently to the ground as he landed, immediately following through with another punch. With a thunderous crack, a gaping hole tore straight through Fei Tong's chest. Both the tendrils wrapped around his exterior and the bones and organs within exploded outward simultaneously, while the blood the tendrils had absorbed but not yet fully digested scattered in every direction, splattering all over the floor. This single punch blasted a hole straight through his body. Although the injury began to slowly knit together under the influence of the writhing tendrils, he was temporarily rendered incapable of movement. Seeing Fei Tong's eyes rolling back, Chen Chuan pulled back his fist, which was steaming with white mist, and straightened up from his crouch. He tapped his boundary credential and notified Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque, "Come back. I've found our culprit." Then his gaze swept over Fei Tong. Noticing something, he squatted back down, searched around Fei Tong's ear, and pulled something off the man's boundary credential. It was an insect with two slender antennae that seemed capable of shifting shape at will when pinched between fingers. He recognized it immediately: this was a mimic bug, a peculiar organism from the Confluence. By establishing a mental link with it, one could imitate any sound the bug had ever come into contact with. It seemed the noises from yesterday had been produced using this creature. No wonder his Second Self hadn't shown any signs of blurring throughout the night. Shifting his gaze, Chen Chuan reached out and grabbed the short sword Fei Tong was holding. Fei Tong seemed reluctant to let go, so Chen Chuan had to yank it free. Next, he took the silver-white scabbard, stood up, sheathed the sword, and hung it at his waist. Five or six minutes later, Yuan Qiuyuan and Qin Qingque appeared in the corridor. They were both startled when they saw Fei Tong on the ground, as his skin and the tendrils on his body bore an uncanny resemblance to Iron Demon's corpse. Chen Chuan said, "This is Fei Tong, the garrison commander of Fortress 285. He was behind everything." Yuan Qiuyuan stared wide-eyed at Fei Tong. "So it was this bastard all along? I knew it! An inside job—hardest thing to guard against." Chen Chuan asked, "Did you find anything outside just now?" Qin Qingque saluted and said, "Reporting to Captain: nothing found." Chen Chuan nodded. He had sent the two outside earlier to check for accomplices, but it appeared Fei Tong was acting alone. Although there were still questions surrounding the incident, now that the culprit was captured, the rest could always be sorted out. He said, "Send a telegram to the outpost." Two days later, a transport airship arrived above the fortress. Over a hundred soldiers descended from it and swiftly took control of the entire facility. The officer in charge shook hands with Chen Chuan and said, "Captain Chen, Superintendent Qiao received your telegram. Hearing that you captured Fei Tong alive, he attaches great importance to this matter and wants you to escort the prisoner back as soon as possible. That is why he arranged for you to return by airship." Chen Chuan acknowledged. He turned and called his men, and half an hour later, boarded the airship with his entire squad. Before long, under the pilot's controls, the airship lifted off the ground and gradually ascended into the sky. This was Yuan Qiuyuan's first time riding in an airship, and he found it quite novel. Having always stayed grounded before, looking down from the air offered an entirely different perspective—an experience he had never had. Many squad members were just like him, crowding against the angled portholes to look down, chattering excitedly. They were all in high spirits. They had originally assumed they would be spending the New Year out in the wilderness, but their captain was formidable enough to resolve the matter in no time. Once back, they wouldn't have to carry out any more missions; not only would they get some leave, but after signing confidentiality agreements, there was a good chance they could even go home for the New Year. After watching for a while, Chen Chuan went to the compartment where Fei Tong was being held. Although Fei Tong had been gravely wounded by his blows, the beating had also interrupted the process of being consumed and absorbed by the mutated tissue. Now his vital essence was depleted, making recovery virtually impossible, but the powerful vitality of the third limit still kept him clinging tenaciously to life. When Chen Chuan walked in, Fei Tong was staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought. Chen Chuan dismissed the guards. The two soldiers saluted him and stepped outside, pulling the hatch shut behind them. Chen Chuan walked over to the side, sat down, and asked, "Why did you do it?" Only after a long while did Fei Tong slant his eyes toward him and say, "Because I had no choice." "No choice?" Fei Tong gave a hollow laugh. "I'm thirty-nine this year. But just like you, Captain Chen, I reached the third limit at your age. Back then, I was a rising star in the spotlight, fawned over by everyone. After only six months out here, I was promoted to second-class enforcement officer and appointed garrison commander of a fortress outpost. "Yet you see where I am now. I'm still just a garrison commander. "Heh... twenty years. "Rank aside, to this day, I haven't even been granted a pathway to advance further—not a single sliver of opportunity. "You want to know why? "Back then, I was young, arrogant, and full of myself. I thought raw strength was all that mattered and nothing else was worth caring about. And that was precisely when I unwittingly offended someone. "I only found out later that this person had deep backing in the Defense Department. From then on, I was relentlessly sidelined and suppressed. "Every time I went on a mission, it would take ages for them to issue my special medicine. Then, every time I was just about ready to cultivate, another mission would come down, keeping me away for long stretches. Two years—for two whole damn years, they dragged me around like that." Gnashing his teeth, he continued, "Those two years should have been the prime window for my growth! My strength should have leaped forward, but they dragged me down. And that bastard pulled strings from above so I couldn't even quit if I wanted to! "After missing that window, no matter how hard I tried later, my progress never matched what it once was. And from start to finish, I was dumped on the front lines of the frontier regions. "Frontier work has always been the most grueling, thankless, and dangerous duty, yet my name came up every single time." He sneered. "I knew he hadn't forgotten me. He wanted to keep me down, grind me into the dirt, deny me any chance of rising up or taking revenge. Ideally, he wanted me to die out on some frontier operation!" Endless hatred blazed in his eyes. "I hate everyone who took part in holding me down! I wanted revenge! But on my own, I was powerless. Over twenty years, that man climbed higher and higher. Without connections or pull, there was no way I could touch him." He chuckled darkly. "What they didn't anticipate was that stationed on the frontier front line, I frequently dealt with people from the former imperial house. After signaling my willingness to contact them multiple times, I finally got in touch with Iron Demon. He was willing to point me toward a way out." Chen Chuan said, "Seems my deduction was correct." Fei Tong scoffed, his tone dripping with mockery. "Seeing you reminds me of myself back then. The same soaring spirits, the same boundless future... But so what? "The path forward is controlled by certain people. If they value you, fine, you might still have a chance. But the moment you don't dance to their tune and cross them, you won't be able to take a single step forward." Chen Chuan could hear the deep resentment and venom filling the man. Looking at Fei Tong, he said calmly, "You claim they wronged you and treated you like nothing. But what about the more than one hundred comrades you killed? Did you ever care about them? "When you bring all this up, you don't spare them a single thought, as if they were merely weeds by the roadside meant to be trampled beneath your feet. In your heart, they were just disposable sacrifices. From that angle, what difference is there between you and the people you despise?" Fei Tong's expression shifted slightly, then twisted into a hideous scowl. "What do you know? What do you know?! How could they ever compare to me?! I was born with talent! I am a fighter! I was meant to go much further! And what are they? "They're just a bunch of mediocre nonentities—dime a dozen! But me? Fei Tong! The achievements I've racked up over twenty years—can they even compare to that?! Can they?!" Chen Chuan said, "You take it for granted that your comrades are useless and can be discarded at whim. Yet in the eyes of the people who held you down, suppressing you was just as natural, because to them, you were equally worthless. "Both of you look down on those weaker than yourselves from high above. In essence, you are no different from the people you loathe. You simply didn't like being the one oppressed—you preferred being the oppressor." As if struck where it hurt most, Fei Tong began to tremble violently. His face flushed crimson as he roared, "What do you know?! What do you know?!" Chen Chuan did not argue with him. Instead, he gazed at him placidly and said, "If you had turned your wrath against the persecutors you speak of, I might have held a shred of respect for you. But you chose to draw your blade against those weaker than you. When all is said and done, you've never been anything more than a failure." Having said his piece, he had no interest in lingering. He stood up and walked out, leaving behind Fei Tong's bitter, venting roars. …… ……