Rebuke

"You arrived right on time," Yaoguang remarked. He glanced down at You Long's corpse, which had slumped to the floor. In just that brief moment, the demonic traits across his body had already receded, leaving him looking no different from an ordinary human. "Su Yaoguang, you..." Lin Xiaowei stared wide-eyed, her face filled with disbelief. "Drop your weapon!" two officers barked immediately. Xia Wuyuan also looked at Yaoguang. "With the evidence right before our eyes, what more do you have to say?" "Say what?" Yaoguang countered. "That faced with a crisis, I acted in self-defense?" *Self-defense?* The group watched as Yaoguang, right in front of these officers and prosecutors, wiped the blood from his Chengying sword against You Long's corpse... *You call this self-defense?* In all their lives, they had never seen anyone so arrogant. "Still, your arrival isn't completely useless," Yaoguang said, turning his gaze toward a middle-aged man who had entered alongside them and appeared to be part of Yulong International's management. "If I were you, I would take him into custody immediately, call for reinforcements, and seal off all of Yulong International. Otherwise, the number of people erased and silenced like that young girl just now won't be just one or two." "What do you mean?" Xia Wuyuan faintly sensed that this matter was far from simple. "Use your head," Yaoguang said. "Your way up here wasn't smooth, was it? They must have done everything they could to stall for time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have reached this floor before you." "Did you come to investigate the cause of that victim's death?" Lin Xiaowei offered as an excuse for him. Yaoguang walked straight over to the desk. Thanks to his sharp hearing, he had caught something when he pushed open the door earlier, and he didn't mind letting these people hear it for themselves. He redialed the number from the recent call. The call was quickly answered, and a man's voice came through. "President You, we've already begun destroying this batch of cargo..." However, halfway through the sentence, the Yulong International executive, who clearly knew what You Long had been doing, couldn't help shouting out: "Inspector Lin, Prosecutor Xia! What are you just standing there for?! The murderer who killed President You is right in front of you, and you're just watching?! Why haven't you arrested him yet?!" At those words, the voice on the other end paused, and the next second— *Beep, beep, beep!* The line went dead. The sudden change in tone caused Lin Xiaowei, Xia Wuyuan, and the others to pale at once. Lin Xiaowei turned directly toward the middle-aged man, her voice laced with fury. "Director Jiang, do you take all of us for fools?" "I don't know what you're talking about! All I know is that you're standing by indifferently while a killer murders President You, doing nothing to arrest him! If you can't do your jobs, we can do it for you! Men!" The man addressed as Director Jiang shouted out the door. Immediately, over a dozen men rushed over from a distance. Some held security equipment like side-handle batons and riot forks. Fortunately, Dayu had strict gun control laws, or the weapons in their hands would not have been so simple. "Don't you dare!" Lin Xiaowei drew her handgun on the spot. "I should remind you: if my guess is correct, the 'cargo' they mentioned isn't what you think," Yaoguang interjected. Drawing from Yu Xiaoying's ordeal, making the connection was easy. "It's people." Looking at Lin Xiaowei, Xia Wuyuan, and the others, he spoke swiftly: "They are using some covert method to destroy a batch of people at top speed... Literal destruction—killing them, cremating them, putting them through a meat grinder, whatever it takes to make them vanish from the earth." At this, he paused. "This batch could be a few, a dozen, or even dozens or hundreds." *Dozens, hundreds of people murdered?!* *What kind of monstrous case was this?!* Lin Xiaowei, Xia Wuyuan, and the rest felt their scalps tingle with dread. Without Yu Xiaoying's case serving as a precedent, they naturally wouldn't have believed a word from Yaoguang, this "murderer." Yet that phone call just now... They had come up to investigate specifically because they suspected Yu Xiaoying's death was tied to Yulong International. Even in this situation, Director Jiang was willing to risk confirming their suspicions just to cover things up. The truth... was definitely more horrifying than anything they had imagined. "Jiang Feng, are you still refusing to confess?!" Lin Xiaowei demanded sharply. Even though... Yaoguang was the one caught red-handed who ought to be subdued, his complex background, combined with the pressing urgency of the situation, caused her to turn her focus onto Director Jiang first. "Confess to what?! All I see is you protecting a murderer! I will definitely report this to your superiors!" Jiang Feng pointed at Yaoguang and barked to the dozen-odd Yulong International thugs who had rushed in, "Take him down! He's the killer who murdered President You! As for these so-called inspectors and prosecutors... they have shady ties with him and are shielding each other! They can't be trusted! We'll take him down first and hand him over to our Shanlong City Security Department!" "Yes, sir!" Over a dozen men bellowed in unison and instantly lunged at Yaoguang. "Stop!" Lin Xiaowei yelled. "If you don't stop, I will shoot!" "Outrageous!" Another stern shout echoed from outside the door. Immediately, Chairman Ou Zhengyang of Yulong International strode in, glaring at Lin Xiaowei. "We are assisting our Shanlong City Security Department in apprehending a murderer caught in the act! You're an inspector from Yunmeng City—if you dare open fire to obstruct us, I take it you don't want your job anymore!" He waved his hand aggressively, barking an order: "Seize the killer!" "You..." Watching Yulong International's men ignore her drawn gun now that they had Ou Zhengyang's backing, Lin Xiaowei felt both shock and rage. Yet in this exact situation... she didn't dare pull the trigger. "Stop! Didn't you hear us tell you to stop?!" Zhang Qing and the others yelled after her. "Truly... useless," Yaoguang muttered, shaking his head. He had originally hoped they would press on with a forceful investigation, using Yulong International as a thread to blow the lid off this entire affair and test the concrete attitude of the higher-ups. Now, it seemed... he would have to do it himself. *Swish!* In the next instant, Yaoguang charged forward with his sword against the dozen or so thugs and martial artists swarming toward him. The two fastest martial artists wielded riot forks, thrusting one high and one low to pin Yaoguang. Yet just as their riot forks closed in, Yaoguang leaped into the air. He stomped one riot fork down beneath his feet while relying on the sharpness of Chengying to shear right through the other. *Clang!* Sparks flew. Yaoguang sprang forward. Compared to the hesitations and apprehensions of Lin Xiaowei, Zhang Qing, and Ye Yuhe, he was utterly uninhibited. Closing in on the armed martial artists, the sword in his hand flashed like cold light across the void, instantly piercing through the skull of one of them. *Squelch!* Blood spurted. Yaoguang pivoted fluidly, the gleam of Chengying continuing its sweep toward another martial artist. The man had barely reacted before the edge slashed across his throat, trailing a spray of crimson blood as Yaoguang pressed on toward a third. Serving as jackals to a tiger. Perhaps they didn't know You Long was a demon. But they certainly knew what he had been up to. In a sense, they had become the demon's claws and fangs. And should such claws dare reach out toward him... he would sever them without hesitation! This was a lesson learned from two close calls where soft-hearted mercy had nearly cost him everything. *Slash! Slash! Slash!* Carving into the crowd, Yaoguang slaughtered them like vegetables. Every strike went straight for vital points with vicious efficiency. How could mere martial artists or trained ordinary men withstand the slaughter of a battle-hardened Grandmaster like him? In the blink of an eye, five men lay dead. Such cold, bloody brutality chilled the souls of the remaining Yulong International combatants, raw terror flooding their eyes. *Killing?!* *He dared to kill right in front of Security Department inspectors?!* Each of them had indeed guessed more or less what You Long and the others were doing. Human trafficking. Yet they had never directly handled the specifics. They were only responsible for suppressing escapees and meddlers. They treated rumors as mere baseless gossip, never inquiring, pretending ignorance. Moreover, the salaries Yulong International offered were simply too high—every one of them earned a million a year—which was why they had stepped forward without hesitation whenever trouble arose. Normally, they dealt with ordinary rabble-rousers. This time, however... they faced an executioner even more vicious and cold-blooded than themselves, one who treated human life like worthless grass! *We'll die!* "Murder! He's killing people!" Watching colleagues with whom they had shared drinks and cigarettes get butchered in seconds—blood spraying, heads rolling—the less resolute men at the back let out terrified screams at the gruesome, bloody horror. Not only Yulong International's operatives, but even Lin Xiaowei, Zhang Qing, Xia Wuyuan, and Ye Yuhe felt their eyelids twitch in shock. *Crazy! This is insane!* Ye Yuhe couldn't help recalling Su Yaoyu pleading with her not long ago to protect Su Yaoguang. If Su Yaoguang truly was the Shadow Demon... the ones who needed protection were them! "Enough!" Seeing that Yulong International's men had lost all will to fight yet Yaoguang still hadn't stopped, Xia Wuyuan could watch no longer. With a fierce shout, he intervened, kicking a fallen side-handle baton into the air. The flying baton forced Yaoguang to sweep his sword across in a parry, batting it aside. "You want to stop me?" Yaoguang turned his gaze upon Xia Wuyuan. "Yulong International is already destroying those who know the truth. Every second you hold me back, another person might die. When they're all dead, it will be as if you killed them yourself. So, you intend to act as their accomplice and aid the wicked?" Xia Wuyuan, who had been about to step between Yaoguang and the thugs, paused slightly. "Yaoguang, put the sword down, quickly!" Lin Xiaowei snapped out of her daze and pleaded, "We will handle this! We won't wrong an innocent person, nor will we let any criminal go free..." "You can handle this? You pay lip service to upholding justice and the rule of law, yet right now, knowing full well that a dozen or even dozens of people are being slaughtered, all of you can only stand by and watch without lifting a finger—and you even have the nerve to stop me?! Who gave you the courage?! Because I'm easy to talk to?! Have you no shame at all?!" Yaoguang's reprimand was merciless. His words made the faces of Lin Xiaowei, Zhang Qing, and Xia Wuyuan turn green and pale by turns. Yet they had no words to rebut him. Their performance just now... had indeed been utterly pathetic. Besides... compared to Yulong International, the Su family was the true behemoth, wasn't it? If something really happened to Su Yaoguang right under their noses... "A bunch of useless trash!" Yaoguang barked harshly. His blunt, scathing scolding stripped away whatever righteous dignity the group had clung to, leaving them utterly humiliated.