Life's encounters were always wondrous.
People he had thought he would never see again, he met once more.
When they first crossed paths last night, the scavengers had looked like a band of savages—the ferocious, spear-wielding cannibal kind.
Yet meeting them this time, they had turned into quailing quails, shivering with their heads tucked in.
It was all the fault of the Special Control Bureau. Truly heinous.
Look how terrified they had made these poor folks—
Thinking this, Bai Zhou reached into his coat.
This single movement frightened the scavengers even more. Was he going for a gun? It had to be a gun!
This blood-crazed god of slaughter was probably going to whip out a firearm the very next second and casually mow them all down.
"Big brother! Great lord! We were wrong!"
A cowardly scavenger—the very one who had shouted "Oi! Oi!" the loudest when they first met Bai Zhou last night—fell to his knees with a thud.
"We really know we were wrong!"
He wept with snot and tears streaming down his face. "Last time, we shouldn't have driven you away! And we definitely shouldn't have pointed steel rebar at you!
"It was just that our place was too filthy, too foul—it wasn't worthy of you!"
He certainly set a fine example for the rest.
The other scavengers followed suit, wailing and howling toward Bai Zhou in a display of utter, heartfelt earnestness.
Bai Zhou: "..."
Those in the know would realize they were begging for mercy.
Those who didn't might think Bai Zhou had died.
It was just like wailing at a gravesite.
It gave him the distinct feeling that he had already been cremated and was about to be married off in a ghost wedding—even though his other half was nowhere in sight.
Then, under the intensely terrified gaze of the crowd, Bai Zhou shook his head helplessly and pulled out what he had reached for.
He drew out a crumpled, squashed paper bowl.
Faint traces of grease were visible on the inside.
Raindrops struck the bowl, soaking its outer rim.
After a brief moment of horror, the crowd's expressions shifted to confusion. Only Old Qiao, standing hunched in the distance, froze in place.
"Braised pork! Delicious!"
Holding his umbrella in the rain, with his back to the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, the youth addressed the kneeling scavengers with a solemn face.
Then, he looked over at Old Qiao from afar.
His gaze was like Moses's staff parting the sea; wherever it turned, the crowd scrambled aside.
Bai Zhou gave the stunned Old Qiao two quick winks and gave him a hearty thumbs-up.
"Tasted great! I finished every bite.
"Just... one small suggestion."
Bai Zhou said with a serious expression, "Next time, add a little more cooking wine."
"......?"
Pair after pair of bewildered eyes gradually relaxed.
The sound of rain grew fainter.
Steam rose into the air, and mist began to spread over the wasteland, slowly concealing the corpses scattered across the ground.
"Truly... thank you."
Using a piece of rebar as a crutch, Old Qiao walked over slowly.
He looked at Bai Zhou with an immensely complicated expression, so shocked that his mustache twitched upward.
"All of this is completely beyond our imagination.
"Perhaps this world really holds far too many mysteries we have never known—and deities as well."
Old Qiao looked at Bai Zhou with awe, who knew what wild fantasies were spinning through his head.
"If there is anything you need us to do, just say the word.
"For instance, helping you dispose of their bodies..."
"Hmm—" Bai Zhou blinked.
"Actually, there really is something I need your help with."
"What is it?" Old Qiao's spirits lifted.
Yet Bai Zhou merely smiled without answering. Turning toward the scavengers and looking at their uneasy faces, he called out:
"Everyone, please gather round."
He said earnestly, "I have an announcement to make—"
The crowd slowly gathered, looking at Bai Zhou with gratitude, curiosity, or unease.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Bai Zhou raised an index finger.
"Look here.
"—Say cheese!"
The miniature ritual carved into the pad of his finger flared with a snap, shining a pure white light into everyone's eyes.
Time seemed to freeze. Everyone stiffened in place.
In unison, they took on blank, dazed expressions.
Old Qiao, who had just been expressing his gratitude and offering help, now stood with his mustache quivering, staring blankly at Bai Zhou as he asked in a daze:
"Who are you?"
"Me?"
The corner of Bai Zhou's mouth curved upward as he replied breezily, "Just an ordinary passerby."
Then, Bai Zhou's low, steady voice resonated calmly in the depths of everyone's minds—
"Feel your breathing gradually become peaceful—
"Let your thoughts grow light... and empty—
"Turn around and walk away.
"Leave this place—and never return!"
The hypnotic ritual was complete.
The psychological suggestion was firmly planted in the scavengers' minds.
Watching the crowd stumble away into the distance, Bai Zhou finally let out a sigh of relief.
Forgetting everything here, leaving this place, and scattering to live elsewhere was the best protection for them.
Only by returning to being ordinary people who knew nothing of the mystical world could they avoid being hunted by ominous knowledge.
Now, everyone who had seen their faces was buried here.
As for whether they remembered him, it didn't matter.
Wasn't that what adventurers, or heroes, did?
When someone was in danger, they would gallop by, dropping from the sky to save them from dire straits.
Then, when the other party asked, *"Hero, could you leave your name? This humble maiden wishes to offer herself in marriage,"* they would smile without a word, leaving no name, and spur their steed to ride into the sunset.
Cool as can be.
When doing something, as long as the act itself held meaning, that was enough. He did it because he was willing to, because he wanted to.
As for whether he was thanked, or whether he was remembered—such things were of no concern to Bai Zhou.
Besides, the "dire straits" they had fallen into had originally been brought upon them by him anyway—
The rain finally stopped.
All was silent.
The night deepened, and the heavy fog grew thicker.
Once the crowd had completely vanished from his sight, Bai Zhou prepared to leave.
This was no place to linger; there was no telling when reinforcements from the Special Control Bureau might arrive.
Just as Bai Zhou was thinking this—
Suddenly, the spark of spiritual perception newly awakened within his heart throbbed!
Like an ominous premonition, an overwhelmingly intense instinct warned him from the void—
It felt as though something had locked onto him from afar!
As if an extreme, crushing danger was rapidly approaching—
*The cicada senses the autumn wind before it even stirs.*
Developing an instinctual sixth sense in response to malice and crisis directed at oneself was also an exquisite application of the "heart."
Right at that moment—
*Crackle, crackle.*
In the dead silence of the surroundings, a call abruptly crackled from a walkie-talkie.
"It's me."
The Major's voice emanated from the radio on the Swordbearer captain's body.
"Hold on!
"Someone is already on their way. Calculating the time, twenty minutes remain.
"You must pin Bai Zhou down. Do not let him escape under any circumstances!
"Acknowledge upon receipt!
"...Why is there no response?"
Yet the reply that met him was Bai Zhou's voice: "They aren't able to answer you anymore."
Bai Zhou searched the captain's upper body and pulled the talking iron contraption from his coat.
He spoke into it:
"Looks like the people you sent are a step too late after all.
"I am truly flattered by how highly the Major thinks of me. It seems I must prepare a return gift for you as soon as possible."
From the moment Bai Zhou's voice came through the radio, the Major's side fell silent.
After a moment, the Major's voice rang out coldly:
"Bai Zhou, isn't it? Do you know the story of the farmer and the snake?
"In winter, a farmer found a frozen snake, so he placed it against his chest to warm it.
"Yet the first thing the snake did upon reviving was to bite the farmer."
The voice through the walkie-talkie paused briefly.
"I raised you up from among the foolish masses of Wancheng, yet you betrayed me.
"—You are that venomous snake, Bai Zhou."
"The farmer and the snake?"
Bai Zhou blinked. "Wancheng seems to have another version of that story.
"It also begins with a farmer finding a frozen brown snake and tucking it into his chest to warm it."
The beginnings were remarkably similar.
Yet the ending was vastly different.
"The next day, the farmer angrily erected a sign right where he had picked up the 'snake'—
"It read: 'No defecating anywhere!'"
Major: "......?"
"What I mean is—"
Bai Zhou's voice drifted through the electrical hum of the radio with an eerie calmness. "A farmer only gets angry when he picks up something that doesn't meet his expectations.
"A farmer picking up a poisonous snake probably wasn't out of kindness either.
"Snake venom can be made into medicine, and the snake's meat goes well with wine—quite 'valuable,' isn't it?
"The same goes for me.
"—From the very beginning, you never intended for the 'snake' to survive the winter!"
And so...
A long silence fell over the other end of the line, leaving only the hiss of static.
Finally, the Major's voice sounded once more, colder than before:
"Bai Zhou, I admit I underestimated you in the past.
"I also admit you are more dangerous, more cunning, and more troublesome than I thought!
"I never imagined even the Swordbearers wouldn't be able to handle you.
"—But so what?
"Congratulations.
"Next, what you will face is me!"
The Major's cold laughter echoed from the radio.
It was as if, across the airwaves, Bai Zhou could visualize that slicked-back, pomaded hair.
It was hard to imagine what that pretentiously posed face, always masked behind dark sunglasses, looked like when smiling.
*Might as well take an ID photo to find out.*
From the walkie-talkie, the Major's voice drifted out again:
"Care to guess—
"When the Blood Worship Cult invaded, why did none of the four blood-robed elders they dispatched ever return?
"—You don't understand the true mystical world at all!"
*The Blood Worship Cult's invasion...* Bai Zhou's heart tightened.
Indeed.
Behind the Major, there must be a force that did not belong to the Special Control Bureau itself.
Moreover, this concealed private power—
Was likely far greater than Base 36 of the Special Control Bureau in the conventional sense!
"You had better truly be prepared to face me, and I hope your blade is as tough as your mouth!
"—Flee all you like, Bai Zhou,"
the Major said at last.
"He has already arrived—
"He will find a way to track you down, and very quickly."
No one knew who the "he" in the Major's words was.
Yet the Major was able to make such an absolute declaration with total confidence:
"You will die—today!"
"Alright, let's wait and see then."
As Bai Zhou replied, he turned his head and cast a cautious glance into the dense fog behind him.
Under the darkness of dusk, the silhouette of the unfinished building was already gone.
Conversing with the Major did not hinder this increasingly seasoned fugitive from rapidly fleeing the "crime scene."
"Good night, Major.
"Make sure you stay alive and well."
Bai Zhou's blessing truly exemplified the virtue of repaying malice with kindness.
He offered a heartfelt prayer:
"I hope you can survive this winter."
With that, with a *plop*, Bai Zhou casually tossed the walkie-talkie into the roadside river.
He continued on his way.
Truth be told...
The conversation with the Major left a heavy weight on Bai Zhou's heart.
The sense of relief from having just finished a massive battle vanished in an instant.
Although he had successfully achieved his goal of rescuing the people...
A new crisis followed in close succession!
That Major—that Major was finally willing to step out from behind the scenes to center stage.
For Bai Zhou, this was technically a victory.
Yet...
There were far too many mysteries and unknowns surrounding the Major.
The pressure he exuded could only be understood once faced in person!
At the very, very least, the foundation that allowed the Major to remain so confident right now had to be at least a Rank 4 Extraordinary!
Taking the second lieutenant who had failed his metamorphosis into a minivan-walking-machine as a reference, one could see that Rank 4 was a terrifying qualitative leap for an Extraordinary!
At least in Branch 36 of the Special Control Bureau, the officers were all Rank 3; not a single true Rank 4 existed—
Still, all in all?
He needed to return to the safehouse first to regroup with Crow.
At least at the safehouse, he had plenty of "arrangements" he could rely on.
Though he had displayed great might just now, in reality, this was perhaps Bai Zhou's weakest moment.
In the short term, the Cursebound Colossus could not be used again; it had entered a cooldown period.
The tearing ache running through his muscles left him limping with every step.
This would also require recuperation.
Furthermore, advancing to Rank 2 Adventurer likewise required a quiet environment and a certain amount of time—
Time! It always came down to time!
Hurrying through the night, Bai Zhou pondered and took stock of everything, occasionally letting out a melancholic sigh.
Through the fog, he looked at the white moon that was finally revealing itself after the dark clouds at the horizon dispersed, muttering to himself.
Life was truly like treading on thin ice.
Being a wanted fugitive was far too thrilling; one day felt like three.
One wave had barely settled before another rose. He constantly felt as though he might be hacked into eighteen pieces tomorrow and thrown into the river to keep the walkie-talkie company.
He had slaughtered so many of the Major's men tonight...
Who knew what kind of slander that pretentious guy would concoct on the wanted posters next!
Still... for an adventurer who had just done a good deed, couldn't fate show him a little favor?
Bai Zhou began to daydream again.
He wished the moon would shine a bit more of its light upon him.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the sound of rustling pages suddenly reached his ears.
In a daze, his head throbbed, and a sequence of visions surfaced one after another in his mind.
*The Thousand-Faced Moon awaits you in dreams—*
Accompanying a familiar whisper that sounded beside Bai Zhou's ear,
resplendent moonlight, like mist and gossamer, converged before him.
—It felt as though a lone traveler walked by the riverbank, bathed solely in moonlight!
Flying out of his coat of its own accord, the *Dead Sea Secret Scrolls* absorbed the dense moonlight while pouring new knowledge into Bai Zhou.
This knowledge converged into a spiral and surged into Bai Zhou's mind, writhing and accompanied by auditory hallucinations resembling whispers.
"This is—?"
Chapter 55