Chapter 122 - Investigate

Edited by Ruru

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Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen were both startled upon suddenly seeing such a ‘report’, but everyone around them appeared used to it.

Qi Jingchen subconsciously looked around and realised that including the elderly who sold him the thermos, several people were being rather evasive after witnessing this situation. He finally felt his heart relax slightly.

It seemed that currently it wasn’t everyone who believed in the dark god. However, even if they didn’t, they still dare not step up and would only silently watch on.

One of the patrolling ability users reached out and grabbed that woman. “Come, recite the dark scripture!”

The surrounding small secure bases hadn’t fully popularised the content of the dark scripture; at least, Shi Kun didn’t really know about it. However, it was already widespread in S City secure base. It was very clear that this patrol member wanted to use it to observe whether this woman truly believed in the dark god.

The man who dragged the woman out was a little frightened upon hearing this, fearing that the woman would be able to recite the dark scripture, which would invalidate his report. However, the woman unexpectedly couldn’t recite it. She stuttered out two sentences, then was unable to continue on.

The man who reported the woman instantly became pleased with himself. “I knew you were a heretic! Sir, she even spoke badly of the dark god at home!”

The woman was already paralysed on the ground. She probably never expected she would ever be betrayed by her own family, and her entire person was dumbfounded.

“Take her away!” The patrolling ability user directly ordered men to tie her up.

All around them were cheers. Of course, some people among them were sympathetic for the woman, but they still did not dare speak out, only able to watch helplessly as the patrol took her away. Soon, shouts in the bazaar rang out again, as if nothing had happened.

Qi Jingchen and Nie Yi shared a look, and quietly followed them.

Because of their concern of falling into Yao Mengzi’s ambush, they had endured for quite some time. Now, they got such a chance to investigate the situation after much difficulty, they naturally couldn’t let it go.

The ability user taking away the woman was only level two and wasn’t strong. Tailing him in the bazaar wasn’t hard, but it became a little troublesome after leaving the market.

Fortunately, Qi Jingchen had very strong spiritual strength. He used his spiritual strength to ‘follow’ the ability user, then brought Nie Yi to walk a different path and managed not to fall behind.

Nowadays, because of the overpopulation in various secure bases, the houses were all built closely together. A row of houses was even built in the center of what used to be a street. As such, there were numerous sorts of alleys, and there wasn’t anyone who could tell that they were tailing someone.

However, not long after, the ability user unexpectedly reached the center of S City secure base, a place enclosed by a lowering perimeter fence. There were armed men patrolling the sides of the fence and it was heavily guarded. Who knew what this place was?

“Let’s go in and look?” Nie Yi looked at Qi Jingchen.

“Let’s ask around first,” Qi Jingchen said. In the end, he found a young girl about fifteen or sixteen by the street.

This girl’s face was cold and didn’t look easy to get along with. However, she didn’t have the uncomfortable feeling given off by those who believed in the dark god.

Qi Jingchen walked over and quietly said, “Hello.”

“Hm?” The girl shot Qi Jingchen a confused glance.”

“I’ve always lived outside and I’ve never been here before. What’s that place? There are so many people standing guard!” Qi Jingchen said curiously.

“That’s the inner city where the saintess and oracles live,” the woman said, before suddenly adding, “Don’t go over.”

Qi Jingchen nodded then revealed a shy smile. “Thank you.”

While his skin was darkened now, Nie Yi was unwilling to make him suffer too much and his entire being still looked very neat and tidy. Moreover, unknown as to whether it was due to his light ability, his eyes were especially bright.

The girl looked at Qi Jingchen, then suddenly blushed.

“Let’s go back ba,” Nie Yi saw this from afar, then hurriedly called out.

In his last life, Qi Jingchen could confound people with his spiritual strength and even looking at his eyes was a little bewitching. Unexpectedly, in this life, it became even more intense&#k2026; He didn’t know what to say.

The two walked a distance opposite of the inner city, then very quickly turned around, heading for the inner city through another path.

At this time, the sky had already darkened.

S City secure base had no night curfew, but after nightfall, most ordinary people would still shut the doors to pass their time. As for the remaining small portion..

Some so-called dark god believers just liked coming out at night to gather and kowtow to the so-called dark god.

The inside of the inner city had monitoring and patrols, but with their skills, wanting to enter wasn’t hard.. Nie Yi was now already level four and was increasingly proficient in concealing himself through refracting light with water and ice. This sort of concealment couldn’t compare to something like Qi An where he hid in his own space; if an enemy were to be near them, they would definitely see him clearly. However, it could fool surveillance, especially during the night.

As for patrol teams, it wasn’t like they were there constantly.. Nie Yi carried Qi Jingchen on his back, then finally slipped into the inner city silently.

The inner city was extremely clean. At the same time, the dark energy here was almost excessively rich. Even when Qi Jingchen once encountered several zombies in the plains, he felt that he could suppress the zombies with his ability. But here, he had a sort of feeling of being stifled by the dark energy.

Fortunately, they didn’t take action.. Light energy was the mortal enemy of dark energy, so how could it not be vice versa?

They just didn’t know how the heck Yao Mengzi managed to bring about so much dark energy.. However, perhaps this was the reason she could create oracles?

All sorts of doubts were in Qi Jingchen’s mind, but he couldn’t expose himself now. In the end, he only gave Nie Yi a look, then silently led the way in the darkness, using his spiritual strength to choose the safest path to proceed.

The inner city wasn’t large, and the construction was good. Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen swiftly travelled through it; on the contrary, the environment here was incredibly familiar.

There weren’t many people living here and many houses were empty, allowing them to not fear being discovered at all. After wandering around for a spell, they unexpectedly arrived at the center of the inner city and saw two gigantic houses that were constructed similar to a fort.

On top of each house was a headlight, brightly illuminating its surroundings, as well as several muzzles aimed at every angle! Moreover, while there were only patrols outside the inner city, there were people standing guard here, with a sentry posted every few steps. No one should even think of being able to approach quietly.

They could enter the inner city, but those two forts.. they definitely didn’t have the intention of losing their lives. Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen looked at it from afar, then gave up the plan to enter before silently returning through their original path, leaving the inner city.

They had been out for long enough; it was time to return.

There were few people in the inner city and it didn’t have the crowds and dirt of the outer city. The two areas simply looked like different worlds.

But after comparing, Qi Jingchen still preferred the dirty outer city. At least it didn’t have dark energy that made him feel unwell.

But very soon, Qi Jingchen realised he had thought wrongly.

Even if it was the outer city, he still couldn’t bring himself to like it..

Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen were walking through an alley and had always been focused on avoiding those people ‘gathering’ at the streets. However, upon nearing the bazaar, they realised that it was crammed with people. People were occupying every street in twos and threes, so much that they unexpectedly couldn’t find a single deserted path!

The two shared a look, and finally chose to walk a path with the fewest people.

There were only three to four people on this street and they just happened to be discussing what had happened in the bazaar before. “That sir is too smart; to make those heretics reveal their true selves, we should make them recite the scripture!”

“Yes ah, followers of the dark god should all be able to recite the scriptures!” Another agreed.

“The scripture is so good, yet those heretics didn’t even read it. It truly is their loss!”

When Qi Jingchen heard this, he had a bad feeling. Finally, at this time, someone suddenly stopped them. “Come, brothers, are you also here to join in on the activities? Come, let’s recite the dark scripture.”

It would be weird if Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen could recite the dark scriptures! Moreover, they couldn’t let anyone see their appearance.. Without even waiting for those people to finish speaking, Qi Jingchen had already unhesitantly climbed onto Nie Yi’s back. Nie Yi waited for him to have a firm hold, then immediately flipped over the nearby wall.

“Fuck me! They aren’t reciting it! Are they heretics?” The person who wanted Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen to recite with them called out.

“Get them!” Someone beside him immediately said.

“Someone, come!” A third person simply yelled.

This district instantly became bustling. Those dark god followers gathered together and began searching for Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen—This was a very tyrannical sect, and they simply did not permit the existence of heretics.

“Let’s go in.” Qi Jingchen directed Nie Yi into an alley that barely allowed one person to squeeze through, then pointed at a window on the wall.

This wall belonged to a rather old house and the window was also an old-fashioned window. Nie Yi used his fire ability and soon opened the window. He first helped Qi Jingchen in, then he himself clambered in. While climbing in, he froze the mouth of the adult laying down on the bed in the room.

This room had two people, an adult and a child. The child was already asleep and wouldn’t be awakened by any outside noise; however, the adult’s breathing were extremely rushed and clearly they had already woken up.

“Nie Yi, let her go,” Qi Jingchen said, then took out a finger-sized electronic torch and turned it on.

This was something for children to play with pre-apocalypse, but now Qi Jingchen used it to aim at himself to allow the elderly lying on the bed to see his appearance. Nie Yi also saw the elderly’s appearance with the illumination.

This house unexpectedly was the old lady whom he exchanged a compressed biscuit for a stone for Qi Jingchen..

The stone was now still in his bosom along with the monkey. As for the more valuable thermos and lunchbox, he had long discarded them due to inconvenience.

Nie Yi withdrew his ice. “Sorry, ma’am.”

“It’s nothing, nothing..” the elderly immediately said, then suddenly asked quietly, “Are you special agents?”

“Special agents?!” Nie Yi was startled, but also saw that the elderly had no malice towards them and immediately did not hide anything. “We’re from B City secure base.”

“From B City ah? Do they want to come to prohibit the evil cult?” The elderly said, “Let me tell you, those people are nothing good!” The origin of this chapter's debut can be traced to N0v3l-B(j)n.

Right as the elderly said this, there was knocking coming from outside as well as clamorous voices ringing out. It was the Dark God Cult followers who had been gathering outside.

Nie Yi pulled Qi Jingchen to hide behind the cabinet beside the window, vigilantly observing the situation. The elderly went to open the door.

“Does the dark god have instructions?” When the elderly saw the people at the door, she immediately said, “I’m willing to offer everything to the dark god.” After speaking, she even did an impromptu recitation of a segment of the dark scriptures.

The people coming to search were probably also fanatics. After the elderly spoke, they unexpectedly began discussing the teachings with the elderly. The two had a back and forth conversation, and spoke in a frenzy.

Finally, it was conversely the others who couldn’t bear watching any longer. “Enough, ol’ four, let’s go search elsewhere.”

Only then did that ol’ four reluctantly end his conversation with the elderly, then slowly left.

Qi Jingchen and Nie Yi were a little astonished by this scene. This elderly should hate the dark god very much, yet she was unexpectedly able to recite the scripture so smoothly, and even spoke segments by segments.

“When I was young, I’ve always wanted to talk to people about ‘XX Quotations’ when buying stuff. Unexpectedly now that I’m old, I still have to go through such trouble,” the elderly said, then took out a book and gave it to Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen. “I’ll give this book to you. As spies, you have to memorise it well, especially those I underlined. You have to be able to recite them, otherwise you’ll be exposed.”

“Thank you very much,” Qi Jingchen said.

“I also have to thank you. You’re special agents and definitely don’t lack the things I sell. I know that the exchange with me stems from pity,” the old lady said.

Qi Jingchen and Nie Yi suddenly felt a little guilty.

“Those people have done too many bad things; sooner or later they’ll have to face retribution!” The elderly probably rarely had someone to speak to and didn’t dare speak to others about this, and began talking on.

“Miss, we see that many people believe in the dark god. Why don’t you?” Qi Jingchen flipped through the dark scriptures in his hands and then spoke curiously. It had to be admitted that the scripture was written very well. Not only did it explain how the apocalypse came about, it predicted many things that would happen, as well as many opinions that could be used a s brainwashing.

Before the apocalypse, there were already many people who would believe those evil cults, so there was no need to mention the current times.

“How can I believe such an evil cult?” the old lady said. “My son said before that these evil cults are all scams and harmful.”

This elderly was surprisingly clear-minded.. Qi Jingchen couldn’t help being a little respectful, then suddenly saw the elderly become choked up. “Those brutes, they even harmed my grandson! My son and daughter-in-law are gone, but my grandson treats me very well and always sends me food to eat.. But later for a period of time, my grandson never came back, then I saw that he became a shadow guard and was standing guard outside; he couldn’t even recognise me! He was turned into something not human yet not a monster by those people. Yet they even said things like how the spirits of shadow guards would go to the dark god’s side and leave their bodies behind to protect us; being able to become one is their honour.. Pei, I’ve never heard of a dark god in this world before.”

“You’ve seen through it quite well,” Qi Jingchen said.

“That’s right. I’m an overthinker; I think more than normal people, and I don’t speak rashly like the young Zhang girl. She’s also a fool. The money she earns is only for herself to eat and she’s also living in her brother’s house, yet she even wants to argue with her cult-following brother and sister-in-law. She just doesn’t want to live anymore..” After speaking, the elderly let out a deep sigh.

Qi Jingchen knew that she was talking about the woman from the day and sighed in his heart. This lady really overestimated family affection..

Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen stayed with the elderly. The old woman talked endlessly, but the three or four-year-old child on her bed was sleeping very soundly, only flipping over occasionally.

In this world, it was only children who could sleep so soundly.

“He’s my great-grandson!” The elderly said a little proudly. “My grandson doesn’t even recognise his child and only bows to stand at the entrance blankly. I don’t even dare to visit him, so I can only raise this child well.”

Qi Jingchen smiled, then took out the monkey under Nie Yi’s shirt that had been very unmoving, likely due to sensing danger. After that, he took the flower pot that the old lady had probably tried to plant vegetables in and then placed some light energy as well as a tomato seed inside.

The monkey swiftly grew several small tomatoes. This time, Nie Yi wasn’t in a rush to gather them, and the small tomatoes fell to the floor, covering the ground.

Seeing the tomatoes, the elderly’s eyes were filled with emotions—These were fresh vegetables! And tomatoes were also rich in vitamins!

“As thanks for your shelter.” Qi Jingchen picked up a tomato and gave it to the elderly.

The elderly took it, and couldn’t help saying, “You’re good people, very good people.. Buddha will definitely bless you. As for those who made this evil cult, Buddha definitely won’t let them live well either!”

Buddha? Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen exchanged a look and suddenly didn’t quite know what to say— Could it be that this elderly completely did not believe in the Dark God Cult because she had always believed in Buddha?

Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen planned to stay in the elderly’s home for a little longer and only leave at the break of dawn. At the same time, in the ‘fort’ Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen had seen from a distance, a woman was walking down a passage created by alloy, plastic, and several other kinds of materials.

Yao Mengzi put on makeup and concealed her unusual skin colour. After walking through the passage, she finally stopped at a door.

She pressed a hand against it, and the door opened. Inside was a room decorated very comfortingly, with the layout of two rooms and one hall. There were doors and windows, but all the windows couldn’t be opened.

This house was completely surrounded by thick walls. Without Yao Mengzi’s permission, not even a single mosquito could enter.

Chu Zhen was sitting languidly on the sofa. Seeing Yao Mengzi, a mocking smile appeared on his lips. “You’ve come.”

“I hear you wanted to see me? What do you need?” Yao Mengzi asked, her gaze resting greedily on Chu Zhen.

Yao Mengzi’s eyes were filled with love, but Chu Zhen felt a wave of discomfort.

Yao Mengzi was once someone he deeply loved. Although she was smart, she didn’t understand many things. He always thought that he would have to protect her, but unexpectedly, a certain day during the apocalypse, she suddenly changed.

Then, before he had time to even understand what was going on, he was locked up.

Yes, locked up. He, a big man, was locked up here, and couldn’t even leave!

“What else could there be? I want to go out!” Chu Zhen said with a cold laugh.

Yao Mengzi couldn’t help frowning upon hearing this. “The outside is very dangerous right now. You can’t go out. If you want to go out, wait for me when I’m free. I’ll bring you out.”

“Why?” Chu Zhen was a little annoyed. “Yao Mengzi, what in the world is the meaning of this?!”

“I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Yao Mengzi said. “I’m very busy. I’ll leave for now.”

After that, Yao Mengzi left without even turning her head. Since she was reborn, she couldn’t allow anything to happen to Chu Zhen. Although the current Chu Zhen was still an ability user, with the outside world being so dangerous, how could she allow him to go out?

In her last life, after Chu Zhen was injured, she was already used to making decisions for Chu Zhen and simply did not think that locking Chu Zhen up was of any issue. Of course, this was probably because she had lived in the apocalypse for too long, so she couldn’t help wanting to hide her treasure well and not allow anyone to look.