Chapter 44
[Everyone must have heard about the assassination that took place at Beiyuan Building in the Chenxing Empire last night, right?]
[I heard the victim was a titled nobleman, and the assassin infiltrated the party to kill him.]
[Wow, that assassin was really brave!]
[Hehe, the Chenxing Empire must be in chaos now! Although they’re trying to keep it under wraps and we don’t know the specifics, knowing their nature, the royal family, nobility, cabinet, and parliant are probably at each other’s throats!]
[I bet they’ll pin the bla on the parliant, who’ll then bla it on their dostic terrorist groups…]
[In the end, it’ll just be a bunch of power exchanges. As a re commoner, I’m well-versed in international affairs. I can strategize from within my ho and win battles a thousand miles away :)]
[Hehe, fight! Fight!]
[I bet a dog’s head that the royal family will win!]
[I bet a duck’s head.]
[It’s a human life, doesn’t it deserve at least a pig’s head? I bet an imported feed-raised pig’s head.]
[You guys are too much. A Sir died, and you’re all gloating. You have no spirit of international friendship… I’d say this was beautifully executed, hahaha!]
[The 40-ter blade can’t be retracted now. Let’s give our fallen comrade a grand burial!]
In this era of advanced internet, even across oceans, such a sensational event spread globally overnight. Early in the morning, everyone in Yao Country beca a spectator to the drama.
Due to the war that swept the world years ago, there was already so old grudge between Yao Country and the Chenxing Empire. Moreover, Yao Country was currently the most thorough constitutional monarchy on Blue Star, while the Empire was sowhat hypocritical. The two sides often exchanged sarcasm and mockery over this point.
Yao Country people ridiculed the Empire as feudal, corrupt, with a dark society and backward system. The Empire, in turn, cursed Yao Country’s emperor as useless and incompetent, with the cabinet holding all power, just a disguised dictatorship. They boasted that in the Empire, the three forces balanced each other, and every class had a voice, promoting the Empire as free and open – although everyone in the world knew that the Empire’s dia and most mouthpieces were controlled by the upper elite, including the parliant that claid to represent public opinion. When those mbers were elected from the common people to beco part of the parliant, they beca another elite class, just as dragon slayers eventually beco evil dragons themselves.
Thus, when the Empire was in trouble, except for a very few, most people in Yao Country beca overly excited spectators.
“The reason we called everyone here early this morning is because of the assassination at Beiyuan Building in the Chenxing Empire…”
Yao Country Imperial Capital, Supernatural Affairs Investigation Bureau Headquarters Base.
The familiar conference room was still the sa, with An Yuansheng, dressed formally, sitting at the head of the table and turning on the projector.
“Originally, this incident had nothing to do with our departnt, but just now, the international intelligence departnt sent us a ssage. They obtained surveillance footage from the party that night…” Amidst the confused or surprised looks of everyone, he slowly brought up an image on the screen.
It was the interior of a luxurious and intoxicating hotel, with hazy lights casting a misty glow on everyone’s faces. In one corner of the photo was a black and white piano, like a solitary swan perched to the side, sacred and elegant.
Soone was sitting at the piano, imrsed in playing.
“This… how can it be him?!”
When that familiar profile appeared on the screen, soone in the conference room stood up in shock.
No wonder everyone was so shocked – wasn’t this the culprit of the Yuanyang City rainy night serial killings, [K]?
“This guy actually went to the Chenxing Empire, and got involved in this assassination case?”
An Yuansheng shook his head. “No, he should be the assassin. Due to the angle of the surveillance cara and his cleverly chosen position, the cara only captured him playing the piano. The process from him turning around to firing the gun wasn’t recorded… But he was the only one who mysteriously disappeared that night, and it was discovered that he had knocked out the pianist to infiltrate – it’s obvious he’s suspicious. The Chenxing Empire governnt will certainly take corresponding asures.”
“However, that’s not our concern. Our Supernatural Affairs Investigation Bureau is only responsible for supernatural matters, so we only need to discuss on this level.”
Others agreed deeply.
Soone spoke up. “First, through our covert investigation during this period, we haven’t discovered any further movents of the Shadow Council President and K. Since the kidnapping case, these two have vanished without a trace, and no incidents seem to be related to them.”
“We previously suspected that these two had reached a private reconciliation, or even cooperation, and had shifted their focus away from Yuanyang City – from the current situation, this guess is likely true.”
“Secondly, we currently don’t have any ans to deal with teleportation or long-distance control, these kinds of supernatural powers. Even investigating their whereabouts requires big data screening, while these two exposed supernatural ability users can act against ordinary people at any ti…”
“So rashly taking action or excessively pressuring them would be unwise and could lead to results none of us want to see.”
“…This is also why we’ve chosen to investigate covertly during this period. If their focus has indeed shifted to the Empire, before we find a way to counter their supernatural powers, this is undoubtedly a good thing for Yao Country.”
At this point, everyone’s expressions beca solemn.
Chu Xingrui asked impatiently, “Speaking of this, didn’t we say we’d search for supernatural events and extraordinary people with supernatural abilities nationwide? How’s the progress?”
The person responsible for this aspect shook his head and said, “There’s no progress for now. Whether it’s the villages said to have practiced poison and witchcraft for generations, families with long histories, or prosperous temples and Taoist shrines with supposedly powerful monks and Taoists, we’ve searched almost everywhere. None of these people have any real substance.”
“Oh, we’ve already sent more people to find temples and Taoist shrines hidden in deep mountains and old forests. Maybe we’ll have so results. Aren’t high-level practitioners said to be in deep mountains?”
The diverted topic quickly returned to its original course. The previous speaker continued, “Besides the temporary departure of uncontrolled extraordinaries reducing so potential dangers, we must also consider the aspects that are unfavorable to us.”
“Now that such a major incident has occurred in Xing Country, with an impact even greater than the Rainy Night Serial Killings, the Xing Country governnt won’t let it go easily. We need to consider the possibility of K being caught, or even if not caught, so things might be exposed during this process. Xing Country might then gain intelligence about the supernatural, and we will no longer have any informational advantage. Worse still, if they obtain more intelligence from K, we might end up at an informational disadvantage.”
“Therefore, we need to plan ahead. Should we secretly send people to find K before Xing Country does? Or should we let nature take its course and prepare for all possible scenarios?”
“I don’t think we need to worry about this point,” Liu Ningshuang spoke up casually, imdiately attracting everyone’s attention.
She spread her hands. “Have you forgotten the ssage brought to us by the mysterious ‘Flower Speaker’?”
As for the title “Flower Speaker,” it was, of course, sothing they learned from the person himself during their last remote communication.
Saying this, Liu Ningshuang stood up, coughed twice, and lowered her voice, imitating in a casual tone:
“…As the world experiences anomalies and spiritual energies revive, incidents of space-ti disturbances and visitors from other realms will only increase. However, the order of human logic has its own guardians. Everything that should happen will happen. Everything that shouldn’t happen absolutely won’t. At least for now, major disturbances are impossible.”
While repeating these words, her expression was particularly casual, composed, and detached.
The tense atmosphere was imdiately dispelled by her playfulness.
However, as a newly established special departnt, with most of its mbers being young people with active minds who had long been at the forefront of the internet, the atmosphere in the Supernatural Affairs Managent Bureau was indeed much more relaxed compared to other departnts. No one would think her behavior was inappropriate.
“World anomalies, revival of spiritual energies, space-ti disturbances, visitors from other realms… tsk tsk, that’s a lot of information.”
Liu Ningshuang put on a serious expression. “We analyzed this last ti. If he wasn’t intentionally misleading us, the ssage clearly implies that our world might undergo a transformation. It might be like the spiritual energy revival described in novels, where everyone could gain supernatural powers.”
“…As for the Shadow Council President and K, we initially thought there was another supernatural world beyond the real world, and they were extraordinaries from that world. But according to the Flower Speaker, they should be visitors from another realm. The Flower Speaker might be a local extraordinary.”
“From the conversation between the Shadow Council President and K last ti, we know they ca one after another and knew each other, indicating they ca from the sa alternate world. The fact that one arrived without subordinates and the other was imdiately outmaneuvered by the Shadow Council President upon arrival shows they had no prior preparation and ca suddenly. So the two worlds might have suddenly intersected, and the people from the other realm had no prior precautions before coming here.”
At this point, Liu Ningshuang spread her hands. “Since they were completely unprepared, K himself might not even know how he ended up here and knows nothing about the space-ti anomalies. Having just arrived in this world such a short ti ago, it’s even more impossible for him to understand the situation of our local extraordinary. Even if he reached so cooperation with the Shadow Council President, the latter certainly wouldn’t share all the intelligence with him. So, he can’t reveal much information!”
“In comparison, it’s clear that the Flower Speaker, being a local extraordinary, has the most intelligence. Therefore, there’s no need to worry about Xing Country having any intelligence advantage.”
Seeing everyone deep in thought, she continued seriously. “Moreover, I think the Flower Speaker revealed another very important piece of information. This might be the key of keys.”
“The order of human logic has its own guardians!”
She repeated this sentence before saying, “Doesn’t this suggest that there’s a set of rules in the supernatural world that constrains everyone? Even visitors from other realms are no exception. If their actions exceed certain limits, they’ll face rule-based sanctions. It’s very likely that there exists so kind of enforcer role.”
“Is it possible that beyond the reality we perceive, there exists another force, possibly human enforcers or so rule for extraordinaries, that restricts and regulates the actions of extraordinaries?”
“That’s why for so many years, we haven’t discovered any traces of extraordinaries. And now that the world is experiencing anomalies, the constraints of this set of rules have lessened, or the range of elasticity has increased, which is why we have the Rainy Night Serial Killings and traces of the Flower Speaker appearing. But if any extraordinaries try to cause bigger incidents, that set of rules will restrain them again.”
“That’s why the Flower Speaker said we don’t need to worry about major disturbances for now.”
“Given this, what we need to do is, before the anomalies beco greater and the rules loosen further, before extraordinaries can cause bigger incidents, we must gain enough intelligence and power, preferably acquiring our own supernatural abilities. Only then will we have a chance to deal with greater disturbances in the future.”
“Therefore, Xing Country isn’t important, and neither is K, an otherworldly visitor who clearly can’t cooperate and is difficult to capture. We should focus on finding local extraordinaries, strengthening our connection with the Flower Speaker, and improving population managent and monitoring. Ideally, we should be able to detect the next otherworldly visitor as soon as they appear…”
This speech greatly shocked everyone.
In fact, they had already interpreted the Flower Speaker’s words many tis before and could guess most of the anings. After all, they could summon experts from various fields to assist them at any ti, and analyzing a passage wasn’t a particularly difficult task.
But none of the previous interpretations had been as thorough, straightforward, and precise as Liu Ningshuang’s explanation today.
It might also be because so people didn’t have the clearance to know all the information about extraordinaries, and thus couldn’t make a thorough interpretation. Instead, they over-interpreted, analyzing too many possibilities.
“Clap, clap, clap! Logical and convincing!”
Li Fufeng was the first to applaud, giving a thumbs up to Liu Ningshuang beside him. “Such clear and structured thoughts don’t seem like your style at all. Shouldn’t you be rushing in headfirst according to your usual style?”
“Well, um, of course I got a little guidance from my cousin,” Liu Ningshuang said, feeling a bit guilty.
She glanced at Yin Xubai and told the truth. “Okay, okay, it was 80% guidance, but I contributed 20% too.”
— Last ti, she had sacrificed herself as a shield against her cousin’s marriage pressure in exchange for his guidance without holding grudges.
— Otherwise, if she had just asked him directly like before, she would have only received a contemptuous look from the genius scholar.
Thinking about this, Liu Ningshuang beca more confident. After all, she had paid a big price for this!
Just then, an urgent ssage ca into the conference room.
The voice from the other end of the phone was hurried and tense, revealing strong disbelief and fear amidst the shock. It was as if they had discovered sothing beyond comprehension.
“This is an urgent ssage from Yuanyang City…”
“The Tianhai Bar, the alley behind Tianhai Bar…”
“The area we cordoned off under the na of governnt construction, just a few minutes ago…”
“– A strange inn suddenly appeared out of thin air!”
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