Wei Tianyang walked out of the villa’s walled periter to find the street in utter chaos, with the highest peak of Six-faced God Mountain having collapsed by half. The excess dust and boulders caused a landslide, burying not only the majority of the conservative forces’ main army but also afflicting the urban area at the foot of the mountain.
Wei Tianyang didn’t see any rescue teams and was unclear about the casualty situation. Other than Wei Tianyang and Min Li’s team, not many people knew that he was the cause of this phenonon. Many citizens stood at a safe distance, taking pictures of the Six-faced God Mountain with their cell phones.
He closed his eyes, distinguished the scents in the air, searching for the fragrance of Ruan Yu’s lady’s cigarette, walking and sniffing around the streets for a long ti, but ca up empty-handed.
Finding soone in this city of a million residents was a needle in a haystack, even with superhuman sll. Moreover, Ruan Yu had left Tun Yun’s residence in the morning, and it was nearly afternoon; even if she was still in town, Wei Tianyang would have difficulty finding her.
By this ti, Min Li’s team had already entered Linjiang City. Without Six-faced God Mountain as a barrier, the south of Linjiang City was wide open for the taking, and they even simultaneously took control of the downstream area of Linjiang.
Regardless, the conservative faction’s stronghold likely had fallen. They were already on the brink of defeat from the last civil war and had managed to breathe only due to the infighting of the previous generation of the Liberation Front.
Now, the civil war in this country had shifted to that of the new versus the old.
Li Fei would carry out her revenge; the old generation’s "radicals" would be replaced by the new generation’s "radicals."
But this had nothing to do with Wei Tianyang.
Despite his failure to find Ruan Yu, he at least had acquired so very useful intelligence.
He shifted back to objective reality, trekking a long journey back to Kongse.
The news of the old street market being breached by the new Liberation Front was quickly on TV, and so stations dubbed the mysterious landslide as "Heavenly Decree Manifesting."
As Wei Tianyang just reached the entrance to the artificial forest, he saw Moby Dick’s car driving out from inside.
After the car stopped beside him, Moby Dick rolled down the window, smiled at him, and said, "Get in, I’ll take you to have bourgeois afternoon tea. By the way, I have a personal matter to discuss."
"Discuss it with Yaha," Wei Tianyang said with his hands in his pockets before walking away.
Moby Dick’s face turned fierce, but he quickly cald down. He ordered the driver to reverse the car and caught up with Wei Tianyang.
"Wait, wait. There was a little misunderstanding the other day. You pushed , which I don’t mind, and you let that damn scalpel burst my hemorrhoids—I won’t hold a grudge over that. Anyway, let’s get to know each other again over a simple al, how about it? Get in the car, Ishmael—that’s what he called you, right?" Moby Dick said with a laugh.
"You must have so shady things you want to talk about in private," Wei Tianyang replied.
"Don’t think of as so dirty. Co on, there’s no harm in listening," Moby Dick insisted.
Wei Tianyang took a deep breath; he was indeed a little hungry. Besides, he needed an explanation for his actions at the hotel with Yaha. As the car door was opened for him, he got in.
Inside the car were four people; bodyguards and the driver sat in the front, while he and Moby Dick took the backseat.
There was silence all the way as the car approached a five-story apartnt building on a street corner.
The four of them went up to the fifth floor. Moby Dick began to explain.
This was once an unrented and vacant residential building, now taken over by him, filled with chefs, servants, and guards. At the sa ti, new furniture was brought in and food supplied by Red Pharmaceutical’s procurent departnt.
"I truly can’t stomach the garbage food of this country; damn it, the vegetables taste like grass, at is mixed with starch, and drinking the water tastes like rust. How do these people survive?" he grumbled as he climbed the stairs.
Wei Tianyang had already slled the aroma of food.
They reached the fifth floor, which was Moby Dick’s private residence. Originally a small 50-square-ter apartnt, walls had been knocked through to connect three units together.
The furniture in the room was all new, with typical European décor. There was no kitchen, as it wasn’t needed. A projection screen hung on the wall, fitted with a ho theater, and the long red table in the center of the room was for dining, covered with a tablecloth. Over twenty dishes with unpronounceable nas were just served and still steaming.
Wei Tianyang’s expression remained stoic, but his heart was greatly shaken. This spread of food, he roughly estimated, could serve five or six families of three.
But today, only he and Moby Dick would dine at the table.
Moby Dick walked to the wine cabinet, opened a bottle of wine, poured two glasses, and then approached the table.
"Sit down, Ishmael. Today we’ll talk heart to heart about your future..." As Moby Dick spoke, he took his seat at the far-right end of the table and drank the red wine in one gulp.
He poured himself another glass, donned his napkin, and picked up the delicate silver knife and fork to cut a piece of steak for his plate.
Wei Tianyang looked at the seat, which had been placed on the far left. He sat down, with Moby Dick almost completely blocked by the food, the two of them gazing at each other across a 4-ter distance.
"Not used to it? That’s correct, after all, this is the dining manner of the civilized world. You barbarians would definitely not be accustod to it. But... Ishmael, soon you’ll beco a civilized person," Moby Dick chuckled.
He stuffed a piece of beef into his mouth and chewed it a few tis before taking a sip of red wine. The gaps between his teeth were dyed red, a sight so blunt that it stirred so revulsion in Wei Tianyang.
Blood was in the at; the steak was very fresh.
As were the people of Chicken Snake Country.
"I’ve always been a civilized person, it just so happens that...I wasn’t born in a civilized world," Wei Tianyang said, lifting his glass and taking a sip.
"Mmm-mmm, that’s not right, Ishmael. It’s not like that," Moby Dick waved his knife and fork.
He added, "No one is born civilized. We are all barbarians at heart. We must be barbaric. We must fight and compete with others. When we have acquired enough, ta-da—we beco civilized."
"Do you know why I appreciate you? You’re inherently barbaric. And, you make no attempt to hide it. When you’re angry, you attack; when you don’t care, you ignore. Ishmael, that is what being civilized ans, understand?" Moby Dick said.
"But you just... you said sothing self-contradictory. How can I be naturally barbaric and also be civilized?" Wei Tianyang asked.
"Civilized and barbaric are not adjectives; they are verbs! Bam-bam-bam-bam—Haha! Get it?! You, born barbaric, yet at the sa ti, are civilized! Just like . I attack, and I also sit down to talk, and I never hide this fact," Moby Dick laughed.
He popped a grape into his mouth, then tore off a chicken leg and dipped it into so mustard.
"Take the Dark House for example, the Dark House is fundantally barbaric, but they don’t understand that, so they think they are civilized. They wear decent clothes, mimicking human posture, living in a burnt-out hotel, thinking they’re the upper crust. Hah!" He continued, gnawing on the chicken leg.
"Moby Dick, do you think you’re barbaric? At least, when you’re in front of ?" Wei Tianyang asked.
"? Ha! I’m as pure as a white lotus. I’m the purest, the most civilized among you, understand? I’ve never killed a man; I never threaten the safety of others’ lives and property; I always pay wherever I go; I’m bloody well a saint. No matter who I am in front of, I’m always myself, I never change. I am the twelfth apostle of the Heavenly Emperor, the one in myths who is revered and worshipped by the readers!" Moby Dick declared.
Red wine and aty bits tumbled around in his mouth, then he swallowed it all down, the disgusting sound of chewing echoing in the ears.
"Ishmael, you don’t belong with the Dark House," Moby Dick stared at him, brooding for a long while before saying these words.
Then, there was a long silence.
He was testing Wei Tianyang’s reaction, with a handgun taped under the table.
Wei Tianyang and Yaha were not the sa kind of people.
Moby Dick was clear on what Yaha wanted, but he wasn’t sure what Wei Tianyang desired.
"Try ," Wei Tianyang said.
"I guess, the stuff in the news, it’s your doing, isn’t it?" Moby Dick said.
Wei Tianyang did not respond.
But sotis, silence is the answer.
"You don’t need the Dark House to get what you want. You’re different from Yaha, and Yaha knows that very well. You... are not the sa kind," Moby Dick said.
"You know what I want?" Wei Tianyang asked with a smile.
Moby Dick began to laugh, then said, "Barbaric people long for civilization, while civilized people yearn for barbarism. Wei Tianyang, we live in a world full of contradictions, people like us are never able to get what we truly want. There is barbarism within civilization, but that barbarism is not quite like yours."
"I am not the sa as you, Moby Dick. I don’t deny that I’ve killed people, but you, how many will suffer indirectly because of you? And how can you claim to be a saint?" Wei Tianyang asked.
"My boy, always rember that humanity’s greatness and its sickness are born together; we can never escape from our innate cruelty and beco soone who, in the eyes of animals, is a ’good person’ without blood on their hands. But I never deny my desires, nor do I shirk from my ’evil’. I never kill deliberately; I only make requests; I only talk about work; I only tell my subordinates ’at what angle the bullet should be fired.’ There is a fundantal difference between that and ordering a hit," Moby Dick said.
"Your sophistry is aningless, but you’ve helped figure sothing out. The fired bullet is innocent; so is the trigger-puller," Wei Tianyang laughed.
Moby Dick wore a puzzled smile on his face, nodding for him to continue.
"The guilty one is the person standing behind the gunman," Wei Tianyang said.
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