Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 471 - 441 The Shadow of the Traitor

Chapter 471: 441 The Shadow of the Traitor

After the recent battle, the Forge Slag Sword didn’t consume much power. After all, it was only used once for a serious attack after being taken out. I’m quite satisfied with its power, as a single strike was enough to defeat the Taoyuan Village Master’s avatar. Though, this was partly because the avatar was completely unprepared.

Flame Power is known for its destructiveness, and under equal conditions, if an enemy survives my full-force strike without warning, it just means my skills are lacking.

In a normal confrontation, it’s impossible to end the battle in just one or two moves. However, even so, the Forge Slag Sword’s endurance is more than enough to support a battle. This is thanks to the large amount of "slags" I extracted from Ming Zhuo during our previous battles. Blessed by his infinite revival mechanism, I obtained far more "slags" from him than I did from this current battle.

Of course, in the future, I must still guard against the enemy dragging me into a war of attrition once they realize the Forge Slag Sword has a limited endurance. Ultimately, the Forge Slag Sword is just a weapon, a burst of power in the moment. To truly become stronger, one must diligently enhance their fundamental strength.

And since the Forge Slag was obtained from the Taoyuan Village Master’s avatar, it suggests that the avatar might have absorbed part of the Master’s original spirit. I wonder if the Master suffered any damage after losing that part of the spirit.

My expectations for myself in this incident are neither to harm the Taoyuan Village Master nor to gain more "slags." I hope to gather more intelligence from this event triggered by Mazao, especially insights on how I should act in the future.

As for now, since there was a corpse, Zhu Shi worried that Xiaoqiao might be scared, so he went to console her, and roughly explained the situation about himself and me to Xiaoqiao.

Unexpectedly, Xiaoqiao calmed down quickly, then glanced at me, and looked at her good friend Zhu Shi, muttering: "Is this for real? I still feel dizzy... My friend is the fiancée of a God, and my senior at the same school is that God... Have I accidentally entered some female-oriented light novel world?"

"Should I set up a memorial for my senior at home, and place a photo of my friend next to it...?"

Zhu Shi couldn’t help but say, "If you do that, it would be hard for me to visit anymore."

"Just kidding." Xiaoqiao replied.

After the conversation ended, we went to wake up the Ming Zhuo believer who was a High-Rank Impermanence lying on the ground.

Upon awakening, he was still somewhat dazed, initially thinking he was dead. When he opened his eyes and saw my face, he was stunned, as if a devout Catholic found himself in hell and saw Satan after death.

After Zhu Shi’s brief explanation, this Impermanence gradually came back to his senses, and his demeanor became quite normal, as if nothing had happened.

Although this Impermanence is from the Extraordinaryism faction and a Ming Zhuo believer, in the Luoshan system on the surface, I am still one of his superiors. Under my orders, he had no choice but to report in detail his activities over the past half month.

As I suspected, his disappearance over the past half month was due to investigating the "preachers" appearing in Saltwater City and several nearby cities. Normally, even when actively working, there’s no need to go completely silent, but such high-level Impermanence usually have considerable freedom of action, and often face unpredictable strange events, so disappearing for a month or two is quite normal.

This results in them not having many strict protocols at work, and they can choose to ignore communications from other Impermanence. Moreover, according to Zhu Shi’s supplement, Impermanence from the Extraordinaryism faction are much more free than those from the Governance Ideology faction, and there isn’t even a quota of tasks they must complete annually. Naturally, as demon hunters, even if they don’t want to solve events, events will find them on their own.

This High-Rank Impermanence was actually actively tracking and confronting the "preachers" of Taoyuan Village, whether due to being more dedicated than other Extraordinaryism Impermanences or simply not liking external organization members invading his territory.

"...Although there’s a bit of that, mostly it’s because, as demon hunters with opposing stances, we can’t truly coexist peacefully within the same area. Sooner or later, we’ll inevitably be drawn to each other by some unseen force and end up in conflict..."

Realizing he couldn’t lie before me, this High-Rank Impermanence spoke quite candidly about his true motives, "Unless I plan to secretly come to a non-interference agreement with them and watch them grow their influence... But in doing so, I’d effectively become a traitor to Luo Mountain.

"Unless offered ample benefits, I won’t possibly do that."

Hearing his last words, Zhu Shi showed a speechless expression, saying: "Your stance is really ’firm’."

This Impermanence seemed oblivious to the sarcasm, earnestly nodding: "Of course. The price to betray Luo Mountain and the Gods is very high. Small benefits won’t shake my rock-solid loyalty to Luo Mountain.

"In short, if he’s allowed to move freely and build his influence around here, it’ll only be harder to deal with him later. It’s better to eliminate him early.

"But who would have known..."

Zhu Shi continued, "Who would have known he’d prepare Zhuang Cheng’s power in advance to deal with you, a Ming Zhuo believer?"

The Impermanence shook his head and said, "No, the problem lies earlier than that... How did he know I was a Ming Zhuo believer? Zhu Shi, had you ever heard I was a Ming Zhuo believer?"

"This is the first time I’ve heard it," Zhu Shi said.

Now that I think about it, when Zhu Shi initially mentioned this Impermanence to me, he didn’t mention his connection to Ming Zhuo. If Zhu Shi knew this information from the beginning, he would have surely said something. After all, I have deep grudges with Ming Zhuo.

This implies that "The High-Rank Impermanence in charge of Saltwater City and several nearby cities is actually a Ming Zhuo believer" was secret intelligence unknown even to Zhu Shi, who holds prominence in Saltwater City. This is no ordinary issue; during my conflict with Ming Zhuo, the Zhu family was also gathering intelligence everywhere, yet they hadn’t discovered that the figure overseeing their city was actually under Ming Zhuo. This indicates the exceptionally high level of secrecy.

So, why would his identity as a Ming Zhuo believer need to be kept secret? Is there a special reason?

Upon detailed inquiry, he seemed unable to lie or stay silent before me and confessed honestly: In this aspect, there’s actually no special reason—just that this is the organizational style passed down among Ming Zhuo believers.

Looking back, when figures like Lu Youxun or the Divine Spear first appeared before us, no one knew they were Ming Zhuo’s subordinates. Ming Zhuo seems to lack manifest openness in his character, preferring to operate from the shadows, creating a dark and terrifying atmosphere through omnipresent eyes and invisible hands to achieve many desired results.

Some needs truly required invisible means to satisfy, such as when he had his subordinates kidnap numerous individuals with innate powerful spirituality, killing them in attempts to open pathways to the afterlife. Such actions were certainly not permitted by Fa Zheng, and therefore led to conflicts between the two great Impermanence. Later, Ming Zhuo moved such activities underground, and Fa Zheng, who always operates within the bounds of legality, faced difficulties acting against Ming Zhuo without concrete evidence.

"I was aware that this area is a fated place for Zhuang Cheng, and being a Ming Zhuo believer, I knew I would be strongly restrained by Zhuang Cheng’s power... But, I didn’t think external forces would identify my true nature beforehand." This Impermanence said.

"Isn’t it because you used Ming Zhuo’s power somewhere before and left traces?" Zhu Shi asked.

"All enemies who witnessed my use of Ming Zhuo’s power were killed by me; I also meticulously cleaned the battlefield afterwards. I don’t believe this issue was caused by my oversight." This Impermanence said seriously, "There must be someone inside who betrayed us."

A traitor within the ranks of Ming Zhuo believers... Could this be a hint for my future actions?

After the conversations ended, this Impermanence called for some agents to settle the ordinary people. As for the "preacher" corpse on the ground, I severed and took its head.

It was already nighttime outside, Zhu Shi first took Xiaoqiao to her home, mentioning a desire to meet with her parents and explain the situation, hoping to get their consent for Xiaoqiao to transfer to Luoshan Academy. Everything seemed to proceed quite smoothly, and by late night, Zhu Shi called me after finishing the discussions. I went to Zhu Shi’s villa, where I met her again in the living room on the first floor.

"Will this matter end just like this? After all, you even confronted the Taoyuan Village Master’s avatar in this incident, definitely not an ordinary event..."

Despite saying this, Zhu Shi’s expression reflected her unease, clearly believing it might not be over yet.

I shared the same thoughts, then took the "preacher’s" head from the flames.

"Whether there’s more to this incident will depend on what this head reveals in the future." I said.