Chapter 76

So after their impassioned speech, the dinner they were served was actually a living person?

Everyone picked up their knives and forks at the same time. Xiao Shengyun paused for a moment and then picked up his knife and fork as well.

They looked at the people in front of them with greedy eyes. After being brainwashed and polluted, these polluters completely forgot that they were human.

Xiao Shengyun felt a chill for the first time. He had encountered polluted people at Nanshan Hospital before. Those polluted people were not much different from normal people. But here, he suddenly realized that the polluted people here had completely lost their human emotions.

A healed femur is hailed as the starting point of human civilization. In ancient times, when people ate raw meat and drank blood, a person who broke their femur would almost certainly die unless they received help from others, because the injured person could not hunt and could not escape the harm of wild animals. Therefore, a healed femur after an injury indicates that the injured person received care and slowly recovered, which is the beginning of civilization.

He represents human kindness and empathy, but here, all of that has been lost.

Thinking of Nanshan Hospital and seeing the scene before him, Xiao Shengyun suddenly realized that human civilization seemed to be declining.

The pollutants raised their knives and forks, and someone secretly stabbed the young man, who screamed.

"You monsters, let me go, ugh—"

The messenger of God placed an apple in the mouth of the "food" and said gently, "Please pray one more time, and then we will have our meal."

Then a long prayer echoed in the church.

The young people's "woo-woo" cries during the chanting sounded like discordant notes.

A wisp of primal energy materialized into a blade, silently severing the young man's ropes.

The lamb that had been wriggling on the table suddenly leaped up, took the apple out of its mouth, and swiftly jumped off the long table, shattering the cutlery into pieces.

"The Holy Communion has run away!"

"The Holy Communion has run away!"

The messenger's cry rang out, and chaos erupted in the church.

The lamb was incredibly fast; it might have a talent for galloping. A group of pollutants with knives and forks chased after it.

He ran to the second floor, jumped out of the narrow window, and his figure disappeared into the jungle outside.

Xiao Shengyun was also among this group of people, and the stench emanating from them made him want to banish his sense of smell.

The jungle outside the church was vast; when the rabbit ran into the dense forest, it disappeared without a trace, like a fish swimming into the sea.

The source material that had helped untie the young man was tightly wrapped around his wrist. Hearing the sound of grass being rummaged through in the distance, he squatted down and rested briefly.

A faint voice came from behind.

Someone's there!

He instinctively retaliated, but a hand with distinct knuckles covered his mouth, and black threads, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, bound his hands and feet together.

“Don’t worry, I’m here to save you.” The attacker walked up to the young man.

"Who are you?" the young man asked, half-believing.

"We'll talk about it tonight. You stay here for now. You can't get out of here by yourself," Xiao Shengyun said, half threatening and half coaxing.

He didn't stay long. He then returned to the vicinity of the church, pretended to search for a while with the others, and finally went back together.

The messenger seemed somewhat angry, but he didn't show it on his face. He absentmindedly gave a summary and then dismissed everyone.

Xiao Shengyun found his prey in the dense forest. The man's hands and feet were bound, and he was lying half asleep in the grass.

Which organization sent this top-quality item?

He kicked the person awake.

The young man trembled, as if he had been frightened.

"If you want to live, come with us obediently." Xiao Shengyun didn't have time for words; he untied the ropes binding the man's legs.

They couldn't bring anyone by car, so they had to walk back to the residential area like last time, and this time the road was longer than last time.

"You guys aren't with those monsters, right?" The young man's eyes darted around, and he quickly realized something.

"How did you figure that out?" Xiao Shengyun asked, noticing that the man didn't seem very bright.

"You two are better looking than those things," the young man thought. At least these two have lower levels of contamination and are closer to human form.

"Where do we go now? I can use my talent to take you, if you're not afraid I'll run away."

Xiao Shengyun and Zhou Zhi exchanged glances. If they walked back to the residential area, the journey would be too long, and they might encounter hunters along the way, or worse, they might encounter pollutants.

The two had never raced before, but this was their first time experiencing the thrill of high-speed racing.

This person may not be able to fight, but he is fast.

When they arrived near the residential area, Xiao Shengyun, feeling dizzy, grabbed a tree and hugged it tightly. Zhou Zhi was also not in good condition; he adjusted his glasses and it took him a while to regain his senses.

There were also detection devices at the entrance of the residential area, so the three of them used the simplest method—smuggling themselves in through the window.

After a lot of fuss, we finally got into the house.

"I'm so tired. Now you can tell me, what's the purpose of your visit?"

"Shouldn't you reveal your own background before interrogating someone?" the man retorted.

“You don’t have to say anything, but this building is full of polluters. If I call out, they’ll probably be happy to have more food,” Xiao Shengyun said with a smile.

His face and voice were gentle, but the words he spoke sent chills down one's spine.

The young man opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

After a while, he finally spoke. The young man's name was Fan Huacheng, and he came from the action department of a certain city in Xizhou District. Just as the two of them had guessed, this city was built in a specific place. As for how they got from Dongshan District to Xizhou District, which was thousands of miles away, that was another question.

"This city, or rather this area, is an abandoned region from the Great Cataclysm. Humans built a protective network a hundred miles away; that is where the current border of the Western Continent is," Fan Huacheng said.

"Since this is an abandoned area, why did you come here?" Xiao Shengyun asked.

“It’s not coming, it’s going back.” Fan Huacheng remained silent.

There was no warning or relocation when this area was abandoned by humans; they were abandoned suddenly, like a festering sore being ripped out.

This place used to be called Mengchuan City. The pollution came so suddenly that Mengchuan City, along with several surrounding cities, was the most polluted place, while other places were also attacked by pollutants to varying degrees.

In this situation, the person in charge of the Western Continent at the time abandoned Mengchuan City and directly used firepower to cover the area between Mengchuan City and the human settlement. That area is now scorched black, like a sword cutting off both sides.

They were abandoned by the higher authorities, but the remaining residents of Mengchuan City did not give up.

Because of its location on the border with China, Mengchuan City stockpiled a large number of firearms. The mayor at the time integrated several surrounding cities to jointly combat the pollutants.

There are no gods in this world, only humans who refuse to give up.

Fan Huacheng was a descendant of the survivors at that time.

Ten years ago, due to an incident in the city, his parents sent him away. He wandered for many years before awakening his talent and joining the Operations Department. When he saw this mission, he accepted it without hesitation.

"This mission is to investigate the current situation in Mengchuan City, but I also have a personal motive. I want to know how my family is doing now." Fan Huacheng was a little embarrassed. He originally came to investigate, but his business failed halfway through and he was tied up before he even entered the city gate.

Xiao Shengyun was speechless when he thought of his way of entering the city: "The method you came up with was to attach a head to your body to pretend to be a polluter and then come in?"

"This method is feasible. One of my predecessors got in using this method, and recently the checks here have become much more lenient," Fan Huacheng argued.

Are there more experts?

Do you have any accomplices?

"What accomplices? They're teammates! But I don't know your identities, so don't expect to get any information from me."

You've already revealed a lot, haven't you?

Fan Huacheng didn't know who the two people in front of him were, but he trusted them because in this polluted place, they were the only ones like him.

As darkness fell, Xiao Shengyun went to the administrator and booked another room. They had taken a card from the octopus driver that day, and the money in it had just eased their immediate crisis.

Then Xiao Shengyun introduced the basic situation of the city to Fan Huacheng. Xiao Shengyun was not worried that the man would run away. He was currently an unregistered resident, and if he wanted to conduct an investigation, he would have to cooperate.

After dealing with all of this, he finally lay down on the bed and let out a long sigh of relief.

Zhou Zhi was unusually quiet today.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Shengyun poked the man's arm.

"It's nothing. I'm just a little worried about my senior brother, oh, I mean Li Qianfang." He had no idea about Nanshan Hospital. He and Li Qianfang didn't usually keep in touch; he would only contact Li Qianfang to make an appointment before being admitted to the hospital.

"Oh." Xiao Shengyun was a little surprised; this person could also have worries. But then he thought about it again, and realized that Zhou Zhi had taken care of him many times when he was just an ordinary clerk.

His feelings and actions towards the other person were too secretive, like water flowing deep in a ditch.

"Let's go to Nanshan Hospital for a check-up after we get out," Xiao Shengyun said dryly, trying to comfort him.

They lay side by side on the bed, their pillows touching, their faces just inches apart, their warm breaths mingling on each other's skin.

Xiao Shengyun's eyes were very gentle; except for the time he became a pollutant, they had always been so bright and soft.

Zhou Zhi placed his hand on the face of the person beside him, his hand resting on the smooth skin beneath which lay human bones.

It doesn't resemble pollutants at all.

He dealt with pollutants for over a decade, and ultimately seemed to have been bewitched by them.

If the other person is just an ordinary person, he can...

"What's wrong?" The hands on his face felt very comfortable, cool and refreshing. Xiao Shengyun noticed the rare emotional expression on the other's face and rubbed the hands against his face.

Just like a cat.