Chapter 88: With things having come to this point, there's probably no way to turn things around...

For a fleeting moment, the muscles in Zhiheng's face twitched, defying any semblance of gentleness, causing his expression to contort for a brief instant. But upon closer inspection, he returned to his original, mild demeanor, making his momentary expression of pain seem like an illusion.

However, Shu Qing rarely doubted her own eyes.

She stared at Zhiheng's face and pressed, "Now that people know the importance of 'being prepared for danger in times of peace,' and your research has been successfully completed, haven't you achieved your goals? What exactly do you want to do by keeping Jin Wanli detained?"

Zhiheng sighed, "Ashu, do you really have to imagine your teacher as a treacherous villain full of schemes?"

Shu Qing smiled, her meaning quite clear: Aren't you the same?

Zhiheng shook his head helplessly. He had excellent emotional control—being pricked by the flowers he was raising was indeed only a momentary loss of composure and anger—and the look in his eyes when he looked at Shuqing carried the tolerant expression of an elder looking at a naive junior.

“Since we’ve started, we must ensure there are no mistakes,” Zhiheng said. “Two thousand years ago, a great war left behind a snow-covered realm isolated from the world, which has caused endless troubles. Today, we must not repeat the same mistake, don’t you think?”

Shu Qing seemed to realize something and quickly lowered her head. Being inside the Kunlun ancient ruins, cell phone signal was definitely unreliable, but when they came here on their mission, each of them carried specialized communication equipment.

At that moment, the communication equipment was in an uproar. She heard someone mumble, "...an out-of-control outbreak in the suburbs of the capital, how...?"

"City B has issued another high-risk alert for energy fluctuations!"

"H City issues warning—requesting support, requesting support—"

"Severe energy fluctuations have been observed in various regions!"

Alarms from all directions flew toward the headquarters of the Super Management Bureau in the capital. Just then, Xie Heng betrayed them, Jin Wanli was trapped, and Director Yang, Jiu Su, and Shu Qing, the few capable people in charge, all went to the ancient Kunlun Mountains to follow their trail. The Super Management Bureau was left to manage the chaos with only a few people temporarily appointed by Director Yang before his departure. Even in temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius, everyone was drenched in sweat.

"Can you get in touch with Ashu?" Qi Yun and Tu Nan, as the other two heads of Youling Studio, happened to be in the capital and were directly recruited by the Super Management Bureau as external helpers.

The two of them were running around in circles. Qi Yun also called some of the employees of Qi Group in the capital to help. Taking a break, he went into the office that Tu Nan was temporarily filling in for. Messages requesting support and alarm messages flooded in at once, overwhelming the communication system. Tu Nan was helping with emergency repairs.

Poor Tu Nan, having been a programmer for several years, had only ever encountered bugs that resulted in losses and reduced performance. This was the first time she'd been forced to deal with a bug that could potentially kill her, and she was incredibly nervous, her fingers barely moving on the keyboard. Her eyes were glued to the screen, and without turning her head, she replied to Qi Yun, "No, Ashu is on Kunlun Mountain. Even if the communication is fixed, there's no signal..."

She breathed a long sigh of relief, "All done!"

The moment the communication system lit up again, the number of unread messages skyrocketed. Countless red dots lined up in sequence. The system froze for a moment, then barely managed to stabilize, like an old horse pulling a broken-down cart, slowly starting to operate again.

Tu Nan sighed, knowing this wasn't over yet and he would have to come back and continue coding later, but he was feeling dizzy and couldn't optimize anymore, so he had to stop and drink some water.

She and Qi Yun looked at each other and found that they both looked like they were looking in a mirror, their faces filled with worry. Even Nian Nian and Fa Cai squatted quietly to one side, keeping them company without a sound.

They managed to steal a moment of leisure from their busy schedules, barely having the energy to speak, but unfortunately, others weren't so sure they'd let them off the hook.

An employee from the Qi Group knocked on the door and relayed a message to Qi Yun: "Miss, the weapons research department is short-staffed. They asked me to inquire if a few people could be transferred to help register and distribute the equipment."

"Go ahead and transfer them, go ahead and transfer them." Qi Yun weakly pulled out a pen, signed a note, and said, "Find a few administrative staff to come and help."

No sooner had that person left than someone else came to ask, "The childcare department also needs to borrow some staff..."

Qi Yun had no choice but to continue writing notes, "Quehe, please do a survey to see if anyone has ever raised a little monster that could be used."

"The field operations department needs someone to help retrieve the data!"

"The armed police reinforcements have arrived and are maintaining order. We need to bring over a few more loudspeakers for psychological support..."

The alarm system blared sharply again, startling Tu Nan, who turned her head. Several urgent messages popped up one after another, all of them urgent and important. The flood of high-priority matters quickly overwhelmed the already strained communication system. The screen flickered for a moment, then went black with a snap.

Tu Nan felt her vision go black. She cursed and restarted the system, wondering if her life was as short as this unlucky communication system.

Some people struggle in front of their computers, while others are writhing in misery.

Hu You wiped the sweat from his forehead in a flustered manner—he was originally the deputy minister of the Department of Child Rearing, but now he was really short-handed. Not to mention other government departments, even the unofficial staff from the partners he could contact were all haphazardly pulled over.

He was, after all, a demon with fighting power, and a great demon who had lived for thousands of years. It would be a waste for him to stay in the Nursery Department and do work that humans could also do. So he was forcibly transferred to the front line.

However, when Hu You joined the army with the Demon King Taiyu, he was a service soldier, which was completely different from proper combat personnel like Jiu Su and Jin Wanli. He had almost no combat skills and could only rely on his cultivation to suppress his strength. After running to only two places, he was already covered in sweat. He simply couldn't imagine how Jiu Su and Jin Wanli were putting out fires everywhere.

But that wasn't all. Two special agents ran up one after the other, each carrying something, and reported, "Minister Hu, two injured stray monsters have been found nearby. Should the Super Management Bureau take them in?"

"It looks like it was abandoned by nearby residents..."

Hu You never expected that after being forced to take on combat duties that were not originally his responsibility, he would also be unable to give up his regular job.

He took a breath and looked around. This was the scene of an out-of-control accident on the outskirts of the capital. The out-of-control creature was a high-level monster privately raised by an entrepreneur. Fortunately, its level wasn't too high, only level 5.3. Hu You managed to press the button after some effort, but the small villa area was already completely destroyed.

Logically speaking, privately raising a monster of level 5 or higher would already violate the law, but the owner of this household is the first to bear the brunt of the consequences and is already buried in this out-of-control incident, so there is no way to pursue responsibility or compensation.

Most of the people living here own more than one property, so they're not going to fight tooth and nail. They're tearfully moving to other places. Occasionally, one or two particularly particular people even come to thank them before moving.

There was also a little girl, her cake-like princess dress covered in dust, clutching a figurine that was only half intact, wiping away tears as she bowed and thanked them; she was a princess in distress.

Hu You watched the well-dressed victim being polite, and then reached out to take the little monster from the special agents' arms.

Quite by chance, it was also a small white snake demon, but it didn't have a pair of captivating crimson demon eyes. It was dug out of the ruins by the special operations team. Its tail had a large bruise and could only hang limply. Its dark eyes stared at him, helplessly flicking its tongue.

In an instant, Hu You recalled the little white snake he had cared for two thousand years ago. It was not as trusting of people as it was now, nor was it so pitiful and small.

But he just happened to think of Jiu Su when he was a boy, and he didn't know how they were similar except for race and color.

"If a fight hadn't broken out..." Hu You suddenly wondered, "Would things really have been better?"

He harbored various grievances and dissatisfactions with the current situation, constantly reminiscing about the glory of the demon race during Taiyu's reign, and yearning for revenge. Unexpectedly, one day he emerged from the snowy realm to find that Kunlun Mountain had become an ice plain, the ancient immortals were no more, and all his hatred had vanished. He was at a loss, not knowing where to go or what to do.

Is he going to let go of his hatred like Jin Wanli? But he has hated for too long; hatred has become his backbone. How can he let go?

When Jiu Su awoke, he, just like two thousand years ago, threw all his confusion at Jiu Su, thinking that he could bear all the hatred and looking forward to a counterattack and reckoning.

Until this moment.

The piercing alarm sounded again, and everyone's cell phones were ringing frantically from all directions. Everyone in the Super Management Bureau was cursing and running around in a hurry. Hu You was suddenly awakened from his daze.

He glanced back at the ruins behind him, sighed wearily, and boarded the Super Management Bureau's car with the two little monsters in his arms, driving towards the nearest branch office.

Even if he wanted a peaceful life now, what good would it do? he thought.

Conflicts are erupting everywhere, skyscrapers are collapsing, and casualties and bloodshed are everywhere. At this point, there is probably no room for reconciliation between humans and monsters.

"I suppose the alarms have already been issued everywhere by now." Zhi Heng stood up, put his hands behind his back, looked up at the twinkling stars, and said slowly, "From now on, there will be no possibility of reconciliation between mortals and demons. It is pitiful that mortals are so foolish. If they do not feel pain and shed blood, they will always believe in falsehoods and will not be able to distinguish right from wrong."

"After this incident, there will be no more demons causing trouble. This is a necessary sacrifice to eliminate future troubles."

Shu Qing patiently listened to this long-winded speech, then reached into her pocket, fiddled with it, and quietly turned off a recording pen specially made by the Super Management Bureau, adding a small protective lock to it.

She smiled, her eyes crinkling, and said softly, "Yes, if I hadn't died once in my past life, wouldn't I have been unable to see your true face clearly, Master? In that case, perhaps I could have believed even a word or two of what you said today."

Zhi Heng's face darkened.

Jiu Su clearly shared her sentiment, giving him a cold glance and concluding that he was a complete madman and there was nothing more to say to him.

"If you release Wanli now, I can give you a quick death. I'm a monster who doesn't reason, and if this continues, I can't guarantee what I might do."

Zhiheng was not threatened by these words at all. Instead, he slowly smiled. It was a condescending, godlike smile, as if he were forgiving two foolish children.

He said, "What do you think I brought Kim Man-ri here for?"

His figure gradually blurred, and "Xie Heng" maintained a compassionate smile, slowly turning into a wooden sculpture.

The smile then shifted to Jin Wanli's face, and the blond boy's delicate features revealed a smile that appeared unusually sinister.