Chapter 29
"Earthquake? Was it planned?" Jiang Fei saw that the images on the screen were shaking violently. Based on her understanding of past auditions, the planners would add various natural disasters for the sake of ratings, and earthquakes were just one of them.
But soon, Jiang Fei saw through one of the cameras the black liquid gushing out from the ground. It spread in all directions as if it had life, and gradually occupied most of the sky.
"This is a disaster that has never been seen before..." Jason commented after seeing these scenes. Jiang Fei turned her head and said, "Don't you think this is very similar to what we have seen before?" Jason was a smart man and didn't need too many prompts. Jiang Fei just said a simple sentence and he understood what she meant.
“It seems a bit like—”
Hill's voice rang out, "The whole, whole sky has turned black!"
The psychic should have complete control over the environment he simulated, but now it has changed. The psychic named Arthur looked uneasy. He stood in front of the sandbox and raised his hand as usual. However, the scene in the sandbox did not change at all. The originally golden sand was stained pure black by something.
"Tsk, where did these stink bugs come from?" He cursed softly. At this moment, there was a knock on the door of his room. The person who came was very anxious, which could be seen from the fact that he pushed the door open without hearing any response.
The visitor asked, "I sensed a fluctuation in your ability. Is your mental strength unstable?"
The other person was tall, with delicate features and a cold temperament. His name was Ivan and he was a supernatural being who was one of the four pillars of Sky City along with Arthur. He approached Arthur.
Arthur's anger found an outlet, and his tone was very rude, "I don't know where this mutant came from, trying to control the environment I simulated." This is equivalent to rushing into someone else's house, beating up the owner of the house and then messing up the house. Arthur was considered to have restrained his temper by not overturning the table.
"Can you find that guy?" Ivan asked.
"I can't find it. That thing is too cunning." Arthur finally regained control of the sandbox. His expression was ferocious with anger. "Or else, let everyone die." After all, the contestants are all in the environment he simulated. As long as he wants, he can wipe out all life in the environment with just a raise of his hand. In a sense, he can even be said to be a god in this area.
"Calm down. If you kill them all, that young master will probably start making trouble again. You don't want to be disturbed every day, do you?" Ivan crossed his arms.
The speed at which the black eroded the yellow sand slowed down. Arthur thought of the noble young master and rolled his eyes. "That weakling who was raised under the protection of his parents? I could kill him with just one finger."
"But unfortunately, you can't kill him yet."
Arthur used his mental power to control the sandbox, and the black sand disappeared bit by bit. Just when everyone thought the disaster was over, and even Arthur thought he had completely regained control, a few drops of black liquid splashed out from the bottom of the sandbox and were about to stick to his skin.
At the critical moment, it was Ivan who quickly pulled Arthur aside. His ability was purification, which broadly speaking meant that he could eliminate anything with malicious intent. Because of this, he was also very sensitive to malicious intent. He said, "It felt... like a part of the pollutant had fallen off."
"You mean there are contaminants that have entered the game?"
"That's unlikely." He had checked all the contestants before the competition began, but if it was only a small part of the contaminant and it was still dormant, even he would find it difficult to detect. "It must be that someone is carrying part of the contaminant."
However, in the public's perception, even just contact with pollutants can have adverse effects on the body, so carrying pollutants and then releasing them is very dangerous. What's more, he couldn't think of the reason for doing this. Was it just to disrupt the game?
"In short, let's stabilize the situation first. If something goes wrong in the game, it will affect the entire Sky City." Ivan said.
"I get it. Don't use the entire Sky City to put pressure on me all the time." Arthur narrowed his eyes slightly. "Anyway, this isn't the first person I've dealt with who openly defied Sky City."
The surviving contestants were the ones who felt the strangeness of the situation most directly. Yunica looked up at the sky, which was half black. "This doesn't seem like something the organizers would do."
"If it's not the organizers, then it must be another contestant." Alice's heart was beating fast. If Unica hadn't taken the two of them away from their original place, they would have turned into minced meat by now. "Looking at this posture, it seems that they don't want to be the champion, but rather-"
Lucian continued, "And it seems like they're demonstrating." If you look closely at the darkness hovering in the sky, you can vaguely make out the shape of a pattern. Lucian thought of something. He remembered that he had seen such a pattern when he and Jiang Fei went to the ghost market not long ago.
"The Redemption Society..." he muttered to himself.
Alice didn't hear clearly. "What did you say?"
"Nothing." He shook his head. "I don't think this game can continue."
As if to confirm the accuracy of Lucian's guess, the originally vague and blurred patterns in the sky became extremely clear. Then, the surrounding scenery changed. The original tropical rainforest environment distorted and then returned to its original yellow sand sky.
The competition venue disappeared out of thin air, which meant that the abilities of the psychics were ineffective. However, in the minds of the underground city residents, the Sky City could not be resisted, was absolutely authoritative, and would never make mistakes.
This scene made the other contestants present stunned.
"The game is over?"
"No, how come the environment has returned to its original state?"
"Could it be that the psychic's ability went wrong?"
"So are we still going to compete or not?!"
Lucian glanced at the people around him and caught a glimpse of a dark figure among them. It looked familiar. He recalled that he seemed to have seen that person at the ghost market.
"That man—" he blurted out.
Alice asked, "What are you going to do?!"
Before Lucian could take a few steps, he heard a voice from above. "All contestants, remain where you are. Sky City needs to conduct an inspection. We've detected someone attempting to disrupt the trials. You cannot leave until we find the suspect."
Alice put one hand on her hip impatiently. "What's going on? But there's actually someone who managed to sabotage the competition. I'm really curious about who it is."
Lucian's eyes were fixed on the figure. Unica noticed something was wrong with him and was about to follow his gaze when the staff sent by Sky City arrived on the ground and surrounded everyone.
"They're moving very quickly right now. I don't know how they manage to be so slow when pollutants are rampant." Alice's face was full of disgust, but because she was facing soldiers armed with live ammunition, she only muttered softly.
Unica cooperated with the soldiers' inspection and whispered to Lucian, "What did you see just now?"
Lucian naturally couldn't tell Unica about the Redemption Society. He withdrew his gaze secretly and said, "No, I was just wondering if this competition is going to end like this?" He didn't mind the qualifiers ending like this, but he also knew that others would never let the game end like this.
It was Lucian's turn to be examined. He asked, "What happened just now?"
The soldier didn't answer him. He scanned him with the detector, then checked his iris, and only let him go after confirming the information was correct. As for the question he asked? No answer.
The detectors in Sky City can detect most suspicious substances. Logically, the culprit who caused all this should have fled the scene in time.
But the figure showed no signs of escaping. On the contrary, he stayed where he was very obedient, as if... he was sure that he would not be detected.
The live broadcast screen also disappeared along with the competition venue. Jiang Fei could only see a dark screen on the restaurant screen. Gru was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. "What happened! What happened? Could someone have attacked the scene?!"
Jason recalled the last second before the screen went black. A pattern suddenly appeared above the sky of the competition venue. He and Jiang Fei looked at each other and saw the same meaning in each other's eyes.
Jiang Fei and Jason were sitting in the institute's office. She spoke first, "Sure enough, the Redemption Society has taken action."
"This is the first time I've seen someone successfully defy Sky City." Jason said with a hint of admiration, "Although I don't know much about this organization either."
"We can only hope that Lucian and the others can come back safely." As for her plans after this, she had no intention of telling Jason.
Because she has been using the Human-faced Hawkmoth frequently recently, she was surprised to find that its skills have been upgraded. Previously, its skills could only interfere with the opponent's mind, but now it can even directly control the opponent's mind. Of course, it is not so powerful that it can modify people's thoughts. At most, it can modify people's perception of Jiang Fei. If combined with a disguise, she can almost hide the truth.
This is her biggest gain in recent days, and she will be able to use this skill when investigating the Redemption Society in the near future. Jiang Fei is very satisfied with this.
Jason frowned, "I feel that if Sky City can't find the murderer, they would rather kill a hundred people by mistake than let one go." This is Sky City's style of doing things, to eradicate the roots and never leave any hidden dangers.
"You mean Lucian and the others..."
"I mean, you have to be mentally prepared that they won't come back."
Jiang Fei remained silent. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the words written on the whiteboard in the office: the tortuousness and progressiveness of the development of things.
The handwriting was clearly Lucian's. His handwriting was more delicate yet exuded a sense of elegance. "Then bring them back. We can't just watch them die, can we?"
Jason was stunned for a moment. "Are you planning to... snatch someone from Sky City?" He couldn't help but admire Jiang Fei's courage. "Just sneaking into Sky City is difficult enough, and then you have to rescue them. The difficulty is almost doubled. Are you sure you're not daydreaming?"
At this time, Jiang Fei took another look at the skills of the two pollutants at hand. One was for controlling the field, and the other for group attack, but they were still far from enough to face the Sky City. The courage she had accumulated also dissipated bit by bit.
Sure enough, he still couldn't act impulsively. Jason consoled him, "But if we can find the real criminal, perhaps they can return safely. Besides, Lucian knows what to do. He's very smart."
Just as Jiang Fei and Jason were discussing what to do, Sky City had already completed its inspection of the remaining contestants.
"The criminal hasn't been found?" Ivan saw the message from the captain of the soldiers. Arthur's face darkened. He said calmly, "It's also possible that the criminal committed suicide out of fear of punishment."
In fact, it is not appropriate to describe it as suicide out of fear of punishment. It is more like a suicide attack. He said this more to comfort Arthur. The latter said: "Then let Themis come and test them one by one. He will always find the liar."
Themis, as he referred to her, was the pillar of fairness in Sky City. Any lie would be exposed in her presence. Ivan said, "She's probably praying in the temple at this hour... so it would be difficult to get her here."
Arthur's expression changed. "So it's that day again? I almost forgot—"
Ivan said, "Really? Are you really about to forget?"
Arthur turned his head away. "Yeah, I just forgot. She was the one who abandoned us first! This kind of person... What's there to remember about this kind of person? She'd better not show up in front of me, otherwise I'll kill her first!"
Hearing this, Ivan pursed his lips and said, "But the situation is urgent now. Why don't you come with me to the temple to find her."
While Arthur was cursing, he still followed Ivan honestly through the corridor to the front of the temple. Behind the gate was a large rectangular square. In the center of the square was a stone sculpture of a woman. The carving was exquisite and the figure was lifelike. The carved woman held a sword and looked ahead with a firm gaze.
"This broken statue hasn't collapsed yet? I thought it should have been washed down by the rain long ago." Arthur mocked the stone sculpture mercilessly, but his eyes remained on it.
Ivan had long been accustomed to Arthur's duplicity, and on the platform at the bottom of the stone sculpture was carved a line of words: Founder of Sky City, first consul.
That was... the person who led them to establish Sky City, and also the culprit who trapped them here.
Ivan took a few steps, and Arthur trotted after him, still muttering, "They shouldn't have carved a stone statue for her. What's so good about it?"
"Arthur, why did you lie?" A cold female voice rang out from the palace. The distance between them made her voice particularly ethereal. "I can sense your longing for her."
It was mentioned before that Themis represents fairness, and any lie could be seen through her eyes. She didn't even need to expend much effort, just a glance would tell that Arthur was lying.
"You, I'm not a criminal! Do you really need to use the same methods on me as on criminals?!" Arthur was furious.
The light source in the temple was thousands of small lamps, forming a sea of candlelight. Amidst the flickering candlelight, a figure walked out. Themis, dressed in a white sleeveless long dress, appeared before the two of them. "And... you actually love that statue very much, don't you? I remember there was a heavy rainstorm before, and I didn't have time to get back—"
"That's enough, shut up!" Arthur's face turned red, and he didn't know whether it was because of anger or something else.
Themis didn't say anything else, but under her clear eyes, Arthur knew that he had no secrets.
The rainstorm came so suddenly that even Themis did not expect it. When she rushed back to the temple, she only saw the young man frantically using his supernatural powers to protect the statue. In his panic, he even forgot to shield himself from the rain. The rain wet his hair and the rain was so heavy that he could not open his eyes, but he still raised his head and looked at the statue.
Ivan came out to smooth things over, "Are you the only one here today?" In the past, Yan would also come to the temple to pray on the anniversary of the first consul's death.
"Yon is with the new archon," Themis said to Arthur again, "Will you pray with me too?"
"What are you praying for? Praying for her to come back? You're overthinking it. How could such a cold-blooded person possibly come back?" Arthur saw Themis' eyes and retracted his gaze. "Tsk, this is so troublesome. Okay, okay, I can pray with you, right? But this isn't the time. We have more important things to do."
"Is it because of the selection competition? Then let's go and find the criminal first." Themis didn't say much.
"Weren't you going to say some prayer? Wouldn't it be okay to pause now?"
A gentle breeze blew through the palace, swaying the sea of lights. She said, "Sky City is all she has left. I will never allow anyone to destroy it."
The century-long attachment has been fermented and distorted over time. Precisely because it is what she left behind, she must do her utmost to protect it. Anyone who attempts to destroy the Sky City is their enemy.
*
Lucian and his team hadn't anticipated that this was only the first round of inspections; there would be a second, and even a third, round waiting for them. However, some A-rank bases did send personnel to redeem their own contestants.
Among them was A-1 Base. The person sent was none other than Joshua, the son of the base's director, Kyle. The blond boy handled the soldiers with ease and was even able to negotiate with them. "After all, this guy is from our base. I think with my father's relationship with the Archon, the rest of the inspection won't be necessary, right?"
The man recognized Kyle's son and hesitated, "But that's the rule."
"Rules are fixed, but people are alive. I think you understand this principle, right?" Joshua's lips curled up in a false, polite smile. "Or are you doubting the loyalty of our base? This is too hurtful. Sky City just sent an investigation team not long ago, and in the end, Sky City still doesn't trust us?"
In just a few words, he easily put himself in the victim's position, putting the other party in a passive state. In contrast, Allen, who stood next to Joshua, did not say a word from beginning to end. Joshua then said, "If something really goes wrong, it won't be too late for you to come to the A-1 base to hold them accountable."
The soldier went to his superior to report in embarrassment. His superior also knew that the new governor wanted to win over the person in charge of the large base, and it was impossible for such a small matter to affect the relationship between the two.
So, before Themis arrived, Joshua logically escorted Allen away from the scene. On the way back, the boy, who had been smiling just a moment ago, suddenly changed his expression. "You're such a disgrace! I thought you'd at least perform well in the competition, but this is the result? You even have to trouble me."
"I didn't expect this accident." Allen said calmly, as if he was not the one who brought part of the pollutants into the competition site.
"No one would have expected this accident." Just like no one had thought of rebelling against Sky City before.
Joshua leaned back, his back against the chair. "If you weren't still useful, I wouldn't bother saving you. You'd be better off dead."
Of course, the purpose of keeping Alan was to better collect the collection. He got angry when he thought about it. The collection that was destroyed last time was the result of several years of his efforts. Thinking of this, he looked angrily at the sky city hanging high in the sky. He didn't know whether Yann had retrieved the memory of the brooch he gave to him.
Jiang Fei's dark yet bright eyes appeared in his mind, "One day, I will keep your eyes as a collection."
Yao Jiang Fei sneezed at the D-3 base. She rubbed her nose and Anna asked with concern, "Are you okay?"
"My nose suddenly started to itch just now." Jiang Fei's voice was nasal. They were sitting in the conference room. According to the news received by Coin, after the first inspection, the second inspection would follow. Coin said, "I heard that they also sent out Themis."
Jiang Fei had some impression of this name. She recalled it and realized that it was the pillar representing fairness in Sky City. This was equivalent to directly sending judges from the Supreme Court to try the case. It could be seen how much importance Sky City attached to this.
Jiang Fei asked all the human-faced hawk moths that were originally surrounding the competition venue to come back. She was not sure whether the other party would discover the contaminants. If they did, it would be disastrous if they could trace her back.
Facts proved that her decision was correct, because the first thing Ivan and Themis did when they arrived on the ground was to search for traces of pollutants nearby. As for Themis, she was responsible for interrogating other people. To say it was interrogation was a bit of an exaggeration, because she only needed to stand in front of those people and listen to what they said quietly to distinguish the truth from the lies.
Lucian had heard of this person before, so when it was his turn to speak, he was mentally prepared.
"Did you cause this attack?"
"no."
"Did you bring the contaminants in?"
"no."
Themis looked at Lucian. "Do you have any clues about the criminal?"
Lucian paused.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
