Chapter 328 End of the text

"This... is a joke." Huang Tianzhen walked forward and looked at the bloodstains on the charred ground. He pulled the corners of his mouth, trying to smile, but it looked so ugly that he looked like he was crying. "This joke is not funny at all, Captain, we should go back."

"Captain? Qingtong? Really..." Huang Tianzhen put his hands over his eyes, tears falling, "Please, tell me this is a joke."

Under the dark sky, no one responded.

Han Qi walked behind Huang Tianzhen and put his hand on his shoulder.

The rest of the people were also in tears.

At this moment, the darkness above suddenly faded, revealing a bright sky and rising sun.

The disappearance of the weird domain meant the extinction of the S-level weird, but Huang Tianzhen and the others no longer cared about it.

The last hour was over quickly.

As the space anchor was activated again, Su Sanan and the others returned to their original world. They were now in a square in a small park, while Lan Tiantian and Gan Xiaoqing were on a nearby curb.

Nong Xiangming led the team outside the cordon to wait for them to return. This was the first time the department sent a team to an alien world, so it was naturally very important. And for some reason, many overlapping spaces did not turn on the Alien Domain live broadcast. According to Nong Xiangming's own statistics, about half of them did. The overlapping space in the south had a live broadcast, and the signal was always very stable. Si Zai was watching it in the office, and Nong Xiangming came to the scene to take charge of this side.

Even if they saw the live broadcast and knew that something was wrong, they wouldn't be able to help, but it was still much better than knowing nothing, so they didn't have to worry.

"Absolutely no problem." Nong Xiangming said to himself, "They are the strongest elite team."

Soon a message popped up on their cell phones, informing them that the overlapping space in this area had ended. Nong Xiangming immediately ordered the entire team to go in and search for Qingtong, Qu Zhongyi and others.

The fenced-off area was not large, and the men were not inside the building, so soon the sound of discovery was heard.

"I see Gan Xiaoqing and Lan Tiantian here! They are in bad condition and need to be sent to the hospital!"

Very good, let’s secure two people first.

The other world is so dangerous, it's enough to come back alive.

"And Qingtong and the others, continue..." Nong Xiangming hadn't finished his words when he saw Huang Tianzhen and the others in front of him, supporting each other and limping in front of him.

“Found it!”

Nong Xiangming smiled: "That's great, you guys came back safely... Wait, where's Captain Qingtong?"

Su Sanan and others showed painful expressions on their faces, and Han Qi burst into tears. He walked forward and handed over the package in his arms.

Nong Xiangming's heart sank and he looked into Hanqi's arms. It was Hanqi's coat, dirty, and he had no idea what was wrapped inside.

He took it carefully, opened it and saw that there was a big bag of soil inside. It looked a little wet and had a bloody smell.

"The captain blew himself up, leaving only blood. We brought back the blood-stained soil..." Huang Tianzhen grabbed Su Sanan's arm, but his body slowly fell down and knelt on the ground, "We didn't find... bones... nor... relics... I'm sorry..."

Nong Xiangming looked at the hands of several people. Sure enough, all of their fingers were stained with dirt and blood, as well as worn wounds. It was obvious that they had dug out the blood-stained soil handful by handful with their hands.

In fact, they have weapons, daggers, spears, and so many metals that can be used. The reason they don't use them is that they are worried that using sharp objects will destroy the possible fragments of bones.

However, they found nothing.

"…I'm glad you're back." Nong Xiangming held the blood soil in his arms and whispered to it, "Qingtong, you're home."

Lan Tiantian slept in the hospital ward for a whole day before waking up. When he woke up, he learned that Qingtong had died.

She sat in the ward for half a day, ignoring everyone who came. It was not until her family came to visit her in the afternoon and mentioned that she should quit the department and go home that Lan Tiantian showed some reaction. Apparently, they also knew that the captain of Lan Tiantian's team had died during the mission to another world.

"This job is really too dangerous." Lan's mother complained, "You don't have to work so hard for such a small amount of money. Women, you should go home, get married and have children. Look at the captain of the team. He is so young and yet..."

"What women should do..." Lan Tiantian said, "Who made the rules? I didn't join this department for the money. Mom, do you remember what happened in Ping'an Village?"

Lan Mu's chattering mouth stopped.

Ping'an Village, a small village near Lanmu's hometown, was completely destroyed because of a mysterious incident that happened a few months ago.

"I went to another world and saw a lot. That world perished because of its weirdness. Our world is following its old path." Lan Tiantian looked directly into her mother's eyes, her gaze very firm. "It was because of that trip that I was sure of what I should do. I have the ability, and I should use it to do something, even if my future will be shortened because of this path."

In times of crisis, who doesn’t want to live?

Qingtong must also want to live a peaceful life, with ordinary work, ordinary aging, and ordinary death.

But the world doesn't give you a choice.

It is because we want to live that we rush forward one after another.

Qingtong died, and she was very sad, but at the same time she unexpectedly gained courage.

I believe she is never alone when she walks this thorny road.

"Okay, stop imitating your mother's old-fashioned words every day." Father Lan glanced at Mother Lan, "You sound like an old feudalist."

Mother Lan's eyes widened, feeling a little aggrieved. Wasn't she just worried about the child?

"My daughter can also achieve success," said Lan's father. "Go whatever you want to do, just don't embarrass yourself."

"I won't." Lan Tiantian raised his chin slightly, "I will become great, absolutely."

Qingtong's death was like a heavy hammer to the heart of his relatives.

Yan Jun was suddenly called out of the classroom by his homeroom teacher during class, who told him that something happened at home and asked him to go home.

On the way home, Yan Jun was very nervous until he got home and heard the news from his mother. That day, Yan Jun cried like a little fool.

On the same day, Qingtong's father wiped away tears after hearing the news, and Qingxia locked herself in the room for the entire day and didn't want to go out.

But sadness will always pass, and the dead will never come back, so we have to go on with our lives as we should.

However, Yanjun trained harder, and Qingxia was sternly warned by her father that even if she joined the strange response department, she could only become a clerical worker instead of going to the front line.

There is only one reason: he only has one child left.

Qingxia agreed.

The world is still running, and the people in the Weird Response Department are still busy. A group of new people have come to the training base. They are all recent awakeners and the fresh blood in the front-line team of the Weird Response Department in the future.

After losing captain Qingtong, the team did not disband. Instead, Qu Zhongyi's team was incorporated into the team. However, the captain was not Qu Zhongyi, but Su Sanan.

Qu Zhong also served as deputy captain.

The new team without Qingtong started the evaluation again and was still ranked B.

Although the number of people has increased, the overall strength has not increased much compared to before.

This is because several people have improved their abilities. If not, the overall strength might have declined. Just because Qingtong is too strong, if the rest of the team members are as strong as Qingtong, Nong Xiangming dares to rate this team as A-level.

"Our level will rise." Su Sanan said.

Qingtong's name was still on the team's roster, but it was framed, indicating the fact that he had already sacrificed.

This team with Qingtong's name on it will definitely not stay in Class B for too long, he swore.

Jiuxia Mountain.

Under the pine tree, Mangtao was sitting cross-legged on a stone seat with his eyes closed, meditating.

Bai Yixin and Wumiantong suddenly appeared in front of Mangtao.

"Now that I'm back, is everything over?" Mang Tao asked with his eyes open.

Bai Yixin sat opposite Mangtao. He raised his hand, and a pot of tea and teacups appeared out of thin air on the table. He poured a cup for Mangtao and himself.

"It's over. Today is Qingtong's funeral." Bai Yixin smiled and said, "Let's go and take a look. Your funeral is quite high standard."

Qingtong was not the first person to die in the Weird Response Department, but he was the first person to go to another world and die, and he was also the one with the highest ability and level. Therefore, his funeral was held by the authorities according to the heroic standards.

"Not interested." Mang Tao shook her head. "An empty coffin?"

You have to know that when Bai Yixin used the puppet to self-destruct, nothing was left except Qingtong's blood which had been prepared at the beginning.

Neither fragments of clothing nor bones will be left as remains.

It looks like a cenotaph.

"No, they dug up bloody soil." Faceless Child said with a smile. Under Bai Yixin's stare, he took the cup that should have belonged to Mang Tao and drank the tea in it. Then he stuck out his tongue with an unpalatable expression, raised a finger and continued, "It took us a whole hour to dig it up. It was all shoveled clean."

"Oh." Mang Tao continued to close her eyes.

He was not very interested in this kind of information.

"Little leader, is there anything else to do?" Bai Yixin asked.

"That's all for now. Go do what you want to do."

"What do you want to do?" Bai Yixin looked at him with her hand on her chin. "Anything is fine?"

"The taboos remain the same as before. As for the rest, you can do whatever you want."

"I thought you would say 'whatever you want', but I didn't expect you to follow the old rules." Bai Yixin said with emotion, "It seems that our little leader has not completely turned into a weird person because of Qingtong's death."

Mang Tao frowned and looked at him.

He has noticed the changes in himself, but he doesn't feel much, no sadness, no regrets, only peace.

He had not expected to abandon Qingtong and lose people's heart, but this did not mean that Mangtao had lost his memory and reason.

"I know what to do," Mang Tao said. "It's all for the survival of this world."

It's just that based on this purpose, some of his actions have become somewhat inhumane.

"From now on, the meeting will be held once every three months, on a quarterly basis." Mang Tao whispered, "The rest will remain the same."

He will not become truly monstrous. If you really want to talk about it, perhaps because his soul is linked to the World Tree, he is now closer to a god.

A god that looks down upon all ants, indifferent and heartless.