Chapter 1 An Encounter by the Lake

Soon, the SUV slowed down and stopped by a small lake inside the park. As they parked, the speeder behind them also gradually decelerated and landed.

The car doors quickly opened, and Sun Qiao, the man in the black leather jacket, rushed out, raising his gun and shouting at the SUV. "Police! Open the door, get out of the car, hands on your head, and crouch down!!"

"Immediately, now!!"

Li Cheng颐 took out the jammer from his pocket and pressed the start button. Then, he slapped the red-haired man, knocking him unconscious.

He then knocked out the others in the back of the car before opening the door and getting out. Hiss.

The instant he stepped out, countless Gladiolus petals appeared out of thin air, swirling and converging. His entire body was suddenly covered in thick golden armor.

A sharp sword wheel slowly rotated behind him, the twisted patterns of the Gladiolus occasionally reflecting the streetlights, flashing with golden light.

*Clack.*

Li Cheng颐 stepped onto the ground, got out of the car, turned around, and looked at Sun Qiao, who was aiming his gun at him.

"I'm only capturing those who endanger society and are utterly vicious. As a safety officer, you shouldn't be tracking me; you should turn a blind eye."

"They should be punished by law, not subjected to extrajudicial killings by certain individuals!" Sun Qiao's eyes widened, his voice solemn.

The instant he saw the other party clad in complete golden armor, his heart sank.

Anything with such an appearance had to be either a modified human or a full-body exoskeleton.

Exoskeletons were generally difficult to carry and bulky. He hadn't seen the other party carrying any such equipment in the car. Therefore, he deduced that the other party was likely a modified human, or even a fully modified one!

"I've already notified the Safety Department and the Alliance. It's not too late for you to turn back now. Immediately release the people you evacuated, and I can pretend I didn't see what happened before!" Sun Qiao advised earnestly.

"Can't you see the difference between us?" Li Cheng颐 asked strangely. "Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"

"...From the moment I became a safety officer, I no longer had the right to be afraid!" Sun Qiao replied in a deep voice. "If even we safety officers and Alliance members are afraid, then no one can maintain the order and stability of this society!"

"I don't know who you are, or why you're doing this," he continued, "but eliminating evil shouldn't be done through violence. That will only lead to more and more violence, which will then destroy the order and stability of society!"

"Why do you say that?" Li Cheng颐 countered.

"Because, when you succeed through violence, you set an example for more people, an example that justice cannot be obtained through law, only through violence.

"This will lead more and more people to automatically choose violence when facing evil! At that time, the law will cease to exist, order will disappear, and everyone will be drawn into such a vortex!"

Li Cheng颐 had only intended to get out of the car to send the person away. He had thought the other party was just an overzealous newbie, but after a few words, he realized that this person actually had a deep understanding of the law and violence.

The key was that this Sun Qiao not only understood these principles but also put them into practice and had the courage to do so! This was very rare.

"Good logic. You're a good safety officer." Li Cheng颐 applauded lightly. "This society needs more and more people like you to keep moving towards correctness and stability."

"Then you..." A glimmer of hope flashed in Sun Qiao's eyes.

"Actually, I didn't kidnap them. They're all my friends. They had a little too much to drink and are resting in the car now," Li Cheng颐 replied. "So, according to the law, I haven't committed a crime, and you can't arrest me right now. I remember that missing persons cases generally require forty-eight hours before a case can be filed, right?"

Sun Qiao's expression froze. Indeed, if the victims didn't report the case and didn't prove that they were kidnapped and injured, there was really no way to prove that the person in front of him was a kidnapper.

"So, come back when the time is up."

Li Cheng颐 took a step forward, his body suddenly arched, and he lunged forward. Boom!

The ground trembled slightly.

With his body strengthened by three sets of Flowscale Armor, plus the amplification from the armor, the distance between the two was covered in almost an instant.

Sun Qiao didn't have time to react and was grabbed by the neck.

He raised his hand to fire, but the other party hadn't committed any acts that endangered life, not a capital offense...

With just that hesitation, his carotid sinus was suddenly compressed, and his consciousness blurred. A large patch of static gradually appeared before his eyes.

*Thump.* He lost consciousness.

Li Cheng颐 picked him up and threw him into the speeder, thoughtfully closing the door for him. Then, he turned around and returned to the SUV.

He always had a good impression of these officers who were dedicated to maintaining social stability.

For no other reason than that he also wanted to live in a stable, safe, and comfortable environment, instead of constantly worrying about being attacked or having the people around him harmed.

So, these people were also protecting him in his everyday state.

Getting back into the car, he grabbed the red-haired man, threw him out of the car and into Sun Qiao's speeder. Then, he drove the SUV away.

*Bang.*

Not fifty meters down the road, the car crashed into a roadside sign. Li Cheng颐 cursed and got out of the car, grabbed the front, and forcefully lifted the car back onto the road before getting back in.

Before long, the SUV gradually drove away along the road, from swaying and lurching at the beginning to slowly becoming somewhat manageable, gradually moving away.

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Provincial Capital - Southern Prefecture Suburbs.

The suburbs without Silent Fortresses were a chaotic place for anyone. Although there were safety officers managing and monitoring the suburbs, the intensity was far less than in the city.

Tens of kilometers away from the city, near a high-speed train track bridge. The river flowed under the bridge, reflecting the moonlight.

On the wide lawn by the river, what was originally a quiet and desolate field was now filled with a swarm of black drones buzzing. The bottoms of dozens of drones were equipped with gun firing ports, and all the muzzles were aimed at a tall, dark gray humanoid figure below.

The humanoid figure was draped in a black cloak, concealing its entire body, revealing only a white skull mask, looking up at the drone swarm in the air.

"I didn't expect that someone in this province could react so quickly and immediately discover my arrangements." The white skull's eyes were calm, as if communicating with someone.

"From the traces you left, I guessed it was you."

Across the small river, from a dense forest, a tall man also draped in a windbreaker slowly walked out.

The man had a small mustache, deep eyes, and was carrying a small silver briefcase. It was Xue Weimin, the director of the Provincial Safety Department.

"I was in charge of your case back then. As fellow disciples, I don't believe you didn't consider my tracking." Xue Weimin said calmly, "So, you deliberately lured me here?"

"You guessed right." The white skull raised his right hand. "The explosion back then almost made me disappear completely, but thankfully, I am stronger than before now, and this body is no longer as fragile as it used to be."

"Bai Chong... You shouldn't have come back." Xue Weimin said in a low voice, "The enemies from back then are all dead. You have no reason to return."

"Yes." The white skull smiled. "I indeed have no old grudges to settle by returning, but a person's life shouldn't be just for themselves."

He lowered his right hand, and a stream of silver liquid silently flowed out of his sleeve, gathering in his hand to form a small, exquisite silver briefcase.

"I thought for a long time about why I ended up like this. There are many people in this world who are like me. They have similar fates to mine. Why can't this world give us a place to live? Why can those Immortals sit high above, always sitting on the clouds, overlooking everything?"

The white skull's dark red electronic eyes stared at Xue Weimin. "I used to think I was wrong."

"But now. Someone told me that the world is wrong. Not me..."

"You're too extreme. Even if we have ideas, we shouldn't take..." Xue Weimin still wanted to persuade him. "Enough, I didn't invite you here to listen to your nonsense and nagging!" The white skull raised his right arm and held it out flat. Bang bang bang bang!!

In an instant, all the surrounding drones opened fire simultaneously, and dense bullets instantly tore apart the black cloak on his body, completely revealing his dark gray metallic body.

Fine sparks appeared around him, and all the bullets couldn't even break his skin. "Qiongqi."

The briefcase in the white skull's hand suddenly melted, rapidly transforming into a black crescent blade more than a meter tall.

The crescent blade hovered in mid-air like a boomerang, burning with gray flames, constantly rotating around him. An invisible force field suddenly appeared beside him, blocking the incoming dense bullets.

The bullets that couldn't penetrate the armor before couldn't even get within a meter of him now. They were forcibly deflected and bounced off by the force field as soon as they approached.

Xue Weimin's expression was grave, and the briefcase in his hand also melted, instantly condensing into a long azure sword.

The blade was engraved with the characters Wan Ming, the handwriting was in ancient traditional script, and large blue circuit-like patterns extended from the surrounding of the characters.

"Is there really no turning back?" He looked at the opposite side in a deep voice, holding the long sword, his entire body swept by a force field, blowing away the surrounding debris like wind.

"To change this disgusting world," the white skull said coldly, "any price is worth paying." He took steps forward, slowly approaching.

"Come on, let me see what you've improved in these years." Xue Weimin didn't waste any more words, raised his right hand, and pointed the tip of the sword at the other party.

"Then I'll have to cripple you and dig your brain out of that disgusting modified body and take it back." "If you can do it, then come." The white skull let out a shrill laugh.

*Bang!*

In an instant, the crescent blade in front of him created an afterimage and flew towards the opposite side like a black wind. The river only had the blade skim over it at a low altitude, but large white waves splashed up.

"Wan Ming, Sonic Mode." Xue Weimin suddenly raised his hand and slashed the blade forward.

The air around the blue blade instantly distorted.

The huge vibrating sound wave accompanied his simple slash, spreading forward in a fan shape, exploding. Boom!!!

Centered on Xue Weimin, within a 70-degree thirty-meter range in front, the river water, grass, soil, and gravel. Everything shattered and exploded.

The invisible huge vibration was like a bomb, instantly landing in this area.

Dust and water splashes were crushed into mist and smoke, completely shrouding this area and blurring the light and vision. This sword also forcibly blasted the black crescent blade's charge off course, causing it to fly past from the side, completely missing. "If you don't want to turn back, I'll cripple you and drag you back!"

Xue Weimin turned his long sword, and the huge fan-shaped sound wave vibration also swept across all the surrounding riverside areas with his movements.

Large swaths of trees were swept by the invisible vibration, and they all exploded, tilted, and collapsed.

Just as he was about to swing the second sword to increase the power and completely cripple the white skull. Suddenly, a black shadow rushed out of the mist.

The black crescent blade brought out a sharp and hideous sound of tearing through the air, and the gray flames on the blade burned fiercely, turning into a vague outline of the ferocious beast Qiongqi, pouncing towards him.

*Clang!!*

The white skull held the crescent blade, pressed down with both hands, and slammed it heavily on the blade of the sword he was blocking.

The long sword and crescent blade collided, and the flames and the invisible sonic force field clashed simultaneously. The two forces squeezed, expanded, and exploded. The released power instantly exploded with the two as the center.

*Chichi chi!*

Several irregular black cracks cracked in the surrounding ground.