Chapter 14: The Inspector and the Sacrifice

“I still have some matters to attend to, so I won’t linger any longer.”

Luzhichuan stood at the entryway, handing the inexplicably pouting Su Muxue over to Su Qingyao, who was wearing an apron, and stated his intentions bluntly.

“Oh,” Su Qingyao paused, surprised.

He had assumed that Senior Luzhichuan, having caught the scent of cooking, would shamelessly try to cadge a meal.

Shouldn’t it have been him turning Senior Luzhichuan away at the door?

What was happening?

“Hee hee hee, well, that works out perfectly. I only made enough food for two,” Su Qingyao said, shaking his head with a seemingly relieved air.

“No portion for you, Senior.”

“Understood,” Luzhichuan replied, his tone unusually constrained.

Unlike his usual placid demeanor, Su Qingyao discerned an emotion he could only describe as ‘gravity’ etched upon Luzhichuan’s features.

“Has something happened?”

Su Qingyao leaned down, patting Su Muxue’s shoulder, and whispered into her ear, “Xiaoxue, go have your meal first.”

“To put it simply, someone is attempting to ‘traverse’ the protective layer that isolates us from calamity.”

A distinct note of surprise was evident in Senior Luzhichuan’s voice.

“But, by your own admission, Zhichuan, you’ve now fallen to the rank of a first-tier Transcendent.”

“Do you require my assistance?”

“There’s no need,” Luzhichuan replied, a faint smile gracing his lips.

“These individuals haven’t succeeded in the slightest. I’m merely acting as an inspector, tasked with identifying which group left behind their traces.”

Su Qingyao crossed his arms, scrutinizing Luzhichuan’s smile intently, as if searching for any sign of a forced facade.

Yet, he found none.

Luzhichuan was, after all, not the kind of person to put on a brave face or feign composure, at least not in Su Qingyao’s presence.

During their first battle all those years ago, Luzhichuan had practically demanded he continuously cast healing magic without cessation.

“Very well, Senior, if you insist, then what reason do I have to object?”

“However, do not deceive me.”

“My trust in others is rather fragile—indeed, the more steadfast that trust, the more susceptible it is to shattering.”

After seeing Luzhichuan off and returning to the dining table, Su Muxue’s curious gaze met Su Qingyao’s.

“Mama, where did Papa go?”

“Pah, pah, pah!”

Su Qingyao picked up the spare chopsticks and gently tapped them against Su Muxue’s forehead.

“Xiaoxue’s papa merely stepped out to work a little overtime.”

Having said his piece, Su Qingyao unconsciously sighed, then walked into the kitchen to toss the third pair of chopsticks into the sink.

“And then he abandoned the two of us to an empty house.”

He grumbled under his breath.

It was rare for Su Qingyao to feel so inspired in the kitchen; during the apocalypse, he could never have produced such satisfying dishes.

“Come now.”

Su Qingyao, once again donning a smile, emerged from the kitchen and settled beside Su Muxue.

“Xiaoxue, won’t you tell Mama what happened at school today?”

A peculiar sensation flickered through the girl’s mind.

Yet, within the heart of the individual known as Su Qingyao, it failed to leave even the slightest imprint.

As the memories of bygone days continued to recede.

Presumably, such peculiar sensations would become increasingly rare.

****

The construction of the city district was far from a straightforward, methodical ‘paving’ of land.

Due to a myriad of complex factors, numerous ruins from the old era frequently remained.

Much like the scars left after wounds had healed, these areas appeared from above at night as ‘potholes’ almost devoid of light.

They naturally became the haunt of numerous clandestine organizations and individuals without official registration, serving as the breeding ground for their so-called ‘black markets’.

Luzhichuan followed the faint traces left by the instigators, moving along the periphery of the ruins that once were bustling streets, utterly disregarding the suspicious gazes concealed within the shadows.

In an untimely manner, Luzhichuan suddenly recalled the subtle hint of worry Su Qingyao had inadvertently shown him at the entryway.

He had indeed not lied; after losing his ‘sword,’ his Transcendent abilities could only barely sustain a first-tier level.

At this particular tier, most could only offer minor protection against burns, or perhaps spontaneously conjure a cup of water.

In times past, within the small collective later known as the “Fifteen Leaders,” fervent discussions had once raged regarding which specific calamity the Hero’s Transcendent power truly corresponded to.

This was despite Luzhichuan’s own cooperation.

Even the [Professor] himself had failed to unravel the mystery by the conclusion of their deliberations.

It was not until after a protracted, bloody conflict, during a late-night conversation in bed with his partner, that the answer finally emerged.

The answer was: none.

“It appears I’ve stumbled upon an old acquaintance.”

Luzhichuan’s gaze flickered into the profound darkness as he murmured to himself.

“Pong!” A tremendous boom erupted from the spot.

A burst of deep purple flame instantly erupted from beneath Luzhichuan’s feet, the sudden, unannounced conflagration engulfing his entire body.

A commotion immediately rippled through the ruins.

Those lurking in the shadows feared they might be the next to be consumed by the flames.

“Did that strange city-dweller just perish like that?”

Someone whispered, their voice barely audible.

—Returning to the earlier discussion.

As the flames gradually dissipated, the intense light that had illuminated the entire ruin began to dim, yet the anticipated corpse was nowhere to be found. Only a conspicuous scorch mark remained.

It was only then that someone recalled a crucial detail.

The man had not uttered a single sound from the moment the flames had erupted.

—What, then, did this conclusion imply?

Concealed within the gaps of twisted rebar, a furtive figure peered through the narrow opening, and upon seeing the empty scorch mark, her expression instantly shifted.

She swiftly drew forth a short staff, which emanated a magical aura, and with a fervent conviction, began intoning a new incantation.

However, before the first syllable could even conclude.

A searing, agonizing pain erupted.

“Urgh, ahhhhhhhh!”

The woman’s shrill, agonizing scream instantly reverberated through the ruins, startling innocent bystanders who exchanged bewildered glances before their eyes unanimously darted towards her hiding place.

There, a severed hand plummeted from above, splattering indistinct flesh and bone fragments upon impact.

The jagged destruction at the point of severance was horrifying, as if the limb had been torn away by a massive beast.

“What kind of mon—ugh!”

—The [Hero] was truly singular.

It had nothing to do with Transcendent power.

Luzhichuan was simply ‘fast’ enough.

The instant the flames ignited, he had already stepped into the shadows, locating the woman’s hiding spot.

He then moved in, using sheer ‘momentum’ to shatter her dominant spellcasting hand, before Luzhichuan, his face devoid of expression, grasped the woman’s neck and effortlessly lifted her into the air.

Her face-concealing cloak fell away, revealing a youthful countenance.

Her previously vicious snarl rapidly contorted into a grimace of pain and whimpering cries as the man’s grip steadily tightened.

Coupled with her delicate features, it created a subtly pitiable, almost ‘beautiful’ tragedy.

Yet, in the man’s eyes, there was only cold, clinical scrutiny, as though the woman he held were merely a writhing mass of decaying flesh.

To the point of slight disdain.

“Not an aberration.”

Luzhichuan finally broke his silence, uttering his first words.

“But you wield the fire of the ‘Death Admirers.’ Are you a devotee of Theirs?”

The woman’s face had turned an alarming shade of blue and purple.

Even in such dire straits, she still managed to nod vigorously.

“Then it’s as I suspected.”

Luzhichuan’s cold voice, like a pronouncement of judgment, resonated heavily in the ears of all those who lurked and watched.

“You and your thirty-seven accomplices are attempting to sacrifice every single person within this entire ruin, are you not?”

The hushed whispers throughout the ruins abruptly ceased.

In the ensuing silence, every gaze converged upon Luzhichuan, and it was only then that some began to notice a disconcerting familiarity in the man’s appearance.

Once he had their undivided attention.

Luzhichuan eased his grip slightly, allowing the Death Admirer’s devotee to gasp out a few fractured words.

“Regardless… to the gentlemen… of the central city… we’re… no different… from the dead… are we?”

The woman attempted to conjure a desolate, ironic smile, which, complementing her already attractive features, crafted a pitiable, almost ‘tragic’ tableau.

This tactic, usually unfailingly effective, was now her desperate last resort, a straw she clutched at for salvation.

‘Just for a moment, just a tiny moment is all I need.’

But Luzhichuan’s reaction utterly bewildered her.

Luzhichuan was initially perplexed, but in the next instant, his expression shifted to one of clear understanding, his furrowed brow smoothing out.

Finally—

He actually began to smile.

“You actually have the audacity to say ‘we’?”

Luzhichuan sounded as if he had heard the most preposterous joke, and he asked languidly,

“Do you know how I recognized you?”

The woman shook her head blankly.

“Because I’m the one who delivers bread to the ‘unregistered residents’ of this street, you idiot!”

Luzhichuan’s palm tightened slightly, snapping her pale neck.

The woman distinctly heard her own spine emit a cracking sound, unable to bear the tsunami of excruciating pain.

“Wait, wait—”

She attempted one last plea, but it was all in vain.

“Bang.”

In the final moments before her consciousness plunged into chaos, Luzhichuan’s soft ‘parting advice’ drifted into her ears.

“Next time, remember not to try burning paper offerings for a rotten corpse, alright?”

Indeed, this was the new world after the apocalypse had ended.

What ‘new’ signified required no further elaboration.