Hui Tian Ch15

Chapter 15

“I have something more exciting,” Shen Zhuo said calmly.

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Dim and empty.

The dizziness seemed to last for a long time, but it was actually only a few short seconds.

Shen Zhuo closed his eyes, and his vision gradually came into focus. He found himself sitting in a wooden chair with a backrest, his hands tied behind it. The abandoned warehouse was filled with the damp, salty, metallic smell of blood and rust.

A familiar and triumphant voice came from ahead. “Hello there, Supervisor Shen.”

It was Liu Sanji.

The man with narrow eyes, a square face, and a short stature stood in the shadows beneath a fan. He seemed quite pleased, likely thinking he had perfectly completed the task Mr. Rong had given him. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon. A quick interview: are you surprised?”

“…” Shen Zhuo spoke, his voice a little hoarse. “I’m more surprised to see you when I open my eyes, and not that Rong Qi.”

Liu Sanji immediately retorted, “Shut up! You’re a lowly commoner. What right do you have for Mr. Rong to see you personally!”

Liu Sanji’s voice was stern, but Shen Zhuo just sneered. “Your Mr. Rong, if I’m not mistaken, was burned to a crisp three years ago. But because his direction of evolution is very special, he should have some kind of regenerative ability from residual cells. The reason he’s still in a wheelchair now is probably because his evolution isn’t complete, and his body hasn’t reached its peak state, right?”

Liu Sanji was about to rebuke him for disrespecting Mr. Rong, but Shen Zhuo didn’t give him a chance to speak.

“He seems to want to kill me very much, but he hides behind the scenes, only daring to send his subordinates to stop my car in a setup. I guess this is probably because he’s a coward who doesn’t dare to kill, or a cripple who can’t act… We’re just chatting, why are you trembling?”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Liu Sanji was both shocked and terrified. “You lowly commoner, you dare to disrespect Mr. Rong?!”

“You’re just a genetically inferior D-class. There’s not much difference between you and an ordinary person,” Shen Zhuo said wearily. “Pardon my bluntness, but call that Mr. Rong out. You are not qualified to speak with me.”

As expected, Liu Sanji was pushed over the edge by this continuous provocation. He rolled up his sleeves and pointed to the back of his left hand. “What did you say? Who’s genetically inferior?! I’m an A-class now!”

“…”

Liu Sanji didn’t get the surprised expression he expected from Shen Zhuo. He only saw him staring at the blood-red A-class mark, and after a moment, he let out a breath of unclear meaning. “As I thought… a second evolution.”

“As you thought what?!”

Liu Sanji glared at him, but saw that Shen Zhuo did not answer immediately. After a long moment, he said, “You were probably used by that Mr. Rong as a one-time test subject.”

Liu Sanji had been short since he was a child, which made him particularly sensitive. What he hated most in his life was being looked down upon, and he was especially sensitive to the silent contempt of others. But Shen Zhuo was the kind of person who, with his rare academic qualifications, background, and appearance, could exude a sense of subtle yet strong mockery even when he was just sitting there saying and doing nothing.

At this moment, Liu Sanji’s feeling was particularly vivid. “Don’t you spout nonsense there! What test subject? Someone like you who can’t even evolve—”

“You secretly embezzled Mr. Rong’s evolution source. After being caught, you could only follow his orders to assassinate me in order to save your own life. Your reward was that he would let you evolve a second time into an A-class. But what you don’t know is… evolution is not without a price. Everyone has a limit to the intensity of evolution they can withstand.”

Liu Sanji pointed angrily at the back of his hand. “Don’t give me that useless talk! Do you see this A or not?!”

Shen Zhuo interrupted him. “Do you know what the biggest lie in this world is?”

Liu Sanji was caught off guard.

“It’s that ‘all men are born equal’.”

Shen Zhuo looked directly at the bewildered Liu Sanji, his voice clear and calm, to the point of being almost emotionless.

“In 1651 AD, Thomas Hobbes proposed that humanity collectively created a great god—Leviathan—and that every individual composing Leviathan is equal. Therefore, maintaining peace is a natural law established by all individuals together. After the large-scale evolution five years ago, in order to uphold this value, we did our utmost to conceal the connection between evolution and genetics from the public, because the truth is too cruel for the vast majority of people in this world.”

“Some people can evolve to S-class, some can only evolve to D-class, and some cannot evolve at all. Genes are inherently unequal.”

“Forcibly jumping ranks will overwhelm your genes, like forcibly stretching a short person. It will cause the entire genetic chain to tear, and all chromosomes will become inactive. Have you ever seen a victim of nuclear radiation? It’s something like that, more terrifying than death.”

The empty warehouse was extremely quiet, with only the intersecting mechanical sound of the fan blades rotating.

Liu Sanji’s pupils dilated rapidly. If one looked closely, one would see the tips of his fingers trembling slightly. But after a moment, he sneered. “Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t even evolve to D-class. You’re the one with the most inferior genes. Why should I believe such bullshit?”

“Apologies, I come from an academic background, so I speak rather directly,” Shen Zhuo said calmly. “Not only are you a test subject, but you’re a disposable test subject. Accept reality.”

Impossible!

Absurd!

Liu Sanji almost immediately burst out with curses, but a deeper suspicion, fear, and a strong desire to prove himself overrode everything else. After a moment, he gave a twisted sneer. “You say I’m a disposable consumable? You’re the real disposable consumable. Mr. Rong said that as long as you die, he’ll give me the highest reward, and even grant me eternal life…”

He raised a hand and shouted, “I might as well put your corpse to good use and make it a part of what I devour!”

A rustling sound came from the shadows behind him, as if many sticky, heavy things were sliding across the dusty floor, making one’s scalp tingle.

Then, an extremely deformed, grotesque shadow emerged from the darkness. It was a huge, swollen… corpse clump!

This corpse clump was incredibly massive, four or five meters tall, haphazardly pieced together from dozens of rotting corpses. A dense mass of torsos, arms, and legs were tangled and fused together, with countless rotten hands and feet supporting its movement across the ground.

And dozens of different faces of men, women, old, and young were distributed all over its body. Each face was twisted in a grimace, their deathly complexions purple and blue, squeezed in here and there among its flailing limbs. It was truly a horrifying sight.

“With every evolutionist it devours, its power grows stronger. That’s why it has never devoured an ordinary person until now.” Liu Sanji tilted his head up to stare at Shen Zhuo and gave a sinister smile. “Today, I will make an exception and grant you this special honor, In-spec-tor Shen.”

Boom!

The floor shook with a loud rumble. The corpse clump “walked” in front of Shen Zhuo, and all the dead faces on its body opened their mouths wide at the same time, their expressions twisted and ferocious, as if reliving the agony of their deaths.

Then, countless rotten arms stretched out from the corpse clump, reaching for Shen Zhuo’s throat—

“I said,” Liu Sanji heard the Shenhai City Supervisor’s calm voice, “you are not qualified to speak with me.”

A bright flash of a blade slashed through the air, and a rotten hand flew into the air.

Then, the heavy corpse clump was sent flying by a kick from Shen Zhuo, soaring through the air to knock over Liu Sanji, and crashing into the base of the wall with a bang!

Wall dust cascaded down, and smoke filled the air. Liu Sanji was almost knocked to the point of spitting blood by the corpse clump. He clutched his chest, coughing violently. “You… how did you… you…”

Then his eyes widened in astonishment.

He saw Shen Zhuo stand up from the chair not far away, a gleaming folding knife now in his hand. His expression had barely changed as he rubbed the wrist that had been tied behind his back.

Shen Zhuo always wore a black uniform, which made his wrists look exceptionally pale. The red marks from being tied were very obvious. At first glance, this scene might even give rise to certain indecent thoughts, but as the Chief Supervisor of Shenhai walked over step by step, his casual coldness and killing intent were as if every step of his leather shoes landed on someone’s throat.

With a loud thud, Shen Zhuo raised his foot and stomped on Liu Sanji’s forehead. The terrifying force slammed the back of his head into the cracked wall.

“You… why…”

“Do you know what this is?”

Under the heavy pressure of his shoe, Liu Sanji managed to focus his eyes and saw a metal syringe in Shen Zhuo’s hand. He couldn’t see what was inside, but a clear letter ‘A’ was engraved on the metal cap.

“The HRG Project, also known as the Human Regeneration Project. The nuclear deterrent of the age of evolution, the Damocles’ sword hanging over all of humanity and evolutionists, the final amulet for the peace of seven billion people.”

Shen Zhuo pulled out the syringe needle, took off his tie and tossed it aside, and casually unbuttoned two buttons of his shirt.

“If all beings are not born equal, then I will make them equal after birth. If the old Leviathan has fallen apart, then I will build a new nation of equality upon its ruins…”

He tilted his head slightly and plunged the needle into his carotid artery!

“And ultimately achieve peace once again.”

Liu Sanji’s eyes widened to their absolute limit.

He saw a meteor-like, deep blue light flash through Shen Zhuo’s blood vessels, and then a powerful force instantly erupted from his body. Then, Shen Zhuo gently took off his black leather gloves. On the back of his left hand, where the evolution rank was usually displayed, two old scars crossed into a gruesome X.

At this moment, a blood-red brand was gradually emerging from the scar—A.

Shen Zhuo grabbed Liu Sanji by the throat with one hand, lifted him off the ground, and pinned him against the wall. His deep, dark pupils reflected Liu Sanji’s terrified face. “Tell me everything about ‘Mr. Rong’.”

“For every sentence you add, I’ll leave one more of your bones unbroken.”

Bang, bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang!

Sparks flew and casings scattered as several supervisors fired frantically, but they couldn’t stop the closing walls of the coffins. Several people couldn’t even straighten their legs anymore.

A grinding sound of bone on bone was heard. Bai Sheng propped a hand over his head, but he couldn’t stop the coffin lid from pressing down on him. A clear sound of pressure even came from his elbow joint.

“I told you, it’s absolutely impossible to open it from the inside. That’s why I like to call this ability… the spatial meat grinder.”

Noda Shunsuke looked at Bai Sheng and smiled. “An S-class is nothing special after all. Go die.”

Bai Sheng’s hair, which was always defiantly spiky, was pressed down. His usually somewhat flippant expression had also disappeared, revealing the deep, sharp features underneath. His tone, contrary to his usual self, was devoid of any mockery, and was even a little cold.

“Do you know where you went wrong?”

Though victory was in his grasp, for some reason, Noda Shunsuke sensed a condescending disdain in Bai Sheng’s eyes. “You—”

“There is no ability in this world that can be called absolute, because…”

Bai Sheng pressed one hand against the approaching coffin lid, then the other. His ten fingers dug hard into the black barrier, and the unimaginable force caused all ten fingertips to burst and bleed.

Before Noda Shunsuke’s shocked eyes, the muscles and bones in his arms bulged, tensed to their absolute limit, as he ripped a crack in the coffin that was “absolutely impossible to open from the inside”!

“—the only absolute is power.”

Swish!

The black barrier was torn in two, and the spatial coffin instantly collapsed!

Bai Sheng burst out of the coffin, his blood-covered palm grabbing a long saber from the void. His face was grim as water, his momentum like a sharp arrow. Clang!!

The two sabers collided, sending a heavy shower of sparks.

A combat-oriented A-class was already terrifying in close combat. Add to that a rare S-class, and it was like two humanoid tanks bombarding each other. The blades crisscrossed like a hurricane, sending all the broken bricks on the ground flying, and a thousand arcs of the blades erupted in an instant. Just as Yoko was about to rush up to help, there was a loud boom. Bai Sheng kicked Noda Shunsuke hard in the chest, sending him flying. He instantly crashed through half a wall!

“Gege!”

Bai Sheng pierced Noda Shunsuke through the shoulder with his saber, pinning him to the wall, and spat, “Moron.” Then he drew his saber with lightning speed, turned, and threw it through the air. All the coffins were simultaneously broken from the outside, and several supervisors who were about to be crushed into meat paste fell to the ground with a clatter.

Chen Miao didn’t even have time to get up. “Bai-ge, watch out…”

Before he could finish, Noda Shunsuke silently appeared behind him, his saber chopping towards the back of Bai Sheng’s neck!

This blow would surely spill blood, but all the timing was at its peak. It was too late for Bai Sheng to turn around and kick him to death. He could only raise his hand to block.

But at that very moment, a dagger flashed from outside the window, spinning through the air. Clang!

The sound of metal clashing was deafening. The dagger sent the katana flying, and with a thud, it embedded itself deep in the brick wall.

Everyone simultaneously looked out the window. “Supervisor?” “Senior!”

Shen Zhuo landed on the windowsill with a thud, his figure lean and taut as a bow, his features stark and coldly pale. He threw a wretched-looking man into the room with a sweep of his hand. It was Liu Sanji.

“How did you…” Before Bai Sheng could finish, he caught sight of a bright red A-class mark on the back of his left hand and was stunned into silence.

Shen Zhuo didn’t even glance at anyone. “Move!”

He didn’t need to give a second command. Chen Miao had already retreated several meters as if on wings. Shen Zhuo swept his hand downwards, the movement so sharp and decisive it was extreme. Then, in the air outside the house—

A thunderous torrent of lightning poured down, piercing through the building like a waterfall, drenching the Noda siblings completely!

“Fuck your ancestors…” Noda Shunsuke rolled on the ground and got up wretchedly, a bloody hole in his left shoulder, smoke rising from his entire body.

The moment Shen Zhuo appeared, he knew that today’s operation had completely failed. That good-for-nothing Liu Sanji was indeed unreliable, unable to even watch over a pretty, delicate Supervisor. To try and abduct Shen Zhuo now, with Bai Sheng present, was completely impossible. Even half a second’s delay would be too late.

He could only rip open a dark spatial tunnel in mid-air with a backhand motion, grab Yoko, and flash inside.

Bai Sheng’s killing intent had not subsided. He started to give chase but was stopped by Shen Zhuo’s stern shout. “Come back! You don’t know where that leads, it’s too dangerous!”

The spatial tunnel quickly closed. Noda Shunsuke stood in the darkness, a clear unwillingness glinting in his eyes. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with one hand and stared at Shen Zhuo with malice. “You’re one hell of a handful…”

Bai Sheng was instantly enraged. “I’ll fuck your dad—”

But before he could leap forward and tear him apart, Shen Zhuo moved faster. He grabbed him back with his left hand, and electricity flashed in the palm of his right!

“I can be even more of a handful,” Shen Zhuo said coolly.

A whip of electricity lashed across the air. Noda Shunsuke only had time to lean back. The tip of the whip slashed across his face, drawing a spray of blood!

“Go back and tell that coward named Rong,” the whip coiled around Shen Zhuo’s hand, casting a beautiful, chilling light on half of his face, “to stop sending his subordinates to die. Piss off.”

Noda Shunsuke gritted his teeth and clutched his cheek, blood overflowing from between his fingers. The spatial tunnel closed in an instant.

The two vanished without a trace, leaving only a cloud of black smoke in the air.

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Author’s Note (Contains a little spoiler):

The direction of evolution is related to a person’s own obsessions. Su Jiqiao’s main ability is in the psychic realm. His obsession is “I’m so outstanding; why do you never see me in your eyes?” and then he became the only one to achieve an A-rank evolution in appearance.

The reason it’s written from Bai Sheng’s perspective is 1) because of the appearance evolution, this cannon fodder later gives Bai Sheng a lot of motivation for male competition, and 2) it’s Bai Sheng’s first time seeing Su Jiqiao from his perspective, while everyone else knew him before.

To those in the comments who are bashing the shou and demanding to change the shou: leave this story immediately.

To those in the comments who are bashing the gong and demanding to change the gong: leave this story immediately.

I absolutely will not allow the opportunity of a controversy to be used to drag other authors into my comment section and to “identify the fandom” of other readers. As soon as I see it, it will be deleted.

Additional Author’s Note:

Previously, when a few people in the comments wrote long essays insisting that Bai Sheng was just a country bumpkin, I was already uncomfortable, but it was quickly suppressed by readers who were normally enjoying the CP, so I didn’t say anything.

Later, for a while, I didn’t look at the comment section. Today, I took another look, and my goodness, some friends can’t even contain their performance anymore. Bai Sheng is a person; he is Shen Zhuo’s lover, not Shen Zhuo’s dog. Naturally, Shen Zhuo is also a person; he is Bai Sheng’s lover.

My preference (xp) has always been for the captivating great beauty to have a one-way arrow for the gong, and for the super handsome gong to have a one-way arrow for the shou. Sometimes I like the shou to personally cut down the cannon fodder’s arrows, and sometimes I like the gong and shou to team up to cut down the cannon fodder’s arrows.

As a middle-aged person in my thirties, it’s hard for me to accept new things, and my preferences are deeply ingrained and won’t change. It’s useless to try and claim territory here. This novel will be going into VIP in a few days, and the later direction will not suit the tastes of some readers with extreme control freak tendencies. Bai Sheng will absolutely not be a dog for Shen Zhuo. He will only think that he is the most awesome in heaven and on earth, and that Shen Zhuo must be his and can only be his. The little couple (xql) will only stand shoulder to shoulder with each other. From now on, comments that portray Bai Sheng kneeling down to be Shen Zhuo’s dog and pretend to praise the shou while stepping on the gong will be deleted. Comments that praise the gong and step on the shou will also be deleted without discussion. If they are not deleted, it’s because I haven’t seen them. Please help me report them. I repeat, my CP stands shoulder to shoulder with each other. This is a warning, thank you.

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