Bai Feifei was too shocked to speak.
The Crown of Time Lag from earlier had managed to freeze everyone in place with just its passive, unconscious influence. In the face of that crown, even two Edgerunners were no different from chickens waiting for the slaughter.
She had always assumed that the terrifying earthquakes and the bizarre riots beneath the coal mine were caused by that S-rank Containment Object.
But now, the Evil God was telling her otherwise.
“Then... what is the source?” Bai Feifei asked in her mind.
“I don’t know,” Xu Mo replied bluntly.
Bai Feifei almost thought she had misheard. An omniscient, omnipotent Evil God of the Old Days who could reverse time and space actually said he didn't know?
“How could you not know?” she asked instinctively.
Xu Mo’s voice sounded a bit annoyed. “Why must I know everything? I’m not the only Old-Timer in this world, you know?”
Bai Feifei felt as if someone had gripped her heart.
An Old-Timer?!
Did the “Old-Timer” the Evil God spoke of mean what she thought it meant?
The thing beneath this coal mine, the source of these abnormal fluctuations, was actually related to another Evil God?!
She felt her blood run cold and instinctively looked at the people around her.
Ye Yu was clutching her arm tightly, Hong Jiu and Li Gui were glaring at each other, and Wu Xin was still babbling incoherently like a madman.
If it was an Evil God... how many people here would die?
How many would survive?!
A massive sense of dread washed over her. She felt as if she was the source of all this because she had been too reckless. If she hadn't come, perhaps Wan Qianhong and the others would have been rotated back already!
Hong Jiu, the Aries, suddenly became exceptionally irritable. He grabbed Wu Xin by the collar and hoisted him up.
“Goddamn it, you’ve really gone mad?! Is your mind that fragile?!”
Wu Xin’s face turned purple from the choking, yet he continued to laugh, tears streaming down his face.
“Damn it!” Hong Jiu threw him to the ground and turned to glare at Li Gui. “Is this your doing, you old bastard? This kid is one of your Dawn City people, isn't he?”
Li Gui’s skeletal face was full of malice. “Bullshit! Who was the one trying to steal our Containment Object?!”
“Fuck you! I should have killed you just now.”
The auras of both men exploded simultaneously. Fire and sand collided in the air, the shockwave causing dust to fall from the surrounding stone walls.
Their subordinates also moved into combat stances, looking ready to brawl.
Wan Qianhong’s brow furrowed suddenly. Something was wrong—everyone’s blood flow was abnormal!
Yang Shuo flexed his muscles at her side and grunted, “Boss, do we move? Who are we helping?”
“Wait!” Wan Qianhong shouted.
Everyone was acting strange. At some point, everyone’s emotions had become incredibly negative.
At that moment, Bai Feifei’s body suddenly jolted.
—Xu Mo had logged in!
Xu Mo cracked his neck and looked at the crowd, sneering as he cursed, “A bunch of inexperienced greenhorns. Can’t you even tell when something is wrong with your own state?”
Given everything that had happened, “Bai Feifei’s” status was particularly special in everyone’s eyes. When she suddenly spoke up, the group froze.
Hong Jiu looked at her and asked, “What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?” Xu Mo sneered. “I know your brain doesn't work well to begin with, but don't you think it’s working a bit too poorly right now?”
“What did you come here for? Why is your only thought to start a fight? And believing that Wu Xin earlier... that didn't make much sense either, did it?”
“And you!” Xu Mo raised a hand and pointed at Li Gui.
“You usually value your life above all else, old man. You were almost beaten to death just now, and yet you’re still acting provocative?”
Li Gui’s face twitched violently.
The crowd fell silent as they listened to her words, cold sweat gradually soaking their clothes.
Every single one of them was being influenced by something mysterious.
That baseless irritability, anger, and suspicion were not normal emotions at all!
And yet, they hadn't noticed a thing.
If “Bai Feifei” hadn't suddenly spoken up...
Seeing that everyone had calmed down, Xu Mo turned to look at Wu Xin, who was sprawled on the ground.
Wu Xin was still coughing up blood, his chest heaving. The mad smile on his face was starting to falter.
Xu Mo crouched down, leaned close to the man’s ear, and grinned.
“Stop acting.”
Wu Xin’s smile froze completely.
“The fact that you were so willing to come in here was already a red flag.”
“Every time you pointed the way, it seemed you were specifically leading us toward danger. At the start, you even dared to try and stop me from going to the mass grave. Do you normally have that kind of courage?”
Wu Xin’s pupils constricted sharply.
“When the seal on the mass grave was resolved and Huang Cheng failed to trigger an aberration riot, you looked as miserable as if your world had ended...”
“Just now, the Crown of Time Lag vanished, and you pointed in this direction, bringing everyone to this godforsaken place.”
Xu Mo patted his face with a condescending gesture, as if he were playing with a dog.
“Who sent you? Why don't you tell us?”
Wu Xin remained silent.
He was silent for a long time.
Then, he laughed.
It wasn't the fake, playing-dumb laughter from before, but a total, desperate, broken laugh.
“Impressive.” He looked up at the ceiling, his voice raspy like sandpaper. “Fucking impressive.”
“I knew something was off about you from the start, Bai Feifei. You have mental issues? Bullshit. You’re more lucid than anyone.”
“I just don’t understand how you know so much about this place. It makes no sense at all...”
He struggled to sit up, leaning against the stone wall. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and laughed miserably.
“But it doesn’t matter anymore. You’re all going to die.”
“To have a few big shots buried with me... it’s not a bad deal.”
Wan Qianhong finally understood. She looked at Wu Xin in disbelief. “What did you say?!”
“Were you sent here? Who exactly are you working for?!”
Wu Xin looked at her with a mix of apology and relief, then suddenly cursed like a lunatic, “How the hell did you become the head of the East District? Why did you have to investigate? Why did you insist on digging into this?!”
“Don’t you fucking know how complicated this is? No one investigated for all those years, so why start now?!”
Wan Qianhong’s mouth hung open, speechless. She hadn't expected that even after her rapid decision to mobilize, a mole would have been planted right beside her.
Xu Mo asked on her behalf, “Who threatened you?”
Wu Xin laughed miserably. “Who else could it be?”
“All of you... secret organizations, disciples of Prophets... you’re all so high and mighty. But I’m just a small fry. I can’t afford to offend anyone.”
He shook his head as if talking to himself. “My whole family is in the Inner City. They threatened my wife and child’s lives. What could I do? I had to listen to them.”
“It didn't have to be like this. It didn't have to be like this...”
“As long as I led you down the wrong path, as long as that mass grave wasn't discovered... no one had to die.”
“But who would have thought you could actually deal with an S-rank Containment Object?!”
He closed his eyes, his voice growing fainter. “The final ritual has already begun. Everyone is going to die. Bai Feifei, that expert backing you... he’s going to die too...”
Xu Mo: Who? Me?
The earthquake continued. As the words fell, the tremors grew even more violent.
It was a rhythmic vibration, pulsing like a heartbeat.
Thump— Thump— Thump—
Everyone present paled.
But the one with the worst expression was Li Gui.
He suddenly grabbed Wu Xin, his skeletal face showing pure terror for the first time.
“What did you say?! What final ritual? Wasn't this mission just about destroying the most critical evidence?!”
“Who gave you your orders? Why didn't I know you were involved in this?!”
“Who the hell are you working for?!”
As soon as those words came out, the room fell into a dead silence.
Everyone—the East District Scavengers and the Rangers alike—fixed their gazes on Li Gui.
Xu Mo looked at him with amusement, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh?”
“We have a self-destructing truck too?”
Rate on N.U.
