Chapter 225

224

With the pronouncement of the Bureau of Cleanup's Director, the "Eye of the Sun" in the sky suddenly flared bright. A heat so intense it was almost unimaginable poured down like a waterfall, drenching the Aquarius Director directly.

"Damn it! It's all your fault!"

Amidst the shocked expressions of the crowd, the Aquarius Director, who had been drenched by the sunlight, was surprisingly not burned to ash. Instead, surrounded by strange, smoke-like matter, he stood up against the scorching glare, stared fixedly at the main stage, and roared with blood-red eyes:

"Why did you have to come back? If only you hadn't appeared today! It was clearly just one more day!"

You scared me; I thought my meddling had been discovered...

Realizing that the Aquarius Director's roar wasn't aimed at him but at the Bureau of Cleanup's Director, Hearing Hearing Li Ang, who was also standing on the main stage, let out a long sigh of relief. He immediately scurried to the side, trying his best to shrink behind the Bureau Director, terrified that the Aquarius Director's death throes might spill over onto him.

As for the Bureau Director's phantom, his attention was entirely on the Aquarius Director at that moment, so he didn't notice Hearing Hearing Li Ang's small movements, instead coldly waving his hand toward the sun.

"Boom!"

Accompanied by a sound like a waterfall crashing down, the sunlight pouring from above intensified several times over. A torrent of bright gold smashed down, completely piercing through the smoke surrounding the Aquarius Director.

And as this life-saving anomalous object was shattered, the Aquarius Director's physical body was instantly destroyed, leaving nothing behind. Even the scattered ashes were burned away by the sunlight, which had almost turned into a liquid state, leaving only a soul screaming in unwillingness in its place.

Glancing at the Aquarius Director's soul and confirming there were no issues, the Bureau Director turned his head toward the position of the Gemini Branch Director, seemingly wanting to give an order, but after hesitating for a moment, he looked toward the Pisces Branch Director's position instead.

"Medea, the execution of Aquarius is complete. Your Pisces Branch is quite skilled at handling souls, so you take the soul of Aquarius away.

Aside from his actions over these years and his schemes against the Watchtower Palace, try your best to uncover the locations of the anomalous objects he created, as well as the knowledge regarding the Aquarius secret arts."

"Understood."

The veiled Pisces Director nodded slightly and accepted the task. After the Bureau Director finished his arrangements, he actually turned his head to look at Hearing Hearing Li Ang behind him and asked:

"Your... that... ability... can... you..."

Huh?

Watching the Bureau Director before him suddenly begin to "slow down," his figure twisting involuntarily, Hearing Hearing Li Ang couldn't help but be slightly stunned, then couldn't help but ask:

"Director? What is this?"

"It's likely due to the Old Earth; the flow of time over there has begun to slow down again."

The veiled woman, who had walked over from the Pisces Director's seat and was preparing to take the Aquarius soul, explained:

"The Director's true body is not here, but... is... in... the... Old... Earth..."???

No way? Why are you starting to slow down too?

After looking at the veiled woman in surprise, Hearing Hearing Li Ang turned his head back, preparing to ask his own Director, but was shocked to discover that the entire Bureau of Cleanup headquarters, including his own Director, had slowed down.

Moreover, the degree of this slowing was constantly accelerating. The veiled woman, who could originally say a word in three seconds, hadn't been able to spit out the next word even after half a minute.

"I really didn't expect that even with all the preparations I made, you could still ruin my plans."

Accompanied by a voice without any fluctuations, the Gemini Branch Director walked over slowly. In Hearing Hearing Li Ang's shocked eyes, he bypassed the veiled woman blocking his path and grabbed the Aquarius Director's soul in his hand.

"Who are you?"

"I am the Gemini Branch Director, and also the Aquarius Director... or rather, the container holding his original brain."

After pointing to the center of his brow, the Gemini Branch Director took out a small pair of scales and placed them in his hand, then stared at Hearing Hearing Li Ang and said indifferently:

"The one just executed was my true physical body, a cloned brain, and the emotions and part of the soul I stripped away. After all, having a Brain-Eating Demon lick your brain is too painful; I really didn't want to experience it myself, so I simply came up with this method.

Besides, I've thought about it carefully during this time. Although the timing was off by a day and there were some errors in the surgery's effect, since the brain placed in this body wasn't affected, the other brain of mine shouldn't have been affected too much either.

So, the reason that memory of mine couldn't be completely replicated by the Dream-Recalling Furnace is likely not due to the surgery in the Kroke Kingdom; the problem still lies with the God-tier Brain-Eating Demon, and the only person who has directly touched that thing is you... I'm very curious, how exactly did you control it?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Give it a rest, right? There's another twist, damn it!

Looking at the Gemini Director—or rather, the Aquarius Director—who was staring at him expressionlessly and waiting for an answer, Hearing Hearing Li Ang was truly numb.

If nothing else, what is everyone in the Bureau of Cleanup doing?

You guys are so damn impressive, not only capturing so many True Gods and Evil Gods, but also hollowing out an asteroid for a headquarters, and even being able to drag the sun over to use—how come you've all been slowed down now? If Aquarius had been a bit more ruthless today, would the Bureau of Cleanup have been wiped out?

"Don't worry, I can't harm them, nor can I even make contact."

Seeming to see through Hearing Hearing Li Ang's thoughts, the Gemini Branch Director—or rather, the true Aquarius Director—said:

"My ability isn't to slow them down, but to accelerate you and me. Our current state is like two gears stripped from the 'machine' that is the world, so we can rotate in a state far exceeding the normal flow of time.

But if we make contact with anyone else, the gears, which were only temporarily detached from the machine, will re-engage and immediately return to their original speed. So, although our current state is wondrous, we can't actually do anything."

【Through personal observation and the user's explanation, you have obtained a large amount of intelligence regarding the "Time Gap." The heterochromatic badge "Materialist Soul" has been activated.

Due to understanding part of the rules of the "Time Gap," your resistance to this anomalous object has increased, and you are now able to shield yourself from lower-level influences.】

Only lower-level... this isn't helping either!

Looking at the true Aquarius Director opposite, who was unhurried, and finding that he didn't seem to resist communicating with him, Hearing Hearing Li Ang gritted his teeth and asked, holding onto the thought of struggling a bit even if caught:

"If you wanted to get the soul back, you could have just accelerated yourself. Why did you accelerate me too?"

"Of course, to obtain intelligence."

After shaking the scales in his hand, the Aquarius Director said slowly:

"This thing is called the 'Scales of Truth.' As long as one party provides a secret of sufficient value, then when they start asking questions, the other party, no matter how unwilling, must honestly answer a secret of equal value.

As for why I chose you: first, because I'm curious about what you did to the Brain-Eating Demon; second, I want to know the situation in the Kingdom; third, I want to probe for news about the Virgo Branch. The most important reason is that you are weak enough.

If the person accelerated with me were Olivia or Beverly from the Lion Branch, not only would the consumption be shockingly large, but I might not necessarily be able to beat them.

And you require little consumption, know many things, have secrets on you that I'm interested in, and are the easiest to deal with after obtaining the intelligence, so of course I had to choose you."

"..."

"Hmm... the reason for the two of me, the secret of time acceleration, the ability of the Scales of Truth, why I chose you... these added together should be about enough."

After counting out four weights of different sizes and placing them on the left side of the small scales, looking at the tray on the right tilted high up, the Aquarius Director couldn't help but nod in satisfaction, then looked toward Hearing Hearing Li Ang and asked indifferently:

"It's your turn. First question: what exactly did you do to that God-tier Brain-Eating Demon?"