Chapter 431: We All Fight for Humanity

The tall man twisted his body to dodge the second slash coming at him, and the man wielding the knife twitched his wrist, flipping the blade so that the edge rose from below upward, heading straight for the tall man's jaw.

The tall man looked up; the knife tip barely brushed his chin as it passed, and he immediately stepped back a few paces to create distance, then re‑examined the person before him.

"The Yun family's sword technique," he said with certainty, "you are from the Supervision Bureau."

The man with the short knife gave no reply; he held the blade horizontally before him, and the Rune on the sword lit up again.

"I heard the Supervision Bureau does have a captain with the surname Yun, but I also heard the way he obtained that position was questionable—was it because the rival who was competing with him died during a certain operation?"

The short‑blade man remained silent, his knife tip motionless, pointing toward the tall man.

The tall man looked at him and suddenly gave a slight smile.

"Tianmian City has just been breached; why doesn't your Supervision Bureau rush back to clean up the mess, yet you have the leisure to come to the Dome to aid these Old World invaders?"

He flexed his fingers slightly, and the sound of knuckles cracking echoed a few times, "Has the brain of your Church members been invaded by Mutation, or is this also the will of the 'God'?"

"That's not a question for you."

Yun Qifeng merely tightened his grip on his knife; he had also heard about the incident in Tianmian City, but since no orders came from above, he only needed to follow the previous directive.

"Truly, you remain as blindly loyal as ever."

The tall man genuinely wondered whether the Church possessed some mind‑washing ability.

Clearly this world has long been in misery, yet the deity they worship has never truly done anything.

But merely on the Church's few words, they are willing to risk life and death for that vague, ethereal thing.

Yun Qifeng gave no reply; they stayed here merely to buy time, and let the opponents chatter as they wished.

The tall man knew further words were useless, so he let out a soft sigh, as if speaking to himself.

"They all say Aberrant Arts are blessings from the deity, but if even this sole 'miracle' can be bestowed by humans, what meaning does the 'God' have?"

He moved.

He didn't rush forward; instead, he vanished in place.

His figure disappeared for an instant before Yun Qifeng's eyes, and when he reappeared, he was half a step to his left.

The man formed his right hand into a palm, a layer of pale blue energy covering its surface, thrusting straight toward Yun Qifeng's throat.

Yun Qifeng's knife was thrust back, the tip heading straight for the tall man's abdomen.

The tall man withdrew his palm, sidestepped, and the knife tip brushed his belt, cutting a slit in his uniform.

"Nice sword technique," he said.

Yun Qifeng gave no response; his knife was sheathed again, held horizontally before him.

His gaze passed over the man's shoulder, seeing several figures in black uniforms at the far end of the corridor having already looped around them, heading toward the stairwell.

Their steps were swift, like a pack of hounds released to hunt.

The Wind Blade woman, Jiang Xiqing, rose from the ground.

Blood still clung to the corner of her mouth, her fingers trembled, but the wind in her palm had already gathered; Jiang Xiqing gritted her teeth and flung the newly formed Wind Blade at those people.

The Wind Blade traced several transparent arcs through the corridor; the men in black felt the energy ripple behind them and instinctively turned, as the Blade brushed their shoulders and flew past, leaving three deep cuts on the wall.

He glanced back, his steps never pausing.

The tall man also sensed the disturbance; without even turning, a silent spatial blade sliced down from above her head.

Yun Qifeng kicked the newly steadied Jiang Xiqing against the wall, allowing her to narrowly escape.

"Ignore that side; focus on the enemies before you."

Their mission was indeed to cover the rear, but the orders never demanded that they alone stop every enemy.

Otherwise, if others followed, was it merely to disperse the Undead?

Jiang Xiqing wanted to speak, but a sweet‑sour taste rose in her throat, so she could only nod slowly.

She was permitted to join the operation because she awakened the Aberrant Arts of wind elements, and would stay behind with the Church's people as a rear guard; a large part of that was because her Aberrant Arts suited escape.

If any accident truly occurred, the authorities hoped she would prioritize her own safety above all.

The tall man looked at the two of them, his tone curious, "Does your Church really intend to protect these Undead?"

"If that's the case, why not simply negotiate with the Dome? In the eyes of your Church, are we some unreasonable organization?"

"After all, the Undead we the Dome capture are only for control; how to deal with them is also a dilemma for us. If the Church can provide a sufficiently reasonable answer, we would gladly cooperate."

"Facing the increasingly frequent Aberrant Species disasters, I think the Dome and the Church should join forces against the outside, since we are all acting for humanity's survival…"

The tall man's words seemed to try to draw closer to Yun Qifeng, yet subtly positioned the Undead against them.

No, the crux lies in who ordered him to say that.

Such words could not have come from a squad leader of the Dome's Field Operations Department; they must reflect the intent of a higher‑up behind him.

But the tall man was indeed merely stating facts.

The emergence of Undead has only caused a string of problems for the Dome—for example, some captured by nobles and sent here, demanding the Dome swap back their original souls, and others, while being pursued by the Dome, form gangs and even launch attacks on the Dome.

From the Dome's perspective, those people would be better off simply dying cleanly, rather than having their bodies invaded and used by outsiders.

Now they have indeed captured these Undead and locked them here; aside from a few laboratories that take some for experiments, the others have no idea how to handle them.

Among those whose souls were swapped are many nobles; their families have paid a heavy price to retrieve their original souls.

But unfortunately, with so many Dome laboratories working in concert, even numerous Special Ability Practitioners of the Consciousness Law have been reassigned to assist, and no information at all can be found about their methods of invasion.

No matter how you investigate, these people are just a bunch of unlucky fools.

Just by seeing the memories of their lives in their own world, one understands how, having lived in such a stable world, anyone could willingly come to this Mutation‑ravaged world to die.

Han Huan instinctively felt that all these problems could be answered by the Church, and with the recent Aberrant Species attacks becoming more frequent, Fang Zhiyan's side also gave him a sense of slipping out of control…

Thus he instructed his subordinates to send a cooperation signal to the Church's people.