Chapter 87: Cangling Jie

Another half month passed, and the situation was temporarily stable.

Fierce Beasts and humans had reached a balance of strength, but such a balance could not hold for long, because the number of human Martial Artists was far fewer than that of the Fierce Beasts, and they could only defend themselves with technological weapons.

Apart from that,

the most serious problem was—

due to the initial merger of the two worlds, contact between the major cities had almost been completely cut off, leaving them without support or resource replenishment, and some cities had fallen into enormous crisis; under such circumstances, Huaguo issued a new regulation.

The meaning was simple:

from this day forward, each major city would operate independently; as long as they could keep the people alive, regardless of who held power or what methods were used, they were free to decide and act on their own!

Such a regulation would cause many problems for the nation.

But as long as the people could survive, nothing else mattered.

A new era had arrived!

…

In the fortress at the center of the lake island, the East China Headquarters station.

Compared to the cities facing attacks from beast tides, the Fierce Beasts near the East China Headquarters had been wiped out the moment they appeared, so the area was still relatively safe, and at the same time it had taken on the heavy burden of rescuing the cities.

In the Bureau Chief's office.

Yue Beishan sat behind the desk with a heavy brow; he had not slept for a month, and even his meals were taken in the office.

Within his jurisdiction, dozens of cities had already fallen.

Originally, the Martial Artists of the East China Headquarters were enough to suppress the beast tides, but a month ago the Hall of Ancients issued an order that, except for those in key positions, all Martial Artists who had reached the Earth Martial Realm were to go to the Frontier to stand guard.

Now the Frontier was the true core of Huaguo, requiring the deployment of high-level combat forces from across the nation to hold it.

Once the Frontier fell, the nation would cease to be a nation.

With all the Law Enforcement Officers transferred to the Frontier, those in the Divine Image Realm Realm had become the high-level combat force of the headquarters, and naturally there was no longer any strength to support those suffering cities.

And Yue Beishan had also received his transfer order; he would soon head to the Frontier as well.

Before that, he had to find someone capable of taking over his current position.

And in his heart, there was only one person who could shoulder this heavy responsibility.

Just as he was lost in thought, there was a knock on the office door.

"Knock, knock—"

"Come in."

The office door opened, and an Investigator walked in carrying a box; when Yue Beishan saw her, a hint of anticipation appeared in his eyes.

A month and a half ago, Jiang Qin and Cangling had gone to Tianyun Shi to provide support but had vanished without a trace.

The area of Tianyun Shi was shrouded in black fog and could not be entered.

This Investigator was the one he had sent to keep watch, and as long as there was any change she would report back immediately; now that she had returned to headquarters, there must be results.

"How is it? Any news of Law Enforcer Cangling and Deputy Officer Jiang?"

The female Investigator shook her head with a bitter expression, then placed the wooden box on the desk and spoke with great difficulty:

"I followed your instructions and stayed outside the black fog the whole time. Just three hours ago the black fog finally cleared, but… the original site of Tianyun Shi had been razed to the ground, with no living thing surviving. Moreover, I also discovered something."

Yue Beishan frowned and opened the wooden box, only to find a pile of minced meat inside.

The moment it was opened, a thick stench of blood rushed at him.

The female Investigator sighed and said: "This is what I found inside the black fog. The black fog can devour matter, but for some reason this pile of minced meat was not devoured. I have already handed it over to the inspection department, and they have confirmed that these flesh and blood tissues belong to Deputy Officer Jiang, including fragments of his heart."

"The inspection department's conclusion is that Deputy Officer Jiang has already…"

With his heart shattered like this, no one could survive; one could well imagine what kind of battle Jiang Qin had gone through.

The next second, a woman in ancient robes appeared in the office.

She was one of the Supreme Powerhouses.

All of her strength had been used to stabilize the world's barrier, so she had not gone to the Frontier, but stayed at the East China Headquarters.

The woman in ancient robes touched the pile of flesh and blood with her hand and said softly: "No, I can feel that the child is not dead. Although his physical body has disintegrated, he is indeed still alive, in another form."

"What exactly happened? Why did Jiang Qin end up like this?" Yue Beishan asked with difficulty.

The woman in ancient robes replied calmly: "The flesh and blood is mixed with the divine power of the God of Day, which confirms a guess of mine. The four great divine leaders of Cangling Jie descended upon Lanxing a month ago; it should have been for Cangling, and Jiang Qin was also one of their targets for erasure."

Yue Beishan was shocked by this news.

Although Huaguo had always been fighting against the gods, those they encountered were all lesser gods; the strength of the four great divine faction leaders was incalculable, and any one of them, if not restricted by the Heavenly Dao, would be enough to wipe out all of humanity's current forces.

And a month ago, the four great divine leaders had actually descended upon Lanxing at the same time… What on earth had happened in Tianyun Shi back then?

He hurriedly asked: "Then in your prophecy, can Jiang Qin and Cangling still come back?"

The woman in ancient robes's laws allowed her to use a sliver of the power of fate, enabling her to glimpse fragments of the future, and she gave the answer she had deduced.

Hearing this answer, Yue Beishan fell silent.

After the woman in ancient robes left with the flesh and blood tissue, and the female Investigator walked out of the office, he returned to his seat behind the desk, sat in silence for a long while with his head lowered, and began to make some arrangements in advance for the future.

……

In another world.

Unlike Lanxing, this world was vast and boundless, its land several times larger than Lanxing.

It was a true paradise for Fierce Beasts.

The jungle trees here were hundreds of meters tall, their trunks as thick as a house; in this place human bodies were tiny, no different from ants in human eyes, and the climate would at times be bitterly cold to the extreme, at others scorching hot as if ten blazing suns hung across the sky.

Beside a forest stream, the water flowed with a gentle murmur.

At some unknown time, a wooden cabin had been built beside the stream.

Jiang Qin, floating in the air like a ghost, slowly opened his eyes; an unfamiliar environment came into view, and an unprecedented sense of weakness enveloped him—he could not even sense his Spirit Power.

"You're awake."

A faint voice came from beside him; he turned his head and saw it was Cangling.

Cangling sat cross-legged beside the stream, looking outwardly no different from before, but her pupils had turned entirely gold — the mark of a deity.

Jiang Qin fell silent, lowering his head to look at his own soul-body.

After a long while, he said in a low voice, "Are you now Law Enforcement Officer Cangling, or… Deity Cangling?"

Cangling's eyes lowered, gazing at the surface of the stream: "I have remembered everything. These two identities hold no meaning for me. The so-called deity… is nothing but a false lie."

A deity? A lie?

Before Jiang Qin could ask, she turned her head to look at him and continued:

"Your current state is very strange. By the rules, when a person dies their soul should disperse along with them, but some force shielded your soul. So at that time I brought your soul back to Cangling Jie, and your physical body had already collapsed."

Jiang Qin lowered his head: "What… should I do now?"

Cangling answered: "I don't know either. Your soul is very unusual — even if we returned to Lanxing and found a human body for you, you couldn't possess it. And… my life is nearly at its end; I can never return to Lanxing again."