Chapter 540: Deceit Controller Slayer

Zhou Ping chuckled softly.

"You guys are really interesting."

"When hitting someone, you talk about their background."

"When killing someone, you talk about achievements."

"When it's your turn to be afraid, you start talking about procedure."

He raised his hand.

The phantom of the Seven-Eyed Crown above his head unfolded, its first red eye turning toward the prison guard.

The prison guard's gun flew from his hand, was entangled by blood-red lines in midair, and the barrel twisted into a pretzel.

"You just said lenient handling."

Zhou Ping walked forward.

"Come, you deal with me."

The prison guard's legs went weak.

But the red iron bars had already risen from the ground, blocking the corridor.

Zhou Ping merely lifted his hand.

Several blood-red lines extended from the iron bars, pressing him against the wall, stripping off his epaulettes, his waist badge, and the courage beneath his uniform.

"Don't kill me!"

The prison guard cried until his face was soaked.

"I'm just on duty! I haven't touched you!"

Zhou Ping stopped.

"Then have you seen others being moved?"

The prison guard was speechless.

Zhou Ping tilted his head.

"You have, right?"

"You didn't lift a hand."

"You just turned off the lights, locked the door, and disabled the surveillance."

"You just stood farther away, pretending not to see."

The blood-red lines tightened.

He choked out a broken gasp, his eyes bulging.

Zhou Ping no longer looked at him.

"Then keep pretending you didn't see."

The blood-red lines dragged the prison guard and shoved him into the wall.

A flat human face emerged on the wall, its eyes still moving, yet it could not utter a sound.

The prison guards behind completely broke down.

Someone knelt down.

Someone fired a gun.

Someone shoved their companion forward while they themselves retreated.

Once the bullets entered the dark-red range, they were all swallowed by the crown.

Zhou Ping raised his hand and grabbed.

The A Ji blast-proof door at the end of the corridor emitted a screeching friction, its hinge gnawed through by the blood-red lines, and the whole door collapsed inward.

What's held on the third underground level is not just ordinary criminals.

This is the "Grey List" of Heitan.

There are informants used and discarded by Deceit Controllers.

There are civilian adapters who take the blame.

There are ordinary people who take the fall for the powerful.

There are also truly vicious mad dogs.

They had been locked in the dark for too long; hearing the commotion, they first cursed, then laughed, and finally all pressed themselves against the door cracks.

"Who's out there?"

"Newcomers?"

"Let me out! I'll kowtow to you!"

"Cut the act, is this another prison guard trick?"

Zhou Ping walked to the first cell.

Behind the iron door, a middle-aged man covered in scars stared at him, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins.

"Brother, jailbreak?"

Zhou Ping looked at him.

"Why did you come in?"

The scarred man cracked his mouth, revealing half a mouth of rotten teeth.

"I killed a lackey of a Deceit Controller."

"The reason."

"That bastard stole my wife; I went to demand an explanation, and he offered me three thousand bucks to send me away."

The scarred man said this, unable to laugh.

What happened after?

Later I chopped him with a cleaver.

Zhou Ping raised his hand.

The runes on the prison door went out one by one.

Click.

The door opened.

The scar‑faced man froze in place.

A crystal appeared on Zhou Ping's palm.

Anyone could tell it contained extraordinary power.

Take it.

The scar‑faced man stared at the crystal, his throat dry.

What's the price?

Kneel for me.

The scar‑faced man stayed silent for two seconds, then dropped to his knees.

Very straightforward.

I'll kneel.

As long as I can kill those beasts, I'll even call you dad.

Zhou Ping pressed the crystal into his forehead.

The scar‑faced man tilted his head back, veins bulging on his neck, dark red patterns spreading across his skin.

No rejection.

No loss of control.

The Fierce Ghost invasion that Spirit Controllers feared most was subdued under the crown's rule.

The scar‑faced man panted as he rose, a short blade made of stitched human skin appearing in his palm.

He looked at Zhou Ping, all probing gone.

Only submission.

All the cells on the third underground level fell silent.

Zhou Ping continued forward.

The second cell.

The third cell.

The fourth cell.

A tall, slim youth shouted from behind the door: "I'm also framed! My girlfriend was killed by Spirit Controllers; I went to petition, and they locked me up as a Gospel Church accomplice!"

Zhou Ping looked at him for a long moment.

The crown's second red eye turned.

The youth's past was laid bare.

Rainy night.

Hospital corridor.

A swapped medical record.

A girl covered in a white cloth.

Zhou Ping opened the door and gave him a second crystal.

He laughed through tears, cried through laughter, and finally pressed his forehead to the ground.

Zhou Ping said: "Line up."

The youth blinked in surprise.

Zhou Ping walked past him.

Tonight there are many enemies.

Some are truly innocent.

Some are half‑innocent.

Some are utterly corrupt.

The Seven‑Eyed Crown doesn't entertain good‑vs‑evil debates.

It only smells hatred.

It also smells sin.

A fatty wailed in the cell: "I'm also oppressed by Spirit Controllers! I gave them money, yet they still seized my company!"

The crown's third red eye glanced over.

In Fatty's memory, over a dozen girls he'd deceived overseas were crammed in a basement, the iron door shut tight.

Zhou Ping stopped.

Fatty was still acting.

Save me! I'm willing to be your dog!

Zhou Ping raised his hand.

The prison door didn't open.

The floor inside split open first.

Dark red blood‑lines crawled out from the brick cracks, winding around Fatty's legs.

Fatty screamed: "I have money! I can help you!"

Zhou Ping only said one word.

"Eat."

The prison cell floor split open, revealing a maw full of red eyes, dragging Fatty down.

The scream was very short.

It was so short that the few prisoners next door who were pretending to be pitiful shut their mouths.

Zhou Ping walked down the corridor.

Every time he passed a cell, one door would open and another would be sealed forever.

He is very picky about choosing people.

Those forced to the edge of a cliff.

Those used as consumables by Uncanny Practitioners.

Those whose families were destroyed by privilege.

These people can survive.

Those scumbags wearing victims' skins, even the crown finds them too dirty to look at.

Half an hour later.

The third underground level had changed.

Twenty-seven prisoners knelt in bloody water.

Someone's arms turned into dark red bone blades.

Someone had resentful infant skulls floating behind their back.

Someone's eye sockets burned with the secondary pupils granted by the Seven-Eyed Crown.

All their power came from Zhou Ping.

They were also all held by Zhou Ping grasping their life gates.

No training needed.

No oath needed.

Under the crown's rule, even the thought of the two words 'betrayal' is hard to form.

Old Liang was dragged to the center of the corridor.

This old prison guard, who just a moment ago was polishing Zhao Xiao's shoes, now has his pants soaked and his lips trembling uncontrollably.

"Master Zhou, I really was wrong."

"I have elderly parents and young children; I'm just trying to make a living."

The scarred man went up and kicked him over with one foot.

"You make a living?"

"My brother had two ribs broken by you, and you also say you're just making a living."

The tall, thin youth squatted down and grabbed Old Liang's hair.

"The petition materials—were you the one who burned them for them?"

Old Liang's face was smeared with snot and tears.

"If I don't burn them, someone else will!"

As soon as he said that, all twenty-seven prisoners fell silent.

Zhou Ping looked at Old Liang.

That familiar logic has returned.

It's not me; there are others too.

It wasn't my order.

I'm just carrying it out.

Everyone does it this way.

So I'm not wrong.

Zhou Ping suddenly felt tired.

It's not bodily fatigue.

I'm just sick of hearing it.

"Drag him up."

Zhou Ping turned and walked toward the stairs leading down to the second underground level.

"Let Black Pool see how the dogs it raised will die tonight."

The second underground level is the interrogation area.

It's brighter than the third level.

And cleaner.

On the wall hung the four large characters 'Standardized Law Enforcement,' and beside it was the Federation supervision hotline.

The scarred man looked at that sign, laughing so hard his shoulders shook.

"Brothers, do you see it?"

"A regular unit—can't even laugh."

A woman wearing shackles stepped forward.

She had once been a Folk Uncanny Practitioner, reporting a garrison captain who sold containment objects for profit, resulting in her whole family being imprisoned.

She raised her hand; a dark red resentful infant clung to the ceiling, crawling toward the interrogation room.

Inside, several duty staff were still destroying materials.

The shredder was spewing out happily.

The resentful infant pounced down, biting one person's wrist.

Ah!

That person flipped onto the ground, desperately flinging their hand.

The woman walked in, picked up a half-unshredded interrogation record.

It read: 'The suspect is emotionally agitated, has suicidal tendencies.'

She stared at that line of text for several seconds.

Then she stuffed the paper into that person's mouth.

Eat.

You don't love writing the most, do you?

The interrogation area descended into chaos.

Gunfire.

Shrieks.

The iron door burst open.

Flames rushed out of the archive room, swallowing all the false confessions, fake videos, and fake medical records.

Inside Black Pool, a full alarm finally sounded.

But it was too late.

The checkpoints from Underground Level 2 to the surface were torn apart by prisoners whose bodies had been strengthened by crystals.

The Weird Controller guards below A Ji couldn't withstand even a single round against them.

The reason is simple.

They specifically counter Weird Controllers.

The authority granted by the crown is not merely becoming stronger.

It is the suppression of all things weird.

The proudest fierce ghost of the Weird Controllers, upon seeing the Seven-Eyed Crown, first kneels halfway.

The remaining half was pressed down by Zhou Ping himself.

Underground Level 1.

The Black Pool Deputy Director, accompanied by three Weird Controllers, guarded the hall.

The Deputy Director wore protective gear and held a megaphone.

Zhou Ping!

You have already caused serious consequences!

Now stop resisting, hand over the weird object, and we can arrange for your sister to be transferred to the highest-level treatment cabin!

Zhou Ping stood at the stairway entrance, raising his head.

Treatment cabin.

Again, it's his sister.

When these people negotiate, they always like to bring out others' most painful wounds as bargaining chips.

Very professional.

Also very despicable.

Don't let my sister's name come out of your mouth.

The Deputy Director's forehead was sweating, yet he still maintained his official tone.

You need to consider your sister! Doing this will only harm her!

The thin tall youth behind Zhou Ping muttered: 'Classic moral blackmail, you old geezer really know how.'

The scarred man spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm.

Don't waste words with him, just chop him.

The Weird Controller beside the Deputy Director moved.

Three fierce ghosts appeared simultaneously.

Hanged Ghost.

Slit-Mouthed Nurse.

Iron Cage Boy.

The hall's temperature dropped, and the light tubes began to flicker erratically.

Ordinary inmates, faced with this scene, had already collapsed.

But this group of people chosen by the crown all stepped forward.

They have been afraid before.

They have been beaten up before.

They have begged on their knees before.

Now it's someone else's turn to be afraid.

Zhou Ping raised his right hand.

The fourth red eye of the Seven-Eyed Crown opened.

The three fierce ghosts all lay down.

Those three Weird Controllers vomited blood on the spot, the contract backlash forcing them to kneel.

The deputy director's megaphone fell to the ground.

Zhou Ping walked up to him.

"You just said the highest-grade treatment chamber."

The deputy director's teeth were chattering.

"Yes, yes, I can arrange it."

"Why wasn't it arranged before?"

The deputy director couldn't speak.

Zhou Ping answered for him.

"Because I don't have the qualifications."

He raised his hand and pressed down on the deputy director's shoulder.

"And now?"

The deputy director knelt quickly, forehead touching the ground.

"Mr. Zhou, you are qualified! You certainly are qualified!"

Zhou Ping looked at the back of that person's head and suddenly laughed.

"Look."

"The regulation hasn't changed."

"What has changed is who holds the knife."

Dark red blood lines swallowed the hall.

The above-ground structures of the Black Pool Detention Center began to collapse.

The high wall was torn apart from within.

The barbed wire rolled into scrap iron.

Searchlights went out one after another.

As the prisoners rushed out onto the ground, the night wind poured in, carrying the scent of neon from the distant city.

Someone knelt on the ground, weeping.

Someone tilted their head back and shouted curses.

Half an hour later.

Only ruins remained of the Black Pool's high wall.

Zhou Ping sat on the highest remaining segment of the broken wall.

His torn prisoner uniform fluttered in the night wind, the dark-red crown pattern on his forehead gleaming.

Below, twenty-seven avengers knelt in a dark, dense mass.

Farther away lay the brightly lit privileged residential district.

The tall buildings shone bright.

Traffic flowed smoothly.

Behind those windows, some drank, some held meetings, some discussed merits, some talked about resource allocations.

They had not yet smelled the blood from this side of Black Pool.

Zhou Ping gazed for a long time.

The scarred man lifted his head and asked, "King, where should we go first?"

Zhou Ping did not speak right away.

He thought of Zhou Ning's pink hairpin.

He thought of her lying still in the life-support cabin, so quiet it was frightening.

He thought of the words Zhao Xiao had said.

He also thought of the person he had just killed with his own hands.

The victim had become the perpetrator, in short order.

It happened so fast, only a crown separated them.

But Zhou Ping no longer wanted to turn back.

Since this world has driven ordinary people to reason before ghosts, he will finish the reasoning for the ghosts.

He rose to his feet.

The Seven-Eyed Crown fully unfolded above his head.

Dark-red blood light illuminated everyone's faces.

"From tonight on, we will no longer plead, no longer petition, no longer wait for their mercy."

"We will hunt down every arrogant deceit controller."

"We will drag them from their thrones and feed them to the dogs."

The twenty-seven avengers lowered their heads together.

The distant city remained brightly lit.

And on the ruins of Black Pool, the first revenge squad dedicated to killing deceit controllers had taken shape.