Chapter 562: The storm has descended

Several days later.

Federation headquarters, nine levels underground.

He Chuan hadn't slept for thirty-six hours.

On the table sat seven cups of coffee, three unfinished, two already cold, and another two nearly sent to disposal after the assistant mistook them for experimental waste.

The young assistant held a record board, standing outside the liquefaction chamber, his eyelids drooping.

"Director, the third round of dilution is complete."

He Chuan raised a hand to rub his brow.

"Stability?"

"Even diluted to one part per million, it still retains the rule's suppression of inertia."

The assistant paused half a second, then added a line.

"Ordinary metal carriers show no rejection."

Everyone in the lab stopped what they were doing.

That sentence worked better than any stimulant.

He Chuan walked to the front of the chamber.

Inside the transparent isolation chamber, the originally black‑red fragments had been broken down into extremely fine liquid particles, suspended in the sealed container.

It does not devour people.

It does not spread.

It does not pollute the air.

But as soon as the probe releases a weird rule, it will suppress that rule.

It suppresses it cleanly.

He Chuan stared at the data for a long time.

Zhou Ping.

That auto‑mechanic, driven into a corner, burned out his life, leaving only this.

He is dead.

His infamy has not faded.

Yet his remnants have become humanity's first tool capable of holding down the weird.

He Chuan tightened his gloves.

"Load the bullet."

The assistant blinked.

"Director, are we going straight into weaponization?"

"The report has already been approved."

He Chuan glanced at him.

"Duke Wei personally approved."

The assistant fell silent.

The two words "Duke Wei" work better than an access pass at headquarters.

Three ordnance engineers pushed in a sealed crate.

The crate opened to reveal standard 9mm police pistol rounds, plus a few sniper bullet heads.

The engineers placed the samples on the workbench.

"We only handle the carriers; don't make anything outrageous."

He Chuan didn't look up.

"Don't worry, the outrageous part is already taken care of by the gods."

The engineer was momentarily choked.

The assistant beside him almost laughed, then forced it back.

The Technology Department began work.

Extreme liquefaction.

Inert particles were further diluted.

Trace coating.

The bullet heads were machined with microscopic grooves invisible to the naked eye, and the liquid residue seeped into the metal along those grooves.

Twelve hours later, the first batch of samples was finished.

The silver bullet heads now bore dark red patterns.

They were very faint.

Not ostentatious.

Yet they made everyone present who dealt with the weird instinctively step back.

That sense of rejection was obvious.

The weird inside them was fleeing.

He Chuan pushed the sample tray under the detector.

"Serial number."

The assistant entered it quickly.

"Concept weapon sample, first batch, provisional designation: Suppressive Bullet."

He Chuan shook his head.

Don't hold back, send to the shooting range.

Headquarters underground shooting range.

Protective doors opened layer by layer.

In the center of the shooting range, a death row inmate was brought up.

Male, forty-seven years old, serial killer.

Three months ago, during containment transfer, he coexisted with a B Ji Evil Ghost, biting two guards to death, tearing open a transport vehicle.

Later, Jiang Yuan personally pressed him down and locked him back in headquarters.

When this person was pushed out, his hands and feet were locked.

But his waist and back were kept very straight.

Under the skin of his chest, something was wriggling.

The death row inmate raised his head, grinning at the researchers behind the glass.

"Use me for a gun test?"

No one answered.

The death row inmate licked his teeth.

You desk-jockeys really love to play tricks.

The escort personnel removed the outer restrictions.

The Evil Ghost inside him reacted.

Skin bulged, black patterns emerged on the neck.

The death row inmate moved his shoulder, the chains rattled.

"Come on."

He stared at the opposite special police.

"Shoot the leg? Shoot the head? Or shoot my brother?"

The special police held a 9mm pistol, hand steady.

But behind the mask, his breathing rhythm was off by two beats.

He wasn't afraid of the death row inmate.

He feared this bullet would fail.

If it fails, rescue not timely, he might himself be dragged in.

He Chuan stood in the control room.

He looked at the ballistic data, no heroism in his mind.

Only three questions.

Is the penetration depth sufficient?

Will the coating peel off?

Can Rules suppression enter the Symbiosis Core?

Wei Gong sat in the rear viewing seats.

His Zhongshan suit was neat, a cup of tea placed beside him.

The tea remained untouched.

"Begin."

The two words fell.

The special police pulled the trigger.

The gunshot echoed within the shooting range.

The silver-red bullet struck the death row inmate's thigh.

The death row inmate was still smiling.

The next moment, he flung himself to the ground.

Under the skin of his chest, that B Ji Evil Ghost let out a piercing howl.

It was not injured.

It was being locked back.

Dark red patterns spread from the bullet hole, crawling along the blood vessels toward the heart.

The death row inmate dug his hands into the ground, his nails flipped open, his mouth left only ragged gasps.

The mass of Evil Ghost aura inside him was forcibly pressed into the heart region.

On the monitoring screen, the B Ji response fell steadily.

B Ji.

C Ji.

D Ji.

Dormant.

No one spoke in the shooting range.

Half a minute later, the special police stepped forward, pressing the muzzle against the death row inmate's back of the head.

The death row inmate trembled violently.

He finally stopped smiling.

"Don't...... don't shoot."

The special police turned his head to look at the control room.

He Chuan stared at the screen, his Adam's apple twitching.

"Retest."

The second set of instruments came online.

The conclusion came out quickly.

The host's vital signs were alive.

The Evil Ghost entered deep hibernation.

Estimated hibernation time: twenty-four hours.

The assistant stared at those words, the record board in their hand almost fell to the ground.

After the Weird Controllers' system was established, humanity's way of dealing with the uncontrolled has always been crude.

Either lock them up.

Or kill them.

Or call in stronger Weird Controllers to suppress them.

But this requires great cost and response time, extremely wasteful of scarce resources.

But this bullet turned a death-row inmate who was a Symbiosis B Ji Evil Ghost back into an ordinary person.

No need for Jiang Yuan to act.

No need for Su Ming to risk his life.

No need for Qin Zhixia to burn her lifespan.

No need for any Investigation Bureau Core Captain–level personnel to be deployed.

Even ordinary Weird Controllers investigators are not needed.

One regular special police officer, one regular handgun, one bullet.

That's enough.

On the viewing stand, someone stood up.

Duke Wei lifted the tea and took a sip.

Continue testing the sniper bullet head.

He Chuan nodded.

He heard his own throat go dry.

Switch to long-range target.

The news was not written into the public system.

But what should leak still leaked.

That night, the Federation headquarters' upper-level meeting area was brightly lit.

People filled both sides of the long table.

Many of them came from the Weird Controllers' privileged families.

They had already suffered heavy losses in the Purify Abyss Operation.

Now, the experimental results of the suppressive bullet reached their ears, and they could not sit still.

A white-haired elder slammed the table first.

"Director Wei, this technology must be sealed."

Duke Wei sat at the far end of the long table, lowering his gaze to the teacup.

"Reason."

"Uncontrollable."

The elder spoke quickly.

"The fragments come from that Seven-Eyed Crown, and the Seven-Eyed Crown is involved in the gods' layout. You turn this into bullets and send them to grassroots security bureaus; if they lose control, who is responsible?"

Another middle-aged person took up the conversation.

"The Weird Controllers are humanity's core strength against the Weird. If the suppressive bullet is misused, it will cause the system to collapse."

"That's right."

"This is not a weapon, but an internal consumption tool."

"The psychological quality of grassroots personnel varies greatly; letting them master weapons to restrain the Weird Controllers is too risky."

In the meeting room, the talk piled up more and more.

Someone talked about safety.

Someone talked about ethics.

Someone talked about strategic stability.

Jiang Yuan stood in the back row, his wounds not yet healed, his combat uniform covered with a coat.

He listened very quietly.

What they said was all correct.

Every sentence made sense.

But behind each sentence lay another sentence.

They were afraid.

Afraid that ordinary special police could also suppress uncontrolled Weird Controllers.

Afraid that the A Ji raised by the families would no longer be a trump card that no one locally dared to touch.

Afraid that the divine altar would lose its steps.

Qin Zhixia stood on the other side, her mechanical prosthetic still in the debugging phase, with a medical fixation band taped to the interface.

She looked at that group of people, didn't speak.

Thought of Lu Qichang.

Thought of Chen Huaiyuan.

Thought of those people whose names were changed in the files.

If back then the grassroots had this kind of bullet, many perhaps wouldn't need to wait for Zhou Ping to judge.

Liang Wen sat in the wheelchair, his whole body bound very Regulation.

Doctor demanded he stay in bed.

He insisted he was the Dark-Blooded King, attending the meeting belonged to royal authority rehabilitation.

Su Ming stood beside him, responsible for preventing him from messing around.

Liang Wen lowered his voice.

"This bunch of old-timers, performance desire max."

Su Ming looked ahead.

"Shut up."

"This king is just giving fair commentary."

"If you comment again, I'll dismantle the wheelchair brakes."

Liang Wen immediately fell quiet.

At the long table, the conservatives' challenge reached its peak.

The leading elder stood up, tone very firm.

"Director Wei, we demand to convene the Federation Special Safety Committee, halt the suppression bullet project, seal all samples, destroy research materials."

Those behind him also stood up.

"Seconded."

"Seconded."

"Seconded."

Lord Wei finally put down his teacup.

The porcelain lid lightly touched the cup's rim.

The meeting room fell silent.

The old man lifted his eyes.

Those eyes were not cloudy.

Nor were they kind.

"Finished speaking?"

The leading elder frowned.

"Director Wei, you must take our opinions seriously."

Lord Wei picked up a file from the edge of the table and pushed it forward.

The file slid across the tabletop, stopping in front of the elder.

"Take a look."

The elder lowered his head.

The first page was evidence of his grandson privately mobilizing remnants of the Containment Object for profit.

The second page was the ledger of his family enterprise selling off Weird-contaminated potions.

The third page was the death investigation of the three whistleblowers.

The elder's fingers trembled.

Lord Wei then pushed over the second file.

The third.

The fourth.

Each corresponded to the person who had just shouted the loudest.

Outside the meeting room, footsteps approached.

Fully armed Investigation Bureau elites pushed the door open and entered.

Gun barrels pointed down, but the safeties were off.

Lord Wei stood up.

His waist was straight.

"The Pure Abyss operation hasn't ended yet."

He looked at that group of people.

"You guys rushed out, saving me a lot of time."

The leading elder suddenly lifted his head.

"You with the surname Wei! You're purging dissenters!"

Lord Wei did not raise his voice.

"Take them away."

Two special agents stepped forward and subdued the elder.

The elder struggled.

But the Weird-defying guards beside him were about to move when Jiang Yuan raised his hand, Dark Playing Cards flipped out from between his fingers.

That guard stopped in place.

He didn't dare to bet.

Now there is already a suppress bullet sample on the table.

He didn't dare to bet whether Jiang Yuan would shoot him on the spot.

More importantly, he couldn't beat Jiang Yuan at all.

Liang Wen sat in his wheelchair, endured for a long time, but still couldn't hold back.

"Friendly reminder: don't let the villain's lines go too over the top, or you'll easily get into the process."

Su Ming lowered his head to look at him.

"You also want to enter the medical process?"

Liang Wen shut up.

Several high-ranking officials were taken away.

The remaining people in the meeting room all broke into a sweat on their backs.

They looked at Wei Gong.

For the first time, they clearly realized this old man wasn't negotiating with them.

He was merely notifying them.

Wei Gong picked up the last file.

"The suppress bullet project is officially named."

L——Lin Linling's projection appeared in the center of the conference table.

She pushed up her black-rimmed glasses.

"Naming suggestion: Suppress Spook Bullet. Short, easy for grassroots to remember, high dissemination efficiency."

Liang Wen muttered.

"Plain, down-to-earth, completely devoid of aesthetics."

Lin Linling looked at him.

"Captain Liang Wen, your aesthetics database has been flagged as a high pollution source."

Liang Wen was injured.

The tense atmosphere in the meeting room eased slightly.

Wei Gong brought down the gavel.

"The new weapon is named Suppress Spook Bullet."

"Effective immediately, the arms factory will operate at full load."

"The first batch will be distributed to all public security bureaus."

"Priority allocation to detention centers, hospitals, schools, and custodial transport lines."

He paused.

"Whoever dares to intercept it, whoever dares to resell it, whoever dares to use it to clear a path for their own family..."

Wei Gong looked toward the door outside.

The people who were just dragged away haven't gone far.

"Handle them as wartime traitors."

No one spoke again.

Jiang Yuan lowered his hand, the card returning to his palm.

He didn't feel much relief.

Suppress Spook Bullet will save many people.

It will also offend many people.

Wei Gong looked at the crowd.

"Meeting adjourned."

In the night, the Federation's First Arms Factory went into full operation.

Production lines lit up one after another.

Bullet casings were pressed.

Bullet heads were coated.

Encapsulation.

Numbering.

Testing.

Boxing.

Each step had triple authorization, and each worker had a special forces guard stationed behind them.

Silver-red bullets were lined up neatly and sent into black bullet boxes.

The box surface bore the Federation's top-secret insignia.

He Chuan stood on the observation platform, holding the first sample bullet.

He was very tired.

But he couldn't sleep.

The assistant stood beside him, whispering, "Director, are we rewriting history?"

He Chuan put the bullet back into the sealed box.

"Don't think too far ahead."

He looked down at the production line.

First, finish tonight's production.

Armored transport vehicles lined up outside the factory area like a long dragon.

Boxes were loaded onto the vehicles batch by batch.

Engines started.

Vehicle headlights cut through the night, driving toward each city.

At the same time.

Qiu Ce Yuan infirmary.

Chu Che sat behind the desk, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the screen's glow.

On the desk, there remained an unfinished student health examination form.

He raised his hand and pushed his glasses up.

"Not bad."

His tone was gentle.

"Humans have finally locked up the monsters."

Outside the window, armored transport vehicles drove into the city at dawn.

A storm descended.