After Faking a Disability, I Married the New Chief Sentinel 74

Chapter 74: The Live Broadcast

Creek—
Thud.
The door of an inconspicuous small house outside the palace opened.
Zhu Hui, who had just come out of the door, struck down with his hand, knocking out the person who was about to forcibly break down the door.
The unconscious Guide had a deadpan face. He was young, but he was wearing the uniform of a high-ranking Imperial official. It was none other than Lu Si.
As soon as Lu Si fainted, the weapon in his hand slipped out, and he fell to the ground—face down.
Zhu Hui noticed this out of the corner of his eye, so he grabbed his collar to soften the impact, then changed Lu Si’s direction so that he was facing up, and let go, dropping him on the ground.
“Thank you,” a voice with a hint of a sob came from inside the wooden house. “My uncle always said you were more amazing than him, and that the captain’s Sentinel is definitely the most amazing Sentinel in the world… Good luck.”
Zhu Hui paused.
“I will do everything I can.”
After saying this, he took a step forward and headed toward the palace without any hesitation.
—The house Zhu Hui had just come out of was Qiu Ye’s residence.
Qiu Shuang’s residence was in a corner of the palace. When Qiu Ye had been asleep before, he had been lying in Qiu Shuang’s house, so there was someone to look after him.
But this time, Qiu Shuang had taken Qiu Ye out of the palace and to his own house.
According to Qiu Shuang’s description, Qiu Ye had woken up shortly after they had set off for Ghost Town. The first thing he had done when he woke up was to ask about the recent situation.
Qiu Ye, who had learned of the recent situation, was determined to see the Emperor, and could not be stopped.
Qiu Shuang had no choice but to let him go, and had even arranged a latest safe time and place with him. But after the agreed time had passed, Qiu Ye still had not appeared where he should have. Qiu Shuang had waited anxiously and was almost about to sneak in to find him herself when a few expressionless Royal Guard Sentinels came out of the palace—they were carrying the deeply comatose Qiu Ye.
Those few Sentinels were very strange. Qiu Shuang and Zhu Hui emphasized that their eyes were dazed, as if they were puppets on a string.
Strictly speaking, she and those few Sentinels were both employed in the palace, and could barely be called colleagues. But when Qiu Shuang tried to ask and inquire, the other party did not say a word.
That appearance was not like they didn’t want to talk, but that they had no reaction to her question, just like a programmed robot encountering a situation outside of its plan.
And Qiu Ye, who had been carried out, had his bodily functions in disarray. Besides the new injuries, the old injuries accumulated over many years had also all broken out.
Qiu Shuang could not understand.
Was there a fight? A fight within the palace? Or was he punished for breaking the rules?
For a retired Sentinel who had once shed blood for the Empire and had great military merits, unless he had committed a fundamental error, it was impossible for him to receive such a heavy physical punishment.
If there really was an uncontrollable incident in the palace and it was in chaos, then why was he sent out?
Qiu Shuang tentatively used her spiritual power to repair him, but found that Qiu Ye’s spiritual world was a pitch-black darkness, without any clear thoughts or ideas, and without any environment that resembled a spiritual landscape. Even the spiritual barrier that a Sentinel habitually erected for self-protection had disappeared without a trace.
This phenomenon was not unfamiliar to Qiu Shuang.
Ever since she had awakened as a Guide, countless knowledge about being lost, the death of one’s will, and so on had surrounded her, whether as a student, an outpost doctor, a squad member, or now.
She had rich theoretical knowledge about this phenomenon, and had also seen this phenomenon in countless Sentinels. But when this darkness appeared in her own relative’s spiritual landscape, she would rather she knew nothing at all.
A spiritual landscape was a manifestation of the spiritual world. They could be oceans, snowfields, forests, rivers, valleys… all sorts of places. They could also be red, green, white, blue… all sorts of colors. Everyone’s spiritual landscape was a landscape painting. Only when they were on the verge of death would these images become pale and faded, like a piece of paper soaked in water.
A person with an empty mind and no thoughts would have a spiritual landscape of such a void.
Even if the body was intact, it was just an empty shell.
Zhu Hui had been mentally prepared when he received Qiu Shuang’s message, but the feeling of actually seeing the person was different. The middle-aged Sentinel lying on the bed, unconscious, was the most important teacher of his youth, who had taught him many practical combat skills.
Living, and dead, the two meanings were simultaneously manifested in one body.
“I’ve always been afraid of him leaving. Now he’s finally going. The fear that has haunted me for ten years is finally coming to an end.” This was what Qiu Shuang had muttered to herself.
Zhu Hui also couldn’t say anything to comfort her.
Death was a problem that many Sentinels and Guides, as well as their families, had to face.
You could give yourself a heads-up early on, but when death came suddenly, how many people could bear to part?
Zhu Hui knew that he had no time for sadness. There was only one thing he had to do now.
If he succeeded, the remaining people would be safe, and he could also bring the good news of a successfully completed mission to see his brother.
When Qiu Ye had been carried back, the Emperor probably still had some consciousness. It was this consciousness that had made him struggle to send the person out, instead of tearing him apart inside.
However, not long after, the clearly abnormal Lu Si had appeared at the door of the small house.
As the Minister of Intelligence who had close contact with the Emperor, he had also been contaminated to a certain extent. It seemed that he wanted to break down the door and take both Qiu Ye and Qiu Shuang away.
To take back the person who had been released meant that the Emperor’s own consciousness had fallen behind, and he was about to be completely contaminated.
There was not much time. A new core could not be allowed to form completely in the Imperial Capital.
Handing Lu Si over to Qiu Shuang, and letting her save him if she could, and kill him early if she couldn’t, Zhu Hui snuck into the palace according to the map Qiu Shuang had given him. Along the way, he encountered several groups of expressionless Royal Guard Sentinels. Some of them even behaved like cataclysmic beings—no emotions, always appearing silently at corners.
To avoid conflict and wasting time, Zhu Hui completely avoided them and went straight to the room at the deepest end of the corridor.

The White Tower, the research institute.
A group of Guides gathered in the room, their expressions serious, their genders and ages varied. They were talking in low voices while busying themselves with their own affairs. Some were holding research instruments, some were contacting people with their terminals, and some were watching the public live broadcast hosted by Luo Mingxu.
The person surrounded in the middle was wearing a pair of glasses, his temples white. He looked a little old, and his appearance was full of scholarly elegance and steadiness.
Suddenly, the Guide in the center, that is, Xia Feng, coughed lightly.
The others instantly fell silent, looking at him, ready to listen to him speak.
Xia Feng was the director of the White Tower Research Institute and the dean of the Guide Academy. He had experienced the turbulent period of the Empire and had also contributed his own strength after the Cataclysm. After losing his partner, he still fought on the front line of research, not at all afraid of poisonous agents and radiation.
His working hours were longer than anyone else present. He was the undisputed leader among the Guides in the Imperial Capital today.
Xia Feng glanced around and said in a deep voice, “Everyone knows that this chaos is not a struggle between factions and families, but the appearance of a source of contamination-like existence in the Imperial Capital. The source of contamination is in the palace. According to the information I have received, the Royal Guard has been completely wiped out.”
As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere instantly became tense. A few young Guides quickly exchanged glances, but did not dare to discuss it out loud.
“So many Sentinels, the consequences of a riot would be unimaginable,” Xia Feng continued. “We need to send a portion of our people to the vicinity of the palace for rescue. The people from the Sentinel Academy and the military will stabilize the situation with us. The remaining small portion will stay in the research institute for remote observation and be prepared to use the power of missiles, radiation, and so on.”
“Yes!”
“Roger that, Dean.”
“I want to go to the rescue. Put me in the rescue team.”
The young Guides appeared both enthusiastic and disciplined.
Xia Feng commanded in an orderly manner, feeling fortunate that the Emperor did not have the extra energy to deal with them at this time.
Otherwise, his deployment and command would definitely not have been so easy.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but think of Xu Xunyue, the student he had admired since the first time he met him. Not only was he top-notch in combat, but his courage and observation skills were also first-class.
If he were here, the pressure on the White Tower would be much less.
Although he was of the older generation, Xu Xunyue had revealed information to him many times before, about the Endless Snow, about the contamination core… This information had given him a more comprehensive understanding of the Emperor. He knew more or less what Xu Xunyue meant.
After the outbreak of chaos in the Imperial Capital, Xia Feng had completely sided with Xu Xunyue.
But Xu Xunyue had not returned.
Xia Feng couldn’t help but worry.
The incident had broken out ahead of time. If he organized personnel like this, how much recognition and trust would he gain afterward? And how many people would be sacrificed in this rescue?
This was an unsolvable problem, but… there was no other way.
“Huh? This is…?”
“What’s going on?”
Suddenly, a few researchers who were watching Luo Mingxu’s live broadcast exclaimed.
Xia Feng hurriedly asked for the reason. He knew that his subordinates were not people who would make a fuss over nothing.
“Look at this, you—”
The researcher was about to hand his terminal to Xia Feng, but the next second, he found that there was no need.
In the room, everyone’s terminal, regardless of whether it was on before or what it was playing, was now forcibly opened to play the same screen.
There was no human voice in the screen, but there were many faint, rustling sounds that were hard to listen to, and the environment in the screen was so familiar.
A high ceiling, walls carved with patterns, and sturdy load-bearing columns.
A thick and expensive carpet, exquisite floor tiles, and a throne shrouded in shadows.
The place that had once symbolized sanctity and nobility now looked gloomy and terrifying on the screen.
“Is this… the palace?”
Someone asked, it was unknown if it was to himself or a question.
“It’s the palace,” another person answered him. “But why did it cut off the Minister of Finance’s public speech broadcast? Is this a recording, or is it also a live broadcast?”
No one answered him. This was a common question in their hearts.
On the other side, Luo Mingxu was speaking to the camera in a gentle tone, painstakingly trying to appease the public, but the large screen and the terminal in front of him simultaneously showed the scene of the palace.
“?” He immediately contacted his adjutant. “What’s going on? Is someone sabotaging my speech? Are they still playing factional struggles at a time like this?!”
The adjutant shook his head in surprise and uncertainty.
“It, it doesn’t seem to be… sir, my terminal has also become like this. It seems everyone’s terminal has become like this.”
At this time, the screen began to move.
The objects on both sides quickly swept backward, and a dagger flashed across the lower part of the screen. The camera rushed straight toward the throne in the shadow.
A chilling wolf howl sounded from the other end of the screen, drilling into everyone’s ears.