After Faking a Disability, I Married the New Chief Sentinel 72

Chapter 72: Tsunami

Thirty hours later.
“Stop—special period. Identity and purpose must be checked before entering the Imperial Capital.”
Outside the most prosperous city in the Empire, a five-meter-high barbed wire fence and a high wall made of waterproof material stood tall.
They firmly surrounded this city, and a checkpoint for vehicles to enter and exit was only left every few hundred kilometers.
In the past, working at the checkpoint was an easy job. Guides and Sentinels with low combat levels, and ordinary people with some connections in their families, could all be competent. During their work, they only needed to open and close the gate and take a casual look. The rest room was always filled with cheerful laughter.
But now, the situation was different.
Zhu Hui stopped his car and looked at the guard standing outside the small duty room.
This person was wearing a full set of protective clothing, armed from head to toe, with a gun at his waist. His expression was tense, and he looked very difficult to talk to.
Zhu Hui thought of the information Cheng Tao had told him thirty hours ago.
“The intelligence department is under the management of Minister Lu Si. I’m just an ordinary agent. You probably already guessed the reason why I left the Imperial Capital and came here. Before, I didn’t trust anyone very much, so I didn’t say anything to anyone. But now it seems there’s no meaning in not saying it.”
He paused and lowered his voice, “The reason I left was because I felt there was something wrong with our minister… He has always been an easy-going and tolerant good boss, but recently, he has been misremembering some small details for a long time. For someone as meticulous as him, it’s impossible for him to make this kind of mistake.”
Zhu Hui had asked at that time:
“From what you’re saying, you think Lu Si’s recent performance is related to the chaos in the Imperial Capital?”
“That’s right,” Cheng Tao said gravely. “Whether it’s me or the other two White Tower graduates, the three of us all received messages from our relatives and friends one after another while we were waiting for you outside. These people have three things in common: they are all in the Imperial Capital, they all say the situation is chaotic, and they all don’t know what exactly happened.”
Speaking of which, he pointed at Yu Yuan, “If this Guide girl’s family really isn’t at that level and doesn’t have first-hand information, then my colleagues and Student Yi’s family should, right? But they don’t. When I was in contact with my best colleague, I found that the other party was a little anxious and would always have a brain freeze at the critical moment of a topic. Every time, he would directly forget what he originally wanted to say.”
“…It’s as if he’s forgotten something, as if a piece of his memory has been dug out?” Zhu Hui continued. “So you think there’s a connection between these two things.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
The memory flashed by.
The guard, with an upright posture and a wary gaze, was diligently standing by the car, checking Zhu Hui’s various documents in a way that was not at all perfunctory.
Zhu Hui was a little anxious, but he also knew that he couldn’t cause trouble at this juncture.
The situation in the Imperial Capital was grim. If he caused a commotion before entering the palace and was targeted, pursued, and intercepted, his actions would be troublesome.
It was unknown if it was because his compatibility had reached 89.99%, but even with a distance of several thousand kilometers, the feeling of being mentally linked still existed. This was the only factor that kept him calm.
“Mmm, it really is Chief Zhu.”
The guard finally finished looking at the documents and handed the stack back to Zhu Hui through the car window. His serious expression softened a little, but the words he said were not at all pleasant to the ear.
“I’m very happy to see you here, but I’m afraid you can’t enter the Imperial Capital immediately.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the guard inexplicably felt the surrounding air drop by a few degrees.
He looked around with some confusion, but found nothing. He then continued to explain the reason to the young Sentinel in front of him, who was far younger and far more powerful than him:
“You applied to form a team, and the purpose of this trip is the Ghost Town cataclysm zone. According to the registration records, you set off from the Imperial Capital to Ghost Town six days ago. This date is too recent. The various inspections in the Imperial Capital have been stricter recently. I hope you can understand…”
Forcibly suppressing the annoyance in his heart, Zhu Hui clenched his fist without a change in expression, then released it.
Actually, this guard was right.
Five days was indeed too short. It would take nearly three days to get from the Imperial Capital to Ghost Town by car at a normal speed. It was like this when they went. And Zhu Hui himself had been speeding all the way back, without sleeping in between, so it only took him thirty hours to reach the checkpoint.
He had come alone. Yu Yuan and Cheng Tao were still staying in Ghost Town. The former had been persuaded by her parents, and the latter believed that the Undeveloped Zone of Ghost Town was safer than the Imperial Capital.
Zhu Hui felt that it was not bad to have two acquaintances stay in the Ghost Town D1 zone. Xu Xunyue might need support at some point, so of course he would not have any objection to their decision.
But now, after driving continuously for thirty hours, he was inevitably distracted for a moment.
If it were brother here, he probably would have just used a little mental interference and gotten through.
…I miss brother so much.
The sound of brakes came from behind, followed by a somewhat familiar voice, “Zhu, Zhu Hui?”
It was Yi Chengli.
When Zhu Hui looked over, the other was full of shock, handing his documents to the guard while muttering:
“What are you doing here? Aren’t you still in the town? I… did I mistake you for someone else? When I left, you were clearly…”
“It’s me,” Zhu Hui said.
It was just that his traveling speed was faster.
He actually didn’t really want to bother with him. He thought for a moment about the Yi family behind Yi Chengli, and was still preparing to see how the guard would react. If Yi Chengli could pass, he would have Yi Chengli take him with him.
Unfortunately, things did not go as he wished.
“I’m very sorry, I’m afraid you can’t enter the Imperial Capital immediately…” the guard said mechanically.
“What? I—I have an emergency at home. Can you make an exception for the sake of the Yi family?”
Hearing the guard’s words, Yi Chengli no longer cared about Zhu Hui’s presence. All his attention was focused on the matter of entering the Imperial Capital.
Zhu Hui was even more too lazy to pay attention to him. He directly sent a few messages on his terminal’s contact page.
Half a minute later.
“Hello,” Zhu Hui raised his hand to the guard and projected the information on his terminal in front of the other. “Can I enter the Imperial Capital now?”
“This is…” The guard was stunned for a long moment at the projection, then nodded repeatedly. “Yes, you can. Most of the situation in the Imperial Capital is currently being presided over by this person. I will help you with the special approval registration.”
“Mm.”
Yi Chengli in the back saw Zhu Hui close his personal terminal and was about to start the car again. He hurriedly shouted, “Hey, hey, hey, wait, Zhu—bro, boss, captain, can you take me with you? I’ll be your horse and your cow for you and Guide Xu in the future. If you say east, I won’t dare to go west. If anyone says your relationship is not good, I’ll be the first to beat him up!”
Zhu Hui paused.
The guard was a little troubled.
“You and Chief Zhu came here separately. This seems to be against the rules.”
Yi Chengli was about to die of anxiety. “Bro, please bear with me. I just want to go home and see what’s going on…”
Just then, Zhu Hui’s voice came from the front.
“Three seconds. Get in the car. Wherever we end up, we end up.”
“Alright,” Yi Chengli slipped into the passenger seat in a flash, opening and closing the door in one go. “Captain, you can just throw me anywhere—?? D-d-d-driving, this, fast…”
Yi Chengli held onto the handle and dry heaved.
In the midst of the spinning world, he thought, This in-city driving speed wasn’t even caught by the patrol. It seems the Imperial Capital is really in chaos.

Zhu Hui had dropped Yi Chengli off a certain distance from the palace. He himself had quickly circled around a few times and had also gotten out of the car to walk.
The closer he got to the palace, the fewer pedestrians there were. Most of the shops on the street were closed, but there were more soldiers on patrol than usual.
The high-tech projection screens on both sides of the road were playing the real-time news of the Imperial Capital, and on them was Luo Mingxu’s face.
After the Imperial Capital fell into chaos, he had become the one who stood up to take charge of the overall situation. The order for martial law in the Imperial Capital had been proposed by him and had been started after a joint discussion with the high-level officials.
Zhu Hui had been able to pass through the checkpoint smoothly because he had asked him for a special approval.
The last time Luo Mingxu had come to visit, Xu Xunyue had introduced him to Zhu Hui, and the two of them had added each other as friends on their terminals.
“…I hope the public will not be too panicked. The Imperial army and the Royal Guard will maintain the order of the Imperial Capital. The official announcement will be released on the terminal platform soon. Please pay attention to our information…”
In the screen, Luo Mingxu’s voice was calm and composed. Zhu Hui touched the hair tie locator on his wrist and thought to himself that if everything went smoothly, he might directly cut off the other’s news broadcast later.
His brother had told him at the time that the locator had the function of forcibly connecting to the highest system and conducting a live broadcast.
When he snuck into the palace and found the Emperor, this function would be activated. At that time, from the large light screens in the commercial district and private residences to the small screens playing news on the street, all would broadcast the Emperor’s actions and words.
Neither Xu Xunyue nor he had any intention of being the one in power. They just wanted to find the complete truth hidden in the dark and put it in the light for everyone to see.
It had been four years since the Emperor had been contaminated, and even longer, fourteen years, since the Cataclysm had occurred.
Too many people had died in these years, whether in the cataclysm zones, the Undeveloped Zones, or various other man-made disasters.
Everyone was too eager for a sunny day.
Now that a glimmer of hope had appeared, nothing could rot in the dark.
Besides Luo Mingxu, Zhu Hui had also contacted all the people he had confirmed were fine, as well as those who were on good terms with Xu Xunyue, such as Xu Mengwei and Xia Feng.
The outbreak of the incident in the Imperial Capital was sudden and had caught everyone off guard. But as long as the information sent out had a little effect, their previous joint preparations would not have been in vain.
Before stepping into the depths of the palace, Zhu Hui decided to stop by and see Qiu Ye first.
Through a terminal message, Qiu Shuang had told him that it was after Qiu Ye had woken up and had gone to find the Emperor that the situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse.
It was unknown what state Qiu Shuang was in, whether she had any memory loss…

Ghost Town.
“…What’s the point of you staying in the sea and not coming out?”
Lan stood by the sea, his expression a little twisted.
It wasn’t that he was afraid of water. As a life form that sustained itself with corpses, he wouldn’t die no matter how long he stayed in the sea.
But the past few encounters had let him know that the other’s affinity with the seawater was very high.
Perhaps, there was no other creature in the world that could surpass Xu Xunyue in this aspect.
The ocean was the origin of life. The variety of creatures in it was rich, and over a long period of time, a complex food web and a solid ecosystem had been formed.
The lushness of the algae, the abundance of fish and shrimp, the danger of whales and sharks… but they were all real, with long-standing coping methods, and had once been written in human recipes.
Only the shadows of the seabed were mysterious, and were originally the most terrifying existence in the deep sea.
Just its existence was enough to cause fear.
During the stalemate, Lan had tried to drive the cataclysmic beings he controlled into the water, but as soon as they entered, they were swept away by the waves and sank to the bottom.
Those limp corpses simply couldn’t withstand the waves.
“Forcibly borrowing the power of the ocean… you definitely can’t last for too long,” Lan was really disgusted by Xu Xunyue’s move and said in a deep voice. “If you use this power too much, you will still enter the ‘contaminated state’ that humans talk about. If you choose to use this method, you can only delay for a little longer. You can’t save anyone.”
Xu Xunyue didn’t speak, just silently floated up a little.
He was indeed affected. His eyes had turned a brilliant blue-gold. He did indeed feel a call that did not belong to human instinct, which made his killing intent stronger than usual.
But he had not lost his memory. His consciousness was clearer than ever before.
His mastery of his body’s power had long surpassed the last time.
So, while Lan was complaining incessantly, Xu Xunyue mobilized his spiritual power and made a new attempt at using the power of the ocean.
The regularly fluctuating seawater’s rhythm was disrupted. From a certain moment, a certain distance, the height of the waves began to accumulate, rising, rising, and rising again.
Then it crashed toward the shore.
Lan’s eyes widened. He first looked up at the wave, then turned to look at the manor behind him.
A bad premonition welled up in his heart.
“Is this… a tsunami?”