Chapter 75: The End?
The moment Zhu Hui stepped into the palace, he knew something was wrong.
The elegant and grand palace was no longer as it had been.
It was clearly daytime, and all the lights were on. The corridors were filled with rare green plants that were seldom seen in the Poseidon Era, yet it gave off an extremely dim feeling, as if the entire building were shrouded under some behemoth.
The smell of old and decay drilled into his nostrils, like wood that had been rotted by seawater. This was a smell that Zhu Hui had felt before in Lan, in the Endless Snow.
The palace, or rather, the Emperor’s spiritual field had been distorted. He only needed to follow his senses and walk toward the place with the strongest smell.
The snow wolf was chattering in his spiritual world, one moment saying that this place was too smelly and his nose was about to break, the next telling him to hurry up and finish so he could go find Xu Xunyue.
Zhu Hui was in no mood to pay attention to it… The more he said this kind of thing, the more he thought about it.
The guards patrolling the palace were no different from robots. They only did what was within their programming, and their reactions were not flexible. He reined in his emotions and aura, and easily bypassed them, finding the room at the end of the corridor.
The room door was ajar, not locked. What was strange was that there were no guards patrolling around the room.
But this happened to make it convenient for him to sneak in.
Zhu Hui silently pushed open the door and then closed it behind him as it was.
The lights in the room were not on, the windows were closed, and the curtains were drawn tightly. The floor was covered with a thick carpet, and there was no sound when he stepped on it.
And on the throne, where the darkness was most intense, there was a human-shaped body.
Zhu Hui only needed one look to confirm from the facial contours outlined by the darkness that it was the Emperor.
Speaking of which, the reign of this ruler of the Empire was very long, longer than his age.
Even when Zhu Hui was a child, his father, who had worked diligently at the outpost for his entire life, had regarded him as a role model, saying that the Emperor was the embodiment of honor and vanguard.
But now, this middle-aged man was emitting an unprecedented stench of decay.
He was the source of the strange smell in the palace.
Zhu Hui observed his surroundings, and his powerful night vision allowed him to capture a pair of black eyes looking over in the darkness.
“A young and powerful body, with a hint of a familiar aura. This is the best I’ve ever seen…”
A strange voice sounded, a completely different tone from the Emperor’s.
It asked, “Do you want to become my follower?”
Zhu Hui of course would not answer its words, but he still frowned.
From the looks of it, the Emperor seemed to have been completely contaminated.
Can a completely contaminated human really speak logically?
His brother had entrusted this matter to him. He certainly hoped that he could handle the chaos in the Imperial Capital well. He couldn’t just fight without saying anything. That would only intensify the public opinion. When the chaos was over and the various forces in the Imperial Capital began to clean up the situation, it would be difficult to explain the cause and effect.
It didn’t matter if he didn’t explain, but it would always leave a handle for others to grasp. He didn’t want his brother to be talked about.
If the Emperor had completely lost his logic, the live broadcast would not be able to show an effective conversation as evidence.
As for the familiar aura the Emperor mentioned… that should be what his brother had left behind.
“You are stronger than the other humans here, the most suitable to be my representative. As long as you become my representative, you will gain my power—which is far stronger than what you have now.”
The Emperor with a different core chattered on, his words filled with a natural pride and contempt.
It was a kind of condescension toward “lower creatures,” completely indifferent to the other’s thoughts, and feeling that there was no need to care. In its heart, becoming its representative was the best thing in the world.
To some extent, it was similar to Lan’s psychology.
Forget it. Zhu Hui decided to fight first and talk later.
When he was on the verge of death, he would see if he could get anything out of him.
And so, he first activated the live broadcast function on the locator that connected to the highest system and summoned his spiritual body to attack.
The other side reacted very quickly, instantly pulling over a few black shadows to block in front of him. The sharp blade pierced in, making a dull sound of cutting flesh.
Zhu Hui immediately reacted. The “black shadows” were actually not “black shadows,” but corpses piled up in the dark.
—They were the noble Sentinels in the Royal Guard uniforms.
“You don’t want to be my representative?” The body on the throne stood up. “Even if you don’t, you shouldn’t have attacked directly, right? Now you can’t be my representative. You’re only fit to be a puppet.”
A puppet?
The Sentinels patrolling outside are probably that.
Zhu Hui quickly glanced at the corpses, did not retreat, but directly gave up the dagger he was holding and drew another one from his belt.
From the Emperor’s action of pulling a corpse to block the attack, either his ability was different from Lan’s because of the different bodies they used, or he had just been completely transformed and his ability was not yet complete.
No matter what the reason, it was a good thing for Zhu Hui.
Because his goal had always been only one—a quick battle.
Countless Sentinel corpses were piled under the throne. The scene was terrifying, enough to make many experienced warriors feel fear, afraid that they would end up in the same way. But the young Sentinel holding the sharp blade was not afraid at all.
The snow wolf appeared out of thin air. Its body was huge but it had an incomparable flexibility. With a few leaps, it arrived in front of the Emperor and launched a fierce pounce.
At this moment, the Emperor’s body moved.
Zhu Hui of course would not forget that this ruler had also been a very outstanding Sentinel in his youth, and had held the historical record of the Sentinel Academy, but it had later been broken.
The contaminated Emperor’s physique must have changed. He absolutely could not let his guard down.
Zhu Hui simultaneously activated his visual, auditory, and olfactory triple sensory burst and rushed toward the layered darkness.
…
Everything happened in a flash. The objects in the room were overturned and shattered, their noble and exquisite appearance gone.
And all of this was broadcast live to the virtual screens of the citizens of the Empire.
Whether noble or commoner, whether in the Imperial Capital or the Undeveloped Zones, anyone with a signal on their terminal had received this image and had given it their attention.
The White Tower Research Institute.
“Dean, can you tell who this is?” a researcher swallowed nervously.
Xia Feng’s expression was grave. He pondered for a moment, then shook his head. It was unknown if he couldn’t tell, or if he himself wasn’t sure.
The researcher had just asked casually and was not insistent on an answer. Seeing this, he automatically understood it as the former and continued to look at his terminal.
In the screen, the main perspective’s position was changing rapidly, and the image was also shaking. With his vision, he actually couldn’t see clearly at all.
But everyone had seen the initial still image clearly. That was the palace, and the face that had flashed by in the camera—
Was the Emperor.
So things were already very clear.
Someone had entered the palace without their knowledge and without the rescue team discovering them, and had started a fight with the Emperor.
Who is so bold?
Thinking this, he couldn’t help but glance at Xia Feng.
The rescue teams sent by the two academies and the military should have already reached the vicinity of the palace, and this person did not belong to any of the three parties, at least not at present.
Then what is the rescue team’s attitude toward this person…?
Xia Feng was calm on the surface, but his heart was already in a turmoil.
He really didn’t know who the main perspective in the screen was, but the longer he watched, the clearer the image in his heart became.
The sound of a wolf’s howl, and the white that had flashed by in the camera…
A white wolf?
Isn’t that Zhu Hui?
Not only as the dean of the Guide Academy, he had heard of the outstanding young Sentinel, but Xu Xunyue had also introduced Zhu Hui to him, which had left a particularly deep impression on him.
But hadn’t they gone to a cataclysm zone together?
According to the distance between Ghost Town and the Imperial Capital, it was basically impossible for them to be back in the Imperial Capital now.
In the screen, the fighting speed of both sides was very fast. His old eyes could barely capture the movements, but he could distinguish the two different sounds of metal hitting metal and metal cutting flesh.
Xia Feng’s heart was in his throat.
He knew that Xu Xunyue definitely hadn’t come back, otherwise he would have definitely received a message. The other party had probably learned of the current situation in the Imperial Capital through some channel, and had been held up by something, which was why he had let Zhu Hui come first.
…It must be like this.
Xia Feng took a deep breath.
His student and Zhu Hui were on the same side. Xu Xunyue trusted him, and no one knew Zhu Hui better than Xu Xunyue.
No matter how complicated the situation behind it was, since Zhu Hui had arrived in the Imperial Capital, he should fully support him.
At this time, Xia Feng also noticed the probing gazes of the surrounding Guides on him.
He composed himself and said in a deep voice, “The plan will proceed as usual, but we must pay attention to his safety.”
“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.
The purple-brown liquid shot out from the body covered in shadows. The white giant wolf pinned it to the ground. The Sentinel, who had changed countless magazines and daggers, inserted the sharp blade into the other’s neck.
One stab, one twist, and the head fell off, rolling to the edge of the throne with a gurgle.
Is it dead?
It should be dead.
Is this the end?
Amidst the Sentinel’s slightly hurried breathing, the severed head opened its mouth.
“Thank you… thank you.”
