Chapter 69: The God’s Intentions

“You can call me whatever you want from now on, and I won’t object,” Su Mingyao said.

He didn’t have the right to object anyway.

“Got it. When that time comes, I will,” Luo Shang replied.

Su Mingyao sighed to himself. Of course he knew what Luo Shang meant by “that time.”

After getting kicked out of the Su family, Luo Shang naturally wouldn’t call him Second Brother anymore. That came later in the plot.

“In the end, this whole mess started because of my dog. Sophia really gave me a headache. I should have just killed that skeleton outright instead of getting greedy for a servant,” Luo Shang said.

The trigger for the incident was purely that the skeleton he’d left behind was a bit too overpowered for this world. In the end, the local extraordinary forces had dragged it off for sacrifice.

Sophia?!

Wen Yanjun’s heart clenched. This skeleton that could turn into a dog wasn’t even Luo Shang’s own creation—it was something left behind by that person named Sophia. Just how many such powerhouses were out there in places they didn’t know about?

“Woof! Woof! Woof!!”

Sensing its master’s killing intent, the Labrador dog wagged its tail even more furiously, desperately begging for forgiveness.

Luo Shang looked at it, feeling utterly speechless.

It was loyal, that much was true, but this low-level undead creature really was a bit dim. It stubbornly carried out its orders, disguising itself as a dog and only lashing out when its own existence was threatened.

But what good did that do? It was already too late by then. If it had revealed its strength sooner and wiped out all those cultists, he wouldn’t have needed to step in himself.

The damn skeleton had insisted on acting like a normal dog right in front of them. Its intelligence was just too low.

Fortunately, the people from the National Team were here to handle the aftermath. They were smart enough to know what to do.

Luo Shang turned to look at Wen Yanjun again.

“I’m not sticking around,” he said bluntly. “I’m just here to pick up my second brother and my dog and take them home.”

“There’s also my friend who was out walking the dog with me—Jiang Jingwu,” Su Mingyao said reluctantly.

He couldn’t just leave Jiang Jingwu behind!

“He’ll go back with whoever he’s supposed to be with,” Luo Shang replied.

Like the undercover agent from the National Team who was hiding among the cultists.

“Huh? Me?” Jiang Jingwu glanced around, completely baffled about who he was supposed to follow.

Until Wen Yanjun clapped him on the shoulder from behind.

“We’ll make sure to escort you back safely to where you belong,” Wen Yanjun assured him.

“Holy crap, I knew our country had the Dragon Group handling all these extraordinary affairs ages ago!”

Jiang Jingwu put it together fast.

Wen Yanjun: …

Actually, no—it had only been set up recently with the resurgence of the extraordinary. There hadn’t been one before.

“Oh, and you know how to clean up the rest, right?” Luo Shang said lightly, but the words carried a crushing weight that bore down on Wen Yanjun once more.

Wen Yanjun wasn’t some fool if he’d managed to infiltrate these fanatical cultists as an undercover operative. He nodded at once.

“Yes, sir. We have a standard procedure for incidents like this: psychological counseling for the victims, securing the scene, controlling the media narrative, and so on. We’ll bury it completely as an accident. That said, do you have any specific instructions for our usual protocols?”

Luo Shang looked young, after all. Sure, for a powerhouse like him, appearances meant little when it came to actual age. But from his conversation with Su Mingyao, Wen Yanjun could peg him as a young man.

The guy Luo Shang called his second brother had been born on the same day as him, and Wen Yanjun had checked his bone age while arranging the offerings—right around twenty.

That only made Wen Yanjun respect him more.

After all, someone who could yank that so-called god down from the void with his bare hands had to be operating on a level they couldn’t even fathom.

And that unfathomable powerhouse was just a guy in his early twenties. Talent really was an unreasonable thing… Wen Yanjun mused.

“You’re handling it fine. Just carry on,” Luo Shang said casually.

Wen Yanjun knew better than to crack jokes about recruitment or management at a time like this.

Even a mere projection of the Life Lady had been enough to spawn a cult, cure terminal illnesses that doctors deemed hopeless, and give them endless headaches.

And that was nothing compared to the man who’d personally dragged her projection’s owner out of the void barehanded and nearly crushed her to death. If he wanted, hordes of people and organizations would be lining up to serve him.

Wen Yanjun strongly suspected Luo Shang hadn’t finished off that white branch not because he couldn’t, but because he wanted answers from it first.

Answers about things from beyond this world…

It seemed the waters of the extraordinaries ran very deep indeed. Wen Yanjun felt a cold sweat breaking out as he realized that ideas about existences beyond the world were far beyond what a mere undercover agent like him could grasp. Better to leave it to the professionals on the think tank.

Simply considering Luo Shang’s perspective—from every angle, he was an absolute powerhouse. Someone like him could single-handedly found a cult or establish a nation… Yet he hadn’t done so. He was probably satisfied with the current administration, content with his present circumstances, and uninterested in any disruptions.

Wen Yanjun analyzed the situation while wiping away his cold sweat.

Powerhouses at Luo Shang’s level might have lost all interest in power struggles, preferring instead to live in seclusion amid the bustling crowds. That was entirely possible.

As a member of the Anomalous Affairs Bureau, Wen Yanjun had encountered many powerful extraordinaries. Most of them had mindsets that diverged from those of ordinary people. Their exceptional strength naturally led to exceptional outlooks on the world.

In other words, the stronger the extraordinary, the more unpredictable their actions could be. Unable to puzzle it out, Wen Yanjun decided to stop speculating. He would simply follow the man’s instructions.

If Luo Shang wanted to continue living his life at the Su family, then the cleanup here absolutely could not disturb him!

In a flash of insight, Wen Yanjun understood exactly what he needed to do next.

“We’ll take over and handle everything here, just as before. You can go on with your daily routine uninterrupted. Under normal circumstances, we won’t contact you proactively.”

“Normal circumstances? Implying there are exceptions?” Luo Shang shot him a glance.

“I can’t say for certain, since my clearance level is too low. Please forgive me—the guarantees I can make are the utmost I can manage from my position.”

Wen Yanjun replied hastily.

They wouldn’t try to conscript or control him, but could they at least request his assistance when needed?

It was an age-old tradition to offer sacrifices to the gods and pray for their blessings. With three of the Nine Tripods already shattered, securing a powerful backer as insurance wasn’t a bad idea at all!

But he couldn’t just come out and say, “Can we call on you for help if we run into something we can’t handle?”

A subtle hint would suffice.

“We’ll see,” Luo Shang said noncommittally. He neither agreed nor refused, but his lack of immediate rejection was already a promising sign!

Wen Yanjun felt a surge of quiet elation.

He had braced himself to perish heroically in the incident, but not only had he survived—he had encountered an existence like Luo Shang. This was an achievement far greater than dismantling the Life Lady Cult!

When he reported back, promotion was all but guaranteed. He wondered how high he might rise… He wouldn’t even be surprised if the Anomalous Affairs Bureau created a special department just for Luo Shang.

After all, he had no idea if the clay idols in temples and shrines actually worked, but Luo Shang was undeniably real.