Light Fortress
Chapter 173 - 160: The Dead, Xiao

Chapter 173: Chapter 160: The Dead, Xiao

Chen Mei opened his eyes.

The world spun before him, his vision gradually shifting from blurry to clear, and he saw three familiar faces.

Zhou Jiren, Nan Jin, Gu Shen.

The expressions on their faces were somewhat subtle, generally the same, all carrying a mix of three parts care and three parts pity...

Gu Shen spoke.

"You’re finally awake?"

His memories still lingered at the moment an innumerable number of flames engulfed him.

Chen Mei felt as if he had experienced a nightmare, and he suddenly raised his hands, only to realize he was still bound by "Sacred Wood." In his struggle, he almost lost his balance and nearly fell to the ground. It was not until this moment that he realized he was still in the interrogation room.

The Blazing Light above his head had never shattered; the floor was stable as ever... The glass outside the interrogation room was coated with light-blocking red silver, and everything here was unchanged from beginning to end.

"Is this..."

Chen Mei’s expression was one of astonishment.

He could even hear the intense heartbeat from when he was on the verge of death, and if he remembered correctly, the last explosion had blown him hundreds of meters away... And then, there was the scene he woke up to.

Was all this just a dream?

He couldn’t make sense of it all.

He was certain that the white shadow and the explosion that had torn through the abandoned building were real... He could still clearly feel the side effects of using "Time Slow," as if his bones were being torn apart.

Yet, there was no pain from the explosions.

Chen Mei stared intently at Zhou Jiren, his only explanation for everything being some trickery by the wily old man.

Mr. Shu lounged with his cigar and legs crossed, his face shrouded in the smoky haze, the corners of his mouth barely discernible as they turned up.

Everything was left unsaid.

"About joining the special investigation group..."

Zhou Jiren asked politely, "How have you considered it?"

Chen Mei clenched his teeth, his brows furrowing... He still couldn’t understand whether the explosion he had just experienced was a dream or reality?

Had he been moved to a completely new interrogation room, or had it never changed?

His memory was completely affected.

In this interrogation room, time was lost, references gone... He even started to doubt whether everything now was a farce.

If all this was a dream, the "ability" of that white shadow... then it could only be said that the individual’s power was too great for him to comprehend.

In his last memory.

The shadowy figure asked him—

"Do you want to live?"

Maybe... what he meant by living wasn’t about surviving the explosion.

"If I join the special investigation group... Will I gain my freedom?"

Chen Mei hesitated for a moment before asking, "What do I need to do?"

"The answer is no," Zhou Jiren said flatly. "You don’t need to do anything, just continue to stay in the interrogation room."

Chen Mei erupted in anger, veins bulging on his forehead.

"Are you playing with me?"

Join the special investigation group, get locked in the interrogation room.

Don’t join the special investigation group, still get locked in the interrogation room.

What’s the difference between these two options?

"It’s not like that."

Zhou Jiren shook his head, "This place is not a cage, but a rampart. Where else is safer than staying here?"

"I don’t think so."

Chen Mei sneered coldly.

He hesitated for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "I can join the special investigation team, provided that I have my freedom, I don’t want to stay here anymore..."

"I can now identify Xiao’s identity, as I have seen his true face in the Spiritual Link, it’s the person in the photograph you showed earlier."

"Zhou Yu?"

Gu Shen was somewhat surprised, what on earth had this guy been through for his attitude to have changed so drastically from before.

Mr. Shu remained indifferent, showing no surprise at Chen Mei’s confession.

"Very well."

He extended a hand and said lightly, "Congratulations, Chen Mei, on officially becoming a member of the special investigation team, everything we do is for one purpose... to kill Xiao."

...

...

Leaving the interrogation room.

"You’ve come a bit late. Just before, Chen Mei experienced a nightmare."

Mr. Shu explained Chen Mei’s confession: "In fact, he had already confessed once in his dream... which is why this time he confessed so cleanly and decisively."

So that’s how it is...

Gu Shen nodded, sensing that something was amiss.

If he hadn’t remembered wrong, had the teacher not visited the Huazhi Building today?

And his senior sister had been accompanying him in the hospital room the whole time.

The location here was very hidden.

Apart from the three of them, there was no fourth person who knew about it... and even if there was, other than the teacher, who else had the power to hypnotize Chen Mei?

What’s more, the teacher was not a Spiritual Transcendent.

He immediately thought of the "illusionary dream" he had experienced... Chu Ling had not yet returned to the link until now.

The scenes of him driving away from Da Du towards the uninhabited district for a transaction were still fresh in his mind, yet when he turned around and woke up, he found that all of it had been just a dream.

This... seemed to be a Transcendent event.

He looked at Zhou Jiren with great suspicion.

The latter was calmly flicking his cigarette ash, "Deep Sea has already linked to the Five Continent Database and revised ’Zhou Yu’’s survival status, listing him in the S-class fugitive list... In fact, there are many doubtful points in ’Xiao’’s file. I do not think Chen Mei’s identification is reasonable; Zhou Yu had no reason to defect from the Judgement Institute as he had passed the rigorous review of the audit team, being a young man with a strong sense of morality and justice."

"Just like me?"

"Hmm... Just like you, well-rooted and righteous, just a bit poor," Zhou Jiren said with a smile: "If Zhou Yu needed to take control of the Changjiu Foundation, then faking his death to escape is not really a good method... He could completely retain the identity of a Judge at the Judgement Institute and secretly manipulate the foundation to organize extremist activities, which would actually give him much more convenience."

"Not bad..." Gu Shen nodded, saying, "If I were Zhou Yu, I wouldn’t choose to fake death."

"Deep Sea has given an analysis, and it believes that ’Xiao’ can be ’Zhou Yu,’ but ’Zhou Yu’ is not necessarily ’Xiao.’"

Nan Jin frowned.

"What does that mean... Xiao might not just be one person?"

"Not accurate."

"Deep Sea believes that Xiao might not just be one person, and more likely... not a living person."

"A few years ago in Central Continent, there appeared a trait system extraordinary known as ’Fire Stealer,’ who could steal different levels of Extraordinary Essence just by fulfilling specific conditions..." Mr. Shu murmured, "I agree with Deep Sea’s analysis, Xiao is most likely a trait system extraordinary, whose awakened power does not belong to any of the three systems and is probably capable of stealing the physical body."

Gu Shen felt a chill in his heart.

"You mentioned earlier that in the dream of Zhou Yu’s daughter, his face was missing... I suspect that this might represent a flaw in Xiao’s ability," Zhou Jiren said with a grin: "Of course, these are all just my speculations. I don’t believe that there is such a thing as a perfect power in this world, all who are Transcendent are not gods; based on my judgment, the only possibility for him to have eluded Deep Sea’s pursuit for so many years is—"

"He is a dead person."

...

...

(Feinted with a fake move, not sure how many fell for it, but in any case... I’ve updated a second Chapter.)