Chapter 209

Chapter 209: A Feeling of Impending Disaster

Death ended everything, and secrets were always safest in a dead man’s mouth.

But if someone could chase you into the world after death, that was another matter.

The angel cultist was still grabbed by the collar. He spent a few seconds confirming that he really had successfully completed self-sacrifice under the nose of a room full of special operations bureau equipment, that he really had stripped his life out of his body.

Then he spent nearly half a minute confirming something else.

Damn it.

This weird freak from who-knows-where had caught up.

He’d chased him all the way into the afterworld.

The situation was so far beyond imagination that even an angel cultist—someone who’d long stopped caring about life and death—felt dazed. The bald man stared into Yu Sheng’s eyes in stubborn silence, refusing to say a word.

This time Yu Sheng wasn’t like last time, “asking nothing and beating him for fun.” He knew the cultist’s mental defenses had already collapsed. He didn’t need the old methods.

And besides, they were in a conversation with the dead. Yu Sheng believed the chaos of death would eventually swallow this man’s mind. Any stubborn determination to protect secrets was meaningless against the unstoppable tide.

So Yu Sheng simply sat down in front of him and waited, relaxed and patient, watching the newly dead man like a fisherman watching a float.

“You’ll tell me,” Yu Sheng said calmly. “Death is a one-way road, and I’m the gate you can’t bypass on that road. I don’t know how you managed to hide a way to kill yourself under the bureau’s nose, but honestly, your choice was completely wrong. Now I have all the patience in the world to wait for you to confess every secret.”

The angel cultist kept staring.

But his body was tense. And then, like a stone sinking through cold water, an inevitable weight settled over him. He felt his will slipping away. He felt his life’s memories stirring into a muddy whirlpool.

And at the deepest point of that whirlpool… the void watched in calm silence.

That hollow darkness floated right in front of him now, trembling like heat haze, smiling at him, greeting him with endless patience.

“Time’s about up,” Yu Sheng said softly. “That ‘container’ you mentioned… it’s one of the kids in the orphanage, isn’t it?”

An empty echo scraped at the deepest parts of the cultist’s memory.

But then a phantom baby’s cry suddenly pierced the curtain of death and wrapped around the cultist’s last shred of sanity.

Yu Sheng frowned.

In the instant that crying rang out, the cultist’s face lit with a calm, joyful smile—almost like relief. Then, slowly and with effort, the husk raised its right hand toward Yu Sheng.

It flipped him off.

“The eternal lord is coming to welcome me…” the cultist whispered.

Yu Sheng sprang to his feet. The colors of the living world flooded back into his vision.

The cultist’s body collapsed to the floor, lifeless, with no secrets left worth digging for.

Only then did hurried footsteps pound down the corridor outside the cell. The heavy alloy gate opened, and Song Cheng appeared with his people.

In the living world, the conversation with the dead had lasted only an instant. Song Cheng had arrived immediately after the cultist died. He stared at the body on the floor, then at Yu Sheng’s shifting expression, unable to make sense of what had happened.

“He got away,” Yu Sheng said at last, letting out a deep breath and pointing at the corpse. “That bastard really did manage to feed himself to his lord with his last bit of faith. But… I still got some useful information.”

A little over ten minutes later, Yu Sheng was back in Song Cheng’s office with Irene and Foxy, explaining what he’d heard.

“The container… the container of angel descent…” Song Cheng’s eyebrows knotted tight. “If the container he mentioned really is some member of fairy tale, then this is dangerous. These cultists choosing self-sacrifice now means some ‘time’ truly is close. But we don’t even know what features their container has. Which one could it be… those dozens of kids…”

What surprised Song Cheng was Yu Sheng’s expression.

His attitude looked oddly careful. Almost… restrained.

“If it really is a member of the fairy tale organization,” Yu Sheng said slowly, “then maybe the problem is still controllable.”

Song Cheng looked at him in confusion. “Why do you say that?”

Yu Sheng spread his hands. “Because I’ve already protected every member of the fairy tale organization. Today. From five- or six-year-olds to nearly adults—I covered all of them.”

Song Cheng stared. “…?”

“It’s hard to explain the exact mechanism,” Yu Sheng said. “Think of it as an emergency soul shelter I placed on every fairy tale member. If they suffer a severe impact inside the fairy tale subset—like mental contamination, or a threat on the level of consciousness death—then their minds will be transferred to a safe place immediately.”

He paused. “A kind of life-saving teleportation, but on the mental level.”

Song Cheng stared into Yu Sheng’s eyes as if trying to confirm it was real. Just as he opened his mouth to ask for details, the computer screen on the desk lit up.

Bai Li Qing’s always-cold face appeared on-screen, eyes landing on Yu Sheng.

“I won’t pry into your secrets,” she said. “I only want to know how effective this ‘shelter’ you described really is.”

Clearly, nothing that happened inside the bureau escaped the director’s attention.

Yu Sheng wasn’t surprised to see Bai Li Qing. He thought for a moment, then raised his eyes and answered seriously. “If we’re only talking about protecting the mind, its effectiveness should be one hundred percent. We already tested it.”

“But you still aren’t fully confident, are you?” Bai Li Qing’s faded pupils stared calmly at him, as if she could see straight through his thoughts. “You look like you’re worried about something else.”

“…Yeah.” Yu Sheng didn’t bother trying to hide it. He nodded. “I’m confident in the shelter I prepared for the kids. But we don’t know what the descent of dark angels actually is. What if it isn’t mental contamination? What if it’s something higher than that?

“And the cultist’s reaction when he died was strange. I asked whether the container referred to the kids in the orphanage. He didn’t answer, but in his last smile, besides relief, there was… mockery. And that mockery feels suspicious.”

Yu Sheng poured it all out in one breath, then exhaled slowly, waiting for judgment.

On the screen, Bai Li Qing sat perfectly still. Her expression didn’t change at all, almost like the video had frozen.

Just as Yu Sheng wondered if it had, she spoke.

“No matter what, our first priority is to prevent the descent of dark angels in the real world. We should consider isolating and protecting every fairy tale member. Since you’re worried your shelter isn’t enough, then add more layers of protection.”

Song Cheng frowned in thought. “Move the kids to the bureau containment facility first? Or keep them on a special floor? Tranquil town might work…”

“Tranquil town is essentially an otherworld,” Bai Li Qing said, shaking her head. “Long-term residence will affect people’s mental state. The kids are still young. Living there too long is not good.

“We can’t confirm when the descent will happen, or how long it will last. We need more alternatives.”

“Then containment zone six,” Song Cheng said slowly. “The environment there is pretty good. The entity caretaker can even teach the kids, and we won’t have to worry about the caretaker running around. The fairy tale guardians can fight.”

“It’s a plan we can consider,” Bai Li Qing said.

Yu Sheng listened as Bai Li Qing and Song Cheng started discussing the transfer, and finally he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Wait—wait.” He lifted both hands. “You can’t just decide that. Shouldn’t we hear what the people involved think? Little Red Riding Hood and the other guardians might not agree.

“And besides… don’t forget, the bureau has tried concentrating and protecting the fairy tale kids before. It didn’t end well.”

Song Cheng’s expression tightened. “Of course I remember. But look at the situation now. Dark angels might descend. The descent container is almost certainly one of the kids in fairy tale. You said your shelter might not block angel descent, and that cultist acted weird as hell when he died…”

Halfway through his muttering, Irene leaned closer and whispered, “Listen to that. All the ingredients for ‘something huge is about to happen’ are basically maxed out. In a movie, this is where the hype BGM kicks in.”

Yu Sheng poked Irene in the forehead, then looked seriously at Song Cheng and Bai Li Qing on-screen.

“First, we need to talk to Little Red Riding Hood and the others,” he said. “They know the fairy tale organization best—who’s been acting strange lately, who might be the container. We need to figure that out. Otherwise, moving people blindly won’t solve anything.

“Second, even if we really do have to transfer the kids… it’s not like you’re the only ones with a plan.” He paused, eyes steady. “I’ve got one too.”