In the plaza, not a single person was left standing besides the Butcher.
Whir, whir, whir!
Up in the sky, arriving even before the inspectors, were the military helicopters that had already deployed.
“Damn, what the hell is that thing?!” A hundred meters up in the air, a soldier piloting one of the helicopters stared down at the Butcher in shock.
“Cut the chatter. Since there are no survivors left, eliminate the Butcher immediately! We can't let it escape into a populated area!” Zhuge Ming's voice came through the comm channel.
“Roger that!” The soldier quickly locked in.
He switched on the targeting system, aimed at the Butcher, and pressed the fire button.
Whoosh!
The three-meter-long missile mounted underneath the helicopter shot forward instantly.
Yes, he hadn't fired a rocket, but a portable missile.
This heavy weapon had originally been prepared for Zhao Jin, but now, the Butcher was the one receiving it.
In the night sky, a streak of white light descended from above.
The Butcher seemed to sense something. It immediately looked up and saw the dazzling white light drawing near.
“Aaargh!” it roared, swinging its straight sword to swat at the incoming missile.
Bang!
The straight sword collided with the missile, unleashing a shockwave and flames reaching thousands of degrees.
Boom!
A massive fireball, seven or eight meters wide, erupted where the Butcher stood.
After firing its missile, the lead helicopter immediately pulled up and veered away. It could only carry one missile of this caliber and had no room for other rockets.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh...
The eight helicopters behind it unleashed their missiles toward the blast zone.
Boom, boom, boom!
Explosions went off repeatedly, shattering the glass of the surrounding buildings.
Flames raged where the Butcher was, making it impossible for anyone to see what was happening inside for the moment.
On the outskirts of the mall under construction, at the top of a thirty-meter-tall tower crane, Zhao Jin stood with his hands in his pockets, watching the bombarded Butcher below with an expressionless face.
They really went all out just to deal with me. His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked up at a crow flying toward him.
The crow stopped a few meters away from Zhao Jin, and a man's voice came from it. “Mr. Zhao, I didn't expect you to still be at the scene. I'll be arriving shortly. I wonder if we could meet?”
“I'll look for you tomorrow. For now, just do whatever you have planned. I won't interfere with you.” Zhao Jin raised his left hand, and a red, thumb-sized crystal appeared in his palm. He glanced at the crow, and his figure vanished.
That the Butcher had been eliminated was not surprising to Zhao Jin.
After all, the Butcher's legends were from the past, and most of its victims had been ordinary people.
Once it faced a military that was actually taking it seriously, not even a body harder than steel would save it.
However, the Sequence left behind by the Butcher hadn't been passed down; instead, it had condensed into a red crystal.
Weee-wooo, weee-wooo!
Below, the sirens of patrol cars wailed as a large number of vehicles sped toward the area.
Wang Pingcheng parked his car at the intersection. He stared in absolute shock at the ground littered with corpses and the raging fire at the center of the plaza.
“Chief Wang, looks like the military has taken care of that monster,” Peng Fei said, looking at the mangled corpse in the flames.
“Since the monster has been dealt with, it's up to us inspectors to clean up this mess. With so many casualties, the pressure is going to be immense.” Wang Pingcheng massaged his temples as he looked at the severed limbs.
He then turned to the arriving inspectors behind him and shouted, “Go in and clean up the bodies! Don't touch the one in the fire—leave that to the military!”
“Yes, sir!” the crowd of inspectors shouted in unison.
They quickly entered the plaza. Some pulled out body bags and began shoveling the severed limbs inside like trash.
At this point, no one had the time or heart to identify which part belonged to whom. They would just send everything to a mass cremation, divide the ashes among the families, and let them hold burials.
A few minutes later, a luxury black sedan drove up behind the inspectors' vehicles.
Liu Wen had just arrived. He stared solemnly at the fire still burning in the distance. Did they really take it down this quickly?
“Dad, are we still going down?” Liu Jiyun asked from the driver's seat without turning around.
“What's the point of going down? I didn't even get a chance to show off. Just proceed with the original plan to establish the Church,” Liu Wen closed his eyes and said.
Seeing that Liu Wen had given up, Liu Jiyun immediately turned the car around and drove away.
As they were driving out of the street, Liu Wen's six eyes snapped open simultaneously, and he abruptly turned his head to look out the right window.
On the sidewalk stood a cold-faced young man wearing a black suit.
Standing next to the young man was a white man wearing sunglasses.
As he looked at the young man, the young man was also staring back at him.
When their eyes met, Liu Wen actually felt a faint sense of threat, and his breathing involuntarily slowed.
It wasn't until the car drove far away and the young man vanished from sight that he finally recovered. “Whew!!!”
“Dad, what's wrong?” Liu Jiyun asked quickly, hearing his father's heavy exhalation from the back.
“Nothing. I just saw an interesting fellow,” Liu Wen said, his expression grim.
He was certain that this guy was the one who had slaughtered everyone at the Inspector Bureau. His build was extremely similar to the blurry figure in that night's surveillance footage.
On the roadside, Tang Yongyun watched the departing luxury car. His expression remained unchanged, his hands clasped behind his back. “It seems the old patriarch of the Liu family really can't bear to stay out of the spotlight.”
“Boss, what's up with that old geezer? If you want him dead, I'll go back and call our people right now!” Buck sneered.
Tang Yongyun shook his head. “No need. We have no conflict with him, and dealing with him doesn't align with my current interests. What I'm more interested in is the Butcher's corpse.”
With that, he strode toward the plaza. “Buck, head back first. The assassins sent by the Syndicate should be arriving soon. Stay alert these next couple of days, and don't mess up.”
“Yes, sir. I'll make sure to take 'good care' of those minor players. Seriously, any random nobody thinks they can come and assassinate us these days!” Buck licked his lips and turned to leave.
Flap, flap!
Behind him, Tang Yongyun's body suddenly burst apart, transforming into countless crows that surged toward the plaza.
In the plaza, Peng Fei, who was busy directing his subordinates to move the bodies, suddenly turned to look at the street behind him. He saw a dense black cloud appearing in that direction.
But as the black cloud drew closer, his face paled. That was no black cloud—it was a swarm of crows rushing forward at extreme speed.
He immediately roared, “Everyone, get down!!!”
He lunged toward Wang Pingcheng, who was a dozen meters away, and tackled him to the ground.
Some of the inspectors reacted quickly and dove to the ground, but over a dozen unlucky souls failed to react in time.
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
Crows tore through the parked patrol cars. Glass, metal sheets, and the slow-to-react inspectors were all pierced through.
These crows did not attack the prone inspectors; instead, they swarmed toward the still-burning corpse of the Butcher.
Some of the crows began to spiral around the Butcher's corpse, forming a black vortex five meters tall and three meters wide.
Peng Fei raised his head, black veins bulging across his face. Just as he was about to charge forward...
Wang Pingcheng grabbed his arm and said through gritted teeth, “Don't go! You're no match for it. Don't throw your life away for nothing!”
Hearing this, Peng Fei could only suppress his resentment and remain on the ground.
“Caw! Caw! Caw!!!”
The entire plaza was covered by the flock of crows, their cries echoing one after another.
The prone inspectors trembled in sheer terror. This thing was even more terrifying than the Butcher.
The crows swirled for about five seconds before suddenly taking flight and departing.
Peng Fei and Wang Pingcheng stood up.
Looking at the dozen or so new corpses, a deep sense of helplessness washed over Wang Pingcheng's face. “Why do these entities only target Ningcheng? How many of our Ningcheng inspectors have already died?”
On the other side, Zhao Jin reappeared in his previous villa.
He glanced at his Destiny Force.
Destiny Force: 1,312 strands!
A single Butcher had directly boosted his Destiny Force into the four digits.
The emergence of the Butcher proves that this approach is viable. Since wider exposure makes it easier to generate Destiny Force, why don't I follow my own ideas and spread the entities I want to create? A faint smile played at the corners of Zhao Jin's lips at the thought.
This was far more entertaining than simply changing other people's destinies.
The Butcher incident at the plaza caused a massive uproar online.
The local authorities in Ningcheng couldn't suppress it at all. In the end, the Capital's cyber department had to step in to completely ban and scrub all related information.
While these videos were suppressed domestically, they surfaced abroad and even caught the attention of several high-ranking foreign officials.
Inside the Security Bureau in the Capital.
Bang!
Lu Senyu's face contorted in rage as he slammed his fist onto the desk. “Useless! A bunch of useless trash! Even under these circumstances, you still let someone steal the corpse!”
If they had only delayed a little longer, the military's armored units would have arrived.
Seated across from him, the rest of the Security Bureau officials were all present.
“Minister, the situation in Ningcheng is likely beyond our control,” a middle-aged man in a suit sitting opposite him said.
Another person smiled bitterly. “Indeed. Conventional forces are completely useless against them. We've already lost the leverage to go toe-to-toe with them.”
Listening to his subordinates, Lu Senyu knew this all too well. However, the higher-ups were constantly pressuring him for results, putting immense strain on him.
“Minister, why don't we reinstate Zhang Yi? I heard he was the one who reported the Butcher's situation to you this time as well,” the middle-aged man in the suit suggested again.
Lu Senyu glanced at him, thought for a moment, and held his head in frustration. “A whole bureau of us has to rely on a semi-paralyzed man to act. If word of this gets out, wouldn't people say our Nanming Kingdom has no capable men left?”
“Although Zhang Yi is semi-paralyzed, that is also his advantage. Think about it—what enemy would pay attention to a cripple? Having him secretly coordinate the situation in Ningcheng is far better than sending in people who don't know the ropes,” the middle-aged man explained.
Zhang Shuling was a prime example—she had led so many people to their deaths without achieving any results whatsoever.
Lu Senyu fell silent. After a moment, he said slowly, “Then we will arrange it as you suggested.”
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