Attack

A faint aroma of food still lingered in the wind.

The ground of the plaza bore the scars left behind by the battle.

The religious symbols of the Radiant Church had been shattered into pieces.

The fragments looked somewhat comical under the pale winter sky.

Cleaning personnel in headquarters uniforms were currently sanitizing the scene.

They used specialized solvents to wash the ground, scraping away and collecting every last trace of residue.

Every believer within the city had been arrested, escorted onto transport vehicles by headquarters investigators.

The followers looked dazed, their eyes vacant; they offered no resistance and uttered no cries.

The local investigation bureau had also undergone a total purge and was now completely under headquarters' control.

The fujoshi remained in the plaza, making no move to leave.

She was crouched by a relatively clean flowerbed at the edge of the plaza, her hood slipped back to reveal her slightly frizzy hair.

Her fingers tapped and swiped incessantly across the screen of the phone in her hand.

At her side, a book flipped open on its own, the pages making soft rustling sounds.

The corners of the fujoshi’s mouth stretched all the way back to her ears, and a pale yellow glow of excitement flickered in her eyes.

“Flying Pie God x Silent Silhouette.”

“Cold-faced shadow top x Passionate food-type bottom.”

“No, no, that other guy is more like the 1.”

“Tsk, tsk, I have to add the Minister too. A threesome... gerontophilia.”

“I can set up an amnesia trope: ‘You forgot our promise.’”

“Make it angst—oh wait, no, this is a gag cooking show.”

She muttered under her breath, completely immersed in the euphoria of her rumor-style shipping.

Once she started writing, she became fierce and forgotten, losing all sense of the world around her.

The bustling activity of the cleaners around her couldn't disturb her creative frenzy in the slightest.

Just then, a strangely shaped cloud drifted over.

It wasn't an ordinary cumulus or cirrus cloud; its edges were far too sharp, resembling a tree leaf.

This leaf-shaped cloud moved slowly and precisely beneath the sun, perfectly eclipsing the sunlight over the plaza.

The light suddenly dimmed, and even the thin warmth of the winter day was sucked away.

The fujoshi’s fingers, which had been swiping across the screen, suddenly froze.

She instinctively looked up, staring at the sky.

The unnatural leaf-cloud was reflected in her yellow eyes.

For a moment, her expression was one of confusion, her brow furrowing slightly as she tried to process what this cloud actually was.

But in that very instant, a hand appeared out of thin air right at her left temple!

The fingers were long and slender, the knuckles distinct.

By the time the hand appeared, its fingertips had already pierced into her temple!

It was like sinking into a soft ball of dough; there wasn't the slightest bit of resistance.

A muffled squelch rang out.

It wasn't the sound of a skull cracking, but more like the sound of meat being punctured.

The blank expression remained on the fujoshi’s face. Before she could even feel surprise, her pupils lost focus and dilated.

Intense pain surged in with a delay.

“Ugh...”

A short sound escaped her throat. Her body went rigid as if pinned to the spot, and her phone hit the ground with a clatter.

The hand that had attacked her moved.

It didn't pull the fingers out of her temple; instead, it twisted violently toward the side and back, ripping with immense force.

Warm, viscous liquid sprayed out, splattering across the edge of the flowerbed.

“Aaaahhh!!!”

A shrill scream finally broke through her throat, exploding across the plaza.

The fujoshi only felt that her head hurt terribly.

It seemed her brain had been damaged, or perhaps she had consumed too much sweet fluff normally and burned her brain out.

Whatever the case, she couldn't comprehend the current situation.

Then the scream cut off abruptly as her entire person vanished into thin air.

The entire process was shockingly fast. From the moment the fujoshi was attacked to her disappearance, no more than two or three seconds had passed.

Only a pool of warm blood remained on the ground.

Within that bloodstain, several unidentifiable bits of human tissue were scattered.

The cold wind swept through, carrying a heavy scent of blood.

On the other side of the plaza, the headquarters Minister, who had been issuing new orders, suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

He turned his head, his face devoid of expression as his gaze locked onto the pool of blood the fujoshi had left behind.

He didn't look shocked or angry. He simply raised his right hand and made a gripping gesture toward the bloodstain.

Centered on that bloodstain, the plaza within a hundred-meter radius experienced a faint ripple.

Nothing. Not a single trace had been left behind.

At the edge of his vision, the pitch-black form of the Silent Silhouette suddenly trembled.

The attack just now had happened too fast and without any warning. The attacker was definitely a master!

“The opponent might not have gone far. We should have a chance to get her back.”

The Minister shook his head, his voice calm. “Too late.”

He walked over to the bloodstain and looked down.

The fujoshi’s phone lay on the ground, the screen displaying a newly saved draft title: 《The Domineering Pie Falls for Me: The Divine Lord’s Taste-Bud Discipline》.

“To cleanly attack and abduct a headquarters high-level right in front of all of us...”

“There are only a handful of people in the entire world capable of doing that.”

“I recall that chaos suddenly broke out in Cuifeng City not long ago?”

“To dare strike at a headquarters high-level at a time like this, the most likely suspect is You-Know-Who...”

...

Somewhere on a barren mountain far from Cuifeng City.

Space rippled like water.

Yue Shi's figure emerged, carrying a lump of something in his hand. It could barely be recognized as human.

Thick blood leaked out continuously, staining the snow on the ground red.

It was currently winter, and the vegetation had withered.

Yet, on this barren mountain, greenery was sprouting.

Vines and leaves outlined the form of the Tree of Truth.

This time, he didn't use Yue Shi's face to disgust him, but directly used his plant form.

“Why did you catch this one?” the Tree of Truth asked in a soft, curious voice.

He seemed to have different personalities when he transformed into different forms.

At this moment, he could speak normally with Yue Shi; as long as they didn't discuss certain secrets, he wouldn't be silenced.

“Because I have a grudge against her, obviously.”

A lie. Even if there were no grudge, Yue Shi would harm people indiscriminately.

Yue Shi raised his hand, lifting the not-yet-dead fujoshi into the air.

This loathsome woman actually dared to secretly ship him—and with a Narcissus line, no less!

She deserved to die!

If something actually happened between him and his past or future self, it would definitely become a psychological trauma!

The Tree of Truth understood. “Since there’s a grudge, given your personality, why didn't you just kill her?”

“Her ability is interesting,” Yue Shi said. “She seems to possess a complete Authority.”

The leaves of the Tree of Truth shook gently as if nodding.

“Every one of these high-levels at headquarters has accommodated at least one complete Authority.”

“That is exactly why they can be high-levels. At the same rank, they are much more powerful.”

After a pause, the Tree of Truth continued:

“As for the others at headquarters, including those captains who seem so high and mighty...”

“Although they are also high-rank transcendents, the authorities they possess are incomplete.”

“With only authority fragments, there is basically no possibility of advancing to Rank 5. Their ceiling has already been locked.”

The corners of Yue Shi's mouth curled up. “I see.”

“I imagine those captains are still agonizing over how to advance to Rank 5, racking their brains...”

“Unfortunately, the high-levels will never tell them the secret of advancing to Rank 5. They won't even tell them what an Authority is.”

The Tree of Truth chuckled. “The prerequisite for advancing to Rank 5 is very harsh.”

“First, the essence of one's supernatural power must be a complete Authority. That alone filters out ninety-nine percent of people.”

“Most transcendents have supernatural powers that are merely fragmented authorities. Even if they are lucky enough to find the complementary puzzles, they wouldn't know how to piece them together.”

“Secondly, if one wants to merge an Authority smoothly without rejection, the transcendent's own thoughts, behaviors, and even their mode of existence must align with the core concept of that Authority.”

“In some old-school terms, it's called ‘Acting’—total, immersive role-playing!”

“If someone obtains the Authority of Extreme Evil, that person must constantly commit evil, trample on morality, and destroy beauty.”

“Furthermore, they must believe in the necessity and aesthetic of that evil from the bottom of their heart. Their way of thinking and acting must be sufficiently malicious to truly wield Extreme Evil.”

“Otherwise, they will be backlashed. At best, they go out-of-control; at worst...”

The Tree of Truth didn't continue, but simply gave Yue Shi a meaningful look.