The Conspiracy Begins to Unfold

Hearing Loop's words, Chen Miemie continued to stand up.

"Then I'll leave him to you. Don't kill him."

Loop's mouth curled up, her voice trembling with excitement, "I know."

The interrogator was switched out.

[The Painter] tried his best to open his eyes.

He saw a young woman in a nurse's uniform sit in the seat Chen Miemie had just vacated.

He didn't see Loop's lower half; judging only by her age, he assumed she was a classmate of Chen Miemie.

"Miss, I'm already in this situation. I wouldn't dare and couldn't deceive you... Ah!!!"

From the knees down, both of [The Painter]'s lower legs were severed cleanly, flesh and bone alike.

He let out a tragic, agonizing roar.

Loop had nothing she wanted to know. She didn't ask Chen Miemie's questions; she was just enjoying herself.

"Do you know what it feels like to walk on two steel needles without lower legs?

Hehe, let me tell you. Every time those needles tap the ground, you feel a piercing pain in your own heart.

At first, you can only endure it bitterly. But over time, when that pain gradually numbs and even disappears one day, you will instead feel incredibly lost.

And so, you will try to find that feeling again. You will strike the ground hard, again, and again, until you can actually use those needles as weapons, controlling them as easily as your own arms.

Trust me, this feeling will make you incredibly addicted."

"Ah!!!"

Two steel needles pierced into [The Painter]'s heavily bleeding thighs, drilling deeper and deeper into his flesh and blood.

"Kill me! Kill me!!! I'll talk, I'll tell you everything!"

Loop felt bored and stopped her movements, "Speak."

"Actually, other races contacted our Mist Church. Humans occupy 21 cities, and the other races are jealous. Some have united, wanting to use this New Era to reduce the number of human cities.

As for which races from which cities are behind this, that is top secret. I don't know, I really don't. My rank isn't high enough; only the decision-making level of the Church knows.

That's all I know. Give me a quick death."

"Who are the other eight cultists that came to Sixiang City?"

[The Painter] shook his head weakly, "Who they are doesn't matter anymore. They are all suicide operatives. They went in pairs to destroy the four formation cores of the Four Symbols Seal. They never had an evacuation plan. Win or lose, they will only die there."

Loop looked at Chen Miemie and nodded slightly.

Chen Miemie also nodded.

[The Painter] was knocked unconscious, and the heavy bleeding from his legs was stopped.

Originally, stopping the bleeding would have required Qinghua to porcelainize his wounds to seal them, creating a physical hemostasis.

Unexpectedly, Loop actually possessed nursing skills. In a few quick moves, she stitched and bandaged him up, though her actions were a bit rough, causing the unconscious [The Painter] to twitch continuously.

At this time, there were exactly 8 hours left until the end of Sunless Day.

Chen Miemie and his group had nothing to do, so they could only sit and chat.

"Loop, how did you know he was lying to me?"

"Because there was a problem with the standpoint of his words."

"Oh? How so?"

Chen Miemie asked sincerely. At the time, he genuinely thought he had obtained the truth, never expecting there to be an even bigger conspiracy behind it.

"This person is from the Mist Church. He can manage activity funds and doesn't have to be a suicide operative himself, which shows that at least in this operation, his status is quite high.

He repeatedly emphasized that the purpose of the operation was to attract attacks from new races in the future.

He was intentionally guiding us. In reality, there is no inevitable causal link between the two.

Who the new races are, where they are, what their characteristics are, whether they want to attack cities, which areas their spheres of influence cover—with all these still unknown, why would the Mist Church start risking their lives so early?

Besides, for the Mist Church, once the new races make a move, no matter which city they choose to attack, there will be bloodshed. There's no need for them to instigate it.

So, they are using the guise of a general trend to hide their true purpose."

Chen Miemie's brows furrowed tightly.

He felt a deep bitterness in his heart.

Who the new races were, where they were, whether they wanted to attack the city—others might not know, but could he, Chen Miemie, not know?

Even so, he was almost led astray by this guy who did body art.

After tomorrow, when Loop truly joins the team and learns the truth, won't she laugh at me?

A mere needle-legged nurse, instead of properly studying medical care, is playing at strategy. Hmph, just wait until I make things difficult for you later.

Oh, almost forgot, Loop doesn't wear shoes.

"Bobo, come here quickly, I'm hungry."

Bobo was overjoyed. It had been waiting for this moment the whole way. It trotted over, jumped into Chen Miemie's hands, and aimed its chicken butt directly at him.

"Honey lemon glazed roast chicken, eat up, eat up."

Chen Miemie took a big bite of the chicken wing, his mouth dripping with grease.

Looking up, he found Loop staring straight at him.

"Do you want a bite?"

"Yes, give me a big chicken leg."

"Don't anomalies not need to eat?"

"Different breeds are different. For someone like me with physical flesh and blood, I won't die if I don't eat, but eating a little makes my condition better."

"Alright, follow me from now on, and I guarantee you roast chicken freedom. Bobo, don't be lazy, hurry up and grow another chicken leg!"

"You got it~"

Qinghua provided the tableware, and Bobo provided the roast chicken. This was the first proper meal Loop had eaten in a long time.

Just as Chen Miemie was feasting like he was on a picnic.

Inside Sixiang City.

The Big Three of the Triumvirate Council each arrived at a sealed formation core.

Although they had rushed over with all their might, the premeditated ambush had succeeded against the unprepared. The formation cores had already been destroyed.

There was no need to put out a bounty on the saboteurs either; they had died right in front of the formation cores.

They had truly lost miserably this time.

Of the four formation cores, it wasn't just one or two that were broken—all of them were destroyed.

The Mist Church had mobilized more than just the eight suicide operatives. This time, throwing caution to the wind, they had activated all their peripheral members within Sixiang City.

A few who had already gained positions of power acted recklessly, causing even worse consequences than the suicide operatives.

Starting tomorrow, even with the sun and moon shining, Sixiang City would be just like the wilderness. Mist and anomalies could appear randomly at any time and any place.

The three met up at City Hall.

All three had very grim expressions.

Dean was the first to speak: "We were completely played this time. I didn't expect the Mist Church to actually use a diversionary tactic."

President An of the Society Alliance said, "It's useless to talk about this now. Commander Sun, how long will it take to repair the formation cores?"

"Judging by the current level of destruction, at least three weeks."

"Three weeks! By then, the whole world will know that Sixiang City has been breached! Is there no way to speed it up?"

Commander Sun's face was solemn: "President An, calm down. Three weeks is assuming no one comes to sabotage it. Do you think all the various monsters and demons will just watch us repair it? I plan to put the whole city under martial law starting tomorrow. Work and school will be suspended, and entry and exit will be forbidden."

President An took a deep breath: "During this period, I will organize the various societies and dispatch personnel to try and contain the anomalies appearing in the city, hoping to minimize losses and panic."

Dean: "I will lead the school's faculty and staff to take charge of resisting other factions attempting to break into the city."

The three of them not only divided the work among themselves but also immediately conducted a post-mortem on their recent failure.

They came to a conclusion: there was still a key mole in the city who hadn't been caught.

The core of a city was of utmost importance. How could an ordinary person know the locations of the four formation nodes and their defensive layouts?

Yet this time, someone was able to precisely locate all the nodes and meticulously set up destructive measures that were just powerful enough to overcome the defenses.

Compared to this, luring the idle experts in the city to the graduation exam site was actually a matter of minor importance.

As for who this mole was, it was somewhat impossible to investigate.

Because the people with the ability and authority to pull this off were very few.

Moreover, these people were absolutely tied to the interests of Sixiang City, so none of them had a motive.

If they were to investigate, how would they go about it?

Start by investigating the Big Three present here?

Who would investigate whom?

Was investigating people more important, or cleaning up the current mess?

If they did find the culprit, could they really sanction them? And for the present moment, would that really be a good thing?