"Triple-fold Skeptic, you're under arrest!"
In the solemn conference room, the screen showed a youth brandishing a trident. He took the lead, suddenly raising his Long Spear, and lunged from the crowd. His spear struck like a dragon, impaling a middle-aged man with glasses onto the ground.
Before the commotion could spread, four or five long-awaiting Sublimators pounced. They shackled the notorious criminal with chains and leg irons, then drove a silver nail into the base of his neck, subduing him and capturing him alive with practiced efficiency.
Immediately after, someone clapped their hands, taking advantage of the crowd's delayed reaction. Smiling, they applied broad-spectrum hypnosis and suggestion, asking everyone to behave as if nothing had happened.
Shortly afterward, the Triple-fold Skeptic was stuffed into a van headed straight for Ji Xia and vanished from the screen.
Meanwhile, across various split screens, more than six teams were rapidly in motion, continuously capturing or killing infiltrating Sublimator criminals according to plan.
As Older Cousin tapped his fingers on the desk, the countdown continued, much like a symphony. In the span of a quarter of an hour, dozens of intense and chaotic arrest operations rolled out in an orderly fashion, flawlessly taking down one criminal after another.
"Team B, you may begin now."
He turned to his assistant and said, "Let Group D wait for a moment. Dealing with the Fourth Stage is tricky; notify Kua Fu. We'll deploy Long Bo Wei... It's rare for The Final Knight and The Blade of Destruction to show themselves in the Current Circumstances; don't let them think they're here on vacation."
Mo San, long accustomed to his assistant duties, nodded. He was about to say something when he noticed Zhu Hongchen's expression turn serious, as if in contemplation.
Outside the conference room, hurried footsteps approached. Then, someone pushed the door and entered.
"Sorry for the delay, there was some traffic. Your order of Hunger's Mouth three-star milk tea is here. Please sign for it. And, give us a good review later, thanks."
The elusive Yesterday Express courier reached an arm around the door, dangling several milk tea delivery bags. Zhu Hongchen immediately beamed. "Sure thing, sure thing! There's a barbecue order after this; please be quick with that one, huh?"
After dispatching the courier, Older Cousin adeptly handed out the milk teas amidst everyone's speechless expressions.
Sipping his own double-sugared, extra-pearl Abyss milk tea with satisfaction, he looked up at the arrest list on the screen and clicked his tongue. "One, two... seventeen. Ah, how many Third Class merits is that? Even a few Second Class... So good, so good..."
He pondered for a moment, then voiced an audacious idea. "Why don't we apply for a few billion in foreign exchange next time and randomly put a bounty on someone? Just for kicks?"
Mo San, having grown used to his boss's frequent wild ideas, skillfully retorted, "What if Xuan Niao finds out you're using fishing tactics in law enforcement? Won't you get a beating?"
"...Forget I said anything."
Older Cousin sighed helplessly and slumped back into his swivel chair. After a few rotations, he finally remembered to ask, "Where's Huai Shi? How far has he gotten?"
"He's thirty-five kilometers from Border Stone City."
Mo San checked his phone and sighed softly. "He probably wants to take Ai Qing through there. From Stone City, they only need to pass through a couple of shallow layers of Hell, then they can ride the currents of the Endless Sea to Myanmar."
"Thirty-five?" Zhu Hongchen fell silent for a long time, seemingly astonished by the distance. He slowly shook his head. "Getting this far must not have been easy, huh?"
"It was never simple from the beginning. It's not something a Second Stage... No, even the vast majority of Third Stage Sublimators wouldn't be able to accomplish a feat like his, right?"
Soon, reports from the Observers populated the large screen.
A series of names, some blood-red, others pitch-black, updated continuously, pricking the eyes of all who watched.
[Bone Breaker Killer Anlong], [Red | Dongfeng Valley], [Butterfly], [Rondo Landis], [The Exiled Richard], [Reflection], [Sickle Outfit Monkey Ghost], [Spider-Walker Angelite], [Inheritor Beiyu], [Singer Xu Chang]...
These people all came from different places, different countries and genealogies, different borders. The only thing identical was that, at this moment, their names were all marked with a black line representing death.
Behind those names, in the space reserved for the cause of death, only two unchanged words were written:
——Beheading.
Beheading, beheading, beheading, beheading, beheading!
These wanted criminals, escapees, or simply renowned Border Hunters—the stories of their deeds and specialized skills could have each filled an astonishing novel. But now, there were no more novels.
There were just names written on this merciless list, one after another beheaded.
And the list kept refreshing; new names continuously rose from the bottom.
The more deaths there were, the longer the list grew.
And Huai Shi was moving forward.
Just twenty more kilometers...
Mo San's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What's wrong?" Older Cousin looked over with a smile that was not quite a smile. "Got scared?"
"...Just a bit surprised."
After a long silence, Mo San finally shook his head and sighed. "I never would have thought..."
Even with undeniable evidence, irrefutable after being witnessed by countless people, Mo San still found it hard to reconcile such horrific and bloody achievements with the seemingly slender and gentle boy.
"It's not that people can't imagine these things; it's just that we hope they never happen."
Zhu Hongchen was poking the tapioca pearls in his milk tea with a straw when he suddenly asked, "Do you know what a Stress Response is?"
Mo San turned to look at him, not saying a word.
"It's like when soldiers returning from the battlefield wake up from nightmares crying; ordinary people stumble backward and scream in fright when startled; if you tap someone's knee with a little hammer, it will jerk up, or you might even smash it... It's a natural instinct. Luo Lao told me that this is Huai Shi's talent."
He lifted his gaze, staring at the list on the big screen, and spoke calmly, "When he holds a blade in his hands, he is no longer the boy you know. When he has no way back, he will not smile as he used to. Unlike the desperados who resign themselves to their fates, he knows what he's doing and what he has to do, but he will have no regrets. Then, he will become fierce, as hard as iron, like the burning coals in a furnace and the long, starving, bitterly cold winter—destroying anything of value."
Thus, Zhu Hongchen narrowed his eyes and made a decisive judgment:
"If Ai Qing cannot live, he will absolutely not back down."
"..."
In the silence, Mo San did not speak again.