Chapter 642: Shadows Over Flame City

They had been discovered—and it seemed the discovery had been made long ago.

Lu Xin and Xia Chong found themselves sinking into an unmistakable awkwardness.

Though Xia Chong could have easily left by simply opening the nearby door, seeing the courteous gaze of the Hell Designer fixed on them made both feel that fleeing now would be a loss of face…

After a brief moment of hesitation, a decision was made.

Feigning composure, Lu Xin nodded to the other party and stepped forward.

Firstly, since they’d already been spotted, what use was there in running?

Besides, Mom had mentioned there was something here she wanted to find—something she hadn’t yet seen…

……

……

With that decision made, Lu Xin led while Xia Chong followed as they slowly advanced behind the glass wall.

As they entered the spacious control room encircled by a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, their view suddenly opened up.

Their eyes curiously swept over the occupants of the room before instinctively drifting to the scene outside the glass.

That brief glance was enough; Xia Chong’s expression instantly tightened.

Even Lu Xin immediately scanned his surroundings, completely captivated by what he saw.

It wasn’t until they entered the control room that the true nature of their surroundings became clear.

They stood on a protruding platform.

In front of and on either side of the platform were transparent glass walls.

Outside, an immense, bottomless pit stretched out before them.

Inside the pit stood a tree.

Or more precisely, a mechanical tree assembled from countless intricate machine parts.

Encircling the mechanical tree were concentric rows of pale human bodies kneeling.

Lu Xin wasn’t mistaken—that was indeed human flesh.

They ranged in age and gender, all stripped of any clothing.

In expanding circles, they knelt before the mechanical tree at the center of the pit.

A closer look revealed each person bowed their head, immobile as if asleep, with two tubes attached—one inserted into their mouth and the other connected to the electronic helmet on their head.

From where they stood in the room, it was impossible to tell how many there were.

All that filled their view was an overwhelming mass of pale human bodies.

Meanwhile, the perspective from the control room showed only a small section of that vast scene.

……

……

“Hello. It’s finally nice to meet you,” a voice greeted.

Just as both Lu Xin and Xia Chong’s attention was drawn to what lay beyond the glass, someone began speaking with a laugh.

Inside the glass-enclosed room, there were exactly four individuals.

One of them—a man in a white Zhongshan suit—sat on a black sofa, exuding refined charm.

The others, cloaked in black, stood silently in the corners of the room.

The man in the white Zhongshan suit offered a polite smile, his eyes accented by graceful laugh lines.

So absorbed was Xia Chong by the dreadful ‘human pit’ outside that she nearly missed his words, while Lu Xin, after a brief silence, stiffly turned his neck and fixed his unfocused eyes on him.

The man in the white Zhongshan suit also scrutinized Lu Xin from head to toe.

It seemed he was trying to gauge whether his thoughts aligned with Lu Xin’s.

After a pause, he smiled faintly and said, “Since you arrived in Flame City, I’ve been keeping an eye on you. I never expected to meet someone like you until now. If I may ask, where do you come from, and what is your purpose in coming to Flame City?”

Despite his mind still being occupied by the view beyond the glass, Lu Xin replied out of politeness.

“I originally came just to catch up with an old friend,” he answered.

“……”

“Huh?”

The other looked somewhat surprised, then laughed and said:

“Catching up with old friends is perfectly normal. Must one resort to breaking into Flame’s internal transit network by force?”

“Nor is it necessary to pre-arrange actors posing as cultists to infiltrate Flame City as inside men.”

He fixed his gaze on Lu Xin and continued, “As for eliminating a Black Box messenger with just a brief encounter, or sending in operatives to storm Flame’s military base to cause chaos and divert our armed forces—that’s another matter. But the fact we now meet in the most secure underground workshop of the Flame Building shows you didn’t come merely for a reunion, did you?”

“……”

Lu Xin felt a slight confusion at his words.

It was as if he was referring to events all too familiar, happening not long ago.

But why bring them up now?

They clearly had nothing to do with him…

“Friend, when clever minds meet, it’s best to be frank,” he said.

The Hell Designer laughed softly and waved his hand, saying, “Although you seem hostile toward Flame, Flame won’t let its secrets slip. Even if we’re adversaries, we must show each other respect.”

“For instance, by openly acknowledging our identities and communicating honestly?”

“……”

“Respect…”

He didn’t catch everything, but that word, ‘respect,’ resonated with Lu Xin.

Frowning, he replied, “Frankly, you at Flame show me very little respect.”

The Hell Designer paused, then asked, “Oh?”

Lu Xin, frowning, looked at him and said, “For a lone traveler who dutifully follows your rules—paying tolls to your agents only to be charged three to five thousand on the spot and having their vehicle seized if they try to back out—can that truly be called respect?”

“Hmm?”

The Hell Designer’s expression grew puzzled; he furrowed his brow and thought hard, still clearly confused.

“Are you implying something?”

After a long pause, he cautiously ventured, “By ‘lone traveler,’ do you mean those souls?”

“Refusing to agree when someone wants to back out—are you referring to an irreversible rite?”

“……”

“Hmph!”

Lu Xin shot him a cold look and refused to elaborate further.

He had made himself crystal clear, yet the Hell Designer rambled on nonsensically.

The tension between them turned icy, and any further conversation became impossible.

“Then what is it?”

At that moment, Xia Chong suddenly gasped and abruptly turned around.

Her small face remained expressionless, but the taut lines of her features betrayed an unusual severity:

“What exactly are you doing?”

“And what about the hundred million Mental Entities you mentioned just now?”

“What is the purpose of the hell you’re building?”

“……”

She glared intently at the Hell Designer, “Spill all the details now!”

Lu Xin glanced at her sideways, wondering to himself, Is she about to initiate Plan B?

Hearing Xia Chong’s demand, the Hell Designer turned to her, frowned slightly, then looked toward Lu Xin:

“Who owns this weapon rack?”

“……”

“Crunch…”

Xia Chong gritted her teeth, revealing a ferocious, almost predatory look.

Lu Xin quickly grew serious too, coldly addressing the Hell Designer, “Mind your tone.”

“Alright, alright…”

The Hell Designer raised his hand, answering repeatedly while his eyes flicked over Xia Chong as if studying her specialized gear to determine her allegiance. After a moment, he shook his head lightly and said:

“That is Flame’s factory.”

“Since you are so well prepared as to walk right in, you should know what kind of company Flame really is.”

“……”

Lu Xin and Xia Chong remained silent.

The full name of the Flame Company is widely known as Flame Mining Company.

It is said that in the past, Flame controlled the most advanced mining equipment and technology—from the Alliance’s Twelve High-wall Cities in the north to the Technology Church in the south, nearly half of the resources at surrounding human settlements came from Flame. This vast wealth and rapidly snowballing power quickly propelled Flame to its current scale.

“Flame is a specialized mining company,”

The man in the white Zhongshan suit chuckled softly, “They began by extracting oil and minerals, but long ago they started researching and experimenting with mining what became the most precious resource in this world after the Red Moon incident.”

“The human spirit.”

Turning slightly toward the glass, he eyed the countless rows of pale bodies encircling the mechanical tree and sighed softly, “What you see is just one of several large-scale operational bases that Flame has built in recent years. In terms of magnitude, each base produces an impressively substantial amount of mental power every day…”

“You…”

Listening to his calm, almost clinical tone, Xia Chong’s teeth ground together imperceptibly.

“You actually treat people as resources?”

“……”

“Aren’t people resources by nature?”

The Hell Designer smiled and said, “In the past, Flame Mining Company treated people as employees—making them sweat, bleed, and exhaust their lives—and now by treating them purely as resources to continuously generate mental power, isn’t it essentially the same thing?”

“Efficiency-wise, it’s an even more sophisticated design.”

“Of course, I understand your initial anger, but there’s no need to take it out on me.”

“I’m merely a designer; this wasn’t my decision.”

“……”

Nonchalantly, almost proudly, he described the arrangement of bodies in the deep pit as if outlining a production line he was immensely proud of. Meanwhile, both Lu Xin and Xia Chong gradually wore uneasy expressions—their facial muscles tightening, their bodies betrayed by an unnatural tension…

That was because a chilling sensation was welling up from deep within them.

At that moment, Lu Xin finally understood what Mom had meant for him to witness here…

In that instant, he felt only one overwhelming emotion.

—Fear!