Chapter 687: The Aftermath of a Chaotic Gathering

A group of mental patients showed up to a party. What kind of outcome could result?

In truth, they merely attended the party and then went their separate ways.

On the day of the party, the atmosphere was surprisingly warm. Everyone gathered together, and they really made a mess of the high-end hotel’s buffet. After eating and drinking their fill, they left—conveniently locking the door behind them.

As for the bill, no one bothered to pay any attention to it.

Dracula Sister announced that she would handle everything, so naturally everyone followed suit, feasting for free before departing.

Lu Xin, however, knew that Dracula had a habit of using counterfeit money and kept a close watch.

When he saw that Dracula hadn’t used any fake bills, he finally felt at ease.

After all, by then the hotel service was long gone—she didn’t even have to settle up…

…Not only was the buffet a free-for-all, even the hotel rooms were chosen at random. They just opened a door and crashed.

…

…

After the first day ended, everyone prepared to disperse the following day.

Clockwork Orange was the first to leave, as he had to take his child to school. Next was Mad Old Wang, who confessed that he had forgotten to ask for leave this time and worried about how distressed his attending doctor might be. He hastily needed to return to apologize.

Lu Xin didn’t mention that his attending doctor was already scrambling to mobilize armed forces from around the world to find him.

Then came Red Dancing Shoes, who vanished the very next day without so much as a word of farewell.

All she left was a goodbye message scrawled in lipstick on her room’s mirror, accompanied by a cheerful, smiling face.

Everyone understood—after all, as an artist, having an unconventional thought process was to be expected.

Next, Nine-Headed Serpent left. Before departing, he respectfully visited Lu Xin’s room and slipped him a business card.

Night Owl wasn’t too pleased—Lu Xin hadn’t accompanied him for a massage.

It wasn’t until Lu Xin promised that, upon his next visit to Qinggang, he’d introduce him to a little massage whiz called Gecko.

Finally, only Lu Xin and Dracula remained, as they still had some unsettled business.

Watching the members of the Red Moon Club leave so casually without a backward glance, both he and Dracula couldn’t help but smile contentedly. Their fondness for these members had taken a giant leap forward. Although they stayed a little longer, both silently avoided mentioning the incident…

…

…

At last, Flame City returned to calm.

Whether it was an illusion or not, as the club members departed, even the sunlight seemed a bit brighter.

Yet underneath that brightness, a subtle, dark undercurrent remained.

It was understandable—the issues with Flame had escalated far too much…

This incident involved the Ultimate case, and it wasn’t merely about one ultimate special pollution event.

Even Lu Xin, when he reflected on it, felt a chill of unease.

This world had changed.

Or rather, its true nature was slowly being revealed.

It was just like when he encountered some members of the Red Moon Club and realized that some Ability Users could be that incredibly powerful.

Back at the Moon Eclipse Research Institute, Dr. An once told him that the Black Table had produced a ‘God’ capable of reaching the third stage. He thought it was a tremendous achievement, yet in their eyes there were many who possessed, or had the potential for, third stage capabilities. Her invitation for him to join the Red Moon Club probably stemmed from that consideration.

Nevertheless, that didn’t mean the Black Table’s efforts were wasted.

Even the Research Institute held the Black Table’s accomplishments in high regard.

After all, reaching the third stage in this world wasn’t so difficult.

There were even many mysterious creatures that started on the third stage.

But progressing from the third to the fourth stage was challenging, and moving on to the fifth stage was even tougher.

Only by breaking through every level can one truly ascend—otherwise, it’s just about hierarchy.

Steps can be climbed one by one, but hierarchy is something you can’t simply overcome.

In creating ‘God,’ the Black Table achieved something remarkable, even if it was neither publicized nor widely discussed.

Yet its impact was undeniable.

The success of Qinggang’s Heaven’s Kingdom Plan and Doll’s rise to become a Mental Overlord owed a great deal to some crucial materials.

Those materials might even have included experimental data from the Black Table.

For Qinggang, Doll becoming a Mental Overlord was a breakthrough achievement.

But it also opened a major door in this world.

Because the dissemination of key data spurred more people to experiment.

Even without any successful examples at hand, countless madmen kept on trying relentlessly—especially when success stories began to emerge.

Flame’s crazed plan was just one of those experiments.

Once someone starts indiscriminately cooperating and trading with ‘God,’ what will those behind them do next?

Lu Xin couldn’t help but recall how the Moon Eclipse Research Institute and the Technology Church had once joined forces to seize control of the Cangzhang Sect’s authority—and he sighed quietly.

Who knows?

There’s never a shortage of bold people in this world.

…

…

Regarding the handling of Flame, Lu Xin later spoke with Xia Chong and learned that they were negotiating with the Flame City Executives.

Now, Flame had managed to pin all the blame on the Hell Designer and some mysterious organizations, scrubbing its own record completely. Meanwhile, armed forces across every military district had started to pull back, as if preparing to confront something.

And the Hell Designer had indeed accepted full responsibility. It seemed he had no intention of dragging the entire Flame down with him.

Yet having seen Flame’s ‘Factories,’ Lu Xin understood all too well that Flame was far from innocent.

It had never been innocent from the very start.

So even if he believed he had no right to decide another’s fate, or to pass judgment, Lu Xin still hoped they would face the punishment they deserved.

When it came to this matter, Xia Chong later gave Lu Xin a word of reassurance.

They understood Flame’s intentions, and Flame knew they understood too—but the Flame City Executives were still unwilling to give up hope.

But it was all in vain.

The Alliance had already begun making preparations and wouldn’t let the Flame City Executives slip by easily.

With that answer, Lu Xin felt a bit more at ease.

If Flame ever changed, even his village chief friend might enjoy more carefree days.

With his worries eased, he quietly waited for the promised reward.

On the surface, order in Flame was beginning to be restored—shops reopened on the street and televisions were picking up signals again.

It was at that moment Lu Xin received a phone call from Han Bing.

“Mr. Single Soldier, your phone finally got through. There hadn’t been any signal earlier.”

Han Bing’s tone was noticeably anxious.

Lu Xin paused briefly before replying, “Oh, that must be because someone cut the cables in Flame City…”

“Cables?”

Han Bing was momentarily stunned before continuing, “There’s something I need to talk to you about…”

“Earlier, in that old building of yours, something strange was discovered…”

“It was, unbelievably, stolen right under the watchful eyes of three sets of observers by a pale giant hand…”

“…”

Though several days had passed since the incident, Han Bing’s tone still brimmed with disbelief.

“Stolen?”

After a brief pause, Lu Xin suddenly understood and laughed, “It’s nothing, just a misunderstanding.”

He then added, “I’ll go back and write a report to explain everything.”

“Alright…”

Han Bing’s tone visibly relaxed.

Everyone knew exactly what Mr. Single Soldier’s report would be like—nothing to get too excited about.

But since he admitted that the matter was indeed connected to him, there was no need to worry too much about hidden dangers behind it.

At least this ruled out any unknown mysterious attacks on Qinggang.

After all, even Doll had shed secret tears in the small villa for failing to guard Lu Xin’s home…

“By the way, there’s one more thing…”

After a brief pause, Han Bing continued, “Mr. Single Soldier, a strange visitor has arrived in Qinggang.”

“Visitor?”

Lu Xin didn’t quite catch his meaning.

Han Bing said, “Yes, a visitor has come to see you!”

Hearing this, Lu Xin grew mildly curious and asked, “What kind of visitor?”

Han Bing hesitated before replying, “It’s a…”

He paused, then settled on the word, “a strange person.”

“You might have already known this, since you, Mr. Single Soldier, being a Level 6 Special Talent of Qinggang, have always been protected as though you were part of a top-tier family at Red Moon Elementary. Three teams provide round-the-clock protection.”

“Not only has a new orphanage villa been arranged, but even the old site is under constant observation.”

“It was precisely because of that that we discovered this man.”

“He first appeared at the old site of Red Moon Elementary in Second Satellite City, where he lingered for an entire morning.”

“The observers were about to approach him for questioning, but he quickly vanished.”

“…”

Hearing this, Lu Xin grew slightly wary and asked, “Then what happened?”

Han Bing continued, “When we tracked him again, he had arrived at the current Red Moon Elementary. The team on duty questioned him, but he only said he was there to see someone from the orphanage—once they met, everything would become clear.”

“Mr. Single Soldier, besides you, there’s also Teacher Xiao Lu at Qinggang’s Red Moon Orphanage.”

“We noticed that Teacher Xiao Lu seemed a bit nervous, yet he still met with him.”

“We couldn’t tell whether he was friend or foe, so we did some investigating and uncovered some odd details.”

“At first, we tried photographing him to gather some data, but discovered that no camera could capture his image properly—every photo turned into a blurry mass of light. Then we tried having someone sketch him, but strangely, even after employing three different sketch artists, no one could successfully draw him…”

“Now, the only thing we can be sure of is that this man is extremely dangerous.”