Chapter 107

Chapter 107

Lu Yan looked down at Song Jingchen, who was clinging to his leg, and felt a faint throb of a headache.

"Let go," he said.

Song Jingchen released his grip but didn't get up, just stared at him with those wet, pleading eyes.

{At least he doesn't have a tail,} the system mused. {Otherwise, that puppy-dragon's scales would probably be turning green right about now.}

Lu Yan felt he should argue, but fighting with the system in his head felt far too childish. Pointless.

"Go back first," he told Song Jingchen. "The school will be doing bed checks soon."

Song Jingchen shook his head violently. "My Lord, I do not wish to return to that filthy place full of heretics. The graduation selection is almost here. I don't want to go to the Divine Kingdom, to endure humiliation and serve those disgusting apostates!"

When he was very young, a pollutant had returned Song Jingchen to the school.

After that, he received certain privileges the other students didn't have.

According to hints from the teachers, he was definitely going to be chosen by the Lords of the Divine Kingdom.

Every member of the Flock knew that once you went to the Divine Kingdom, the chance of coming back was slim.

{Within the school, the standard for judging the quality of these flock members is whether they Awaken,} the system explained. {Song Jingchen Awakened very young. Unless something goes wrong, he'll definitely be sent to the Divine Kingdom during the graduation season to participate in the Lords' hunting games.}

{Maybe he gets eaten. Maybe his lesion rate exceeds 100% and he becomes 'Divine Kin'.}

Lu Yan said, "I remember the school's monitors and teachers are also selected from those who survived the hunts? If they all know they're prey for the Divine Kin, why would they return to the school and become executioners?"

{Yes. But human intelligence and understanding are products of their society. Many in the Flock genuinely believe that being eaten by the Divine Kin is the best way to return to paradise. It's even written into the textbooks they study from childhood. They just use a more euphemistic term for 'eat'—fusion.}

{Besides, most people just muddle through life. Acting as accomplices for the wicked is an ancient tradition.}

{The ones who were too clear-headed have already been tried as heretics for their lack of faith.}

According to the system's information, in the Divine Kingdom, all human infants were branded at birth with the Holy God's psychic imprint—a barcode on the back of the neck, like a product label. Flock members whose faith wavered would have this barcode disappear.

This was also how the citizens of the Divine Kingdom distinguished believers from heretics.

Lu Yan pulled open Song Jingchen's collar. The barcode was still there, and it inexplicably felt… familiar.

He thought for a moment, then touched it with a finger.

Instantly, two lines of text flashed in his mind:

[Song Jingchen]

[Sea God Cult Fanatic, ID: 0000001]

Lu Yan: "...How does this work?"

{The Holy God's believer is now yours. It's perfectly logical. When believers lose their faith in the church, the psychic imprint on their necks vanishes.}

{Every year, the school uses this method to check for disloyal flock members. Those traitors get sent to the processing plant.}

The only one who could probably detect the difference in the imprint was the Holy God itself.

Fortunately, it probably wasn't bored enough to check each believer individually.

Lu Yan patted his head. "Don't worry. I'll be back before the graduation season. Be careful these next few days. Don't expose yourself."

Song Jingchen's gaze remained devout and burning. "Then I will await your return."

*

Within the Divine Kingdom, though remnants of the past remained, human civilization—especially anything related to technology—had almost vanished.

Even in the dead of night, no lights were visible. Looking up, you saw only the brilliant spread of stars.

Asphalt roads had long been shattered by tree roots. The uninhabited cities were coated in a layer of decaying gray.

Lu Yan found an off-road motorcycle by the roadside, pried open the fuel tanks of other vehicles, and filled the bike's tank.

In the deep night, the motorcycle's engine roared to life.

He wasn't worried about the noise attracting pollutants; this area was still far from the Divine Kingdom's core.

His spiritual power threshold was over seven thousand. If one came, he'd kill one. His riding posture was accordingly cavalier.

{Most ordinary pollutants lack human emotions or thoughts. So the Divine Kin don't need other entertainment, nor modern civilization. They're just tools controlled by the Holy God to maintain this society's stability.}

{Also, pollutants will eat their own kind to advance. That brain-flower, the Holy God, basically abandoned its own combat capability after discarding its human body. It's survived this long by using human Awakened to deal with troublesome pollutants.}

Changjia Island wasn't huge—most of it was forest. But it wasn't small either, with a population of several million.

Forty-five years on, those who still remembered human society had been mostly hunted down. Only a few scattered survivor shelters remained, clinging to life under the protection of Awakened.

{The nearest survivor shelter is about a six-hour ride from here.}

The system marked the approximate location in Lu Yan's mind.

He arrived just before dawn.

To avoid pursuit by the Divine Kin, these shelters were built in extremely hidden locations. Once discovered, they'd relocate quickly to avoid being wiped out.

The shelter Lu Yan was heading for, for example, was in a village.

The road leading there had been washed out by a mudslide long ago, leaving it desolate.

Halfway there, the road simply ended. Fortunately, the shelter wasn't far now.

Lu Yan parked the bike and continued on foot.

He'd loaded plenty of supplies onto the boat, but since the boat never made it, he only had his weapons, sedatives, and special medicine on him.

Since Awakening, his sense for danger had grown keen.

He looked up, his gaze sweeping over a distant hillside.

The sniper pulled back from his scope, whispering into his comms. "Calling Command. Stranger approaching. Appears to be an Awakened. I've been spotted."

"Recognize him?"

The sniper hesitated. "I… don't think so…"

"There are only a few hundred Awakened left on the whole island! If you don't recognize him, why haven't you fired?! This has to be another one of that bastard Holy God's schemes—!"

Twenty years ago, the Holy God tried to assassinate the current leader of the survivor shelters. It performed a 'divine descent' into a believer's body, posing as an Awakened, and gained the others' trust.

That time, the shelter was almost completely destroyed.

The sniper wavered. "But… but… this person. He's signaling to me."

During his months of training at headquarters, Lu Yan had learned specific hand signals for communicating with teammates when speech wasn't possible—mostly simple commands.

The signal he was making to the sniper now translated to: "Stand down. Threat neutralized."

A few minutes later, a man emerged from the other end of the street, leading four or five other Awakened.

The leader was a burly middle-aged man with sharp eyes and a scar running across his face. He carried a spiked iron rod, which he swung threateningly through the air with a whoosh.

"Azure Sky Shelter. Li Dongcheng. Which shelter are you from? I don't recognize you."

Lu Yan: "I'm from outside. Just landed today."

Li Dongcheng blinked. "Outside? What outside?"

"K City. Special Operations Department." As he spoke, Lu Yan pulled his work ID from his jacket. "Lu Yan. B-Class Awakened."

Li Dongcheng's iron rod clattered to the ground.

He snatched the ID from Lu Yan's hand, studying it intently for a long moment. "It's real! Captain Ning has one of these too!"

The 'Captain Ning' he mentioned was Ning Huai, full name. One of the Awakened who had severely wounded the Holy God during the Divine Kingdom operation forty-five years ago, and now the person in charge of the Azure Sky Shelter.

Li Dongcheng scanned Lu Yan with a detector. The reading showed a pollution value of 0.

Their detectors were products from over forty years ago, long obsolete—clunky and prone to failure. But within the shelter, they were rare treasures.

Li Dongcheng's wariness lessened considerably. "Captain Ning went out last night, said he was hunting. Probably won't be back until late morning. Brother Lu, you'll have to wait a bit. I can show you around the shelter in the meantime."

{Thanks to Ning Huai, this shelter is the most developed within the Divine Kingdom. It's taken in over twenty thousand refugees and is basically self-sufficient.}

The shelter, hidden deep in the mountains, was surrounded by a high wall topped with electrical wire.

Lu Yan took a brief walk around the outer perimeter, accompanied the entire time by Li Dongcheng.

Outside the walls, many people tended fields and raised livestock—all ordinary people who hadn't Awakened.

There was also a school and a medical station. Heard there was even a small research institute and a power station deeper inside.

"The research institute has people working on everything—hydroelectric power, water conservation, pollutants, construction, compiling textbooks… Anyway, about a hundred people, all called researchers."

The Awakened were responsible for gathering supplies from outside and dealing with pollutants.

Over the decades, the base had relocated several times. The survivors dwindled with each move. Fewer than seventy thousand remained in total.

In those early days after the fall, some had still dreamed of resisting the Holy One and the Divine Kingdom. But as time wore on, the sheer scale of the gulf between them became undeniable. Morale crumbled.

Li Dongcheng fell silent as the school bell rang.

A handful of children spilled from the building, their laughter sharp in the still air. Spotting Li Dongcheng, they chorused a cheerful "Captain Li!"

He smiled, digging a few precious pieces of hard candy from his pocket. "Make them last. Nobody makes this stuff anymore. You only find it on a good scavenge."

These kids had been born into the Divine Kingdom. The outside world was a story to them. Yet they ran and played without a care—a testament to how well the base shielded them.

Even in this hell, the system mused, humanity clings to life. Stubbornly. Adorably.

With Ning Huai still out, Li Dongcheng seized the chance to ask Lu Yan question after question about the world beyond the sea.

When Changjia Island fell, Li Dongcheng had been just a boy. He remembered the sky changing overnight. The ships crowding the harbor, desperate souls fleeing, only to be swallowed by the deep.

Hearing even the broad strokes of how things stood outside, a raw, hungry longing flashed across Li Dongcheng's scarred face. "I'd give anything to see it."

"Shouldn't be long now," Lu Yan said after a moment's thought.

Li Dongcheng let out a booming, disbelieving laugh.

A sudden commotion erupted near the base's main gate. Li Dongcheng's head snapped up, his eyes lighting. "That's the Captain's return party. Has to be."

Ning Huai commanded genuine devotion here. All around, people set down their tools and tasks, streaming toward the entrance to welcome him back.

Lu Yan moved with the crowd, his gaze fixed on the gate.

The man who entered defied expectation. He looked young. A cigarette dangled from his lips. In his right hand, he dragged a heavy fishing net bulging with the spoils of his hunt.

But he was not a normal man.

Three pairs of eyes stared from his face, arranged in a vertical column from his forehead down to where a human's eyes should be.

Below the waist, he had no legs. Instead, eight segmented, spider-like limbs carried him, each sheathed in sharp, chitinous plates that gleamed with a deep, poisonous purple.

Ning Huai. Originally from N City. One of the first Revelators, eighty years ago. Current spiritual power threshold: 10,700. Pollution index fluctuates between 92 and 95.

He was only the second Revelator Lu Yan had encountered whose power breached the ten-thousand mark.

His pollution index is so high, maintaining a fully human form is... difficult.

The eight spidery legs lifted Ning Huai a full head above the crowd.

His gaze—all six eyes—swept over the gathering and landed unerringly on Lu Yan.

Ning Huai leaned down, the joints of his limbs clicking softly. He took a long drag from his cigarette, exhaled a plume of smoke, and asked, voice rough, "Where'd you come from?"