Chapter 5: Suppression
In the 5th Abyss Spreading Zone, darkness permeated the area, yet today it was unusually calm, with no brutal beast duels taking place. All the abyssal beasts had moved to other spreading zones, because the will of an Abyss entity had prompted these beasts to wisely leave.
At this moment, near the 5th Abyss Passage, a hellish amusement park had temporarily arrived. The park's owner hadn't shown themselves; they too had come at the invitation of that Abyss entity.
Inside the amusement park, the Slaughter Clown let out loud laughter, and within that laughter, other laughs mingled.
"Ah!!"
The Abyss Princess sat on the Bone Roller Coaster, feeling it nearly tear through the bounds of space, crashing into an unknown and dangerous alternate dimension. Her heart pounded wildly. Behind her, her younger sister Delona had already fallen asleep from sheer joy, while Ayesha remained calm—so calm that the white threads in her pitch-black eyes had begun to swirl in circles.
In the seats behind them sat a little boy who looked seven or eight years old, delicate and fair-skinned, but with pitch-black pupils and a few crack-like lines on his pale cheeks, resembling ceramic fractures. This was the Abyss Princess's younger brother, the Abyss Son, Eukim. However, the Abyss Son was not unique.
Eukim had no father in terms of bloodline; his causal origin was the current Lord of the Abyss, born from the dark sediment of the Abyss's depths, raised in the Dark Womb. Thus, he was considered the younger brother of the Abyss Princess and Delona.
Eukim had always stayed by his mother's side. Beside him was the jellyfish sister—humanoid in form but with a body structure like a jellyfish, who had nearly been choked to death by Su Xiao with one hand last time.
The jellyfish sister was already somewhat socially anxious. Last time, she had quietly sneaked up to Su Xiao to observe him, only to nearly get choked to death. This incident made her even more reclusive. Never brave to begin with, she now lay with her head tilted back, mouth slightly open, and vomit residue at the corners of her lips. She looked completely out of it.
When the Bone Roller Coaster finally stopped, the Abyss Princess was in full health, brimming with exhilaration. Ayesha sat there dazed and silent, while Delona, Eukim, and the jellyfish sister each displayed their own unique forms of dizziness.
"Wake up, you three! Playing such an exciting ride and sleeping so soundly? Huh? Eukim, why are your eyes watering? Are you crying? Is it because you're so happy, having never played something this fun before?"
Half an hour later.
With the Abyss Princess's reluctant gaze, the hellish amusement park gradually faded away, and she even waved politely.
"Tsk~, it was really fun..."
Under the direct gaze of five eyes, the Abyss Princess's voice trailed off. Why five eyes? Because the jellyfish sister had two pairs of eyes.
"Alright, I'll take you to this world's 0th Abyss Spreading Zone. That's the territory of the Rune Family. We little weaklings naturally won't get any consideration from the Rune Family, but Mother's face—that old beast of the Rune Family—still has to give it some respect. By the way, do you want to see the Rune Family's Colosseum? That's the only way to become a member of the Rune Family. In my opinion, their method of inheritance is truly immortal and indestructible."
The Abyss Princess led the way, looking about fifteen or sixteen years old. Delona, even more so, had reverted to the appearance of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old after her Abyss constitution reawakened. After all, in the Abyss system, the years she had lived as a human were merely infancy.
The jellyfish sister and Eukim were even younger. Especially Eukim—if not for his rather Abyss-like appearance, he would be a perfect fit for kindergarten's top class. At most, he looked like a first-grader.
Thus, it became a scene: the Abyss Princess and Delona walked ahead, looking around, occasionally teasing hidden Abyss creatures, while behind them, Ayesha held her little brother's hand with one hand and her sister's translucent blue tentacle with the other.
"There's a teleportation device ahead. We..."
Before the Abyss Princess could finish, she stopped in her tracks.
A thick smell of blood wafted from ahead. She narrowed her eyes and saw a scene of scattered limbs and half-dead Abyss creatures, their bodies only half intact.
Among them, a one-horned Abyss creature trembled and struggled, its once cruel and cunning eyes now replaced by despair and fear. The rough marks on its wounds looked as if they had been violently torn off, or perhaps... bitten off with flat teeth.
After the sound of tearing flesh came cruel chewing. The Abyss Princess saw a massive Abyss creature, its huge, pale ribs already exposed. Beside this Abyss beast stood a towering figure with two bull-like horns, its entire body shrouded in black smoke.
This figure was nearly ten meters tall. Compared to the Abyss beast, it wasn't large, but each time, it effortlessly tore off a massive chunk of flesh from the corpse. It felt as if some force was pulling that chunk of flesh away, and in just three or four moves, it had stripped the beast down to a giant skeleton.
This oversized piece of flesh, in the hands of the black-smoke bull demon, seemed compressed as it took a huge bite, devouring most of it. In other words, this Abyss beast, nearly a kilometer long, would be finished in four or five bites by this bull demon.
Even more terrifying was the vast expanse of bone remnants behind the bull demon, stretching beyond sight.
Chewing and swallowing the last piece of flesh, the black-smoke bull demon licked the black blood from its hands. Its blood-red eyes, glowing with a crimson light, turned toward the Abyss Princess and her group.
"Run!"
No sooner had the Abyss Princess spoken than she felt a sudden gust of wind pressure from ahead—pure physical strength, unenhanced by any ability, driving a savage speed.
Darkness blocked their path. The Abyss Princess swallowed hard. She seemed to know what this was—the "Gluttony Original Sin," which had lain dormant at the bottom of the Abyss for two epochs.
Feeling the overwhelming "hunger" bearing down on her, the Abyss Princess knew this was the end. Her immortality was based on being "killed," but the "Gluttony Original Sin" corresponded to the causality of "being eaten." If she suffered such a fate, she would truly die, especially since she wasn't sure if her mother was watching this place now.
The Gluttony Bull Demon crouched before the Abyss Princess, looking down at her form, which seemed made of black iron sand, as if considering whether it was tasty. It glanced at the others behind her, but when its gaze fell on Delona, it paused for a moment, as if trying to recall something. Finally, it stood up and walked away into the distant darkness.
The Abyss Princess stood frozen in place. The relief of surviving made her legs go weak, and she sat down on the ground. The same happened to Delona, the jellyfish sister, and Eukim. For Abyss beings, this was quite embarrassing, but considering they were all in their juvenile stages, it was understandable.
Ayesha's eyes, filled with countless white threads in the darkness, watched the retreating figure and said calmly, "Delona, big brother has come here."
"Huh?"
Delona was confused.
"That seems to be big brother's follower. His name is... Amu."
"What?! That's Amu?"
Delona was shocked.
"Yes."
Hearing this, Delona's expression turned serious. She bit her thumbnail, thought for a moment, and said, "Then let's go find big brother."
Delona's proposal received silent agreement from Ayesha.
"Objection, objection!"
The Abyss Princess immediately spoke up. She was terrified of that Law Destroyer who sealed six "Daddy-level Original Sin Objects."
"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm."
The jellyfish sister nodded repeatedly, agreeing with the Abyss Princess. She was even more afraid of that Law Destroyer than the Abyss Princess was; last time, she had nearly died.
The vote was tied at 2-2. Everyone looked at Eukim, who now held the deciding vote.
Eukim shrank back. He wanted to say "objection," but as the words reached his lips, the malevolent consciousness in his ear began to tempt him, while the angelic thought in his other ear urged him to stay away from danger. Finally, he stammered, "I... agree with Delona's proposal."
"Yay!"
"No~!!"
The Abyss Princess's scream echoed far into the Abyss. In the depths of the darkness, an Abyss entity quietly watched, its massive, boundless dark purple tentacles moving slowly with maternal tenderness.
...
Inside the third-floor office of the Imperial Special Affairs Department.
Wearing light red sunglasses, a beige jacket over her shoulders, black high heels, and dragging a large suitcase, chewing gum and dressed for a vacation, Leshma stood before the desk with a faint, elusive smile.
"Minister, I still have 40 days of annual leave. Before you officially took office, I already approved 40 days for myself. Here's the approval slip. Is there any problem?"
Deputy Minister Leshma's eyes, behind her crimson sunglasses, hid a smile. She was clearly defiant but didn't intend to openly confront the new minister. After all, this was the ruthless person her revered king had appointed. So, she would temporarily leave.
Though she said "temporarily leave," Leshma was naturally worried about the current murky situation. She planned to go from the open to the shadows, where she might accomplish more.
"Leshma."
Su Xiao spoke, prompting Leshma to respond politely. Defiance aside, basic etiquette was necessary.
"How could the Imperial Special Affairs Department do without you, Deputy Minister? Just like it couldn't do without those two geniuses. You're all rare talents."
Su Xiao rarely used words to mess with people's minds, but his follower Baha was a master at it. Not using a skill and not having it were two different things.
If someone else had said this, Leshma would have only sneered. But coming from Su Xiao, the newly appointed minister, the smile on her face visibly faltered.
As for the two geniuses Su Xiao mentioned, they were the "Wolong and Fengchu" duo he had seen at the main gate earlier. One was named Baken, the other Bake. In the empire, these were very common names, equivalent to "Li Gou Dan" or "Wang Er Gou."
These two brothers were from the canine race, hailing from a small tribe outside the border called the Gray Mane Canine Tribe. Don't misunderstand—that wasn't imperial territory; it was an uncivilized indigenous area, mainly because their intelligence was indeed lacking.
Let's call these two brothers the "Er Gou Brothers." Despite their clever-looking appearance—the elder spoke without thinking, and the younger's eyes seemed to have minds of their own, often looking in different directions—they were considered the intellectual ceiling of the Gray Mane Canine Tribe.
The Gray Mane Canine Tribe lived by plundering. Every autumn, they would raid other tribes to stockpile food for winter. The problem was, they plundered ruthlessly, leaving no winter food for the raided tribes. Come spring, those tribes would starve to death.
Over time, few tribes remained within a large radius around the Gray Mane Canine Tribe. Seeing this, the elder of the Er Gou Brothers proposed to the chieftain: in future raids, don't strip everything clean; leave some winter food for the raided tribes. That way, there would still be something to plunder next autumn.
This brilliant insight, when heard by the chieftain and the tribe, was hailed as divine! Then the Er Gou Brothers received unanimous encouragement from the entire tribe—"encouragement" that nearly killed them on the spot. Beaten half to death, they were abandoned in a wilderness ditch because the Gray Mane Canine Tribe didn't need such fools.
Back in the office, Leshma's expression had returned to normal. She decided to wait and see.
"No matter how I look at it, you're more suited to be the minister than I am."
Su Xiao's words left Leshma somewhat puzzled. She suddenly felt that this man's cunning might not be easy to deal with.
"Oh? Do you mean to hand over the minister's position to me?"
Leshma said this, her face regaining a gentle smile as she entered her most comfortable state.
"Yes."
Su Xiao stood up, walked over to Leshma, and pointed to the minister's seat opposite, indicating that she was now the minister.
Leshma smiled more naturally, stood up, and sat in the minister's seat. She was already familiar with this chair; in fact, she had paid for the office leather chair herself—a custom-made snow bear leather chair that cost her 2,800 Kugo (the empire's common currency).
Leshma sat down naturally, and the next second, the minister's shoulder emblem was pushed in front of her. This caused her increasingly relaxed expression to shift slightly. She asked, "Then, Mr. White Night, what will you do next?"
"You're the minister. You decide."
"Is that so? Then, what did His Majesty the King previously instruct?"
"Eliminate all the gods."
Su Xiao's words made Leshma's expression freeze. She suddenly felt that this once-familiar seat had become like a bed of nails.
In the ensuing silence, Su Xiao opened his pocket watch again and checked the time. This immediately put Leshma on alert, as he had already looked at the watch three times since the conversation began.
"Mr. White Night, do you have urgent business?"
"No, I'm just following your orders, Minister. In about three seconds..."
Boom~
An explosion-like sound came from afar, like fireworks. Leshma rushed to the window and saw the top of a kilometer-high building in the distant King's District spewing flames upward like a flame thrower.
She immediately deduced that this was a controlled explosion targeting the "Machine God Cult's" headquarters in the royal city, using the building's defensive formations to seal it off and blow it up.
Leshma's only thought at that moment was: It's over. I've been tricked. I'm going to take the blame.
Su Xiao snapped his pocket watch shut, glanced at the large suitcase on the floor, and asked, "Minister, are you preparing to flee to avoid punishment?"
Hearing this, Leshma fell even more silent. She took a few deep breaths, weighed her options, then walked up to Su Xiao and handed back the minister's shoulder emblem. "Minister, please forgive my earlier rudeness."
Seeing this, Baha, standing nearby, said sarcastically, "Heh~, the empire's youngest supreme."
Leshma just kept breathing deeply. Her once vibrant eyes dimmed slightly as she struggled not to show emotion. Clearly, Leshma's mindset was subtly changing.
Su Xiao didn't take the shoulder emblem. He stared at Leshma for over ten seconds and said, "People like you are rare. Even rarer are those who can suppress the evil within for so long."
Hearing this, Leshma's already dim pupils grew even darker, and an uncontrollable faint smile began to form on her face.
She had been seen through. Leshma had always believed she was well-disguised. To her subordinates, she was a cold but dutiful superior; to her superiors, she was the empire's youngest supreme; to friends and family, she was a reliable relative; to her mother, she was a strong, outstanding daughter.
Only in her late father's eyes had Leshma never seen familial affection. This, oddly, brought her a hidden comfort. She didn't need others to love her; she craved seeing others suffer, which secretly, quietly, brought her pleasure.
She would never show this pleasure, yet she longed for that silent joy.
She still remembered the guilt in her father's gaze when he looked at her. As a child, she didn't understand, but as she grew up, she figured it out. This hidden evil within her was a contamination her father had contracted while fighting a powerful evil—a contamination with strong concealment.
Given her father's strength, he wouldn't have been affected by this hidden evil. The problem was, it was hereditary, passed down to Leshma, taking root in her heart and eventually merging with her.
Crack~!
The sound of teeth biting into flesh, even reaching the bone, came from Leshma as she bit down on her index finger. This caused her dim pupils to quickly regain brightness, signaling that she was suppressing herself once more.
Leshma didn't dare look at Su Xiao again. She quickly walked toward the office door, having determined that she had overreached today. The opponent she challenged was not on her level. This monster was on par with the old king and the ancient beings hidden behind the three major powers.
Su Xiao sat down in the leather chair. Leshma's hand gripped the office door handle, about to turn it.
"Don't you really want to be yourself for a while?"
Su Xiao's words froze Leshma's hand on the handle. Her hand trembled slightly, and her pupils began to dim again. Suddenly, the earring on her right ear emitted a faint golden glow, restoring her pupils' brightness, and her resolve to open the door and leave strengthened.
"What a pity. I was planning to recruit some subordinates for you—ones you could freely command and that wouldn't die easily. But it seems you don't want that opportunity."
Su Xiao put away his pocket watch. The moment he saw Leshma, he knew she was the vice-captain for his "Imperial Team." However, it seemed someone was helping Leshma suppress herself. He would need to kill that person, because cultivating Leshma was crucial to completing the "Abyss Task: Death's Grant" with two "Limit Task Completion" ratings in this world.
Leshma's hand on the door handle trembled slightly. Seeing this, Su Xiao said, "One month. I'll stay here for at least a month. After that, I'll help you suppress yourself."
Hearing this, Leshma could no longer control herself. Her pupils went completely dark, and a faint, elusive smile appeared on her face. She took off her jacket, sat down across from Su Xiao, leaned back with a somewhat languid demeanor, and asked in a calm, emotionless tone, "Minister, you said earlier you'd assign me some subordinates with strong vitality?"
"Yes."
"Where are they?"
"By this afternoon at the latest."
The people Su Xiao referred to were all powerful but could be tortured by Leshma as she pleased. Given his current status, he had full authority to requisition all serious criminals from the empire's maximum-security prisons. Moreover, the document had the king's personal signature, maximizing its effectiveness.
Given the empire's vast population and land area, all cities combined had a total of 950,000 prisons, including 260,000 large ones. Among these large prisons, 20,000 housed criminals with formidable power.
From these 20,000 maximum-security prisons, a total of 24,850 criminals had been transferred. Deputy Minister Tor Enta was responsible for this matter. To expedite things, all current powers of the "Imperial Special Affairs Department" could be exercised at the full authority of the minister.
Tor Enta didn't disappoint Su Xiao. In just one morning, he completed the selection and assembly of the criminals. Of course, this was also due to the efficiency of the department's clerical staff and the "cordial notifications" sent to the wardens of various prisons.
The message was simple: If the listed serious criminals weren't delivered to the designated location by noon, it wouldn't be a dismissal—it would be treated as a violation of wartime mobilization orders.
This was, of course, unreasonable. In normal times, the wardens would have taken this to the parliament. But under the current circumstances, they chose to comply obediently and pretend it was reasonable.
With their lives potentially at stake, these wardens, who had long profited from their positions, displayed astonishing efficiency. They paid out of their own pockets to personally escort the prisoners to the large teleportation towers in their cities.
Thus, by 9 a.m., all the criminals had gathered in an ancient underground palace about 700 kilometers southeast of the royal city. Because the wardens were so efficient, the barrier hadn't even been set up yet.
At 10 a.m., these criminals—who had escaped execution because the empire abolished the death penalty after the three ministers came to power—began their journey of redemption.
Why a journey of redemption? The answer was that these 24,850 criminals had to complete the arduous task of "eliminating evil" by noon. In other words, only 300 of them would walk out alive by noon. Otherwise, the barrier would shrink to the size of a Rubik's cube, forcibly fusing them all together.
As for the criminals being strong enough to break the barrier together? From 7:30 a.m. until now, the "Imperial Special Affairs Department" had mobilized all available barrier masters and even temporarily dismantled the headquarters' barrier core for this purpose.
Of course, if the criminals still wanted to try, the empire's Second Legion stationed outside the underground palace could also have a word with them.
One by one, buses drove into the open courtyard of the "Imperial Special Affairs Department." Soon, men and women in gray clothes with special collars around their necks stepped off. Though they had been cleaned, traces of blood could still be seen on them, and most bore injuries.
"Are these them?"
At the window, Leshma, who hadn't fully released herself, still had a hint of reluctance in her eyes.
"..."
Su Xiao tossed a thick stack of documents onto the table. Leshma picked them up and flipped through them. After a moment, a slight smile appeared on her face.
"Thank you for your gift, Lord White Night."
"Take them and clean up the Abyss Spreading Zones..."
Su Xiao gave Leshma her first order: start from the 25th Abyss Spreading Zone and work upward. If they encountered a supreme-level "Immortal Abyss Spawn," they were to surround and severely wound it, then imprison it for him to deal with later.
If they didn't encounter such a creature, they were to contact him after killing their way to the Abyss Passage. He would teleport to the nearby area and personally close the passage.
The combination of Leshma leading these criminals was still in its infancy. Once the criminals died down to just over a dozen, the "Imperial Team" would officially take shape.
Knock, knock, knock~
The office door was knocked on. It was the former Honorary Second Lieutenant Wells, now the Third Division's Chief Captain of the "Imperial Special Affairs Department." Don't underestimate this position; in the empire's official hierarchy, it corresponded to a non-city-district deputy mayor or lieutenant colonel's treatment—a promotion of several ranks.
The door opened, and Molei, Hao Mei, and Yueshitu walked in. The three looked troubled, thinking their luck had turned, only to be arrested by the most powerful force in this world upon arrival.
Initially, the three newly promoted supremes—Molei, Hao Mei, and Yueshitu—had wanted to resist. But after seeing dozens of airships above, with biological rail cannons protruding, and the surrounding forces—the weakest being absolute strong, with supremes as common as dirt—the Apocalypse Sisters wisely raised their hands in surrender.
Why "wisely"? Because they didn't beg for mercy throughout the process.
"You..."
Molei was about to say something when she saw Su Xiao toss out a Soul Coin. A small old man appeared out of thin air, catching the falling coin with one hand. It was the combination of Su Xiao and Kaisa.
Seeing these two at the same time, Molei's only thought was: "We're screwed."
Molei took a deep breath, raised her right hand, pointed her index finger at Su Xiao, and shouted, "Have... have the guts to fight one-on-one!"
A moment later, Molei, with a bloody nose and a slightly bruised left eye socket, flexed her left leg, which had just been put in a splint. You know what? That red potion that could seep through the skin really worked wonders for bone fractures. In no time, the bone had healed.
Free Reading.