# 728
Chapter 728
Strange Video
"An Qingyu and Jiang Er also found them?" Jialan asked curiously. "Where are those two?"
"Cao Yuan didn't go into details, but he said they would contact us soon." Lin Qiye paused. "From his tone, it seems like those two have done something really remarkable together…"
"Remarkable?" Wei Dong raised an eyebrow. "What could be more remarkable than becoming a black market legend and taking over all of Japan's underworld? Could they have actually conquered the entire country?"
Lin Qiye thought seriously for a moment. "If it were those two, it's entirely possible…"
Wei Dong's lips twitched. He silently rolled his eyes.
If all of you conquered the country, what would there be left for our Oath Society to do?
We'd just be unemployed.
"Returning to the country…" Shen Qingzhu gazed out the window, his brow slightly furrowed. "Didn't your cult say you were going to destroy this 'Human Enclosure'? So what happens to the people living inside it?"
"There's nothing we can do. We can only relocate five hundred thousand people in advance. The rest is out of our hands." The knight spoke calmly. He glanced at Amemiya Haruki sitting beside him and switched to Japanese. "Of course, if they find a way to save themselves, we won't stop them. After all, what we're destroying is just the artifact that houses the 'Human Enclosure' itself."
Amemiya Haruki stared at the night scenery outside, silent.
Although both the Oath Society and Amemiya Haruki aimed to destroy this country, the former destroyed for destruction's sake while the latter destroyed to save. Their stances differed, their beliefs differed, and thus their methods necessarily differed as well.
But at least their goals aligned in certain aspects—chief among them being the destruction of this nation's divine foundations.
"So how will you select these five hundred thousand people?" Shen Qingzhu continued asking.
"Select people with value." Wei Dong didn't hesitate in the slightest. "For instance, professionals with expertise in fields essential to survival and development, like engineering, agriculture, chemistry… then traditional cultural inheritors, such as ritual priestesses, master craftsmen… even hosts of host clubs. Then top talents from all walks of life—engineers, chefs, and even light novel writers and manga artists with real skill… They carry this nation's culture and symbols of daily life. They are the sparks of civilization that our Oath Society preserves out of humanitarian concern."
People with value, huh…
"So the yakuza aren't on that list?" Shen Qingzhu asked slowly.
"No." Wei Dong hesitated for a moment before continuing. "We won't allow harmful elements like gangsters and thugs into Utopia."
Shen Qingzhu sat in the passenger seat, saying nothing more.
He merely silently stared at the pitch-black road ahead, his eyes deep and unfathomable, lost in thought.
...
Pure Land.
"Qingyu! Cao Yuan just called and said he contacted Seven Nights and the others!"
Jiang Er, dressed in a white dress, drifted silently from the distance, her eyes brimming with delight.
"That fast?" An Qingyu was startled. "That scoundrel's efficiency is quite high…"
"He said Seven Nights is with Shen Qingzhu, Jialan, and Pangpang, up in Hokkaido." Jiang Er couldn't help but exclaim. "That means all the members of our squad are finally together!"
An Qingyu didn't seem surprised by this. He smiled faintly and said:
"As long as Seven Nights is here, even if the threads of fate have scattered, everyone will gradually converge toward him… It's as if there's some invisible force drawing us weirdos together…
He was born to be our leader."
"You, a big scientist, are starting to believe in this mystical nonsense?"
"Some things simply cannot be disbelieved." An Qingyu spoke helplessly. "Look at the members of our squad—none of them are simple, are they?"
"That's true."
An Qingyu stood by the window, falling silent for a moment. As if struck by a thought, he turned to Jiang Er and said:
"Jiang Er, that video… show it to me again."
"Again?" Jiang Er looked astonished. "You've watched it over thirty times these past few days, haven't you?"
"Things you don't understand naturally require more viewings." An Qingyu paused. "By the way, you didn't show that video to Cao Yuan, did you?"
"No, he asked me a couple days ago if I'd found that old video. I remembered your instructions and told him I hadn't. He didn't ask again after that."
"Good, that's fine then."
An Qingyu nodded. He walked to the massive electronic display screen nearby, and his expression gradually grew solemn.
"This thing… it's still better that he doesn't see it."
Fzzzzzzzz…
Under the effect of Jiang Er's Forbidden Ruins, the surface of the display began to flicker with static snow. After a moment, a video file automatically began playing.
This was a traffic surveillance video from two years ago, filmed in Hachimantai City. The lens faced a wide boulevard. There were no pedestrians on the road. Several cars sat scattered haphazardly in the middle of the street, doors flung open, but the passengers inside had vanished, as if they had fled in a hurry.
"There's that corner again. Zoom in." An Qingyu said.
Jiang Er manipulated the screen, magnifying a certain corner of the video several times. Through the blurry footage, one could faintly make out several robed figures in various colors surrounding a terrifying figure wreathed in black flames in the distance, at the center of the road.
Under the combined assault of the many Oracles, the black figure retreated step by step, its jet-black flames burning more and more intensely.
Suddenly, a blinding column of light, like divine punishment, came crashing down from the sky. It struck the black figure with pinpoint accuracy, instantly incinerating its head, chest, and torso. More than half of its body disappeared along with the road beneath its feet.
The black figure, having lost most of its body, did not fall. Instead, it stood rigidly in place, like a macabre stone statue.
Just as the many Oracles let their guard down, a pillar of black fire erupted from that shattered body, shooting straight into the heavens!
The fire pillar had a radius of several hundred meters. In an instant, it engulfed everything—streets, buildings, all of it. The surveillance equipment near that location was incinerated to ash. Had this particular camera not happened to be at the very edge of the fire pillar's range, it would have been affected as well.
Even so, the instant that black pillar of fire rose skyward, the footage on the monitor went into violent interference.
The subsequent footage was essentially unviewable. Yet An Qingyu didn't tell Jiang Er to stop. He stood before the screen, his eyes intently fixed on the display. A gray glint flickered in his gaze, as if he were searching for something.
The blackness in the footage gradually faded. Amidst the flickering screen, chaotic light and shadow interwove with images of streets, making one's head spin.
Just then, An Qingyu suddenly spoke:
"Stop!!"
The image froze.
"Turn the brightness to maximum. That area—zoom in further!"
The image brightened once more. Following An Qingyu's instructions, Jiang Er magnified a corner of the blurry screen. Within the dark imagery, a silhouette was barely visible.
It was a face—grinning hideously—without pupils, as if rising from hell, eerie and terrifying.
It was Cao Yuan's face.