Chapter 566 - 35: I Confess, I’ll Tell Everything

It’s a nearly unavoidable human failing to feel jealousy and anxiety in the face of such a disparity.

But if I were going to be jealous, I would have been, long ago, when Su Zhou was hopping about in front of me, full of life, while I could barely take two steps without gasping for air. But back then, Su Zhou would carry me on his back or push my wheelchair, so I learned early on not to be jealous of him.

014’s goal hadn’t changed. He was now offering to provide resources to support my Cultivation, asking only that I hand over the highest administrative authority to him. All they needed was that link of Cause and Effect; they would still manage the fan club with the utmost diligence. In essence, they were spending a vast amount of resources to purchase a channel for communicating with a Great Being. I wouldn’t have to give up a thing. It was the ultimate win-win.

None of this mattered to Su Zhou—why would he care about a fan club? The same went for Yara; Her true self in the Void was the one responding to the calls anyway. For me, getting resources without having to do the work of the Steward was the deal of a lifetime. And for the Continuous Prayer Meeting, paying for Cause and Effect was, at the very least, still a profit.

So, when I showed him I didn’t care, a look of sheer bewilderment crossed 014’s face.

"How could that be?" he said, his voice laced with disbelief. "Don’t you feel any anxiety? Especially with Su Zhou lately? He’s been showing more and more of the tyranny and viciousness hidden within his Undying Blood. You can see it in the video circulating online of him eating the Ghost Car raw! He’s finding it hard to suppress the subversive, destructive desires that originate from a Great Being, from Chaos. But we, the Continuous Prayer Meeting, have ways to curb that desire!"

"Aren’t you afraid that one day, Su Zhou will truly cast aside old friends like you and walk the path of Chaos alone... or even become the Demon King who subverts the Order of this world?"

He had originally thought that after he laid out the stakes, my stance would soften, that I’d at least consider some form of cooperation with the Continuous Prayer Meeting. Even if I refused, they could at least plant a seed of doubt in my mind. At worst, they’d just find another chance to talk to and tempt me later. He never expected my decision to be so simple and final.

Their main problem was that they’d gotten one thing wrong from the very beginning—they had completely misunderstood Su Zhou’s true nature.

"You’re all just hopelessly wrong."

I shook my head and sighed at 014. "Su Zhou is so kind and mild-mannered. You could even call him a soft-hearted, gentle person. How is that tyrannical and vicious?"

looked utterly baffled.

I noticed his confused expression and couldn’t help but shake my head again. ’The world always misunderstands Su Zhou so completely,’ I thought. ’I didn’t expect a member of an old Mysterious Organization like 014 to be an exception.’

So, I could only explain patiently and in detail, "Think about it. Su Zhou didn’t even eat the Ghost Car raw in front of its children, or eat its children raw in front of it. He didn’t beat the Ghost Car half to death, put it on a spit to roast it, baste it with oil and chili, and sprinkle it with cumin and pepper. How can you call that tyrannical and brutal?"

"He finished the Ghost Car off in one bite. So gentle. So soft-hearted, giving an Evil Beast like that a quick end. I often find myself wringing my hands and sighing, thinking that after gaining so much power, Su Zhou has developed far, far too much compassion for the creatures of this world."

014’s bewilderment only deepened.

By then, I was already lost in memory. "You know, Su Zhou has always been this gentle. When we were kids, he ran into a human trafficker and just planned to knock him out and turn him over to the police. It was only after I reminded him how much suffering traffickers cause families, and how ugly human nature truly is, that he had a moment of realization and broke the man’s arms and legs."

"And then there was that middle-aged man we ran into, the one who had beaten a young girl to death and was on the run. He tried to attack us, too. If I hadn’t reminded Su Zhou that it was self-defense, he probably would have held back and just broken the man’s legs instead of paralyzing him from the neck down, ensuring he’d never have the chance to harm a child again."

Sighing, I added with some regret, "Thinking back, if Su Zhou had actually killed him then, he might have attracted the attention of the state’s Extraordinary agencies. Our destinies would have changed. Who knows if it would have been for better or for worse."

"When I was a child, I had no strength of my own, so I could only ask my friend to act for me. When I really think about it, my situation now is so much better than it was back then. So why should I be anxious now, just because my friend has surpassed me?"

stammered, "Wait... you..."

That guy, 014, was staring at me as if he were looking at something horrifying. Of course, I knew exactly what he wanted to say.

Everyone always says that he who touches pitch will be defiled. But most people can’t tell who is the pitch and who is the water being stained black. They even get the relationship between the two backward.

Of course, it’s also possible that both parties are the pitch... Who knows?

’In any case, you can’t expect someone who was born frail and sickly to be a paragon of mental health, can you?’

"I am Shao Qiming."

In response to 014’s shock, I just nodded and smiled. "And what’s so bad about my friend Su Zhou becoming the Demon King? Setting aside the fact that he’s not cut out for it, if he really did become one, then I could be his Prime Minister. After all, this Demon King is always too gentle. He needs me to plan his strategies for him."

"Besides, it’s almost time." I lowered my head, glanced at my watch, and said.

"Time for what?" 014 asked instinctively, but then his face immediately went pale.