Chapter 291: Checkmate

On television screens in every household across Wind Capital, the broadcast depicted all of this with vivid clarity.

Though not entirely clear, as the torrential rain still blocked part of the view, the image of the pink-haired young man being severed cleanly at the waist, his upper and lower body crashing heavily onto the ruins, could still be recognized with relative ease by the viewers.

"What the heck, a newly released popcorn blockbuster?"

Someone clicked their tongue in amazement.

"But all nine channels in Wind Capital are playing this. Which company has that kind of financial backing? And there wasn't a single whisper about it before. Could it be a prank? Hackers?"

Someone was puzzled.

"Tch, cheap production. Cut in half, no organs spilling out, no blood either. Could it be any faker?"

Someone scoffed at the domestic production's quality.

"This can't possibly be... real, can it? Does our world actually have monsters like this?"

There were also those who felt uneasy.

"Hahaha, I've been saying all along that superpowers exist in this world! This Daoist has finally been proven right!"

Wow, there was even a Dan...zi fan.

But no matter what the viewers said out loud, everyone who saw this disjointed footage couldn't help but feel a lingering shadow of dread settle over their hearts, and few bothered to change the channel.

As if drawn by some strange attraction.

If this footage continued playing, something major was truly going to happen within it.

Some spiritually sensitive children were so terrified they burst into loud crying, burying themselves in their parents' arms.

That monstrous figure with its menacing blue-green armor, merely standing in the frame, caused an uncontrollable restlessness and panic to well up from the depths of one's heart.

Because demons themselves were the physical manifestation of humanity's fears and negative emotions.

...

Inside a lavishly decorated executive office.

A slender figure sat behind a wide rosewood desk, raising a crystal goblet slightly and gently swirling the deep red wine within, before downing it in one gulp.

He spoke softly: "Checkmate."

Behind him stood a symbol shaped like the letter "X."

...

At the edge of the battlefield, the torrential rain continued to pour down, splashing water onto everyone present.

Yet at this moment, no one had the mind to care about any of that.

Yan Jing's hand, which had been pushing up his glasses, froze mid-air, his eyes behind the round frames filled with incomprehensible shock.

Chen Yujie lay collapsed beside an abandoned car, staring blankly at the distant sky.

And Luo Xi, standing nearby, had her golden eyes wide open, her small hands clenched into fists, the wolf ears atop her head standing perfectly straight, her face written entirely with shock.

The egomaniac got cut in half?!

On the other side, the "Sand Crocodile" let out a long breath: "Looks like that Wu Nuo won't be able to come kill me after all."

"This job's in the bag. I won't need to run anymore."

But even as he said this.

When his gaze fell upon that horrifying figure in the sky, a thick sense of shock and fear, even a hint of regret, still flickered through his eyes.

What exactly was going to happen next?

Taking that job on the anonymous website, wading into these unknown and unfathomably deep waters in Wind Capital... was it really worth it?

And at this moment.

Inside Sixth Division Headquarters.

Qin Shengshi coughed violently several more times, a thick taste of blood spreading through her mouth.

Wu Nuo had been defeated, and those old, deeply entrenched factions continued to play deaf and dumb, refusing to get involved.

"..."

Qin Shengshi indeed hadn't used up all her cards yet, but those were measures of mutual destruction, harmful rather than beneficial to this city, only adding fuel to the fire in the current situation.

So, she knew...

There was no way left for her to stop the contaminated demon's ritual from being completed.

...

Within the curtain of rain, Wu Nuo, who had crashed heavily to the ground, had not lost his vital signs.

"Cough..."

Around the severed edges of his two body segments, a dense layer of gray curse power surged, seeming to ripple with spatial fluctuations, forcibly maintaining his state of consciousness.

The contaminated demon in mid-air descended slowly, its blue-green compound eyes looking down at the defeated opponent on the ground, no surprise visible in them.

Among second Energy Level demon-people and demons, quite a few could maintain their lives even after having their heads cut off.

As the Strongest, how could he possibly die from something as trivial as being cut in half? There was no way someone like that actually existed, right?

Seeing the unwilling look in the other's eyes, the contaminated demon's head, covered in dual-colored armor, twisted grotesquely, as if it were smiling.

"Still haven't figured it out?"

It stood before Wu Nuo's upper body, looking down at him from above, its curse power flickering with indistinct figures under the world's suppression, yet appearing all the more evil and ominous.

"When your spell experienced circuit burnout, the spatial defenses around you had no choice but to pause. That was when I [contaminated] a portion of your curse power."

"So... your slash became my slash."

It taunted: "Being hit by your own slash, this must be a first, am I right?"

"..."

"Don't worry, I won't kill you... You carry something very frightening on you. There's no need to stir up unnecessary trouble."

Wu Nuo stared at it intently, his lower body beginning to slowly drag itself closer, as if trying to reconnect.

But the next moment, it casually waved a hand from above, and an unidentifiable, sinister curse power rippled across Wu Nuo's body, causing him to grimace in pain: "Damn it..."

The twisted face of the contaminated demon grew increasingly amused, its tone even carrying a hint of victor's admiration:

"Truly breathtaking... Wind Capital's child of destiny, I fear I will never forget you in this lifetime."

"If we were truly on the same Energy Level, a demon as unskilled in combat as myself would probably have no choice but to retreat and keep a wide berth."

"However..."

"Mr. Wu Nuo, do you know why you lost today? Do you know why you fought alone?"

The demon spread its arms wide, striking a victor's pose.

It laughed heartily: "Because your enemy... is all of Wind Capital."

"..."

Even though Wu Nuo remained silent, the demon continued its rambling, as if it had been suppressing this for far, far too long:

"You were born on the eve of this mystery's revival, a being destined to rise in response to Wind Capital's crisis. A true unparalleled genius, a child of destiny."

"Of course you don't care about waiting another ten or twenty years. By then, you'd still be in your prime, still walking ahead of everyone else, welcoming the golden age that was destined to come."

The demon suddenly said: "But what about everyone else?"

Its voice gradually carried a trace of mockery: "Among those factions, how many half-buried old fossils are hiding? When they were young, they were just as spirited and dazzling as you, believing themselves to be the protagonists of their era."

</path>ReadBestsellers

"But in the end... they all got stuck at this threshold."

The demon said softly: "If they don't break through soon, they'll die of old age."

"Apart from them, countless ordinary people who should have had the chance to step into the supernatural world have also been blocked at the gate by you, while those beings who sealed themselves away since ancient times are single-mindedly waiting for the mystery's revival..."

"The Wind Capital Sixth Division tries to block everyone's path, yet brands itself as justice. How utterly laughable."