Chapter 794: A Greater Storm Is Brewing

“Who could have guessed Chen Ye would put down the riot so quickly?”

“Damn it...”

In a dim room, several people sat in the darkness without even turning on the lights. Only their vague silhouettes could be made out. One of them was seated in an enormous chair, his whole body resembling a mountain of flesh.

Behind him, two more people sat in even deeper darkness, wishing they could make themselves invisible.

At the head of the room sat a graceful, dignified woman...

Well, how could anyone tell she was a woman when she was barely visible?

Because the dim light fell on her, revealing little, but outlining a figure that left plenty to the imagination.

She sat there with a presence all her own, an unsettling blend of danger, seduction, and serenity, qualities that seemed to have nothing in common.

The woman sat at the head of the room.

Perhaps no one in the room had explicitly taken the lead, but she stood apart from everyone else. No one was willing to get close to her.

The others looked at her with wariness, and were even reluctant to look at her for too long.

The one who had spoken just now was the mountain of flesh.

“Heh heh heh... Who else can you blame? You just happened to run into that one...”

“Even I wouldn’t dare claim I could beat him if I ran into him. You did well enough to make it out alive.”

It was impossible to tell who was speaking now, but judging by the voice, it was probably an old man.

“That man is fairly reasonable. Though he’s very strong, I haven’t heard that he’s ever gone out of his way to kill people.”

“You should be glad you ran into him. If it had been the person behind him, you’d be finished... That one would probably slaughter every last one of you!”

“Hmph... Isn’t he afraid that’ll provoke even greater resentment?”

The mountain of flesh sounded displeased.

“Hahaha... Greater resentment? Then we’ll suppress it with even greater force!”

“Everyone here, do you really have the courage to take him on?”

“I never saw him fight, but just hearing a few things about him is enough to make me wary!”

“That’s why we’re hiding here like rats in a gutter.”

Silence fell over the room.

“Hmph!”

The woman at the head of the room suddenly snorted.

“A bunch of cowards. You want a seat at the table, but you don’t have the guts to face the danger. Do you expect those people to give up their seats?”

The woman’s voice was beautiful, like the voice of one of those voice actors people used to hear online before the apocalypse.

From the small glimpse of her silhouette and her pleasant voice alone, the woman seemed almost flawless.

No one around her said anything.

“The person you’re talking about isn’t a problem, as far as I’m concerned!”

“If you can deal with the others, I’ll take care of him!”

“I may not be able to kill him, but I can at least drive him away!”

Everyone’s eyes immediately lit up.

“You... are you sure?”

Someone asked for confirmation.

“You don’t believe me?”

The woman’s voice was forceful.

The person who had asked instantly grew flustered. “N-no, that’s not it. It’s just that he’s too strong...”

“Hmph...”

The woman at the head of the room gave another snort and said nothing more.

But the people around her were clearly getting excited.

“If she can deal with that man, our chances will be much better!”

“True. There are still a few experts on their side, but it’s not as if we have no chance.”

“I have a way to draw at least one of them away!”

“Heh heh... I heard that man’s heavy-handed methods have already stirred up discontent within his own group. A few people have left. I can contact them and get them to join us.”

“Don’t forget, those people were among the best of the best when they got into that place.”

“That gives us another advantage.”

“That man looks powerful, but only two or three people genuinely support him. The rest have submitted only because his force leaves them no choice.”

“As long as we deal with them, we won’t have much trouble!”

“That Insect Breeder has left. I heard he has someone backing him, too!”

“Forget it. Whoever’s backing him is insignificant. They probably won’t get involved in our affairs.”

The group spoke in vague, guarded terms, but everyone knew what the others meant.

They were being careful enough that if someone had been eavesdropping outside, they probably wouldn’t have understood what they were talking about.

“I know someone on their side we might be able to win over. He’s completely different from them.”

“Who...?”

Everyone immediately grew interested.

“Number Eleven!”

“Oh, you mean him...”

Everyone fell into thought.

Someone nodded. “We can give it a try...”

“If we’re going to do this, we need to act faster. Once the rules are set, it’ll be difficult to do anything.”

“There are more and more people here, and they’ll only get stronger. We need a seat at the table sooner rather than later!”

“That’s right...”

“By the way, we can bring in people from the Goddess Symbiosis Society, too!”

“The Goddess Symbiosis Society has been growing rapidly lately, and it’s quite mysterious. They say there’s a big shot involved at the top!”

“I’ve heard that, too. How else could they have grown so smoothly without someone powerful backing them?”

“We can talk to them.”

“Maybe we can bring them to the table as well. Then we’ll have even better odds.”

“I agree! Let’s get a seat at the table first...”

The woman at the head of the room had said a few things at the start, but hadn’t spoken again since.

The others continued to flesh out the plan, one by one.

Soon, a massive, complicated, and even more thorough plan gradually took shape.

“By the way, I heard some strange things have been happening in your convoy lately.”

A man turned to ask the mountain-of-flesh-like man.

The man resembling a mountain of flesh paused briefly, then replied, “Strange things? Hmm... I think I’ve heard something about that, but it’s nothing serious.”

Hearing the mountain of flesh say that, the others immediately lost interest in looking into it.

If even he didn’t know what was going on, it probably wasn’t a big deal.

...

The blood moon hung high in the sky.

A layer of red moonlight fell over all of Xi City, lending the whole place a touch more cruelty.

Chen Ye wandered over to check on Gong Yong’s progress repairing the Monster Pickup Truck.

The answer he got was that it was almost fixed.

Gong Yong looked at Chen Ye as if he couldn’t stand the sight of him.

It wasn’t that he’d realized Chen Ye had manipulated him. It was simply the intense focus a mechanic was supposed to have while working.

Chen Ye was left speechless by a few of Gong Yong’s remarks, so he could only turn around and leave in a huff.

On his way home, he ran into Little Fish, that little brat.

When she saw Chen Ye, the brat rolled her eyes at him, looking as if she had no desire to talk to the Old Bastard.

Chen Ye tugged on the brat’s twin ponytails, then quickly returned to his room.

No matter how much she yelled outside the door, he pretended he couldn’t hear or see her.

“Chen Ye, you bastard, you bastard, you super bastard...”

“Argh... I’m going to kill you... You’re always bullying me...”

The little girl’s sharp curses came from outside. Chen Ye smugly locked the door.

After thinking it over, he even pushed the sofa against it.

The apartment wasn’t very big, just an ordinary two-bedroom, two-living-room unit.

The furnishings were simple, too. Apart from a somewhat battered bed, a worn-out sofa in the living room, and some supplies stored in the kitchen, there was nothing else.

As for the television in the living room... it had been broken for ages.

The only reason Chen Ye hadn’t had it hauled away was that he planned to keep it as a decoration. At least it could serve as proof that civilization had once existed.

Ever since the apartment had been assigned to Chen Ye, he hadn’t let anyone inside.

He pulled a few battered things out from under the bedroom bed.

Among them were the Resentment Dragon’s Scale, the Tangled Remnant Limb, Hatred’s old handle, and its blood-red scabbard.

The scabbard had changed somewhat, too.

It used to send blood-red, blood-vessel-like filaments probing out from within.

But ever since Hatred had been destroyed, the scabbard seemed to have died as well. Chen Ye had never seen those fine blood-red filaments emerge again.

As for the scabbard itself...

The willow branches that had once wrapped around it had long since dried up. The slightest touch crumbled them into dust that fell to the floor.

Chen Ye let out a soft sigh. Hatred had been with him for so long, and it had even been the first Wonder he’d ever obtained.

At one point, he’d thought Hatred would grow into one of the top hundred Wonders.

He’d never imagined its life would end so soon.

Putting aside the jumble of thoughts in his mind, Chen Ye unhooked Hundred-Ghost Eater from behind his waist.

Hundred-Ghost Eater hadn’t changed much from before. It was still that same blade...

After Hundred-Ghost Eater devoured Number Two, it had remained in the middle of advancing.

A few days ago, the Supernatural Power inside Chen Ye had been nearly depleted, so he hadn’t continued investigating what was going on.

Today, he felt that his Supernatural Power had been replenished considerably. Perhaps he could go in and take a look, to see what had happened to Hundred-Ghost Eater.