Volume One: The Nature of the Devil Never Changes
Arc: The Great Guerrilla War
Scarlet King stood still, while before him the System Engineer hovered in the air through the jetpack extending from his back.
The System Engineer said as he gestured toward the laboratory:
"During the past period, we developed the cave into a laboratory like the one we had on Earth…"
But Scarlet King was not paying attention to his words.
He felt something strange…
A strange energy was spreading through the place.
He knew and remembered all the energy signatures of the people inside the laboratory,
but this time there was something different…
A difference too subtle for others to notice,
but not subtle enough to escape him.
Scarlet King interrupted the System Engineer:
"There is an unfamiliar energy in this place."
It was not a familiar energy from the workers,
nor was it an aura that could be grasped like the one surrounding the Yin and Yang Guards.
It was… foreign to this place.
The System Engineer looked around and found nothing strange.
The workers were moving, the Yin and Yang Guards were talking, and the bears were asleep.
"I don't sense anything unusual, sir."
Scarlet King's gaze swept across the laboratory.
Then he slowly turned to the left
and looked at something no one else could see.
He held that gaze for a few seconds.
Then suddenly, he heard the faintest sound of movement.
Scarlet King's pupils widened in a frightening way, and he said in a low voice:
"I found you."
His hand shot forward and grabbed something.
Scarlet King tightened his grip.
But in the System Engineer's eyes…
Scarlet King was grasping empty air.
Suddenly, that thing struggled violently, and a burst of air exploded outward.
At the same moment, a shoeprint appeared on Scarlet King's shoulder.
Scarlet King calmly grabbed the thing's leg and began twisting it slowly, then said:
"You are not alone.
No one comes near me… without a reason."
That thing did not answer.
So Scarlet King increased the force,
until the sound of air bubbles bursting dangerously inside the leg could be heard.
Then the thing screamed:
"S-stop… please!"
Scarlet King—and everyone else—noticed that the voice…
did not match.
Female.
But the body—
was not.
Scarlet King did not care. He kept twisting the leg coldly while staring straight at that thing.
He tilted his head slightly and said calmly:
"Confess."
"Dying because of spying…
is worse than dying for no reason."
Suddenly, the thing's other leg moved and kicked Scarlet King in the face.
He did not move even a hair.
Only a faint bloodstain appeared on the cloth.
Then Scarlet King said mercilessly:
"That was a bad decision…"
He twisted the leg violently.
A sound rang out—
Grrraak
The leg broke in an instant.
That made the thing scream loudly:
"Damn you, Gu Yue!"
Scarlet King fell silent…
Then tightened his grip even more on the broken leg.
"Gu Yue…"
"A name known only to…"
He slowly raised his gaze—
"the disciples of the Heavenly Food Sect."
Suddenly, the thing shouted:
"Pen Destruction Strike!"
But Scarlet King moved first and punched it in the face with such force that the sound of the jawbone cracking echoed clearly.
The thing lost consciousness immediately.
The body fell.
Its features began to form…
little by little…
until—
they became clear.
Scarlet King whispered in surprise:
"Wei Xia Mo?"
"It's a good thing I knocked him out instead of killing him."
Scarlet King raised his voice and pointed at two guards inside the laboratory:
"Take him to the prison…"
The System Engineer replied:
"Sir, we don't have a prison."
Scarlet King looked at the System Engineer with a stare so intense that the machine's body twitched with electricity, then said:
"Oh, wait."
"Yes, sir, I remember now. We do have holding cells for enemies. We'll put this person in one immediately."
The System Engineer shouted at the two guards:
"Dig into the wall and install qi-reinforced bars!"
"Hurry, now!!"
The two guards moved at once. They picked up Wei Xia Mo's body, then headed toward one corner of the laboratory. They pulled out several tools and began carving into the wall quickly and forcefully, while Wei Xia Mo's unconscious body lay on the ground beside them.
Then the System Engineer asked:
"Do you want to interrogate him after he wakes up?"
Scarlet King replied:
"I came here to take the little girl…
whose name I still don't know."
"And Wei Xia Mo definitely followed me out of curiosity. No one sent him."
The System Engineer asked:
"How can you be sure?"
Scarlet King answered:
"You'll see when he wakes up."
"Now… bring me the little girl."