Chapter 44
[Everyone must have heard about the assassination that took place at Beiyuan Building in the Chenxing Empire last night, right?]
[I heard the victim was a titled nobleman, and the assassin infiltrated the party to kill him.]
[Wow, that assassin was really brave!]
[Hehe, the Chenxing Empire must be in chaos now! Although they’re trying to keep it under wraps and we don’t know the specifics, knowing their nature, the royal family, nobility, cabinet, and parliament are probably at each other’s throats!]
[I bet they’ll pin the blame on the parliament, who’ll then blame it on their domestic terrorist groups...]
[In the end, it’ll just be a bunch of power exchanges. As a mere commoner, I’m well-versed in international affairs. I can strategize from within my home and win battles a thousand miles away :)]
[Hehe, fight! Fight!]
[I bet a dog’s head that the royal family will win!]
[I bet a duck’s head.]
[It’s a human life, doesn’t it deserve at least a pig’s head? I bet an imported feed-raised pig’s head.]
[You guys are too much. A Sir died, and you’re all gloating. You have no spirit of international friendship... I’d say this was beautifully executed, hahaha!]
[The 40-meter blade can’t be retracted now. Let’s give our fallen comrade a grand burial!]
In this era of advanced internet, even across oceans, such a sensational event spread globally overnight. Early in the morning, everyone in Yao Country became a spectator to the drama.
Due to the war that swept the world years ago, there was already some old grudge between Yao Country and the Chenxing Empire. Moreover, Yao Country was currently the most thorough constitutional monarchy on Blue Star, while the Empire was somewhat hypocritical. The two sides often exchanged sarcasm and mockery over this point.
Yao Country people ridiculed the Empire as feudal, corrupt, with a dark society and backward system. The Empire, in turn, cursed Yao Country’s emperor as useless and incompetent, with the cabinet holding all power, just a disguised dictatorship. They boasted that in the Empire, the three forces balanced each other, and every class had a voice, promoting the Empire as free and open – although everyone in the world knew that the Empire’s media and most mouthpieces were controlled by the upper elite, including the parliament that claimed to represent public opinion. When those members were elected from the common people to become part of the parliament, they became another elite class, just as dragon slayers eventually become evil dragons themselves.
Thus, when the Empire was in trouble, except for a very few, most people in Yao Country became overly excited spectators.
“The reason we called everyone here early this morning is because of the assassination at Beiyuan Building in the Chenxing Empire...”
Yao Country Imperial Capital, Supernatural Affairs Investigation Bureau Headquarters Base.
The familiar conference room was still the same, with An Yuansheng, dressed formally, sitting at the head of the table and turning on the projector.
“Originally, this incident had nothing to do with our department, but just now, the international intelligence department sent us a message. They obtained surveillance footage from the party that night...” Amidst the confused or surprised looks of everyone, he slowly brought up an image on the screen.
It was the interior of a luxurious and intoxicating hotel, with hazy lights casting a misty glow on everyone’s faces. In one corner of the photo was a black and white piano, like a solitary swan perched to the side, sacred and elegant.
Someone was sitting at the piano, immersed in playing.
“This... how can it be him?!”
When that familiar profile appeared on the screen, someone in the conference room stood up in shock.
No wonder everyone was so shocked – wasn’t this the culprit of the Yuanyang City rainy night serial killings, [K]?
“This guy actually went to the Chenxing Empire, and got involved in this assassination case?”
An Yuansheng shook his head. “No, he should be the assassin. Due to the angle of the surveillance camera and his cleverly chosen position, the camera only captured him playing the piano. The process from him turning around to firing the gun wasn’t recorded... But he was the only one who mysteriously disappeared that night, and it was discovered that he had knocked out the pianist to infiltrate – it’s obvious he’s suspicious. The Chenxing Empire government will certainly take corresponding measures.”
“However, that’s not our concern. Our Supernatural Affairs Investigation Bureau is only responsible for supernatural matters, so we only need to discuss on this level.”
Seeing everyone deep in thought, she continued seriously. “Moreover, I think the Flower Speaker revealed another very important piece of information. This might be the key of keys.”
“The order of human logic has its own guardians!”
She repeated this sentence before saying, “Doesn’t this suggest that there’s a set of rules in the supernatural world that constrains everyone? Even visitors from other realms are no exception. If their actions exceed certain limits, they’ll face rule-based sanctions. It’s very likely that there exists some kind of enforcer role.”
“Is it possible that beyond the reality we perceive, there exists another force, possibly human enforcers or some rule for extraordinaries, that restricts and regulates the actions of extraordinaries?”
“That’s why for so many years, we haven’t discovered any traces of extraordinaries. And now that the world is experiencing anomalies, the constraints of this set of rules have lessened, or the range of elasticity has increased, which is why we have the Rainy Night Serial Killings and traces of the Flower Speaker appearing. But if any extraordinaries try to cause bigger incidents, that set of rules will restrain them again.”
“That’s why the Flower Speaker said we don’t need to worry about major disturbances for now.”
“Given this, what we need to do is, before the anomalies become greater and the rules loosen further, before extraordinaries can cause bigger incidents, we must gain enough intelligence and power, preferably acquiring our own supernatural abilities. Only then will we have a chance to deal with greater disturbances in the future.”
“Therefore, Xing Country isn’t important, and neither is K, an otherworldly visitor who clearly can’t cooperate and is difficult to capture. We should focus on finding local extraordinaries, strengthening our connection with the Flower Speaker, and improving population management and monitoring. Ideally, we should be able to detect the next otherworldly visitor as soon as they appear...”
This speech greatly shocked everyone.
In fact, they had already interpreted the Flower Speaker’s words many times before and could guess most of the meanings. After all, they could summon experts from various fields to assist them at any time, and analyzing a passage wasn’t a particularly difficult task.
But none of the previous interpretations had been as thorough, straightforward, and precise as Liu Ningshuang’s explanation today.
It might also be because some people didn’t have the clearance to know all the information about extraordinaries, and thus couldn’t make a thorough interpretation. Instead, they over-interpreted, analyzing too many possibilities.
“Clap, clap, clap! Logical and convincing!”
Li Fufeng was the first to applaud, giving a thumbs up to Liu Ningshuang beside him. “Such clear and structured thoughts don’t seem like your style at all. Shouldn’t you be rushing in headfirst according to your usual style?”
“Well, um, of course I got a little guidance from my cousin,” Liu Ningshuang said, feeling a bit guilty.
She glanced at Yin Xubai and told the truth. “Okay, okay, it was 80% guidance, but I contributed 20% too.”
— Last time, she had sacrificed herself as a shield against her cousin’s marriage pressure in exchange for his guidance without holding grudges.
— Otherwise, if she had just asked him directly like before, she would have only received a contemptuous look from the genius scholar.
Thinking about this, Liu Ningshuang became more confident. After all, she had paid a big price for this!
Just then, an urgent message came into the conference room.
The voice from the other end of the phone was hurried and tense, revealing strong disbelief and fear amidst the shock. It was as if they had discovered something beyond comprehension.
“This is an urgent message from Yuanyang City...”
“The Tianhai Bar, the alley behind Tianhai Bar...”
“The area we cordoned off under the name of government construction, just a few minutes ago...”
“– A strange inn suddenly appeared out of thin air!”
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