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Chapter 693. Assembling (3)

No one had forced him to kowtow. No one told him to do it beforehand, either. Even then, Zhu Gang still willingly planted his forehead on the dirt and displayed his utmost respect toward the demon emperor.

A random passerby seeing this scene would think a deeply loyal servant had finally met their master after a long time apart. Even though this was their first time meeting each other face-to-face!

Zhu Gang couldn\'t understand it at all.

It should be the same story for others, too. Even Zhu Gang couldn\'t understand why he was doing this, so what chances did others have?

His mind was a mess, but his body didn\'t want to move a muscle as if it had been trapped in plaster. It was as if he was born to plant his head on the ground and offer his unreserved worship toward this returner before his eyes.

\'Fine, I admit I can\'t understand why!\'

Even if his head couldn\'t figure anything out, his instincts still told him one thing. He was certain about it now. Some people might mock him for kowtowing. However, every demonic cultivator worth their salt would undoubtedly react the same as Zhu Gang. He could bet his life on it!

When he thought about it, wasn\'t it rather weird?

Yes, that man was the demon emperor. The old codgers referred to that returner as the one-and-only demon emperor! Zhu Gang had no idea if those old folks were right when they fervently believed this demon emperor held the key to the demon cult\'s future revival.

Their belief went beyond the level of using this returner as a means to an end. No, they believed him to be their messiah, their master, worthy of sacrificing even their souls. In that case, why did they dispatch a guide like Zhu Gang?

What would they have done if Zhu Gang angered the demon emperor somehow? After all, the odds of that happening were pretty high, considering all the sacrilegious things he had been thinking about until a few seconds ago!

So, to say those old men hadn\'t even considered that possibility? Those old, sly foxes? That made zero sense.

That could mean only one thing: they already knew. They knew how a demonic cultivator would react after encountering the demon emperor.

Their individual thoughts? Respect toward the demon emperor?

Such things wouldn\'t matter. Any demonic cultivator encountering the ginormous \'demonic\' power they had never experienced before would start worshiping this power, even going as far as to offer up their souls... just like what happened with Zhu Gang this time.

That was because it was impossible to resist.

Even if Zhu Gang only had cultivated lousy demonic arts, he was still a demonic cultivator. And a man who had reached a realm that people like Zhu Gang never thought they could reach in their lifetime was standing before his eyes.

Just taking one look at the demon emperor was enough to let Zhu Gang know that this demonic power was incredibly pure.

The... demon emperor!

Zhu Gang suddenly had an epiphany. The title of the \'demon emperor\' wasn\'t merely a reference to a position in the demon cult. And this noble being was the sole existence under the heavens truly deserving of that title!

Even if Zhu Gang\'s head didn\'t understand it, his heart did.

The purest demonic qi imaginable was subtly leaking out from the demon emperor.

Like a moth drawn to a flame, Zhu Gang\'s soul was being entranced by all the demonic qi emitted by the demon emperor, Kang Jin-Ho!

Similar to analyzing a creature\'s information through the pheromone being emitted, Zhu Gang learned so many things through this demonic qi alone. Such as: how strong the demon emperor was and how truly great he was. And Zhu Gang could also tell how cruel and merciless this noble being was!

He was a tyrant!

A true tyrant worthy of worship by all demonic cultivators had descended right in front of Zhu Gang!

For some reason, Zhu Gang felt the familiar stinging sensation around his eyes. Even though nothing had been said or even begun, a ray of hope beamed into the darkness of his heart. It felt like this noble being\'s existence alone would resolve every dastardly problem piled up in front of the demonic cultivators.

How funny and naive was that?

Zhu Gang finally understood something as this stunningly bizarre emotion washed over him. He now knew why the old codgers worshiped this man as their god. This story wouldn\'t apply to other martial artists, but to every other demonic cultivator under the sun. It made total sense to Zhu Gang that the demon emperor would be deified like this. Maybe he was something even greater than a god!

Gods only acted as the pillar of psychological support and didn\'t actually offer a helping hand to their suffering followers on Earth. Unlike them, this noble being could offer the demonic cultivators realistic assistance. In that case, how could Zhu Gang compare the demon emperor to some measly gods?

Ba-dump!

Zhu Gang\'s heart madly pounded away. That was when a question suddenly popped up in his head.

It became starkly clear to everyone what Zhu Gang thought about the demon emperor. However, how did the demon emperor view Zhu Gang? How would he view a pathetically weak demonic cultivator who could only worship the godly power before him?

Would the demon emperor feel content? Or furious at how weak Zhu Gang was?

Zhu Gang would never dare guess. The best he could do right now was sneakily raise his head a little and cautiously gauge the mood of the demon emperor scanning him from above.

Eventually, the demon emperor slowly, oh-so-agonizingly slowly... raised his voice. “You are...”

Zhu Gang\'s ears perked up. When the demon emperor said \'you are\', what was he trying to say?

Every fiber of Zhu Gang\'s being was focused on the words leaving Kang Jin-Ho\'s mouth. And those words grandly shattered Zhu Gang\'s anticipation into tiny bits and pieces.

“You are embarrassing me, so why don\'t you stand up first?”

“...”

Zhu Gang learned another thing today.

\'Aha. Even the demon emperor can feel embarrassed, huh...\'

He swore inwardly that the first tale he\'d tell to those anxiously waiting for the news on the demon emperor would be about this valuable information.

***

“Say what? They failed?” Wang Chen asked incredulously, his eyes powerfully quaking.

That was a familiar story, wasn\'t it? The story of failure, that was.

Wang Chen shouldn\'t be shocked to hear about it. Every human went through the constant cycle of success and failure, after all. Anyone with an easily spooked heart shouldn\'t be able to survive this harsh and unforgiving world.

Even so, Wang Chen still failed to hide his agitation this time. All because he had ensured that this task wouldn\'t fail!

“Run that by me again? They failed?”

“...Yes, big brother,” Wu Xun replied, his voice lacking much energy. It seemed he, too, took this failure quite hard.

“I don\'t believe this...!” Wang Chen hurriedly shoved his still-trembling hand inside his inner pocket. He somehow managed to take out a cigarette and place it between his lips. “Fuu-woo...!”

After lighting the cigarette and sucking in the unhealthy smoke until his lungs were filled, Wang Chen felt his agitation finally calming down a little.

He grimaced while glancing at Wu Xun. “Didn\'t the intel say we\'re dealing with three men?”

“Yes, big, brother.”

“Okay, so... Let\'s break this down, okay? To kill those three, we mobilized over a hundred men. Yet, they all failed. That\'s what you\'re saying, right?”

“...”

Wang Chen suddenly snapped the cigarette in half. “What the f*ck? Did Superman really descend into our midst or something? Ah?! Did he get tired of showing up only in movies, so he decided to mess around in reality, too?! F*cking hell! Over a hundred men went there, but what was that? They failed?! F*king sons of b*tches!”

BOOM!

Wang Chen\'s fist slammed into his desk. The solid-wood desk couldn\'t endure the blow and split apart in half before collapsing noisily to the floor. The computer monitor, keyboard, and various documents also noisily scattered and tumbled to the ground.

“You... You f*cking useless retard!” Wang Chen suddenly kicked Wu Xun without any warning whatsoever.

Wu Xun\'s figure flew back before slamming into a wall. However, he didn\'t even let out a pained whimper.

“God f*cking dammit!” Wang Chen grabbed at his hair while turning around. It was as if he couldn\'t give a toss about Wu Xun\'s condition. “They failed? How?!”

Wang Chen paced around his office while pulling at his hair for a while. Eventually, he stopped moving around and gritted his teeth.

“Hey, Wu Xun! What\'s the status for our men?”

“...They were annihilated, big brother.”

“You dumb sh*t! You think I can\'t guess that? Tell me the casualty numbers, dammit!”

“Five have died, while the rest are all heavily injured. However, no one knows if they can recover from...”

“Five died?” Wang Chen\'s expression instantly regained its calm as he muttered quietly. “Let me ask you this again. You said five have died. Didn\'t you?”

“Yes, big brother.”

“Really...?” Wang Chen seemed to ponder something before nodding contemplatively and muttering to himself. “Five, eh? Five deaths... Now there\'s a vague number. However, it\'s worth pushing through with it, I think? Yeah, it\'s not a bad number...”

“...?”

“Hey, Wu Xun. Do any of the boys in the hospital look like they might kick the bucket any time soon?”

Wu Xun found it difficult to understand what Wang Chen wanted here. Did his big brother want more dead victims? Or he didn\'t want anyone else to die? “Big brother, no one\'s hanging by a thread, but... If you want...”

Smack!

Before Wu Xun could finish his sentence, an ashtray suddenly flew in and crashed into his forehead.

“...”

Getting hit by an ashtray was not a big deal. It could\'ve resulted in a serious injury if Wu Xun had been a non-martial artist, but an ashtray made out of glass couldn\'t injure him all that badly. Besides, Wang Chen didn\'t bother to use his qi while throwing the item, anyway.

“You f*cking idiot! I\'ll lose my only excuse if more men die under my watch!”

“M-my apologies, big brother.”

Wang Chen took out a fresh cigarette and mouthed it. “Those idiots getting hurt isn\'t a concern. People getting killed isn\'t a big problem, either. We can always find replacements for trash like them, anyway. No, the real problem is how those three killed only five while fighting against a hundred men.”

“I... don\'t understand why that\'s the issue, big brother.”

“Let\'s say you\'re fighting a hundred enemies. Which option do you think will be easier? Not holding back and killing as many as possible out of a hundred enemies prepared to kill you? Or hold your strength back and kill only a handful?”

“...Not holding back should be easier.”

“There you go. If everyone had died, the higher-ups would\'ve criticized me for not dispatching enough men for the job. However, only five died? Doesn\'t that mean even if I send twice the number next time, it won\'t make any difference whatsoever? Doesn\'t that also mean this problem is no longer something I can handle?”

“Oh...” Wu Xun slowly nodded after finally figuring out where Wang Chen was going with this.

Failing to resolve a problem Wang Chen had the power to deal with would have meant he\'d be held responsible. However, no one would blame Wang Chen for failing to resolve a problem beyond his capabilities.

As long as Wang Chen could prove that the trio responsible for this defeat had always been well beyond his means, he\'d be spared from punishment by the higher-ups.

Sure, the strict-and-uptight old farts wouldn\'t want to brush everything aside without consequences, but the severity of punishment would still be greatly different.

“Okay. I can pretty much keep my neck intact now, but... Just who are we dealing with here?” Wang Chen slowly rubbed his chin.

“Big brother, could it be that we\'re dealing with another faction invading our turf?”

“That\'s horsesh*t. Why would anyone invade this place when there aren\'t enough benefits, even for us? You think other factions would be interested in taking over Sichuan?”

“...My apologies. My thoughts were immature.”

Wang Chen angrily turned around. “I\'ll report this to the higher-ups, so you keep your eyes on the trio. Don\'t forget to get the boys ready for any eventualities, too! You get what I\'m saying?”

“Ah! Big brother, there\'s one more thing to report to you,” said Wu Xun.

Wang Chen\'s expression crumpled hideously. If Wu Xun felt compelled to report something else at this point in time, this news couldn\'t be something simple, either! “Okay, what is it? Is it something bad?”

“I\'m not sure yet.”

“Say what?”

Wu Xun nervously gulped. “There\'s another group on the move.”

“Eh? Another one?”

“Yes, big brother. They were spotted by chance. Some of our boys coming to Sichuan didn\'t arrive on time, so I checked what happened, and they apparently ran into a group of experts on the way. It seemed like they were headed to Sichuan as well.”

“Ran... into...?” Wang Chen tilted his head. “Does that mean they got beaten up? If they manage to survive and send the word out, I guess that group isn\'t entirely hostile?”

“No, big brother. Nine out of ten in that group were killed. The lone survivor barely managed to get away.”

“What the f*ck! Why are you only telling me this now!?” Wang Chen lost his temper again and threw the cigarette at Wu Xun\'s face. “Who are they?!”

“We still haven\'t figured that out yet, big brother. It\'s just that... I don\'t know how to explain this, but it seems like they are also in pursuit of our trio.”

“Really? In other words, they are allies?”

“That doesn\'t seem like it.”

Wang Chen angrily massaged his temples. “Okay, okay. Let me get this straight. Another group is targeting our trio, eh? And inside Sichuan, no less? An unknown faction is chasing after the unknown trio. Is that it?”

“Yes, big brother.”

“Hmm...” Wang Chen sighed deeply. \'What the hell? Things are unfolding in a weird direction...\'

He couldn\'t help but get the feeling that this event was gradually snowballing into something massive. At the same time, he became more convinced that this matter was no longer something he could deal with.

“Okay. I\'m gonna report this. As for you... Do your best to figure out who that new group is.”

“Yes, big brother.”

Wang Chen stormed out of the office, his scowl only getting deeper.

\'Just what the hell is going on here?\'

He had no idea what was going on. At least one thing seemed certain, though. Massive rolling clouds of war were building ominously over this matter.