Chapter 211.2: Wolves, Bears, Tigers, Leopards and One Mouse Part 2

Lu Changsheng folded the silk handkerchief neatly and placed it on the desk in front of Mr. Tao, completing his duties as secretary one last time. Then he returned to the opposite side of the desk, sat upright, and asked solemnly, “Why won’t you join us?”

Mr. Tao gave a dry, openly disdainful laugh. “The filth in one house can still be swept clean, but if you jump into a muddy pond and roll around like an old turtle, relishing in how pleasant it feels, then that is what I would call beyond saving.”

“But you knew all along, didn’t you?” Lu Changsheng shook his head. “You must have known from the beginning. I’m not just talking about your suspicions regarding your secretary, I’m talking about Central City’s indifference and the council’s contempt. The Federation has already resolved to expand westward, and Spring City was abandoned decades ago. Why else would they have left you to carry the burden alone for so many years?

“You exhausted every last bit of strength you had, spent all the trust and goodwill you had accumulated, and staked both your future and yourself on taking over the hopeless mess that was the governorship of Haizhou. Yet everyone around you was like me, petty schemers pursuing their own interests, each with a hidden agenda.

“The governor of Cliff City, who has spent every day pretending to be half-dead since his exile. The lapdog in Ship City, who pledged himself to Central City and cares only about lining his masters’ pockets. The incompetent fool in Tide City, clinging desperately to power and refusing to step aside. The brutally lawless military. The Swarm, which only wants to use this opportunity to embark on a massacre.

“And then there are these so-called directors of the Security Bureau. Some merely go through the motions. Some are using the crisis to seize power. Others put on a show of cooperation while concealing their true intentions. Even Lü Yingyue, the person you trust most, is an opportunist who refuses to act until success is assured. She expects others to carve out a path through blood for her, then steps in at her leisure to reap the rewards like the politician she is.

“With ambitions like hers, who knows? She may have been coveting your position as Governor of Haizhou for a long time. Is this the Origin you follow? With people like these guys, how can you ever accomplish anything?”

Mr. Tao said nothing. He simply looked at his “secretary” with no frustration or displeasure in his gaze. If anything, he looked at Lu Changsheng as though he were staring at a fool.

“Isn’t that exactly what Origin is?” he asked, as though the answer were obvious.

Lu Changsheng froze for a moment.

“That is Origin, Lu Changsheng.” Mr. Tao shook his head with pity. “Do you still not understand? They may be petty schemers, and every one of them may have their own agenda, but now that they have come together, have they not made you rats fearful and uneasy?”

Conflict, internal strife, ambition, hatred, schemes, mercy, courage, greed—none of that truly mattered. They were all insignificant details. Origin didn’t care about one’s background, purpose, gender, age, race, or kin. People who should have been at each other’s throats, utterly incompatible as fire and water, could somehow work side by side. They had united under the same system and order, conducting themselves according to its rules.

They were like a scattered mass of loose sand, but once teamed up, they could stand united in heart and purpose, and even entrust their backs to people completely unlike themselves, people they had probably looked down on at some point.

Was that not a miracle? Was that not the most solemn, vast, and boundless power in this world?

Mr. Tao laughed hoarsely. From his reclining chair, he spread his thin, withered arms as though presenting the fruit of his labor. “Great is the Origin! Magnificent is the Origin! The thing I have pursued and revered... Has it not been right before your eyes for these past nine years? I clearly never hid it. So why did you never notice, Lu Changsheng? When I look upon towering mountains and distant rivers, I understand the infinite vastness of Origin. But what do those same mountains and rivers look like in your eyes?”

Lu Changsheng didn’t respond for a long time. Finally, he sighed, slightly impressed. “Your convictions are as firm and unshakable as stone, Mr. Tao. I fear they are no longer something a wicked, depraved man like me can sway. You have my respect.”

“I don’t care,” Mr. Tao said.

“I know.” Changsheng lowered his eyes to the cluttered chessboard between them and placed his hand over the central Origin point. “I would still like to play one more game with you.”

“Go on.”

“Just as we always have, we’ll do it your way. You and I, the Security Bureau and the Heretic Cult, Haizhou and those who belong to the Foolish Abominations will settle this once and for all. Rest assured, I will not destroy Spring City and plunge the entire situation beyond redemption. So long as no Celestial Being intervenes, the outcome of the battle between us will decide who controls Spring City. What do you say?

He proposed, “If you win, Spring City is yours. I will turn around and leave. If you lose, you can forget the agreement, rally your forces, and fight us to the death again. What do you say?”

Mr. Tao didn’t answer. His clouded eyes remained lowered, heavy with fatigue, as though his mind had wandered elsewhere. Yet when he finally looked up again, his gaze had turned razor-sharp. It was like a blade that had been scrubbed clean of dust and rust, leaving behind a cold edge that chilled to the bone.

“I see,” he murmured in sudden understanding. “This was your plan from the very beginning, wasn’t it? You gathered so many of the Foolish Abominations and spent all these years preparing. Was it all because you intended to come out of hiding and take on the Security Bureau head-on despite being hopelessly outmatched? Why?”

Lu Changsheng threw the same question back at the old man. “Why, indeed?”

“Hm?”

“Why do you assume that people like us must always skulk and hide in the shadows?” Lu Changsheng asked with genuine curiosity. “I don’t understand why someone in my position has to live like a rat that cannot bear the light, hiding in places beyond your sight and surviving on carrion. Everyone within the Heretic Cult has come to believe that this is how things should be, that this is only natural.

“The rats have crawled through the sewers for so long that they have learned to fear daylight. Why do people like you take it for granted that you are entitled to look down on us? All these years, I have been thinking about this very question.”

He grinned. “Suppose that one day, some foolish little rat decides to take the lead and makes the call. Snakes and rats come crawling out of the sewers, joining their kind as they parade openly through the streets, strutting beneath the light of day. Would those fine gentlemen, while shrieking in terror, finally understand that others have always lived beneath the same sky as them? Or would they still plug their ears, cover their eyes, and deceive themselves, pretending they saw nothing at all?”

Mr. Tao lowered his gaze, suppressing the icy fury in his eyes. “You intend to provoke Origin. Are you prepared to be crushed into dust?”

“How do you know I don’t have the power to stir the real world into upheaval and shake this world to its foundations, Mr. Tao?” Lu Changsheng asked. “And what makes you think I would fear being crushed to dust?”

For a fleeting moment, countless unseen waves weaved through the room. The malice lurking beneath the surface rose like an iceberg from the depths, revealing its savage form, but it all faded without a sound as it hid itself once more.

From beginning to end, Changsheng had not moved. His expression had not changed in the slightest.

The old man in the reclining chair sighed. “Unlike those fools who threw themselves into the Foolish Abominations in pursuit of power and ambition, you truly are a grave threat to this world.”

“Perhaps. But given time, maybe the true great threat will be you, Mr. Tao, the Federation, the Empire, and all you followers of Supreme Benevolence!”

Lu Changsheng laughed and extended his hand, waiting. At last, Mr. Tao slowly raised his thin, withered hand, and the two hands met, sealing the pact. Within five days, they would settle the matter in Spring City once and for all.

The moment they clasped hands, Lu Changsheng vanished like a phantom.

The office plunged into a profound silence. The frail old man remained in the reclining chair, his eyelids lowering as he drifted to sleep.

On the chessboard, during the chaotic game, a captured black stone slipped aside and revealed a white stone buried beneath it. Bathed in the wild firelight shining in through the window, it trembled alongside every shudder of the earth, lying crookedly at the edge of the ruined board, powerless to affect the approaching storm, having nowhere to escape. It couldn’t go on living, yet it was unwilling to die.

And so, amid the upheaval, helplessly and almost against its will, it shifted ever so slightly.