Chapter 293: Slaying Qiu Ren

The tough captain's sudden voice caught me completely off guard. I hadn't expected him to suspect me at all. "Take off the raincoat hood!" he repeated, keeping one hand pressed to his lower back. He was probably resting it on his gun. "Don't make me say it a third time. Cooperate with us, or not only will you be barred from the dam, you'll be coming with us."

When I didn't react, he drew his service weapon. The dark muzzle flashed with killing intent in the torrential downpour, locking onto me like the eyes of the grim reaper.

"What is that in your hand? Unwrap it and let me see!" The tough captain's gaze shifted to the Deer-Slaying Dao. I had wrapped it in black cloth, but there was no explaining away its shape.

The longer he looked, the more suspicious he became. "Don't move! Take off the hood right now!"

The command personnel and the other police officer standing next to me sensed something was wrong. They backed away, clearing a space around me.

The tough captain slowly approached. Gripping his pistol tightly, he used the barrel to push back the brim of my hood.

As the hood lifted, a face that wasn't exactly handsome but possessed sharp, distinct features entered the tough captain's line of sight. Our eyes met, and we recognized each other.

"Wu Meng?"

"Gao..." He trailed off without finishing my name. His hand relaxed, lowering the gun, and the wide brim fell back down to cover my face.

His expression shifted unpredictably. Wu Meng stood rooted in place, neither letting me pass nor exposing my identity.

A war raged within him as he engaged in a fierce internal struggle.

"Captain Wu, the hydroelectric station and the floodgates just happened to malfunction tonight. It's highly likely due to improper operation by internal staff. A colleague of mine surnamed Lu rushed over here a few hours ago. I can guarantee he's inside the dam right now. Finding him will prove my innocence."

My words carried a double meaning. On the surface, I was making trivial excuses, but in reality, I was telling Wu Meng that time was running out. Lu Xing had already infiltrated the site, and every problem at the dam tonight was connected to him.

Wu Meng hesitated for a moment before giving a stiff nod. "Be careful. It's dangerous inside the dam. Go on in."

He took out a high-intensity flashlight and waved it toward the top of the dam a few times, then turned to the command personnel. "I got a look at his face. He isn't the fugitive we're looking for. Take him inside."

"See? I told you. How could my luck be bad enough to bump straight into a wanted criminal?" The commander led me upward. With Wu Meng's personal order and the commander's backing, the rest of the way was completely unimpeded.

Lanjiang Dam stood forty-one meters tall. Its internal structures were broadly divided into eight categories located in different sections across the dam, including the hydroelectric station, canal system, transit facilities, pump stations, and aqueducts.

The hydroelectric station I was heading toward was situated just above the middle of the dam. Upon entering, a simplified layout map of the internal structures by the door caught my attention.

According to the layout map, all the water conservancy facilities around the dam were distributed evenly, with almost identical distances between them. I traced my finger over the diagram; if I connected them with lines, the resulting shape was distinctly an Eight Characters Token!

Each building seemed to represent a specific deity or malefic star. The entire place resembled a miniature Bagua diagram.

"What would happen if this Bagua diagram was fully activated? Could the dam actually breach?"

"Why are you spacing out? Hurry up!" Amid the battering wind and rain and the towering waves, the commander and I climbed the narrow iron-railed path to the hydroelectric station. A fair number of people were already gathered there. I did a quick sweep with my Chasing Eye; Qiu Ren and Lu Xing were not among them.

"Engineer Tao, we have a massive problem!" As soon as they saw the commander approaching, two workers rushed out of the hydroelectric station. "We can't fix it anytime soon. It might require underwater operations, but you can see the conditions right now. With this torrential storm outside, going into the reservoir is practically suicide!"

"He's right, Engineer Tao. The latest water level announced by Hankou Station has already surpassed twenty-nine meters. This might be the worst flood in a decade!"

"The water level at Hankou Station is already over twenty-nine meters?!" Engineer Tao was visibly shaken. Normally, adding twenty meters to the Hankou Station water level yielded the water depth of Lanjiang Dam's reservoir. "The main dam is forty-one meters high, plus the ten-meter elevation of the underwater terrain, meaning Lanjiang Dam is fifty-one meters above the riverbed in total. The water depth has now exceeded forty-nine meters. If it rises another two meters, the floodwaters will breach the dam!"

His face deathly pale, Engineer Tao shouted toward the workers outside, "Give it everything you've got! We have to secure the dam!"

"The water level keeps rising, and the rain isn't letting up at all. On top of that, the dam's eight internal structures are arranged in the pattern of the Eight Characters Token. With both internal sabotage and external disasters, Lanjiang Dam is in imminent peril." I understood the true severity of the situation far better than the repair crews present.

"I can't wait any longer. I need to find Lu Xing as soon as possible!" While Engineer Tao was talking to one of the repair workers, I quietly backed away and slipped off to search the other locations one by one.

The aqueducts, the various floodgates, the transit locks...

The torrential rain swept through the area. Hurrying repair workers surrounded me, and everyone was on edge. Absolutely nothing could go wrong tonight; once the dam gave way, Jiangcheng—and the entire downstream region—would be plunged into absolute devastation.

"Eight structures... where on earth could Lu Xing and Qiu Ren be hiding?" Even with my Chasing Eye, I couldn't guarantee I'd be able to clearly distinguish every single person in such atrocious conditions. There were so many workers on the dam, and everyone was draped in raincoats and work uniforms, making it incredibly difficult to find anyone.

By the time I walked out of the transit locks, I had already scoured seven locations, yet I still hadn't found a single trace of Lu Xing and Qiu Ren. It was as if they had never been here.

"Could my deduction be wrong?" My resolve wavered. After all, this was a massive gamble with the lives of the entire city at stake. I couldn't afford to lose, nor was I allowed to.

Gripping my toolbox and the Deer-Slaying Dao, I headed toward the eighth structure: the pump station situated near the upper section of the dam.

The pump station was the heart of the dam. By increasing and decreasing pressure, it indirectly controlled the operation of most equipment within the facility.

Clinging tightly to the iron railings, I climbed upward.

The pump station consisted of two pump rooms, one on the left and one on the right. Two police officers were guarding the entrance.

"The pump station is the dam's power core; it makes perfect sense for the police to be guarding it." Seeing the officers actually made me sigh in relief. The fact that it was guarded meant Lu Xing and Qiu Ren likely hadn't had a chance to sneak inside.

Out of caution, I carried my toolbox and approached the two officers. I would only be at ease after confirming things with my own eyes.

With raindrops battering my body, I kept my head down and the brim of my hood pulled low.

"Gentlemen, I'm here to inspect the pump station. Could you accompany me inside?" I spoke politely and took the initiative to ask them to come with me, all to lessen their suspicions and increase my chances of getting in.

My idea was sound, but after waiting a moment, I received no response. Slightly puzzled, I raised my head and took a closer look.

"They're dead?!"

The two officers were entirely enveloped in their raincoats, revealing only the collars of their police uniforms. Their heads were slumped forward, and their faces were deathly pale, looking exactly as if they had drowned.

"Damn it!"

I kicked open the door to the pump station and rushed inside. The moment the door swung wide, pitch-black darkness met me—so thick I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. The oppressive gloom felt like a wild beast waiting to devour anyone who entered. Before I even fully stepped inside, yin energy assailed me from all directions.

"Mirror Ghosts?" The yin energy was laced with shadows darting about at terrifying speeds. I whipped off the cloth wrapping, grasped the hilt of the dao, and used my Chasing Eye to lock onto their positions before bringing the blade down in swift, decisive strikes.

Ghostly wails and agonizing howls echoed through the room as the shadows shattered. The interior of the pump room seemed to grow a fraction brighter.

"Fate Ghost!" Not daring to be careless lest I end up capsizing my boat in a drainage ditch, I summoned the Fate Ghost to protect myself.

Black hair surged forth, spreading rapidly throughout the room. As it swept past one of the pumps, the hair was suddenly repelled. That spot instantly caught my attention.

Holding the dao in one hand, its frost-like edge reflecting a chilling gleam, my eyes burned crimson. Ever since seeing that Fox Immortal Corpse, I seemed much more prone to killing intent.

"Get out here!"

At my furious shout, the person hiding behind the pump knew he couldn't stay concealed any longer. With a cold sneer, he stood up. "Gao Jian, you've got some real skills. Not even that inner demon that was suppressed for a century could stop you."

Looking at the one-armed man before me, I could no longer suppress my killing intent. I pointed the blade at an angle toward him. "Qiu Ren, I've carried the infamy for you and Lu Xing for five years. Today, I'm going to expose the truth to the entire world!"

"Just you?" Qiu Ren burst into laughter. "It's useless! Everyone in the city knows that you are the wanted criminal right now! Once the Buddha's grand plan is complete, you'll still be our scapegoat. You'll go down in history, you'll be marked as a sinner for all eternity, and you will be known as the murderer who buried the million lives in this entire city!"