Chapter 185 – Reasoning

The moment the elevator doors opened, Song Cheng saw Yu Sheng leading his two gang members into view—Eileen sat perched on Yu Sheng’s shoulder while Hu Li stood to the side. But rather than the familiar faces before him, Song Cheng’s gaze quickly fell to the thing Yu Sheng was carrying in his hand.

It was a “club” that looked absolutely vicious. Rebar with several rings welded onto it, covered in razor blades, iron nails, and jagged stumps of rusted metal. In all his years of frontline experience, Song Cheng had seen countless bizarre “weapons,” but his first reaction upon seeing this thing was still an involuntary twitch of his eye. He felt that if you took a photo of it and posted it online, you’d have to blur it out—just looking at the thing hurt.

Yu Sheng walked out of the elevator carrying his Staff of Tetanus just like that, looking at Song Cheng with an excited expression, like a man who’d been drowsy and just found a pillow: “Where are those two Angel Cult members?”

Song Cheng’s entire being was somewhat dazed. Honestly, from the day the Bureau Chief invited Yu Sheng to the Special Operations Bureau, he’d known the guy would eventually show up at headquarters like he owned the place. But he hadn’t expected him to bring something like this when he came. His attention was entirely fixated on that club: “…First tell me what this thing in your hand is? The guards didn’t stop you?”

Yu Sheng blinked in surprise: “Guards? What guards?”

Song Cheng slapped his forehead: “Oh right, I forgot you don’t use the front door…”

Yu Sheng chuckled happily, lifting the Staff of Tetanus and bouncing it in his hand—after his last trip back, he’d made some more modifications to this very useful war club. Now it had at least twice as many nails and rebar pieces on top—then he held the thing out in front of Song Cheng: “This is the wonderful tool we’ll be using shortly.”

As the terrifying club waved before his eyes, Song Cheng’s peripheral vision caught sight of two metal plates actually welded near the head of the rebar. Each plate had two crooked characters scorched into it—one read “Reason,” the other read “Judgment.”

“I need to have a good chat with those two Angel Cult members,” Yu Sheng said, looking at Song Cheng very seriously. “Help me arrange it.”

With that, he casually hoisted the club onto his shoulder: “Lead the way.”

Before his words had even faded, he heard a startled cry from his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw that Eileen had already fallen to the ground…

Yu Sheng frowned: “Eileen, what are you doing sitting on the floor?”

“You knocked me off with that damn club!” The little doll charged forward and delivered an elbow strike to Yu Sheng’s knee. “Can’t tell your left shoulder from your right?!”

Yu Sheng: “…!”

Song Cheng watched this chaotic yet somehow internally consistent scene unfold before him, cold sweat beading on his forehead. Though he was accustomed to seeing all manner of bizarre spectacles inside the Special Operations Bureau headquarters, this particular style of scene was genuinely a first. After the doll finally settled down, he hesitantly glanced at the club in Yu Sheng’s hand: “I think I have a rough idea of what you want to do… but I have to remind you, the Special Operations Bureau has regulations. We’re a proper government department—even when interrogating cult members, there are standard procedures and prohibitions.”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment: “What if the surveillance cameras broke?”

“…Even with broken cameras it’s not allowed. Besides, it’s simply impossible for a ‘surveillance blind spot’ to occur anywhere in this building—”

Song Cheng was only halfway through his sentence when his phone suddenly rang from his pocket. He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and hurriedly answered: “Ah, Bureau Chief.”

A calm voice came through the receiver: “The surveillance system in Section A-16 of the human prisoner containment zone is broken.”

“…Bureau Chief?”

“Do I need to repeat myself?”

Song Cheng immediately felt cold sweat break out on the back of his neck. He instinctively turned to look behind him. Though the corridor was completely empty, the Bureau Chief’s gaze was falling on him from every direction, and the nearest line of sight was barely half a meter away: “No, no need!”

“Good. Take him there.”

After putting away his phone, Song Cheng looked at the trio from the Lodge before him with a peculiar expression.

“…Follow me. I’ll take you to the containment zone.”

Yu Sheng hadn’t heard the voice from Song Cheng’s phone just now, but he could guess the situation—clearly, nothing that happened in this building escaped the eyes of a certain Madam Bureau Chief.

He felt even more at ease. A faint smile appeared on his face as he walked along with Eileen on one shoulder and “Reason” on the other, following after Song Cheng. As they walked, he asked a curious question: “So do you normally watch those shows about a bunch of girls in a band…”

Song Cheng’s voice carried exhaustion: “That was my daughter’s doing! Every time I change it back, she changes it again…”

Under Captain Song’s guidance, Yu Sheng’s group wound their way through the Special Operations Bureau headquarters, a building that resembled a space-time labyrinth. Along the way they passed through numerous doors clearly installed for security purposes, as well as corridors and compartments with eerie atmospheres. Yu Sheng could sense that he had already left the building’s “main structure” and was heading into some kind of “spatial depths.” They walked like this for quite a while before finally passing through a last “office” that flickered with red lights. When they pushed open the door at the far end of the office, a circular hall resembling a “transportation hub” appeared before him.

Corridor entrances were arranged in neat rows before his eyes. Fully armed guards, weapon systems aimed down each corridor, and warning signs with obvious cautionary intent radiated an oppressive weight.

Song Cheng said nothing. After completing identity verification and registration, he led Yu Sheng’s group into one of the corridors.

Along the way, Song Cheng kept glancing back at Yu Sheng, who strolled along as if taking a leisurely walk through a garden.

Yu Sheng naturally noticed the other man’s gaze. “You know, I was actually already on my way to find you all,” he finally spoke up. “Right when you called to tell me you’d caught those two Angel Cult members, I’d already changed my clothes and filed a Door Opening report—I was coming to talk to you about those two cultists.”

Song Cheng’s eyes shifted slightly: “What do you mean? You…”

“I investigated some things yesterday—do you remember why Little Red Riding Hood and I went to the White Exhibition Hall in the Museum in the first place? Right, it was the exhibition hall where the sacrificial ritual took place. Those two Angel Cult members were causing trouble there, which is how they got caught… The Curiosities Association liaison who originally issued the commission to Little Red Riding Hood recently died.”

“I heard about that, but the investigation is being handled by a different department,” Song Cheng immediately furrowed his brow. “From what you’re saying, you found something on your end?”

“Those two Angel Cult members were likely targeting the ‘Fairy Tales’—it wasn’t aimed at Little Red Riding Hood personally, and the victims weren’t randomly chosen,” Yu Sheng said slowly. “The Curiosities Association liaison who died also had many connections to the Fairy Tales during his lifetime. Whether his actual cause of death was murder or an accident is still unclear—you’ll need your professionals for that. But based on what I’ve already uncovered, the reason the Angel Cult members targeted and manipulated him was precisely because of his connection to the ‘Fairy Tales’—those cultists have definitely been planning this for more than just a day or two.”

After Yu Sheng finished, Hu Li—who normally didn’t like talking to outsiders—also muttered indignantly: “I heard from Benefactor about what happened to the deceased… Those cultists are truly despicable.”

Yu Sheng nodded: “In short, it’s quite complicated. I’ll give you all the details later.”

Song Cheng listened thoughtfully to this information while noting that they had arrived at the gate at the end of the corridor. But before ordering the door opened, he couldn’t help stealing another glance at the “Reason” in Yu Sheng’s hand.

“Seriously, are you sure you want to use that thing…”

“I know my limits,” Yu Sheng said very solemnly. “And I brought Hu Li—she knows quite a few flesh-mending and bone-healing spells. I promise you, things won’t get too difficult to handle.”

“No, that’s not what I’m worried about. What I mean is… simple pain doesn’t actually work on those cultists,” Song Cheng shook his head. He felt that the ‘person’ before him ultimately didn’t understand those fanatically obsessed Angel Cult members well enough. “I can see your, uh, ‘enthusiasm’ for this matter, but if such crude methods could make them talk, we wouldn’t still be empty-handed after all this time with those two cultists.”

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow.

“You could inflict every kind of suffering humanly imaginable and endurable, but for Angel Cult members whose minds have already been corrupted, all of it is bearable—they can even transform it into ‘noble sacrifice,'” Song Cheng added. “The Special Operations Bureau has many interrogation methods far more effective than ‘physical punishment,’ including hypnosis, illusion techniques, truth serums, even high-tech devices like neural interference machines. But the results are all more or less the same—no matter what you ask, they won’t give you the answers you want.”

He hadn’t put it too bluntly, but the implication was already very clear—

Beating people up—who can’t do that? If it worked, they’d have done it ages ago. Did anyone actually care about the human rights of cultists?

Yet Yu Sheng simply smiled at him.

“Did I ever say I was going to ask them anything?”

Song Cheng was instantly stunned: “…Huh? Then you came here carrying that thing just to…”

“Just for the fun of it.”

The heavy blast door slowly opened. Yu Sheng, carrying his club, strode in with Eileen and Hu Li, and then the door slowly closed behind them.

The armed guard standing by the door watched uneasily as three “strangers” entered this cell with its extremely high security clearance, and finally couldn’t help speaking up: “Sir, this isn’t regulation…”

“I’ll take responsibility,” Song Cheng said, staring at the tightly sealed door with a complicated expression. He drew a light breath. “Take me to the monitoring room.”

“Alright, it’s right next door…”

…

The pale blue light barrier before him vanished. Yu Sheng studied this clearly very advanced device with curiosity, briefly wondering just what level of technology the Special Operations Bureau possessed, before letting his gaze fall on the bald man sitting not far away.

The man simply raised his head calmly, looking this way without sadness or joy.

Those calm, pure eyes seemed to have already seen through everything.

His tone was serene, as if he had already transcended the wisdom of ordinary mortals—

“It seems many things are going to happen today. A new trick—when will you people realize that a faithful servant of the Lord will never answer—”

Before the man could finish, Yu Sheng strode forward and brought his club crashing down.

Answer my ass.

He’d never planned to ask anything in the first place.

(End of Chapter)