Time seemed to have been paused the moment Gu Qiancheng appeared.
The intense gunfire continued to roar in the distance, and the whistling of stray bullets cutting through the air was constant, but around this small command post where Zhao Zhenwu stood, the air had frozen solid.
Every officer and soldier, including Zhao Zhenwu himself, stood as if they had been hit by a binding spell, frozen in place, their gazes locked onto the young man with red hair who had appeared out of nowhere.
‘How did he get up here? When did he get up here?’
‘Why did the sentries not give a warning? Why did no one notice him?’
Countless questions, accompanied by a bone-chilling cold, crept up everyone’s spines.
Zhao Zhenwu’s pupils constricted, and for the first time, his sinister face showed uncontrollable shock and… a trace of deeply hidden doubt.
On the other side.
Gu Qiancheng seemed quite satisfied with the silence he had created.
He jumped down leisurely from a rock, brushed the non-existent dust off his hands, and his gaze swept over the guards beside Zhao Zhenwu, who were acting like they were facing a great enemy, their fingers already on the triggers but not daring to move recklessly, before finally landing back on Zhao Zhenwu’s face.
“Deputy Chief of Staff Zhao, right?”
Gu Qiancheng tilted his head, his tone as casual as if he were asking for prices at a market.
“You’re in a good mood, aren’t you? Not sleeping in the middle of the night, running out here to set off fireworks, and even staging such a pathetic play of cleaning house? You’ve memorized your lines well, but the acting… tch, you’re trying too hard; it’s a bit exaggerated.”
“Who… the hell are you?!”
Zhao Zhenwu’s voice squeezed out from between his teeth, his hand already gripping the holster at his waist.
The guards beside him also subconsciously raised their guns, although the barrels were trembling slightly.
“Me?”
Gu Qiancheng pointed at himself and smiled.
“Just a passerby.”
“Stop playing tricks here,” Zhao Zhenwu said, forcing himself to stay calm, his voice stern.
“You have trespassed into a restricted military zone and disrupted military operations! You are a spy! Take him down!”
He barked the last four words at the guards beside him.
Although the guards were terrified, an order was still an order.
The two soldiers closest to Gu Qiancheng gritted their teeth, roared, and lunged forward, attempting to pin his arms.
Gu Qiancheng did not move a single step.
Just as the two soldiers’ hands were about to touch him….
“Hummm…”
A faint, high-frequency sound, like metal vibrating, echoed.
The two soldiers who had lunged forward suddenly froze in their tracks, as if they had slammed into an invisible wall of gel.
Immediately afterward, their entire bodies, along with their equipment, began to blur and become transparent from the parts that had made contact with Gu Qiancheng—fingertips, arms, shoulders—quickly vanishing into the air without a sound, as if they had been erased from reality by a rubber.
The process took less than 2 seconds.
Two grown men had just disappeared, like that, in full view of everyone.
The remaining guards and officers gasped and retreated, looking at Gu Qiancheng as if they were seeing a demon crawling out of hell.
Someone’s gun fell to the ground with a “clatter.”
“I hadn’t even finished speaking yet, why did you have to attack?”
Gu Qiancheng pushed his hands out, looking innocent.
“Now look, two men lost for nothing.”
After saying that, he took a step forward.
With just that one step, Zhao Zhenwu and the people around him stepped back simultaneously, as if they were facing a man-eating beast.
“Don’t be nervous,” Gu Qiancheng stopped, his gaze falling on Zhao Zhenwu’s face.
The playful, cynical smile faded, replaced by a cold, scrutinizing look.
“Zhao Zhenwu, Deputy Chief of Staff of the 103rd Division’s Operations Department. The officer on duty during the last communication before the Division Headquarters lost contact. After the war, you gathered the remnants and acted as the interim supreme commander… and at the same time, you are the traitor who secretly passed our troop deployment to the Abnormal Beings, causing the Division Headquarters to be wiped out in a precise surprise attack.”
“Oh, right, you also sent people to kill Regiment Commander Lu Fan to silence him just now.”
“I haven’t left anything out in this summary, have I?”
Each word fell like a heavy hammer, smashing into Zhao Zhenwu’s heart, and into the ears of every officer and soldier on the scene who could still hear.
Traitor?
The traitor who caused the destruction of the Division Headquarters?!
This accusation was too shocking!
If true, Zhao Zhenwu was an eternal sinner who had caused the deaths of thousands of brothers and stained the century-old honor of the 103rd Division.
“You’re spouting nonsense!!”
Zhao Zhenwu sounded like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, roaring with rage, trying to hide his panic with anger.
“You are the spy sent by the Abnormal Beings!”
“Using these wicked rumors, using this… this sorcery! To disrupt the morale of the army! To shake the defense line! What are you all standing around for? Fire! Shoot this intruder to death!!”
He shouted at the soldiers nearby who were still stunned.
However, having witnessed the terrifying scene of the two men vanishing into thin air, looking at Gu Qiancheng’s fearlessness and his attitude of being in total control, combined with the accusation that went straight to the core… although the soldiers held their guns with fingers on the triggers, no one dared to truly fire.
Once the seeds of doubt were planted, especially an accusation of betrayal against the supreme commander, it was enough to make even the most loyal soldier hesitate.
“It seems your orders aren’t working so well, Deputy Chief of Staff Zhao,” Gu Qiancheng said with a touch of mockery.
He then raised his hand, and faint space ripples seemed to shimmer at his fingertips.
“I don’t have the patience to waste words with you.”
“After I’m done with you, I have other things to attend to.”
“The area of the Death Realm is too large, even if we split up, it’s hard to find them in time… forget it, why am I telling you this.”
“Be smart and don’t run, otherwise you’re going to have a very ugly death~”
“You think you’ve won?!”
Zhao Zhenwu lunged backward, simultaneously pulling a jet-black reagent from his pocket.
“No one can judge me, no one!”
The moment the words fell.
Zhao Zhenwu crushed the reagent with force, letting the pitch-black liquid seep into his body through his skin.
“Hahahaha, I am the one who is correct, this choice is the only rational one!!”
His voice sounded twisted and malicious in the night wind and the whistling sounds coming closer.
“Justice? Honor? If you don’t even have your life, what meaning is there in talking about these things?!!”
A violent aura of contamination erupted from within Zhao Zhenwu.
Veins bulged and his body trembled.
In an instant, pitch-black ink covered the whites of his eyes.
“Die!”
Zhao Zhenwu, now radiating the aura of contamination, slammed his heels down, and with a boom, he vanished from his spot.
….
In mid-air.
Zhao Zhenwu, having leapt up, looked down at Gu Qiancheng below.
The darkness in his eyes surged, his arms spread wide, and countless dark green energy substances, shaped like raindrops, brewed from the surface of his skin.
Gu Qiancheng looked up slightly, squinting his eyes at Zhao Zhenwu, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.
“Whew–!”
Zhao Zhenwu swung his arms suddenly, and those dark green raindrops fell as rapidly as a torrential downpour.
However, Gu Qiancheng neither dodged nor deployed any earth-shattering defensive barrier—he simply lifted his right hand, palm facing upward, toward the falling curtain of dark green rain, and clenched his five fingers slightly.
The movement was gentle, as if he were merely trying to catch a falling feather.
However, with this movement….
Centered on a point above his palm, space rippled once again, visibly and more violently than before!
This time, the ripples spread at an incredible speed, covering an area far greater than before!
Wherever the ripples passed, the falling and spreading dark green rain curtain collapsed and converged toward Gu Qiancheng’s palm, as if it were dust being vacuumed by the most efficient machine, or like ink in a reversed video returning to its starting point, crazily defying the laws of physics.
The sky full of polluted green light, in just two or three seconds, was compressed and condensed into a dark green energy ball the size of a fist, so dense it could not be dissolved, wiggling and struggling slightly as if it had a life of its own, floating above Gu Qiancheng’s palm.
The next second, it vanished!
It wasn’t blocked, it wasn’t scattered; it was absorbed, and then… erased.
Zhao Zhenwu’s body stiffened, his eyes bulging so wide they almost fell out.
Seeing Gu Qiancheng’s smiling face, his expression grew even more somber.
‘Run!’
Almost instantly, Zhao Zhenwu made his decision.
Gu Qiancheng raised his eyes to look at Zhao Zhenwu, who was turning and fleeing desperately, the corners of his mouth hooked in a cold curve.
“I thought you were some kind of big behind-the-scenes boss, is that it?”
Gu Qiancheng said, gently lifting his right foot and taking a small step forward.
The next moment.
His figure vanished instantly.