“What are you doing?” Zhao Yi looked up and asked.
“Naturally, I am fulfilling my duty as an enforcer.”
“Duty?”
“The enforcers, led by Tan Ming and Zuo Tong, have treated human lives as worthless, engaged in widespread slaughter, and plundered public property for their own use. As an enforcer, I have the authority to purge the enforcement system in District Three,” Chen Ling replied unhurriedly. “Of course, after that, I will also temporarily commandeer the train. Public property cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of criminals.”
Zhao Yi was stunned for a moment before understanding Chen Ling’s words. “You mean to kill them and take the train?”
Chen Ling glanced at Zhao Yi but did not answer.
Zhao Yi seemed to recall something, and his fists clenched involuntarily.
“Chen Ling… Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“There’s an enforcer… I want to kill him myself.” The face of the man who had stabbed his father thirteen times in the crowd flashed through Zhao Yi’s mind. It was a face he would never forget until the day he died. A chilling murderous intent flickered in his eyes. “I want to avenge my father!”
Chen Ling looked at him. “Premeditated murder of an enforcer is a serious crime. Do you dare?”
“To hell with serious crime!” Zhao Yi cursed under his breath. “If I can’t even avenge my father, what’s the point of entering Aurora City alive? Besides, going against my father isn’t new for me; at worst, he’ll just give me another beating when I’m dead!”
Seeing the burning rage in Zhao Yi’s eyes, a hint of approval flashed across Chen Ling’s face. He nodded slightly.
“Premeditated murder of an enforcer is indeed a serious crime…”
“But as long as there are no survivors… who can prove you killed anyone?”
Hearing the latter half of the sentence, Zhao Yi was startled. He looked at Chen Ling in astonishment, his narrowed, smiling eyes like those of a deadly, venomous snake.
Fierce flames burned beside the two men. Chen Ling calmly turned his head and looked at the gradually disappearing train.
“I won’t stop you from avenging your father… The condition is that you must be able to catch up to that train.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Ling’s figure blurred into a phantom, streaking rapidly along the railway tracks!
With the Blood Garment and Dance of Slaughter empowering him, it was not difficult for Chen Ling to catch up to the steam train that had just left the station. But for Zhao Yi, it was a different story. His expression changed, and he looked down one last time at Uncle Zhao’s body, muttering to himself:
“Father… I will definitely avenge you. I will live well… Don’t worry about me.”
Zhao Yi had originally wanted to take the body with him, but doing so would make it impossible to catch the train. Moreover, his father had always been most afraid of seeing him fight desperately with others; if he were to see Zhao Yi avenging him, he probably wouldn’t find peace in the afterlife either. Rather than that, it was better to leave him in his hometown.
The fierce flames spread across the ground, gradually engulfing the bloodied corpse. Zhao Yi no longer lingered, running with all his might towards the train!
Audience anticipation: 10
A biting cold wind howled beside the train as a black-clad figure rushed into the carriage.
“Officer Xi! You’re finally here!” Zuo Tong’s face lit up with joy at the sight. “Now we’re all here…”
Before Zuo Tong could finish speaking, the black figure darted in front of him, a hand clamping tightly around his neck. With immense force, it lifted his entire body and slammed him heavily against the inner wall of the carriage, producing a dull thud!
“Who was it?!” Xi Renjie’s eyes blazed with fury. He was strangling Zuo Tong, his gaze sweeping across the entire carriage.
“Who ordered you to shoot civilians?!?!”
This roar immediately terrified everyone in the carriage. Over twenty enforcers huddled together, afraid to look Xi Renjie in the eyes, all lowering their heads in silence.
Clang—clang—
The carriage was so silent that only the howling wind could be heard.
“You are enforcers!! Your duty is to protect the people! How dare you shoot civilians?!” Xi Renjie’s hand had turned Zuo Tong’s neck purple; the latter was gasping for air, his eyes wide with terror.
“…Officer Xi, we didn’t want to!” Brother Jing couldn’t help but speak up. “But they were like madmen, rushing forward desperately. If we let them all get on the train, how would we get to Aurora City?”
“You want to go to Aurora City! They also want to go to Aurora City! They all just want to live! Tell me… what did they do wrong?!”
Xi Renjie released Zuo Tong with one hand and instantly drew the pistol from his waist with the other, pointing the barrel at Brother Jing as he roared in a low voice.
Brother Jing was speechless.
An enforcer nearby quickly interjected, “Actually, the downfall of District Three was inevitable; those people were going to die sooner or later… We can’t let their desire to live deprive us of our chance to survive, can we…?”
“That’s right, we were acting in self-defense. We warned them, but they didn’t listen…”
“You…”
Xi Renjie’s eyes widened in fury. He glared intensely at these people, wishing he could shoot them all dead on the spot.
“Brother Jie, calm down…” Tan Ming, sweating profusely, leaned close to his ear and whispered, “The order from Aurora City was to bring them into the city… If you kill them here, how will we explain it to Aurora City?”
Hearing this, Xi Renjie’s pupils contracted slightly. He struggled internally for a long time before slowly lowering his gun.
He took a deep breath and said:
“Once we’re in Aurora City, I’ll settle accounts with you.”
Seeing this, the other enforcers in the carriage finally breathed a sigh of relief. Unbeknownst to them, their backs were already drenched in cold sweat.
As the train’s speed gradually increased, the crowd that had barely managed to keep pace along the tracks was completely left behind. The steel beast sped onward with a humming of steam, leaving only endless black tracks stretching ahead, disappearing into the mist.
For this carriage, thirty people were not crowded. The enforcers sat down, finding ample space. As they watched the landscape rush by outside the window, their excitement was palpable.
This excitement stemmed from the relief of escaping death and the anticipation of entering Aurora City. After a while, the oppressive atmosphere from the recent incident faded, and they began to whisper among themselves.
“I heard that people in Aurora City live in big houses, five or six stories tall. Is that true?”
“Of course it’s true. Aurora City has over three million people. The buildings are much taller than those in our District Three. They say there are even buildings over ten stories high, truly magnificent.”
“Over ten stories high? Don’t people get tired climbing so many stairs every day?”
“Tired? They have elevators.”
“Elevators? What are those?”
“They’re boxes that automatically carry people up and down. You open and close the door, and you’re already up ten or more floors.”
“That’s amazing?”
“That’s nothing! I heard Aurora City also has electric lights. The streets are bright at night, much brighter than kerosene lamps, with individual lights shining like stars.”
“Because there aren’t many factories, they say the air in Aurora City is sweet…”
Everyone spoke, one after another, their eyes filled with longing.
Xi Renjie sat alone in the back row. It would be a lie to say he felt no anticipation listening to them, but as he looked out at the streetscape engulfed in flames, his mood was indescribably complex.
[57 seconds from now] Chapter 1068: Su Wuming
[48 seconds from now] Chapter 1203: Natural Disaster Erupts, Sage's Fury
[6 seconds ago] Chapter 240: Clear Skies
[1 minute ago] Chapter 178: Fishing Enthusiast
[2 minutes ago] Chapter 197: New Law Unstoppable
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