Chapter 1027: Chapter 1025: Ears Chapter 1027: Chapter 1025: Ears The screen flashed, and Fu Qian was already seated in the warehouse.
“[Identity verification complete, work for the day begins]”
During the routine daily greeting, Fu Qian moved with extraordinary efficiency, swiftly taking off a ring and placing it on the table.
Considering his activities at the Academy, aside from a few rings, he had almost no other items with him.
And this time, the ring he removed was the latest one he had acquired, the [Affection Ring].
After completing this action, he didn’t hesitate for even a second before putting the mask back on.
“[Warning, leak–]”
Until then, the leakage warning hadn’t even finished being announced.
As expected, the images before his eyes kept shifting rapidly and were not restricted in any way.
As a top-ranked task agent, the warehouse clearly didn’t care about the re-assignment of authority not following the standard procedure.
…
The feeling of being marked arrived almost simultaneously with sitting back down in the conference room.
Old Master Xiumeng was indeed repeating his previous tactics.
Along with that came the gasps that filled the room.
Although not everyone was as sensitive as Fu Qian, the faint glows lighting up around the room were undeniably frightening and looked like preparations to annihilate the entire group.
He had even specifically cross-referenced a list…
Remembering Xiumeng’s preparatory actions, someone finally couldn’t sit still any longer.
“Lord Xiumeng, may I ask what you are doing?”
The one who asked was none other than the demigod, Professor Yang, from the Divine Ashes Institute.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a simple check,”
Xiumeng glanced at him, offering an evasive answer.
A check?
What kind of check warranted a Divine Envoy to travel thousands of miles?
The explanation was obviously not very convincing.
…
As a revered expert, Professor Yang deserved a certain level of respect; after being brushed off, he was too embarrassed to continue probing and subconsciously turned to look at Li Weixuan beside him.
In fact, nearly half of the attendees did the same.
Unfortunately, Li Weixuan, whose expression was solemn, didn’t even speak but just nodded slightly, signaling everyone to remain calm and not be rash.
Although Li Weixuan’s prestige was considerable on ordinary days, at such a life-and-death moment, this response was undoubtedly unconvincing.
Fortunately, many had noticed the traces of markings flashing under Li Weixuan’s feet just now.
Realizing that he too was treated no differently, a group of people finally managed to restrain the primal force within them.
Hmm?
However, this begrudging calm lasted only a few seconds; in the next moment, as people looked on in horror, Xiumeng’s wrist flipped, revealing a cyan-black metal cylinder with exquisitely intricate designs on its surface.
Although the cylinder felt tightly sealed, there was still an uncomfortable sense of distortion emanating from it.
What on earth did he want to do?
Click!
Without excessively tormenting everyone’s nerves, the metal cylinder opened to one side the next moment.
An ear?
Fu Qian was the first to make out what was inside.
That was unmistakably a human-sized left ear, so standard in shape it was as if it had just been torn from someone’s head.
If there was anything particularly notable about it, it was that one half was swollen while the other was withered, interweaving to form a peculiar sense of distortion.
And as Fu Qian observed, he felt the ear, following Xiumeng’s mark, “saw” him.
Yes, despite being an ear, it had the sensation of being watched by eyes.
But this wasn’t the end; in the next moment, after the middle part of the ear canal writhed, it suddenly opened wide like a mouth would.
Boom!
A kind of incomprehensible gibberish erupted in an instant, a mad tearing sensation spreading from his will to his flesh.
Even simultaneously, through the gibberish as a conduit, Fu Qian sensed a fleeting watchfulness that could be deemed exalted, as if a familiar expanse of night sky momentarily unfolded before him.
However, before he could take a closer look, the gibberish abruptly ceased.
With a click, the metal cylinder was already being sealed, the ear once again thoroughly isolated.
Of course, the watchfulness hadn’t completely disappeared because Old Master Xiumeng was still looking this way.
Confronted by the Divine Envoy’s somewhat solemn scrutiny, Fu Qian, who had controlled himself throughout without showing any special reaction, now let the other measure him as he pleased.
Xiumeng’s bizarre maneuver, coupled with the wild gibberish just now, had led Fu Qian to vaguely guess the other’s purpose.
Deciding to put away the Affection Ring was indeed the right choice.
Noticing from the corner of his eye that everything outside the window remained as usual, the Red Moon had not appeared, Fu Qian once again commended his own decisiveness.
From past experience, he knew that although usually unassuming, his “Mom” could be said to always be watching him.
Any form of existence within the higher echelons imposed upon him could elicit her reaction, as Yasui Tokiyuki had been an example last time.
In fact, it was by leveraging this that he had anticipated Yasui Tokiyuki’s arrival.
…
Of course, Xiumeng hadn’t come to silence him; the Night Watchman wasn’t crazy enough to go to that extent.
Although it was not possible to confirm the reason for Xiumeng’s visit at the moment, the marking maneuver had immediately triggered Fu Qian’s vigilance.
This strange and marvelous method was obviously just preliminary, and in the Unseen Hillock, what was to follow was Old Master Stoss’s trump, a strike almost resembling a mantle of authority.
The power of the Affection Ring in his possession, without a doubt derived from the Red Moon, would only result in even closer and more sensitive scrutiny by the Red Moon while on his person.
In such circumstances, if what followed was still of a higher-ranking nature, the odds of the sky lighting up with a blood moon were quite high.
And such a spectacle would almost certainly be noticed by the Night Watchman and linked to the happenings on Ye Island.
Now that he had returned the ring, the fleeting watchfulness just now clearly had not provoked “Mom” to react.
At the same time, Fu Qian also gleaned important information in reverse–the scene he had caught a glimpse of had seemed familiar, included in his assignment delivering four tranquilizers as per protocol.
And if his memory served correctly, the summary of that task stated that his very actions were essentially to aid in obscuring a Messenger of evil implanted by the Night Watchman, so as not to interfere with Yasui Shi’s ascension.
After many days, had the Night Watchman finally noticed his slight actions?
Xiumeng’s actions just now seemed to be a trial, using something fetched from the source of evil to test everyone–he wasn’t here for Ian’s sake at all, which is also why he was unconcerned with the contents of Li Weixuan and the others’ communications.
Rapidly weighing the possibility of this idea, Fu Qian refrained from speaking hastily, because others would help verify it for him.
At this moment, the conference room was in turmoil.
“What on earth is happening?”
Professor Yang’s face had gotten completely cold.
“Your Excellency Xiumeng, I need an explanation.”
Li Weixuan’s tone was very serious as well.
An explanation?
Xiumeng surveyed the room, nodding slowly.
“Yasui Shi is dead.”