Chapter 959: I Faked It

"Wait..."

A voice rang out in the communication channel, but it was already too late.

No one had given the order, and no one had pressed the launch button. The missile seemed to have a mind of its own, whistling over everyone's heads before a violent explosion knocked almost everyone to the ground!

Boom—!!!

A miniature sun bloomed in the air. Amidst the deafening roar, Chen Ling's figure was swallowed before everyone's eyes, and even the edge of the cliff was blown into powder.

"Retreat quickly!"

Someone shouted, and the crowd retreated rapidly. The mountain rocks beneath their feet kept cracking and falling in the roar, and cracks spread beneath their feet.

Only after they were completely away from the place where Chen Ling had been blown up did they stop, their hearts still pounding.

"What happened?" An angry voice sounded in the communication channel. "Who gave the launch order?!"

Everyone looked at each other. It took several seconds before the pilot of that helicopter spoke in a daze:

"No one gave the order... I didn't press the launch button either. It... it just flew off on its own."

"How is he??"

"Hit directly by the missile, he has been obliterated."

"..." The person's voice was a bit hoarse. "Are you sure?"

"Sure, we all saw it... There was also equipment on site that recorded the whole process. His body was torn apart by the explosion."

The channel was silent.

The person was silent for a long time before slowly spitting out three words:

"...Withdraw the team."

Everyone took one last look at the collapsed cliff, seemingly unable to recover from the image of Chen Ling spreading his arms and embracing death just moments ago.

It wasn't until the helicopters and off-road vehicles began to withdraw that the Divine Path possessors came to their senses and followed the main force, gradually disappearing into the end of the wilderness...

……

Bureau 749 Office.

A man with graying temples slowly hung up the phone.

"...You all heard it too." He scanned the two people in front of his desk. "'Ghost Mockery' has been killed. Even if I had the heart to give him another chance, the fact has already happened."

Bang—!

Lu Xun slammed his hands heavily on the desk, making a dull thud.

"What do you mean no one gave the order and the missile launched itself? Do you believe that yourself?!" Lu Xun roared with rare anger.

"How many times do I have to say it? Director Chen is the savior of our exploration team! If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have been able to get out of Shennongjia!! How could someone who is willing to protect scientific researchers without asking for any reward be the culprit behind the destruction of the world?!"

"I will investigate the missile launch matter to the end and give you an explanation." Director Sun was silent for a moment. "But what a person is doing now and what they will do later are not directly related... Master Chonggui is the leader of [Heavenly Derivation] in this era, and his prophecy can never be wrong."

Director Sun took a photo out of his drawer and placed it on the desk.

"This is the original text of Master Chonggui's prophecy. If you don't believe it, you can see for yourselves... Sixteen words in total, every word is evil. How can such an existence be considered a 'good person'?"

On the photo was a note with two lines of blood-stained text:

【Ghost Mockery destroys the world, descends upon the human realm】

【The era is in chaos, heaven and earth shall purge together】

Looking at these lines, the faces of Yang Xiao and Lu Xun were a bit ugly. These prophecies certainly didn't write anything good, and the final "heaven and earth shall purge together" made it sound as if Chen Ling had done something heinous.

"Director Sun, you might have forgotten that we are scientists." Yang Xiao, who was usually not good at talking, took the initiative to speak. "We only believe in the facts we see with our own eyes. Your baseless feudal superstitions cannot convince us."

"Feudal superstition?" Director Sun was stunned. "No, this is not feudal superstition..."

"No need to say more to him."

Lu Xun stared into Director Sun's eyes, his brows full of disappointment. He grabbed the photo and turned to walk out of the office. "Let's go."

Yang Xiao turned and left without hesitation, not even looking at Director Sun again.

Director Sun didn't try to keep them. He just stood quietly in place, watching their departing backs, and spoke again:

"Lu Xun, give me two more days to investigate the matter of Zheng Tianlei imprisoning you for experiments without authorization. I will definitely give you an explanation..."

Bang—

Before Director Sun could finish, the two slammed the office door shut, and his voice came to an abrupt halt.

……

After leaving Bureau 749, Lu Xun's face remained incredibly ugly.

He walked forward along the street with his head down, not saying a word, looking worried.

Seeing this, Yang Xiao hesitated for a moment before speaking:

"Actually, you don't have to be so pessimistic..."

"Pessimistic?" Lu Xun glanced at him. "The person is dead. This can no longer be called pessimism, but a fact."

"Perhaps, he didn't die at all?"

Lu Xun suddenly stopped.

He stared at Yang Xiao, just like he had faced Director Sun earlier, his face extremely serious.

"...What do you mean?"

Yang Xiao didn't answer immediately. After looking around to make sure no one was watching, he took out his phone from his pocket and handed it to Lu Xun.

The phone screen wasn't off; it was on the message page, and the first of the recent messages was from a garbled phone number... The content of the message was simple, only three words:

"I faked it."

Lu Xun: ?

"The sending time is thirty seconds earlier than Director Chen's death time, and only he could send a message with such garbled characters." Yang Xiao shrugged. "I sensed the message while in front of Director Sun, but seeing you were so emotional, I didn't say anything."

"This... how is this possible?" Lu Xun's brows were tightly locked. "He was hit directly by a missile, there wasn't even much residue left of his body, everyone on the scene saw it... How could he be alive after that?"

"Don't you find it strange? No order, no operation, yet the missile launched itself... Think about it carefully, there are only two people in the world who could do such a thing."

"Which two?"

"Director Chen, and me."

"You mean, he launched the missile to bomb himself? The purpose was to escape?" Lu Xun's dull eyes regained a glimmer of luster.

"He died, he faked it??"

……

Clang, clang—

On the train slowly leaving Shanghai, a tall woman sat by the window, eating melon seeds while leisurely watching the scenery outside, looking very comfortable.

At this time, the train had basically left the Shanghai area and was temporarily stopped at a district station, with a few passengers walking on the platform.

Just as the train doors were about to close, a young man with a ferocious mask hanging at his waist stepped onto the train... He stood by the carriage door, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, and finally landed on the woman by the window.

The corners of his mouth curled up slightly.