Chapter 126: Two Months Until the End of the World

Upon entering the office lobby, Cheng Feng was slightly surprised to find that the Chairman, Lu Qinghai, was there as well as the Minister.

Lu Qinghai was discussing official matters with the Minister, while the female secretary stood quietly to one side with her hands clasped before her abdomen.

The Minister noticed Cheng Feng entering and turned to look at him. “Cheng Feng, is there something you need?”

Cheng Feng answered succinctly, “Minister, I’d like to request an extended leave of absence. Approximately one month.”

The Minister frowned slightly and was about to ask for the specific reason when Lu Qinghai, seated nearby, spoke first. “Approved. I authorize it.”

Cheng Feng froze for a moment. He had not expected it to be so easy. He had already come up with more than a dozen excuses, ready to find some way to bluff his way through.

After all, Red Moon City—the kingdom of monsters—was explicitly designated as a restricted area by the authorities. If he told them the truth, no matter how important his reason might be, there was no chance they would approve his leave.

The middle-aged Minister was likewise somewhat taken aback. Why would the Chairman favor a newcomer like Cheng Feng? Still, since the Chairman himself had agreed, he naturally had no grounds to object.

Cheng Feng nodded slightly and turned to leave the office.

“Cheng Feng, stay for a moment.” Lu Qinghai’s quiet voice stopped him.

When Cheng Feng turned back, Lu Qinghai addressed the other two people present. “I have something to discuss with this young man. The two of you may leave for now.”

“Of course.”

The Minister found this somewhat strange, but he rose and left the office with the female secretary, passing Cheng Feng on their way out.

“I remember you. Your name is Cheng Feng, correct?” Lu Qinghai calmly gestured for him to sit. “Please, take a seat.”

“Chairman, is something wrong?” Cheng Feng asked, sitting down with a trace of confusion.

He had actually wanted to meet this Chairman he had never seen before for quite some time. But today was different. He needed to return early, pack his luggage, and set out.

Lu Qinghai slowly poured two cups of black tea into mugs and handed one to Cheng Feng. “You’re requesting leave because you intend to go to Red Moon City, correct?”

Cheng Feng accepted the mug. At those words, his heart stirred and his hand trembled slightly, nearly spilling the tea inside.

He stared at Lu Qinghai in astonishment. “How did you know about that, Chairman?”

It had been only a few days since he had decided to accompany Xue Ju to Red Moon City.

Moreover, he had told the matter only to Liu Shiyu and Yan Ruying yesterday. There was no way either of them would have reported it to the Chairman.

Logically speaking, if the Chairman knew, he should never have agreed to Cheng Feng’s leave, much less allowed him to go to such a dangerous place.

And yet the Chairman had known about it long ago.

“I know many things about you.”

Lu Qinghai took a small sip of tea and spoke softly. “You should have realized this long ago. I’ve been watching you for a long time, ever since the day you joined the Association.”

Cheng Feng’s brows drew together slightly. During the previous elimination tournament, Vice Chairwoman Su Ting had mentioned that the Chairman had always paid close attention to his development within the Association.

Cheng Feng also remembered the second day after he had crossed into this world.

Without any apparent reason, Liu Shiyu had taken the initiative to recruit him into the Disaster Association. She had been so persistent that she followed him all the way to his home.

Only later did Cheng Feng learn that Liu Shiyu had been so determined because the Chairman had ordered her to bring him into the Association.

After Cheng Feng truly became a member of the Disaster Association, every time the Chairman issued a demon-hunting mission, he would instruct Liu Shiyu to stay by Cheng Feng’s side, support the newcomer, and act together with him.

It had clearly been deliberate, giving others the impression that the Chairman was trying to bring the two of them together.

Furthermore, Cheng Feng’s weapon—the Spirit Blade, Raikiri—had also once been entrusted to Liu Shiyu by the Chairman, who had arranged for her to deliver the spirit weapon to him.

Raikiri was a spirit weapon that had never acknowledged a master. Other demon hunters were unable to use it, yet the moment it fell into Cheng Feng’s hands, the lightning-forged blade awakened.

It almost seemed as though Raikiri had been forged specifically for Cheng Feng. Even now, Cheng Feng remained puzzled by that fact.

“Chairman, why have you paid so much attention to me?”

At last, Cheng Feng asked the question he had been waiting to ask for a long time. “Before I joined the Association, I was just an ordinary person. Yet you took an inexplicable interest in me. Why?”

“It seems the time has come to tell you everything.”

Lu Qinghai hesitated for a moment, then set down his mug. Sitting upright, he clasped his hands on the desk and said, “The reason is very simple.”

After saying that, he rose from behind the desk and slowly walked toward the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Puzzled, Cheng Feng stood as well and followed him, waiting for an explanation.

Lu Qinghai gazed down at the bustling city below, but instead of answering directly, he asked a strange question. “Cheng Feng, I want to know—do you like this city?”

Unable to understand why the Chairman had suddenly asked that, Cheng Feng nodded seriously. “Of course.”

Through the transparent glass of the floor-to-ceiling window, he could see a magnificent city stretching beyond the limits of his vision: rows of buildings of varying heights, orderly streets, crowds of people swarming like ants, and cars speeding across the elevated highways.

His answer was entirely sincere.

During the time since crossing into this world, he had already grown familiar with everything here.

To Cheng Feng, every important person and every important thing in Winter City had been etched deeply into his heart, impossible to sever.

Over the long months, his emotions had been like ink dropped into clear water, blending completely with this world until neither could be distinguished from the other.

“Listen carefully.”

A solemn expression appeared on Lu Qinghai’s aged face. “Two months from now, this city will be destroyed. From that point onward, the entire world will descend into the apocalypse.”

Cheng Feng: “...What?”

His expression changed as he looked at Lu Qinghai. “Chairman, what do you mean?”

The shopkeeper had also mentioned that the world would end in two months before he died. Cheng Feng had never expected to hear the same astonishing news from the Chairman.

That made the truth of the matter even more certain.

“The destruction of the world two months from now is inevitable. It has already been inscribed in the history of the future and cannot be changed.”

Lu Qinghai turned his gaze toward Cheng Feng. “Only one person can stop it. That savior is you.”

Cheng Feng stared blankly for a moment, very nearly asking whether the Chairman was making some kind of international joke.

“This is no joke.”

Lu Qinghai saw straight through his thoughts, his expression utterly serious. “Two months from now, the Five Abyssals will gather. When that happens, an endless horde of monsters will descend upon Winter City and initiate the battle known as the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.

“The final victor will become the Sixth Abyssal. And when the Sixth Abyssal is born... all the Abyssals will open the Gate of Heaven, and the entire world will be overturned.”

“Brother Shen!”

“Hmm!”

Shen Changqing walked along the road. Whenever he encountered someone he knew, they exchanged a greeting or merely nodded to each other.

But no matter who they were, none of them wore any unnecessary expression. They seemed indifferent to everything.

Shen Changqing had long since grown accustomed to it.

This was the Demon Suppression Bureau, an organization responsible for maintaining the stability of Great Qin. Its primary duty was to slay demons, monsters, and ghosts, though it also maintained several secondary operations.

It could be said that everyone in the Demon Suppression Bureau had blood on their hands.

Once a person had witnessed enough death, many things gradually ceased to matter.

When Shen Changqing had first arrived in this world, he had found it difficult to adapt. In time, however, he had grown used to it.

The Demon Suppression Bureau was enormous.

Everyone who could remain there was either a powerful expert or someone with the potential to become one.

Shen Changqing belonged to the latter category.

The Demon Suppression Bureau was divided into two professions: Guardians and Demon Exorcists.

Everyone who entered the Bureau began at the lowest level, as a Demon Exorcist, and then advanced step by step, eventually gaining the possibility of becoming a Guardian.

Shen Changqing’s predecessor had been a trainee Demon Exorcist within the Bureau—the lowest rank among Demon Exorcists.

Because he possessed his predecessor’s memories, he was extremely familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

Before long, Shen Changqing stopped in front of a pavilion.

Unlike the other places in the Demon Suppression Bureau, which were filled with an atmosphere of slaughter, this pavilion seemed to stand apart from the rest. Amid the blood-soaked Bureau, it possessed a different kind of tranquility.

The pavilion’s doors stood open, and people occasionally entered or left.

After only a brief hesitation, Shen Changqing stepped inside.

The moment he entered the pavilion, the atmosphere suddenly changed.

The fragrance of ink, mingled with a faint scent of blood, rushed toward him. His brows instinctively tightened, then quickly relaxed again.

The bloody odor clinging to everyone in the Demon Suppression Bureau was nearly impossible to wash away completely.