Chapter 23: Rebuke

"Your timing couldn't be more perfect."

Alkaid let out a remark.

He glanced at You Long's body that had fallen to the floor.

In just a moment, the demonic features that had marked his body had retracted, making him indistinguishable from a human.

"Su Alkaid, you..."

Lin Xiaowei's eyes widened, her face filled with disbelief.

"Drop your weapons!"

Two police officers commanded sternly at once.

Xia Wuyuan also looked at Alkaid: "With conclusive evidence, what else do you have to say?"

"Say what?"

Alkaid replied with a question: "Say that I was faced with a threat and acted in self-defense?"

Self-defense?

The few of them watched as Alkaid, right in front of these police officers and prosecutors, wiped the fresh blood from his Chengying Sword onto the body of You Long...

You call this self-defense?

I've never seen such audacity in all my years.

"However, your arrival wasn't completely useless."

Alkaid turned his gaze to a middle-aged man who had entered with them and seemed to be a manager at You Long International: "If I were you, I would take control of him as quickly as possible and call for backup, put Yulong International on lockdown. Otherwise, there will certainly be more than one or two people, like that young girl just now, who get their accounts deleted and silenced."

"What do you mean?"

Xia Wuyuan had a vague sense that this matter was far from simple.

"Use your brain."

Alkaid said: "Your ascent wasn't smooth, was it? They definitely tried every mean to stall for time; otherwise, I wouldn't have reached this level before you."

"Were you here to investigate the cause of the victim's death?"

Lin Xiaowei offered him an excuse.

Alkaid went straight to the desk.

Thanks to his sharp hearing, when he pushed open the door, he heard something, and he didn't mind letting these people hear it too.

Thus, he redialed the phone call from before.

Soon, the call was picked up, and a man's voice came through.

"Mr. You, we have already started to destroy this batch of goods..."

However, the man, who clearly knew what You Long had done, couldn't help but interrupt with a loud shout: "Inspector Lin, Prosecutor Xia, what are you waiting for, the murderer who killed our Mr. You is right in front of you, are you just going to watch?! Arrest him right now!"

Upon hearing these words, the voice on the phone paused, and the next second...

"Beep, beep, beep!"

The call was disconnected.

This scene immediately caused a change in the expressions of Lin Xiaowei, Xia Wuyuan, and the others.

Lin Xiaowei was the first to turn towards the middle-aged man who had spoken, and she said angrily: "Director Jiang, do you take us all for fools?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, all I know is that you're standing idly by while a murderer has killed our Mr. You and you do nothing about it. Arrest him immediately, if you don't, we will do it ourselves! Men!"

The man known as Director Jiang shouted out.

Suddenly, more than a dozen people quickly ran over.

Some of them were holding batons, riot forks, and other security equipment.

It was lucky that Dayu strictly prohibited firearms; otherwise, their weapons would have been much more serious.

"I'd like to see who dares!"

Lin Xiaowei immediately drew her pistol.

"I should remind you that if I'm not mistaken, the 'goods' they mentioned are not what you understand as goods."

At this moment, Alkaid interjected.

Given Yu Xiaoying's experiences, he could easily make the association.

"It's people."

He looked at Lin Xiaowei, Xia Wuyuan, and the others, and quickly added: "They are using some unknown method to rapidly dispose of a group of people... it's a literal disposal—killing, burning bodies, grinding them up, anything that can make them vanish from this world."

As he said this, he paused: "This group of people could be a few, a dozen, or perhaps dozens, even hundreds."

Dozens, hundreds of people being killed?

What kind of colossal case was this?

Lin Xiaowei, Xia Wuyuan, and the others felt their scalps tingle.

Without the precedent of Yu Xiaoying's case, they naturally wouldn't believe the words of Alkaid, the "murderer."

But that phone call just now...

They had come up to investigate suspecting Yu Xiaoying's death was related to Yulong International, yet in this circumstance, Director Jiang was still risking their corroboration of suspicion to cover up the truth... it was definitely more terrifying than they could imagine.

"Jiang Feng, aren't you going to come clean!?"

Lin Xiaowei shouted sternly.

Although...

At this moment, the person who needed to be arrested with conclusive evidence was Alkaid.

But because of his complicated identity, coupled with the urgency of matters, she turned her attention to Director Jiang for the time being.

"Admit to what!? All I've seen is you sheltering a murderer! I am definitely reporting this to your superiors!"

Jiang Feng pointed at Alkaid as the dozen from Yulong International, emboldened by Ou Zhengyang's backing and boldly ignoring her, the armed inspector, rushed in quickly: "Seize him! He is the murderer who killed Mr. You! And these so-called inspectors and prosecutors… Their relationship with him is unclear, muddy waters, not to be trusted. We will take the man down and then hand him over to our Shanlong City Security Bureau for processing!"

"Yes!"

More than a dozen simultaneously shouted in response and lunged at Alkaid.

"Stop!"

Lin Xiaowei bellowed: "If you don't stop, I'll shoot!"

"How dare you!"

At that moment, another fierce shout came from outside the door.

Immediately afterward, the chairman of Yulong International, Ou Zhengyang, entered, staring at Lin Xiaowei: "We are assisting the Shanlong City Security Bureau in arresting a murderer with conclusive evidence! If you, an inspector from Yunmeng City, dare to shoot and obstruct, I don't think you want your job anymore!"

He waved his hand and ordered: "Seize the murderer!"

"You..."

Lin Xiaowei, seeing the people from Yulong International disregard her, an armed inspector, with Ou Zhengyang's support, was shocked and furious.

Yet in this situation...

She dared not shoot.

"Stop, didn't you hear me tell you to stop!?"

Zhang Qing and the others also shouted loudly.

"Truly... a waste."

Alkaid shook his head.

He had initially hoped that they would forcefully continue the investigation and follow the leads to Yulong International, exposing the matter fully to see the explicit attitude of those at the top.

But now it seemed...

He would have to take action himself.

"Whoosh!"

The next moment, Alkaid faced the dozen or so attackers and martial artists rushing to kill him, and he charged with his sword drawn.

The two fastest martial artists wielded riot forks, one high and one low, swiftly aiming for Alkaid.

Yet, as the forks came at Alkaid, he leaped up, stepping on one fork and slicing the other in half with the sharp Chengying Sword.

"Bang!"

Sparks flew.

Alkaid pounced forward.

In contrast to Lin Xiaowei, Zhang Qing, Ye Yuhe, and the others who were hesitant, he acted without any restraint.

As he closed in on the armed martial artists, his sword streaked through the void like a cold glint, instantly piercing through the head of one martial artist.

"Hiss!"

Blood spurted.

Then, with a turn, Alkaid's Chengying Sword continued on to another martial artist.

Before he could react, the blade had already swept past his throat, carrying with it a tuft of crimson blood, and continued its deadly path toward the third martial artist.

Doing a malefactor's bidding.

Perhaps they didn't know You Long was a demon.

But they surely knew about You Long's actions.

In a certain sense, they had become the demon's minions.

Such minions, daring to reach out to him...

He would slice through them without hesitation!

This was a lesson learned from two previous instances where mercy almost led to catastrophic failure.

"Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!"

Alkaid, amidst the group, killed as easily as slicing vegetables, each slash aimed deadly and mercilessly at vital points.

How could these mere martial artists, or even trained ordinary people, withstand the slaughter by someone as battle-hardened as a Grandmaster?

In an instant, five lay dead on the spot.

Such cruelty, bloodshed, and ruthlessness immediately filled the Yulong International experts who followed with a chilling fear, as uncontrollable terror filled their eyes.

Murdering!?

He dared to kill in front of the Security Bureau inspectors!?

Each of them had more or less guessed what You Long and others were doing.

Human trafficking.

But they didn't directly engage in the specifics.

They were only responsible for suppressing those who tried to escape or meddle.

They treated any gossip as if it were the wind in an empty cave, not seeking out the truth, pretending ignorance.

Moreover, the salary offered by Yulong International was just too high; each could make an annual salary of a million, which made them spring into action at a moment's notice during any incident.

But ordinarily, they were only dealing with ordinary troublemakers; this time...

They faced someone even more savage and cold-hearted than themselves, a killer who regarded human life as worthless!

They would die!

"Murder! There's been a murder!"

Seeing their colleagues who normally smoked and drank together, five of whom were suddenly killed, blood spraying, heads rolling.

Such a brutal, bloody, terrifying scene immediately caused the more faint-hearted to cry out in horror.

Not to mention the experts at Yulong International, even Lin Xiaowei, Zhang Qing, Xia Wuyuan, and Ye Yuhe all felt their eyelids twitch.

"Madness! Absolute madness!"

Among them, Ye Yuhe recalled Su Yaoyu's recent plea, asking her to protect Su Alkaid.

If Su Alkaid truly was the Shadow Demon...

Then those who needed protection were them, right?

"Enough!"

Seeing that the people from Yulong International had lost their will to fight, yet Alkaid continued his relentless assault, Xia Wuyuan couldn't stand it anymore.

With a fierce shout, he took drastic action, kicking a baton.

Forcing Alkaid to block with his sword and deflect the baton.

"You wish to stop me?"

Alkaid's gaze shifted to Xia Wuyuan: "Yulong International has already begun eliminating those who know the truth. Every second you stop me, another person might die. When everyone is dead, it will be indirectly by your hand. So, do you want to be that accomplice?"

Xia Wuyuan's attempt to block Alkaid slightly hesitated.

"Alkaid, put down your sword now!"

Lin Xiaowei also reacted quickly, urgently saying, "We will handle this matter. We will not wrong a good person, nor will we let go of a bad one..."

"You can handle it? You all claim to uphold justice, to maintain the fairness of law, but now, even though you know that a dozen, or even dozens of people are being murdered, you all just stand by, unable to do anything, and still have the nerve to stop me! What gives you the courage? Because I'm approachable? Where's your dignity!?"

Alkaid's unforgiving reprimand left Lin Xiaowei, Zhang Qing, Xia Wuyuan, and the others ashen-faced and speechless.

They had no response.

Their performance just now...

Indeed left much to be desired.

And moreover...

Compared to Yulong International, the Su Family was the real behemoth, right?

To let something happen to Su Alkaid right under their watch...

"A bunch of trash!"

Alkaid rebuked them fiercely once more.

This outright scolding stripped those who were just moments ago righteous and impassioned of all their dignity.