Chapter 97: Feigned Death

Chu Ning was, in fact, eager to leave this place at once. They were pressed for time, after all. From the behavior of these strange figures and uncanny happenings, the target might already have fallen into the hands of that mysterious party ahead of them, and that was the last thing Chu Ning wanted to see.

“Is it really all right to just leave the bodies here behind us? Shouldn’t we do something about them, so whoever comes looking for clues won’t think of us?” Tanya asked, a little hesitant. She was indeed uneasy about what had just happened.

Although the man they had killed was utterly vile, Tanya still felt a trace of panic. It was her first time taking part in a killing, and she was not skilled at this sort of thing; she had no idea how to deal with the scene afterward. She also worried whether the police would misunderstand and think they had committed murder on purpose.

A whole chain of anxious thoughts arose. She looked back in fear at the corpse sprawled on the ground, then turned to Chu Ning, who remained calm and composed. His steadiness seemed to infect her, and her heart slowly found a measure of peace.

“Don’t think so much. Everything you’re worried about isn’t a problem at all. A few people have merely died; there’s nothing worth making such a fuss over. Besides, the people who used heavy weapons weren’t nearly as rattled as you are. So don’t worry.”

Chu Ning could understand Tanya’s feelings well enough. He tried to help her put what had just happened out of her mind. He had to admit his own actions had indeed been reckless.

Still, it could not be helped. Who could blame him when a voice had just echoed in his mind—Kill him. Kill him. Chu Ning’s instincts told him that if he did not deal with that man, trouble would follow without end.

One mistake had to be covered by another. After making his decision, Chu Ning had already prepared himself to eliminate many who knew the truth. Without that resolve, he believed he might as well have waited to die.

After all, what had happened before was of great importance, and the sacrifices required were unavoidable.

“Really? Are we truly okay doing this?” Tanya still could not believe their earlier actions were actually workable. After being fed on films and television, anyone would think of erasing traces as a way to cover their tracks.

Chu Ning nodded in silence. He was not about to tell Tanya that this factory would very likely be blown apart after one side obtained the target. Otherwise, the signs of battle left inside the factory would be impossible to explain.

If one wished to deceive others, one had to find a noble-sounding excuse. Even if everyone knew full well that it was false, that the result had been fabricated, without evidence it became the truth.

The world often worked in such mad ways. Sometimes no so-called truth was needed at all—only a plausible excuse for the past.

After they withdrew, the mangled corpse on the ground began to writhe. The blood spread across the floor seeped back into the half-devoured body like water flowing upstream into its source.

After a while, long crimson worms emerged from the earlier corpse. Their bodies looked grotesquely swollen, as though they had just fed well. The blood-colored worms then methodically crawled along the tracks and burrowed into the body of the man Chu Ning had killed.

Every trace of blood on the floor vanished. The shattered flesh of the corpse slowly swelled, and the wounds healed at a rapid pace. Bones crackled with a series of sharp popping sounds, resetting themselves beneath the pressure of muscle.

A pair of dark green eyes opened in the darkness. The man shook his head and moved his neck, then touched the skin on his face where he had once been disfigured. He lay there in silence for a while, and once his body had fully regained control, he rose.

After a brief hesitation, he set off without the slightest hesitation in pursuit of the direction in which Chu Ning had vanished, leaving only a skeleton gnawed bare to the bone.