Chapter 2749 - Substrate
"What did you say?"
Tang Ka felt that every strand of his hair and every cell were exploding.
The rain was cold, but his blood was even colder than the rain.
"Get out of the way!"
Before Tang Ka could react, Shao Jie had already roared in desperation.
Turning from a poor homeless dog into a ferocious hungry wolf, Shao Jie laid his right hand on his dagger that was hanging on his hip. "Tang Ka, get out of the way!"
His wrist crystal processor was squeaking and flashing red light, but nobody noticed it in the heavy storm. Or rather, they did not care even if they noticed it.
After all, due to the severe interferences in the storm, nobody would locate them with their portable crystal processors.
"No, the Spiritual Nexus is not cut off. I can still sense it."
Li Yao sighed. "However, someone misleads you into thinking that you can't be monitored or located due to the malfunction of the Spiritual Nexus. If you let him pass, he will still be captured by the Purger troop that is hiding in the darkness, and you will possibly be purged together with him in the holy temple as a suspect too. Then, it will be entirely hopeless.
"Stop him before he causes too much trouble, and maybe both of you will be fine… for now."
Tang Ka's head went blank. He did not know what to do at all.
Li Yao could only take over part of Tang Ka's brain cells and central nerves. He said to Shao Jie, "Come back and don't make things worse. Many classmates can prove that you counterattacked when Liao Meng beat you first. Self-protection is the Third Law of the Path of Ultimate Benevolence. So, it's not as serious as you think.
"However, if you do escape, you will be unpardonable even though you were not wrong during the day!"
"I… I… I…"
Shao Jie panted, and his hand that was holding the dagger was shaking hard. He seemed more and more confused as thunders burst out over his head. "Hopeless. I'm hopeless. I'm completely hopeless…"
"No, I will help you, the Ultimate Benevolence Masters will help you, and the gods will help you, as long as you turn back in time."
Controlling Tang Ka's throat, Li Yao convinced him, "Just relax and throw the bag away. It's going to be fine. Let's go back. We'll both become Purgers. You still have a chance. Trust me and the gods. The gods never forget any of their children."
Shao Jie's strength faded away as if it had flowed into the sewer together with the rainwater.
The noises and the flashlights not far away became the last straw that crushed his determination.
After a moan of grief and desperation, he took off his backpack that was full of high-energy food and tossed it into the ruins. Then, as if all his bones had been extracted from him, he could barely stand straight while Tang Ka looked at him.
"Tang Ka, Shao Jie!"
Chu Zhiyun shouted from far away as she and the other classmates approached, "What happened?"
"I'm fine."
Li Yao said, "I just got tripped over and fell behind. Then, I met Shao Jie on my own. He broke his leg after a fall, so he was quite slow. I was going to catch up with you with him so that we can go after the defectors together!"
"That's unnecessary!"
Chu Zhiyun sounded more than regretful. "The defector has been caught by the Purge troop. The mission is over. Let's go back to our camp!"
The urgent mission that lasted until midnight came to an unsatisfactory but reasonable end.
Shao Jie stared at Tang Ka, as if he were wondering why Tang Ka did not point out his backpack.
However, Tang Ka had held back all his feelings, and there was nothing but calmness and indifference in his eyes.
It was already past midnight when everybody returned to the camp.
They had a sloppy ritual with the holy light, as none of the students were able to calm themselves down.
It was not until the execution table was set up again that they finally saw the true faces of the defectors, who were exactly the same like them.
As usual, the two sinners would be purged in the holy temple after being whipped.
However, they screamed much more loudly than the student who stole a toy the previous day.
The Covenant Alliance always considered pain a test of the gods, and only those who were unaffected by the greatest agony were the real pious believers.
Yet, knowing that their doom was coming, the two students gave themselves up and unleashed their pain and fear blatantly, turning moans into an aria of extraterrestrial devils.
Including Tang Ka, all the Children of Holy Light felt burnt by their screams. Their hearts were racing, and they were breathing hastily. Their eyes were also cramping beyond their control.
Maybe all the children once had the same thought as Tang Ka did when they pursued the defectors—escape from the current life while nobody was around in the heavy rain!
Tang Ka did not know what choice he would've made without Li Yao.
Would he have let Shao Jie go?
Or even more, would he have fled with Shao Jie?
What if he had discovered his monitor instead of Shao Jie? If Chu Zhiyun had commanded him to escape with her, would he have obeyed the order as he usually did?
Tang Ka didn't know the answer, so the thorny, venomous whip seemed to be slapping in his face, making his heart palpitate in fright.
When the two bruised defectors were dragged away by the mentors and the audience were driven back to their camps by whistles, Tang Ka finally took a long, deep breath under the cover of his hands on his own bed.
"Grandpa Yao, tell me, did you come yourself, or many extraterrestrial devils similar to you have landed on all the students?"
Tang Ka's brainwaves were unfocused and panicked as his faith was falling apart. "What is the truth? What is the 'ultimate test'? Why do I feel that everybody is losing control and degenerating in the past few days? Have all of us been possessed by extraterrestrial devils, thereby unable to contain ourselves?"
"First of all, I'm not an extraterrestrial devil, Secondly, I'm unique even if you consider me as some sort of extraterrestrial devil. You can't find anyone else like me in the whole universe."
Considering for a long time, Li Yao said, "However, your speculation is not entirely unreasonable. It's possible that someone is developing extraterrestrial devils with the 'Children of Holy Light', including you, except that the extraterrestrial devils are not external but were implanted in you when you were very little. They were never triggered until this 'ultimate test'."
"D-Developing extraterrestrial devils?"
Tang Ka found it hard to believe. "Who can do that in the Covenant Alliance? Did the mentors, the director, and the Ultimate Benevolence Masters notice nothing?"
"On the very contrary…" Li Yao said, "Only your mentors, your director, and the Ultimate Benevolence Masters are capable of doing this."
"Why?"
Tang Ka's brainwaves became sharp and messy. "We're the Children of Holy Light. We're the purest and most loyal people in the Covenant Alliance and the future Purgers! Why would they develop extraterrestrial devils in our bodies?"
"I don't know. There may be plenty of reasons."
Li Yao hated to say it out, but he had to grit his teeth as he said, "Medically, in order to study a certain germ, the doctors will try to culture a lot of the germs in a petri dish and give them all kinds of stimulations so that the germs will proliferate and mutate. Only when you know a germ well can you expect to control and exterminate it, right?
"Therefore, the Children of Holy Light might be the substrate in a petri dish… Of course, there may be other possibilities. Who knows?"
Tang Ka was silent for a long time.
Li Yao sensed that the boy's head was turning into an abyss whose bottom he could not see.
"So, we were not selected to become 'Purgers' at all, were we?"
Tang Ka said sadly, "We're destined to become… 'substrate'; we're never going to become Purgers!"
"Yes, and no."
Li Yao said, "If my senses and my speculations are correct, it's true that you were not chosen as 'Purgers'. However, nothing is really destined. Nobody is qualified to decide your fate. Never say 'impossible'. You are the master of your own fate. You can become whatever you want to be!"
"… Why did you stop me from telling everybody about Shao Jie's backpack just now?"
After a brief silence, Tang Ka took a deep breath and asked, "If someone was watching us in the dark, wouldn't they have seen the whole thing? What would they think when they saw that I kept it a secret?"
"Because it was unnecessary. Compared with what you did in the supermarket with your monitor, keeping Shao Jie's backpack a secret was nothing and better fitted your personality."
Li Yao said, "Don't be scared of making mistakes. Those people have got you into this place exactly to watch you make mistakes. Eventually, most students will make mistakes, like Shao Jie, Liao Meng, Chu Zhiyun, and the two defectors. Maybe one or two determined and devoted students can resist all the temptations, but do you think it's going to be you?
"If a kid who was supposed to make mistakes because of the temptation of extraterrestrial devils did the 'right' thing against all odds, it would've been very weird and suspicious, wouldn't it?"
"Hold on a second…"
Tang Ka's eyes cramped again. "Did you just say that those people knew what my monitor and I did in the supermarket?"