A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 247 "Innocence"

Quinn took the watch off the carcass of the blue bull and glanced at the time.

For some reason, the clock stopped turning; the hour and minute hands were stuck at 1:40 AM.

He crossed a wrecked, potholed road, as if ravaged by war, and walked to the bridge pier. He squatted down on the bank, scooped up a handful of seawater, and smeared it on his face to wash away the blood and grime.

The salt in the seawater touched the wound, causing a stinging pain. His left cheek was swollen like a steamed bun. If it had been a Sequence 6 warrior, he might have been able to crush his head like a watermelon.

Quinn dipped the katana into the sea again, then placed it horizontally on his left arm, tip upward, and wiped the water away with his sleeve and skin. As the katana was withdrawn from his arm, droplets of water mixed with blood fell into the sea, the clear, cold blade like a long beam of light guarding his side.

Quinn suddenly found himself starting to like the knife.

I just don't know if it will turn back into a tree branch when it returns to reality.

He paused briefly, looked around, and found the parrot lying on the roof of the car. Fortunately, Amamiya Nene was alright, but the earlier dragon roar had exhausted too much of her mental energy, and she looked quite disoriented from the fall.

"Can it still fly?"

Amamiya Nene hummed twice, and said weakly, "...We're really amazing."

Quinn lifted her back into his hat, smiling and praising her:

"Made a great contribution, Amamiya Nene got MVP, Quinn just got carried to victory."

"Good to know. What's next?"

Quinn fell silent; the two of them had to leave.

"I'll take a look."

He walked back to the body of Lan Na Niu and glanced at it. He didn't find any items that looked like a teleportation portal on the body. However, there was a glowing purple stick floating on the ground, which was probably the abyssal extraordinary property extracted from the guy.

Lan Na Niu wanted to use this thing to trade his life with Quinn, but he probably never dreamed that there was such a dirty trick as a parry. He spat it out and was sent flying by the katana. The hero's fate was still too overpowered.

Just one more glance and that primal, naked desire surged up from the depths of my heart again, like the key to unlock Pandora's box.

【Ding--】

[Unknown item detected, loading the illustration.]

The blue dotted line frame had locked onto that thing, and the encyclopedia system began reading its information:
【Purple Mood】

[The extraordinary characteristics of the sixth rank in the Lustful Destiny Sequence: 'Idol'. First level: Slow Play; Second level: Earthquake; Third level: Instant Orgasm.]

[The geisha absorbs it under the 'worshipful gaze,' thus elevating it to the sixth rank of the Lustful Fate Sequence, 'Idol'; inserting it into the body amplifies the power of lust. The switch has three levels; the longer it is used, the greater the power, and the greater the potential for contamination from the abyss of 'Original Sin of Lust'; destroying it can cause the 1999-deep abyss layer to rise earlier.]

Long ago, a young traveler entered a festival in a northern city. Amidst the crowds and the circus stage, the darling of lust danced like a swan. From that moment on, the fire of desire that had never died within him burned even more fiercely.

【Ah, Tatiana! Beautiful one, she sees me! She notices me! Tatiana, please, keep dancing—】

Quinn looked at the item description, still confused, but he still remembered the name 'Tajiyana,' perhaps related to her lustful destiny.

Is the sixth sequence of the path of lust called "Idol"?
He recalled his extraordinary dance on the roof of the car, which had driven the officers crazy, and it dawned on him.

Harvesting desires and fanaticism—idol is indeed a fitting name.

Since the system can display item information, it is obviously an Abyss relic that can be brought back to reality. But Quinn would never use such a morally corrupt thing. Damn it, it must be severely criticized. Make an exact replica with slime rubber and take it back to my little nest—no, I mean, to study it.

Quinn drew his sword and cleaved it in two with a single strike.

A slight resistance came from the hilt, as if something was bursting. But this purple blade was different from the black blade that possessed the characteristics of an assassin; it had no independent consciousness and shattered into two pieces decisively.

The illusory light of lust flashed by and then spread out like a shockwave, instantly engulfing the entire city.

The world suddenly fell silent; the sounds of the sea breeze and waves disappeared, and the person who had fallen stopped wailing and remained motionless on the road, as if the pause button had been pressed.

"What did you do?" Amamiya Nene asked, peeking out from behind her.

"If we destroy this thing, we should be able to go back."

Quinn didn't explain much. He frowned, hearing the lingering, somewhat shrill breathing in the deathly silence of the night.

From the jeep that crashed into the road roller.

Quinn walked over, reached out and pulled hard, tearing off the deformed rear door, where he saw Qin Wei trembling inside.

When Qin Wei saw Quinn, he was like a little devil seeing Zhong Kui (a legendary Chinese demon), his eyes closed and he began to tremble and stammer, "It's all fake. Amitabha. It's all fake, Amitabha."

Those who do evil are always more superstitious.

Their belief in Guan Yu, wearing Buddhist prayer beads, and getting Vajra eyebrows tattooed on their bodies doesn't mean they truly believe in afterlife or in the existence of unseen gods and Buddhas. It simply means they know they are doing things that will send them to hell.

The enormous, sinister humanoid figure he had just encountered seemed like a demon from hell that had come to seize him.

With a flash of light, Quinn severed the handcuffs.

The parrot silently tucked its little head back into the hat, seemingly unconcerned about what he was about to do.

The wind whipped up by the blade blew between the two men. The father looked up and met the 'stranger's' gaze, his eyes filled with a complex sense of bewilderment.

"Have you seen me before?" Quinn asked. Qin Wei seemed about to nod, but then abruptly shook his head.

Quinn glanced sideways, using the shards of glass on the ground to examine himself; he still had Zhang Rui's square face.

"Do you...?" Quinn asked thoughtfully, "think we look alike?"

Qin Wei nodded hesitantly.

Zhang Rui and Qin Wei do not resemble each other at all.

If he thinks that way, it means that in his eyes, Quinn is the original form.

It wasn't just like this now; the night before, when Qin Wei saw Quinn at the hotel, he looked like he'd seen a ghost, as if he thought he'd gone too far.

“You’ve gone too far,” Quinn said slowly.

"Really? I think so too. We can't keep doing this, hahaha, how could something like this possibly exist in reality—"

As Qin Wei was speaking, he glanced back at the corpse behind the car, then immediately looked away in fright.

Quinn got into the car and sat next to his father. Qin Wei shrank back slightly but didn't move his buttocks away.

"Hey," Quinn asked casually, "your wife doesn't do drugs, right?"

Qin Weizheng's expression instantly turned furious, like Kong Yiji being mocked. As if convinced that this was a dream, he waved his hand with the wedding ring on it and roared impatiently at Quinn, "She still has to breastfeed the baby!"

Quinn nodded, as if to indicate that he had heard something he already knew.

"How much money have you made over the years?" He paused, then added, "After deducting the money you spent on goods from him."

Qin Wei's head, which had been held high in anger, suddenly drooped, as if deflated instantly. He stammered, "After deducting that, there's not much left."

But soon, a bright light flashed in the middle-aged man's eyes again:

"I've invested it all in stocks. As long as I make money, my family can live a good life. You know Wall Street, right? Their analysts say that after the financial crisis, there will be a bull market in China—they don't understand me, tsk. A bunch of uneducated old fogies, what do they know about finance?"

Quinn thought to himself, "You're going to kill yourself before the bull market even starts."

He didn't ask "How did you meet him?" or "Why did you get involved with this stuff?"—information that was revealed in later testimonies.

Quinn lowered his head, listening to the man talking to himself, and remained silent for a long time.

Like a jigsaw puzzle, he tried to piece together his impression of his father, but the more he put it together, the less interested he became. It wasn't a heartwarming portrait, but just an ordinary, somewhat disillusioned man who couldn't keep up with the times.

“I’m telling you,” Quinn interrupted him, staring at the flashing police lights on the roof of the car.

"Ok?"

Do you think your son is innocent?

Qin Wei cleared his throat and awkwardly asked, "Innocent about what?"

"If this isn't a dream, and you get arrested, wouldn't your son neither enjoy the benefits of crime nor bear the burden of having a criminal father?"

"Pah, pah, pah, what nonsense are you talking about—"

"I mean what if."

Qin Wei's mouth moved slightly, as if he was thinking of a scene in the countryside where a child was being pelted with firecrackers and mocked as the "son of a drug dealer."

"Of course I'm innocent." The voice was very dejected.

"What if your boss also had a child? What if your innocent child grew up and sought revenge against their enemy?"

Quinn suddenly looked into his eyes, revealing bright white teeth, and gave his father the same smile he gave his girlfriend on the day of the college entrance exam.

"The revenge was a success. He was disgraced, bankrupted, convicted of all crimes, and executed by lethal injection. No one even claimed his ashes. Only his child was implicated and died in your child's revenge plan."

Do you think she's innocent?

Celia climbed out of the iron cage, stood on the viewing platform covered with ropes, took a deep breath, and gazed at the golden forest shrouded in gray mist.

Applause erupted from the teachers behind her. Vice-Principal Stephens was also applauding, celebrating the first-year underachiever's solo completion of the Forbidden Forest Trial with unexpectedly good results. She had remained alone on the surface of the Abyss until the trial ended, dispelling all doubts about her eligibility for admission. The girl was talented; the teachers were simply too dense to notice.

Stephens nodded slightly to a small snake hidden in the shadows of the crowd, indicating that the Abyss had not changed and that Celia was safe.

She was initially quite insecure, but sincerely thanked the teachers for their praise, and then eagerly asked:

"Where is Mr. Quinn? Hasn't he returned yet?"

Stephens felt the "threads" of the scepter and said calmly, "The divination class will be starting soon. What's up? What do you need him for?"

"No, it's nothing."

Celia smiled sweetly, her cheeks adorned with shallow dimples as she awoke from her dream.

"It just feels like I haven't seen him in a long time."

(End of this chapter)