All the evil beasts in the world, I feed on demons and monsters

Chapter 246 Better to be a tyrant than a prisoner

Beijing Library.

Moonlight streamed through the library window, casting a shadow on a table nestled among the bookshelves. The densely packed bookshelves pierced the darkness of the room.

The vast library was bathed in the warm glow of the green-topped desk lamps on the tables.

Hey!
An elderly man wearing round, gold-rimmed glasses had his white hair neatly combed. He wore a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up, revealing an antique silver bracelet on his left wrist.

At that moment, he held a chess piece in his hand and placed it on the chessboard.

Opposite him, another elderly man was wearing a padded jacket. He had thin features and looked older and more frail, but his eyes were frighteningly bright under the light, like two sharp swords that made one's hair stand on end!
Snapped!
The old man dropped his "horse" and got stuck in front of the pawn that had just been placed across the river.

"We're doing a pretty good job with public opinion control right now."

"This afternoon I saw a video forwarded in the group 'We Are a Loving Family', which contained a knife-wielding ghost."

“My nephew said that it was a super soldier researched by the government, who was shot and killed while trying to escape.”

"..."

The old man across from me adjusted his glasses and said, "I instructed the Eighth District to only control the media; I did not use any special forces to suppress them."

"Oh?"

The old man looked up and said quietly, "You want to reveal the existence of the myriad realms?"

"Yes."

The bespectacled old man pushed the pawn across the river again.

The old man opposite said calmly, "Some things, once taken, can never be turned back."

Snapped!
The horse landed in one step, blocking the direction of the pawn crossing the river.

The old man's glasses reflected an orange halo as he raised his angular face, and with a flick of his finger, he pushed the pawn across the river under the horse's mouth.

"A pawn crosses the river not because he wants to, but because he has to."

The old man opposite paused slightly, looked at the chariot on the same line as the pawn, put down the piece in his hand, leaned back, and said, "It seems you have already made up your mind."

"Yes."

"The commanders of the East 8, 7, and 6 districts, and the captains of the sequence, are all under my command to set off at noon today to surround the Demon Realm."

“Each district chief possesses a forbidden-level life-saving artifact.”

"They will measure the boundary of the Demon Realm in the next few days."

"After the New Year, I will select a thousand travelers at level 3 or above and take them with me."

wow-

The light from the desk lamp refracted on the picture frame as the old man spoke, gently pushing aside the chessboard in front of him.

There was nothing else between the two elderly people, and their eyes met in the overlapping light.

The elderly man wearing gold glasses was none other than Marshal Zhi Ge of the Special Operations Department!

The old man stared at Zhi Ge, his eyes narrowing, as if he understood what the man in front of him was going to do, but he still asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I don't like those monsters and demons who disrupt real-world life."

Zhi Ge crossed his arms and placed them on the table.

Behind his glasses, his eyes were sharp and resolute as he said, "Japan's encounter with the Demon Realm is a case in point."

"Millions of people in Hokkaido are now trapped in a world of vengeful spirits, struggling to survive."

“I will not allow something like that to happen here.”

"Of course, there's one more thing."

"The special nature of this world, which allows it to remain undetected by other heavens, is likely due to the actions of the group of travelers from the late Tang Dynasty before their disappearance."

"You must admit that a few years of practice in the heavens by a person in this world is equivalent to a hundred years of cultivation in other worlds."

Zhige paused for a moment.

He suddenly raised his hand, and the whole world suddenly lit up. The library's solid walls, bookshelves, tables, chairs, ceiling... everything faded and became transparent at that moment, as if it were nothingness.

A ray of light appeared, followed by a second, a third...

Thousands upon thousands of lines floated in the sky, like interwoven tassels. Their original gray-white color transformed into a flowing golden glow as Zhi Ge raised his hand.

This is the cause-and-effect line.

Countless threads of cause and effect stretch across the north and south, weaving a net that covers the world.

Zhi Ge and the old man both looked at the transparent wall, their gazes fixed on the golden canopy.

"I have traveled through more than a hundred worlds, and this world is the only one where the lines of cause and effect flow horizontally. Moreover, they intertwine, merge, and assimilate with each other. Even the cause and effect of ordinary people cannot be directly traced back to their origin." "The horizontal lines obscure all prying eyes, which makes it impossible for people in this world to divine or predict their fate. It's like a cocoon that shields the secrets of heaven."

“Other worlds, because they are connected to the spirit world and are drawn together by the heavens, have vertical causal lines. Countless gaps allow those in high positions to easily capture the trajectory of cause and effect, change fate, or reverse cause and effect.”

Zhi Ge looked at the distant city. In the vast ocean of cause and effect, there were sparse traces of cause and effect, rising up and flowing towards the sky.

That is the cause and effect of the traveler.

"Now, neither Chanyin nor I can understand how those wanderers at the end of the Tang Dynasty managed to isolate themselves from the present world."

"We can only guess that they took away everyone who had contact with the spirit world, using the train of the Heavenly Corridor and the Jia Chen District to build a moat for the mortal world."

"But as our generation of travelers begins to emerge, connections become inevitable."

Zhi Ge gazed at the sparse causal lines shooting straight into the sky and said, "Twenty-four years ago, the first world came looking for us by following the causal path, which already meant that the blockade was beginning to fail."

"Although the Hidden God Society secretly helped with the descent of the Demon Realm, the fundamental direction was still guided by the thread of cause and effect."

The old man next to him tapped his fingertips on the table and said, "Those rats from the Hidden God Society should have been eliminated long ago."

"But they don't use the sound of cicadas unless absolutely necessary, and they don't set foot in Jia Chen District."

Zhi Ge rested his chin on his hands and said, "If it were another world, dealing with them would be a piece of cake. But in this world, it's very troublesome."

"Even the sound of cicadas, if it is too far away, cannot penetrate the causal blockade of the present world to spy on the human world and find their specific traces."

"However, this time we should be able to take them down."

Under the quiet lamplight, Zhi Ge sat up slightly, his eyes and face hidden in the shadow of a bookshelf.

The old man opposite him let out a long breath and said, "Tell me your plan."

Zhi Ge lowered his head, strands of hair falling beside his ears, and calmly said, "I'd rather be a tyrant than a prisoner."

"I will invade the Demon Realm."

The lights were dim, and the old man remained silent upon hearing this.

Zhi Ge looked at him and said calmly, "Although I don't know why the predecessors of the late Tang Dynasty wanted to seal off the world and create horizontal causality."

"But now, the horizontal cause and effect have obscured the secrets of heaven. The accumulation of the new generation of practitioners over a hundred years is enough to rival a world with ten thousand years of history, which shows that what the previous generation of practitioners planned has succeeded."

"You, me, and all of us are beneficiaries."

"I intend to maintain the current state of cause and effect as much as possible and minimize interference from the practitioner."

"Reverse the invasion of the Demon Realm, and bring all travelers back from the heavens to make the Demon Realm their main place of activity."

"Let the Demon Realm serve as a bridgehead for the present world."

Zhi Ge looked at the old man and said, "I invited you here this time because I want you to take charge of the Japanese island."

"Tsk, you're here to see the gatekeeper?"

Zhi Ge smiled and said, "That is a world of vengeful ghosts. You are the most suitable candidate because you are proficient in that forbidden technique."

"no problem."

The old man looked at Zhi Ge and asked, "How do you plan to handle this in the real world?"

"public."

Zhi Ge stared at the old man and said, "There are quite a few practitioners in the present world, and many of them are independent cultivators. It's impossible to completely hide them if they gradually make the Demon Realm their center of activity."

"After the New Year's Eve party, I will have the Special Operations Department broadcast live to reveal the existence of the Demon World."

"Only the Demon Realm is publicly visible?"

"That's right, one step at a time."

Zhi Ge nodded and said, "After the New Year, I will publicly announce the Secret Service and at the same time recruit Secret Service civil servants from within the security system and some majors in universities."

"Alright, you know I violated a taboo by practicing that forbidden technique. I'll just guard the door at most; you can handle the rest."

brush-

The old man stood up and walked to the transparent wall.

Zhi Ge followed.

"What do you think those upright lines of cause and effect resemble?"

"Fishing line."

"Tsk."

Two elderly people stood before a cluster of fireflies-like patterns of cause and effect, the shadows of the bookshelf dappling the light of the green-topped lamp, making the night dim and gloomy.

(End of this chapter)