Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 436 The Interval Ends

Late at night, on the shore of a harbor.

A person stood quietly, their long golden hair fluttering in the sea breeze.

A slight vibration came from his pocket, and Adam took out his phone. When the screen lit up, his already pale skin looked even more sickly under the fluorescent light.

The screen displays the Ascended Home website interface, where a private message is slowly unfolding.

"The Moon Key foresaw your death, and I have a pact with her to help you. If you see this private message, you can contact me."

This private message was naturally sent by Guan Tong; it was his only way to contact Adam.

Staring at the words "foreseeing death," a resolute glint flashed in Adam's sapphire blue eyes.

He typed back: "Thank you for your concern. If I die, it will be a worthy death."

After sending the message, he put away his phone and gazed out at the distant ocean, his eyes seemingly trying to pierce through the layers of darkness to reach somewhere.

"Eden Island..."

He chewed on the place name, knowing that his other three wives and children were on the island.

If it weren't for seeing them, he wouldn't have agreed to let King Soromagna capture the Pope of the Fire-Stealers Church alive.

However, this sordid deal failed completely due to an inside traitor, and directly led to the death of his wife Amanda, who had accompanied him.

Unable to accept this, he cut off all contact with the authorities after leaving Leroan and buried Amanda alone.

But he knew that the Soromagna authorities would definitely guess that he was going to Eden Island and would therefore take strict precautions.

Adam knew he couldn't act impulsively and had to wait for the right opportunity.

He believed the prophecy of the Moon Key was not unfounded, especially since King Soromar had previously warned him that unauthorized landing on the island would come at a price.

Is there any hidden defense on the island?
Adam frowned in thought; he didn't seem to have noticed this during his time on the island.

After a moment's hesitation, he made a decision. He would wait until the new rules were released before going to the island, because the new rules would definitely divert some of the officials' attention, creating favorable conditions for him.

……

"This is your hometown, Yunhua City? It looks..."

Shang Yuanzi sat in the car, gazing at the city that was almost in ruins in the distance, unsure of what to think.

She looked at Guan Tong, who was sitting in the driver's seat, and the latter did not seem as sad or upset as she had imagined.

“This city has been destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami,” Guan Tong said. “It’s a pity. This used to be a very beautiful and prosperous city. But that earthquake and the resulting disasters destroyed far too many countries and cities. Yunhua is just one of them.”

The purple flowers in the imperial garden remained silent.

In terms of the extent of the devastation, the entire island of Sakuragi sank due to the earthquake, placing it among the worst-hit countries. Most of the surviving Sakuragi people have become numb to the tragedy, and after the downfall of the Misawa family, Sakuragi is now largely silenced in the international community.

From the perspective of Soma and other countries, this nation was already a vassal state completely controlled by Beixing. However, in this era, several small countries actually envied Yingqi. What did being a vassal matter? Being able to obtain protection and survive was the most important thing.

"Is the person we're looking for really here?" Shangyuan Zi changed the subject.

After receiving Guan Tong's call, she met up with him immediately.

The two then rushed to Yunhua together, their purpose being to find the woman who left the name "Wei Huo".

“I’m not sure either. But the Moon Key is so famous, and she’s even employed by the Soromagna government, so her prophecies should have some effect. Let’s give it a try, since we don’t have any other leads right now.”

Shangyuan Zi nodded.

Guan Tong then brought up the matter of the new members in the organization: "After the investigation here is completed, I plan to hold a meeting to discuss the future development of the Origin Tracing Brigade. Before, there was only the two of us, so there wasn't much to say. Now that there are Black Star and White Star, with more people, the organization should have some long-term plans."

"it is good."

After driving for a short while, the road ahead became impassable.

The earthquake and tsunami not only destroyed the main part of the city, but also destroyed the nearby transportation routes. Most of the once wide and neat roads have now collapsed and cracked, making them impassable for vehicles.

The two abandoned the car and walked on foot. To save time, Guan Tong manipulated the shadow to lift them up, and at high speed, they felt like they were "flying close to the ground".

Guan Tong turned to look at Shang Yuanzi, who was fully armed with sunglasses and a mask, and said to her, "There shouldn't be anyone else here, so you don't need to cover up so tightly."

Shang Yuanzi hesitated for a moment before removing the covering.

Her face was almost completely covered by scales, with only a small portion of skin around her eyes still exposed.

“Actually, this isn’t bad,” Guan Tong said. “At least we have fewer weaknesses.”

"..."

"I'm not joking, I'm serious."

"I know."

These scales are extremely sturdy and have amazing defensive capabilities. Now that they almost completely cover the entire area, it means that Shangyuan Zi has gained all-round automatic protection.

While not conventionally attractive, in this era, appearance and ability are utterly incomparable. If in the past "good looks" could compete with "wealth," now "good looks" pale in comparison to "ability." Clearly, survival is the primary concern.

"Shangyuan, can you freeze a target with your gaze now?" Guan Tong asked, recalling the scene she saw when she was affected by Scarlet Fear.

"How do you know?" Shangyuan Zi added, "However, this ability is not rigid, but rather a forced transformation of the target gene."

"Genetically transformed? Like transforming snake servants?"

"Pretty much, but the result of this transformation will not be turning into a monster, but rather into a solidified substance similar to deep-sea rock."

"Deep-sea rocks... they really are related to the 'deep-sea serpent'."

Shang Yuanzi's bloodline abilities are extremely complex; even she herself doesn't understand them, let alone Guan Tong.

Especially after killing Jun Misawa, she seemed to have absorbed another portion of Orochi's bloodline that the latter possessed. Now, with two portions of Orochi's bloodline superimposed on her, her ability development has been greatly accelerated, which is why scales have rapidly covered her entire body.

As they spoke, the shadow carried the two of them into Yunhua City.

They climbed to the rooftop of a building that hadn't yet collapsed and looked down at the ruins. Guan Tong looked in the direction of her home; the once grand North Street had become a gray strip of gravel, littered with broken glass and rotten wooden signs, covered in dried seabed silt—a veritable garbage dump.

The grayish-white salt frost left behind after the seawater recedes thickly coats everything in sight, as if a gray-white filter has been added, exuding an air of decay under the sunlight.

This city, abandoned first and then destroyed by earthquake and tsunami, has no other vitality except for a few rare green spots that emerge in the corners with the arrival of spring.

Guan Tong couldn't see anyone or hear any sound, only a faint, sticky, rotten smell in the air. He didn't know if it came from animals, plants, or a mixture of both.

"How are we supposed to find someone who doesn't even exist in such a big city?" Shangyuan Zi asked. "Wouldn't it be better to ask your little sister with the ability to sense things for help?"

"I thought about asking Chen Na for help, but she's on a mission, so this time we have to rely on ourselves."

As Guan Tong spoke, he directed the shadows to split.

A shadow split in the middle into two, then into four, then into eight... Before long, hundreds or even thousands of shadows appeared.

"Go."

With a wave of his hand, these shadows drifted in all directions, exploring every corner of the city for him.

Guan Tong sat down on the ground and closed her eyes.

Shangyuan Zi knew that his shadow could share senses, but having so many shadows transmitting images simultaneously would be a huge test of the brain's processing power. It's like someone watching hundreds or thousands of surveillance videos at the same time; how could an ordinary person possibly keep up?

Fortunately, Guan Tong is no ordinary person.

Shangyuan Zi stood silently to one side, wary of her surroundings.

More than half an hour passed during the investigation. Guan Tong opened her eyes, her face showing disappointment.

"Didn't find it?"

“No.” Guan Tong stood up. “I’ve explored almost all the relatively well-preserved, habitable buildings, and I haven’t found anyone.”

"Won't we miss some? This is a big city after all."

“There will definitely be omissions, but that won’t be something that can be checked in a day or two.”

If he were to conduct a thorough search of a large city like Yunhua by himself, it would take at least ten days to half a month, which would consume the entire rule interval period.

Shang Yuanzi had no objections, as she didn't have anything else important to do.

After finalizing the agreement, the two decided to spend the remaining ten days or so doing nothing but investigating the city and finding people!
……

The two-week interval passed quickly.

During this period, the Human Alliance took frequent actions, mainly targeting the Fire Thief Cult and its parasites.

During the previous rule period, these two groups of anti-humanitarian organizations took the initiative to attack, causing considerable harm to humanity. Now that the rule has ended, the Federation of Human Rights immediately decided to retaliate forcefully.

Before retaliating, we must first investigate the internal traitors.

The leakage of major secret decisions of the Federation of Peoples' Societies has occurred repeatedly. Each time, there have been promises to investigate within the member states, but these efforts have consistently yielded little result.

This is due to both a lack of determination and inadequate investigative methods.

However, this internal traitor issue caused significant damage. Not only did the decapitation operation fail, but the leak of the "Demon Clan" information, which was neither verifiable nor disprovable, also put "Shadow" in the spotlight and subjected him to public condemnation.

Being overly critical of a top Ascended being could potentially trigger unrest. High-ranking officials from various member states of the Commonwealth have expressed concern. They feel that if the "Shadow" were to rebel and join the Cult of the Firebringers, or if it were to harbor hatred towards ordinary people/Ascended beings and take action, it would definitely not be good news.

Fortunately, North Star indicated that it had communicated with "Shadow," which put the countries at ease.

To prevent such incidents from happening again, the People's Alliance has decided to change its decision-making mechanism and implement a whitelist system. Important classified information will only be known to members on the whitelist.

In this way, if the intelligence is leaked again, the scope of the investigation into the mole can be greatly narrowed.

Those who make it onto the whitelist are all members of the national federation of people's federations and a few high-ranking officials. Once on the list, these individuals quickly pass a joint resolution.

The resolution stipulated the large-scale bombing of the city of Leroy.

The reason we didn't do it before was because many people opposed it. The reason for the opposition was that many cult members might be mind-controlled, and indiscriminate bombing might harm innocent people. This was also one of the reasons for the decision to behead the pope last time. Some people believed that killing the mind controller would allow a large number of cult members to revert to their original nature.

However, after experiencing the crisis in the city of Solmara, which had a population of one million, all member states agreed on the principle of "CIS national priority." They no longer want to put the citizens of CIS member states at risk due to other uncertainties.

The bombing plan was approved. Based on satellite monitoring, the countries led by Somali would use long-range firepower to carry out a saturation bombing of Leroan, a city where the Fire Thieves cultists were concentrated, with the aim of killing the cultists' personnel.

Unlike the Black Flag Kingdom, Liluoan City didn't have as many caves and forests to hide in, and the cultists weren't as resilient as the parasites. After several rounds of bombing, the Fire Stealers Cult suffered heavy casualties, and coupled with the casualties caused by the previous attack by several "annihilators," the entire organization was completely crippled.

After the bombing proved effective, Soroma announced that he would soon send ground forces to completely wipe out the remaining forces of the Fire Thief Cult, so that this cult would perish on Tianshui.

But compared to cultists, the real threat to the human consortium is its parasites.

During the last rule period, these monsters, using the power of the rules and in coordination with a large number of lurking traitors, severely damaged the allied forces at the front lines.

While it may seem like a major victory, it has also strengthened humanity's resolve to leave none of them alive!

After the old coalition withdrew, a new coalition was quickly formed.

Unlike the old coalition, each member of the new coalition underwent secret testing to ensure that no parasites were mixed in.

The testing was provided by Beixing Kingdom. The specific testing personnel were kept secret, but Beixing did not keep the testing methods secret, thus revealing the restart of the Mind Network.

This classified information is known only to members of the Human Alliance's whitelist and has not been made public. This is because there are very few ascendants currently capable of restarting the Mind Network; several small countries can't even muster one. Making it public would not only be unhelpful but would also allow the parasites to learn of it.

Therefore, every soldier in this new coalition is a genuine human being, without any parasitic demons lurking within them. Furthermore, each nation has sent a large number of official Ascended beings to accompany them, making their overall strength a level above the old coalition.

Faced with the aggressive new coalition, the parasites did not engage in a head-on confrontation. Under the command of the "Prophet," they abandoned the base they had captured and took all their combat and living supplies into the deep mountains, clearly intending to wage a protracted war and a tug-of-war with humanity.

The online uproar sparked by the "Demon Race" has subsided over time, fueled by the lukewarm response from various countries and the silence of the "Shadow." However, everyone knows that if the "Demon Race" were to actually appear someday, this controversy would reignite instantly, and be a thousand times, ten thousand times more intense than it was this time.

Amidst this mix of contradictions and chaos, time marched relentlessly into April.

Unlike humans who often fail to deliver on their promises, the fire-bringer never misses its moment to appear.

At 9:4 AM on April 1st, a new post-apocalyptic rule was released on time.

(End of this chapter)