Transform into a human

On the golden grass, several of the Vatican's "godfathers" had already arrived.

The deity worshipped by the Vatican is called "The Father," who represents the ultimate end of Lao Tzu's teachings and is also a member of the federal power system.

Since the core members of the Papacy all came from the Fifth Republic of Etelen, its alignment subtly leaned towards the central faction.

Angelo alone didn't have enough influence to get the godfathers to attend his daughter's funeral; it was Xia Du's return that alarmed these guys.

"Xia Du, I never expected you to return to Chi Fu."

Sheva, the godfather of the Green District, came forward and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Xia Du was wearing a black tuxedo instead of a low-cut dress—this woman always liked to pull out various weapons from her chest.

"What, you're not welcoming me?"

"How could that be? The gates of the Red Palace are always open to you."

Xia Du smiled indifferently; she had been driven out by these guys in the first place.

"The 'benevolent father' favors me, yet you fear me, Sheva, are you truly loyal?"

Another godfather walked over:

"No one is afraid of you, and Wave City also needs the radiance of a loving father."

"Iliad, it certainly doesn't take courage to deceive yourself."

The other party did not argue with her about the matter further.

"Summer Capital, why did you come back again?"

"This is Angelo's daughter's funeral, and you're asking me why?"

Sheva and Iliad exchanged a glance, and the former said thoughtfully:

"We didn't want to see this tragedy either. Angelo was an elderly woman in the Green District... but even the police have determined that she committed suicide."

"Suicide always needs a reason, doesn't it?"

Sheva's eyes became wary:

"I understand how the Angelo family feels about recognizing you as their godfather, but the power of the Holy See has its limits. Xia Du, to put it nicely, we are partners of the federal government, but to be realistic..."

"They're a bunch of rats from the gutter, aren't they?"

Sheva fell silent for a moment. Though his words were rough, the logic was sound, but this was just too rough…

Because of the nature of Lao Tzu's approach, the Vatican does indeed like to develop in some gray areas, which easily arouses the dissatisfaction of local municipalities.

"It seems you know the killer."

"You mean her ex-boyfriend Marlowe?" Elijah said with a sullen face. "There's a chief superintendent at Police Headquarters with the same surname, and his wife works at the Governor's House and holds a high position."

"Our loving father never taught us that overestimating one's abilities is a virtue."

During the conversation, the cold rain soaked the black woolen fabric of Xia Du's suit, and none of the godfathers opened their umbrellas without prior arrangement. Seeing this, the others naturally did not dare to do so either.

Then a strange scene unfolded: despite the abundance of umbrellas present, not a single one was opened, which instead added a touch of solemnity to the funeral.

Even the director doesn't seem very happy...

Six men carried the overly slender linden coffin across the golden lawn and stopped beside the grave mound of damp earth.

The moment the coffin was lowered, Angelo Marino pounced on it.

His entire upper body was pressed against the wooden lid, his scarred arms wrapped around it, as if one could touch the slender body inside through the wooden planks.

The suppressed sobs finally burst forth, mingling with the sound of rain and striking everyone's hearts.

The guests dressed in black stood with their heads bowed in the rain, like a row of crows soaked in water.

No one spoke, no one stepped forward. Every downcast face was frozen in the same silence—all those who knew why the girl lay there so pale kept their mouths shut, letting the secret seep into the earth with the rain.

But there are always people who want to uncover the secret.

The young man silently walked up behind Angelo and gently patted him on the shoulder:

"Uncle, please accept my condolences... *chuckle*"

In the end, he couldn't help but laugh.

Angelo turned his head in disbelief, his eyes widening.

Adler Marlowe, how dare he... how dare he show his face before him again! At the funeral of the girl who died because of him!!

"Marlowe—!"

Angelo instantly transformed into a wild beast, wanting to tear the villain in front of him apart, but was held back by the priest standing by.

Marlowe ignored the frenzied Angelo and strolled leisurely around the coffin, seemingly contemplating whether to open it and see his girlfriend one last time.

However, after thinking about it, he gave up. Even provocation should have its limits. Although the Vatican would not allow people to record videos, anger could still be conveyed through language.

Even villains need to use their brains.

He approached Angelo and patted the helpless man's face, his hands wet with what appeared to be rain or tears.

"Uncle Marino, you should thank this priest, otherwise my little scheme would have succeeded."

He wasn't provoking for the sake of provocation. As a well-meaning guest who came to mourn, being inexplicably beaten by his emotionally unstable host was enough to send Angelo to jail.

Now that he's messed with such a seasoned veteran policeman, he even has to bring a bodyguard when he goes out for drinks.

Just as Marlowe was about to leave to discuss things further, a very beautiful woman suddenly appeared in front of him and handed him a black rose.

"How can you attend a funeral without bringing flowers?"

Marlowe's eyes lit up; this woman had a certain charm!

As a womanizer, he naturally had no reason to refuse women, but he never thought about why a woman would bring black roses to a funeral.

Although its flower language is "death", it is not suitable for funerals.

Marlowe accepted the bouquet: "Thank you, beautiful lady, otherwise I really wouldn't know what to leave as a gift."

Xia Du looked at him with interest, then at the coffin:

"You want to lift it up?"

"Respect for the dead is paramount, so open it..."

"I'll help you."

Marlowe doubted he had misheard.

"What did you say?"

The woman offered no explanation, and with a swift motion, she lifted the nailed coffin, revealing the girl lying quietly inside.

Xia Du reached for the Tearstone Gun beside the girl. Before Marlowe could react, Sheva roared:

"Run!"

There was one more thing I didn't have time to say—

That crazy woman, she actually hid a gun in a coffin!

But it was too late; the gun spat out orange-red muzzle flash.

"Bang! Bang!"

Marlowe's shinbones exploded almost simultaneously, and blood mist mixed with bone fragments burst into two puffs of red smoke in the rain.

He screamed and fell to the ground, his wound a mangled mess of flesh, blood from his artery spurting and mingling with the muddy water to form a steaming pink slurry.

Rainwater washed over the chapped flesh, and the screams of the guests that followed even drowned out Marlowe's howls, while Sheva's eyes widened in fury.

In order to ensure a successor, Chief Superintendent Marlowe went to great lengths to train his good-for-nothing son into a complete novice. However, Adler Marlowe, this prodigal son, had no room to struggle in front of the guns of the capital, and was just like a fish on a chopping board.

Lao Tzu's Four Principles: Using Both Kindness and Power.

Having received such favor, one will surely wield great power!

From the moment Marlowe accepted the black rose, she was destined to be manipulated.

Xia Du stepped on his inner thigh, took out his pipe, took a deep drag, and exhaled a sweet, cloying fragrance:

"We're both prodigal sons, but you're nowhere near as good as that guy who called me 'Third Sister'."

"Summer Capital—!"

Sheva's men had retrieved their weapons from outside the cemetery, and a dozen of them opened fire.

Lao Tzu's direct combat methods are even worse than those of a swindler; he can only rely on the power of Tearstone technology. However, as long as there are enough "children," its power is no less than that of other methods.

The guns fired steam trajectories, but they were all blocked by the tightly swirling sticks.

No, a few bullets still managed to penetrate the defenses!

Angelo was shot several times, and even had a fist-sized hole in his abdomen, but he only used one hand to temporarily seal the wound with a woven flesh cocoon to stop the bleeding. As if he could not feel the pain, he still stood firmly in front of Xia Du.

"Angelo, get out of here! This has nothing to do with you!"

The old police officer laughed heartily:

"Listen to the nonsense you're spouting, Godfather Shevchenko!"

"This is my daughter, this is her funeral!!"

Sheva was frantic; every minute wasted reduced Marlowe's chances of survival. He shouted:

"Xia Du! Stop now..."

"Summer Capital?" The woman in the black dress laughed. "You should call me 'Father'!"

As soon as he finished speaking, an irresistible force pressed down on Sheva and his subordinates, who dropped their guns and slowly knelt down.

The Three Gates Way commands respect without anger.

"Pfft!" Sheva spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the golden grass with specks of crimson.

The most taboo thing in Lao Tzu's teachings is to recognize another person as one's father. The violent backlash hit Sheva, and his hard-earned spiritual cultivation collapsed like an avalanche.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he couldn't understand why Xia, who was also a leader of the Four Gates Sect, could make him completely helpless.

It wasn't until he saw the pipe in the other person's hand that he suddenly realized—it was that wisp of fragrance!

The smoke exhaled by the summer capital can be considered a kind of "gift," implicitly fulfilling the conditions for a combination of kindness and severity.

But he realized it too late.

Xia Du walked up to him, pressed the gun barrel against his brow, creating a shallow indentation, and pierced his tender skin with the rough muzzle.

The gun barrel still retained some residual heat, and the raindrops made a "sizzling" sound when they hit it, creating a mist.

"Xia Du, kill me, and the Church will have no place for you!"

"Ha, you think I care?"

"When you kicked me out, I couldn't be bothered arguing with a bunch of useless people, so I handed over the Green District to you. Is this how you give me my explanation?"

She pointed to the girl's coffin.

"She once called me 'father,' yet I failed to protect her. Shouldn't you bear the consequences of breaking your promise, Sheva?"

The godfather of the Green Hills' lips moved, rainwater mingling with blood streaming down his forehead. Perhaps he wanted to state his terms, to negotiate, or to utter a final curse—

"Bang!"

The gunshot cut off all possible sounds. The immense impact jolted his head back and then plunged forward.

A neat, charred hole appeared between his eyebrows, while a cavity the size of a bowl was opened at the back of his head, with red and white substances splattered on the wet grass behind him, which were difficult to dilute with rainwater.

Xia Du lowered her gun and looked at Angelo behind her. This old police officer had taken too many bullets for her in order to buy time for the smoke to dissipate. His internal organs had long been shredded by the Tearstone vapor, and now he was only hanging on by his last bit of willpower.

"He's somewhat like a father."

She ignored Angelo and went straight to the coffin, carefully lifted the girl out, held her in her arms, and then put the musket into the girl's hand.

The dead man's pale fingers tightened on the trigger, the gun pointed directly at the defenseless Marlowe.

Perhaps sensing his impending death, the latter overcame the pain, tears, snot, and rain mingling together as he frantically kowtowed towards Xia Du:

"Father, please forgive me! I promise I'll be a good person from now on!"

"I will come to worship her every day, until I die!"

"Her grave will never lack flowers..."

"What's the use of begging me?" Xia Du smiled indifferently, tilting his chin towards the girl in his arms. "You should beg her."

Marlowe actually started begging the girl for mercy:

"My dear, please let me go. In the next life, I'm willing to be your ox or your horse..."

But the deceased is destined to never respond.

"She didn't respond, so it seems she disagrees. Perhaps she can't wait for the next life and is eager to see you today!"

Marlowe stared in astonishment, feeling as if he had been mocked.

The next second, the girl gently pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

Marlowe crashed heavily onto the grass, splattering blood everywhere.

As the steam dissipated, Xia Du gently placed the girl back into the coffin, leaving the musket beside her.

"Remember this: don't believe your stupid old man in your next life. Consider this gun a loan; kill a few more bad guys in your next life."

Angelo smiled with relief, said nothing more, and left with a smile.

He couldn't wait any longer.

Xia Du came to Sheva's side and kicked her twice as usual. Unexpectedly, she actually kicked something out—a black short-handled staff rolled to the ground, with an ancient imperial divine beast—the Qilin—at the top of the staff.

"It seems to be an evil relic..."

"This level... doesn't seem to have been generated by him."

She carefully picked up the trophy, tore open the dress at her chest, and put the staff inside.

As he passed the priests watching from the perimeter of the cemetery, Eliade whispered:

"Aren't you going to see Angelo off?"

"No need. A funeral for four people is sufficient."

"Let him and his daughter have a good talk in private."

Elijah: "The spaceship at the capital's first starport is a 'blue broom'."

Thank you, and I hope we meet again.

"May we meet again someday."

Only after the Xia capital had receded into the distance did the subordinate cautiously ask:

"Father, are you just going to let her go like this?"

Watching the godfathers from each district leave, with no one even left to collect Shevchenko's body, Eliade murmured:

"The Vatican must give the residents an explanation regarding the Angelo family's situation. They praise the glory of the Father and offer their faith to Him. We cannot remain indifferent."

"But offending a superintendent of police and a high-ranking official of the governor's office is not a wise move. At this time, the summer capital, which is semi-detached from the Vatican, is the most suitable weapon."

"That Shevchenko..."

"We not only need to give an explanation to the residents of the Green Hills, but also to Mr. Marlowe. The best explanation would be to have a regional bishop who died protecting his son at the scene of the battle."

"So let him lie there a little longer; Mr. Marlowe needs to see him eventually."

……

Half an hour later, Xia Du fled to the First Starport in a disheveled state, welded the steam output valve of the spaceship shut with his foot, and then re-established communication with Yue Lai:

"Hey, you surnamed Yue, come save my mother right now!"