Chapter 52: The Man Who Devoured the Blood Demon

Xia Shou opened the second file, which concerned the creator of the sanatorium anomaly zone.

Before the sanatorium zone was neutralized, the Control Bureau had operated with terrifying efficiency, arresting several of the ritual's conductors and using special methods to extract a complete confession of their criminal process.

These individuals claimed to be devotees of the Blood Mother Cult. Their daily routine among believers involved using unhygienic copper syringes to draw blood from one another and cross-injecting it, aiming to achieve a blood-bonded connection among the cultists and enhance their spiritual resonance with their deity.

Completely ignoring all principles of scientific hygiene and undergoing multiple cross-injections of different blood types, not a single one of these people experienced a hemolytic reaction. Instead, all of them felt that their energy, libido, and physical endurance had significantly increased.

The Control Bureau tested them, and it turned out these idiots weren't lying: their athletic ability and metabolic rates were noticeably higher than those of ordinary people, and they had a morbid attachment to the act of injecting others' blood.

Following up on the Blood Mother Cult, the Bureau dispatched operatives to uproot the cult's local stronghold, discovering a portrait in the bedroom of the local branch leader.

The portrait depicted, from multiple angles, a figure wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat. It had now been confirmed to be Edward, the S-class investigator who had gone missing inside the House of the Blood Demon.

After grueling interrogation and psychological adjustment, the Control Bureau finally cracked the branch leader's mouth in the dead of night. The leader confessed that they were searching for Edward, claiming this was an oracle transmitted to the Blood Mother by the Holy Son.

However, he also honestly admitted that they had no idea what the Holy Son's purpose was in searching for Edward.

---The above content summarized all of Xia Shou's reading of the interrogation records.

After finishing the documents, Xia Shou drew a sharp breath.

He had to admit that the Control Bureau's operational efficiency was shockingly high.

He had been pulled into the enclosed zone for less than half a day in total, yet what had the Control Bureau accomplished during this time?

Using a crude sketch that could hardly even be called amateurish as a clue, they had accurately locked onto the most suspicious candidate worldwide and thoroughly investigated the target's life history.

They had also gone out of their way to dismantle a cult and study the physiology of its members.

Furthermore, they had administered cognitive modifications to the survivors of the incident, executed a small-scale bombing at a hospital, and held a press conference last night to pin a fabricated charge on an innocent terrorist organization.

Of course, what amazed Xia Shou the most was the Information Department's archiving capability.

With just the thick piles of documents before him, even if he typed nonstop without sleep, he wouldn't be able to produce them in twelve hours. Xia Shou could only conclude that the brothers and sisters in the Information Department were truly dedicated corporate slaves.

"By the way, it doesn't seem to mention why the Blood Mother Cult members wanted to hold a ritual at the hospital," Xia Shou asked curiously.

The sound of typing at the keyboard behind him ceased. Shangguan Yan pressed one hand against her forehead, appearing to be deep in thought.

After a long pause, she spoke: "Perhaps it's better for you to know. They wanted to use someone who ate the Blood Demon as a sacrifice, offering him to another anomaly within that enclosed zone—the one you referred to as Iderisu."

Hearing the words "ate the Blood Demon," Xia Shou immediately tensed up.

During that interrogation in the House of the Blood Demon, Xia Shou had lied, claiming he had stayed in the foyer the entire time, so the Control Bureau had always assumed the Blood Demon was destroyed. But now, the Control Bureau was certain that the Blood Demon had been eaten.

If he guessed correctly, those Blood Mother Cult members, much like Liu Guangyao, could perceive things through dreams. They must have been the ones who told the Control Bureau about the Blood Demon being eaten!

"What does eating the Blood Demon mean? Did those cultists say that?" Xia Shou probed indirectly.

Shangguan Yan nodded slightly: "Yes, they heard it from the branch leader, and the leader claimed it was an oracle passed down by the Holy Son, so the exact source remains unclear."

"That's how those cult sects are—they love talking nonsense and take hallucinations for reality. The Blood Demon they speak of might not even be the one from the House of the Blood Demon. Besides, the Blood Demon in the House of the Blood Demon was eliminated by the Beastmaster; the Beastmaster and it perished together. Where would anyone come from who ate the Blood Demon?"

Xia Shou spoke as if it were only natural, desperately denying the testimonies.

"Precisely because it's uncertain, it wasn't written into the official files. And... it's not entirely impossible. Actually, this matter is not as simple as it appears on the surface. Headquarters has another hypothesis regarding the incident at the House of the Blood Demon."

Shangguan Yan stared fixedly at Xia Shou, her gaze making his skin crawl.

"W-What hypothesis?" Xia Shou asked, biting the bullet.

"Well... although it's classified, it doesn't really matter if I tell you. If you can truly grasp it, it might even catalyze certain transformations," Shangguan Yan said. "Are you familiar with the concept of antimemetics?"

"I've already learned about it," Xia Shou replied.

"You might find it strange to hear, but on the day you walked out of the House of the Blood Demon, the amputation of the execution squad's arms was an anomalous event," Shangguan Yan said earnestly.

Xia Shou froze for a brief moment, then immediately feigned a look of bewilderment, asking in return: "Anomalous event? What do you mean by an anomalous event?"

"You've been affected by antimemetics, so it's hard to explain it to you... Let's put it this way: why does 1+1 equal 2?" Shangguan Yan offered as an example.

"Uh..." Xia Shou pondered for a moment. "Doesn't 1+1 equal 2? Could it equal something else?"

"Then why does gravity exist?"

"Because matter has mass. The greater the mass, the stronger the gravity."

"Then why does mass exist?"

"This... mass just exists inherently. How is one supposed to answer that?"

"Exactly, that's it. The answers to some questions have no answers; they are self-evident. Just as you feel mass simply exists as a matter of course, this same effect occurred with the amputation of the execution squad's arms. That event felt as inherent as mass itself—completely normal and requiring no deep thought."

"Wasn't it supposed to be like that?"

Xia Shou knew what she was trying to point out, but precisely because of that, he felt immense pressure.

He began to feel that this wasn't an explanation at all, but a probe!

The Director seemed to be trying to deconstruct the deep operational logic of Su Weiyu's superpower!

If he made even the slightest contextual error in his response now, the truth would be exposed.

"No, the execution squad getting injured was originally a very bizarre occurrence. But you don't need to think too deeply about this particular incident, because you've already been affected—some strangeness is just like that. What I want to tell you now is another conjecture derived by the Intelligence Analysis Department."

"What conjecture?"

"The Blood Mother Cult claimed the Blood Demon was eaten. They caused the zone to envelop the hospital in order to sacrifice the person who ate the Blood Demon. And in the Blood Demon incident, you were the sole survivor, so..."

Xia Shou clenched his fists nervously. He felt he could no longer keep up the deception; he was about to be found out!

"So... the one who ate the Blood Demon is most likely Edward."

"Huh?" Xia Shou's brain stopped working, leaving behind only sheer confusion.