Villains
Late at night.
Chen Ling and ăYang Xiaoă walked shoulder to shoulder out the main doors of the airport.
"Why did we come out? Didn't the airline arrange a special shuttle bus to take us to ăGusuă?" ăYang Xiaoă asked doubtfully as he looked at the quiet roads around them.
Due to the flight being forcefully diverted, the airline had compensated every passenger. However, Chen Ling didn't take the shuttle bus they arranged, instead directly bringing ăYang Xiaoă away. At this hour, there were hardly any vehicles or pedestrians at the airport entrance. Only a few taxis and ride-hailing cars were waiting off to the side, and beyond that was just the pitch-black night.
"The shuttle bus is too slow." Chen Ling said calmly, "Although we've temporarily stalled the ăSky Wolfă, with his strength, escaping will be a breeze for him... He'll catch up to us sooner or later, so every minute and every second right now is extremely precious and cannot be wasted."
"There are no flights or high-speed rails at this hour. If we don't take the shuttle bus, how else can we get to ăGusuă?"
"I'll drive."
ăYang Xiaoă froze for a moment. "Where are we getting a car?"
Chen Ling smiled slightly. He walked straight over to the nearest taxi and knocked on the driver's window.
The driver, who had been dozing, immediately rolled down the window upon seeing someone. With sleep-hazy eyes, he asked, "Where to?"
"I'll transfer you 300,000. Lend me your car for two days."
"...What the hell???"
Three minutes later.
Chen Ling buckled his seatbelt and floored the accelerator. The yellow taxi roared as it shot forward like a whistling arrow!
At the desolate airport entrance, only the taxi driver remained, sitting blankly by the roadside. Staring at the extra 300,000 balance on his card, his hands were trembling nonstop...
After a long while, he shakily dialed a number and muttered as if in a dream:
"Mom, I struck it rich~!"
...
Vroomââ!
The yellow taxi swept across the road like lightning.
The whistling wind wildly poured into the car. ăYang Xiaoă had to crank the handle for a long time before the window slowly closed tight. His hair had already been blown into a messy bird's nest.
"300,000 just to borrow it for a few days?" ăYang Xiaoă couldn't help but say, "Even if this car were brand new, it wouldn't be worth 300,000, right?"
"It doesn't matter. Money in this era is just a number to you and me. Let's just consider it robbing the rich to feed the poor."
Chen Ling spoke without the slightest concern.
Chen Ling's foot pressed harder and harder on the accelerator. The engine's hum sounded like a roaring beast. As the needle on the dashboard steadily climbed, ăYang Xiaoă subconsciously gripped the door handle tightly.
"Are you speeding?"
"Yes, but the speed cameras won't catch us."
"...Hacking accounts, robbing money, fare evasion, hijacking, carjacking, speeding... Why do I feel like we're the villains here?"
"To be precise, it's striking down illegal transactions, earning a reasonable commission, protecting passenger safety, expanding the second-hand car market, and... well... speeding is speeding. Compared to the lives of the ăNine Monarchsă, what do a few speeding tickets matter?"
ăYang Xiaoă: ...
With Chen Ling's current observational prowess and reaction speed, even driving at high speeds posed no safety risks. He rested one hand by the window and steered with the other, galloping along the highway in the dark night. At this speed, they would definitely reach ăGusuă within an hour and a half.
"Speaking of which, what's the deal with that guy on the plane?" ăYang Xiaoă asked doubtfully. "I thought you said the ăFourteen Divine Pathsă only exist in the future."
"No, the ăDivine Pathăs are the concrete manifestations of 'professions' in human civilization. From the moment human civilization was born, they existed." Chen Ling replied unhurriedly, "For example, ăYing Fuă and ăBai Qiă found their ăDivine Pathăs in ancient eras, and after their deaths, they became part of the ăDivine Dao Ancient Repositoryă... So theoretically speaking, there should also be ăDivine Path Possessorăs in this era, it's just that their numbers are extremely small."
Chen Ling pulled his flip phone out of his pocket and handed it to ăYang Xiaoă in the passenger seat. "Take a look at the video in the photo album."
Although puzzled, ăYang Xiaoă flipped open the phone.
The first thing that entered his vision was a selfie of Chen Ling making a peace sign, set as the wallpaper. ăYang Xiaoă's expression suddenly became somewhat bizarre.
"You usually like using your own selfies as wallpapers?"
"...No, that was just an accident."
ăYang Xiaoă opened the photo album. There was only one video inside. The footage showed a ăCasinoă abroad. A figure in a floral shirt won a bet against another man, and the next moment, the man began to visibly age, exactly as if his life force had been drained away by something.
If it were in the past, ăYang Xiaoă would definitely have thought this video was edited. But after personally experiencing some things, his cognition had already changed.
"The person in the video is also a ăDivine Path Possessoră?"
"En." Chen Ling said thoughtfully, "Exactly as I said, the ăDivine Pathăs are the concrete manifestations of 'professions'. The characteristics of 'professions' vary across different eras. So perhaps in our era, there are also ăDivine Pathăs that belong specifically to this era...
But under the rapid development of material civilization, the spiritual civilization brought about by 'professions' is constantly flattening. People are losing the spirit of their professions, or rather, their professional ăFaithă. They are gradually deteriorating into mechanized tools... Such a spiritual civilization cannot gain the recognition of the ăDivine Pathăs, which is why there are so few ăDivine Path Possessorăs in this era.
Conversely, after the ăRed Stară passed and humanity's material civilization began to regress, spiritual civilization was gradually rebuilt amidst the disasters. That's why in the era of the ăNine Great Realmsă, there are far more ăDivine Path Possessorăs than there are now."
ăYang Xiaoă thought seriously for a long time and roughly understood Chen Ling's reasoning.
"According to what you're saying, that ăSky Wolfă on the plane should be considered extremely rare, right?"
"Exactly... He must have experienced things that ordinary people cannot, and coupled with his own extraordinary innate talent, he was able to step onto this ăDivine Pathă." Chen Ling's eyes narrowed slightly. "In this era, the fact that there aren't many ăDivine Path Possessorăs means that the ăEmperoră's power is severely restricted... That's a good thing for us."
"It's a pity we have no way of accessing information about that ăSky Wolfă." ăYang Xiaoă sighed. "If we could understand a little more, we might be able to grasp his weaknesses, and we wouldn't be so passive."
These words served as a reminder to Chen Ling, and his eyes lit up slightly.
That's right, this era was different from the era of the ăNine Great Realmsă. In this society where information networks were everywhere, everyone would leave traces, more or less... And there was one place that might store exactly what they wanted to see.
"Who said we have no way of accessing his information?" Chen Ling smiled slightly. "Don't forget, that guy... should still be at the public security bureau right now, undergoing interrogation."
"You want to hack into the public..." ăYang Xiaoă stopped halfway and didn't finish his sentence.
"No, just conveniently copying a file."
Chen Ling reached out and tapped on the flip phone. An electronic file automatically began downloading, and within a few short seconds, the download was complete.
ăYang Xiaoă looked at the secret file on the phone, which should have been locked within a local area network, and smiled bitterly.
"Very well... We really have become the villains now."