Chapter 36: The Sword Bearer

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No matter how powerful Chu Zhu’s connections were, they could not suppress this. The authorities would inevitably strike back with overwhelming force. After that, the only path left would be that of an outlaw...

And then there was nothing more to say!

“First, have someone take me to see their bodies.” Chu Zhu spoke while sorting through his thoughts.

“...I will.” A slightly hoarse voice rang out. A young-faced man stepped from the crowd. It was Cai San.

“Mr. Zhu, it’s me! I was the first to discover that Director-General Zhou was dead.” Cai San’s voice was dry. “Yesterday, you asked me to come... But the Director-General was too overworked to spare the time, so I made an appointment with his secretary for six o’clock this morning!”

“Then, at six thirty-two, I went in and found...” Cai San could not continue.

Guan Fei wiped the cold sweat from his brow and hurried forward, smiling ingratiatingly at Chu Zhu as he led the way. “Please, this way!”

The moment he entered the room, Chu Zhu’s eyelid twitched.

Ning Linglong was crouched on the floor, constantly gesturing at something while muttering under her breath. Bi Xuan was seriously taking notes beside her.

On the other side, Zhou Ze’s body lay sprawled across a wooden chair. His head had been severed and hung from the chandelier!

“This is quite something...” Chu Zhu approached and took only a couple of glances before essentially confirming that the killer was indeed the person who had attacked him before the reset. The wound and the method of decapitation were exactly the same as the manner of his own death.

“Has anyone found any trace of the perpetrator?” Chu Zhu asked softly.

Guan Fei blinked, then looked at Cai San again.

“I... I don’t know,” Cai San stammered, his words disordered. “But I was the first to discover it after I entered...”

“In other words, the earliest confirmed time of Zhou Ze’s death was six thirty-two in the morning.” Chu Zhu fell into thought.

“Uncle Zhu!” Ning Linglong spoke up. She rose to her feet, casually took the notebook from Bi Xuan, and handed it to Chu Zhu. “This is the information I’ve compiled!”

Frowning, Chu Zhu accepted it and flipped through the pages. “Is it possible... that Zhou Ze died around six o’clock?”

“...Uncle Zhu, based on the information we have so far, it does appear that after killing the other five directors, the murderer used some method to infiltrate the building and finally killed Director-General Zhou.” Ning Linglong pressed her lips together. “But it couldn’t have been six o’clock! The timing would have been far too tight. Most likely, it happened between four and five.”

“Most likely, but not certain?” Chu Zhu lowered his eyes. Then he reached out, drew the pistol from Ning Linglong’s waist, and aimed it at his own forehead.

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“!!!” Ning Linglong’s eyes widened, and her voice trembled. “Uncle... Uncle Zhu, you... you...”

“Stay calm!” Guan Fei’s face turned green. When he heard the gunshot, his expression became something beyond despair.

The deaths of the six directors had already caused an enormous uproar... But if Mr. Zhu died as well—at the scene of Director-General Zhou’s death, no less—then it would simply...

The bullet tore through his skull, splattering blood across the wall.

“So that’s how it feels to be shot.” Chu Zhu nodded thoughtfully. Did it hurt? Naturally. But he had not died immediately. The formidable physique granted by the first stage of Body Tempering was truly comprehensive in its effects.

“But if I look at it from this angle...” Chu Zhu ground the poison between his back teeth. If he bit through it and killed himself now, he might not die within a short period of time. It seemed that even this would need to be upgraded...

“Calm down! I’ll take you right now...” Bi Xuan rushed over, his face deathly pale. He fumbled out a handkerchief and tried to cover the wound in Chu Zhu’s forehead, but hesitated, afraid to touch it.

“It’s already too late.” Chu Zhu neither confirmed nor denied it. His powerful, Body-Tempered physique had indeed granted him vitality beyond imagination, but that did not mean a shot that had blown apart his skull was not fatal.

Chu Zhu felt his consciousness gradually grow hazy. At last, he closed his eyes.

After a brief moment of disorientation—

Chu Zhu regained consciousness. A deafening roar thundered in his ears.

Before him was the annual champion film released for the New Year in the year 2035, with a worldwide box office of twenty-seven point two billion: *The Three-Body Problem IV: The Swordholder*.

At that moment, the story had reached the scene in which the Swordholder, the man who could determine the future of two civilizations, raised a gun to his temple and issued a declaration of mutual destruction to the other civilization beyond the Solar System.

In terms of grandeur, this scene was far inferior to the science-fiction spectacle earlier in *The Three-Body Problem IV*, when the Solar System fleet was annihilated by droplets. But in terms of emotional impact, it was in no way inferior!

“Nuwa Seventeen!” Chu Zhu said expressionlessly. “Tell me the current time. Afterward, erase my access records from the background. Shut down all entertainment programs. Open the external exit.”

“The current time is six minutes and twelve seconds past six, Imperial Capital Time!”

The magnificent movie interface vanished, and the base returned to its silver-white appearance.

“As expected...” Although death reset him to a random point within the previous twenty-four hours, that did not mean the result was truly random. Otherwise, if he happened to reset to three hours earlier after one suicide, then killed himself again and reset once more... Wouldn’t he eventually be able to reset all the way back to his own birth?

There had to be a fixed cutoff point.

And that cutoff point was generally six o’clock—the time he had awakened in the real world that morning.

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By now, Chu Zhu had reached the corridor. He left the Police Superintendent Bureau and sprinted with all his might toward the Union Headquarters building. At this moment, he did not even stop to consider that if someone saw him exerting himself to his full capacity, Nuwa might detect it and trigger an alarm.

Fast—faster than seemed possible! He even moved in a straight line.

Only now did Chu Zhu realize that, compared with before, his body seemed to have improved slightly again. He had probably reached seven times the level of an ordinary person. At this level, he could easily scale walls and cross rooftops. He could even climb five or six stories in ten-odd seconds like Spider-Man, then leap across to the building opposite. This must have been the adaptation period Nuwa Seventeen had mentioned earlier.

At last, he arrived in front of the Union Headquarters.

“...I want to see Zhou Ze!” Without undergoing any identity verification with the guards, Chu Zhu uttered a single sentence and strode straight inside.

“What? You... Well, then!” The guard was stunned. He recognized Chu Zhu. In all fairness, should he let him in? But Chu Zhu had once established an extremely strict rule: no matter who someone was or what they intended to do, authentication was required. Even Chu Zhu himself was no exception.

After Chu Zhu stepped down, Zhou Ze had faithfully continued enforcing every one of his orders.

But even if the guard had wanted to stop him, Chu Zhu had already charged inside. The guard tugged at his hair as respect for Chu Zhu clashed with his duty to obey orders. In the end, all he could do was grit his teeth and follow.

By the time Chu Zhu had forced his way through the building, five men were trailing behind him. All five had wanted to stop him, but had neither dared to nor been able to.

Expressionless, Chu Zhu kicked the door of the Director-General’s office. With a resounding crash, the thick wooden door was sent flying.

The five men: “!!!”

They were nearly scared senseless! It might have been a wooden door, but it was exceptionally sturdy. Could a human being really deliver a kick of that magnitude?

And then—

Their expressions froze.

Zhou Ze’s head hung from the chandelier on the ceiling, silently gazing down at the group that had entered.

Chu Zhu raised his head. By sheer coincidence, his eyes met Zhou Ze’s lifeless stare.

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