Chapter 36: Explosion is Art¹; Liu Ming: If this child is raised for a few more years…

“…You mean, my sister?”

Liu Ming paused, looking at Mute in disbelief. He wanted to see the awkwardness of a lie on the other’s face, but there was nothing.

Mute was being entirely serious when he said those words.

He did indeed have a sister.

In this generation of the Liu Family, there were three siblings. There was Liu Ming, the youngest, who was being groomed as the heir. There was the second brother, Liu Chuan, who had been personally sent by their grandfather to the Black Swan’s side to become the Secretary General of the Tower. Finally, there was an eldest sister who had chosen to leave the Liu Family long ago, vanishing into the vast crowds of the Seven Districts.

That eldest sister had left the Liu Family too early. She had left so long ago that Liu Ming’s memories of her were blurred; he only remembered that her name seemed to be Liu Luo. Aside from that, she had left nothing behind for the Liu Family.

She had left with such resolution, taking nothing with her. After a violent argument with their grandfather, she walked away from the family. In the nearly ten years since, she had never sent a single message back.

Liu Ming had tried to search for clues regarding his sister. The Liu Family’s hidden agents were buried deep in every inch of the Seven Districts, and they even had seeds planted in the seas of the Third District. Logically, it should have been impossible to get zero information about Liu Luo, yet he had never succeeded.

This was because the head of the Liu Family, Liu Lin, had personally issued an order: all information regarding Liu Luo was to be delivered directly to the Family Head’s hands, and no other member of the Liu Family was permitted to view it.

Not even Liu Ming, the heir of the Liu Family.

“This is just a theory my sister and I have. The faction supporting Sander does indeed use the Liu Family crest. We couldn’t think of a second possibility besides the Liu Family, but it’s possible someone is impersonating you to use the family’s influence… Brother Liu Ming… if we want to be sure, we should go down to the activity area and take a look first.”

The momentum of the conversation shifted instantly. Now that they were discussing business, Mute stopped his chatter and adopted the aura of a District Chief. He tapped his temple. “Although this mine was previously Sander’s property, it belongs to my family now. I have the map of this place in my head, and I can roughly identify where we are. I remember there’s a small path from here that leads to the abandoned activity area below.”

Mute paused. Seeing Liu Ming’s narrowing eyes, the District Chief mask he had just put on shattered instantly. “Uh… maybe, maybe this counts as being lucky too, haha.”

He gave a dry laugh.

Liu Ming didn’t speak. He simply glanced at him, signaling for him to lead the way. Mute let out a visible sigh of relief and quickly stepped forward to walk in front of Liu Ming. “Then let’s go!”

With Jenny’s Spatial Barrier in place, their movements were not hindered by the flames in the mine shafts. However, even so, the extent to which the fire permeated the entire mining area was shocking.

The eerie yellow flames burned in every crevice of every tunnel. The fire was continuous, as if it were growing out of the unmined Carnival Brass, swaying slightly as they walked past.

They looked like living tentacles.

Mute forced himself not to look back at Liu Ming, muttering under his breath, “I’m the only one here, I’m the only one here.”

Hearing this from behind, Liu Ming, who was deep in thought over the clues about his sister, felt like he had wandered onto a horror movie set and began to doubt if he was even still alive.

Fortunately, although Mute was a bit strange, he was much more reliable than Yun Zhou. He quickly found the entrance to the lower activity area within the labyrinthine tunnels.

It was a very narrow room located off to the side of the main shaft. The entire room had been carved out of the mountain bit by bit with stone axes. The walls were uneven, covered in the marks left by tools.

On the far wall of the room stood a heavy iron door. It was tightly bound by thick, brand-new chains and secured with a heavy, old-fashioned iron lock that was completely immovable.

“This is the place, but…”

Mute didn’t dare look back. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Haha, I lost the key to this place a long time ago.”

Liu Ming: …

He took back his earlier praise about this bastard being more reliable than Yun Zhou. They were clearly two of a kind, no difference at all!

“It’s been abandoned for too long, and with Sander’s sudden disappearance, it’s normal not to find it… Hey! Don’t be angry. Even if the key is gone, I have a way to open this!”

Mute guiltily twiddled his fingers. Seeing Liu Ming’s gaze grow increasingly dangerous, he quickly jumped up and patted his chest in a promise. “Don’t worry, I can definitely get this door open clean and easy. It just takes one ‘boom,’ very simple!”

Liu Ming rubbed his temples and sighed. “I’m not your sister, you don’t need to explain to me. Since you have a way, then use it. Stop wasting time.”

Mute gave a sheepish grin. “Wait a sec, let me find it-“

He rummaged through his pockets for a moment and pulled out a yellow stone. It looked exactly like the Carnival Brass burning nearby. Liu Ming frowned, only to see Mute wrap the yellow stone in his orange spiritual energy in the next second. Once the stone was tightly encased, he gripped it firmly in his hand.

“Brother Liu Ming, forgive me!”

Before Liu Ming could react, Mute seemed to make a sudden, grim determination. He hurled the brass in his hand at the lock of the sealed door, then lunged at Liu Ming. His terrifying strength forced Liu Ming down with him into the wide tunnel outside the small room.

The ground outside the tunnel was pitted and uneven; being slammed down so suddenly was hardly a pleasant experience. Fortunately, Mute remembered he was a Sentinel. Even as he trembled with fear, he shielded Liu Ming in his arms, his entire body twisting as if he were about to split apart.

The next second, Liu Ming learned exactly what Mute’s “way” was.

A massive roar thundered from the small room behind them. The entire mine shaft shook three times. Fragments of stone fell from the ceiling of the tunnel due to the violent vibration, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The violent explosion filled the small room with smoke, leaving nothing visible from the outside but a haze of dark gray.

“Yes!”

Mute gave himself a thumbs-up. His mental energy was as aggressive as ever!

“Cough, cough…”

Liu Ming didn’t even have the energy to scold Mute. He finally understood why he had heard faint explosions coming from the factory the first time he met Mute. He even felt a twinge of sympathy for the former District Chief now. To be able to spar with a miraculous Sentinel who threw bombs at will and hold out for so long, Sander must have been quite formidable.

Who would have thought a Sentinel’s mental energy could simply be wrapped around flammable materials and detonated like a grenade?!

“Are you okay?” Mute pulled Liu Ming up. Having just thrown a bomb, he was in a state of high agitation, his excitement momentarily overriding his fear of Liu Ming. If not for the terror rooted deep in his soul, he might have actually given Liu Ming a massive hug.

Liu Ming shook his head. He didn’t feel like talking to Mute. He pointed at the small room now completely shrouded in black smoke, then pointed at his own head: How are we supposed to get down now?

Mute could practically hear Liu Ming’s tone in his head.

“It’s fine, it’s fine! I came prepared!”

This time, Mute didn’t look guilty at all. Instead, he yanked up his hoodie and pulled two gas masks out of the front pocket.

Liu Ming: …

Practice makes perfect, indeed. Just how many times had this District Chief done something like this? The Fifth District was doomed!

Liu Ming thought to himself that they might as well defect to the Liu Family before Mute finished blowing everything up.

By “Liu Family,” he meant himself, not his mysterious sister who was busy doing who-knows-what.

That annoying sister of his! Regardless of what she was planning, it was a fact that she was secretly making money in the Fifth District. How dare she make a fortune all by herself without telling him…

Liu Ming slapped the gas mask onto his face with a huff. Together with Mute, he stepped over the ruined door and down the stairs toward the depths of the living quarters.

The air in the living quarters was stagnant from years of being sealed off, making Mute’s gas masks a necessity. There was no chalcopyrite here, and naturally, none of that eerie, burning yellow flame. There were only dust-covered miner dormitories and various tables used for daily life and work.

Much of the supplies left on the tables had rotted or crumbled, making them unrecognizable, but fortunately, those weren’t Liu Ming and Mute’s targets.

In the center of the largest, crudely-built square in the living area, a box sealed with iron plating lay quietly. Traces of yellow flame extended from inside the black iron box into the air, hanging high above and disappearing into the depths of the mountain.

On the surface of the box, they could easily see the serial number left by The Tower without even getting close: Y006.

Classification: Anomaly Core.

Stored within that box was the long-missing Anomaly Core of Y006.

Countless trails of flame extended outward, each heading in a specific direction. Mute didn’t need to say a word; even a single glance at the layout of this chalcopyrite mine’s tunnels allowed Liu Ming to roughly deduce where they were headed…

They followed the exact path of the mine shafts.

“Brother Liu Ming, I have a bold request…”

Mute spoke up, taking a deep breath as he stared at the dense network of flame trails. “We’ve confirmed that all the yellow fire in this mine comes from the sealed Y006. But if it were just for this one mine, there would never be a need for so many fire tracks…”

Liu Ming nodded. “Don’t worry, District Chief. As the special team sent by the Council Chairman to investigate the King of Anomalies, this falls entirely within our scope of duty.”

He reached out, and countless silver-blue threads tentatively approached the iron box. Just before they could be incinerated by the yellow flames, they abruptly changed direction, surging toward the ends of the extending trails.

At the end of the threads’ reach, Liu Ming opened his eyes, his expression grim.

He looked at Mute and sighed with regret. “…I’ll give you just one piece of information. There are only twenty-four hours left before Surtr’s yellow fire follows the veins of this chalcopyrite mine to incinerate the entire Fifth District, including the branch veins in the forests of the 6th District.”

Mute’s face turned pale. “And it happens right during the Carnival… A literal twenty-four hours of revelry.”

“…Mute, before we leave, tell me about the clues regarding the Liu Family you mentioned might be here.”

Mute’s expression had soured immediately after Liu Ming gave the countdown, his anxiety visible to the naked eye, but Liu Ming grabbed him by the shoulder.

The boy was slightly shorter than Liu Ming, and since the Sentinel hadn’t put up any guard against him, Liu Ming’s pull sent him stumbling.

“B-Brother Liu Ming… but I’m really not sure!”

Mute looked like he was about to cry. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help Liu Ming; he truly didn’t know for certain.

“But there should be something left behind by the faction that was posing as the Liu Family main branch back then… If it’s as you said, it should be supplies provided by Sister Liu Luo. I can take you to see them…”

As soon as Liu Ming frowned, Mute immediately raised his hands in surrender, looking utterly defeated. The shadows of his upbringing were truly powerful; Mute couldn’t overcome them no matter how hard he tried. Steeling his resolve, he broke into a trot and led Liu Ming deeper in.

The two of them circled the living area. Relying on his knowledge of the mine, Mute finally found some combustion enhancers buried under a mountain of supplies.

These enhancers were kept in white bags, but there was no writing on the packaging—they were completely anonymous products.

“Combustion enhancers… what are they meant to burn?”

Even as Liu Ming asked the question, he already had the answer in his heart.

“The fires here.”

Mute sighed. “The yellow fire has existed far longer than my sister and I initially predicted. I don’t know if the former District Chief discovered the truth or caused all of this, but according to the research materials he left behind, he really did want to find a way to stop the yellow fire at first. But for some reason, midway through, his focus shifted to the yellow fire itself. Around that same time, we found these combustion enhancers in the copper mines under his name.”

Mute wore an expression that said “I knew there would be something like this here,” showing not a hint of surprise upon seeing the accelerants in their white packaging.

“After these accelerants appeared, the focus of Sander’s research shifted. Furthermore, these accelerants have been infused with a Guide’s mental power, allowing them to fuel the combustion of the yellow flames born from Anomaly Cores. The only power capable of processing and storing a Guide’s mental power like this is the Liu Family of the First District.”

Mute pointed at the accelerants and tore one of the packets open. White powder instantly poured out, shimmering with crystalline fragments of various colors. Liu Ming’s brow furrowed deeply; he could clearly sense that it was indeed a Guide’s mental power.

Even if it wasn’t Liu Luo, another core member of the Liu Family was meddling here.

But why?

Liu Ming looked up and fixed his gaze on Mute. “Did you do this on purpose?”

Everything happening here was far too coincidental. Unless someone had arranged it intentionally, Liu Ming would never believe that a living sector just happened to contain both the Y006 Anomaly Core and accelerants produced with Liu Family technology.

This was clearly a staged scene.

“Mute… stop pretending. You used the Carnival as an excuse to lead us…”

Liu Ming paused, as if he wasn’t quite used to referring to himself and those other three as “us,” but he eventually finished the sentence: “To lead us here just to show me this?”

At this moment, Mute no longer seemed afraid of Liu Ming. A look of wisdom, entirely at odds with his age, appeared on his face. “It’s simply a matter of everyone getting what they need, Brother Liu Ming. I need you to help me save the Fifth District from this crisis, and you need me to help you find clues about the King of Anomalies. We help each other – isn’t that perfect?”

He looked at Liu Ming, finally revealing the calculating expression a District Chief ought to have. “Well? Brother Liu Ming, a member of the Liu Family wouldn’t refuse a deal, would they? This is a profitable bargain. Besides, wasn’t that exactly what the Council Chairman meant at the Seven-District Council meeting?”

Liu Ming narrowed his eyes.

It was true. During that emergency midnight session of the Seven-District Council, Chairperson Black Swan had meant exactly that: only by all districts uniting could they handle the dire situation predicted by Y009 – the awakening of all the Kings of Anomalies.

There was no reason to refuse. The Liu Family never turned away a business partner who came knocking. Thus, Liu Ming reached out his hand.

The formerly bold Mute instantly flinched back a step, his shoulders hunching up. “W-w-what do you mean by that?”

Liu Ming thought, …So he’s still terrified… He put on quite a show just now.

He helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead, inwardly grumbling about why he was always surrounded by idiots. He glanced up. “It’s etiquette for closing a deal. Didn’t your sister teach you to shake hands when signing a contract?”

Mute blinked. “Ah… oh…”

He scratched his head sheepishly with one hand and extended the other to grasp Liu Ming’s. “Sorry about that. My sister manages all the family’s mining assets. I’m not as capable as her; my only advantage is that I’m good at fighting.”

Liu Ming thought, …I think you’re just good at blowing things up!

Mute felt guilty himself and turned his head away, not daring to look at Liu Ming. “Haha, Brother Liu Ming, since we’ve reached an agreement and confirmed how long it will take for those flames to consume the entire Fifth District, time is of the essence. Let’s get moving right away!”

Mute gave himself a little pep-talk gesture, turned, and ran, putting some distance between himself and Liu Ming.

Liu Ming wondered, …Is he really a dog? Why does it feel like I’m suppressing him with my bloodline?

Mute was fast, and combined with his intimate knowledge of the area, he led the way. Before long, he brought Liu Ming back to a side exit of the mine tunnels. Pushing open a heavy sheet-metal door, they were met with fresh air and the first light of dawn breaking over the Fifth District.

“Let’s get out of here, quick!”

Seeing the sunlight within reach, Mute started to bolt, but Liu Ming caught him.

“Wait… haven’t we forgotten something?”

Liu Ming hadn’t been sure at first, but seeing Mute about to lead him straight away, he quickly reached out and grabbed the boy’s hood.

His voice sounded a bit weary of life. To be honest, he really didn’t know what he had done wrong to be “tortured” by so many people who shared Yun Zhou’s personality style.

“…Oh, right!”

Under Liu Ming’s reminder, the realization hit Mute. “My sister is still inside!”

Liu Ming lowered his voice. “And?”

They were short-handed as it was. Did they really only need three people outside searching for the culprit and a solution, while leaving three others in this brass mine to watch over the Y006 Anomaly Core?

Mute’s guilt intensified instantly. “And… and Senior Yun Zhou, Senior Du Shui, and Senior Ying Huo, hahahaha…”

Liu Ming shoved Mute’s still-grinning head down. “If you know that, then hurry up and go find them!”

This kid… in a few more years, he’ll turn into another Yun Zhou. There will be no saving him then!

Liu Ming thought worriedly.

Wait… why was he thinking about that? He wasn’t their nanny…

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Translator’s Notes

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1. Explosion is Art: A reference to the catchphrase ‘Art is an explosion’ (Geijutsu wa bakuhatsu da), famously used by the character Deidara in the manga series Naruto. It characterizes someone who finds aesthetic beauty in destruction. ↩