Slaying God: I, the insane and witty god

Chapter 723: New Recruits Training Reveals Its True Face, Battlefield Warnings and Night Vigilance (

On the other side, when the searchlights on the training ground just came on, Ding Chongfeng sat up and rubbed his aching neck.

The back of his camouflage uniform was covered in sweat and stuck to the concrete floor, and he heard a gasp next to him.

"Oh my god, was that monster's claw real or fake?"

The tall recruit Wang Hao touched the red mark on his arm and said, "I was clearly hit by the brush, so why am I not hurt now?"

"You really believe it?"

The tall and thin Li Yang tugged at his sleeve.

"Didn't you notice that when Instructor Wang was knocked away, his blood splattered like ketchup?"

"I got some on my goggles and licked it—it was sweet!"

The recruits around burst into laughter, but as they laughed they all fell silent.

The "battle" just now was too real: the monster with dark red eyes crashed down the wall, black fire licked the training tower,

When Instructor Wang rushed over with a bullet-proof shield, they really thought they were doomed.

Ding Chongfeng didn't say anything.

He stared at the tilted awning on the second-floor landing, where there was a fresh scratch on the iron railing - as if it had been cut by a knife.

When the fight was at its most chaotic, he saw a man wearing a crow mask jumping down from there.

Holding a black knife in one hand, he chopped the monster's tail like cutting sugarcane.

"Stop thinking about it." Yuan Gang's voice blasted out from the loudspeaker.

The training director, who always had a stern face, stood in the middle of the training ground, his boots rolling over the simulated bullet casings scattered on the ground. "Cao Yuan, turn on all the lights."

The ceiling light flickered on.

The recruits squinted their eyes and looked up, only to find seven people standing on the second-floor platform.

They wore dark tactical uniforms and a variety of masks on their faces: crows, foxes, butterflies, skulls, green-faced ghosts, White Impermanence, and the last one was the most eye-catching, a grinning lucky cat.

"That crow mask!" Wang Hao suddenly shouted,

"Just now I saw him being whipped into the fire by the monster's tail!"

"not dead?"

Li Yang's Adam's apple moved, "Then what did we just do..."

"fake."

The woman wearing the fox mask spoke, her voice was sickeningly sweet.

"Little guys, do you know what the monster you just killed is made of?"

"Silicone skin, steel frame, propane flamethrower—even the red eyes are made with infrared light."

The crowd below was in an uproar.

Ding Chongfeng stared at the lucky cat mask and his heart beat suddenly faster - the curve of the mask's mouth was exactly the same as Wu Hen's usual cheesy smile.

"Quiet." The man wearing the skull mask took off his mask, and it turned out to be Cao Yuan, who taught them tactics yesterday.

"My arm that was bitten off by the monster was filled with sponge. The sound of Instructor Wang's bones when he was sent flying was from a sonic boom. That bloody smell you smelled..."

He shook the small bottle in his hand. "Honey and food coloring. Mixed by Old Zhang from the logistics department."

"What about the pain?"

One recruit touched his "captured" arm, the red mark still there, and said, "I rolled over in pain!"

"Pain simulation device."

The woman wearing the butterfly mask took off her mask. It was An Qingyu who led them to run five kilometers.

"Nerve endings, I'm lying to you. This is the patent of the Demon Suppression Division last year."

The recruits looked at each other in bewilderment.

Ding Chongfeng touched his trouser pocket and found a crumpled note inside - Before the gathering this morning,

Someone slipped him a note that said, "See you on the second floor at nine o'clock in the evening."

The handwriting was crooked, as if written by a left hand, but he recognized it as Lin Qiye's.

"Now for the introductions."

Yuan Gang retreated to the side.

"They are the Nightfall Special Operations Team of the Demon Suppression Division. From now on, any 'accidents' you encounter will be their responsibility."

The man in the crow mask raised his hand and pushed with his knuckles against the edge of the mask.

The metal mask fell to the ground with a click, revealing Lin Qiye's handsome face.

He glanced at the new recruits below him and curled his lips: "Whoever just shouted that the monster's eyes were red, step out."

Wang Hao stood out trembling, with cold sweat on his forehead.

Lin Qiye pulled out a small bottle from his tactical uniform pocket and shook it: "Do you know what this is?"

"Dichlorvos?"

"glucose."

Lin Qiye threw it to Cao Yuan,

"The red eyes you see are spotlights, the black flames are propane, and the barbs on the monster's claws are soft rubber—including this smell right now."

He sniffed, "The blood flavor Lao Zhang made is too sweet. I'll ask him to add vinegar later."

"Have you passed the assessment?" Li Yang asked, rubbing his hands.

"Whether you pass or not depends on your performance." Wu Hen suddenly interrupted.

The lucky cat mask had been taken off, and he was leaning against the railing, smiling nonchalantly.

"For example, when Ding Chongfeng was running with the 'wounded' in his arms, he knew the cover on the left was closer, but he rushed to the right instead. Why?"

Ding Chongfeng's back was instantly soaked.

He did it on purpose. There was a metal box hidden under the junked car on the right side. There was a Tai Chi pattern engraved on the box, exactly the same as the one on the note this morning.

"There are wounded people on the right," he said stubbornly.

Wu Hen grinned, "You're lying. The 'injured man' on the right is played by Cao Yuan. He has a walkie-talkie on his waist."

"When you rushed over, you touched his lower back for three seconds—touching the walkie-talkie? Or something else?"

The training ground was so quiet that you could hear breathing.

Ding Chongfeng stared at Lin Qiye behind Wu Hen, who was flipping through the tactical tablet with his eyes downcast, as if he didn't hear anything.

"Now let's get down to business."

Lin Qiye closed the tablet and his voice became quiet.

"The Demon Suppression Division is not a game. What you will face in the future are real man-eating monsters, real evil cultivators who can possess other people's bodies, and old monsters who can really turn the city into a ghost town."

"Today's pain is fake, the blood is fake, but if you act stupidly on a real battlefield—"

He pointed to the simulated shell casing on the ground.

"You are the ones who will die, and the ones who will die may be the entire city."

The recruits fell silent.

Wu Hen suddenly jumped down from the railing and landed silently.

He walked up to Ding Chongfeng and patted him on the shoulder: "But the young comrade is quite smart."

"You know how to keep a backup plan—the system said your actions will earn you ten points. I'll treat you to barbecue tonight."

Ding Chongfeng opened his mouth but no sound came out.

He could feel the metal box in his trouser pocket getting hot. The Tai Chi pattern on the box was exactly the same as the pattern on the broken jade at the foot of the wall.

There was a noise coming from the second floor.

An Qingyu touched Lin Qiye's arm and whispered, "The surveillance footage from the old power plant in the west of the city has come back. The mechanical dog is barking, and Lu Baoyou has followed it."

Lin Qiye glanced at his watch, then looked at the confused recruits below him: "Let Jiang Er take a group of people over to keep an eye on him. Don't let anything happen to that kid."

Wu Hen suddenly hooked his arm around Lin Qiye's neck and leaned close to his ear:

"The system just gave us a task. It said we have to make the new recruits remember us tonight—how about I dismantle a monster model on the spot?"

"Forget it." Lin Qiye slapped his hand away and glanced at the new recruits.

"Listen up everyone, from today on, [Nightfall] is your direct team."

"If you encounter an evil spirit that you can't deal with in the future, tell us our names—"

He paused, a cold smile on his face, "If it doesn't work, tell me your name."

"Lin Qiye, I specialize in killing those who disobey."

As soon as he finished speaking, the loudspeaker in the training ground rang.

It was Old Zhang from the logistics department who said, "Qiye, the sour plum soup you asked for has arrived. It's in the gatehouse!"

"Wu Hen's system said it needed to be frozen, so I froze it for three hours—"

Wu Hen's eyes lit up, and he turned and ran: "Sour plum soup! Did Old Zhang drink it secretly?"

Lin Qiye shook his head and smiled, then followed him down.

When he passed by Ding Chongfeng, he paused and whispered, "The things in the box, tonight at nine o'clock, at the same place."

Ding Chongfeng clenched his trouser pockets and watched Lin Qiye's back disappear at the stairs.

On the second floor platform, the remaining Night Team members were smiling and collecting their masks. The lights in the training ground were still blindingly bright.

But he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck - like the cold wind that passed by from behind when the "battle" was at its most intense just now.

The moon in the east had already set, and a long bark of a mechanical dog came from the direction of the old power plant in the west of the city.

Ding Chongfeng's Adam's apple moved, and the sharp edges of the metal box hurt his thigh through the fabric.

He looked at the stairs where Lin Qiye disappeared, and glanced at Wu Hen who was still confirming the ice temperature of the sour plum soup with Lao Zhang - the boy was clinging to the window of the gatehouse.

I argued with the logistics guy, Mr. Zhang, about "Ice should be crushed, not whole", just like a half-grown kid who sneaked out to buy popsicles.

But three hours ago, it was this face with tiger teeth showing when smiling,

In the simulated fire scene, he used a steel pipe as a long stick and knocked over three "monster" models with one stick. His movements were as fast as a shadow.

"Why are you dazed?"

Li Yang poked his arm and said, "Let's go get some sour plum soup. Captain Wu said there's plenty."

The new recruits rushed to the gatehouse in a noisy manner, with Ding Chongfeng being the last one to come.

He took out the note from his trouser pocket and looked at it under the streetlight - the "old place" was the crooked locust tree at the back wall of the training camp.

This morning, as he was squatting there tying his shoelaces, Lin Qiye's voice suddenly floated down from above his head: "At nine o'clock in the evening, don't use your brain, use your ears."

When he looked up, he saw Lin Qiye squatting on the three-meter-high wall.

The crow mask hung at his waist, and the moonlight flowed down his hair like a knife tempered with cold light.

"Ding Chongfeng!" Wu Hen's shout interrupted his memories.

The boy waved a large bowl towards him, and the sour plum soup in the bowl was amber in color.

"Come on, Old Zhang hid a jar of honey, and I secretly added two spoonfuls!"

Just as Ding Chongfeng was about to move, he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.

He turned around suddenly - a dark shadow swayed in the shadow of the abandoned container in the corner of the training ground.

When he squinted his eyes to take a closer look, all that was left was a pile of rusty oil drums, with scraps of paper rustling past in the wind.

"What are you thinking about?" An Qingyu stood behind him without him noticing.

The female team member took off her butterfly mask, her ponytail was tied loosely, and her tactical boots were stained with simulated blood.

"When he touched Cao Yuan's intercom just now, his hands were as steady as a veteran detective—was he a former soldier?"

"No." Ding Chongfeng's throat tightened.

Anqingyu's eyes are so bright, like two small searchlights.

"It's just... when I was little, I always went down to the mines with my dad. It was dark, so I got used to touching things."

"Go down to the mine?" An Qingyu raised an eyebrow. "Which mine?"

"Yunzhou Laojingou is now closed."

Ding Chongfeng clenched his trouser pockets tightly, the warmth of the metal box penetrating through his palms and into his bones. "My dad said there's..."

"have what?"

"nothing."

Ding Chongfeng laughed dryly, "He loves to drink, and when he's drunk he talks nonsense."

An Qingyu stared at him for three seconds, then suddenly smiled: "Okay, I believe you. But—"

She pointed at his trouser pocket and said, "Next time, don't touch your lower back. It's easy for people to counterattack you there."

"If you want to touch, touch the outside of the thigh. The movement is small and discreet."

Before he finished speaking, Wu Hen's loud voice exploded again: "Sister An! You are bullying the newbie again!"

"Ding Chongfeng, come quickly! If you don't bring the sour plum soup, Wang Hao, that big eater, will drink it all!"

An Qingyu winked at Ding Chongfeng, turned and ran towards the gatehouse.

Ding Chongfeng looked at her back, but the chill on the back of his neck did not dissipate.

He touched the metal box in his trouser pocket, and the Tai Chi pattern became more prominent under his fingertips - he was very familiar with this pattern.

When he was ten years old, at a mine collapse site, he dug out a piece of broken jade from the rubble, and the pattern on it was exactly the same as this one.

Later, his father burned the broken jade overnight, saying that it was "contaminated with something unclean."

"Ding--"

The metal box in my trouser pocket suddenly made a slight sound.

Ding Chongfeng's heart tightened, and he squatted down pretending to tie his shoelaces. He opened the lid of the box in the shadows. Inside lay a translucent jade plaque.

There are three seal characters "Zhenmosi" engraved on it, and on the back there are small characters: "Whoever holds this card will see the night as if he sees the head of the Si".

"Fuck," he muttered. The jade token shone a faint blue in the moonlight, like a block of solidified water.

"What are you looking at?"

A voice suddenly sounded above my head.

Ding Chongfeng's hand trembled and the jade token almost fell to the ground.

He looked up and saw Lin Qiye standing in front of him. He had put on his crow mask again, revealing only half of his jawline.

"It's nine o'clock."

Ding Chongfeng stood up suddenly and the metal box closed with a snap.

Lin Qiye said nothing and turned to walk towards the back wall of the camp.

Ding Chongfeng followed, his boots grinding over gravel, each step feeling like stepping on a drum.

Under the crooked locust tree, Lin Qiye took off his mask, and the moonlight illuminated the small mole at the corner of his eye.

"The jade token is real."

He said, "Three hundred years ago, the token of the first chief of the Demon Suppression Division was lost in the Laojingou Mine in Yunzhou."

Ding Chongfeng's Adam's apple moved: "My dad said..."

"Your father isn't talking nonsense."

Lin Qiye took out a pack of cigarettes from his tactical uniform, took out a cigarette and lit it.

"There's a soul-locking beast trapped under the Old Golden Ditch, and the jade token is one of the keys to seal it."

"Three years ago, the mine collapsed. Someone tried to take the jade token, but it ended up awakening the Soul-Locking Beast. Your father was the captain of the mining team."

"He risked his life to put the jade token into your arms, and stayed in the mines himself."

Ding Chongfeng's ears were buzzing.

Memories of when he was ten years old suddenly came flooding back: the earth-shaking roar, his father stuffing him into the ventilation duct, blood dripping down his chin onto his face,

Xiaofeng, hold on tight, don't let go."

Later, the rescue team dug for three days and three nights, but only found his father's safety helmet, with "Feng'er is safe" written in red paint on the inside of the brim.

"So you participated in the Demon Suppression Division selection."

Lin Qiye flicked the ash from his cigarette and said, "It's not about exorcising demons and defending the Dao, it's about investigating the cause of your father's death."

Ding Chongfeng said nothing, digging his nails into his palms.

"Tonight's simulation training is to tell you two things."

Lin Qiye stared at the red dot of the cigarette butt.

"First, there's no 'maybe' on the battlefield, only 'must'—you touched Cao Yuan's intercom just now to confirm whether he was alive, right?"

Ding Chongfeng nodded.

"second."

Lin Qiye crushed the cigarette on the tree stump,

"The answer you're looking for is at the old power plant in the west of the city."

He pointed to the eastern sky, where a fire flickered behind the clouds.

"Half an hour ago, Lu Baoyou went in with the mechanical dog."

"That guy was your father's former mining buddy and apprentice. Last month he suddenly started asking about Lao Jingou."

"he……"

"He may know what your father said at the end." Lin Qiye put on the crow mask again.

"It's still not too late to go now. I'll let Wu Hen cover for you - he can hack the surveillance cameras in the recruit dormitory for ten minutes."

Ding Chongfeng clenched the jade token tightly, and the coolness of the jade token penetrated into his heart through his blood vessels.

Wu Hen's voice could be heard from a distance: "Ding Chongfeng! Where have you been? The sour plum soup is getting cold!"

"Thank you." Ding Chongfeng said.

Lin Qiye didn't look back and walked towards the camp.

His shadow was stretched out by the moonlight, like a knife stuck in the ground.

Ding Chongfeng looked at his back and suddenly shouted, "Captain Lin!"

"Ok?"

"That soul-locking beast..."

Ding Chongfeng swallowed his saliva and asked, "Still alive?"

Lin Qiye stopped and said in a voice as low as the wind from under the mask: "It's awake."

From the direction of the old power plant in the west of the city, the barking of the mechanical dog was heard again, this time with a heart-wrenching ferocity.

Ding Chongfeng touched the tactical knife at his waist, turned around and ran towards the wall.

The weeds at the foot of the wall were wet with night dew. He stepped on them and heard his own heartbeat, exactly the same as the rumbling sound in the mine ten years ago.