Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 1023 Reactionary Forces within the Territory of Far East City

Zuanzhi was so scared he was about to wet himself. He was pressed against the ground, his face pale, his teeth chattering, like a mangy dog ​​trembling on the ground.

Lupercal stood before him, motionless.

The boy lowered his eyes and looked down at him, his eyes filled with nothing but naked disgust, devoid of any pity.

Young Lupercal had seen far too many corpses of amber-stricken psychopaths.

The guy who cut up ordinary people like experimental subjects, the madman who injected his fragmentation fruit power into children to see if they would self-destruct, and the morbid neurotic who used his own flesh and blood to bloom and create art installations at the alley entrance... every face was etched into his mind.

pity?

Do not!
Having witnessed firsthand several of Amber's brutal crimes, the young son of the first return had long lost any sympathy for Amber. He felt an instinctive disgust for these wanton individuals and was indifferent to killing them all.

There are plenty of madmen in this world, but Amber Mental Illness—those who distort reality, indiscriminately kill innocent people, and have no bottom line—should be eliminated without exception.

This is the judgment of the son who first returned.

The Wolfpack Mobile Terrorist Squad, which he personally designed, was specifically designed to eliminate such contaminants. They were a specially trained, hunted down, and suppressed mobile forces that disrupted the order of the horizon.

But the father had a different attitude.

My father always liked to say: Unite all forces that can be united.

Not every Amber psychopath deserves to die. If the good ones among them can be cured and tamed, they may be brought into the Horizon and become part of the new order. Currently, the Shepherds are actively promoting the treatment of Amber psychopaths.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, in Xia Xiu's design of the Horizon, the Shepherds and the Wolf Pack have begun to show a state of mutual restraint.

In fact, Xia Xiu had also noticed Lupercal's personality and changes, just like the Demon King Amond's evaluation of the First Son: he had a unique persistence in what he believed in and was unwilling to give it up.

From a human perspective, this will make him stand firm in the face of certain things, but not so cold-hearted, maintaining a certain foundation.

However, from a utilitarian perspective, this is both an advantage and a fatal flaw.

As Xia Xiu and Lupercal spent more time together, he noticed that the boy's innocent nature was beginning to transform into his true character. This transformation carried the basic attributes of a perfect embryo. His assessment of the First Son's increasingly apparent personality was: "Sometimes he is too stubborn and tends to go to extremes in his dealings with people and things. He needs to learn restraint and balance."

If Horizon allows the wolf pack forces led by Lupercal to become the main force, it is easy for a path dependence on systemic violent repression and institutional indifference in handling matters to be formed.

Therefore, at this time, the Shepherds, who are more humane, are needed to counterbalance the wolf pack's wolfish nature. He intentionally allowed the two to fight each other, allowing the wolf pack to first create the Imperial Guard, Monford, to assist the Shepherds in achieving a balance.

For Xia Xiu, everything has two sides—the Shepherds and the Wolf Pack, and they must maintain a natural antagonism, which is a fundamental attribute that a political structure must possess.

Now, standing before this Devil Fruit user disguised as Amber Mental Illness, Rupercal had no intention of giving him a friendly look, and he acted accordingly.

"Why did you pretend to be Amber the Psychopath?" he asked coldly, his tone mirroring his father's oppressive manner, chillingly calm.

Zuanji raised his head, his eyes darting around in a panic, as if he was hesitating about what to say. After three seconds of hesitation, he decided to be honest and tell the truth.

"Confess and you'll be treated leniently; resist and you'll be punished severely"—these common phrases were written by the Lord of the Horizon, and they appear on notes in the interrogation departments of both the Shepherds and the Wolf Pack.

Zuanji knows that those who are stubborn in the face of adversity often end up in dire straits.

"I just... I think it's cool."

The moment the words left his mouth, the air grew heavier.

"what?"

The son of the first returnee sounded somewhat dazed, as if he hadn't quite caught on.

He was indeed stunned.

He considered various reasons, such as avoiding responsibility, hiding his identity, being instructed or manipulated by the Fifth Church, or even showing signs of Amber's mental breakdown—but he never imagined that this person would say something like "it's cool."

As if unaware of the seriousness of the problem, Zuanji awkwardly added a sentence.

"Don't you find their crazy, fearless attitude... kind of interesting?"

The sound grew fainter and fainter until even he could barely hear it himself.

Lupercal's face turned completely cold.

With a slight twitch of his left eye, the [spider-like monster] quietly appeared, its appendages stretching out almost imperceptibly, trembling slightly in the air, like a sharp blade slowly drawn from the shadows.

"You feel……"

He spoke slowly, his tone completely flat.

"Is this kind of thing...cool?"

Zuanji was stunned. He opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything.

The next moment, Lupercal raised his right hand, clenched his fist, and the movement was clean and swift. The muscles under his collarbone suddenly tensed up, and the boy's whole body was like a taut bowstring, with a layer of cold pressure pressing down on him instantly.

With a soft "click," the thorn's neck was firmly gripped!

He was practically lifted up, and the back of his head slammed hard against the wall.

Zuanji's eyes widened, its throat was tightly locked, as if its trachea was stuck by a hook, and it could not make any sound. It could only instinctively struggle and kick its legs.

His head began to throb, his eardrums buzzed, and blood rushed to his cheeks, a burning sensation followed by a chill. Instinct compelled him to activate his Devil Fruit power, his body instantly glowing with a crystalline sheen, and diamond-like patterns appearing on his skin.

But the ability that had just been activated was as if it had been severed at the root, and it was extinguished with a snap.

On his ankle, the heavy restraint shackle that had never been removed lit up with several blue and white signal lights.

That is the stabilizing anchor of the "Black Wall Protocol," a rule erasure device for Devil Fruit users specially designed by Xia Xiu for the Horizon—any abnormal user who attempts to activate a rule-based Devil Fruit within the Black Wall will be instantly locked and solidified.

Its principle is based on the crown jewel of the field—the World Modulation Mode.

Zuanji stared wide-eyed, his face flushed red, blood vessels dilating wildly at the corners of his eyes, and he couldn't utter a single complete syllable.

He felt like a fish pinned to the beach, struggling in vain, powerless from lack of oxygen, his consciousness teetering on the brink of collapse. "Don't kill him, Lupercal."

A deep voice sounded.

Xia Xiu stepped forward, his voice not loud, but it made Lupercal immediately stop what he was doing.

The boy withdrew his arm, leaving a blur, and then slid to the ground, collapsing, clutching his neck, and breathing heavily.

Xia Xiu stood in front of him, not even glancing at him, only glancing down at the pathetic body that looked like a pile of human-shaped mud.

His gaze was icy, as if he were looking at maggots wriggling on the ground.

“This trash…” he began slowly, his tone still calm, “isn’t ready to be thrown away completely yet.”

He looked at the thorns, his eyes revealing undisguised disgust, yet still retaining a sliver of restrained rationality. Like Lupercal, he had already sentenced the other to death upon hearing their reply.

However, he still needs to extract value from this garbage.

“He has connections with underground reactionary forces in Far East City. I need this intelligence, even if it’s garbage, as long as it can uncover a few rats, it will still have some value.”

"Yes, father."

Lupercal responded in a low voice, suppressing his killing intent, and walked step by step toward the thorny path.

He crouched down, his gaze calmly fixed on the man on the ground. The thorny creature was already terrified, trembling and shrinking back, trying to avoid his gaze.

But he soon discovered that he couldn't avoid it at all.

Lupercal's left eye gleamed strangely once more. The [Eye of Horus] fixed its gaze on the other man. Instead of striking him again, he asked softly:

"Speak, tell me everything you know, I will only ask once."

Zuanji trembled, his lips twitching, as if he wanted to feign madness and fool his way out. If he told everything, he would be of no use to anyone.

He'll definitely die then, he really will. The Lord of the Horizon and the Son of the First Return, they won't let him live!!!
As soon as he closed his mouth, a chilling, sinister feeling surged into the back of his head like needles.

His vision began to tremble, his eardrums roared, and his consciousness felt as if it were being pierced by an ice pick, plunging him into a chaotic and oppressive state. He knew it wasn't a hallucination, but a real form of torture.

"Say or not?"

Lupercale maintained his indifferent expression, but the shadow in his eyes was gradually expanding.

Finally, Zuanji broke down, clutching his head and screaming, "Speak! I'll talk! Please don't let me see that eye of yours again, I beg you, sir—!"

Faced with the choice between dying soon and living a life worse than death, he wisely chose the former.

He almost fell to his knees with a wail, his face covered in saliva and snot, his head hitting the floor little by little.

“In Far East City… there are three groups of people. They are the real reactionaries, the real bad guys among the people of Far East City. They are utterly wicked, sir!”

Zuanji was covered in sweat, his tongue was tied in knots, and after a long while, he finally managed to utter a sound.

"The first type is the local street gangs... like me, but much more ruthless. They have all sorts of fruits, some of which are even mutated. Once they awaken their abilities, they don't take the great Horizon seriously at all. They are highly dissatisfied with Horizon's takeover of Far East City and are trying to take it back and restore its so-called autonomy. They say—Far East City belongs to the people of Far East City, not to Horizon."

"Those people are all thugs, gathered in the ruins on the west side of the old city. There's an old stronghold called Ravencrest. They don't have many people, but they're all quite strong. They're not accepting Horizon's takeover, saying things like 'violent rule should be overthrown by violence.' They've recently launched two raids on the Shepherds' city defense outposts, trying to start some kind of Independence Day war."

At this point, he shrank back again, as if afraid that if he didn't say enough, his words would be erased.

"The second type is from outside. They have three Storm Kings backing them, and I suspect that even the Church of Saint Cuthbert has gotten involved."

“Those people are even more cunning than the street gangs. They are involved in underground fund transfers and have contacts in the city... I heard that they have people hiding in the Far East City financial district, doing cover business. On the surface, they are running transportation, but behind the scenes they are collecting information on your Horizon’s movements.”

His voice trembled, but he continued:

"The Church of St. Cuthbert also sent secret envoys into the city... They wore masks and spread reactionary heresies to brainwash people everywhere, saying that 'the horizon is a collection of sins,' that His Majesty the Great Abraham was a moving source of calamity, and openly slandered His Majesty as a calamity that follows wherever he goes... They also fabricated some divine wrath, claiming to represent St. Cuthbert in purifying this polluted land."

“I personally witnessed them preaching near the old library ruins, and they even lit a sacred fire at night… A crazy woman jumped in, shouting ‘God’s will,’ and burned herself to death!”

Zuanji was breathless as he spoke, his face flushed, and sweat dripping from his chin.

Lupercal remained silent, simply looking down at him as if he were watching a squeaking insect.

Zuanji gritted his teeth and had no choice but to continue.

“The third type… is the tech-savvy gang.” Zuanji lowered his voice considerably, as if he had mentioned some taboo word, and unconsciously shrank back.

"They're the scariest, they're weirdos, they're all crazy... but the kind that use their brains."

“I heard they’ve acquired a… new type of Membrane contamination virus.” He swallowed hard, his voice trembling. “They got it from the Fifth Church, from a place called ‘Chaos.’ They can implant the contamination into a population through a specific Membrane knot… they call it some kind of [Chaos Neuromimetic Protocol].

Xia Xiu frowned, as if he had realized something.

Those four troublemakers got involved too; they probably see this place as their experimental breeding ground...

“These are all true, I’m not exaggerating.” As if afraid the other party wouldn’t believe him, he quickly continued in a rapid-fire manner, “The human nervous system, when used as a carrier, will not immediately erupt after being infected, but will remain dormant—and then suddenly explode.”

"These viruses are what they call—Trojan horses."

"When people fall ill, their eyes turn red first, then their whole body begins to convulse, as if their soul has been ripped out. Then, they start to deform... growing metallic shells, some growing other people's faces, and some exploding on the spot into a pool of blood, but they can still move..."

"They themselves say that those who become like this are called template containers, and are used to test the compatibility of [Trojan horses] on different races."

"They also built a place called the Black Bell Experimental Zone, which is located in the old city sewers on the ninth floor. The entire area has been transformed, and even the air is polluted."

“A friend of mine was arrested and used as a sample. Three days later, his body was thrown out, and when we looked at it, his stomach was covered with copper tubes.”

"So far, all I know is that they have developed four different types of Trojan horses with the same virus: Berserker Virus, Paradox Program, Flesh-and-Mechanical Infection, and Sensory Signal Infiltration."

Xia Xiu's eyes narrowed slightly after hearing this. These four viruses correspond to the four monarchs of chaos—Blood God, Xin Liezhi, Compassionate Father, and Sha Lishi.

These four troublemakers really know how to find a way to make a fuss, even in a world that's already abstract enough, they still manage to create some fun and drama.