My wife is the stand-in.

'This smell is like some kind of incense burning.' Amanosaki looked around solemnly.

"I used to go up the mountain to worship Buddha with my grandparents. As soon as we entered the main gate, we'd see a cauldron-shaped incense burner filled with large sticky incense sticks. The smell here is somewhat similar to that."

Icarus sniffed and analyzed for a while, then shook his head and silently replied, "The smell I detected is a mixture of chemicals and aromatic compounds."

"You analyzed it too meticulously, so you couldn't perceive the sensations within the scent," Amanosaki said.

'What I'm curious about is why there's the smell of incense from temples and monasteries underground.'

Amanosaki soon found out the answer.

Icarus easily sliced ​​through the thumb-thick metal grille, and the two stepped over the massive, stopped exhaust fan, peeking out from the shadow of the blades, where they witnessed a horrifying sight they would never forget.

Skeletons.

The bottom of the vertical shaft was filled with countless skeletons. There was no place to step on the dry bottom of the shaft. In a huge altar-like platform made of bones, there was a full container of incense ash, with ten tall incense sticks firmly inserted in the ash.

On the walls of the shaft, there were twisted and crooked characters drawn in blood, densely packed all over the entire wall.

The writing and symbols have turned a dark color due to the passage of time, with a few places showing a deep red hue, indicating that this place has been carefully maintained by someone.

A spiral staircase made of steel pipes and metal mesh connects the top and bottom of the shaft.

Amanosaki has excellent eyesight and can see through the crooked smoke to a bag about the length of a person on the metal spiral staircase, with specks of blood seeping out, clearly containing a corpse.

The entire shaft was silent, completely different from the bustling scene of death and life intertwined next door. It exuded a deathly stillness and eeriness. The ten sticks of incense burning quietly looked like ten huge, evil red eyes staring at the passersby who had strayed into the darkness.

A silent fear descended upon the witness; primal dread climbed up his spine, gripping Amanosaki's heart and brain, causing his heart to pound and his adrenaline to surge.

There are thousands, tens of thousands of corpses piled up here?

Amanosaki is unsure.

He had thought the shaft where the four-clawed fish lived was the epitome of disgust, but now he realized he was wrong.

This is the true hell.

"I thought the gigolo would arrive first, but I didn't expect you to get here even faster."

A rough sound echoed from the bottom of the shaft, crashing against the shaft walls and creating bizarre echoes.

Within the vertically rising column of smoke, a distorted, swirling indigo shadow coalesced into a gigantic humanoid shape, its empty, eyeless face grinning as it raised its head.

"You're that old man Amber's apprentice, right? Could you perform a minor surgery to erase my memories? Don't worry, it's just a very small procedure."

The illusory, enormous humanoid figure raised its hand, and amidst the swirling smoke, a hand the size of a truck cab clenched, indicating 'small'.

"Otherwise, I'll have to kill you." As he spoke, he rubbed his fingers together as if he were crushing an ant.

A series of beams of light shone from the top of the shaft. A group of heavily armed soldiers stared in horror at what they saw before them. The leader, a burly man in a knight-errant uniform, looked down at the mountain of death before him with a dark expression, and squeezed out a sentence through clenched teeth:

"You old bastard, I'll kill you."

After saying that, the man leaped into the air, his hands transforming into bird feathers as he flapped them as he swooped down!

"Open fire! Assist Li Junzi, the chivalrous knight!"

The officer roared and pulled the trigger first, firing at the illusory humanoid figure!

Chapter 91: Taste My Eight Thousand Guns

The chivalrous figure who descended from the sky was none other than Li Junzi.

After the negotiations broke down, he called Lin Shuyu.

Li Junzi knew he was never good at interpersonal relationships and negotiation, so he chose to seek outside help.

After quickly learning the whole story, Lin Shuyu, who was still floating on the river, immediately called her great-uncle without saying a word. Then, worried about Amanosaki who had already gone down the well, she called her grandfather for help.

Upon hearing that his beloved granddaughter had been bullied and almost had her credit stolen, the old patriarch of the Lin family flew into a rage and began to use his family's connections.

Meanwhile, Amber learned from Lin Zhonghe about Amanosaki's disturbance at the Fengdu branch and quickly joined forces with other branch captains on the ship to put pressure on the Fengdu government.

This led to the scene where the army forced Li Junzi down into the Wujian underground sewer.

It's true that Amanosaki and Icarus blasted through the sewers to get in first, but since they weren't officially recognized and occasionally got lost, they weren't as fast as Li Junzi. That's why the two groups arrived here one after the other.

Li Junzi was a virtuous man who had received proper training as a chivalrous knight. Upon recognizing that the corpses in the shaft were all human bones, he flew into a rage and rushed out without thinking, ready to fight the unknown man to the death.

While the army was also providing support, the officers quickly calmed down after their initial rage.

In addition to ordering the firing, he also instructed everyone to turn on their portable recording devices.

These items were originally law enforcement recorders, which the government specifically requested they install to prevent a lack of evidence in case of future disputes with the Fengdu branch.

However, neither the military officers nor the government officials expected that the Fengdu branch would be so ruthless.

"This is no ordinary crime!" the officer roared as he fired, recording his intentions on the scene. "Such a large-scale killing spree, and the law enforcement agencies in the province have not heard a thing. This is simply evil!"

"I have reason to suspect that the Fengdu branch is currently involved in serious and disgusting crimes such as massacres, large-scale torture, and human trafficking!"

"Requesting military support!"

The human figure in the column of smoke waved an illusory hand. Li Junzi barely dodged it, but was blown off balance by the force of the palm strike. Then he was slapped by another hand and fell like a fly among the skeletons.

"It's useless!" the android scoffed, watching the officer operating the device. "Electromagnetic interference has been installed all over the place, so no radio communications can be transmitted."

The officer was enraged. He took off his headset, pointed at the humanoid figure, and began to hurl insults:

"And you're supposed to be on duty in Fengdu this year! Is this how you protect your people? You call yourself a hero? You're a piece of shit!"

Amanosaki exclaimed "Whoa!" and stared in shock at the tall humanoid figure along with Li Junzi Icarus.

Not only them, but even the soldiers in the well looked at the so-called guard with extreme surprise.

"Captain, you mean that dark-skinned guy down there, covered in soot, is on guard duty?!" someone asked incredulously. "But isn't he... fair-skinned and tall? How did he get in here?"

The officer, his face ashen, loudly recounted Liu Nu's achievements in a mocking tone:

"This year, Liu Nu, the commander of the Fengdu branch, is known as the Ghost King and possesses the supernatural ability of the Ten Kings of Hell. He can create clones wherever there is a memorial tablet dedicated to him, and can even appear a hundred miles away."

"In his superpowered state, he is completely black, transforming into a short, stout, and sinister Yama. The more memorial tablets he has, the stronger he becomes. During the earthquake twenty years ago, he used his superpower to appear in front of several buildings that were about to collapse, using his superpower to support the buildings and save hundreds of lives, thus gaining fame."

"I never expected you to be this kind of person."

Li Junzi grew increasingly enraged. He grabbed the human skull beneath him and slammed it against the altar, cursing, "Bah! This man is a hypocrite! We have nothing to talk about with this heretic! Grab your weapons and blow up his memorial tablet! Let him eat his ass!"

After saying that, he forcibly straightened his broken bones, gritted his teeth and used his superpower to correct and reconnect them. His chest swelled up and he opened his mouth to spit out scalding acid!

The soldiers at the top disregarded the danger and threw out grenades. Some retreated from the well and began installing grenade launchers on their guns.

These weapons, originally intended for the four-clawed scaled fish, are now being used against the guards at the Fengdu branch.

Liu Nu didn't even look at the attacks from above and below. He simply clapped his hands together, and a gust of wind and the noise of explosion burst forth from his palms. The grenade above his head was blown off course and exploded against the well wall, blasting out several streams of cement dust. The acid that Li Junzi spat out below was also blown off course by the wind and fell to the ground, dissolving large holes among the piles of white bones.

"You know nothing!"

As Liu raged and cursed, he made a stepping motion, and the giant Wupeng shrank, revealing a short, stout man dressed in brocade robes, tattooed with fierce demons and rakshasas, and wearing a crown on his head, who appeared on the altar.

He reached out and grabbed ten huge incense sticks, which quickly ignited. The strong fragrance and smoke surrounded him, transforming into various evil spirits around him, some with long tongues dragging on the ground, some holding mourning sticks, and others with grotesque heads and horns.

"The Fengdu branch was established to experiment with how human imagination shapes superpowers! This place is widely known as a ghost town! The underworld!"

"What kind of ghost town is it if there are no dead people! What kind of underworld is it if there is no Yama's Palace?"

"It's all for the experiment!"

Li Junzi and the officer roared in unison, "Is this your reason for killing people?"

The demons surrounding Liu Nu raised the human skulls they held, facing the beams of their tactical flashlights with composure:

"Look closely! These skulls all look exactly the same. The Fengdu branch never kidnaps anyone; these are all clones!"

"Can a laboratory product that lacks even self-awareness be called a human being?"

The chivalrous man named Liu Nu said this, stepping on piles of bones, his eyes full of confidence.

He firmly believed that the corpses at his feet were not human, but a group of humanoid livestock, and that this did not constitute murder.

At worst, his own morality will be corrupted, and people will think he is doing evil and committing a crime.

But what is this compared to exploring the great truths of chivalry, the origins and essence of superpowers, and driving human progress?

It's just a necessary evil.

Having taken a direct hit from a branch-level master, Li Junzi coughed up blood and looked at Liu Nu with a stern gaze:

"There is a saying in 'The Morality of Chivalrous Men, Part Two': 'Chivalrous men break the law with martial arts because many ancient chivalrous men acted as if they were doing good, and evil, according to their own whims. They often acted recklessly and as they pleased. They used petty righteousness to obscure greater righteousness, and thus, some great heroes went astray and fell into heresy.'"

"Before I left, Amber Master warned me that so many people in the country have supernatural abilities, but only one-tenth of them are chivalrous heroes. This is because some people's thoughts are dangerous, and they could be led astray by radical actions at any time. I originally thought my teacher was warning me to think things through and stay calm. Hehe."

He said hoarsely, "So you're talking about a 'hero' like you who 'serves the country and the people'! If it weren't for this incident, we would still be completely in the dark."

"well said!"

A familiar sound rang out from the middle of the well wall, the sound of soldiers' guns. The fierce ghosts around Liu Nu looked warily in that direction, while Li Junzi, who was trapped in the skeleton, was overjoyed.

A tall figure appeared in the beam of a tactical flashlight, like a protagonist stepping onto a stage to receive the spotlight.

Amanosaki was encased in crystalline armor, with proliferating crystals crawling all over his body like living creatures. A pair of holy wings protected him, draped over the young man's shoulders like a cloak.

The angels beneath the halo lowered their eyes, gazing upon the blessed warrior with loving eyes.

"Whether it is just or not is a matter between the courts and the people. Our mission as knights is to send these people with superpowers to court."

"Little Li... no, Old Li! You're right, you're absolutely right!"

"You..." Liu Nu was about to say something, but Amanosaki raised his hand to interrupt him.

Icarus spread its wings, revealing the jet-black cannon barrel beneath its holy exterior.

Individual weapons blessed by the angels of war.

RPG.

"You think you're the King of Hell? Try the eight thousand-shot cannon I brought you!"

Chapter 92: The Sky Queen's Wrath

Anger swelled in his chest.

Icarus, under the wings, was also filled with rage.

Every day she inherits a new identity, not only in terms of abilities, but also in terms of the large amount of information and memories carried by that identity. These things are mixed together to form the "personality" and cognitive style of that identity.