I said you are all war criminals

Xiangzi doesn't want Hongxia to be involved in danger.

...Why did Hakuno agree to let Hongxia join Wildfire?

To be honest, Xiangzi still couldn't figure it out. She had submitted the document simply because she didn't want to be the bad guy... Maybe she should have just rejected Hongxia back then.

"Ordinary people...ah."

Hong Xia glanced at Xiangzi with a subtle expression, then shook her head. "Well, now that Bai Ye has asked me to join Wildfire, there must be something I can do, right? Are you going to assign the task to me directly, or..."

"How about this,"

Xiangzi's fingers tapped lightly on the table, making a crisp sound that seemed to tap on Hongxia's heart. "The Logistics Department is short of staff recently. You can start there first. Organizing materials, arranging meetings, etc. It's safer."

Hongxia raised an eyebrow and looked at Xiangzi with a half-smile, "Are you treating me like a vase?"

Xiangzi sighed helplessly, "Hongxia, you know what the situation is now. Wildfire is not a place to play house. Although logistics is not directly involved in the operation, it is also an important component. Besides..."

Xiangzi paused and spoke more slowly, "You just joined and don't know us well enough yet. It's better to start with the basics."

"Understand? Don't I know Hakuno well enough?"

Hong Xia asked back in a low voice, with a barely perceptible bitterness in her tone.

Xiangzi's eyes flickered and he avoided Hongxia's gaze.

"That's different. The current Hakuno..."

She wanted to say, "He's not the Hakuno you knew," but she swallowed the words back and said something else, "He has changed."

Hong Xia didn't respond, but just quietly stirred the coffee in front of her. The spoon at the bottom of the cup collided with the porcelain cup, making a slight tinkling sound, as if mocking her wishful thinking.

"Then I can always meet Hakuno...as a friend."

"There will be a chance."

Xiangzi stood up and paid the shop owner.

After turning back, Xiangzi continued to ask, "In short, do you want to join or not?"

"All right,"

Hong Xia put down the spoon in her hand. The metal and porcelain collided with each other, making a crisp sound, like a signal of some kind of compromise. "Logistics is logistics."

"Then let's go together."

Xiangzi came here by car.

Now, Xiangzi drove Hongxia all the way to Yehuo's safe house... This safe house was in the suburbs. Although it was not small, there was no one inside.

“This is an independent office,”

Xiangzi turned on the lights in the safe house and brought Hongxia into the office. "The information will be transmitted. You can send it back after you finish it. The line uses a private satellite and cannot be tracked."

"What about food and water? Do I have to go out and buy them myself?"

Hong Xia asked.

"There's a month's supply of dry food and water in the room, and they'll be delivered later."

Then, as if being chased by something, Xiangzi said, "I have something else to do. I'm leaving now."

After Xiangzi left, Hongxia was left alone in the vast safe house. She looked around. This so-called "office" was shockingly spartan: a metal desk, a stiff chair, an old computer, and a locked filing cabinet comprised the entirety of the furniture. The walls were stained, and cobwebs even formed in the corners. A faint musty smell hung in the air, suggesting it had been vacant for an indefinite period.

Hong Xia pulled the creaky chair over, sat down, and turned on her computer. The screen flickered a few times, and a login screen popped up, requiring a password. Hong Xia chuckled softly, pulled a thin data cable from the opening on her wrist, and deftly plugged it into the computer's USB port.

Xiangzi was naive to think that using a private satellite would guarantee complete safety. In Hongxia's eyes, the so-called "private satellite" was just a local area network. As long as they found the physical access port, they could investigate directly.

However, Hongxia did not intend to look for any confidential information about Yehuo. She was only looking for one thing, and that was Bai Ye's whereabouts.

The results quickly emerged. Bai Ye's current safe house, codenamed X-23, was heavily guarded, presumably housing all the Wildfire's top brass. However, Hong Xia was confident she could sneak in quietly and confront Bai Ye face to face. Wildfire was essentially an organization dependent on Bai Ye's control. As long as Bai Ye's situation was resolved, everything else would fall into place.

Just when Hongxia was about to disconnect, a text message came from the intranet, which made her slightly startled.

"Hongxia, I know it's you. Come find me at X-23 and let's talk. Just you and me."

...It's Hakuno.

He took the initiative to send a text message and invited Hongxia to meet him.

69

Chapter 69: Quarrel.

When Hong Xia pushed the door open, the first thing she saw was a portrait.

The portrait depicts a woman with an extraordinary temperament, elegantly dressed in a dress, matching the Western-style building.

If Hongxia hadn't known the person in the portrait, she would have almost mistaken her for a witch.

"A portrait of a lamp... No, this doesn't look like a lamp at all."

Hong Xia couldn't help but say this.

In Hongxia's impression, Takamatsu Deng is a girl who is like a small animal. Even though she is an adult and has been in love with Shirano for a long time, Deng is still like a pure girl, which makes people feel pity and love.

The woman in this portrait looks like the lamp, but her temperament is completely different.

Yes, witch.

This can only be used to describe it.

"...A witch?"

Hong Xia muttered to herself.

Deng is a half-demon, and if we look at it from this perspective, then the fully awakened Takamatsu Deng might also be considered a witch. And considering that Deng's demon blood comes from the phoenix, the most well-known property of the phoenix is "resurrection."

The resurrected witch.

...No, if it were Hakuno, that's what he would say.

"The witch who returned to the spirit world."

Hong Xia stood in front of the portrait, lowered her eyes and read the golden inscription under the portrait.

"My favorite witch, Lampada Pino... Is it Pino because it's a pine tree, or Lampada because it's a lamp? What a terrible way to name it. After all, Takamatsu doesn't mean pine tree, it's a place name..."

Hongxia smiled helplessly.

Bai Ye's level of knowledge always makes Hong Xia laugh.

This is a completely terrible name.

However, just looking at this way of transcribing Japanese into Italian, one can feel a certain obsession.

Hakuno's obsession with the lamp is probably just that deep.

Hongxia walked past the portrait and continued deeper into the room. The first thing she saw was a glass case filled with a variety of stones. Takamatsu Touma's greatest hobby was collecting stones. Hakuno once joked that for wedding rings, they should choose precious stones instead of diamonds... Hongxia shook off the memory and gazed at the stones one by one.

These stones are not precious, but they are cherished by people.

They are not worth much, but if you consider the thought and care that has been put into them... I'm afraid no one can simply despise them.

Passing the stone display case, Hong Xia nearly bumped into a wall—a wall of books. A massive oak bookshelf filled nearly the entire wall, filled with a wide variety of books, from thick hardcover tomes to slim pamphlets. Hong Xia casually pulled out a book. The brown leather cover was already a bit mottled, and it felt heavy with history. Opening it, she saw dense Latin text and strange symbols, accompanied by yellowed illustrations. It was an ancient tome on alchemy. The pages were curled at the edges, as if they had been read countless times until they were torn apart.

"Alchemy? He really does learn everything..."

Hongxia put the book back where it belonged and picked up another, this time about monster legends. The cover was torn, hastily taped together, and the words "Monster Encyclopedia" were scrawled across it. Flipping open the pages, she saw densely marked text in Bai Ye's flamboyant handwriting, as if interpreting and supplementing the text.

Hongxia flipped through the pages, her brow furrowing ever deeper. The book cataloged a wide variety of monsters, from common kappa and tengu to unheard-of bizarre creatures. Each monster's habits, abilities, and weaknesses were meticulously documented. Under certain specific monster legends, Hakuno circled the key points in red. It was a practically demon-hunting manual; even a layman could pass himself off as an onmyoji.

In this manual, chapters about Phoenix Nirvana, Soul Reincarnation, Witches, etc. are highlighted, and next to them are Bai Ye's speculations and calculation formulas. The complex symbols and numbers make Hong Xia dizzy. After all, she doesn't understand mysticism at all, only science.

In short, Hongxia only understood the final conclusion.

When humans become witches, they can be freed from life and death.

"He...couldn't he be thinking..."

A terrifying thought flashed through Hong Xia's mind. She quickly flipped through the remaining books. From ancient magic to modern science, from mysticism to biology, almost every book related to "resurrection" had been read by Bai Ye, and all of them bore traces of his research.

A horrifying conclusion gradually formed in Hongxia's mind: Bai Ye wanted to revive Deng.

Hongxia felt a chill, as if she was in an ice cellar.

The dead cannot be resurrected; this is the most basic law. Hong Xia has repeated three different lives, but she has never seen anyone come back to life. Even she herself has only "received fragments of future memories," not been resurrected.

Resurrection is impossible.

But... Hakuno wanted to do the impossible.

"You can't do it, Hakuno, you can't do it..."

Unconsciously, Hong Xia's voice leaked out of her throat.

And Bai Ye's voice sounded behind her.

"Why can't it be done?"

Hongxia subconsciously turned around and saw Bai Ye, who was completely different from what she had imagined.

Bai Ye stood behind her, the afterglow of the setting sun filtering through the gaps between the bookshelves, casting a golden hue on his features. He was no longer his usual cynical self. The frivolous smile in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a deep, almost suffocating determination. The fine lines around his eyes seemed to have smoothed out, and his whole person exuded the charm of a mature man, like... like a battle-hardened captain preparing for a crucial battle.

"Why can't it be done?"

Hakuno asked again.

Hong Xia looked directly into Bai Ye's eyes and said word by word, "When a person dies, the light goes out. This is the truth of nature."

At least in Hongxia's opinion, it is impossible for a dead person to be resurrected. It is absolutely impossible.

otherwise.

cold.

Kita.

sister.

...What about those people who were killed by Hong Xia?

"Conquering nature is human instinct."

Bai Ye talked freely.

"Humans tamed wolves, turning them into dogs. They tamed the sea, allowing free trade on its surface; they tamed the starry sky, building hotels on the moon... Thousands of years ago, these were all nonsense, impossible for humans to achieve. But now, people can do it, and they can make nature submit."

Hakuno didn't even take a breath, but continued to speak with high spirits, "The philosophy of nature? The theorem that cannot be distorted? Death is just an unsolved disease. One day, people will live for thousands of years, thousands of years of glory, and one day, mankind will overcome death!"

Bai Ye said with high spirits.

It was obvious that he believed what he said and really believed it.

Hong Xia was silent for a long time before asking her question.

"So, what is this organization? Wildfire, it's an organization that protects half-demons, isn't it?"

“…Ahh, that’s right.”

Hakuno's slightly excited expression faded a bit, and his voice softened. "After Deng is resurrected, she'll need a society that accepts her, right? A different kind of society than the current one, one that accepts the existence of half-demons, a gentle society."

"This world is too cruel for half-demons. The current apparent peace is merely built on the blood and tears of countless half-demons... Governments around the world are secretly studying half-demons, studying their powers, their extraordinary healing abilities, and more..."

He paused, his tone filled with disgust, "Delicious flesh...it's really disgusting, isn't it?"

"Deng...she's also a half-demon."

Hakuno's voice trembled. "What would happen if she were resurrected in this world? Would she be used as a tool like the other half-demons? Would she experience pain and despair again? I...I can't let her suffer anymore!"

He walked up to Hongxia and held her shoulders tightly. "Hongxia, do you understand? I must change this world! For Deng, and for all half-demons like her!"

Hongxia avoided Bai Ye's scorching gaze.

"There should be other better ways—"

"A half-demon cannot survive under human desires! It is I, Hakuno, who must punish those humans consumed by desire!"

Bai Ye unconsciously grabbed Hong Xia's collar and lifted her up. Even though Hong Xia had grown taller after adulthood, she was still not as tall as Bai Ye.

However, Hongxia subconsciously stretched out her hand and pressed it on Baiye's chest.

"Human wisdom can solve all of this!"

Hongxia used all her strength to push Baiye away. The power released from her slender arms was unexpectedly strong. Baiye stumbled back, but as he fell, he grabbed Hongxia's collar.

The two rolled on the ground for a few times. With a loud "bang" and the sound of books scattering, the bookshelf behind Bai Ye also fell down, and all kinds of books poured down like a waterfall.