"You are..."
"That's right, I'm actually Huan Hefa, and Dang Fengyu is my subordinate. At a moment of crisis, we switched identities and clothes. Since we look very similar, and I can imitate his voice, no one could tell the difference. We almost fooled you, but I didn't expect you to catch up to me!"
"Bastard! So you had this trick up your sleeve!"
"It's useless to say that now. We're about to drown. Soon this cage will be filled with seawater, and we won't be able to get out. Our only end will be suffocation and death."
"I won't become your sacrifice!"
"Heh, even if your men catch up, it's useless. Do you know how thick this cage is?"
"I don't need to know!" My feet suddenly flipped up, wrapping around Huan Hefa's neck. He grabbed my calves with his hands: "Detective He, hahaha! You still dare to struggle!!"
"I won't give up! Not any People's Police officer would let you go!"
"Fine! Then let's have a fair fight! According to the rising water level, we have 20 minutes."
As Huan Hefa spoke, I already felt water at my feet. Even if this cage was perfectly sealed, water would still seep in. Twenty minutes remained.
Now I could only use my feet instead of my hands, constantly twisting around Huan Hefa's body. He could always grab my calves, but my leg strength was different from before. I was no longer the He Sheng of the past!
"How interesting! He Sheng, continue, I'm so excited! The Blood King's aura is seeping into my nerves, my blood is surging, and the world is entering its final abyss. Today is January 12, 2023, the Dead Tide has arrived!! I have a premonition, we won't be the only ones dying!"
At this moment, I noticed Huan Hefa's body slowly turning blood red, as if the blood vessels within him were expanding and bulging. He yanked me up forcefully and then grabbed my legs, smashing me against the sides of the cage. With each impact, the cage shook violently in the deep sea, and even more seawater rushed in!
The water was initially only at my feet, but now it had reached our knees!
The "Blood King's" countless blood had seeped into the seawater, dyeing the entire cage red. I struggled desperately in the bloody water. Finally, my legs were bound by Huan Hefa. His strength was incredible; he had taken the ropes I had used to bind him and tied my legs!
I was now completely unable to resist, my limbs restrained. Huan Hefa grabbed my hair and repeatedly smashed me into the bloody water!
My head grew increasingly dizzy, and my senses seemed to be battered. Blood rushed into my mouth and nose. "Detective He, isn't this interesting? The Blood King is now cleansing your sins! You will become one with the blood. Do you know who Dang Fengyu is? He's my nephew, and you forced him to his death! But Officer Zhao is accompanying him in death, ahahaha, serves you right!!"
"You scum, even if I die, I'll ensure you're apprehended! My people will find this place!"
"Hahaha, even if they find it, they'll probably only see our corpses. Besides, this cage will drift wherever it pleases, I don't know! No! I know, it's the Eternal City, the Blood King's homeland. We will reach the Eternal City! Ahahahahaha! Akakakaka!!!"
"What is the Eternal City?"
"It's my homeland!"
"Does it truly exist?"
"Of course. Without the Eternal City, there is no Blood King, and without the Blood King, the North Star will..."
"You hold a high position in the organization?"
"I am the chief of the middle-level lords, His Majesty the noble Blood King. I possess the supreme bloodline and great power!"
"Madman! You are all madmen!! These are just casualties of your failed experiments. Your body is being corroded by some unknown drug. Is this what you call great power!"
"You're talking nonsense! You know nothing, you damn police! You're always preventing us from saving the world!"
"You call this saving the world?"
"Isn't it? What we do, only we, the North Star, can save this world, because only we possess such abilities. Abilities, you can't just do this if you want to. Otherwise, everyone in this world could become a great person, a saint. But every one of us in the North Star is a saint!!"
"Saints... Do you know what a saint truly is?"
"How could I not know? Like Confucius, Duke Herbert the Third, Solomon, Jesus, or, Mencius, Lao Tzu, Guiguzi... Oh yes, we have a Guiguzi in our organization too, though that's not for you to know. Only saints like us can save the common people. The world is collapsing, and it needs to be reshaped by the divine power of saints."
"You believe in so many? Eastern and Western fusion?"
"No, we have many different people within our organization, from different countries, different civilizations, different customs. So our interests and beliefs vary. But the Holy Lord has embraced us, making us a unified whole. He said that one day the world will be illuminated by the North Star. On that day, the intersection of Heavenly Water and Heavenly Stone will become the North Star, located five times the distance of the two stars at the tip of the Big Dipper. Starting from the intersection of the two stars of Cassiopeia, extending five times the line connecting to the central star..."
The intersection of Heavenly Water and Heavenly Stone becomes the North Star!!
A deafening roar echoed in my head, as if I had instantly grasped a crucial clue. Could this be a hint to unlocking the ultimate mystery of the North Star?
Although I didn't understand its meaning at the time, I had actually memorized it.
"Is your Holy Lord your ultimate leader?"
"Hahaha, they are actually a unified entity. In fact, none of us have ever seen the true leader. He is very mysterious. The person who appears before us is usually the Deputy Leader. Our ultimate leader is the Alliance Leader, the founder of the North Star World Criminal Organization. In the industry, we all call him the 'Progenitor of Crime.' Legend has it that he has survived from the Xia Dynasty to the present. He appeared as early as the time of Huaxia civilization, the Xuanyuan Kingdom. At that time, the entire world was frantically pursuing him, but no one could find any trace of him."