Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 476: Chapter 412: Zhuge Zhijie

The next second, Yang Xiao woke in a panic from the nightmare, his whole body drenched in cold sweat. He sat up, gasping for air, feeling an oppressive dread within him.

A dream.

Another dream...

With his eyes closed, Zhuge Zhi Jie’s tragic image flooded his mind—it was a dream so vivid it hardly seemed like a dream at all.

Assaulted by the nightmare, he had experienced something similar before, which reminded him of his very first mission—the Fenmen Ghost Play. After that he had a weird dream about six blood coffins; and the very next day, an incident occurred, and Kuang Hongyi and five others all died in a supernatural event.

This time, he dreamed of Zhuge Zhi Jie lying in a coffin, still wearing black rain boots—a sign that was far from auspicious.

The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more worried he became. He had been so busy lately that he neglected the fact that Zhuge Zhi Jie was about to enter the Nightmare World. As the team leader, it was truly inexcusable.

Getting out of bed, he grabbed his phone and found Zhuge Zhi Jie’s chat window. He quickly typed out a message and was about to send it when, just before his finger could hit the send button, he abruptly stopped, a strong sense of imminent danger overwhelming him completely.

Yang Xiao shuddered violently. It dawned on him that he had done something similar on the night Kuang Hongyi met with misfortune—he had also sent a message to him.

A terrifying suspicion emerged: what if these strange dreams were a contagious curse, and what he saw in the dream wasn’t a prophecy at all? Only after making contact with the person in the dream would the calamity occur?

The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more horrified he felt. He quickly deleted the typed message and closed the chat window. He even felt a sudden urge to delete Zhuge Zhi Jie as a contact.

Beibei and Da Xiong had gone with Zhuge Zhi Jie. For safety’s sake, Yang Xiao didn’t attempt to contact either of them.

He took a can of ice-cold Coke from the fridge, sat on a chair, and sipped it slowly, trying to calm himself down. Logically speaking, the danger Zhuge Zhi Jie faced this time wasn’t supposed to be significant. He had a detailed guide, and as Yang Xiao cooled down, he also noticed an illogical detail in his dream—the black rain boots. If the guide clearly stated that ghosts would kill those wearing black rain boots, how could Zhuge Zhi Jie possibly wear them?

Yang Xiao could only console himself that dreams often are the opposite of reality. He suspected that the nightmare could potentially turn real if he got involved.

After such an event, he couldn’t muster any more sleep and struggled to wait until morning. After a quick wash, he arrived early at the Patrol Defense Office. But just as he stepped out of the elevator and before he could swipe his card, he saw the door of the nearby office slightly ajar—unusual for someone to be so diligent at this hour.

Yang Xiao instantly became vigilant. Approaching, he pushed the door open forcefully to find a figure sitting at Zhuge Zhi Jie’s desk.

"Da Xiong?" Yang Xiao was taken aback.

As Da Xiong slowly raised his head, Yang Xiao’s heart sank. His hair was a disheveled mess, his eyes red and swollen, and his gaze filled with despair as he looked up at Yang Xiao.

The ominous premonition finally became a reality. Yang Xiao immediately realized something was wrong, but a part of him still clung to a sliver of hope. "Da Xiong, why are you alone? Where are Beibei... Beibei and Zhi Jie?"

Those words seemed to trigger something in Da Xiong. The burly and reliable man burst into tears, "Zhi Jie... Zhi Jie didn’t come back. Beibei and I waited two days, but he never returned."

His mind buzzed. Although he had guessed as much, hearing it from Da Xiong shattered the last bit of hope in Yang Xiao’s heart. As someone who had been on many missions, he knew all too well what this meant.

Zhuge Zhi Jie was dead, killed on a mission.

The nightmare... had come true.

Yang Xiao didn’t know what to say. Perhaps the prophetic dream from the night before lessened the shock, or perhaps the frequent exposure to life and death had numbed him. So many lives had drifted away before his eyes that at this moment, he felt scarcely any grief, just an unreal sense of detachment. freewebnøvel.coɱ

Without sorrow, without tears, Yang Xiao found a chair and sat down, staring blankly, as if not yet accepting the reality. The atmosphere grew oppressively quiet, punctuated only by Da Xiong’s intermittent sobs.

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Soon, Ms. Wen and Huang Qiang arrived. Only after hearing someone softly call his name did Yang Xiao slowly turn around. The two took Yang Xiao and Da Xiong to the meeting room, where they met Beibei and Nalan Shuo, whose face now also wore an unusually calm expression. He waved at them, gesturing for them to sit down. The ashtray in front of him was already piled with a thick layer of cigarette butts.

These weren’t all smoked by Nalan Shuo; Beibei also had a cigarette clamped in her left hand. Her once radiant eyes now seemed somewhat empty, and there was a report placed on the table as well.

"What happened to Zhi Jie is something none of us wanted to see, but this is the Nightmare World, where sentiment and reason have no place, only rules and strength," Nalan Shuo’s voice was deep and firm. "From the day we became Angel Envoys, each of us should have been aware of this. Zhi Jie has passed away; the dead cannot be brought back to life. I hope you all can shorten your period of anguish as much as possible."

Nalan Shuo calmly picked up the report from the table and put it in front of Beibei. "According to the bureau’s regulations, referencing Zhi Jie’s years of service and rank, the death gratuity for dying in the line of duty is two million. If the death occurred due to personal entry into the Nightmare World and is an accident, the compensation is one million. I have already signed it. The compensation for Zhi Jie’s case has been maximized, and his financial affairs have also been settled. Beibei, you can go ahead and handle it directly."

"Additionally, the bureau has decided that you will represent the office to offer condolences to Zhi Jie’s mother; Zhi Jie only has this one relative left. Be thoughtful when you go, and if there is anything we can help with in the old lady’s home, tell me when you get back."

After saying all this, Nalan Shuo turned around, took a wrapped square object from his briefcase, and handed it to Beibei with both hands. "Here is a hundred thousand in cash. You also convey this to Zhi Jie’s mother, saying it’s a small token from the colleagues at the bureau."

Beibei pursed her lips, stood up, and bowed deeply to Nalan Shuo. "Director, on behalf of Zhi Jie, I thank you."

"Mm, get over the grief as soon as possible. We are warriors, the most reliable persons for the thousands of citizens in this city. There is still much work to be done; Zhi Jie was not the beginning, nor will he be the end."

After giving these last instructions, Nalan Shuo left because he had to attend a meeting later. As the director of the Lin’an Patrol Bureau, he was under tremendous work pressure.

Taking the report from the table, Yang Xiao read through it page by page. These weren’t mission reports, but rather a series of complex procedures, many of which bore Nalan Shuo’s personal signature. Each thing listed there was about money. With these procedures, Zhuge Zhi Jie’s elderly mother would receive a considerable compensation, enough to last her for the rest of her life.

Gently putting down the procedures, Yang Xiao sighed. Nalan Shuo’s character was truly exceptional; instead of holding a large meeting to spout hypocritical principles after a subordinate’s death, he had ensured that compensation was implemented as quickly as possible, trying to maximize the benefits. To help Zhi Jie’s mother receive the money more quickly, he even greenlit the process. With these procedures in place, a lot of unnecessary trouble could be avoided.

The three returned to the office, where they found Ximen Xiu and Yu Shu had also heard the news and hurried over. Unexpectedly, among so many people, it was Ximen Xiu, who had quarreled with Zhuge Zhi Jie the most, who was the most heartbroken. He had fainted twice successively and had to be sent to the medical room.

Zhuge Zhi Jie was dead, and Ximen Xiu was lying in the medical room. The spacious office suddenly fell silent. Yang Xiao tried several times to say something but didn’t know how to start.

After calming her emotions, Beibei told Yang Xiao about their experiences along the way. Everything went smoothly, and they even found the site of the abandoned amusement park, which they had examined with Zhuge Zhi Jie.

"Before entering, Zhi Jie himself was very confident," Da Xiong choked with emotion. "He even laughingly said... After coming out, he was going to treat us to the local delicacies."

But now it was all useless, the person was dead, and no matter what they did, Zhi Jie could not come back to life. Taking advantage of the lunch break, Yang Xiao returned to his apartment, retrieved 500,000 in cash, put it in a briefcase, and gave it to Beibei, entrusting her to deliver it to Zhuge Zhi Jie’s mother. "I won’t go. Take this money to Zhi Jie’s family and say that he was very popular in the Patrol Defense Office and the colleagues contributed together. It’s a token of sentiment, and the old lady must accept it, please."

...

As days went by, life returned to normal after a week.

Yang Xiao often felt as though Zhuge Zhi Jie had never left and was still in the office with them. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

A large part of the reason was that Zhuge Zhi Jie’s work had been taken over, and the person who took over was Ximen Xiu.

To everyone’s surprise, the usually careless Ximen Xiu turned out to be capable of handling such a highly specialized job, and he adapted to it in a very short time.

Compared to before, Ximen Xiu seemed to have changed a lot, and Yang Xiao couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was different. He was still as carefree as ever, still occasionally cracking inappropriate jokes, but he felt completely different to Yang Xiao now.

Zhuge Zhi Jie’s seat in the office was still preserved, and everyone tacitly left his messy desk as it was, as if by doing so, Zhuge Zhi Jie wasn’t really gone and might one day return.

During this time, two major events occurred in Rongcheng. The first was the disappearance of Wu Peide, the vice president of the Apostles Union. The official statement was desertion. The second was the vindication of Fu Qingzhu, a cadre of the United Federation, with the withdrawal of the warrant for his arrest. Now, for his meritorious whistleblowing, he has taken Wu Peide’s place, becoming the youngest vice president of the Rongcheng Union in nearly twenty years. Presently, he is an esteemed figure in Rongcheng, sought after by various forces for good relationships, unmatched in prominence.

The last event is related to the Patrol Defense Office, to be more precise, the Xincheng Patrol Office. Deputy Director Qu Muzhi led a team to raid a hideout of Heretic Cultivators, singlehandedly killing five core members, including a Venerable Level Heretic Cultivator, and seizing a large number of documents.

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