Deus Ex Machina: Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Eight years ago.

Yang Jin hid in the bushes, his gaze fixed on a pitch-black cave on the distant mountainside. In this desolate place, such caves were common. However, this one was extraordinary because someone was inside.

A group of people from Sanctum, led by a man named Knight, had clashed directly with Qianfan just days prior. The confrontation was brutal, with heavy casualties. Knight had taken an innocent civilian hostage in an attempt to escape and was being closely pursued by Yang Jin’s team. Forced into this mountainous area, Knight and his group had no choice but to retreat into the cave to hide.

Yang Jin maintained a watch outside. Their reconnaissance covered the entire region, ensuring that unless reinforcements arrived for Sanctum, those trapped inside would inevitably perish.

The priority was to rescue the hostage. Under Yang Jin’s authorization, Zhan Feng attempted to negotiate with Knight, offering to exchange himself for the hostage. Knight refused, and the negotiations broke down.

“Knight is utterly unyielding,” Zhan Feng said. “He’s a major problem.”

Yang Jin pondered briefly and replied, “Wan Hong, Guan Jincheng, and Pony all agree that Knight must be eliminated at any cost. He stole crucial intelligence from Qianfan. Letting him return to Sanctum would be the greatest threat.”

“What about the hostage?” Zhan Feng asked.

“No choice,” Yang Jin replied. “We have to act, and we must do so before Sanctuary reinforcements arrive. Otherwise, even we won’t stand a chance.”

Zhan Feng said, “Pony reported that our reinforcements will arrive in three minutes. Maybe—”

A rumbling sound echoed from outside. Yang Jin interrupted, “Not good. Sanctuary reinforcements are here. We can’t wait three minutes. We have to act now.”

Zhan Feng hesitated but ultimately followed Yang Jin’s orders. He charged forward while Yang Jin provided cover fire from behind. Overhead, fighter jets unleashed merciless strafing fire on the ground. Zhan Feng called out, “Cover me with that—” His words were cut short as a deafening explosion erupted in the sky. One of the fighter jets billowed thick black smoke and plummeted. The other had no choice but to retreat from Yang Jin’s line of fire, giving Zhan Feng a brief moment to catch his breath.

By then, Qianfan’s reinforcements had arrived, setting the stage for an intense battle.

Perhaps the destruction of the fighter jet shattered Knight’s fleeting hope. He and his men charged out, using the hostage as a human shield. The hostage, an ordinary civilian, was terrified beyond measure. As soon as he stepped out of the cave and saw Qianfan’s forces, he burst into tears, begging them not to kill him and to save him instead.

“If you want him dead, go ahead and get a little closer,” Knight sneered, using the hostage’s body as a shield to protect himself. “If you don’t want to make tomorrow’s headlines as public enemies, you’ll do as I say. Pull back all your snipers and retreat one kilometer!” He fired a shot into the air, causing the hostage to cry uncontrollably. His legs buckled, and his body sagged toward the ground.

Worried about exposing himself, Knight forcefully hoisted the hostage upright and shot him in the leg.

The hostage screamed in agony. Knight said coldly, “Scream again, and the next bullet might not be here.”

Pony, commanding the battlefield, issued the order for all forces to retreat.

“Let me exchange myself for him,” Zhan Feng said loudly, facing the members of Sanctum. “He’s just an ordinary person. Anything could go wrong during your escape, and he might even slow you down.”

Knight replied, “He would slow us down, but you would kill us.”

Zhan Feng said, “I give you my word. Let me exchange myself for him, and I’ll ensure your safe departure.”

“There’s no such thing as trustworthiness from Qianfan in my book,” Knight sneered, pointing his gun at the hostage’s head. “If you keep talking nonsense, I’m afraid Qianfan will make tomorrow’s headlines for trampling on innocent lives.”

Zhan Feng responded, “Exactly. No matter what, I have to exchange myself for him. If I let you take him, I won’t have an easy time tomorrow either. What’s the matter? Is the famous Knight afraid of a nobody like me?”

Knight laughed. “Kid, you’re not going to provoke me.”

“Then how about this?” Zhan Feng took a sharp knife out of his pocket and slashed it across his right wrist. Blood flowed down his palm, but his expression didn’t waver. “I’m now completely incapable of attacking. Satisfied?”

Knight couldn’t help but comment, “You’ve got guts and resolve. Someone like you shouldn’t be wasted in Qianfan. Come with me to Sanctum, and I’ll release this man.”

Zhan Feng discarded all his weapons and shrugged. “Alright.”

Knight said, “Drop your weapons and walk over.”

Zhan Feng took a deep breath, removed all his weapons as instructed, and slowly approached Knight.

“Turn around,” Knight ordered.

Zhan Feng turned his back to Knight, now facing his teammates hidden in the surroundings, though he couldn’t see them.

Yang Jin kept his rifle trained steadily on them.

Knight was skilled at transferring hostages. He swiftly restrained Zhan Feng and shoved the hostage forward with a kick. The hostage, seeing a chance to survive, ran desperately toward Qianfan’s side. However, just as he was about to reach the safe zone, a gunshot rang out from behind. The hostage collapsed.

“You!” Zhan Feng struggled, but Knight twisted his arm behind his back. In a low voice, Knight said, “Never trust the enemy’s promises. Haven’t you learned that?”

“Then I don’t have to keep my promises either,” Zhan Feng said. “None of you are leaving here alive!”

Knight smirked mockingly. “No, no, no. Your comrades won’t abandon you. Heroes who represent justice don’t trample on their comrades’ corpses in pursuit of glory, do they?”

Under Knight’s command, a fighter jet descended to low altitude, ready to extract him. With Zhan Feng as his shield, Knight began moving toward the aircraft. They both knew that as soon as they boarded the plane, escape would be certain.

“Xiao Feng.”

A calm voice came through the micro-receiver hidden in Zhan Feng’s ear. It was Yang Jin.

“Our mission cannot fail. This concerns the lives of countless innocent people.”

Zhan Feng couldn’t respond and simply listened in silence.

“Forgive me, Xiao Feng,” Yang Jin said flatly, without a trace of emotion.

The next second, a bullet tore through the crowd, piercing Zhan Feng’s forehead and killing Knight instantly.

Zhan Feng’s eyes widened as his body slowly fell.

Amidst the fire and smoke of battle, he was unaware of anything else. His body, like a blade of grass, mingled with the corpses of enemies on the ground. The fierce battle raged on, and no one had time to consider whether the dead had found peace.

From the rear, Yang Jin fired shot after shot, systematically eliminating Sanctum’s firepower. He remained composed, showing not even a fraction of sorrow for killing his own comrade.

Joining Qianfan meant that sacrifice was the smallest of prices to pay. It didn’t matter whose hand ended your life, so long as it was a meaningful death.

To the world, every member of Qianfan seemed to radiate a sacred light. They were heroes, saviors, bound to love every life on Earth.

That’s what everyone thought, even their enemies.

But Yang Jin didn’t see it that way.

Yang Jin chose to act first simply because his thought process was more straightforward and direct. He had never been afraid of being the bad guy. Even if he survived today, he had no idea which battle might claim his life tomorrow. If he had been the one held hostage, he believed someone else would have stepped forward to make a decision.

There was no such thing as worthiness or fairness. The essence of justice was often far more brutal than evil. It carried no luminous kindness, no universal love. Justice was the restraint of a blade’s edge, where even a sliver of hesitation or mercy could lead to greater disaster and destruction.

One person or many—it was often a fleeting thought that determined the choice.

He didn’t feel particularly sorry for Zhan Feng. Deep in his heart, he had never considered himself kind. That was why he could end it all with the pull of a trigger without batting an eye.

“Yang Jin, you Qianfan people are truly heartless.” Luan Chen’s arm gradually tightened, forcing Zhan Feng to lift his neck. “After such a brutal fight, you didn’t even bother to retrieve your comrade’s body. Lucky for me, your battlefield cleanup crew overlooked that detail. Otherwise, none of this fun would have happened later.”

Yang Jin replied, “How do I know if what I’m seeing now is real or not?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Luan Chen said, grinning. “When you gamble with your life, it’s only fun if it’s real.”

“Let him go,” Yang Jin said.

“Alright.” Luan Chen actually let go, but he stepped back. The floor beneath them suddenly began to collapse rapidly.

The three of them barely had time to react. The violent shaking made it hard to stay balanced, but they quickly realized that the trembling wasn’t caused by the floor sinking. Instead, the entire floor rested on a single pivot point!

Shi Yixi and Zhan Feng stood on opposite sides, while Yang Jin remained in the center. None of them dared to move, maintaining a delicate equilibrium.

The sinking stopped.

From above, Luan Chen looked down at them. “This is an interesting mechanism I discovered when I arrived. Whoever designed it must have loved playing on seesaws. But the price of this game is steep. Think carefully about your choices. I have other matters to attend to. Farewell.”

With that, he turned and left.

The floor began sinking again.

Shi Yixi lost his balance and dropped to one knee. If Yang Jin took a step forward or backward, the balance would be lost. The swaying became increasingly severe.

Zhan Feng’s face was deathly pale. He said to Yang Jin, “You already have an answer, don’t you? You’ve never been the type to hesitate.”

Yang Jin nodded.

He took a step back toward Shi Yixi. Shi Yixi’s body slid backward, and he let out a startled cry, looking at Yang Jin nervously.

If Yang Jin took another step toward him, Shi Yixi would fall into the bottomless abyss.

He might not die, but… but he felt a strange sadness rising in him. He didn’t know where it came from, but it overwhelmed his senses in an instant.

He kept telling himself over and over again that the trouble was his own doing and that he needed to respect Yang Jin’s decision.

Yang Jin took just one step before stopping. He looked at Zhan Feng and suddenly said, “You brought us here, didn’t you?” He was questioning Zhan Feng, but his tone was almost certain, no longer as gentle as it usually was when speaking to him.

“Wha… what?”

“You’re the one who suggested we come to Chunming City and led us here to investigate,” Yang Jin said. “What was your purpose in bringing us here? Was it just to force me to make another choice?”

Zhan Feng shook his head in disbelief. “I didn’t…”

“From the very first day you returned, I’ve been wondering why you came back,” Yang Jin said. “Maybe what happened in Shacheng was an accident, but you used that accident to return to my side. You knew that if something happened again, I’d feel guilty toward you and try my best to fulfill any request you made. I’ve told you countless times that I trust you. So this time, can you be honest with me? Who are you working for, and what is your goal?”

Zhan Feng lowered his head, let out a bitter laugh, and said, “I did hesitate, but I realized that running away wouldn’t change how things unfold. Yang Jin, come with me to Sanctum. This world isn’t worth saving. You owe me a favor. This time, come with me. Please?”

“Sanctum?” Yang Jin asked. “Are you insane? Do you know how many innocent people died because of their actions in the past?”

Zhan Feng replied, “Isn’t Qianfan the same? Among all of them, is anyone absolutely just? It’s all about fulfilling their own interests. Yang Jin, the world isn’t what you think it is. Whether it’s Qianfan or the Intercontinental Alliance, they’re using the justice we claim to uphold! They… they’re the true root of all this! Hasn’t Guan Jincheng been enough to open your eyes? Sanctum isn’t as bad as you think. They… we are only fighting for freedom. No one wants to live their entire life under the same mold, following the same rules! People have the right to dream of a world beyond the stars!”

By the end, his voice was almost a shout, as though he had poured every ounce of strength into his words. He slumped down and added, “Yang Jin, if an inevitable and brutal war must come, I hope you’ll stand by my side.”

“Queen.” Yang Jin suddenly smiled. “You’re just another pawn of Checker’s.”

Zhan Feng froze.

“Xiao Feng, thank you for confirming some of my suspicions,” Yang Jin said with a sigh. “Let me tell you something as well. I’ve never actually trusted you. I only wanted to know what you were trying to do. As for what happened back then, I’ve never regretted it. And just now, if that person hadn’t stepped back, I swear I would have made the same choice again.”

Zhan Feng’s eyes widened, and even his breathing trembled.

“But this time, I’ll let you live.”

With that, Yang Jin rushed toward Shi Yixi without hesitation. Shi Yixi didn’t even have time to process what was happening before he fell into a warm embrace. Then, the weight beneath him vanished, and they plummeted rapidly.

“Don’t be afraid,” Yang Jin said softly in his ear. “I’m with you.”

“Mm.” Shi Yixi answered him calmly, without a trace of panic.

Luan Chen didn’t actually leave. His gaze was vacant as he listened to the entire conversation below. After Yang Jin made his choice, Zhan Feng was pushed back up. Luan Chen reached out to grab Zhan Feng and said with a smirk, “What do you mean by ‘letting you live’? In the end, didn’t he still give up on you? Queen, your judgment really isn’t great. How do you plan to report back to Checker this time? Who was it that swore with such confidence that they would bring Yang Jin?”

Zhan Feng’s face was as pale as paper, his fingertips trembling slightly.

“What’s wrong?” Luan Chen asked.

Zhan Feng replied, “Why did you do this? This… this isn’t what we agreed upon.”

Summoning some unknown strength, he grabbed Luan Chen by the collar and pinned him against the wall, glaring at him viciously and growling, “Why!”

“Because messing with you is just so much fun,” Luan Chen replied, chuckling as he ruffled Zhan Feng’s hair. Even as Zhan Feng held him in place, his composure didn’t waver. He seemed entirely at ease, tapping Zhan Feng’s forehead lightly with a finger. “If you can never let this go, if you can’t abandon the past, then you’ll never have the absolute conviction to fight. What we’re up against is an unprecedented challenge, a gamble where we stake everything. Yang Jin isn’t the only choice, Queen. If you want, you can become stronger than anyone.”

Zhan Feng was trembling all over. Luan Chen gently pried Zhan Feng’s fingers off his collar and said, “It’s time to go. We can’t let Bishop, that lunatic, succeed.”

With a sneer, he added, “Matters between people should be settled behind closed doors—we don’t need outsiders meddling. That is, if such an ‘outsider’ even exists.”

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