116: Chapter 116 An Unexpected Discovery

After the flames of revenge were extinguished, only cold ashes remained.

Chen Xi did not linger at the place where the "Hound" squad had been annihilated.

He simply tucked that cold, mysterious amulet into his innermost pocket.

"Biological Psionics."

A term that was completely beyond the scope of his understanding.

But it didn't matter.

At least for now, it didn't matter.

He opened the system map; on the cold mechanical interface, a name shimmering with a faint red light pulled his thoughts back to this living hell.

The next target.

Third on the list.

Wen Yuanbo, fifty-four years old, a leading authority on Dragon Kingdom's modern history.

The last known location given by the system was his private residence.

A Western-style mansion located in the west of the city.

There was also a line of small print in the intelligence notes: This building has now been requisitioned as a temporary residence by Colonel Sato Kenji of the Japanese Army's Sixth Division.

Chen Xi's face remained expressionless.

(A historian's hiding place turned out to be a Colonel's den.)

(Interesting.)

He pulled up the hood of his Chameleon Cloak, and his figure once again dissolved into the endless ruins and shadows of Nanjing.

Wen Yuanbo's mansion must have once been very grand.

Even though the outer walls were now riddled with bullet holes and the lawn in the garden had been trampled into a mess by military boots and wheels, the silhouette of that three-story building still exuded an elegance belonging to a bygone era.

Of course, that was if one ignored the glaring Rising Sun flag hanging from the main building's balcony.

The defenses around the mansion were much tighter than those on ordinary streets.

Patrols of three to five men moved back and forth, and there was even an armored car parked at the entrance.

Chen Xi quietly observed for ten minutes from the roof of a bombed-out house.

The patrol routes, the gaps during sentry shifts, the blind spots of the lights.

All the information quickly formed a dynamic 3D map in his mind.

He found an opportunity.

The moment a patrol turned away, he leapt down from the roof, landing soundlessly.

Then, like a shadow gliding against the ground, he crossed a drainage ditch shrouded in darkness and circled to the side and rear of the mansion.

There was a wall here covered in ivy.

Chen Xi exerted force with both hands and, like an ape, climbed over soundlessly.

The interior of the mansion was even more chaotic than the outside.

The air was thick with the strong smell of alcohol and the stench of spoiled food.

In the living room, several Japanese Soldiers were gathered around a table, shouting loudly while gambling.

The floor was littered with empty wine bottles and leftover bones.

On the wall, a valuable landscape painting had been slashed to ribbons by bayonets.

Chen Xi activated his optical camouflage and walked past them just a few meters away, his eyes showing not the slightest flicker of emotion.

According to the intelligence analysis from the "Great Wall" project team and the system, Professor Wen was most likely trapped in one of two places.

The wine cellar in the basement.

Or the storage room on the top floor.

Chen Xi chose the top floor.

Searching from high to low was always the safer choice.

He bypassed the noisy living room and headed toward the curved main staircase covered in red carpet.

The moment his foot stepped onto the first stair.

His nose twitched slightly.

A strange smell.

Very faint, but very distinct.

It wasn't the smell of blood that should be on this battlefield, nor was it the smell of alcohol or spoiled food from the mansion.

It was a sour, pungent smell of chemical agents.

Chen Xi's footsteps stopped.

He recognized this smell.

(Fixer... and the smell of developer.)

(Why would there be a darkroom here?)

This discovery caused a hint of vigilance and strong curiosity to rise in his heart.

He temporarily abandoned his plan to go to the top floor.

Following the scent, he began to move silently through the second-floor corridor.

The source of the smell was a washroom at the end of the hallway.

The door was tightly shut.

But from beneath the door, a trace of eerie, dark red light leaked out.

[??? What's the situation? What did Master Xi smell?]

[This red light is so creepy, is this a horror movie scene?]

[No, I've smelled that before too, it's for developing photos! Are the Japs developing photos here?]

The viewers in the Livestream room also felt that something was wrong.

Chen Xi listened quietly outside the door for a moment.

There was no sound inside.

He reached out and, with an extremely slow, almost imperceptible speed, gently pushed the door open.

The door hinge let out a slight, grating sound of friction.

The scene inside was revealed to him and all the viewers.

The washroom had been converted into a crude darkroom.

A wooden board was placed over the bathtub, with several trays filled with chemical agents on top.

The only illumination was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, wrapped in red cloth.

And in the center of the room, a wire was strung across.

On the wire, held by wooden clips, hung a dozen or so black-and-white photos that had just been developed and were still dripping with water.

Drip.

Drip.

The sound of liquid dripping was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent room.

Chen Xi walked in.

He casually picked up the one closest to him.

Because it wasn't completely dry yet, the photo was slightly curled.

In the picture were two Japanese Soldiers in uniform.

They were grinning, laughing very happily.

One of them was using a bayonet to hold up an infant still in swaddling clothes.

Chen Xi's breathing hitched for an instant.

His hands did not tremble.

He put that one down and picked up the next.

The image showed a group of Chinese prisoners of war with their hands tied behind their backs, kneeling beside a freshly dug pit.

Behind them, several Japanese Soldiers were holding their rifles, ready to fire.

One of them even turned back toward the camera and made a victory sign.

The third one.

The fourth one.

Each one was more cruel than the last.

Each one was more shameless than the last.

These photos weren't candid shots.

They were staged.

These beasts were showing off.

They were carefully recording these crimes against humanity as glorious achievements.

[Fuck! FUCK! FUCK!!!]

[Beasts! These beasts!!!]

[Kill them! Master Xi! Find all these bastards in the photos! Cut them into a thousand pieces!]

After a brief, deathly silence, the Livestream room was submerged in a volcanic eruption of towering rage.

Chen Xi ignored the bullet chat.

He just looked through them one by one with an almost numb, mechanical motion.

After looking at all the hanging photos, he found a wooden box on a nearby shelf.

He opened it.

Inside were dozens of rolls of developed negatives, carefully rolled up.

There was also a container full of film that hadn't had time to be developed yet.

This was a treasure trove of evil.

Inside Chen Xi's chest, the rage from the "Hound" trap that had just subsided began to burn once more.

But this time, the flames were black.

They were cold.

(Saving one person is saving one life.)

(But these things...)

He looked at the negatives in his hand.

(Are for preserving a memory for a nation that will never be erased.)

He carefully put all the photos, negatives, and undeveloped film into his system space.

His movements were calm, precise, and efficient, like a piece of precision machinery at work.

Just as he finished putting away the last roll of film.

From upstairs, there was a sudden, slight sound of a floorboard being stepped on.

Chen Xi's movements abruptly froze, and he looked up at the ceiling.

The storage room on the top floor.

Professor Wen Yuanbo.

A thought flashed through his mind in an instant.

(Save the person.)

(Or... protect this evidence?)

(No.)

The next second, he rejected his own thought.

(I want it all.)

He glanced at this darkroom filled with evil, turned around, and his figure once again merged into the darkness.