Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Upon seeing the situation around him, Zhang Lisheng, who was in danger, cautiously pulled open the zipper of his diagonal backpack and reached for a round faith stone.
Gripping the round stone, the Wizard Li’s god started to have a feeling that he had everything in his control. The smoke floating around him that other ordinary people could not see provided him a gloomy and dark atmosphere that dispersed in an instant without a trace.
At this time, a large group of dirty and dusty firefighters carried several corpses as they walked down the stairs to the first floor. Before they could even pant exhausting for breaths, a balding firefighter commander in his sixties who still had a sturdy and robust body walked up and asked loudly, “Han, how’s the situation on the seventh floor?”
“Everyone’s dead,” a tall figure among the firefighters who had just walked down took off his protective mask and revealed himself to be a sturdy middle-aged Caucasian, “It’s too strange, Major. It’s just too strange. The entire second, fourth, sixth, and eighth floors are collapsed; there are both dead bodies and wounded on the first floor, but everyone on the third floor is dead. There are both dead bodies and wounded on the fifth floor, but everyone on the seventh floor is dead…”
“Enough, Han. You’re a Lieutenant of the New York Fire Department, not a police officer. Your job is disaster relief, not analytical study. What’s more, what you said is a coincidence. I have seen more bizarre disaster scenes than this! Alright, go put those dead bodies in the corpse bags and send them away. Then, go to the ninth floor to continue the rescue operation!” The old commander noticed that as Han continued to talk, the air around them gradually grew heavy. With a narrow of his eyes, he spoke in a blank expression.
“Yes, Major!” The firefighter lieutenant was stunned and nodded in an even graver expression. After a moment of hesitation, he explained, “But the reason I said so is not that I’m afraid of the strange things in this building. I just feel that since there’s no single living person in all the odd number floors, we should just carry our rescue operation on the even number floors. We don’t have enough people, so perhaps we could save more people in this way.”
After that, he led his team members to rush outside.
The last reminder voiced by his subordinate made the firefighter commander frown and fall into contemplation. Zhang Lisheng, who was by the side, heard their conversation and his eyes lit up right away, before muttering to himself, “Sure enough, is this your doing, Your Lordship? Such a huge commotion. I really wonder what you want to do. I hope that this is not the situation I expected….”
With a sharp jump, he ran up the stairs.
Stepping away from everyone’s attention in just a few steps, the young man’s ascending figure started to grow faster than ordinary people. At the same time, a fine layer of sand floated out of the walls of the stairs, mixing with water droplet condensed in the air, before flocking towards him like a moth flying towards the fire.
Within two to three seconds, his funny cartoon t-shirts, shorts, and backpacks turned into sand and scattered on the ground under the friction of the hard sand. After that, the wet sand wrapped several dozens of round crystal stones before attaching to the young man and transforming into a simple and unsophisticated full-body armor, covering his appearance.
Under his high-speed movement, the firefighters who scattered on various floors did not notice anybody rushing upon the stairs, and it was not because they were too busy to notice. Even those who coincidentally brushed past Zhang Lisheng on the stairs could only feel a gust of dizziness, with illusion flashing across their eyes,
Just like this, with no regard for the presence of the others, the young man ran to the highest floor of the building where no rescuers stood. Without warning, he stopped abruptly, and its tremendous momentum even caused a sharp screeching sound to resonate in the air.
The sound was extraordinarily jarring but sounded like the most beautiful sound in heaven to those desperate, wounded casualties. “W-Who’s there? I-I’m here. Help! I’m here…”;
“Oh, benevolent Father! Have you really responded to my prayers, thank you for your help…”
“Mr. Jude has a heart attack, have any of you brought first aid medicine…”
Soon, howling shouts reverberated loudly on the floor.
The stairs connecting upwards had already broken. The young man who looked like the door-god on Chinese New Year’s painting pondered for a while and walked out of the stairwell. He saw that the walls of the entire floor had collapsed and had crashed on the floor with the ceiling, allowing an extensive view. He slowly strode out to the wreckage of the broken wall and looked up at the upper floor that was only several meters high above his head as he pondered about something.
When the young man looked up, some of the casualties had already seen the appearance of their ‘savior.’ Even if those people who suffered from excessive blood loss had hallucinations wherein they saw that strange attire of his that resembled an ancient Eastern drama character, they would never consider him as a rescue worker too.
“It’s not a firefighter, not a firefighter! Sigh, damn that government! We can’t even pay one cent less for the taxes, but we can never rely on them when we need help!” A white-haired, old man whose leg was crushed by a large piece of cement block, sitting alone in the middle of a pile of broken construction waste cursed in annoyance first. Then, he became tempted and said, “Sir, I’m Hano Jude. I’m the joint owner of this building and one of the executive directors of Blue Mist Real Estate Company. No matter who you are, as long as you save me, I swear I will give you a good reward…”
“You’re the joint owner of this building?” Zhang Lisheng who was covered in the heavy mud armor no longer looked around and walked up to the old man with interest. Looking down at him, he asked in a low voice, “Then you must know who have rented these few top floors above us, right? Can you tell me?”
“I-I’ll tell you if you save me!” The old man said slyly.
“I hate people bargaining with me the most!” The young man gently placed his hand on the concrete block that pressed down on Jude’s legs. As if his hands had a hundred tons of weight, a deep handprint was dented on the surface of the block, causing the old man to scream as well.
However, even suffering from this pain, Jude could still survive. Instead, he shouted, “I won’t tell! I won’t tell you! You’ll never get any useful information from me even if I die! You have supernatural powers, and saving me is just an effortless task for you. Save me! Save me! Save me, and you’ll get the answer that you want to know! Save me…”
“What a shocking will to survive. Unfortunately, I’ve told you before that I hate it the most when people bargain with me,” The face that was hidden behind the mask had a ferocious look. When Zhang Lisheng was about to use his energy to crush the old man’s legs into a pile of a bloody mess, a shuddering female voice suddenly resonated by the side, “S-Stop torturing Mr. Jude. I’ll tell you w-what you want to know, sir! T-This is the 67th floor. 68th floor has completely collapsed. There are o-only f-five more floors above. The 60th f-floor here belong to an import and e-export group called Edward Joss S-Seaport Trading Company. They’re mainly e-engaged in Asian operating businesses; the 70th floor is shared by m-more than a dozen small companies. The b-biggest one is the Newcastle Machinery Sales C-Company…”
The person who was speaking was a young lady covered in dust leaning against a broken desk corner. She looked unharmed, but it was clear that she was weak. When she spoke, her speech was intermittent, and blood flowed out of her mouth, it was evident that the internal bleeding in her chest was severe.
Zhang Lisheng listened quietly to the girl’s statement. When he heard that the top two floors of the building were rented by a company called Black Lord Creative Advertising Company, his eyes suddenly lit up.
“An advertising company that rents a full two floors in a skyscraper in the bustling area of New York City,” the young man asked. “Is it famous?”
“N-No. That is a new company. Even though the office h-has been rented for two months, it’s still under renovation and has not yet opened,” The girl replied weakly. “It’s said that the company has r-received a h-huge investment from a mining tycoon in Pennsylvania, so they’re very well funded and p-plan to make the best of it so that they c-can take the world by storm.”
“A new advertising company that wants to rely on its renovation to take the world by storm?” Zhang Lisheng asked thoughtfully. “Interesting, have any of you gone upstairs to the company to see its decoration style?”
“No. The top two floors are sealed during the renovation p-period. This is very normal in the advertising industry. After all, i-it’s an industry that relies on creativity to survive. I-if they can win by relying on a stunning opening cocktail, then they m-may become famous overnight.”
“Oh, I see. Ha, this is really smart!” The young man muttered and walked up to the girl who was already dying; he looked down at the kindhearted mortal and asked, “I’m very pleased with your answer. What kind of reward do you want?”
“I want to live. Can I live?” A look of longing for life appeared on the girl’s face. Not having any hope, she smiled as she asked with a melancholic smile, as though wanting to leave her smiling face as the last expression she had in this world.
However, just when her life was about to end as she started to feel the coldness enveloping her body, a calm voice suddenly resonated in her ear. “This is easy. I’ll do as you wish.”
Afterward, in the girl’s confused and defocused eyes, layers of water mist slowly flowed across the ruins on the grounds and became cloudy before surrounding her body.
In an instant, she felt a warmth in her heart as it began to beat again. The other parts of her body that were in numbing pain started to ease as well.
Stunned, the girl saw a pair of khaki wings with arms in the sky. They gently flew down to hold her under her armpits and hugged her before soaring up into the air.
Through the cracks in the glass wall, the sun shone on the wings that had crystal water droplets on them, reflecting seven colorful lights. Her blurred vision became clear once again. On the stunned face of the girl, her mouth trembled as she asked, “A-Angel? Have I become an angel? T-This is impossible! D-Don’t tell me that, m-my Lord? Is that you? Have you descended?”
“How can my shape be the embodiment of the Lord?” Looking at the girl’s horrified face, Zhang Lisheng waved his hand in a chuckle and commanded his sand creation to carry the girl to the stairwell.
“Then c-can you please tell me, tell me your name, Oh, Great Majesty?” The lucky girl flying in the air suddenly snapped back to reality before she was about to disappear. Trying to lower her head towards the young man in the distance, she asked loudly in a humble voice.
“Wizard Li,” The same words could be pronounced differently between Westerners and Asians. Without any scruple, the young man casually said his Theonym.
