Chapter 455: Chapter 455: My Will Belongs to Myself

"No, they died from an accident, drowning..."

Li Rui’s mind was racing, but he quickly realized that the Superpower Division could easily forge an accident.

"No, no, no."

Li Rui sat down heavily on the chair behind him, "If my parents are the Gods of a Thousand Faces, then who am I? You can’t be serious, Minister Zhuo, you must be joking, right? If this is true, you’ve let me live alone for over a decade?!"

Zhuo Feilong’s eyes glinted sharply.

"Who said you’ve been living alone for over a decade? Think carefully, hasn’t there always been someone secretly watching over you, protecting you?"

Li Rui’s chaotic thoughts, shaken by the shocking revelation, began to calm down.

Always protecting me...

That’s right, the person who appeared suddenly after my parents’ ’accident’...

The person who has looked after me all my life.

It’s him, it’s that man...

A blurry figure began to clear in his vision.

Zhuo Feilong nodded, "Yes, the security guard of your neighborhood, your Grandpa Niu."

Huh?

Li Rui couldn’t hold it in, and the gradually clearing figure suddenly transformed into the dark-skinned, shorts-wearing old gatekeeper with a fan in hand.

"It’s him?"

As his powers grew, and he traveled from the Northwest to the capital, even the chaotic lands, he scarcely stayed in Huangliang City, almost forgetting about the unassuming gatekeeper.

To be fair, this old man did watch him grow up; their connection wasn’t deep but was ever-present through Li Rui’s daily life.

"Liu Buqun, a senior advisor in the Superpower Division, a 72-level Martial Arts Grandmaster, has always been your guardian."

Zhuo Feilong took out a cigarette but suddenly realized they were in a no-smoking lab and tucked it back into his pocket, "I’m sorry, we actually know very little about your parents, we can’t even ascertain their position, so we could only continue observing to determine... who you really are, or what they’ve left for you."

He opened a nearby drawer, took out a white towel, wetted it, and handed it over.

Li Rui took it to wipe his face, "So, you sent me to investigate the Gods of a Thousand Faces to test me?"

"Not ’we’, it was me."

Zhuo Feilong said calmly, "Song Yao didn’t agree with my idea, but the stakes were too high, so I had to be extremely cautious. Look at the markings on your parents’ hands."

Li Rui looked up and again at the Life Support Pods, seeing that both of their hands bore the numbers that all the Extraordinary have.

The difference was, both of theirs were 99.

"Level ninety-nine?!"

"That’s right."

Zhuo Feilong said, "Level ninety-nine, they are the world’s most powerful Extraordinary and the most formidable illegal Secret Realm agents, so powerful that if they hadn’t come to the Superpower Division themselves, we wouldn’t even have known they had entered Dragon Country."

Li Rui fell silent, his mind burdened with too much to process until he mechanically wrung the towel, "So, did Zuo Qiutian get drawn to them?"

Zhuo Feilong answered, "Possibly. They only informed us that a Secret Realm organization closely connected to Zuo Qiutian was planning a world-overturning secret event, and they were involved."

"What else? What else did they say?" Li Rui asked.

"We have important work to do in the Secret Realm, you all must become stronger as soon as possible, there might be major changes. That’s what your mother said."

Zhuo Feilong continued, "Your father added, ’However, you guys shouldn’t be too pessimistic, if we succeed in what we’re doing, nothing will happen’."

"At that time, I was still the Deputy Minister, I asked them what they intended to do, what success meant. They said if they succeeded, we’d definitely know. Then, they entered the Secret Realm. It seems they failed."

Zhuo Feilong looked at the silent Li Rui, "Do you have any other questions? I will answer everything I know."

"What about me?"

"What?"

"Did they mention me?"

Zhuo Feilong’s eyelid twitched.

"Not long after they entered the Secret Realm, I got promoted to Minister and took over your file."

He said in a deep voice, "You were born in the chaotic lands, just like your parents. They probably gave birth to you a year before entering Dragon Country, then settled in Huangliang City; your childhood wasn’t different from others."

"Although I don’t know what important work they were doing in the Secret Realm, the fact that they came to the Superpower Division suggests they entrusted you to us."

Li Rui smiled, "Thank you for your tactfulness, Minister Zhuo, in any case, they left no words for me, huh?"

Zhuo Feilong, uncharacteristically, was at a loss for words due to the awkwardness.

"What about my unlucky constitution?" Li Rui asked again, "At least this is something they left for me, right?"

"You might have forgotten."

Zhuo Feilong nodded, "Those incidents became frequent only after they entered the Secret Realm, this must be related to what they were doing."

"I survived childhood partly thanks to your efforts too, right?"

"Indeed, at first, it was like caring for an infant, you were too young then, still in elementary school." Zhuo Feilong said.

Li Rui tossed the wrung-out towel into the trash, stood up, "Honestly, what kind of parents leave a heap of bad luck for their son and then just leave? You’re cautious with me because you’re worried they buried a mine, aren’t you?"

Zhuo Feilong weighed the pros and cons in his mind and then frankly said, "To be precise, after over ten years of observation, Advisor Liu has confirmed you shouldn’t have any... bad intentions, it’s impossible to act flawlessly for so many years in front of him."

"But once you got your marking, you leveled up too quickly, and I had to suspect that this was your parents’ plan, so I first needed to determine whether you knew their identities."

Li Rui asked, "Understood, because I was unaware of the inside story, combined with the drastic changes in the real world, you decided to tell me the truth. But Minister Zhuo, aren’t you afraid I’d side with Zuo Qiutian to understand why my parents did what they did?"

Zhuo Feilong scratched his head, showing a smile starkly different from his usual seriousness, "We’ve known each other for over a decade."

At that moment, he didn’t seem like a minister of the Superpower Division, but an ordinary old man.

Li Rui didn’t expect the always solemn minister to say something like this, finding it somewhat amusing.

However, Zhuo Feilong quickly reverted to his usual poker face.

"After knowing you for over a decade, I understand what kind of person you are. I just need to be sure your will is entirely your own. I trust you’ll make the right choice."

"Hahaha."

Li Rui stood up, walked towards the door, "Got it, Minister Zhuo."

He unlocked the door and grabbed the handle.

"I’m determined to find out what they were up to. However, rather than siding with Brother Zuo, I’d prefer to beat him until he can’t fend for himself, then get the answers I need."