Chapter 190: Resentment
"That 'Righteous Avenger,' he's been causing trouble for long enough. Thousands have died by his hand, and a pervasive unease has settled over the mid and lower ranks of the government. Are you truly going to let him continue?" Cheng Mu chose to question Ye Zi directly.
For such a long time, the Special Combat Department, possessing such formidable martial might, had inexplicably allowed a murderer to roam free, continuously committing crimes. To Cheng Mu, this was an utterly abnormal phenomenon; someone must surely be pulling strings behind the scenes.
"Speaker Cheng, you mustn't speak like that. To apprehend this madman, our forces have already suffered dozens of casualties, and many severely wounded still lie in hospital beds. Where does your statement leave the efforts of those martyrs?" Ye Zi answered with an unruffled tone.
Privately, she had indeed been subtly hinting to her subordinates to tolerate Hou Zi's actions, and the personnel dispatched for the encirclement were mostly peripheral figures.
The way she gained power was too subtle, her foundation remained unstable, and her influence among the lower and middle ranks was minimal. Many considered her ascension to be a "usurpation."
It was better to let this "blade" carve out more positions for her direct lineage; after all, those dying now were not her own people.
Moreover, through reports from her subordinates, Ye Zi was well aware that truly eliminating a madman of this caliber would demand an unprecedented price.
Even if she were to act personally, with the opponent constantly choosing to evade, the situation would become incredibly difficult to manage, and there was no certainty of a kill.
Should he infiltrate a major city, a battle between two cataclysmic-tier ability users would, in minutes, lead to destruction akin to what Tianqing had experienced before.
About half a month prior, the Director-General of Construction, responsible for overseeing all major federal engineering projects, was discovered dead in a high-end club. Beside his body, eight large characters were scrawled in his blood: "Heaven executes traitors, justice is eternal!"
This prompted Cheng Mu to raise the matter once again in the Seven-Person Council. The Director-General of Construction was also a member of his direct lineage within the upper echelons. Such a loss was a severe blow to their faction, and regaining that position for their own people would require an equally substantial price.
The four characters "Heaven executes traitors" beside the corpse felt like a stinging slap to his face.
Since about half a year ago, every time Hou Zi committed a murder, he would post a detailed list of the victim's crimes beside the body, then photograph it and upload it to the internet, turning it into a unique form of live broadcast.
As for the source of these accusations, they were mostly obtained through cruel torture of the victims, forcing them to confess various incriminating secrets in a short amount of time.
The special task force continuously pursuing him would always trace Hou Zi's posts to different illicit internet cafes, but even with the surrounding surveillance camera footage, they were utterly helpless against this individual who could drastically alter his appearance through subtle body control.
Police officers, accustomed to thinking from a normal person's perspective, found it difficult to extend their investigative experience to the viewpoint of ability users. In the era when they learned to solve cases, there could be no content whatsoever dealing with teleportation crimes, nor could there be any concept of telekinetic murder from a distance.
Nevertheless, it must be said that Hou Zi's act of "enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven," by posting criminal records next to the bodies after killing, did not greatly offend the majority of people online. In fact, there was even a subtle undercurrent of support.
Especially after verification confirmed that these accusations were indeed true, even more people began to believe that these individuals deserved their fate.
When he was mentally sound, his intellect was far from ordinary, and he naturally understood how to continuously gain public approval through public opinion. Hou Zi pursued justice as he saw it, not becoming an enemy of the world.
People imitating his actions never disappeared; every week, one or two individuals would follow in his righteous footsteps. However, under the powerful state apparatus, lacking Hou Zi's ability to kill to grow stronger and sustain his power through combat, they were ultimately crushed to dust in an endless chase.
The resentment accumulated among the lower classes did not dissipate with the great societal changes; instead, it grew even more severe after the social strata were further fractured.
This was particularly true for many wealthy individuals who were originally in their sixties and seventies, with their health declining, yet by relying on immense wealth to purchase various expensive cultivation resources, they forcibly forged youthful and robust bodies. The resentment and jealousy towards the upper class became unprecedentedly intense.
Ordinary people, upon learning they couldn't cultivate immortality without a spirit root, would mostly only resent Heaven. But if they knew that a spirit root could be bought for 500,000 Huaxia currency, and they couldn't afford it, their resentment would immediately shift to those selling spirit roots.
Perhaps not everyone wished for a life of luxury, but any normal person would hope to live longer, and for their body to remain healthy and strong forever.
However, the system's price of one Spirit Stone per gram for one Contribution Point effectively barred most middle-aged and elderly people from cultivation. Compared to lucky youngsters, they would need to invest ten times more initially to achieve the same cultivation effects.
A decaying body's absorption of spirit qi was poor, and the spiritual materials alone needed to repair the body were worth tens of thousands of Contribution Points, not to mention the consumption of spirit qi aids like Spirit Stone candles.
Even ordinary young people, to keep pace with geniuses, needed thousands of Contribution Points in resources, which translated to hundreds of thousands of Huaxia currency in current money. "Scholarship for the poor, martial arts for the rich; cultivating the Dao can beggar a family" became a common saying among many.
In an era where extending life was impossible, perhaps everyone would ultimately just silently die; but this was an era of miracles, where everyone clearly knew that there truly existed heavenly materials and earthly treasures capable of extending life and restoring youth and health, yet they missed out simply due to lack of money. Naturally, this would lead to deep dissatisfaction with the entire society.
Because people always tend to attribute negative factors to external circumstances. When lacking money, the initial blame would certainly not be directed at one's own lack of effort, but rather at the injustice of social distribution.
However, all this resentment, under the suppression of a government with unprecedented power, could only remain latent for now, quietly awaiting the day of its eruption.
"Allowing an enemy to persist to enhance one's own importance!" Cheng Mu uttered these four words, then turned and left the meeting.
"That's enough for today." The two factions parted on bad terms.
Ability users mostly supported Ye Zi's side, while Cheng Mu represented the original faction of ordinary people.
Although he also desperately wanted to deal with Hou Zi, who had orchestrated countless major cases, his subordinates had too many responsibilities, making it impossible to allocate enough high-tier ability users to carry out the independent encirclement. Coupled with occasional meddling from American spies, every operation ended without success.
"Perhaps he is right; the times have indeed changed. The relationship between the collective and individual strength is no longer so absolute." Even though Cheng Mu was an ability user who had entered the Unmelting Realm, he still felt a sense of inadequacy.
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