Chapter 196: Aftermath
There was no shortage whatsoever of evidence that could prove him guilty. In other words... Zhou Changwu really could be convicted. When the time came, even if all of this evidence was presented before a military court, it would be completely convincing.
Zhou Changwu should have felt despair, but Yu Lanfeng's reaction just now made him feel as though there might still be hope for him. After all, as long as the Marshal believed him, then even if he ultimately could not be saved, he would still be satisfied.
And this happened to be the thing Zhou Changwu cared about most.
As for Zhou Teng... in a daze, he recalled a certain time when he had gone home during leave. Zhou Teng's parents—his younger brother and sister-in-law—had knelt before him and begged him to give their son a chance. In truth, Zhou Changwu also knew that this nephew of his was genuinely outstanding. He had simply always lacked an opportunity.
At the time, Zhou Changwu had thought that he would merely give him one chance to take the legion's assessment. Whether he could pass in the end would still depend on his own ability. As it turned out, the boy really did live up to expectations and passed the assessment.
Since he had entered by openly and legitimately passing the assessment, naturally it could not be considered getting in through connections. Zhou Changwu thought his nephew was quite good and had a promising future, so he gradually began cultivating him.
But at some point, the way Zhou Teng looked at him had begun to feel slightly wrong.
Zhou Changwu had been a general for so many years and had fought on the front lines for such a long time. He had dealt with all kinds of people.
Most of Zhou Teng's little thoughts were revealed through his eyes. Moreover, he was still too young and ignorant of just how vast the world was, unable even to conceal his own ambition.
But Zhou Changwu had not taken it seriously at the time. He had merely applied a little pressure to him at every turn, hoping he would realize the difficulty and retreat. And when Zhou Teng felt that pressure, he really did settle down.
Zhou Changwu had thought his pressure had worked, but who could have imagined that Zhou Teng had actually joined forces with many people inside the base, secretly spreading false information and fabricating false evidence to win people over, intending to use the strength of most of the people in the military base to...
Zhou Changwu sighed deeply.
He did not know what he was feeling right now. When he saw Zhou Teng produce that so-called evidence, he had actually been shocked as well. It was just that the shock lasted for an extremely short time—less than a minute—before he thought, Ah, so it has finally come.
That brat really had been scheming behind his back, and now he had finally revealed his true colors.
Deep down, Zhou Changwu felt that this was only natural, because Zhou Teng had coveted his position as general for a very long time. He simply had never had a good opportunity before.
And precisely because he knew that Marshal Yu Lanfeng would be coming to this military base during this period, he had prepared everything in advance, especially those two people who had infiltrated the room.
They must have already prepared themselves to be burned to death by the Marshal. After all, they had broken in during the middle of the night. All it would take was the slightest instinctive reaction from the Marshal, and they would be burned into flying ash without even having time to say a single word. There was no need to think about it to know that those two had definitely been completely brainwashed by Zhou Teng.
In truth, Zhou Changwu had paid attention to basically everyone in his military base. Every one of those kids was outstanding. They had simply all been bewitched by Zhou Teng now.
At this point, the only person they trusted more than Zhou Teng was probably the true leader of this legion, Marshal Yu Lanfeng.
If he could expose Zhou Teng...
Faced with Zhou Teng's expression as he forcibly suppressed his unwillingness while still having no choice but to cautiously face him, Yu Lanfeng calmly said, "I know better than anyone what kind of person Zhou Changwu is. I've fought side by side with him before. So in my eyes, this evidence is actually worth nothing."
"The contents of the chips inside can indeed be used as evidence. And since you dared to bring them out, that means you truly managed to make them flawless. But there's one thing you shouldn't have forgotten: no matter how high the mountain, there's always a higher one; no matter how capable the person, there's always someone more capable."
The unwillingness on Zhou Teng's face gradually disappeared. He stared blankly at Yu Lanfeng. "Marshal, to put it plainly, you just believe in the person you chose instead of believing the evidence..."
Yu Lanfeng said, "Don't twist my meaning. Of course I believe evidence, but the evidence I believe certainly isn't this stuff you've brought me."
"First, as for the recordings, audio, and surveillance footage inside these chips, in my eyes, the images are one thing and the sound is another. There must be someone among you who's an expert in this field."
"But as Marshal, there's one thing I need to remind you of. There's a specialized team in the legion specifically responsible for handling things like this. I've seen fabricated videos similar to the things you've brought out before, and I've seen plenty of them. Right now, all I need to do is send this so-called evidence you've given me over there for inspection. Who do you think is more capable? The person you have working for you, or the team my legion specifically trained for this?"
Zhou Teng's lips trembled slightly.
All he could think was, How could this happen? His perfect plan...
He still refused to give up. After all... those things really had happened.
"Marshal, the people listed there really did die that way, and they really were injured and crippled that way. It's common knowledge that what happened to several of them was connected to him. Everyone was simply deceived by him."
"He clearly did it deliberately. Every time, he pretended to be devastated, but unfortunately, I saw through him. And I'm not the only person who saw through his acting. A lot of people know he's pretending. He's only doing it to secure his position."
"Everyone else was deceived by the image he puts on. Even you... Marshal, you've been deceived by him too. His acting is incredibly polished. If I didn't know the truth, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to see through it either."
Yu Lanfeng simply stood off to the side and watched him perform. Speaking of which, this man really could prattle on and on. He just wondered whether Zhou Teng would still be able to keep talking like this in a little while.
Yu Lanfeng said, "So you're admitting that all the so-called surveillance footage, monitoring records, and wiretapped recordings in every chip included in this evidence are fake? And that many of the written accounts were also produced by adding and removing details according to personal subjective opinions?"
Zhou Teng abruptly shut his mouth.
He thought about it and realized that the way he had spoken just now really did sound suspiciously like an admission of that point, but...
The moment Yu Lanfeng said he was going to send this information, especially the chips inside it, to that special team for examination, Zhou Teng knew there was no way he could directly insist that all of it was genuine.
Moreover, he believed that regardless of whether he claimed it was real or fake, Yu Lanfeng would send it for inspection anyway. He was confident he could delay things for some time, but...
He still looked extremely unwilling. "I know, Marshal... I know all of it. Maybe because I'm related to him, he wasn't very guarded around me. He would always smugly talk about some of the things he'd done in the past."
"Every time he finished, he'd even tell me that no one knew he'd done it anyway. As long as he hid himself well enough, he could get away clean every single time."
"I just... I genuinely couldn't stand watching it anymore. That's why I did this."
Yu Lanfeng said, "So you don't actually have any so-called evidence. You merely took some so-called evidence you'd collected, without even knowing whether it was real or fake, and used it as the basis to fabricate a body of evidence. Then you decided you needed manpower, so you continuously used this so-called evidence to approach people inside the military base who were dissatisfied or already held a certain amount of hostility toward Zhou Changwu."
"On the one hand, because this involved negative information about Zhou Changwu, those people were very interested. It was also very easy to persuade them to become your partners and deal with Zhou Changwu together."
In their own eyes, they were heroes who had just joined the legion, poured their hearts and souls into it, and ultimately brought down a great demon king.
But...
Whether they really were heroes would depend on the final conclusion.
Yu Lanfeng said, "We'll set this matter aside for now. I'll send this information for examination first. Once the results come back, we'll discuss this matter again. Until then, everything stays as it is. Those who need to go out to the front lines, remember to do your utmost to kill Ability Beasts. Those resting inside the base should get some proper rest!"
"Dismissed. We'll gather here again tomorrow."
After saying that, Yu Lanfeng was about to leave, but Zhou Teng spoke up.
"Marshal, please wait."
Yu Lanfeng said, "What is it?"
Zhou Teng said, "Marshal, what if he takes advantage of this time to make a move against us?"
Yu Lanfeng blinked. "Then I'll announce that for this entire month, no one is allowed to make a move against anyone else. If I discover anyone doing so, they'll be punished according to the methods of our legion. How does that sound?"
Then Yu Lanfeng added, "I'll personally punish anyone who violates the rules. How about that? Any other questions?"
No one had any objections. If Yu Lanfeng himself was going to personally handle it, then naturally there would be no problem.
They quickly left.
Zhou Teng, of course, did not quite dare to leave. In the end, he even made one request of Yu Lanfeng.
"Marshal, since no one's living in this room anyway, could I stay here?"
Staying in a room right beside the one Yu Lanfeng was living in really did provide an enormous sense of security.
Yu Lanfeng found it a little surprising, but then felt it was understandable.
Zhou Teng probably thought his plan was about to fall apart and that Zhou Changwu definitely would not let him go, or perhaps he believed Zhou Changwu intended to strike first and gain the upper hand.
But...
Yu Lanfeng felt that Zhou Changwu would not even stoop to doing something like that. Still, to ensure nothing happened to Zhou Teng before a final decision was reached, it would indeed be better for him to stay here.
"Fine. You can stay here. By the way, General Zhou, don't slack off on the task I assigned you earlier. It's best if you finish it as quickly as possible. In any case, I've already told you before that I don't particularly need the intelligence that could be extracted from them."
Zhou Changwu said, "Yes, Marshal. I understand. I'll pay attention and deal with everything as quickly as possible."
Afterward, Yu Lanfeng sent everyone away and left as well, returning to the room where Nan Yu was staying.
After opening the door and seeing Nan Yu still lying peacefully on the bed, he relaxed and went into the living room to rest. At the same time, he directly placed an order for what he wanted to eat through the cafeteria ordering page on the military's internal network.
After placing his order, he went into the room and sat beside the bed, looking at the person lying there.
"Xiaoyu, when are you going to wake up? I don't even know if you can hear me..."
He had originally wanted to tell Nan Yu about what had happened to Nan Yun and Nan Zhen, but then he suddenly thought that Nan Yu might actually be conscious right now, simply unable to wake up.
If he told him about this while Nan Yu was circulating Mental Power with the Nianshen Grass, and that caused something to go wrong with the circulation, wouldn't that create a huge problem?
So after thinking it over, Yu Lanfeng decided not to mention it after all. Everything had to be taken slowly.
"I just ordered some food from the cafeteria here. I saw a lot of things you like to eat, so I ordered one serving of everything. If you want to eat, remember to come out later..."
Nan Yu still showed no reaction whatsoever as he lay on the bed, as though he really were deeply unconscious. The instruments connected beside him did not detect any changes either.
Yu Lanfeng was somewhat disappointed, but he quickly collected himself.
The cafeteria delivered food extremely quickly. He went to the door, collected the meals, and ate his fill.
Afterward, he opened his optical computer and contacted someone.
"Marshal, is there something you need?"
Without wasting a single word, Yu Lanfeng inserted every chip into his military optical computer one after another, then sent everything inside them over all at once.
"Check all of this as quickly as possible. Organize the results and give them to me tomorrow."
"Yes! No problem, Marshal!"
Yu Lanfeng quickly closed his optical computer, walked back into the room, and sat leaning against the other half of the bed.
He did not need to worry about the affairs of this military base at all. Zhou Changwu could handle them perfectly well.
Zhou Teng was currently sitting in his room with a gloomy expression.
He finally somewhat understood why that old bastard had never taken his provocations or challenges seriously.
So this was why.
The man who was Marshal actually trusted Zhou Changwu this much.
Ordinary people, when presented with evidence this detailed and meticulous, complete with both witnesses and physical proof, would believe it. Only Yu Lanfeng had chosen to believe Zhou Changwu.
It was truly incomprehensible.
However, the names listed in Zhou Teng's evidence and their experiences really were genuine. Their ultimate fates were genuine as well. And it was also true that they had suffered at the hands of others!
No matter how much Yu Lanfeng trusted Zhou Changwu, that fact could not be changed. The facts were right there in front of them. When the time came, Zhou Changwu would still be dragged before a military court.
Just thinking about it made Zhou Teng's blood boil.
When that happened, he would definitely go there in person to see Zhou Changwu's expression. It was sure to be incredibly entertaining.
At the thought, Zhou Teng could not help laughing aloud.
But he quickly suppressed his laughter and glanced warily at the wall in front of him.
On the other side of that wall was where Yu Lanfeng was staying. Back when he had been in his own room, on his own turf, it had not mattered much. But now that he was staying here, he definitely could not casually laugh aloud.
Even so, he could not suppress the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
With a smile still on his face, he tidied himself up and settled down to rest. He knew that as long as he stayed here, no one would dare come here and make a move against him.
After all, right next door was the strongest Ability User in the Empire, a man even known simply as the strongest Ability User. Even other countries could not produce anyone stronger than him.
Lying on the bed, Zhou Teng gently ran his fingers up and down the optical computer on his other wrist, seemingly hesitating over something.
In the end, he still activated his optical computer and contacted someone.
"Zhou Teng? Why are you contacting me so late?"
"Nothing much. I just thought it might not be very safe for you to go back and rest there. My room is pretty big anyway. Why don't you come stay with me?"
The person on the other side of the communication hesitated for only a few seconds before agreeing.
"All right. I'll come over now. I hope I won't disturb..."
Zhou Teng said, "You won't. As long as you don't go knocking on the door next door, I'm sure there won't be any problem. Come over. It's for safety's sake too."
The other person quickly ended the communication.
About ten minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
Zhou Teng quickly opened it. "Hu Fei? Come in."
Hu Fei swiftly slipped through the doorway. Only after Zhou Teng closed the door did he let out a huge sigh of relief.
"As expected, I really do feel safer here. I genuinely never expected the Marshal to trust that old bastard so much. That's something I failed to consider properly beforehand. Sorry, A'Teng."
Zhou Teng said, "It's fine. Actually, even I thought the same way. Who could've known things would turn out like this? But it's still fine. We have another plan."
Hu Fei said, "Right. There definitely won't be any problems with that plan. And Zhou Changwu won't be able to argue his way out of it, because those things really did happen."
Zhou Teng said, "Yeah. He won't be able to argue his way out of it. Hopefully, when he goes before the military court, he'll receive a heavier sentence. But we fabricated false evidence. That could also count as framing him..."
Hu Fei said, "It doesn't count. As long as Zhou Changwu is determined to have genuinely committed those crimes, then what we're doing is a good deed, not a crime."
And naturally, the reverse was also true.
So for now, they remained relatively optimistic.
Zhou Teng said, "You're right. I was thinking about it the wrong way before. But we definitely can't just let things take their natural course now. We need to think carefully about what we should do and say tomorrow."
They had never expected a problem like this to arise today, so they had never even considered how they should respond if something unexpected happened.
Earlier, Zhou Teng had been too shocked, causing him to perform poorly. It could not exactly be called a mistake, but there had been many moments when he had failed to control his expression properly.
"So for tomorrow, we need to imagine several possible scenarios in advance and figure out how to respond to each of them. Otherwise, we can't afford to panic and scramble around like we did today."
"The Marshal isn't someone to be underestimated. Judging by how he chose to trust Zhou Changwu today, he's an especially difficult person to deal with. But his attitude toward us seems pretty good. Do you think that maybe, deep down, he actually believes us a little too? Otherwise, as Marshal, there wouldn't be any reason for him to treat us this well."
Hu Fei said, "You're absolutely right. Actually, I was thinking the same thing. I just didn't dare say it earlier. But the more I think about it now, the more it seems that way."
"By the way, have you contacted him?"
Zhou Teng shook his head. "No. Do you think we should contact him now?"
Hu Fei also fell silent for a moment.
"I think it'd be better to contact him. After all, the ultimate purpose of everything we're doing is for his sake. We can't have us coming up with all the plans and even doing all the work throughout the entire process while he keeps hiding behind the scenes, only to walk out at the end and enjoy the results, can we?"
Zhou Teng said, "But if we disturb him right now, wouldn't that..."
Hu Fei said, "What's there to disturb? It's not even that late. There's no way he's resting at this hour anyway. After all..."
After thinking for a while, Zhou Teng still felt it was inappropriate.
"Forget it. Let's see how things develop tomorrow. If tomorrow's developments go too far beyond our expectations, then we'll contact him and ask how we should handle it. If everything stays within our expectations, then there's no need to contact him."
Hu Fei sighed deeply. "Fine. That's all we can do. But if there are still problems tomorrow, you absolutely have to tell him about this properly. Understand?"
Zhou Teng said, "I know. There definitely won't be any more mistakes with this matter. By the way, those things I asked you to destroy earlier..."
Hu Fei narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Don't worry. I destroyed them extremely thoroughly. I even repeatedly tried restoring them using other optical computers and different methods. As long as there was even the slightest sign that anything could still be recovered, I'd thoroughly erase everything again. I didn't stop until I was completely certain that no matter what software or method was used, the data couldn't be restored."
Zhou Teng said, "As expected, you're still the most considerate. I knew there wouldn't be any problems if I left it to you."
Hu Fei's entire face flushed red at his words.
Fortunately, they were each lying down now, and the lights in the room had already been turned off, so Zhou Teng could not see the blush on his face.
"All right, go to sleep. We've still got a hard battle waiting for us tomorrow!"
Zhou Teng said, "Don't do that. We haven't even finished discussing tomorrow's strategy yet."
Hu Fei said, "I'm saying, won't we be overheard if we discuss it here?"
The other side of this wall should be the living room next door, right?
Could they really not be heard?
Zhou Teng said, "Have you forgotten? Every room in our legion is built with soundproofing materials. Ability Users have extremely sensitive senses, so if the rooms weren't properly soundproofed, no one would be able to rest well. There's no way anyone can hear us talking. Especially..."
"Last night, those two came here first before going next door. But before seeing the surveillance footage today, the Marshal didn't know that. From what I can tell, the Marshal definitely couldn't hear what was happening over here either."
Hu Fei said, "Then I'm relieved. Go on, tell me. How are we going to handle this?"
Zhou Teng said, "First, the Marshal will definitely bring out proof that the videos attached to my evidence were fabricated. How should we answer him when that happens?"
Hu Fei thought for a while, then began explaining his ideas to Zhou Teng...
Zhou Changwu had not gone to rest.
He was an Ability User. For Ability Users, going several days without sleep would only make them feel somewhat tired. During this period, he planned not to sleep at all and to first finish the task Marshal Yu had assigned him.
"General, this batch is all here. Two hundred in total. What should we do with them now?"
Zhou Changwu's expression was icy, completely unlike the weak expression he had shown in front of Yu Lanfeng earlier. He looked as though the matter with Zhou Teng had made him extremely angry.
Zhou Changwu said, "There's no need to investigate them. Follow the same standard as before. The Marshal's order is to kill them all. Intelligence is secondary. Remember this: even if they were once your comrades, even if you once fought alongside them on the battlefield and shared bonds forged through life and death, you cannot show mercy!"
"These people are all spies. They're spies sent here by others. Everything they did for you and every effort they made to build good relationships with you was only to accumulate connections, so that later, when they stole personnel information or carried out assassinations during important missions, they could make you unknowingly help them.
"To them, that's merely completing a mission. But to you, it would ruin your entire lives, because you would have assisted spies in an assassination or helped them steal classified information from the base."
His words were extremely harsh, but among those present, the only person who knew what had happened inside the room earlier was the man who had been following behind him.
Ever since they left, that man had remained silent.
Zhou Changwu knew that he probably also needed some time to decide whether the matter was true.
If he believed it was true, then he definitely would not continue following Zhou Changwu.
If he believed it was false...