Chapter 152: Social Death?

Suppressing the thoughts churning within his heart, Yun Yang wore a rather grim expression.

"Thank you for letting me know all this. I need to head back first."

"Mm, as you should."

Angel Yan nodded slightly, gesturing that Yun Yang was free to leave.

Without saying anything further, Yun Yang returned straight to the castle. Under a somewhat bewildered gaze from Qiangwei, he fabricated an excuse and set off immediately.

Upon entering the Solar System, Yun Yang located Ge Xiaolun, who was still diligently repairing the Black Wall Ring.

"Xiaolun, do you know what happened on Earth?"

A look of confusion crossed Ge Xiaolun's face as he halted his work.

"Ah, it's you, Yangzi. What happened to Earth?"

Yun Yang was momentarily stunned; he had not expected Ge Xiaolun to be completely in the dark.

"You don't know?"

"No idea. I've been stuck right here, working myself to the bone every single day. How would I know anything?"

Ge Xiaolun sounded somewhat aggrieved, yet took it as a matter of course.

Yun Yang fell silent for a moment. He felt that Ge Xiaolun had it even rougher than he himself had when he first met Old Li—at least back then, Qingxue had been keeping him company.

Yet Ge Xiaolun was entirely by himself. Yun Yang patted him on the shoulder and filled him in on the events that had transpired on Earth.

"What? This Willis, damn him!"

Ge Xiaolun's eyes turned fierce and cold as he spoke.

Yun Yang nodded in agreement, then stared directly into Ge Xiaolun's eyes.

"I can let it slide whatever he says about the Xiongbing Lian, and I don't care what he says about me. But the moment they direct their hostility toward Qiangwei, I draw the line."

"I won't stand for it either, but what do you plan to do?"

Ge Xiaolun slapped his thigh to declare his stance, then asked.

"I don't have a good solution for this kind of public opinion. I used to be an internet keyboard warrior myself, so I don't feel like arguing with them. Willis is the core mastermind, and I want him to disappear."

Yun Yang analyzed the situation, clenching his fist.

"Wait, Yangzi, rumors stop at the wise. Isn't killing a bit too extreme?"

Hearing this, Ge Xiaolun asked with some hesitation.

"Heh, but there are far too few wise people in this world. Let's just deal with the person causing the trouble instead."

Yun Yang sneered, making it clear he disagreed.

Ge Xiaolun frowned in thought for a moment before nodding heavily and asking.

"Since you've already made up your mind, just go ahead and do it. You probably don't need my help, right?"

"Come back to Earth with me. I need everyone to show their support; the Xiongbing Lian needs to take a stand."

Only then did Yun Yang state the true purpose of his visit to Ge Xiaolun.

Before long, Yun Yang and Ge Xiaolun arrived at the Blade VII, picked up Zhao Xin—who was busy accompanying his wife—and subsequently headed to that traditional courtyard house in North Star.

After notifying everyone, Yun Yang went around one by one to gather them all.

However, a complication arose when it came to Sun Wukong, who stated that he had no intention of meddling in such affairs and declined to go.

This was within Yun Yang's expectations, so he did not pressure the Monkey King and simply departed with the others.

Such a large-scale movement could not possibly be kept from Du Lianfeng, who promptly brought Old Huang along on an uninvited visit.

Once everyone had arrived, Yun Yang stood up and spoke directly.

"My coming back this time is entirely because of Willis. His actions have crossed the line in my mind. What does everyone think?"

"Xiao Yun, we know. Qiangwei and you have been wronged. What kind of action do you intend to take?"

Old Huang spoke up next.

With Old Huang taking the lead, the rest of the people prudently kept quiet, fixing their gazes intently on Yun Yang as they awaited his response.

After all, Willis's recent rhetoric had hardly left them in a pleasant mood either. Take Liu Chuang, for instance—as someone who knew the inside story, he had already wanted to teach that fellow a lesson several times over.

Yet he had always been held back by He Weilan. Having formerly been a police officer, she still couldn't quite cross that psychological hurdle.

Yun Yang fell silent for a moment after hearing this, a trace of resolve flashing through his eyes.

"Old Huang, I want to eliminate the troublemaker."

"How many people, and what kind of fallout will there be?"

Old Huang asked in a deep voice.

"The ringleader and his core associates. I don't know about the fallout, but their disappearance will look entirely reasonable."

Without hesitation, Yun Yang stated his thoughts.

Old Huang gave Yun Yang a deep look, then swept his gaze across the assembled group.

"Remember, we know nothing at all, and whatever disappears must do so reasonably."

With that, Old Huang pulled Du Lianfeng along and left directly.

Du Lianfeng looked rather frustrated; she had wanted to hear how they planned to pull it off. As soon as they stepped outside, she blurted out,

"Old Huang, shouldn't we at least listen to the plan?"

Old Huang smiled at her and turned to walk away.

"We know nothing at all."

His voice drifted back from the distance.

Du Lianfeng gave a bitter laugh and said nothing more, turning back to attend to her own affairs.

With the two of them gone, the atmosphere inside immediately relaxed considerably, and everyone began to discuss the matter openly.

The first to speak was Liu Chuang, who had been bottling up a fire inside him.

"Yangzi, let's just go over there and hack them to pieces! I've been furious this whole time, especially over the things they said about Qiangwei; it was utterly vile."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than his ear was firmly pinched by He Weilan.

"Hack, hack, hack—that's all you ever think about! Did you not hear him say their disappearance needs to look reasonable?"

Ge Xiaolun put down his teacup and said in a deep voice,

"Yangzi, should I just use my definition power on them? That way it should happen without a sound."

"No, I want to hack them to pieces myself."

Yun Yang drew the King's Sword, gave it a practice swing, and spoke.

Liu Chuang chimed in again at this point.

"Look, Yangzi says he wants to hack them too, I..."

Before Liu Chuang could finish, he was cut off by He Weilan.

"Anyone else can hack them, but you certainly can't."

Faced with He Weilan's arbitrary decree, Liu Chuang could only raise his hands in surrender.

Leona spread her hands toward Yun Yang.

"This is your Earth's business, and besides, I don't do assassinations."

"Assassination is easy. Figuring out how to neutralize the fallout is the real problem."

Listening to everyone's chatter, Qiin rolled her eyes and pointed out the core issue.

Seeing Qiin cut straight to the point, the others turned their gazes toward her, eager to hear if she had any good insights.

"Why are you all looking at me? I can blow their heads off with a single shot, but how do we clean up the aftermath?"

"These days of protests and demonstrations haven't exactly been peaceful, and they've spawned countless incidents of smashing, looting, and burning. Can we make use of that angle?"

After pondering for a long time, Zhao Xin spoke up in a deep voice.

Everyone's eyes lit up as they shifted their focus to Zhao Xin.

Zhao Xin quickly waved his hands, looking somewhat unnatural.

"Don't look at me, I'm just making a suggestion. Look at Yangzi instead."

Under everyone's gaze, Yun Yang pondered for a brief moment before speaking.

"Have you ever heard of social death?"

The group fell silent in unison, exchanged glances, and looked back at Yun Yang, waiting for an explanation.

"I know this one. The literal definition is when a person is publicly recognized as dead by their friends, family, and neighbors—that's called social death."

Qiin raised her hand to offer an explanation.

Seeing the puzzled looks on everyone's faces, Yun Yang chimed in to clarify.

"There's another interpretation as well: making such a fool of yourself in public that you lose all face, feeling so mortified you wish the ground would open up so you can crawl into it. That's also referred to as social death."

"Yangzi, you mean you want the public to utterly despise and ostracize them, right?"

Ge Xiaolun asked.

Yun Yang nodded slightly, confirming his deduction.

At this moment, Su Xiaoli raised a query.

"We don't have any dirt on them, though. How are we supposed to pull this off?"

"As for unearthing dirt, don't we have the absolute best candidate right here?"

Yun Yang said pointedly. Catching the subtext, everyone collectively turned their gaze toward Su Xiaoli.

Su Xiaoli's expression stiffened, and she asked timidly,

"Why... why are you all looking at me?"

The others said nothing, but the meaning in their eyes was glaringly obvious.

Su Xiaoli pouted, looking thoroughly reluctant.

"Fine, fine! I'll go, okay?"

With the plan finalized, Yun Yang, Ge Xiaolun, and Su Xiaoli set off for the venue where Willis was scheduled to give a speech today.

There, Willis's people were already busy setting up the podium.

The appearance of Su Xiaoli as an absolute beauty naturally attracted the attention of quite a few passersby, but none of the three paid them any mind.

Instead, they entered a nearby café to await Willis's arrival.

Around noon, a crowd brandishing placards and banners arrived in an imposing procession.

"We must declare war on the demonic forces!"

"The Xiongbing Lian must submit to the will of the people!"

"The Xiongbing Lian is unworthy of guarding Earth!"

"Severely punish the traitor Qiangwei!"

"Qiangwei, get out of Earth!"

Such slogans echoed endlessly. Unconsciously, Yun Yang crushed the coffee cup in his hand, his cold gaze fixed on the man currently standing on the stage.

Taking a few deep breaths to suppress the urge to go hack the man down right then and there, he turned his gaze to Su Xiaoli.

"It's him. The one on the stage."

"Mm, I know."

Su Xiaoli wasn't in high spirits either. After all, she had fought to protect people who showed no appreciation for it; no one would feel happy in that position.

Ge Xiaolun glanced at the coffee stain in front of Yun Yang. With a wave of his hand, the stain vanished, and a fresh cup of coffee appeared before Yun Yang.

"Yangzi, don't get worked up. Once we find the dirt, we'll make him know the true meaning of despair."

Yun Yang nodded gently to show he was fine, keeping his eyes unblinkingly fixed on the stage.

By around three o'clock in the afternoon, the speech concluded. Willis's close entourage departed, as the remaining matters were beneath his current status to care about.

Just as they finished a meal and stepped out of the restaurant, they ran into a stunning Eastern girl right at the entrance. She approached Willis and expressed her admiration for him.

His associates were tactful enough to immediately find excuses and slip away.

Willis didn't harbor the slightest suspicion, after all, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

To be honest, Willis had almost gotten used to it by now, and sometimes even felt like saying he should have skipped enlisting as a soldier altogether.

On the way to the hotel, Willis finally got a clear look at this girl's face. Her peerless beauty was something he felt completely incapable of describing, because any words paled into utter insignificance before her appearance.

A bizarre notion bloomed in his heart: this would be his future wife, the person he loved most in the world. She was so utterly mesmerizing that it felt as though he could gladly lay down his life to protect her.

And the girl Willis wished to protect was none other than our Su Xiaoli—specifically, Su Xiaoli with her charm attribute cranked all the way up.