Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 94: Ant Nest

Fu Xingchuan, who was running, made a gesture, and the heavy stone gate opened in response. There was a faint light shining inside the door as the cold wind blew out.

Fu Xingchuan’s scarlet flames enveloped the five people as he took the lead and rushed into the stone gate. Li Nian followed closely behind. When he passed the door frame, he retracted the green willow whips in his hand. The scalps of Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo narrowly brushed against the ceiling of the cave, and they managed to escape the fate of bumping their heads against the threshold.

The sound of cracking and things breaking sounded behind them as the stalagmites bit into each other, blocking the stone gate tightly.

Fu Xingchuan breathed a sigh of relief as he stopped and put Qi Xin down. “Miss Qi, are you alright?”

Ordinary people probably wouldn’t see such a special effect-like scene in their entire lives. Qi Xin’s face was pale, and her neat hair was loose. The ends of her eyes became redder, and a few strands of hair were stuck to her cheeks with sweat. It wasn’t surprising if she cried in the next second.

Fortunately, she was barely conscious.

“I’m fine,” Qi Xin said stiffly.

After saying this, she didn’t say anything else, as usual. Qi Xin just glanced at Fu Xingchuan with her slender eyes, as if trying to remember his appearance.

Fu Xingchuan was a little surprised to see such a calm crowd. Instead of breaking the subject, he walked back to the entrance of the stone gate. A round ball of fire ignited in his palm and illuminated the gate.

The appearance of those “stalagmites” was also revealed in front of them. They were yellow and white, with thick and dark dirt on them. The dirt was brownish red to almost black, exuding a faint fishy smell.

They clenched tightly, blocking the stone gate door.

They looked like teeth.

Fu Xingchuan let out a long sigh. The fireball in his hand jumped twice. “The mechanism here is interesting.”

He snapped his fingers with his free hand, causing Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo, who were floating, to suddenly fall. Zhong Chengshuo knelt on the ground decently, but his clothes weren’t as neat—as a science post, Zhong Chengshuo was invulnerable to ghosts and spirits, but his clothes weren’t immune to the levitation spells. He was basically carried around by his clothes, which were affected by the spell, so his shirt was a mess and a section around his waist was missing.

Yin Ren played stupid to the end and fell on his ass on the stone floor.

It had to be said that Lord Ghost King’s appearance was quite advantageous. Yin Ren’s movements were quite embarrassing; his face was lined with black hair, which made the entire picture quite pleasing to the eye.

Unfortunately, except for Zhong Chengshuo, who was seriously watching, the others weren’t the least bit fooled.

The stalagmite teeth didn’t grow beyond the stone door, so they were barely safe. Professor Li didn’t let go of the green willow whips. They were still wrapped around Zhong Chengshuo’s and Yin Ren’s wrists, tightening like shackles. The scene looked like they were prisoners being escorted, or as if they were being walked like dogs.

With one hand tied to the wicker whip, it wasn’t convenient for them to move freely. This caused Zhong Chengshuo’s brows to curl a bit.

Yin Ren expressed dissatisfaction across his entire face. Perhaps because his gaze was too direct, Professor Li casually said, “I don’t know how to perform spells, so I can drag you over at any time. This makes it more convenient to protect you.”

‘Rather, putting it another way, this was more so to prevent us from stabbing you in the back,’ Yin Ren muttered in his heart.

But they really didn’t take advantage of the situation—this unfortunate accident was really triggered by them. Yin Ren was in a daze for a while. Since entering Shian, he hadn’t encountered a “smooth” case.

Could it be that the 1,000-year-old Evil Spirit’s peach blossoms* have all withered and he has overdrawn his last remaining luck?

*Peach blossoms are often associated with love and luck.

He glanced at Zhong Chengshuo from the corner of his eyes. His gaze was colliding with Zhong Chengshuo’s gaze. In the dim stone cave, those black eyes didn’t have any trace of luster. The man was tidying his clothes as his gaze floated over after a while, making Yin Ren’s cheeks itch.

Yin Ren scratched the side of his face in satisfaction.

Seeing that Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo had calmed down, Fu Xingchuan bluntly instructed, “If you have nothing to do, go inside first. There’s wind here, so there must be a way out. As long as I can find a crack, I can blow it up.”

“Lao Li, look at the environmental indicators. Don’t let our people administer mold or poison gas. Miss Qi, please follow me and let me know if you are tired.”

Qi Xin nodded.

The passage behind the stone gate wasn’t long, and the firelight at the end was even a normal, warm color, with a faint smell of human smoke.

Fu Xingchuan walked in front as usual. The flame shield turned into two thick fire dragons. They bent their long bodies to protect the group of people. In the firelight, the scales of the little dragons were clear, and the dragon’s eyes would turn around cautiously, as if they were alive.

Zhong Chengshuo stretched out his hand to touch it, but the dragon bent its body skillfully and avoided his finger. He watched it go around regretfully and then stared at Yin Ren’s hair.

This time, Yin Ren failed to look at him with “a tacit understanding”.

…Yin Ren smelled the stench of corpses.

Very many, very old corpses. They were lying at the end of the tunnel, waiting for them quietly. The faint scent was sent out by the wind, wrapping them like corpse gauze.

There was no problem with the corpses themselves. Many ancient burial pits would have the smell of old corpses—the problem was, those corpses were mixed with strong and weak Evil Force. It mixed in with the smell, which made the faint stench of the corpses icy cold.

What was worse, the Evil Force didn’t originate from the same Evil Spirit.

Fu Xingchuan probably also realized something was wrong as he walked slower.

The appearance of this bigshot from Shian hadn’t changed, but Yin Ren could feel the churning of that person’s power—like a beast hiding behind the bushes, Fu Xingchuan was ready to throw a fatal blow at any moment.

The stone tunnel wasn’t long, but Yin Ren felt they had been in it for 10,000 years.

Finally, they stepped into the light at the end of the tunnel.

They were in the interior of a building that looked extremely old. It had everlasting lights burning on the wall. The lights shook gently with the wind, illuminating the surrounding scene…

Qi Xin took two steps back and covered her mouth and nose. She froze in place blankly, showing a look of not knowing if she should vomit.

The building was spacious and gorgeous, with a mottled mural. The style of the painting was typical in the Gong Dynasty. Most of the murals were hidden in the shadows, and the parts that were illuminated by the fire could only vaguely show figures of people and evil things. They didn’t know what the ingredients of the vermillion pigments were, but thousands of years later, it was still so bright that it was dazzling.

There was an empty altar in the center of the room. It was painted with the same red color as the murals and was so bright that it seemed out of place. They could see that something had been originally placed on it but was later removed.

But there were still many “things” that hadn’t been removed.

For example, those extremely distorted and deformed mummified corpses that were bound in chains and charms on the wall. They were chained to the wall and almost blended in with the distorted murals.

Yin Ren knew that the corpses belonged to people, but he only judged by the smell.

Looking at the appearance of those things, it was difficult to classify them into the category of “people”.

The nearest body to them was more than two meters high. The corpse’s shoulders were bent and folded, so that the person’s armpits were almost flush with the hip bone. His arms and legs were the same length, folding into a shape like a comb with only four teeth.

The man’s head was embedded in the middle of his arched upper body, and his mouth was abnormally enlarged, almost piercing into his chest. Above the huge mouth, there were only two erect human eyes. They were so shrunk that they were only the size of a thumbnail and were hard to spot unless they examined them carefully.

His—or her—withered arms stretched out of the altar, and his deformed mouth was open wide, revealing teeth the size of a child’s fist. They didn’t know whether he was screaming or cursing.

And this was just the most “normal” one among them.

Beside it, another corpse had a head as big as a torso. Its facial features were all over its head. A little further away, the skin of the corpses was extremely proliferated, as if the person in the center was wrapped in layers, like a withered fresh flower.

Their appearance was too bizarre. When ordinary people saw it, it would take them a while to “figure out what this is” before realizing that “it’s a corpse”.

Everyone in Shian was silent for a moment.

Half a minute later, Zhong Chengshuo took out his phone and backpack and coughed lightly. “Can I take pictures and take samples?”

Yin Ren could hear that he tried extremely hard to suppress the expectation in his voice, but unfortunately, he wasn’t very successful.

To Zhong Chengshuo, this wasn’t like entering an underground monument full of strange corpses but rather like a five-year-old child wandering around a candy store.

Fu Xingchuan looked at Zhong Chengshuo speechlessly. “…You can take pictures.”

“Don’t touch anything besides the corpses,” before Fu Xingchuan finished speaking, Li Nian added. “This building was left over from the Gong Dynasty, and it’s well preserved. The murals and stone carvings are important cultural relics.”

Fu Xingchuan glanced at his partner even more inexplicably. He exhaled slowly and summoned more than a dozen fire dragons.

“I’ll look around,” he said casually.

Minister Fu’s tone was understated. The scene in the area was huge…

More than a dozen fire dragons with elongated bodies were drilled out along the doors and windows of the area. They circled and shuttled around the space with their flame, which was blazing like the scorching sun, illuminating the dark underground into a bloody dusk.

At the same time, Fu Xingchuan crossed his hands. A water curtain appeared under the dome of the building, suddenly creating a miniature mirage.

The scenes around the fire dragons were shrunk one by one on the water curtain.

Looking out from the huge doors and windows of the area, the door leading outside was still a door, and the windows were still windows. Buildings of different dynasties were stacked and overlapped, making this place look like a mix-and-match insect nest.

The air around the fire dragon was a little warmer, and under the toasting of their heat, the smell of corpses came from all directions.

The scene on the water curtain Fu Xingchuan made was silent for a while before he activated his headset.

“Lu Xiaohe, go get Hao Wenzhe,” he said.

“Things are getting a bit exciting. We found the biggest ‘Ant Nest’ so far.”

Lu Xiaohe: “……”

Lu Xiaohe: “…Ant Nest?”

Including the Snake Swallowing, the development of this execution mission was simply getting more outrageous.

“That kid Xiang Jiang can’t even do a good job investigating. Sunken Society is using the mines to raise evil things? …We thought this was a dog cage of Sunken Society, but it turns out that was just the guard dog. The specialty dishes are behind it.”

A fire dragon circled Fu Xingchuan, reflecting the color of his red tunic so brightly that it almost burned. Li Nian clicked his tongue loudly and tightened the willow whips in his hand. Zhong Chengshuo was solemnly slicing the corpse when he was dragged by the long willow whip and almost scratched his hand.

“What is the ‘Ant Nest’?” Yin Ren asked knowingly.

“Sunken Society is a very old organization. You must have learned about it.”

Fu Xingchuan scratched the stubble on his chin.

“They also have their own research division. Previously, Huajisi, uh, Shian’s predecessor, closely tracked them but could only find a limited number of hidden places. In addition, some ‘research materials’ are difficult to transfer. After a research building is scrapped, they will build a new one near the original site… They call this complex of research buildings the ‘Ant Nest’.”

Above the water curtains, layers of buildings blend with each other, which was countless times more “prosperous” than the mountain town above ground. It had been abandoned for thousands of years, but the everlasting lights in the building hadn’t been extinguished for a long time. In the chaotic darkness, it was like a behemoth with countless open eyes.

Yin Ren nodded. “Since this is an abandoned test site from Sunken Society, shouldn’t they protect it properly?”

However at Fu Xingchuan’s level, there was a high probability that he didn’t need to be induced.

Sure enough, Fu Xingchuan gave him a meaningful look. “The experimental buildings aren’t easy to build. They must have abandoned it because there’s some kind of ‘danger’ here. As for what that danger is, it depends on the research topic of this damn place.”

Sunken Society didn’t deliberately hide this Ant Nest. Since the beginning of the Gong Dynasty, this Ant Nest hadn’t been discovered by Huajisi for thousands of years.

This only represented one thing—no one from the “right side” who had seen this Ant Nest had lived to tell the tale.

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 93: Convergence

The breath came quickly and stopped not far from them. It was well hidden in the dark. If its opponent weren’t a 1,000-year-old Evil Spirit, no one would have noticed that something was wrong.

The thing that was approaching was alive.

Not only was it a living entity, but its breath was also a little familiar. Yin Ren twitched his nose slightly.

In the slightly fishy vapors, he smelled a mixture of tobacco and coffee from Fu Xingchuan, as well as the cologne that Professor Li often used. As a powerful science post, Professor Li’s life response wouldn’t be any different from that of other animals, so naturally his aura was hidden.

Shian attached great importance to their execution mission, and the one who came to the bottom was actually its top combat power. Since Fu Xingchuan didn’t approach immediately, it seemed that their execution mission had to continue.

They were simply pushing the boat along the water. Did they want to see how they would “deal” with the hot potato named Qi Xin?

…There was still such a margin. It seemed that even Fu Xingchuan and Professor Li hadn’t noticed that something was wrong here. Yin Ren squeezed Dog Thing, who was continuing to play dead, speechlessly.

This thing stubbornly refused to pay attention to him, and its battery was at 43%, as if it really was powered by an actual battery.

Even though Dog Thing didn’t speak human words and its brain wasn’t very good, it was still good at predicting unexpected crises—especially those that were inexplicable—and its predictions were usually accurate.

He didn’t know what kind of “powerhouse” they encountered this time. Yin Ren tried to feel out the evil qi, but the underground evil qi was mixed. The aura of various sources was boiling like a pot of laba congee, and he couldn’t find any obviously suspicious taste.

Unfortunately, in front of outsiders, he couldn’t test it with his hair. Sunken Society had lasted for thousands of years and could live under Shian’s eyes for so long, which meant they must have some hidden ability.

Time passed with the sound of the water droplets. The three of them were sitting quietly around the fire at the center of the stone slate, giving off a posture as if they had been squatting there forever.

A few minutes passed.

“Strange.” Lu Xiaohe’s voice bounced in their ears. “There’s something wrong with the topographic map nearby… Yin Ren, please describe the surrounding situation again.”

Yin Ren: “Deep underground. It’s very dark, there are many stalagmites, and the water just past the instep has accumulated. We are resting on a stone slab right now and haven’t noticed any abnormal evil spirits for the time being.”

“Zhong Chengshuo, what do you see?”

“I can’t feel any evil spirits, and the other scenes are similar to what Yin Ren just described.”

Lu Xiaohe was silent for a while.

“…But there’s obviously no water there, and it’s not a cave landscape,” she said. “According to the topographical map, there’s not even space underground at that location.”

“Where on earth are you?”

Zhong Chengshuo held the rehydration solution he had prepared and fell into a state of confusion visible to the naked eye.

“But my inference can’t be wrong,” he murmured.

Yin Ren poked a strand of hair into the water. The groundwater wasn’t as cold as he imagined. He tasted the unique salty taste of turbid water, which was too real to be denied.

Could it be that Zhong Chengshuo got the coordinates wrong?

No… No. Zhong Chengshuo was the kind of person who wouldn’t speak too much if he was even a bit uncertain. As the strongest Nightwalker, he wouldn’t have made such an outrageous mistake.

Beside him, the tips of Zhong Chengshuo’s hair drooped a bit. He held the rehydration fluid with both hands, still immersed in the wonder and shock that “he may have miscalculated”.

Yin Ren had a general guess, but he didn’t like it very much.

Lord Ghost King thought for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Xiaohe Jie, since we don’t know where we are now, we’ll stay put and let the rescuers find us using GPS.”

The surrounding situation was unknown, but the environment was fairly stable. It would be foolish for them to wander around.

Moreover, Tweedle Fu and Tweedle Li* were by their side, so Lu Xiaohe would definitely report this abnormal situation quickly. Yin Ren didn’t have the heart to fight against the unknown, so he simply dragged out an inflatable cushion from his backpack and cheered up.

*Clarity: He’s referring to them as (大傻)and (二傻) which mean big fool and even bigger fool. You can think of it as him giving them nicknames, so I used a Tweedledum and Tweedledee reference.

When the cushion swept into Qi Xin’s gaze, for the first time, it brought on a “speechless” emotion on her face.

……

Not far away, among the stalagmites.

“According to the coordinates given by Zhong Chengshuo, this should be solid land?” Fu Xingchuan leaned on the stalagmite while licking the coffee candy in his mouth. “Lao Li, do you think that kid miscalculated?”

Li Nian bent down to scoop up a handful of water, letting the underground water slip through his fingers.

“Sunken Society’s evil thing. Describe it again,” Li Nian said in a deep voice.

“Snake Swallowing. A Class A-B abnormal phenomenon. It mainly induces greed and jealousy in living people, leaving behind rampant disasters wherever it goes… Professor Li should remember these basic information better than me.”

After Xian Jiang reported the discovery of the Snake Swallowing, Fu Xingchuan directly chose it as the “examination question” for the execution mission.

Snake Swallowing was a rare and powerful evil. Wherever this thing went, the living would plummet into chaos, leaving behind decay in the aftermath. That was to say, the Snake Swallowing was sealed in the mine. Otherwise, the situation in Gengsheng Town would have been much worse.

Not to mention the human chaos it caused, Snake Swallowing itself was really strong. If Unit 9 could work together and escape the Snake Swallowing, then their strength would be at least an A-level, and they might even be comparable to the Emergency Management Department.

Whether it could induce greed in people’s hearts or a baby egg raised by Sunken Society, there was no better suitable test than this. Seeing their perfect execution mission disrupted, Fu Xingchuan was heartbroken.

“I do remember the basic information.” Professor Li was noncommittal about this “perfect topic”. “What I want to ask is, can Snake Swallowing develop the ability to create environmental illusions?”

Fu Xingchuan snorted. “How is that possible? You science posts are difficult to deal with. Didn’t you guys specifically calculate before? To really create an illusion that covers the environment, it must be a monster older than a thousand years. To raise that kind of thing, it would take…”

Minister Fu’s snort got stuck in his throat, and he almost choked on the coffee candy.

“It would have to require a very large space.” Li Nian ignored his partner, who was coughing in the dark. “For example, underneath a mountain town.”

“Of course, I’m just suggesting a possibility,” he added slowly and methodically.

Fu Xingchuan took a breath, snapped the coffee candy, and the smile on his face completely disappeared. “I don’t feel a special aura. Assuming what you said is true, the monster must have been passed down from the ancestors of Sunken Society.”

“A 1,000-year-old monster; an ancient stronghold. Lao Li, you know what this represents.”

Professor Li sighed in the dark.

“This represents the ‘execution mission’ of Unit 9 is perhaps the most exaggerated one in the history of Shian… No, in the entire history before even Shian,” he said calmly. “Of course, it may just be that Zhong Chengshuo miscalculated the coordinates.”

Fu Xingchuan let out a long sigh.

He grabbed his slightly messy hair, and the next moment, he ignited a crimson light.

“Lu Xiaohe, inform Unit 9 that we’ll rendezvous with them immediately.”

“Minister Fu?! The execution mission…”

“It won’t work this time, but there’ll be a next time.” Fu Xingchuan raised his head toward the light of the fire ignited by the talisman. “The situation has become complicated. There are innocent people over there, so we can’t afford to bet.”

……

Yin Ren had finished inflating his cushion. The bouncy air cushion rested on the stone slab as he sorted out his mood for a while, ready to carry out his duty as a salted fish to the end.

While Qi Xin wasn’t paying attention, he separated a strand of hair and poked Zhong Chengshuo, who was still racking his brain calculating his error, and affectionately displayed his full cushion.

First, he attracted the tangled Zhong Chengshuo to take a break, and then he leaned over without a trace. According to Lord Ghost King’s experience, two people leaning next to each other would definitely speed up this long, boring time.

“Don’t think about it. Just lean over and rest—”

Boom!

Yin Ren’s courtship cushion suddenly exploded.

A stalagmite pierced through the stone platform and rose from the ground. It pierced the air cushion directly and grazed Yin Ren’s temples. The black hair poking Zhong Chengshuo was stunned stiff, while the latter was stung by steel needle-like hair, causing him to jump up.

In the frantically wavering fire, the ground shook with weird waves. The stone platform cracked open, and more stalagmites protruded from the water droplets. Yin Ren’s pupils shrank as he suddenly extinguished the flames. The moment the darkness fell, he stretched out one hand and grabbed Qi Xin. A few hair strands wrapped around Zhong Chengshuo’s feet, ready to go…

At this moment, another flash of fire cut through the darkness.

In the light of the fire, Fu Xingchuan’s red tunic was quite conspicuous. He rushed straight at Qi Xin as hundreds of flames intertwined, forming a spherical shield. The stalagmites poking out were instantly burned to dust. Yin Ren retracted his hair in an instant and froze his movements as he took advantage of the situation.

Behind Fu Xingchuan, Li Nian was like a shadow. He looked thin, but his movements were quite powerful. He threw out two black wooden poles with both hands, and amidst the strong evil qi, two flexible willow branches sprang out from the wooden poles, forming two green willow whips.

The willow branches unceremoniously wrapped around Yin Ren’s and Zhong Chengshuo’s waists and rolled them towards Li Nian’s feet.

Stalagmites were still growing tirelessly. Fu Xingchuan clicked his tongue, and as he threw out several floating charms, he picked up the dumbfounded Qi Xin with one hand. Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were instantly transformed into human balloons and were dragged up and down in the air by Li Nian.

Behind them, stalagmites grew wildly from the top and bottom of the caves. They were like the sharp teeth of a beast, biting aggressively, and one almost gnawed off Yin Ren’s shoes.

Fu Xingchuan and Li Nian’s shoes were definitely high-grade spirit weapons—the two avoided the crazy growth of stalagmites and tried to run in the direction where the evil qi was weakest at a speed comparable to that of a small car. Under the illumination of the flame, the scenery on both sides quickly retreated, and Yin Ren’s face was almost blown out of shape.

“Minister Fu, ahem. Why are you here?” Amidst the wind, Yin Ren asked firmly.

Minister Fu hurriedly kicked the back of his head with his feet. “Just passing by!”

Yin Ren: “…..”

Yin Ren: “Minister Fu…”

“Don’t ask questions now!” Fu Xingchuan yelled as he frantically threw spells one after another behind him. The red flames were accompanied by the sound of explosions that made their ears ring.

“No.”

Yin Ren pointed forward.

“There’s a door—!”

The stagnant water underground had disappeared at some point, and there was no longer darkness in front of them, but a blueish-white flame. Two groups of will-o’-the-wisps floated on an old stone seat, faintly illuminating a stone gate.

It was a very weak door.

Facing the crazy pouring stalagmites, they had no choice.

“All ready!”

Fu Xingchuan’s side was surrounded by fire.

“Lao Li, let’s go in—!”

The author has something to say:

Xiao Yin bitterly lost his courtship cushion, so next time, he might as well conjure up a body cushion instead (?

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 92: Playing Dead

From discovering the vision to inferring the current situation, Yin Ren’s head only turned for a moment.

He didn’t have time to confirm with Zhong Chengshuo and activated Coffin Nails immediately. The ghost contract was activated to its maximum extent. Hu Tao and Grandpa Lu appeared at the same time—they didn’t have time to figure out the situation and just grabbed the two unconscious girls under the coercion of the contract and dragged them up with force.

Hu Tao carried Ge Tingting like a chicken, while Grandpa Lu went to catch Qi Xin. Two fierce ghosts rushed like a hurricane towards the light at the end of the tunnel, but as soon as Lu Tanfei was about two steps away, he looked at his hands suspiciously.

The blue and white withered hands were empty, and he failed to catch Qi Xin.

Qi Xin lived in a closed town where evil things were rampant, but it turned out she was a weak science post.

Yin Ren made a quick decision and made a gesture. Grandpa Lu helped Hu Tao carry Ge Tingting, and with the blessings of two ghosts, Ge Tingting was ejected towards the entrance of the cave like a cannonball. The little girl didn’t care about her inability to speak and let out a series of screams of unknown ravings.

Qi Xin heard the sound and left the single room. She held onto the wall of the cave with a face full of doubts.

It was hard to say whether her decision was right or wrong.

Because in the next moment, when Ge Tingting rushed towards the light, the scenery in front of everyone suddenly changed. The deformed tunnel tilted over and transformed from a tunnel into a bottomless, giant well. A strong evil qi blew wildly from the bottom up. While the summer heat hadn’t dissipated, the cave turned into an icy tunnel as if it were winter, making people unable to straighten their knuckles.

Lighting completely disappeared, and everything was so dark that they couldn’t even see their five fingers.

The moment the light disappeared, Zhong Chengshuo drew his knife in an instant and pierced the nearest rock crevice. He stepped on the raised stone and was able to maintain his balance in less than a second.

Yin Ren stepped into the air and floated in mid-air. He had just stabilized himself when he heard the sound of the earth rumbling from behind…

Qi Xin was wearing a professional uniform that made it inconvenient for her to move. She didn’t even have a pen on her, so she could only fall down the cave in a daze. Yin Ren hurriedly stretched out his hand and grabbed onto Qi Xin’s wrist to catch her.

Immediately afterwards, Yin Ren turned around and sent himself into Zhong Chengshuo’s arms.

“Hold my waist,” he said in a deep voice. “This matter isn’t over yet.”

Zhong Chengshuo hugged Yin Ren’s waist silently—Mr. Ghost King’s waist was strong and thin, which allowed him to hold it firmly.

Everything happened within a blink of an eye.

In the dense darkness, the three of them were suspended in midair. The mine was still twisting and wriggling like crazy. They were like flying insects trapped inside an empty Rubik’s cube, and they could only watch the world twist into a ball in vain.

Outside the cave.

Ge Tingting was almost shot out of the hole as if she were an intercontinental missile. Fortunately, the two ghosts were conscious enough and remembered to slow her descent near the end. After she finally stopped, Ge Tingting could hardly breathe. She could only pant, letting out sharp whistling from her breath.

But this didn’t affect her AI voice transmission. “Something happened inside. There was a magic attack, and Qi Xin didn’t run out.”

Xiang Jiang’s voice came from a few steps away. “Understood.”

Ge Tingting wiped the cold sweat off her face and looked in Xiang Jiang’s direction. Seeing this, she almost choked to death on her own breath.

The Xiang Jiang in front of her had no eyeballs, and there was only thick darkness in its place.

Xiang Jiang’s face was frighteningly pale, and the blood vessels under his skin were showing a strange, purple-black color, like a poisonous root system. With a distorted expression on his face, he twisted his head at an angle that no living person could and “looked” up and down.

Ge Tingting tensed her body vigilantly and rubbed her eyes hard—this Xiang Jiang wasn’t right. He was too tall, and there was something beside him.

Looking intently again, her heartbeat didn’t know whether to stabilize or speed up.

…There were two Xiang Jiang in front of her.

One of the Xiang Jiang had a human face. He held a yellow talisman between his fingers and looked solemnly into the cave. The one without eyes was floating behind him and was currently bending over with his lips close to the real Xiang Jiang’s ears. He covered his right hand with his sharp nails as the eyeless “Xiang Jiang” hissed and whispered.

It was a ghost that looked exactly like Xiang Jiang.

The ghostly presence was so thick that it was like a substance, making people seem as if they were submerged in icy water from head to toe. Hu Tao and Lu Tanfei took two steps back uncontrollably and then disappeared in place.

Ge Tingting swallowed. She subconsciously wanted to step forward but was pulled back by Huang Jin.

“Don’t go over there.” Huang Jin had an ugly expression on his face.

Before his voice fell, the ghost “Xiang Jiang” noticed Ge Tingting’s movements. He once again turned his head at a terrifying angle, and his jaw opened abnormally wide, letting out a low, threatening howl.

Countless evil qi condensed into invisible needles, and all of them pierced Ge Tingting’s eyes in an instant. Ge Tingting was so shocked that her scalp went numb, and her legs were so soft she couldn’t move.

“Xiang Hai,” Xiang Jiang warned.

Only then did the malicious, fierce ghost named “Xiang Hai” turn his head around again.

“Yin Ren and the others encountered something.” Ge Tingting barely regained her strength to control her limbs as she played out the AI voice.

Xiang Jiang ignored her as he quickly dialed a number. “Enemy attack, enemy unknown. Unit 9 partners and an unrelated citizen are missing.”

A vague reply came from the other end of the line. Xiang Jiang pursed his lips, threw out an “Okay”, and hung up the call.

“Continue to investigate the evil things in the cave. Before the situation is clarified, the three of us will turn to investigate external factors.”

Ge Tingting’s face stiffened. “What about those three people?”

“Oh, there are colleagues from the Emergency Management Department in the cave. They are performing other tasks and can take over rescuing them,” Xiang Jiang said. “Before the situation is clarified, you don’t need to rush over. It’ll just delay things.”

After he finished speaking, he clapped his hands and the fierce ghost Xiang Hai dispersed in response.

Ge Tingting and Huang Jin: “……”

Given Xiang Jiang’s tone, there didn’t seem to be any room for them to refute.

“Let’s go. Find out the true body of the evil thing faster, and you can also help those two people.” Huang Jin patted Ge Tingting on the shoulder.

Xiang Jiang’s cloudy eyes paused for a moment on Huang Jin’s face.

“Interesting. You don’t seem worried about them at all,” he said, seemingly unintentionally.

Huang Jin: “You have read my profile. We criminals are heavy-hearted.”

Xiang Jiang snorted meaningfully, turned around, and walked out of the cave.

“Stay away from Xiang Jiang’s ghost.” After confirming that Xiang Jiang had gone far enough, Huang Jin turned to Ge Tingting. “That ghost is very bad. That kind of resentment is rare among Nightwalkers.. If it weren’t for knowing Shian’s style, I would have suspected this person was poached from Sunken Society.”

Ge Tingting rubbed the goosebumps on her arms. “I think it’s okay.”

“Because that thing kept its hands away from you.” Huang Jin raised his hand, and there was a conspicuous black corrosion wound on his lower arm. “Look at this… When it first came out, I just leaned over and took a look.”

Ge Tingting was speechless.

She learned a lot of basic knowledge in Shian, which naturally included the basics on ghost masters.

Corpse servants and ghost masters were very similar in one point—the stronger the “karma” between the corpses and ghosts they used and themselves, the greater the ability they could exert.

In order to pursue power, some evil cultivators even intentionally mutilate their relatives and friends, turning them into power weapons.

The ability of a ghost master was largely determined by the quality of the ghost. Xiang Jiang had such a fierce ghost, so it wasn’t surprising he could become the “#1 ghost master in Haigu”.

“Sister, are you there?” After a while, Ge Tingting tapped on her headset. “Are Yin Ge and Zhong Ge okay?”

“I just contacted them. They are fine. You two listen to Xiang Jiang’s command first.” There was an inexplicable sense of exhaustion in Lu Xiaohe’s voice. “Waiting on you guys… Well, when you all come back, I’ll definitely file an application for a salary adjustment.”

Ge Tingting: “……”

Lu Xiaohe still had the energy to joke, so it seemed like the situation should be fine over there.

……

In fact, technically speaking, the three people in the cave weren’t considered fine.

The twisting performance of the mine lasted for more than ten minutes, forcing Yin Ren to fly left and right. After the rock wall stopped squirming, Comrade Xiao Zhong brought heavy news…

“We are deep underground.” He turned on the light he was carrying and spoke with great certainty.

Qi Xin: “How do you know?”

“Calculating Yin Ren’s flight, we’re roughly southeast underground from Gengsheng Town.”

Zhong Chengshuo put a bundle of lighting lamps on his head like a miner’s lamp and tapped on his headset to clearly report their coordinates.

At first, the communication on Lu Xiaohe’s side was staticky, but she quickly adjusted the channel.

“Copy that.”

Lu Xiaohe’s voice was clear. In the face of pure evil qi, Shian’s communication equipment finally came into play.

“I found the place. The underground structure there is very complicated. Take care of Qi Xin and don’t wander around.”

After experiencing the storms and waves in the Archive, their rear commander sounded a bit contradictory, as if she wanted to be nervous but couldn’t get nervous.

“I suggest you find a dry place to camp. Zhong Chengshuo, pay attention to the toxic gasses and oxygen content in the air—I’m analyzing the nearby topographic map. The results will be available in four minutes. There are senior employees of Shian nearby. They will come to rescue you soon.” Lu Xiaohe arranged things in an orderly manner.

Zhong Chengshuo: “The attacker?”

“Unknown,” Lu Xiaohe sighed. “If you didn’t notice someone or an evil thing approaching, then it was probably a trigger for some magic mechanism from Sunken Society. But I’m just guessing. There’s no evidence to make a conclusion.”

Zhong Chengshuo nodded. The light on his head rose and fell with his movements. Qi Xin was still quiet. She let Yin Ren hold her arms without complaining.

‘Quite a good mechanism,’ Yin Ren thought.

The question was “who” arranged it and “when” the mechanism was deployed. For the mine, the location of the so-called mechanism was too shallow, and the strength was too strong. When the accident happened, there was no fluctuation in spells when the mechanism triggered.

This incident was too weird. Shian was probably more surprised than they were.

Unfortunately, he had to do a full manual guidance task. Yin Ren sighed inwardly as he carefully landed on the “ground”.

This place was no better than a dry mine. There was stagnant underground water that was four fingers deep, and around them were snake-teeth like stalagmites. The stagnant water looked like ink under the dim lighting, black and lusterless.

There was a weak life reaction underwater, though ghost knew what was inside.

There was a raised stone platform not far away. It was about the size of a double bed. It wasn’t dry, but at least it was far away from the water. The three of them climbed to the top of the stone platform and began to wring out the water from their shoes and socks.

Yin Ren ignited a fire in the center of the slate, and they surrounded it with their shoes and socks to let it dry. Zhong Chengshuo took out a bunch of items from his backpack and began testing things.

Qi Xin sat honestly in place, like a planter that had been accidentally implicated. Her hair was wet from sweat. She brushed it back behind her ear, revealing a conspicuous stitching scar at the corner of her forehead.

As the fire crackled, the shadow of the protruding scar shook, as if it had life.

Noticing Zhong Chengshuo’s unveiled gaze, Qi Xin straightened her hair again to cover up her scar.

“Car accident,” she explained briefly.

Zhong Chengshuo: “Oh.”

He turned his back and tinkered for a long time, then took out three cups full of clear water. “I mixed in some rehydration fluids.”

“You can’t drink the water here.” Qi Xin frowned.

“I filtered it carefully,” Zhong Chengshuo said sincerely.

Yin Ren tugged at the corner of Zhong Chengshuo’s clothes and leaned his head over. “It’s better not to drink. This place is full of evil qi, so there may be evil insects in the water. It’s useless to boil it. People will get sick even if they drink it.”

Not to mention that everything happened too suddenly, and they didn’t get the chance to bring utensils to boil water.

“I’ve really dealt with it,” Zhong Chengshuo muttered while still maintaining his turned-back posture as he lifted his trousers up a bit.

Yin Ren: “?”

This guy actually brought the Evil Fruit with him. This was good news, but did that have anything to do with whether or not the water could be drunk?

“I stirred each cup thoroughly with the blade,” Zhong Chengshuo whispered solemnly, avoiding Qi Xin. “This is a top-notch cursed spirit weapon. Any microorganisms and evil things inside will be completely annihilated.”

Yin Ren: “……”

How good. This was the first time he had seen someone ruining a top-level cursed spirit weapon… Is this how this knife is supposed to be used? It doesn’t seem like it! For a moment, he seemed as if he could hear the wailing of the Evil Fruit.

Boss Yin couldn’t help but pull out Dog Thing, making it realize how generously it was being treated as an employee.

Dog Thing was lying obediently in its phone case. The screen was pitch black. The hamster pendant on the case dangled from it, casting a shaking shadow in the fire.

[Did you notice anything just now?] As soon as it showed up, it was put to work. Boss Yin typed this to it.

[Siren: I don’t seem to understand. If there’s anything else I can help you with, please let me know.]

[What are you talking about?]

[Siren: I didn’t get that. Please try asking me again.]

Yin Ren choked.

Dog Thing didn’t respond to his question, as if it had turned into a real AI.

The firelight illuminated the small stone platform as darkness wrapped around them in layers. The sound of water was endless, and the thick evil qi surged like mist.

The originally quiet scene suddenly felt a little more dangerous.

And in the depths of the darkness, less than two kilometers away from them, there was a breath approaching fast.

The author has something to say:

Xiao Zhong: Subjectively and deliberately sterilize the water.

<<Shocking, King Yama killed tens of millions of lives in three minutes!>>

The life of microorganisms is also life.jpg

Kinky Thoughts:

The title is referring to how Dog Thing has now become (whether it’s pretending or not) an actual smartphone, so in a sense, like a dog, it’s “playing dead”.

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Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

Chapter 91: Aging

The interior of the mine was dry, and there weren’t many weeds growing. The entrance to the mine was relatively spacious. Sunlight would trickle down from above, illuminating the wooden beams embedded in the cave. The gray wooden beams were covered with a layer of brilliant gold, and the lights and shadows mixed perfectly, lined with fine golden dust at the entrance and exit.

Ignoring the fountain of evil qi coming from the depths of the mine, the scenery at the entrance of the cave had a bit of sacredness.

Xiang Jiang, having the feelings of a thousand-year-old monster, didn’t seem to think so. He made a gesture and signaled the group to enter the cave quickly and get to work.

In the mine, there were still aging wires and lighting that hung on the walls of the cave. The wires had long since dried up and were peeling, and their red and blue colors had turned into muddy brown and gray. However, apart from the cave, neither the clean cave wall nor the flat gravel layer under their feet showed the traces of the years.

As long as the old lights on both sides were replaced, Yin Ren believed that someone would be coming down here to work tomorrow.

Qi Xin was wearing a simple, dark gray office suit. She stood at the entrance of the mine, out of place with the surrounding scenery. The woman spoke little, except when necessary. The cold wind blowing out of the cave stirred her hair. Yin Ren couldn’t detect the slightest breath of a cultivator from her. Whether she was partial to a science post or a metaphysical post, it was impossible to judge based on how much she believed.

They had arrived at their destination. Qi Xin watched as everyone in Unit 9 took out a mess of spirit weapons and started busying themselves without asking a word.

She just stood silently, like a robot who had come to show them the way.

Compared with this office worker, Huang Jin seemed even more worried. “Since we know that there are high-risk evil things that will rise, why do we need to collect data? Aren’t the B-level groups available?”

“So we should just let B-level groups handle things when it’s a little dangerous? What do you want to do? Check on trivial things every day in the city? I remember your information. You weren’t such a pain in the ass when you started working.”

As Xiang Jiang spoke, he bent down and inserted two pieces of wood into a hole.

Using a piece of wood as the center, he started nailing the wood chips one by one. The small nubs of the wooden nails were thick and dull in color. They exuded a strong fishy smell, and fine runes could vaguely be seen on them.

Huang Jin looked at the circle of top-notch wooden nails on the ground and didn’t know how to respond—brother, you just inserted a large-scale anti-evil spirit suppression barrier at the entrance of the cave, yet you don’t want us to ask more questions?

The spirit-suppression nail was an excellent spirit weapon for dealing with large evil spirits. The raw materials used came from coffins that were more than hundreds of years old. Occasionally, a few Nightwalkers would stumble upon a nail, which would fetch a price of over six figures for them.

Shian sure did have deep pockets, as just one array required dozens of pieces.

As for the piece of wood in the center of the formation, Huang Jin didn’t recognize it. He could only see that it was an ancient prop, which meant it was probably quite expensive.

The balance of his bank card flashed through his mind, causing Huang Jin’s heart to ache. He decided to think in a different direction, such as concentrating and looking at Xiang Jiang himself.

Unfortunately, Xiang Jiang’s thoughts were hard to read—”hard” in the literal sense.

This person’s mind was like a sea urchin. It had sharp thorns erected in all directions. Xiang Jiang’s mental state didn’t seem very good. The text all over his body seemed to be twisted and deformed as if it were liquidated, making it difficult for Huang Jin to read.

Soon, Xiang Jiang finished nailing all the spirit-suppression nails. There was now a hole with a piece of wood in the center and six circles made of wooden nails around it. They were close to each other, looking a bit like teeth that were ready to choose someone to eat.

The spirit-suppression nails formed an array. The cold pressure overwhelmed the evil qi at the entrance of the cave, which made people feel quite safe. Of course, it would have been better if the six of them weren’t at the entrance of the cave in the first place.

At this point, Huang Jin gave up on the idea of questioning work. He accepted his fate and continued to ask, “What evil things are there? Is there any information?”

“Let’s review the preliminaries.” Seeing that Xiang Jiang was about to stare daggers at him, he quickly amended.

After setting up the spirit-suppression array, Xiang Jiang leaned against the rock wall to rest. The sunlight shot in slanting from the cave, and he happened to be standing in the shadows. The tip of his shoe just stepped on the dividing line between light and shadow.

Perhaps Huang Jin’s search for compensation worked. Xiang Jiang retracted his gaze and looked down at the ground, which was full of gravel and sand. His messy bangs hung down, a little dirty, just enough to cover his eyes.

“I briefly investigated, and at present I can only determine the quantity and danger,” Xiang Jiang said. “Sunken Society is secretly raising evil beings here. This isn’t some kind of zoo. The situation in the mines is complicated. Do you think Shian can just visit by buying a ticket?”

“The type of evil creatures, their abilities, their specific location… None of those have been determined. You need to go step by step and collect clues bit by bit to gradually determine their habits and characteristics.”

Yin Ren didn’t stop his movements while arranging his spirit weapon.

Xiang Jiang was absolutely lying. Even if the specific type of evil things wasn’t determined, Shian at least would know their general abilities and location. Otherwise, if they couldn’t find any evil things and instead found a mass of evil spirits with no combat abilities, it would surely be an embarrassing situation for Shian.

Now that someone had arranged their journey, he just needed to lie down. The task was fully automatically guided. Who wouldn’t like a task where they didn’t need to use their brain at all?

Zhong Chengshuo’s attention was completely captured. He looked at Xiang Jiang without blinking, listened very solemnly, and froze into a humanoid sculpture on the spot.

“It’s actually similar to methods used to investigate new species.”

Seeing that Xiang Jiang hadn’t continued after a long period of time, Lu Xiaohe picked up the conversation.

“You should be studying a new kind of evil spirit—find more clues and judge its habits. The more data we have, the more we will know about it. In this way, even if you encounter it, you’ll be prepared.”

“Then I think it’s better not to meet,” Huang Jin muttered.

Ge Tingting nodded halfway but felt something was wrong and firmly blocked her neck.

Normally, Lu Xiaohe would probably say something like, “Oh, just scoff it off. I’m sure you’ll be fine” to lighten the mood, but this time, she just laughed dryly and continued.

“Don’t be impatient with the data collection. Everyone should be cautious! It’s not easy for a drone to enter the mines. I’ll try my best to provide you with intelligence support. Even when you encounter uncertain clues, you can report them to me at any time.”

“There’s no need to put too much pressure on yourself. Today is just mapping out the layout of the base. Let’s consolidate the road near the exit first. With Ms. Qi here, we don’t need to go deeper for the time being.”

Zhong Chengshuo instantly showed an expression on his face as if he had been splashed by cold rain. Then he reacted slowly, and under the premise of “worrying about his lover”, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Like a person who had never danced in his life and wanted to move his limbs in harmony with the music, as a result, Zhong Chengshuo’s “thinking limbs” almost stumbled and fell to the ground.

Yin Ren almost wickedly laughed out loud, but he managed to hold back.

His lover looked more vivid and clumsier than ever.

In the end, Yin Ren couldn’t hold back the itching in his hands. He pressed his hand on the back of Zhong Chengshuo’s head and rubbed it soothingly.

It was warm, and the black hair was smooth and soft. Zhong Chengshuo’s hair was slightly long and the ends of his hair were softly attached to the back of his neck. They seemed to have devoured the sun and were glowing as dark as a crow’s feather.

Yin Ren subconsciously thought how they would look if they were white, and his original comfortable mood disappeared.

He didn’t know why he thought of this out of nowhere. Was it because there were too many old people here?

Yin Ren rubbed his temples and adjusted his breathing for a while. Well, these things can be pushed off until later. First, it was imperative to get through this level.

……

Around two in the afternoon, the base was set up.

The waterproof blanket and sleeping bags were properly arranged, and a lightweight alloy kettle was placed next to the water condensation spirit weapon. Xiang Jiang had set up a stove on the spot and boiled some water. He poured out six bowls of instant seaweed egg drop soup. The pancakes were greasy after it cooled down. The crispy shell became soggy, and its flakiness was now soft. It wasn’t as amazing as when it was freshly fried, but with the hot soup, it gave it a special taste.

“Why does Gengsheng Town hate outsiders so much?”

Zhong Chengshuo glanced at the pancake in Yin Ren’s hand as he asked Qi Xin.

Qi Xin looked up at him. Her eyes were blank like a piece of paper with no emotional color. “I don’t want to talk about things other than work.”

Yin Ren: “…..”

These two were really like a white knife going in and coming out red*. Their questions and answers were too direct.

*(白刀子进，红刀子出) Idiom referring to killing people to see blood, to fight desperately. || Basically, Yin Ren is saying they have such similar personalities that they are clashing.

“I have an element of curiosity, but this is related to our investigation.” Zhong Chengshuo was unphased. “Raising special creatures also depends on the environment. The more special the creatures are, the more demanding the environment—understanding the characteristics of the environment will allow us to know more about the characteristics of the creature itself.”

No matter how emotionally dull Zhong Chengshuo was, even he could see the abnormality of Gengsheng Town.

The hatred of the locals towards outsiders had reached the point of distortion. To say that this was purely spontaneous behavior, no ghost would believe it.

And his ghost also provided information. There were a hundred times more evil things in this place than in the outside world, so there must be a reason why Sunken Society would choose to keep high-risk evil beings here.

Not far away, Yin Ren went along and struck while the iron was hot. “Qi Jie, something is wrong with this mountain town. That’s why we’re here. There are some things that only local people know, so please tell us more about it.”

Qi Xin sat on the mat in an orderly manner. She took a sip of the soup and thought for a while.

“All right,” she said.

Now, it wasn’t just the few people that were present; even Lu Xiaohe held her breath.

“When I was young, Gengsheng Town didn’t have such an atmosphere.” Qi Xin put down her soup and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I heard from my mother in those early years, Gengsheng people were actually very hospitable.”

“This was a mountain village at first. Later, the mines were discovered. The village chief at the time had a good head and took the opportunity to develop the town. The next mayor was even more powerful, turning it into a well-known, rich town in one fell swoop. In those decades, everyone’s life seemed to be going up.”

All these things were actually mentioned in the work materials.

More than 20 years ago, this place was affected by a certain natural disaster, and nearly a hundred people died. There was also a problem with the mineral-rich mountains, so the production of rare minerals declined.

Gengsheng Town only had a single industry. With the collapse of the mineral-related industry, most people lost their jobs. The investors shook their heads, collaborators turned around, and the labor force that came here gradually left, leaving only a gorgeous mess. Not to mention outsiders, even the local children showed signs of fleeing.

“I saw him set up the magnificent pavilion, seeing him entertain them there.*” The mountain village grew into a mountain town, and the mountain town became a prosperous and famous town.

*This is an excerpt from The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren. The full quote is [I saw him… seeing him entertain them there and watched the pavilion collapse]. This is an allusion to the vicissitudes of the ever-changing world. With the passage of time, prosperity and wealth, and the emotion and feeling of fame and fortune, are just fleeting.

Then it rapidly “aged”.

The people weren’t ready for it, whether it was waving goodbye to the glory and wealth of the past or sending loved ones away who never wanted to return.

Then, people started to come—only it wasn’t for investment or tourism, but to talk about “the merger of neighboring mountain towns” and “the transformation and reconstruction of the town”.

The town was aging, and they had come to bury it.

“If we don’t mention her background, Ren Jiying is a typical ‘outsider’. In fact, she’s very capable. If she wasn’t stuck here, she could climb much higher.”

Qi Xin commented lightly.

“Ren Jiying originally planned to dismantle the loop line and re-plan to vacate the area—such as creating a more reasonable layout and building a few roads leading to the proverbial towns.”

“But the townspeople didn’t allow her and threatened that she would be courting death if she touched it. The number of elderly people over 70 years old here is several times that of other places. They all would lay on the ground collectively, and there’s nothing the police can do about it when they come.”

Ge Tingting was a little dumbfounded. “I can understand people in Gengsheng Town don’t like outsiders, but the current level of malice…”

“I don’t know any more. I also left halfway for more than ten years before coming back. If you want to know more, you can only ask the local elderly.”

The corner of Qi Xin’s mouth twitched.

Yin Ren knew what she wanted to laugh at—the old people in town couldn’t wait to rush over and try to scam them from a distance of 800 meters, so it was impossible they would tell them what happened back then.

However, he was indeed very interested in the “natural disaster” that caused the town to change more than 20 years ago.

Moreover, there was a sense of familiarity in the town that kept lingering, like a piece of dirt stuck to his phone screen and was always attracting his attention from time to time.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” After Qi Xin finished talking about the town’s history, she stood up and wanted to go deeper into the mine.”

Xiang Jiang: “Go outside.”

“I saw it just now. There’s a single room dug inside. It’s too bright and open outside.” Qi Xin didn’t stop walking.

“Ge Tingting, Yin Ren, Zhong Chengshuo, you three go with her. Huang Jin and I will stay here.” Xiang Jiang didn’t continue to argue with her. “Go quick and come back. Don’t wander around.”

The single room wasn’t far away—no more than a distance of ten steps. It was estimated that the space that was accidentally discovered had been transformed into a restroom or storage room. After they placed lighting in the cave, it was quite conspicuous.

Under the light, the low doorway became deeper. Qi Xin was quite courageous.

Qi Xin was going to the bathroom, followed by a group of people, showing the grandeur of an emperor visiting his harem. In the thick shadows, her shoes still stepped on the ground rhythmically, without any disorder.

She and Ge Tingting entered the private room, while Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo stood guard outside the doorway, turning into a toilet door guard.

The harsh reality was telling Yin Ren that the Ghost King couldn’t be the “god” of scammers, but instead the god of doors. He had just taken up his post with honor for three seconds…

The large area of light at the entrance of the cave shrank into a point in an instant.

The originally straight road suddenly turned into sheep intestines, and the walls were wriggling, as if they had just been swallowed by something.

Yin Ren’s face sank.

Qi Xin was still nearby. No matter how outrageous Shian’s execution mission was, it wouldn’t involve innocent people.

…This was definitely not Shian who was attacking them.

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