Minister Zou’s heart had never beaten so fast before.
The identical metal door extended endlessly along the corridor, and he ran too fast, causing his route counting to go awry.
The repeated cross-shaped corridors flew past his eyes time and time again, and the ground was so clean that it was almost cruel, with nothing that could serve as a landmark.
How many corridors and intersections had he crossed? Nine? Ten?
Did he turn left at the last corner? His mind was in such a mess that he couldn’t trust his memory.
That weird “Zhang Wei” never appeared again. At the end of the corridor, there was only darkness. In the corner of his eye, he saw his clothes and occasionally heard rustling noises from somewhere, causing Minister Zou to jump up and down like a frightened bird.
He was already exhausted from his limited physical strength, and his breath was mixed with a faint smell of blood. Minister Zou swallowed some saliva, and his throat was so dry it hurt.
He was lost in the most dangerous bottom floor of the corpse vault, with unknown monsters lurking in the darkness.
There was no food or water and no external means of communication. The space here was chaotic and disorderly, with no chance of getting lucky and leaving.
The only way out was to find the staircase where he came down.
However, the staircase was hidden behind thousands of metal doors, and all the others were morgues for storing dangerous corpses. If he tried each one by one, who knew what terrifying things he might encounter?
The more he thought, the more panicked he became. Minister Zou couldn’t think clearly and wished to die.
What should he do? What should he do?
Minister Zou’s running steps gradually slowed down, and his entire body was soaked in sweat. He couldn’t run anymore, and silver stars were dancing in his vision. He couldn’t help but lean against the icy wall and take deep breaths.
The lighting next to him suddenly turned on, and Minister Zou’s eyes frantically rolled around, then suddenly froze—
Two steps away from him at the crossroad, there was a pair of neatly placed leather shoes, which were Zhang Wei’s. Upon closer inspection, there was a dark red liquid stain on the shoe surface, like blood.
He had come back.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!” Minister Zou let out a desperate scream, clawing at his scalp with both hands. He seemed to want to scream out his own collapse, and his nails were stained with bright red blood.
Tap, tap, tap.
This time, it was a very light sound.
Minister Zou lifted his head in despair. A black figure stood quietly on the edge of the light and darkness, a dozen steps away from him. That figure looked like an adult man, standing stiff and straight, like a mannequin in a shopping mall.
The person didn’t move at all until the sensor light went off and the shadow was completely covered by darkness.
Minister Zou couldn’t take it anymore. He screamed and stood up, slamming into the wall in front of him. In his last sight, the figure stiffly rushed forward and ran towards him.
……
Minister Zou suddenly hit a wall, startling Zhong Chengshuo.
To ensure the other’s mental health, he politely maintained a safe distance, preparing to approach slowly depending on the situation, just like dealing with wild animals. Who knew that Minister Zou was more violent than wild animals and slammed himself directly into a wall?
Zhong Chengshuo quickly ran and went to Minister Zou’s side. The person had fallen to the floor with his eyes rolled back. In the end, Minister Zou was afraid of death, so the impact wasn’t severe and was more like fainting from fright.
Zhong Chengshuo had no choice. He took off Minister Zou’s coat and made a simple pillow. Then, he went back to his own morgue, following his memory, and took a bottle of distilled water from the workbench—this was what Zhang Wei used to make corpse preservatives, and there was no strange smell, so it could be drunk.
With the water ready to feed the other person, Zhong Chengshuo sat cross-legged beside Minister Zou and fell into contemplation.
Fear.
It was the emotion he was most curious about and had never experienced before.
Not long ago, he finally got a taste of fear. It was like an initial crack that rapidly spread, extending countless tiny lines called “negative emotions”. He still remembered the feeling of being torn and tortured by his inner self. It wasn’t comfortable, but subtly useful.
After wandering for so long, Zhong Chengshuo could vaguely sense the cause of that fear.
Losing his head and most of his senses, his thoughts were chaotic. He had experienced this kind of state of being “blank” before. At that time, he didn’t have any special reaction, but this time, being in this “fragile” situation, he had an extra Yin Ren in his heart.
The unstable desert started to blow, and the rolling, dry grass met an everlasting spark.
In his heart’s desert, a flame was lit for the first time.
A scorching, deadly flame, yet indispensable… This was his entire impression of “fear” for the moment.
Looking through the blurred vision of the dead, Zhong Chengshuo looked at his own hands.
At first, it was only a slight attraction to the sharpness, and he never thought it would start a storm.
A very strange feeling. Zhong Chengshuo had never missed that person like this before. He didn’t know when the idea of “accepting death calmly” had completely disappeared from his heart.
He had to go back.
Zhong Chengshuo touched his poorly connected head and poured half a bottle of water on Minister Zou’s face.
Poor Minister Zou woke up and saw his former colleague with dilated pupils.
He jumped backward like a live shrimp and shrank into the corner of the wall. “Don’t—don’t—don’t kill me… Don’t kill me…”
Zhong Chengshuo sat still, slowly raising his hands, trying to make his voice sound hoarse and innocent. “I won’t kill you… I’m also very scared. I want to go home…”
“You’re dead!” Minister Zou screamed, “And something is wrong with your body! Who are you?”
Zhang Wei’s pupils widened!!!
…And Zhang Wei was only 1.7 meters tall with loose flesh all over. The guy in front of him was definitely 1.8 meters tall, in decent shape, and as sturdy as a beautiful wild beast.
Zhong Chengshuo thought for a moment with solemnity. “My surname is Cheng, and I am Zhang Wei’s fitness instructor. I remembered rushing off from work yesterday, and when I woke up, I was in this state… Where am I? I just want to go home. My lover is still waiting for me.”
The middle-aged man in front of him was dressed in scientific attire, so he shouldn’t be someone who would roll up his sleeves to fight him.
As expected.
“An evil spirit? Does being possessed by an evil spirit change your physique?…It seems…that there are documents abroad about possession changing the body…” Upon hearing that the person in front of him was a fitness instructor, Minister Zou could preliminarily exclude the awakening of a century-old demon and finally catch his breath.
He had encountered evil spirits before, and they were full of lies. To be honest, Minister Zou didn’t believe the “fitness instructor” nonsense.
But the fact that the other party was willing to deceive him meant that he still had some use.
Thinking of this, a faint hope appeared in Minister Zou’s eyes. “You, ahem, ahem, you said you just wanted to go home?”
“Yes,” Zhong Chengshuo said, both truthfully and untruthfully. “I want to leave here.”
Minister Zou vigorously wiped his face twice, stood up tremblingly, and his tone was a bit erratic. “No problem, brother. Hey, the owner of this head is my subordinate. I have long felt unhappy about him!”
He chattered on like a machine gun, afraid that Zhong Chengshuo would change his mind.
“Only now, I’m lost, so I can’t guarantee my own safety… This place is difficult to navigate. It’s not that I don’t want to show you the way…”
“I know where I woke up. It’s a place full of morgue cabinets. I don’t know if that’s useful to you?”
Very good. Zhong Chengshuo stiffly tugged the corners of his mouth.
He watched as Minister Zou’s complexion turned slightly pale, followed by a hint of redness and a slightly brighter expression in his eyes. The man tremblingly grabbed the bottle of distilled water, drank half, and spilled the other half, obviously to recover his strength.
Zhong Chengshuo knew what the other party was thinking—the location of the morgue cabinets was relatively fixed, so if he found the morgue cabinets, he could naturally deduce the way out.
The bait had been set. It was up to the other party to decide how to get rid of him.
……
There was a Corpse Cage in the abandoned waiting room.
In the dim first-floor waiting room, a Corpse Cage was placed in a coffin carved with several preservation spells. The red coffin was facing the gap that ran through the space. The coffin lid was open, and the Corpse Cage was completely exposed, with countless dry branches protruding from its seven orifices.
The sunlight from the window gap illuminated the floating and sinking dust. It was clearly daytime, but the atmosphere was extremely gloomy.
Yin Ren sat casually next to the coffin. His white shirt had many bloodstains, and his black hair fell like a waterfall on the fabric. The scene was beautiful, but the degree of gloominess in the underworld had increased.
Fu Tianyi was trembling while holding a steamed bun, neither eating nor not eating it.
What’s going on with the Haigu Branch?
Lu Xiahe had set up various equipment nearby, and Ge Tingting sat under the sunny window, frantically reviewing metaphysical calligraphy. Even Huang Jin, who was wearing a monitoring ankle bracelet, was frowning and carving tranquility talismans.
No, are their colleagues all abnormal like this? Is it okay?
Fu Tianyi suddenly missed his team’s foul-mouthed cat. Although it was sharp and ruthless, at least it knew how to write the word “danger” better than any human.
“This gap has been proven to lead to an irreversible parallel dimension… Well, according to the latest information, it must lead to the Other Side.” Lu Xiaohe excitedly talked to herself, eagerly absorbing those temporarily opened high-level knowledge like a sponge. “After that, it entered a period of decline, and the connection with the Other Side was probably cut off.”
Fu Tianyi looked at her bewilderedly.
This was once a gap that caused a disaster. Why is this woman so calm?
Are these people really only C-level? Shouldn’t at least an A-level team be involved in this kind of thing? Or is there something wrong with his understanding of the Shian C-level investigation teams?
Lu Xiaohe just looked at Yin Ren. “If the previous gap was like a wound cut into a blood vessel, then the gap here is just a scar. Yin Ren, Shian only has methods to seal the gap, not deepen it…”
“Tearing open old scars is easier,” Yin Ren said. “Now what I want to know is how to tear it open.”
“But I don’t quite understand.” Ge Tingting raised her book, her AI voice was very serious. “Even if we attract the target’s attention, what if the sniper still attacks from a distance? We can’t catch him.”
“Wait until the gap is widened, and I will personally lure him in and fight him. Once I enter the gap, if he really cares about the Other Side, he will come over.”
Yin Ren answered without hesitation, his long fingers rubbing the edge of the coffin.
“If he doesn’t come, I don’t mind continuing to destroy it.”
Ge Tingting made serious notes. “I understand!”
Huang Jin sighed softly, and the strength of the carving knife in his hand increased a few points again. “Be sure to protect yourselves…”
Fu Tianyi dropped the bun in his mouth on the ground.
Tear open the gap? Attract the sniper?… Are all the people in this team crazy?
…It’s really a good opportunity to “prove oneself” but isn’t this going way overboard?! He never thought of confronting the attacker head on—Shian had dispatched all their elites to investigate this case.
Fu Tianyi took a deep breath and stepped back, sweating like rain. However, before his feet landed, Yin Ren’s pair of crimson eyes turned to him. In the shadow of the waiting room, those red eyes made Fu Tianyi feel a chill on the soles of his feet.
“Now that everyone is here, the plan officially commences.” Yin Ren smiled at him.
The person was surrounded by a terrifying murderous intent, and Fu Tianyi froze on the spot.
He still remembered the handsome young man who was clinging to Zhong Chengshuo as they walked into the Fu residence. At this moment, that carefree young man seemed to have completely disappeared.
He didn’t recognize the “thing” in front of him.
The author has something to say:
Two-way travel (physics
Both of them are starring in horror movies, which is great!
In the early morning, Fu Tianyi woke up from his sickbed.
Influenced by the emotions in the Corpse Cage, coupled with the mental impact, he slept for a full day and night. When he woke up, everything around him felt unreal—he subconsciously took out his phone to see if Auntie Tao had conveyed any work-related messages, and then he remembered that his partner had already passed away.
Auntie Tao left in great pain; a bullet hit her shoulder, injuring her lungs. If she hadn’t realized the danger and immediately protected Fu Tianyi by her side, the bullet would have hit his heart directly.
Fu Tianyi stared blankly at the snow-white ceiling.
He had no partner anymore.
Fu Tianyi opened Auntie Tao’s WeChat, and her profile picture was a photo of her daughter when she was young. Her WeChat signature was just a simple line: “Life is like floating duckweed*”.
*(生如浮萍) Idiom referring to life is short, uncertain, and transient, like duckweed, which floats on the water’s surface and is easily swayed by the wind and currents. It’s often used to express the idea that one should cherish and make the most of their time in life.
Auntie Tao wasn’t young anymore. Her parents were dead, and her husband had long been a stranger. After losing her daughter to the gap, she put all her energy into getting rid of evil, as if it were the best anesthesia in the world.
Her last post was “My 45th” with a photo of an empty and overly tidy living room.
The date was less than two weeks ago.
…And as of today, Fu Tianyi had never looked carefully at her posts.
Auntie Tao wasn’t a master or doctoral graduate from a prestigious university; she was just an uninteresting, silent, and endlessly sad ordinary person. When dealing with various supernatural events before, she would only provide various cognitive assistance behind him.
Now she was dead.
…And he behaved like a piece of crap.
During the Corpse Cage competition, he was always beaten down by those white monsters. The prepared props took time to set up and had little effect. Later, when he saw his colleagues being attacked, Fu Xingchuan and Auntie Tao were the first to rush out to protect their companions, but he was too preoccupied with despair and didn’t react at all.
His previous tasks all went smoothly.
The police and investigation teams provided detailed information, and the rear command clearly defined all plans. Then all he had to do was execute them with all his strength—he had been here for so long and had never tasted defeat, winning every battle cleanly and beautifully.
Once, he was dissatisfied that he couldn’t be directly enrolled in an A-level investigation team like Fu Xingchuan, only feeling that this elder was lucky to have been born at a good time.
Now, Fu Tianyi couldn’t even muster the strength to recall the competition. The dull air enveloped him, making it almost impossible for Fu Tianyi to breathe smoothly.
The thought that “he was actually very bad” came to the fore, and it couldn’t be extinguished like wildfire.
Fu Tianyi tied his hair casually, not touching the wooden mask and red long gown on the bedside. The young man simply wore a hospital gown and slippers, stumbling out of the ward.
He urgently needed to find something to distract himself.
Next door to Fu Tianyi were two people from Linnan. The nurse had just changed their dressings, and Fu Tianyi glanced at them. The two girls had their eyes closed, unknown whether they were in a coma or simply asleep.
They were wrapped in bandages, and their eyebrows furrowed as if they weren’t sleeping very well.
Fu Tianyi lowered his eyes and continued walking forward.
The next ward should be the ward of the Haigu branch.
The door was closed, and this time he hesitated for a while and decided not to knock on the door—Yin Ren had lost his partner, and his mood wasn’t good, plus he had acted arrogantly towards Unit 9 before. No matter how he thought about it, he would not be welcomed.
As a result, before he could figure it out, the door creaked open, and five pairs of eyes looked straight at him.
“It’s okay. It’s not someone here to assign work.” The teenager who opened the door turned around and greeted him.
Fu Tianyi looked up and saw that he was indeed in the Haigu branch ward, but the personnel weren’t quite right.
The famous Hao Wenzhe was holding a laptop and shrinking in the farthest bed, surrounded by a nest-like wall of devices. There were playing cards scattered on the table in the middle of the ward, and two men and one woman sat at the table. With the addition of the teenager at the door, they just formed a table.
At this moment, all their eyes were locked on Fu Tianyi.
Fu Tianyi: “…Sorry to bother you.”
“You’re Fu Tianyi from Yandu’s C-level division. I remember you,” the teenager at the door said. “We are Shian Unit 7. Do you have something you need?”
“No.” Fu Tianyi pursed his lips. “Sorry, I just came to take a look.”
The teenager —Xiao Zhao from Unit 7—looked at him for a while. “My condolences… but you don’t have to be afraid. They specially assigned us to guard here. Look, even Hao Wenzhe is staying here. Nothing will happen again.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll definitely turn things around this time.” A person dressed as a delivery man waved the playing cards and spoke in a serious tone. “Look at this time. None of us in Haigu Unit 7 broke our legs, which means there’s still hope!”
The remaining man and woman rolled their eyes at the delivery man.
Xiao Zhao coughed dryly. “If you’re looking for your cat, it just went south in the corridor.”
“Thank you.” Fu Tianyi forced a smile.
He continued to move forward along the corridor and indeed found Dr. Cat sunbathing on a windowsill.
The morning sun sprinkled down, giving the black cat a golden border. It squinted its eyes and made a satisfied purring sound in its throat, as if all this chaos had nothing to do with it.
Fu Tianyi stopped next to it for a while. “Auntie Tao has passed away.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t you have any thoughts about it?”
The black cat shook its fluffy tail. “Let me tell you. There was a clam that was supposed to live for a thousand years, but it died after only five hundred years. What would you think if that happened?”
Fu Tianyi: “……”
Fu Tianyi: “…Forget I ask.”
The cat tilted its head and looked at him for a while, licking its paw. “If you really can’t stand it, just wander around. Auntie Tao was a nurse at this hospital, right? Perhaps by looking around, you can commemorate your partner.”
……
A few minutes later, Fu Tianyi stopped in front of the abandoned building on the west side of the Municipal Hospital, as suggested by the cat. He didn’t want to listen to the cat’s suggestion, but he had nowhere else to go.
The flower beds outside were being taken care of, and the nearby road was also very clean. Although the building was old, its quality was quite sturdy, and its appearance didn’t reveal that it was an abandoned building.
This was the place where the “Municipal Hospital Major Gap Incident” occurred.
The building had only four floors, and the hospital had added fences to every window and locked all entrances and exits with iron chains. Now, the gap had been properly handled, and people only needed to wait for it to naturally decay and disappear.
This was where Auntie Tao’s daughter had died, and it was her motivation to become a science post… Wait a minute?
Fu Tianyi blinked.
The door of the abandoned building was open, and the iron chain was cut and piled up haphazardly next to the door.
Was it a thief?
Fu Tianyi quickly sent a message to the work group and then entered the building. Even though there was only the decaying gap inside, it was still dangerous for outsiders to come in contact with it!
He hurried to the first floor waiting room.
…Then he almost lost his mind.
The huge gap was like a wound, diagonally cutting through the spacious waiting room. It was already in the final stages of decay, with black cracks that had shrunk to the thickness of a pinky, rough and intermittent, but emitting an oppressive feeling that was hard to ignore.
Yin Ren from Haigu was standing in front of the gap.
The man had disheveled hair, was bare feet, and had changed into a slightly loose white shirt. He looked at Fu Tianyi expressionlessly, without even a disguised smile.
Judging from his posture, it seemed like he was going to throw himself into the gap in the next second.
Fu Tianyi didn’t feel any hostility or murderous intent, but for some reason, he instinctively felt a chill behind him.
“Wait, I… I can understand your pain!” he said loudly. “My relationship with my partner is average, but I was also sad when she died. We can talk about it. Calm down, don’t do anything stupid—!”
Yin Ren looked at him for a while, his tone somewhat flat. “You’re also sad?”
“Of course!” Fu Tianyi gritted his teeth. “We’ve been partners for several years, and I consider her my friend—”
[Life is like floating duckweed.]
Tao Lan’s signature once again hit his mind, and Fu Tianyi couldn’t continue speaking.
After finally diverting his attention back to this matter, he felt his eyes stinging and his throat bitter.
“I’m sorry to her. I’m not a good partner.” He changed his wording. “Yes, I’m very sad.”
“Very well,” Yin Ren said.
“I was still thinking about when to talk to you… Fu Tianyi, I can give you a chance for revenge, do you want it?”
“Revenge?”
Fu Tianyi was a little confused. The attacker was incredibly strong, and the leadership of Shian had too few clues. The focus was on strengthening defense. They were only at the C-level. How could they talk about revenge?
Yin Ren glanced lightly, smoothly changing his wording. “To be precise, I want to give you a chance to prove yourself and incidentally take revenge.”
Fu Tianyi looked at the person in front of the huge gap and was silent for more than ten seconds this time.
“What chance?”
“A chance that some members of the Fu family may not like.” Yin Ren slowly smiled. “I heard Fu Xingchuan say that you juniors can’t control the Corpse Cage, and it takes years of training… Unfortunately, I have urgent matters to attend to and can teach you on their behalf.”
“What are you talking about?”
In the dark and dilapidated waiting room, with the eerie huge gap and the non-human face of the person in front of him, Fu Tianyi was really getting goosebumps—the Corpse Cage was the Fu family’s treasure. How could they just give it away to someone like that?
Yin Ren didn’t answer him, but only stretched out his hand and pinched a spell.
In an instant, countless blood threads shot out from Yin Ren’s palm, enveloping the entire waiting room. Sensing something, the gap behind him twisted and emitted a buzzing sound like the friction of flesh and blood.
The fish-tank-like protective shield rose from the ground, and the surging evil qi swallowed Fu Tianyi in an instant. He retreated several steps and directly hit the wall behind him.
…How could there be such a monster in the C-level investigation group in the Haigu branch?
Fu Tianyi’s brain was blank for two seconds. Then he noticed the scars and fresh blood in Yin Ren’s hands.
Two blood threads brushed Fu Tianyi’s hair and pierced into the wall, emitting an awe-inspiring aura. Yin Ren moved his fingers, and the scars on his hand became even more hideous.
“Choose for yourself. Forget about all this or temporarily obey me.”
The blood threads twisted, and a memory spell slowly formed in front of Fu Tianyi.
“Your foundation is not bad, and what I can teach you is definitely more than what the Fu family can provide.”
Outside the protective shield, Lu Xiaohe pulled out a folding table while Ge Tingting and Huang Jin distributed buns among themselves on the second floor of the waiting room. The steaming beef and onion buns emitted a tempting fragrance. At this angle, they could see everything happening in the first floor waiting room.
Lu Xiaohe held the bun and took a big bite. The hot meat juice instantly filled her mouth, and she couldn’t help but gasp.
“Xiao Yin has changed a lot. I haven’t seen him eat much.”
She sighed with concern.
“And this plan to lure the culprit using the gap is too risky. If space distortion is so easy to replicate, someone would have published a paper… He seems very confident… Has he regained his memory? Is he actually a very powerful cultivator?”
Ge Tingting seriously nibbled on her bun. “He didn’t tell us, but he should be very powerful. Let’s save two buns for him.”
Huang Jin stared at the fat white buns and then at the frightened Fu Tianyi downstairs. He felt that Ge Tingting’s judgment had been biased. However, after the argument in Corpse Cage, she didn’t pay much attention to him anymore.
That evil named “Yin Ren” was about to go crazy, so it wasn’t really time to care about steamed buns.
Mr. Huang Jin, who knew only half the truth, felt helpless.
……
At the same time, in the darkness beneath their feet.
Comrade Xiao Zhong was also feeling helpless.
His guide’s movements were smooth, but unfortunately, they got lost. Zhong Chengshuo watched the person run around like a hot potato, passing the same place countless times, and getting more and more breathless.
He hadn’t touched the person again and just followed from a distance, not knowing what the person was so anxious about.
The underground corpse vault of Sunken Society had many layers, forming an inverted pyramid.
The upper levels were well equipped with various surveillance devices, and rows of metal doors were embedded in the light gray walls, with cameras flashing in the dark corners. Various rail gates cut the corridors into sections, and the scene was full of a sense of technology.
However, Minister Zou had no time to appreciate it.
He used his face to open the doors one by one and turned around in the cross-shaped corridor. The surrounding scenes were almost identical, seemingly endless, and dizzying.
There was a room behind each door, and each room was filled with mutated corpses. Since joining forces with Mr. Qiu’s group, they had not hesitated to use the power of the Evil Force to conduct experiments.
Thinking of the keyword “Mr. Qiu”, Minister Zou’s brain felt like it was being pricked by needles.
Not long ago, Wei Huaqian specifically contacted him.
Mr. Qiu brought them a lot of trouble, but the results were quite significant. The Shian League was forcibly interrupted, Fu Xingchuan was kicked out, and the famous partners of Haigu dissolved. The Haigu branch of Shian was in chaos, which was convenient for their actions.
Wei Huaqian emphasized once again at this critical point; things must not go wrong on the Sunken Society headquarters side.
Which made things difficult.
Minister Zou almost lost his way while lost in thought. He broke out in a cold sweat and pressed his temple hard.
Finding people was important. He shouldn’t indulge in wild thoughts. This was the safest branch of Sunken Society, in a very special location that was impossible to be attacked by outsiders.
Unless Shian’s “Charon” returned to normal.
Thinking of this, Minister Zou adjusted his breathing for a while, and the sweat on his forehead decreased slightly.
It must have been Zhang Wei who had drunk too much last night and was confused, taking the wrong regulated route. He just needed to look around along the way. As long as the confirmation of Zhong Chengshuo’s body was normal, it didn’t matter if that guy was dead.
He opened one of the ordinary metal doors and stepped into the hidden elevator. After what seemed like a century, the elevator door slowly opened, and an almost identical scene appeared in front of Minister Zou again.
There were no electronic devices in the deeper layer, and the next path had to be walked on foot.
Minister Zou sighed deeply and stepped into the dark corridor. Without all kinds of machinery, it was silent here, with only the cold light in his surroundings.
In the silent darkness underground, even the sound of blood flowing through the head was particularly clear. The cross-shaped corridor was still an endless pattern, and all directions led to darkness.
If there really was hell on earth, it was probably this.
“Turn left out of the elevator, go straight at the first intersection, turn right at the second intersection, turn left at the third intersection… After ten intersections, the fourth door, go down the stairs…”
Minister Zou dared not take a deep breath and kept muttering as he proceeded to the deepest part of the underground corpse vault. The silence around him was unbearable, and his heartbeat was getting faster.
One floor, another floor, and another. He walked quickly through empty corridors, looking for the stairs hidden behind a door. After about an hour, Zhang Wei was still nowhere to be seen.
Finally, Minister Zou arrived at the deepest part of the building.
The corridor was low and oppressive, like a tomb passage. The good news was that it was incredibly quiet nearby, and there were no signs of any kind of magic being used—it was clear that no one had used any spells here recently.
Minister Zou breathed a sigh of relief, swallowed his saliva, and headed toward the morgue where Zhong Chengshuo’s corpse was located.
Clack, clack, clack.
Faint sounds suddenly pounded into his ears. From some distant corner, he heard a series of footsteps striking the floor with leather shoes.
That guy Zhang Wei couldn’t keep his clothes clean, but he loved to put on airs, wearing leather shoes every time he went down to the morgue. Moreover, a naked body or a fierce ghost couldn’t make such a sound.
As expected, he must have gotten lost. Minister Zou couldn’t help but stop in his tracks, feeling pleased.
“Zhang Wei?” He called out in a not-too-loud, not-too-soft voice.
The owner of the footsteps seemed to ignore him and walk farther away.
Clack, clack, clack.
“Hey kid, you’re looking for death?” Minister Zou’s teeth itched. “Zhang—”
In the middle of calling out his name, he suddenly shut his mouth, his scalp tingling.
Something wasn’t right.
It was a big mistake to wander around in the depths of the morgue. Even if Zhang Wei’s brain was addled from alcohol, he wouldn’t do something as suicidal as this. And…and that series of footsteps was too regular, not something Zhang Wei could make by accident.
Clack, clack, clack.
The footsteps lingered nearby—sometimes close, sometimes far away—and the rhythm was as precise as a clock’s hands.
Is that really Zhang Wei?
…What exactly is it?
Minister Zou’s back shuddered, and the sweat on his forehead reappeared. Communication was impossible in the depths of the morgue. Maybe… maybe he should retrace his steps and report the situation.
He didn’t want to know what was making the sound, nor did he dare confirm the condition of Zhong Chengshuo’s corpse. Those footsteps seemed to step on his brain nerves with every step, and Minister Zou didn’t want to stay here for even half a second longer.
Although he wasn’t a cultivator, he knew the danger of “curiosity” in the metaphysical world. Minister Zou trembled slightly and turned around stealthily, lifting his feet—
The nearby footsteps suddenly stopped, and everything around him became silent as a vacuum.
Minister Zou’s breath almost stopped. He froze in place, not daring to breathe, wishing he could stop his heartbeat too.
Clack, clack, clack!
Without warning, the footsteps rushed toward him rapidly. They maintained their terrifying rhythm, as fast as a midnight omen.
Minister Zou swallowed a frightened scream and scrambled toward the exit. The identical corridors were like a maze, and the high tension and panic almost made him vomit on the spot.
The overhead lights in the corridor flickered on and off, forming a blurred shadow in his blurry vision.
Clack, clack, clack! The footsteps were getting faster and closer. Minister Zou was about to cry. He rushed forward without hesitation, feeling like his organs were filled with ice.
Must run away. Must…
Wait, what intersection was he at now?
Minister Zou was gasping for air loudly, his brain in chaos. Seeing another corner ahead, he had to slow down.
If those strange footsteps caught up to him, he might die, but if he got lost in the depths of the underground corpse vault, he would definitely die. Minister Zou wiped off his sweat fiercely, gathered his courage, and slowly turned around.
Behind him was the corner he had just passed, and something white protruded at the corner where the walls met.
Minister Zou wiped the sweat off his face fiercely, squinted his eyes—
That wasn’t a “protrusion” at all.
Someone was hiding at the intersection of the corridor behind him, revealing only half of a pale face, with one eye fixedly looking at him. The familiar eyebrows and eyes were unmistakably those of the missing Zhang Wei.
But if that were Zhang Wei, he would have shouted for help long ago.
Minister Zou’s legs became weak, and he almost collapsed on the ground.
“Who… What are you?”
The face didn’t answer, not even blinking. The slightly scattered pupils slowly moved down and looked at Minister Zou from top to bottom. It’s just that this movement was a bit too forceful, the man’s head didn’t move, but his eyes rolled down, and a lot of whites were exposed from his pupils.
The next moment, it slowly retreated behind the wall.
Minister Zou stood still like a quail for a long time. But after five or six minutes, there was no sound from the corner of the corridor.
Ten minutes passed. With a strong spirit fearless of death, Minister Zou, with wet pants, moved toward the corner where he came from–
In the corridor corner, there was only a pair of discarded leather shoes.
That thing was now walking barefoot.
…That thing might appear anywhere now.
Minister Zou felt a buzzing in his ears, and he trembled with fear, muttering to himself as he stumbled back the way he came.
A few hundred meters away, Zhong Chengshuo listened carefully, hiding on top of the corridor, almost encouraging Minister Zou to move. He didn’t want this guide to run away on his own.
After a simple exploration, Zhong Chengshuo was very sure that he couldn’t leave this place entirely on his own.
After obtaining a head and walking out of the morgue, he chose a direction and carefully explored along the way.
At first, he took a conservative route and would always circle back to the familiar front of the morgue.
Then Zhong Chengshuo changed his strategy. He started to remember one path at a time through elimination. This strange “ghost hitting the wall*” process wasn’t long. Theoretically, he could find the correct path.
*Idiom referring to losing one’s way in a maze-like place and ending up back where one started (aka going in circles).
However, things didn’t go as planned.
Three or four hours later, Zhong Chengshuo stopped at the “end of the corridor.”
The corridor was cut like a knife, with its end facing a bottomless darkness without any railings or sealed windows at the edge. Zhong Chengshuo stood at the end of this dead end, turning his neck with difficulty.
He saw “infinity”.
On all sides of the square and steep cliff, countless corridor openings crowded together like an orderly honeycomb. Everything seemed endless, no matter if he looked up or down. Even worse, the layout of each corridor opening was completely identical, and even the cracks in the details were the same. The whole space seemed like it had been copied and pasted by a mad modeler thousands of times.
This wasn’t sorcery or the miracle of architecture.
…It was a more exaggerated and cruel spatial distortion than the Corpse Cage.
Sunken Society had established its base in a twisted space. No wonder they were able to survive for so long under Shian’s nose. If he tried to continue it in such a rigid way, he wouldn’t be able to figure it out even after he retired.
“Come on, hold on.”
Zhong Chengshuo watched Minister Zou’s trembling figure and encouraged him expressionlessly in the shadows.
“I have to leave here.”
……
“What did you say?” On the other end of the phone, Fu Xingchuan’s tone rose half an octave.
“I said I want a Corpse Cage.” Yin Ren leaned against the balcony, looking at the sparse stars in the morning. “I don’t have much that can be associated with ‘the Other Side’, but that is one of them.”
Fu Xingchuan: “No, that thing—”
“I won’t take it for nothing. When this is all over, my hair, flesh, eyes… Whatever you want, I can take it off for you to study.” Yin Ren fiddled with a small thread protruding from his linen shirt. “Don’t worry, I can still grow more.”
On the other end of the phone, Fu Xingchuan lay back on his pillow. He rubbed his face fiercely. “That’s not the problem. If you mention Zhong Yi’s name, the ancestor will send you a dozen Corpse Cages, but to stably control them, there must be a Fu family descendent present.”
“I really want to help, but now everyone’s energy is focused on pursuing the sniper, so I can’t help watch over the Corpse Cage.”
After all, when Fu Wuyi perfected the Corpse Cage technique, it was to shelter the Fu family bloodline. In an era when evil creatures frequently appeared, Fu Wuyi indeed left himself a way out.
Yin Ren remained silent.
“Speaking of which, why are you suddenly interested in the Corpse Cage?” Fu Xingchuan sat up and stretched his neck.
“Zhong Chengshuo had investigated the places that were most affected by the Divine Descent,” Yin Ren said. “I had someone pull up Auntie Tao’s information and look it over.”
Fu Xingchuan recalled it for two seconds.
Tao Lan was a former head nurse of Haigu Municipal Hospital.
Many years ago, a huge gap appeared in Haigu Municipal Hospital, and Tao Lan lost her only daughter due to the gap. She frantically investigated it herself and was subsequently recruited by Shian. After helping to solve the gap problem in the Municipal Hospital, she received the support of the Fu family and was transferred to the Yandu branch with Fu Tianyi.
A simple and sad life.
According to Lu Xiaohe, there were only two types of Shian’s science posts—either they were extremely eager for money and power, or they wanted to know the truth about the people around them who had died. Tao Lan was the latter.
“Hiss… According to what you said, the sniper is quite interested in the Other Side.” Fu Xingchuan quickly caught on.
“Yes, but I have to make it clear that this is just my personal speculation.”
As soon as he mentioned the sniper, Yin Ren’s voice became slightly chilly.
“I’m a little interested in the method of opening up space in the corpse cage… If I take the initiative to throw out bait, I might be able to catch something.”
“Isn’t the sniper just the right target for the bait?”
The author has something to say:
The science post has become the villain of a horror movie! Is this the distortion of human nature or the decline of morality!
————
By the way, I’d like to remind all cat owners.
If you’ve been using an open or semi-open litter box before, don’t suddenly switch to a litter box with a divider door.
You should let your cat adjust first by removing the divider door.
…Otherwise, you might end up like me, throwing away sheets, mattresses, and blankets that were hiding cat poop. Wuwuwu.
A sensation of a neck bone breaking was felt in his hand.
Zhong Chengshuo hesitated to catch the body in his hand. He stood barefoot on the ground, always vigilant for possible alarm vibrations.
The small room was filled with pale light, and a headless male corpse had stuck its arm into a Sunken Society employee wearing a white coat. The two were motionless in the center of the room like sculptures; this picture could be used directly as a promotional image for a horror movie.
Zhong Chengshuo patiently waited, even though he already had an answer in his heart.
Most of the corpses stored by the Sunken Society had strong evil qi, and sophisticated electronic devices were highly likely to be affected. There were probably no instruments such as surveillance cameras arranged here, only layers of monitoring spells.
After all, compared to invaders, the transformation of corpses under unknown spells required precautions.
The designer at the time probably couldn’t imagine that there was such a corpse that had not been revived by any spells, and even the attacks used for the attack were purely physical—fast, accurate, and deadly, leaving no reaction time for the victim.
Two minutes passed.
Confirming that the alarm hadn’t been triggered, Zhong Chengshuo quickly stripped the Sunken Society staff member. He lifted the naked corpse onto the mortuary cabinet where he was located, pushed the part below the person’s shoulders into the freezer, and only left the head outside.
Under the low temperature, the body quickly became cold and stiff.
Zhong Chengshuo nodded his neck with satisfaction. He swayed forward and groped around the dissecting table until he found a bone saw he was wishing for. The sharp edge pressed against the neck of the corpse, and Zhong Chengshuo pulled his arm without hesitation.
The sound of metal rubbing against bone was chilling.
In addition to biology, King Yama also knew anatomy very well. It didn’t take long for Zhong Chengshuo to saw off the person’s head. The remaining part of the neck was just right and could be smoothly connected to his damaged spine.
A fresh and intact head… an integrated “sensory device” with five senses.
Zhong Chengshuo suppressed his aversion and pressed the dead man’s head hard against his neck.
When the broken and cold cut surface touched the fresh flesh, it produced a crushing sound that made people’s teeth ache. Blood slowly slid down Zhong Chengshuo’s collarbone, feeling like a thin snake passing by.
Zhong Chengshuo held the head with both hands, waiting anxiously.
Will it fail?
If it failed, this dead man wouldn’t be able to go back by himself, and Sunken Society would definitely find out that something was amiss. They would move him away from here, and his situation would become quite passive.
Don’t fail.
Absolutely don’t fail.
Zhong Chengshuo tightened his hard-earned head with his ten fingers, repeating the words in his mind. He had been in tense and dangerous situations before but had never experienced such a range of emotions.
This feeling was incredibly strange.
If the previous 28 years were spent submerged in water, then he had finally emerged to the surface. Nervous, restless, anxious. Fear spawned countless emotions, each one new and overwhelming.
He had no head or heart, but his thoughts rolled endlessly, and his chest was filled with worry. Fortunately, they weren’t strong enough—more like new shoots growing after the rain—not enough to immobilize him.
At the moment, Zhong Chengshuo could only hold his head with both hands, waiting for his body’s instincts to take effect, as if a second had stretched into infinity.
Finally, when Zhong Chengshuo was so nervous that his neck hurt, the feeling feedback appeared.
A faint, rusty-sweet smell.
Zhong Chengshuo tasted blood.
In the void, a faint light gradually appeared, and the new view was tinged with a pale blood red.
Zhong Chengshuo blinked hard. The eyeballs of the dead man’s head weren’t very useful. It was like he was looking at the world through a lens full of dust. In his new ears, there was only the sound of dripping blood, and the sound quality was as bad as a pair of 5 yuan headphones from a street vendor.
He saw his surroundings for the first time.
The room wasn’t big, and the four walls were covered with metal-shining mortuary cabinets. Each cabinet door was labeled with a number and a rough description. Except for Zhong Chengshuo, who was a science post, all the other bodies were dangerous items treated with special spells.
According to the description, two of the bodies had been stored for over three hundred years.
The mortuary cabinets were tightly sealed and level, and only his mortuary compartment was half exposed, with the Sunken Society employee he had killed lying in it with the blood from the broken neck flowing slowly down the metal.
Zhong Chengshuo carefully maintained contact with his head and neck and turned around.
In the middle of the room was a dissecting table, and the activity table next to it was filled with a variety of medical instruments. The nursing solution brought by the person was open on the table, emitting an unpleasant smell.
Zhong Chengshuo moved his head to the edge of the table, freeing up one hand to laboriously rummage through the toolbox. His luck was good, as the sewing needles and thread were all there.
He carefully sewed the dead head onto his neck, wound two rounds of bandages around it, and finally, his hands were freed.
The stitching was a bit painful, and the disinfection procedure wasn’t very thorough. But given his current condition, it didn’t seem like he needed to worry about infections.
The metal surface of the mortuary cabinet illuminated Zhong Chengshuo’s current appearance.
In the blurry image, Zhong Chengshuo’s limbs were as strong and slender as ever. His body had been tidied up by the Sunken Society employee, but his chest had been blown to pieces—the once-smooth chest line was now unsightly.
After hesitating for a moment, Zhong Chengshuo wound a few more rounds of bandages to hold the broken ribs in place.
His new head hung slightly, and moving it was still a bit stiff.
The head appeared to be around thirty years old, with ordinary features and slightly chubby cheeks. The eyes bulged out, and the person’s face still bore the shock and fear of death.
There were no signs of fusion between the flesh and blood around the neck and his body. It was completely separated and could not become a part of his body.
Could it be rejection? Zhong Chengshuo pondered uncertainly.
The head only provided him with the most basic five senses, and controlling the facial muscles was extremely difficult. Zhong Chengshuo felt like he was operating an outdated computer, and all the reactions from the head were slow.
What was worse, he couldn’t use the dead person’s brain. He didn’t know the person’s name, what his job was at Sunken Society, or their usual habits.
All he had was a simple work badge.
“Technical Department 2-B2219-070: Zhang Wei.”
Perhaps for security reasons, Zhang Wei didn’t even have a phone on him.
Zhong Chengshuo slowly put on the person’s clothes, which had a strong smell of sweat and hair oil. They were a bit too big for him and clung to his body like pickled vegetables. But with the white coat covering him, he looked somewhat presentable.
Zhong Chengshuo adjusted his collar to cover the gauze around his neck. As long as he hid his hands, which were thin and pale, and maintained the expression on the dead person’s face, he looked… like a person.
“Ah… Ahem…” The voice was still his own, with a wheezing sound.
Zhong Chengshuo rubbed his face with his hands, but the head remained icy cold, and his facial features were stiff. The worst part was that the head would gradually decay, and he was running out of time.
Zhong Chengshuo put on an “expressionless” face and quickly cleaned up the blood on the ground and pushed Zhang Wei’s headless body into the morgue drawer.
Before leaving, Zhong Chengshuo put his hands in his pockets and looked at “himself” in the morgue drawer again. After a few seconds, he finally realized what was wrong—
He tried to move his chest to fake a normal breathing rate.
Half a minute later, the heavy metal door slowly opened without a sound.
Zhong Chengshuo poked out the head he had just obtained and turned it stiffly from side to side.
He was standing in the middle of a long corridor. The corridor had no windows, and both sides disappeared into the deep darkness, with no end in sight.
An unknown location, dull senses, and a throat that couldn’t speak casually. Plus, with this unfamiliar face and ill-fitting clothes…
His mission to “return to Yin Ren’s side” began somewhat awkwardly.
……
Haigu Municipal Hospital.
Huang Jin purchased half a cabinet of wood and leather and made a delicate leather case for his carving knife, which he hung on his body at all times.
He couldn’t afford better jade and animal bones, so he had to go with a large quantity of mediocre supplies.
Huang Jin copied all the tranquility talismans he could find on the market and lined them up on the wall. The stack of calculation paper next to him was piled high, and as the carving knife tapped gently on the wood, his brow furrowed.
He thought about several ways to improve the tranquility mantra, but with little success.
The situation was not optimistic.
The C-level investigation team was attacked, and the B-level investigation team had to call it a day. The national competition wasn’t canceled, but it wasn’t clear when it would resume. In the past twenty years, Shian had never experienced such a big incident.
Two other experts from out of town were still staying in Haigu, and they were unlikely to leave before the truth of this incident was revealed.
But all of this was like a fight between gods and had nothing to do with a small fry like him.
Huang Jin put down his carving knife and wood pieces, rubbed his sore eyes, and turned his head.
Ding Lizi had completely shaken off the influence of the original case, and the unlucky guitar was completely separated from her body. After her body stabilized, she was transferred to the Haigu Municipal Hospital for recuperation.
Just now, she was holding a guitar and humming softly. When she heard the sound of the carving knife hitting the table, the melody stopped immediately.
“What’s wrong?” she curiously asked, her carefree thoughts still swirling around her.
“It’s nothing,” Huang Jin replied vaguely.
“Something happened, but someone is taking care of it.” He thought for a moment and added sincerely.
Ding Lizi scratched her head. “Um… If it’s really dangerous, why don’t you quit?”
Huang Jin stood up and stroked the sharp blade of the carving knife. “There are some things that, once you know them, you can’t just quit, even if you want to.”
Since joining the unlucky Unit 9, he had written at least a dozen transfer applications. Every time he was beaten down by reality, writing his transfer application had almost become a daily habit for Huang Jin. After the Zhong Chengshuo’s incident, Huang Jin instinctively wanted to write another one, but this time, he couldn’t write a single word.
He didn’t like Sunken Society, didn’t like the Nightwalkers, and couldn’t say that he liked Shian.
But now…
He looked at Ding Lizi, who knew nothing about the tragedy.
The transformation of Yin Ren’s state was still vivid in his mind. That evil was very good at handling emotions, and his relationship with Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t that long. Based on Huang Jin’s understanding of evil creatures, Yin Ren might have just wanted to try “falling in love with a human” and would come out of this relationship in a couple of days.
But Yin Ren didn’t come out of it.
If Yin Ren was previously a lazy candle flame, now his aura was as intense as a raging fire, so vivid that it was frightening. Even Huang Jin, who was not that close to him, could feel the suppressed pain from the burning flames.
Huang Jin sighed quietly. “I’m going to work.”
“So late?”
“Yeah, it’ll be over soon.”
He dusted off the wood chips on his clothes and walked towards the group’s collective ward. When he arrived at the door, Huang Jin took a deep breath, opened the door, and…
Crash! A pile of paper documents fell from the side and hit Huang Jin’s temple hard. The quality of the stack of documents seemed quite good, as Huang Jin felt his face had been severely punched..
Huang Jin: “……” Fuck this job. Whoever wants to do it, can do it. I really don’t want to do it anymore!
Despite this, he still hung his head and struggled to cross the mountain of documents on the ground.
Yin Ren sat in the center of the document mountain.
Before this, Yin Ren was always the most eager to go home. As long as he didn’t have a task, he would sprint home as soon as it was time to leave work. As for now, Huang Jin didn’t know how long it had been since he had gone home. Yin Ren’s luggage was all placed at the head of the hospital bed, as if he were going to root himself here.
He barely ate, and there was no trace of food near the table.
Huang Jin made his way through the document mountain and tried to soften his tone as he asked, “How’s the progress?”
Ge Tingting buried herself in a pile of paper documents, with only her head showing and her gaze looking dull. When she saw Huang Jin come in, she grunted and grabbed another piece of paper to read.
One of the papers floated down to Huang Jin’s feet. It seemed to be a record of early expenses, all paid by Zhong Chengshuo.
Lu Xiaohe’s voice sounded confused. “It’s hard to say about the progress.”
She had never investigated a case like this before.
The “Sniper” incident had the top elites of Shian actively investigating. They were more inclined to research the remnants at the scene, and the deaths of Zhong Chengshuo and Auntie Tao weren’t the first focus of the experts’ investigation.
Unit 9 was conducting an extended investigation to contribute to their fallen colleagues… That was how she was originally prepared.
She could accept that Zhong Chengshuo had hidden motives. After all, wanting to join Shian’s as a science post would have personal reasons to some extent.
She could also reluctantly understand how Yin Ren had special connections that allowed Shian to open up advanced permissions for her. After all, Yin Ren had lost his memory when he first joined, and there might be some background to that.
…But the current direction of the investigation was a bit far-fetched.
Lu Xiaohe couldn’t help but move her gaze to Yin Ren.
“Progress? We can now confirm that Zhong Chengshuo’s original motive was indeed to ‘fully investigate the death of Zhong Chengfeng’.”
Yin Ren didn’t lift his head and was holding a thick stack of police documents.
“Zhong Chengfeng had nothing to do with the metaphysical world, but she was unfortunate enough to be affected by the Divine Descent 28 years ago…”
Yin Ren was still wearing Zhong Chengshuo’s white thread shirt, and his hair flowed down the table. Next to him, a huge screen showed a national map. Every place Zhong Chengshuo had been was marked with a red line. Another screen was constantly scrolling with code, and the location of Zhong Chengshuo’s hamster tracker had just been cracked at 61%.
“I understand,” said Huang Jin.
It was pretty easy to understand. Yin Ren wanted to fully investigate everything about his deceased lover. It was human nature, and this way he could also provide information to Shian.
“No, you don’t understand,” said Lu Xiaohe.
Huang Jin pulled over a chair and sat down, looking confused.
“I’m looking for a way to capture the sniper alive,” Yin Ren said.
Huang Jin’s butt made a thud as he fell off the chair. He ignored the pain and stared at Yin Ren. “You, what?”
Wasn’t the plan to find Zhong Chengshuo’s body?
Yin Ren finally lifted his head, and a hint of frightening focus was in his eyes.
“Zhong Chengshuo is related to Wei Huaqian, who is associated with Sunken Society, and they have been developing in Haigu for many years. Despite this, Shian hasn’t been able to make any moves on them, which means their base must be difficult to find.”
As if he had seen through Huang Jin’s thoughts, he responded calmly.
“The sniper personally took Zhong Chengshuo, so he knows where his body is. The easiest way is just to ask him.”
Yin Ren glanced at Huang Jin and turned over another page of information.
“Besides, as long as I can be the first to catch him, I can… well, do a lot of things.”
Huang Jin scanned the information on Zhong Chengshuo spread out all over the room, and finally stopped on Yin Ren. He sat in the middle of the white papers, his pale shirt blending in with his surroundings, but he himself was like a burning flame.
“So you’re investigating Zhong Chengshuo…” Huang Jin swallowed nervously.
Yin Ren smiled at him and threw a pile of police records at him. “I just want to know why the sniper chose him.”
……
The people by the table went from four to three. The young Ge Tingting was the first to fall asleep. With Yin Ren’s persuasion, she returned to her hospital bed. The clock ticked away in the quiet room, and soon only one person was left.
It was almost four in the morning, and all his human companions were asleep. Yin Ren turned off all the lights in the room, leaving only the dim glow of the screen. Even Yellow Millet on his phone charm was sleeping while whistling lightly and was as soft as a puddle.
Yin Ren lowered his head and continued to flip through the pages, one by one. He had not slept since he dreamed of Zhong Chengshuo.
The printed black letters flowed into his eyes line by line, and the silence around him was terrifying, leaving only the sound of him flipping through the pages.
Fwish, fwish.
Suddenly, Yin Ren stopped and lifted his left hand forward. The darkness opposite the table surged, and a familiar figure lifted his head and looked at him silently.
The phantom of Zhong Chengshuo sat quietly opposite Yin Ren, holding an illusory page.
At first glance, it seemed as if they were investigating the same case, just like before.
Yin Ren looked at the person’s face for a while before lowering his head and continuing to review the information. These words were the most potent anesthetic, able to help him hold his breath and focus solely on moving forward.
“Your hamster signal is too weak. Shian needs more time to analyze it,” Yin Ren casually remarked. “Your quality control is not up to par, Zhong Ge.”
The phantom looked at him intently, eyes unblinking.
“Don’t think I won’t hold you accountable for your little secrets. Once we catch the sniper and bring you back, I’ll dig up your past, and then I can…”
Yin Ren didn’t finish his sentence and instead pursed his lips.
“How boring,” he murmured. “It’s all your fault. I can’t concentrate on anything now… If it were you, where would you start the investigation?”
Yin Ren raised his head again, looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar black eyes of Zhong Chengshuo’s phantom.
The phantom of Zhong Chengshuo gradually changed form, and a slightly scary cartoon rabbit mask appeared next to his head, with his shirt turning into a loose, casual outfit.
The phantom held the Evil Fruit in his left hand, and his right hand simulated a gun gesture. The faint light shimmered on the Evil Fruit and a string of colorful bubbles emerged from the muzzle of the simulated gun. Illusory bubbles drifted toward the dark ceiling, disappearing before they popped.
That was the outfit Zhong Chengshuo wore during their first encounter with a sniper.
At that time, the sniper had killed Bai Yongji, who was only a half-step away from becoming a Charon, with a single shot. He had only fired two shots at them to intimidate them, like a well-fed cat toying with a mouse.
At that point, the sniper probably noticed them for the first time.
Yin Ren put down the boring data on his hands and looked across with a piercing gaze.
“Very good,” Yin Ren murmured. “Then came the second time…”
The rabbit mask, the Evil Fruit, and the bubble gun disappeared at the same time, and Zhong Chengshuo’s loose casual clothes turned into a suit that highlighted his figure. He held an unopened bag of chocolate chips in his hand, and the smiling face on the package was a little dazzling.
The Archive.
Yin Ren had read through the reports of Unit 7. At that time, he himself had gone crazy in the ghost fetus and almost turned into an Evil Spirit. Zhong Chengshuo had returned to the ghost fetus alone and brought him out.
During his most out-of-control period, the report indicated that there was an obvious feeling of being peeped at by the gray-black vortex in the sky.
If that was also the sniper’s line of sight. Were they being watched at that time?
Zhong Chengshuo nodded gently across from him, and the phantom stretched out its hand as if to hand over the chocolate chips.
It was just a projection of his subconscious, and Yin Ren looked away.
The phantom’s movement froze in mid-air, and the brightly colored packaging in its hand evaporated in an instant, replaced by dust and dirt. Zhong Chengshuo’s clothes were torn apart, revealing many abrasions.
Gengsheng Town.
Qi Xin warned them to be careful of “Mr. Qiu.” They had analyzed before that Mr. Qiu was very likely the sniper.
Qi Xin, whose origin was unknown, was obviously acquainted with Mr. Qiu. If they had contact with Qi Xin, the sniper… Mr. Qiu might also know. After all, “Qi Xin” appeared in Shian’s report so it wasn’t difficult to investigate.
“But why didn’t he attack me?”
Yin Ren looked at the phantom covered in wounds, and his hands slowly clenched.
“You were just investigating your sister’s death, and your purpose was very simple. The mysteries around me are obviously greater, and attacking me would easily cause chaos…”
Was the sniper really just randomly killing people?
Yin Ren repeatedly chewed on the information he had obtained.
Bai Yongji, a scumbag who seemed to be at odds with Sunken Society. The guy had not been in contact with the core of the metaphysical world for long and didn’t have anything special besides the ability of the “Charon” branch.
But the ability of the “Charon” branch could allow him to touch “the Other Side”.
Wait, “the Other Side”…
The Archive was also… It was full of weird artifacts that were closely related to “the Other Side”, and it may have a certain degree of connection with “the Other Side”. If he really became an Evil Spirit in the Archive, it was hard to say whether he could come into contact with “the Other Side”.
The three-part league of Shian used metaphysical entities as test questions. Fu Wuya himself was an ancient Charon, similar to Bai Yongji’s situation, and also closely related to the Other Side.
“The sniper is very interested in ‘the Other Side’,” Yin Ren pondered.
“This is a breakthrough point. Wait until Lu Xiahe and the others wake up…”
Before he could finish speaking, the phantom of Zhong Chengshuo changed again.
This time, it was a figure that Yin Ren wasn’t familiar with, only appearing in a photo he had seen before—
A young Zhong Chengshuo sat at the table, his arms neatly folded together. He was wearing a clean, plain T-shirt with soft hair hanging down. He looked like he was still in elementary school. He wasn’t wearing glasses back then, and his features were gentle and delicate. His eyes looked much older than his age, still deep and dark.
He stared at Yin Ren, tilting his head slightly.
“Yeah, if you were here, you would definitely think one step further.”
Yin Ren clumsily operated the complicated machinery, enduring the throbbing pain in his head, trying to connect the overwhelming amount of information.
Under the manipulation of magic, the paper files automatically floated in mid-air. They were suspended by red threads, similar to the intelligence wall in Zhong Chengshuo’s basement.
“The reason why the sniper chose to attack you instead of me…”
Zhong Chengshuo used school research as an excuse for his hunting of evil spirits, but perhaps this wasn’t his main purpose and was just incidental. He had been studying the “Divine Descent” and had indeed been to several places that were related to the Divine Descent.
Such as the nearby city of Luotian, which was close to Gengsheng Town, where he had solved the underground corpse nest as “King Yama”.
Another example was the western suburbs, where the Municipal Hospital was located, where Zhong Chengshuo had also dealt with the hundred-year-old ghost there.
All these places had one thing in common—a large amount of remaining Evil Force, with an abnormally high index of evil qi, directly related to the “Divine Descent.”
…And the “Divine Descent” was exactly tied to “the Other Side.”
Through the connection of the red threads, Yin Ren seemed to have caught something.
The sniper, rather than “being very interested in the Other Side”, was more like maintaining it. From his actions, it seemed that the guy was monitoring and eliminating all humans who might approach the Other Side.
Yin Ren twirled his hair and fell into deep thought.
“The difference between you and me… We have both been in contact with the Other Side. But you took the initiative to investigate the Divine Descent. You might have already been on the sniper’s watch list.”
Young Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes curved a bit, as if he were smiling.
“But these are all speculations. I still need to verify Auntie Tao’s information.” Yin Ren stood up, his hand stopping at the phantom’s head. The phantom looked up at Yin Ren’s hand curiously.
Yin Ren remained silent for a long time before slowly retracting his hand.
“Wait until dawn. I will go find someone to check the information. Will you wait for me?” he said.
The phantom remained silent.
……
Haigu Branch Sunken Society, underground corpse vault.
Minister Zou from Technical Department 2 stood at the entrance of the underground corpse vault, wiping the sweat off his forehead. It was almost dawn, but he dared not leave work yet.
His subordinate, Zhang Wei, was supposed to maintain Zhong Chengshuo’s body, but he hadn’t returned yet. The rules and regulations of that ghostly place were strict, and Zhang Wei’s phone was outside, with no way to contact him. Fortunately, there had been no alarms from the advanced vault at the deepest level, so the situation shouldn’t be too serious.
“We saw him go in, but he hasn’t come out since.” The human guard wiped his nose. “Last time, he also took a long time to maintain it. That place is at the very bottom. Maybe he just got lost.”
“Can you go in and look for him?” Director Zou gritted his teeth. “If something happens, I can’t bear the responsibility.”
“You can’t bear it? If we go in and the defense is lax and someone who shouldn’t be let in breaks in, won’t the blame fall on our heads?” the zombie guard shouted loudly. “Besides, you know this place. The morgue loses two or three people every year—if they’re lost, they’re lost. Just don’t lose the valuable corpses.”
Then he muttered a string of complaints mixed with profanity.
“Who would break into this ghost of a place?!” Minister Zou had a headache.
Sunken Society wasn’t an ordinary organization. If something went wrong, it wasn’t as simple as deducting your year-end bonus. Everyone here was involved in transactions with the high-level executives of Sunken Society—some even more than one—and if something went wrong, “death” would be the easiest outcome.
After all, when Minister Zou first came here, the zombie guard wasn’t even a zombie yet.
Some things were confidential, and he couldn’t be too clear with the guards.
For example, the body of Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t just precious materials, but a hot potato that was thrown over directly by “Mr. Qiu” after being provocatively identified by Shian. While Zhong Chengshuo was a small character, it was uncertain if Shian would try to trace the corpse.
Everything related to that unlucky body made Minister Zou extremely nervous.
What if Zhang Wei was Shian’s spy? What if he made a mistake? The more Minister Zou thought about it, the more he got a headache. He wiped his face and said, “Forget it. I’ll go in and find him myself, okay?”
The two guards looked at each other and shrugged.
“It’s not impossible,” the human guard said seriously.
“But you know the rules.” The zombie chuckled. “You can’t make mistakes in time, route, and way of walking. It’s especially strict down there. If you make a mistake, you will be responsible for the consequences.”
With his level, he could freely control the content of his dreams. In the past, to ensure the quality of his sleep, Yin Ren had turned off the “dreaming” function. The times had changed, and his daily life was rich and exciting enough that he didn’t need additional dreamscapes.
Tonight was an exception.
Perhaps his mind was more tired than he imagined—Yin Ren fell into a deep sleep in the hospital bed, immersed in the faint smell of medicine. But when he opened his eyes, he saw a familiar yet unfamiliar ceiling.
It was Zhong Chengshuo’s bedroom.
The clock on the bedside table pointed exactly at 6:58, and the light-blocking curtains blocked the sunlight, making the room still dark.
Yin Ren’s heart trembled. He instinctively touched the warm skin next to him.
Zhong Chengshuo was wearing his nightcap and sleeping soundly. Yin Ren had just patted Zhong Chengshuo’s shoulder, and the man only made a sound and then curled up under the covers.
It was an ordinary morning.
Yin Ren stared at the person next to him. Zhong Chengshuo’s face was rosy, and his skin had a healthy glow, full of vitality. His hair was clean and fluffy, with a refreshing minty scent, and not a single white hair was visible. Zhong Chengshuo slept quietly, and his breathing was lighter than a cat’s. However, the blanket on his body still rose and fell, outlining the contours of his breath.
Without hesitation, Yin Ren laid back on his pillow. He turned over, and his hair surged, pulling the other person into his arms.
He lowered his head, burying his nose in Zhong Chengshuo’s neck. The cotton pajamas were soaked with body temperature, emitting his familiar scent. Yin Ren couldn’t control himself. A part of his body instantly turned into a semi-transparent form and was scattered under the bed, covering the entire room, as if he wanted to completely wrap up this person.
Zhong Chengshuo was probably awakened by Yin Ren’s movements. He moved sleepily and put an arm around Yin Ren’s waist. “Hm?”
“Let me hug you for a while.” Yin Ren continued to bury his face in Zhong Chengshuo’s shoulder. “I had a nightmare.”
“Can an Evil Spirit also have nightmares?” Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes were still closed. He relaxed his body and let Yin Ren hold him, his voice still a little drowsy. “What did you dream about?”
“I dreamt that a sniper killed you in front of me.”
“Oh.” Zhong Chengshuo’s soft hair rubbed against him, and he didn’t say much. “What do you want to eat this morning? My parents’ stewed pork ribs are still in the fridge. I can make vegetable pork rib noodles.”
“If you hadn’t met me, you wouldn’t have encountered such a thing.”
Yin Ren didn’t answer Zhong Chengshuo’s question. He held his lover tightly and continued to speak in a daze. The emptiness of the loss was so real that he didn’t know whether he should be joyful or sad now.
This morning was so ordinary and beautiful. He should get up and go to the kitchen with that person, enjoying every moment. But he just couldn’t help but continue to say these words that had nowhere to go.
“If you hadn’t met me, you could have been a real C-level investigator in Shian. You wouldn’t have had to come into contact with Qi Xin for your execution mission, or be noticed by the sniper… You could have continued your research happily, and you could have lived a good life.”
Zhong Chengshuo just listened quietly.
Thump, thump, thump. Through the thin fabric, Zhong Chengshuo’s heartbeat was clearly audible in his ears.
Yin Ren closed his eyes.
He had thought that his liking for Zhong Chengshuo was just an ordinary level. He still couldn’t empathize with the exaggerated drama in those scripts and the screams of collapse in those interpretations.
But at this moment, he felt that he truly understood the concept of “like”.
When he was in a good mood, he could treat all humans gently. But when he was in a bad mood, that concern and goodwill could be taken away in an instant.
But the person he liked was like a whirlpool.
His attention, his goodwill, and the focus of his mind—even if that whirlpool went away, it still pulled them constantly, leaving a part of him forever in the distance, unable to retrieve it no matter how hard he tried.
If everything before was just a long and realistic nightmare, and the present was reality, how good that would be.
But Yin Ren had already passed the age of self-deception.
…This situation and scenery were just a dream, and the “Zhong Chengshuo” in front of him was just his impression of his lover. No matter how comforting the words this illusion said were, it was just his self-deception.
He tightened his arms and hugged the warm and sturdy body.
“Well, I understand now.”
In the warm and soft blanket, Zhong Chengshuo patted Yin Ren’s back and absentmindedly touched the translucent wings that were flowing all over the bed.
“I am already dead and you’ve dreamed of me,” he honestly stated the fact. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have collapsed like this because of a ‘dream’.”
Yin Ren: “……”
Indeed, this was Zhong Chengshuo’s style. This development was too realistic, and he didn’t know who to take his anger out on.
Yin Ren: “Is there anything you want to say to me?”
“No matter what I say, it’s just an illusion created by your brain,” Zhong Chengshuo grumbled. “I am a science post, and I cannot enter dreams. And I have taken care of everything. You’re very smart, so I don’t have much to advise.”
Yin Ren smiled awkwardly.
“But I can give you a good morning kiss,” his dream lover said. “You know I will do that.”
Zhong Chengshuo leaned in seriously. His lips touched the corner of Yin Ren’s mouth. That was where Yin Ren had kissed him for the first time.
“Good morning, Yin Ren,” he said quietly.
“Wake up.”
……
Yin Ren opened his eyes again. The sunlight in the hospital room was a bit dazzling. He covered his eyes with his arm, and his phone kept vibrating beside his ear.
It was a voice call from Zhong Chengshuo’s mother, Cheng Xuehua.
“Xiao Yin, why can’t I reach Chengshuo’s phone?”
“His phone has some problems, so he went to buy a new one.” Yin Ren covered his eyes, and his voice sounded as cheerful as usual. “Auntie, do you have anything to tell me?”
“Nothing much. I just haven’t seen you two for a while. Lao Zhong’s friend got us a box of good lamb, and we can’t finish it ourselves. I thought about making some braised lamb, and you two can come home for dinner tonight.”
“We have to work overtime tonight,” Yin Ren said fluently.
“When he comes back, we’ll discuss it and let you know.”
“…Xiao Yin, did Chengshuo make you angry?” There was a pause in veteran detective Cheng Xuehua’s voice. “You sound a bit upset. You can tell auntie.”
“It’s nothing, just…” Yin Ren took a breath, not completely denying it. “Sometimes he doesn’t like to tell me when he’s doing things, and I occasionally can’t find him.”
“Hey, that brat still has that old problem. You two find time this week to come home for dinner, I’ll talk to him.”
“Okay, I’m counting on you.”
Lu Xiaohe sat by the bedside, looking at him with a complicated expression. She had never seen Yin Ren with such a twisted face, saying such relaxed words.
Two hours later, Lu Xiaohe’s expression became even more complicated.
At the request of the members of Unit 9, a large table was added to the empty ward. Various equipment needed by the rear commander was moved in, and the ward was transformed into a temporary office.
On the surface, it was said to facilitate the psychological treatment of Unit 9 members, but in reality, it gave them some space to “cross the line”—they could investigate more sensitive information without being monitored by the Shian.
Such as “The Other Side” and “Divine Descent”.
Fu Xingchuan didn’t linger on this matter. After transferring the permissions to Lu Xiaohe, he only left them with a few words.
“I’ll take care of Li Nian. I’ve given you the people and information you want,” Fu Xingchuan said. “As an exchange, in this case, you are not the Unit 9 investigator Yin Ren, but the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi… You have to take responsibility for the lives of these people.”
At the moment, various numbers flickered quickly on the temporary screen wall, and the program was cracking the tracking method of the hamster pendant. The huge table was so covered with photos that even the color of the table couldn’t be seen.
Lu Xiaohe looked at the table full of photos in front of her and felt like her freshly stitched wound was about to burst. She had received too many shocks these past few days. For the first time in her life, her brain had a tendency to shut down.
“What is this?” she asked blankly.
Yin Ren replied, “It’s an investigation Zhong Chengshuo was working on that may be related to the killer.”
The hamster pendant was just one clue, and he had to seize every possibility.
To protect Zhong Chengshuo’s “King Yama” identity, Yin Ren didn’t plan to expose Zhong Chengshuo’s secret base. He just took some good photos of Zhong Chengshuo’s intelligence wall and took Zhong Chengshuo’s notebook with him.
Given Zhong Cheng’s level of caution, there should be no evidence in his computer that could expose his identity. In this delicate aspect, he had confidence in Zhong Chengshuo.
… Although he wasn’t sure why he wanted to keep these little secrets for Zhong Chengshuo.
Lu Xiaohe quickly flipped through the photos, stunned.
She rushed to the bathroom, wiped her face with cold water and a towel, and limped back.
“He entered Shian with hidden strength. I know he has something he wants to investigate… but this is too exaggerated!” Lu Xiaohe pointed to one of the photos, her voice still sounding dazed.
“The magazine in this picture has been out of print for a long time. If you want to investigate, you can use the electronic version. But Zhong Chengshuo used the original pages after cutting them, and there’s more than just one… “
Lu Xiaohe grabbed a dozen or so photos on the desktop and pulled out a clean area, arranging the photos in a row.
“This one, this one, and this one… The clippings inside are all hard-to-find types. It’s completely unnecessary to find these physical materials afterwards.”
Yin Ren: “So…?”
Lu Xiaohe’s facial muscles twitched, and she pressed her hands on the table, looking at the printed photos all over the table. The morning sun shone on the desktop, casting a neat beam of light on the dark images.
“So.”
Lu Xiaohe pressed her temples hard, her tone terrified.
“Roughly estimating the time, this kid Zhong Chengshuo has been investigating these things since elementary school… Is this something a normal person can do?”
Kids of that age couldn’t even read properly—some didn’t even know how to wipe their own snot—but Zhong Chengshuo had already learned to flip through magazines and carefully collect the most gruesome murder cases, and he could do it without being discovered by his police parents.
Yin Ren imagined for a moment the scene of young Zhong Chengshuo cutting paper, and his mouth twitched.
“He once told me he was investigating ‘Divine Descent’.”
Yin Ren lowered his eyes.
“But since he started investigating these things so early, the ‘principle of Divine Descent’ is likely not his ultimate goal.”
Lu Xiaohe was still in shock from the impact of her “abnormal colleague” and reacted after half a minute, limping over to the computer and entering those cases.
“No wonder he wanted to use Shian’s power.” Her fingers didn’t stop moving for a moment. “The connection between these cases, if you try to find them outside the database, it will take forever… Got it!”
Just when there was a little joy in her tone, it suddenly became heavy again.
The origin of Zhong Chengshuo’s investigation was finally successfully deciphered by Shian’s most advanced AI. All the big and small vicious cases were related to a small disappearance case—
Yin Ren raised his head and looked at the stranger on the screen wall. She was a young woman with short hair. Her features weren’t exactly pretty, but she looked bright and cheerful, and her smile was full of confidence.
Zhong Chengfeng, a detective. She was the daughter of Zhong Youde and Cheng Xuehua, and the sister that Zhong Chengshuo said he had never met.
Twenty-eight years ago, Zhong Chengfeng went missing during the “Divine Descent” incident. Her body so far had never been found to this day, and she was deemed “dead”.
……
Zhong Chengshuo quietly waited for a night, trying to feel every subtle change in his body.
There was no thirst or hunger, and no signs of decay. His reaction was a bit slow, but his body was still usable. The only thing that was terrible was that he had been waiting patiently for so long, and there was still no sign of his heart or head growing back.
Only gradually thickening fear accompanied him.
Besides this, there was only the unknown in front of him, which was the situation that Zhong Chengshuo disliked the most.
Even if he escaped from here… his parents knew nothing about his situation, and Shian would only monitor him. There was only one person who could make him feel at ease in the world. Deducting all possibilities and ending all worries, his endpoint was only one place—
Return to Yin Ren’s side.
Zhong Chengshuo quickly formulated the ultimate goal of this operation.
Time passed in nothingness, and finally, the sound of footsteps rang again. Zhong Chengshuo once again pretended to be a corpse and was pulled out of the morgue. That person was making a recording for Sunken Society while taking care of the “corpse”.
The voice and footsteps habits were exactly the same as last time. It seemed that his body was being taken care of by the same person.
No shift changes. That’s good.
Just as the researcher from Sunken Society turned around to replenish the preservative fluid for the “corpse” behind him, the “corpse” silently raised itself up.
A pair of cold hands reached for the side of the person’s neck and suddenly tightened—
The morgue remained a void, with no visual, auditory, olfactory, or gustatory sensations.
Outside, people hadn’t left yet, so Zhong Chengshuo was dutifully playing the part of a corpse.
The slight vibration gradually faded away and ended with a dull thud of the heavy door closing. Then there were the clicks and clacks of mechanical locks, which Zhong Chengshuo could “feel” more vividly than before.
His senses were becoming sharper. If the previous touch was like a screen covered in dirt and fingerprints, someone had now wiped away all that grime, and everything he felt was fresh and new.
…A familiar yet strange feeling.
He narrowly escaped being gutted, and excitement and fear mingled as Zhong Chengshuo’s muscles trembled slightly.
He could finally think somewhat calmly.
The liquid on his body was slightly sticky, and the feeling was quite familiar. It was a high-end preservative solution that he often used. It could preserve cell activity to a certain extent and delay the decay of organisms. However, this solution had a shelf life, and to ensure the best preservation effect, it needed maintenance every 24 hours.
The people who came were here to “maintain” him. “No need for dissection at the moment” probably meant that his body was still relatively fresh and didn’t require special organ separation and preservation.
It seemed that this institution valued his flesh.
Sunken Society.
In an instant, Zhong Chengshuo came to a conclusion—Wei Huaqian was his blood relative. For cultivators, a blood relative’s corpse was excellent material for sacrifice.
As for whether the deceased was a science post in life, that was irrelevant—whether one was a cultivator or a scientist, once they died, the body they left behind was nothing but a “dead object”.
But Sunken Society didn’t have the ability to invade the Fu residence and commit murder on the spot. The attacker was likely a third party, and Zhong Chengshuo’s body had been handed over to Sunken Society.
Now there was a big knife hanging over his head—Zhong Chengshuo couldn’t say for sure when Wei Huaqian would use him for sacrifice. He needed to escape before the worst happened.
Before he escaped, there was one thing he needed to confirm.
Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t sure if he was dead or not, and he didn’t know if he would slowly rot away in this posture. Even zombies needed to ensure that their heads were intact. His situation was unprecedented, and he must be cautious.
He tried again to focus and strengthen his other senses. In the cold, empty morgue, all the sensations from his memories seemed distant and blurry. Only one thing remained clear in his chaotic memories—
It was warm, soft, and emanated the scent of Yin Ren.
Suddenly, the fear of “not being able to escape” amplified once again. Zhong Chengshuo trembled all over, and his body and senses were like a car with faulty brakes, becoming increasingly difficult to control.
He had a clear feeling that the emotion called “fear” was slowly seeping into him, bringing about various unknown changes. He had no idea what he would become, or how this would end.
However, there were two things that he could be clear about at the moment.
First, fear had its benefits for him.
Second, as the person just said, his nerves still had activity. Through his own verification, he could obtain some sensory functions through his incomplete physical body.
So “recovery” became simple.
If he had no clothes, he could steal them. If he had no weapon, he could steal one.
If he had no head, perhaps he could still steal one!
But before the time came… Patience. He must be patient.
Zhong Chengshuo endured the fear like being bitten by insects and ants, continued to turn over, and felt and adapted to this new state.
……
Shian Campus, Haigu, interrogation room.
The small room was locked, and all the devices were shut down. Thanks to the layers of magic defenses around it, it became an absolute island and one of the “most confidential” places in Shian.
This time, Fu Xingchuan sat on the side being interrogated. Professor Li sat behind the one-way glass; his face was frighteningly pale.
“You’re crazy,” Li Nian said.
“You just threw the big trouble of Xiang Jiang to me, and you think it’s not chaotic enough? Do you want to let Yin Ren continue to cause trouble? …Or is it that when you confirmed that he was the Great Master Zhong Yi, everyone in your Fu family planned to worship him as an ancestor?”
His hands clenched tightly on the interrogation table, and there was a faint green and black color in his eyes.
“Because the mortal he liked died, he will use Shian as a tool for revenge, and won’t listen to any objections—this is the evil you contracted, Fu Xingchuan. I’ve told you many times that you can’t gamble with ‘human nature’.”
No matter how good a person was, they would inevitably lose their reason when they were passionate. But for Yin Ren, no one could bear the consequences of his loss of control.
Fu Xingchuan took a sip of his latte and listened to the soothing music, playing with the tip of the potted plant’s leaves.
“Lao Li, take a breath,” he comforted. “Being too excited is not good for your health.”
“Fu Xingchuan—” Professor Li gritted his teeth.
“I know what you’re thinking. You think that the most urgent task is to figure out the type of evil Yin Ren is, grasp his weaknesses, so that Shian won’t be at the mercy of others.”
“Is there a problem?”
“Yes, I am no longer the head of the Emergency Management Department. I don’t want to use my brain to think about these things—ah, don’t smash the window. I’m kidding!”
Fu Xingchuan saw the one-way glass tremble and almost explode.
“Okay, okay, let me be serious. His plan is beneficial to Shian. Obstructing him will only make things twice as difficult!”
Fu Xingchuan sighed and looked at his reflection in the one-way glass. In the dim light, he seemed to have returned to that collective ward.
At that time, Yin Ren let the evil qi wrap around him, standing in the middle of the ward.
Yin Ren had extraordinary and eerie features. He was usually easygoing and had a gentle smile on his face. After getting used to it, it was easy to overlook the sharpness in his brows and eyes.
When this person shed that gentle outer layer, no one would think of him as a “normal person”.
Even Lu Xiaohe noticed something was off this time. The killing intent was so thick that it was almost tangible. Except for the immune Zhong Chengshuo, almost all living creatures could sense Yin Ren’s strength. Even the mosquitoes flying around made an emergency stop and flew straight out of the ward.
“This is a missing person case, and Special Investigation Unit 9 has always been good at tracking missing people, right?”
Lu Xiaohe didn’t move, perhaps out of shock or fear, while Ge Tingting, as a former “missing person”, was completely dumbfounded. Only “Missing Person No. 2” Huang Jin was forced to speak out by his desperate survival instinct.
“What do you mean?” Huang Jin’s voice was extremely dry. “You want us to investigate…the case Zhong Chengshuo mentioned? You… ahem, you’re giving us too much credit.”
In the face of such a bizarre attack, Shian would definitely send out strong personnel to investigate in detail. No matter how they looked at it, there would be no room for a C-level investigation team to get involved. Even Ge Tingting, who had just joined, understood that.
Furthermore, for C-level investigation teams, this unknown enemy was too powerful. Huang Jin was very visibly shaken, perhaps thinking of the scene where Zhong Chengshuo was easily shot to death.
“I just want this case. It doesn’t matter if you are credited or not,” Yin Ren responded casually.
Fu Xingchuan naturally heard the underlying message. With a regular mission, Yin Ren could legitimately use Shian’s resources.
“The key is that I know everything about you. Lu Xiaohe, as the most senior member, has only been in Shian for two years. You all have a clean background and aren’t very loyal to Shian. That’s the best way.”
Yin Ren’s words were surprisingly blunt.
Huang Jin immediately looked at Fu Xingchuan, who saw deep doubts and fears in the young man’s eyes—how could he say such things directly?
Comrade Fu Xingchuan stuck his two fingers in his ears and focused on observing the chandelier in the ward.
“…It’s not easy to investigate with only one person.” After a moment of silence, Lu Xiaohe spoke in a hoarse voice.
“I can assist as the rear commander for the investigation.”
“Huh? Lu Xiaohe?!” Huang Jin exclaimed.
“You must have some feelings if you haven’t immediately applied for a transfer. In the face of that attacker, Shian cannot protect us. This is not a problem that can be solved by not participating in the investigation or switching teams.”
Huang Jin clicked his tongue, looking away in embarrassment without answering.
“Zhong Chengshuo was a newcomer like us, but he was killed just like that, and we don’t even know why. What if that guy was trying to create a terror attack—who can guarantee that we’re not next? Rather than passively waiting to die, I’d rather explore and then die.”
Lu Xiaohe clenched the sheet in the ward. Her hair was messy, and she looked a little haggard.
“Yin Ren seems to be quite formidable…an evil? A person? This is a good opportunity. Maybe we’ll make a big discovery.”
“I want to participate too.” Ge Tingting typed one letter at a time.
“I’m sad that someone I know was killed.”
Huang Jin’s expression twisted for a while, and after about five minutes, he slapped his face and sighed heavily. “Okay, anyway…”
He stole a glance at Yin Ren.
“Anyway, if this path doesn’t work, it’s useless for me to switch teams.” As he said this, he glanced in the direction of the headquarters of Shian, as if he were looking at someone in the distance.
Faced with the support of his colleagues, Yin Ren just nodded lightly.
Fu Xingchuan withdrew his gaze from the chandelier and looked at Yin Ren. Knowing him well, Fu Xingchuan thought Yin Ren would show some emotion at this moment. However…
“I understand.”
Yin Ren didn’t show a soft expression, he just stood there. Wrapped tightly in the evil qi, he was like an overly exquisite statue.
“If I can find him smoothly, I will give you a reward.”
Huang Jin smiled bitterly. “At this point, whether there’s a reward or not, it doesn’t matter…”
“Each of you can make a wish. Anything is fine as long as it doesn’t involve bringing the dead back to life,” Yin Ren said softly.
The evil qi around him suddenly tightened, and Fu Xingchuan’s heart trembled. Yin Ren’s aura had undergone subtle changes—this evil was like a ferocious beast that had just exposed its paw pads before. At this moment, that person had completely revealed his bloody claws and fangs.
At that moment, on a certain street.
With a cigarette in his mouth, Qiu Fang was walking in the most chaotic area of Haigu. He hummed a song and looked at the passing crowd in a good mood. However, in that instant, for some reason, he shuddered.
“This aura… is strange.”
He extinguished the cigarette butt and looked towards Haigu Municipal Hospital.
Fu Wuya swayed the willow branches listlessly. He didn’t even feel like watching TV. According to the usual practice, he had sheltered a bunch of people before and needed to rest to recover his strength. But now, even the Fu family’s ancestor dared not rest and completely ignored the rule of “ignoring outside affairs”.
At Fu Wuya’s strong request, The Fu family equipped him with a complete set of instant communication devices.
Professional personnel came and went, covering Fu Wuya with all kinds of obstructions for a week to ensure both his psychological and physical health. The strong human presence made him uncomfortable, and even the willow branches were withered.
There was no choice. Zhong Yi had run outside. If he did not clarify the whole story of the event, Fu Wuya would not be able to sleep.
For the Fu Family, which was full of loyal believers of the “Great Celestial Master”, Fu Wuya kept this secret that no one knew how to describe. Fortunately, there was still Fu Xingchuan outside, so the old ancestor didn’t have to bear the outrageous reality alone.
At this moment, the broadcast screen stopped at the Haigu Municipal Hospital.
The screen showed the emergency ward of Unit Nine, with exactly five hospital beds. Two of the beds were empty, and the sheets were tucked into the mattress, flat and smooth without any wrinkles.
Ge Tingting and Lu Xiaohe were arranged on the side close to the window, with nameplates on the head of the bed. The two girls had lost their usual vitality and looked like two stiff mannequins. Huang Jin’s bed was on the other side of the ward—he sat cross-legged at the head of the bed with a gloomy face, playing with a carving knife non-stop.
On the screen, Yin Ren was wearing a high-necked white line shirt with a suitcase by his side.
He sat quietly next to one of the empty beds, looking like he was about to move in.
“I received the post-mortem email from Zhong Chengshuo, and I saw the addresses he copied. You all received it too,” Yin Ren said.
His tone was so calm that it was a bit scary. However, his face was almost integrated with the white shirt, and there was a hint of redness in the corners of his eyes, indicating that he was not as indifferent as he sounded.
Yin Ren rarely wore such bright colors as white. At the moment, he was wearing the same shirt as Zhong Chengshuo. His hair was loosely tied, and there was a strange sense of oppression.
Fu Xingchuan, the carrier of Fu Wuya’s vision, nodded and looked straight into the camera. “We have all received it, and I have asked Li Nian. The situation is special now, and we will cooperate with Zhong Chengshuo’s wishes and not notify his parents for the time being. However…”
“There is no ‘however’,” Yin Ren said. “If you are worried about not being able to hide the problem…”
He waved his left hand, and the air distorted for a moment.
“Zhong Chengshuo” appeared in the ward out of nowhere. He was wearing the same high-necked white shirt as Yin Ren, with dark eyes like two deep wells. His slightly long bangs hung over his glasses, and every detail, from the brand carved on the frame to the sneakers he was wearing, was extremely vivid.
These days, the memories of the past few months have chewed repeatedly on Yin Ren. And they were like a carving knife, sharpening those subtle details.
A lifelike illusion.
“’We’ will always be together, going back to accompany the elders until the end. As for all those messy procedures of yours, do as you please. Zhong Chengshuo has written everything in the email. He understands this better than me.”
Yin Ren didn’t look at the phantom of Zhong Chengshuo. He slowly withdrew his hand, allowing that familiar shadow to instantly dissipate.
“You’re still staying in Shian?” Huang Jin muttered.
“Mhm. He’s not here, and I have no concept of dealing with electronic data and such. I need assistance. Whether it’s a targeted attack or a random one, I will bring him back.”
Yin Ren raised his gaze, which appeared slightly dimmer than it had been in the past.
“As for the person who made the move, they must disappear completely.”
Faced with these outrageous statements, Fu Xingchuan coughed twice and didn’t say anything. He was now just an innocent and injured lower-level combat advisor, and it made no sense to pay attention to the “outrageous remarks” of a senior employee.
Moreover, the real reason why Yin Ren stayed in Shian was tacitly understood between the former Great Celestial Master and the Fu family.
[Fu Xingchuan, do you know about “The Other Side”?]
Yin Ren asked this after his “processing meeting”.
Phenomenon A-A1, “The Other Side”. Shian’s high-level executives tended to call it “The Other Side.” Currently, it had been confirmed that Phenomenon C-B4 “Gap”, Phenomenon A-D512 “Archive”, Phenomenon A-A2 “Divine Descent”, as well as hundreds of anomalies large and small, were all related to “The Other Side”.
Both in the metaphysical and scientific world, the understanding of “The Other Side” was even less than that of black holes. Only those with the ability of a Charon could truly come into contact with “The Other Side”, so the research they could do was extremely limited.
Why did “The Other Side” exist, whether there was real life within it, and what kind of impact it had on this world were all unknown mysteries. For some reason, research in this direction always seemed to be difficult to make progress.
These should have been Shian’s top secrets.
…But Zhong Chengshuo was able to learn about the existence of “The Other Side” through his own efforts.
And now, the culprit was precisely using methods related to the “Gap” to move and attack, which was inseparable to “The Other Side”. Regardless of whether Shian cared about Zhong Chengshuo personally, they must investigate his “missing person case” thoroughly.
After understanding all of this, Yin Ren only left behind a few words.
[Shian has always given us interesting tasks, but this time I want to propose a task myself. His case is mine… Whether the attacker is on this side or the other, I will kill him.]
“Since everyone is here, I’ll be straightforward.”
Yin Ren stood still, with a surging and majestic evil qi constantly flowing around him. It was like a semi-transparent giant snake that kept circling around his body. This was Shian’s territory, and countless aura monitors surrounded Yin Ren, but none of them sounded any alarms.
“This is a missing person case, and Special Investigation Unit 9 has always been good at tracking missing people, right?”
……
At the same time, the missing person struggled to turn over underground.
The good news was that Zhong Chengshuo had learned how to turn over without a head. The bad news was that there was no sign of his head growing back. The ruptured wound was still open, without even a hint of new flesh growing.
That strange and unfamiliar emotion constantly enveloped Zhong Chengshuo.
His thoughts seemed to be out of his control, constantly sliding in a negative direction. Zhong Chengshuo tried to concentrate on his thoughts, but the annoying emotion kept disturbing him and hitting the pause button on his thinking.
Is this “fear”?
If he was provoked like this, would that person lose control? If the Evil Spirit Yin Ren were to appear, would Haigu already have disappeared in a mushroom-shaped cloud?
It was too scary.
But when he turned over, he thought again that maybe he wasn’t that important.
Yin Ren had lived for fourteen hundred years…three hundred and sixty years…no, a hundred and eighty years. He and that person had only spent a few months together, and he was at most like a stone that fell into a surging river, causing only a small splash. Perhaps that person could soon emerge from the shadows, move to the Fu residence, and continue to live comfortably.
This possibility was better, but Zhong Chengshuo tasted another kind of vague fear.
He didn’t want to be forgotten by that person.
Fear was like the surrounding low temperature, making his thinking slow and his joints stiff. Zhong Chengshuo could only slowly adapt to this new feeling. Although it was only a new emotion, it made him feel itchy and uncomfortable all over, like being pricked by needles.
His body didn’t respond well, but unfortunately, he couldn’t determine if it was the side effect of “fear”, or the natural reaction brought by “death”.
Unable to think smoothly, Zhong Chengshuo could only turn his body over and try to keep it flexible.
Keeping active was always a good thing, but unfortunately, the space here was too small to do push-ups.
Crack.
Just as Zhong Chengshuo was trying to develop a new way of exercising, a slight vibration came from the metal door.
Zhong Chengshuo’s hand slipped, almost causing him to fall onto the metal wall, but he managed to barely hold on. He had to admit that it was difficult to maintain his balance without a head.
He straightened his legs, positioned his arms, and resumed the appearance of a corpse.
There was a faint tremble… Footsteps were getting closer. The metal door above his neck suddenly shook, and the metal compartment was pulled out entirely. A gust of air brushed past his chest, but fortunately, the compartment was cold enough that it didn’t give him goosebumps.
The air was trembling, and the person approaching seemed to be saying something. Something cold and damp kept wiping his body, and he tried his best not to tense his muscles. He wasn’t sure if continuing to play dead was a good idea—if these people decided to dissect and store him, there would truly be no hope for him.
He needed to know what the person was saying, but he had no ears.
If only he could grow organs on his body like Yin Ren, it would be great. Zhong Chengshuo suddenly had an idea. He used all his strength to imagine what he would look like with ears growing on the back of his head.
The only result was that he almost choked, and his skin twitched, but his body didn’t change at all.
What should he do?
If this had happened earlier, he might have chosen to accept his fate calmly. But now, the fear seized him again, regardless of the situation.
Will the bone saw or dissecting knife be the next thing coming at him?
… If he couldn’t grow organs, he could only rely on identifying the vibrations in the air. He had no head, so he wasn’t sure if bone conduction would still work, but this was his last hope.
In the face of the unknown fear, Zhong Chengshuo forced himself to keep calculating.
Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate.
Surprisingly, the fear turned into an adrenaline rush. He had no heart to beat faster; only skin that was extremely sensitive. Every wisp of air, every touch, became a sharp blow.
“Woo… woo…” The vague tremor stirred his nerves.
The vibration in the air seeped through his skin, penetrated his cold flesh, covered his bones, and echoed constantly inside his body.
“Hey… the material condition is good. No signs of decay or mutation… no need for dissection… for now…”
It was a recording of the examination.
“Wound cross-section recorded… no special growth observed… Hmm… It seems that a nerve is emerging from the cross-section…”
Zhong Chengshuo quickly dispersed his focus, and the person’s voice instantly became blurred. A sharp metal was placed on the cross-section of his neck, and Zhong Chengshuo’s attention was completely scattered.
“Did I read it wrong?”
The inspector carefully examined the frozen wound for a while.
It wasn’t until he was pushed back into the morgue drawer that Zhong Chengshuo felt a little relieved… No, he let go of his fear a little.
Regarding his escape plan, he suddenly had a ridiculous idea.
With a swoosh, Yin Ren spread his limbs and gathered all the diaries.
In the darkness, the translucent black wing clusters extended to every corner of the room. Yin Ren held those notebooks in his arms as if he were embracing a person.
Maintaining this posture, he felt the sensation of spreading his wings and felt the pages of writing.
The first diary of Zhong Chengshuo started on September 1st, more than 20 years ago. It was well-preserved, with the first page neatly written with “Grade 1, Class 1 – Zhong Chengshuo’s Diary” in neat and mature handwriting that didn’t look like that of a child.
Throughout the diary, he wrote about his height and weight and always included the phrase “I’m fine”. On some dates, the young Zhong Chengshuo would add additional notes, such as “Physical examination today” or “School sports day today,” mostly related to his physical health.
His middle and high school diaries were similar, without any teenage fantasies or plans related to exams. His diaries always contained the same phrase: “I’m fine.”
Except for three days.
The first detailed record appeared on a certain day during Zhong Chengshuo’s third year of middle school. During the summer vacation, Zhong Chengshuo went to another city to attend a training course because his parents were too busy. He didn’t know whether the food at the training course was good or bad, but the person who was in charge always preferred to serve fast food, like fried chicken and hamburgers, so the participating students’ weights all increased.
Except for Zhong Chengshuo.
Among a group of overweight boys and girls, he stood out. He lived, attended classes, rested with other children, and ate with a moderate appetite, but his weight didn’t change at all. The children were sensitive and couldn’t help but discuss this anomaly.
[I’m fine.]
[Also, this seems a bit unnatural. I need to eat a balanced diet.]
[A balanced diet is good for all living things.]
After briefly recounting the event, Zhong Chengshuo wrote this.
…..
The second detailed record appeared on a certain day when Zhong Chengshuo was in his sophomore year in high school.
Based on the record on the cover, Zhong Chengshuo was admitted to the best high school in Haigu.
Yin Ren had heard of this key high school. In order to get into a good university, students in their sophomore year started to work hard. Excluding early morning exercises, the students studied from 7 in the morning to 10 in the evening every day, with most of them staying up late to study in their dormitories. Even after midnight, at least 80% of the dormitory windows still had lights on.
Despite their young age and resilience, this kind of high intensity studying still took a toll on their spirits. Among the students in the key class, having varying degrees of dark circles under their eyes was the norm.
Only Zhong Chengshuo, who ranked first in his grade, was an exception.
Like most top students, he got up at 5:30 a.m. to memorize vocabulary and went to bed at 12:30 a.m. As a result, not only did he not have dark circles under his eyes, but his skin was also shockingly good.
With excellent academic performance and a remarkable physical state, his classmates would occasionally inquire about what health supplements or skincare products he used.
[I’m fine.]
[Also, this is a bit unnatural. I need to maintain a regular schedule.]
[A regular schedule is good for all living things.]
As he was about to enter his junior year, Zhong Chengshuo wrote this down.
……
The third detailed record appeared on a certain day when Zhong Chengshuo was in his freshman year.
He entered A University with nearly perfect grades and was about to become an adult.
At that time, he lived in a four-person dormitory on campus and would inevitably change clothes in front of his roommates. His three roommates included one who was skin and bones, one who weighed nearly 300 pounds, and only one who had a normal body type, which was still considered “average”—a well-proportioned figure but not exactly “fit”.
With his good looks and impressive physique, Zhong Chengshuo quickly caught the attention of others. Some people would intentionally or unintentionally inquire about whether he achieved his physique through sports.
One of his overweight roommates would frequently ask him for advice on “how to lose fat and gain muscle.”
[I’m fine.]
[Also, this is a bit unnatural. I need a pair of glasses and moderate exercise.]
[Moderate exercise is good for all living things.]
……
Yin Ren held those pages of paper, and for a moment, he wasn’t quite sure if he understood the hidden meaning behind the words.
Ordinary people could obtain a healthy and attractive body through healthy eating, regular rest, and moderate exercise. However, in the case of Zhong Chengshuo, this process was subtly reversed—
To explain that healthy and attractive physique, Zhong Chengshuo needed to rely on these measures to “provide a reason.”
If it were someone else doing these things, Yin Ren might consider the possibility of “trying to fit in”. But this was Zhong Chengshuo. Let alone pursuing conformity, whether he could even think of “using these methods to fit in” was a question in and of itself.
Moreover, he was very committed to maintaining his physical health.
What was even more frightening was that, except for a recent period of time, these diaries were recorded without fail, every day, spanning Zhong Chengshuo’s entire life since the first grade of primary school.
His cleanliness was formed from primary school’s “health and hygiene” to graduate school’s “animal pathology”.
Although Zhong Chengshuo didn’t record it in detail, he would write a few sentences summarizing the necessity of maintaining a hygienic state after every major flu or epidemic. As for bleeding and injury, if not for knowing Zhong Chengshuo, Yin Ren would have thought that the owner of the diary was the world’s most afraid-of-death person.
No illness, no accidents. Zhong Chengshuo grew up in a textbook-like, healthy human template.
His height and weight were increasing, and important health-related activities were recorded, complemented by the phrase “I’m fine” to the point of boredom.
As time drew closer to the present, Yin Ren’s presence became stronger.
[I’m fine.]
[When Yin Ren made a gun gesture towards me, my heartbeat inexplicably accelerated, and my body temperature rose.]
[I’m fine.]
[When in contact with Yin Ren, my heartbeat and body temperature still become irregular for no reason.]
[I’m fine.]
[I have an urge to get close to Yin Ren, but also a slight sense of rejection. But I think I really like him.]
……
Yin Ren couldn’t read on.
Zhong Chengshuo’s records were calm and straightforward. He didn’t hesitate to use the word “like,” which always accompanied “heart palpitations” or “unconsciously attracted”. But now, they all turned into sharp nails, hammering into Yin Ren’s heart.
In over 20 years and nearly 10,000 diary entries, there was only one sentence that didn’t relate to “health”.
[I hope we can walk to the end smoothly. It’s the first time I want to tell the truth to someone.]
Zhong Chengshuo wrote this on the day they confirmed their relationship.
A huge monster curled up its body in the underground space, and the rustling sound of flapping wings resonated as Yin Ren buried his face deeply into the pages.
The pain in his heart was unbearable.
A millennium ago, he could control countless evil creatures, but at this moment, he couldn’t even control his own sore eyes.
Ever since Zhong Chengshuo disappeared in front of him, Yin Ren almost immediately put on the mask of “Grand Master Zhong Yi”. In order to find ways to get Zhong Chengshuo back, he must show absolute power and a tough stance.
…Perhaps the only person who truly knew his true nature was the person who “wants to walk with him to the end”.
He wasn’t commanding at all, nor was he that tough.
“Zhong Chengshuo…”
Yin Ren gritted his teeth and forced himself to stop thinking about those neat and pure “likes”, and forced himself back to reality.
Zhong Chengshuo left records and hoped that he would get them. This was probably more than just “delivering relics”. These diaries couldn’t be directly handed over to Shian.
Compared to simply recording his life, it seemed that he was more like carefully “raising” and observing himself, like a diary of observing a rare animal.
Is Zhong Chengshuo really just an ordinary human?
Yin Ren held onto those papers tightly, and pain mixed with a faint hope squeezed his chest. This person was difficult to fathom when he was alive and even more mysterious after he died.
Will all these puzzles be solved when he finds Zhong Chengshuo?
In the dark space, a small screen lit up.
The background picture was still “Zhong Chengshuo wearing a nightcap and yawning”, which Yin Ren secretly took on a certain morning, and it hadn’t been changed yet. The Ghost King quietly held the notebooks left by that person in the world and typed quietly with both hands.
[Fruit Knife: I received your gift.]
[Fruit Knife: I have new clues and will find you soon.]
[Fruit Knife: I should have told you more times, I really like you. I’ve never felt this miserable in my entire life! 👊]
[Fruit Knife: : Why don’t you believe these things? If you believe, you can definitely come back.]
[Fruit Knife: Say something to me.]
Yin Ren waited for half an hour, facing that bright screen.
After half an hour, he packed his things and left the darkness.
……
Haigu Municipal Hospital.
Huang Jin lit a cigarette and sat near the hospital flower bed.
He still couldn’t get used to smoking, so he could only hold it in his hand. The blue-gray smoke rose in spirals, and Huang Jin’s thoughts drifted around with it—
At this point, the situation of the members of Unit 9 had been determined.
Lu Xiaohe was already lame, and when she was attacked, she was closest to Fu Xingchuan and sustained the lightest injuries among all the science posts. Her internal organs and bones were intact, and she only suffered a slight concussion. After her skin wounds were sutured, Lu Xiaohe woke up quickly.
After waking up, she kept staring at the ceiling with a blank expression.
The personnel from the other branches fared worse and were still in a coma.
Ge Tingting was even more severely affected. When she joined Shian, she had already been undergoing psychological treatment for a long time. Now that she had seen Zhong Chengshuo being brutally shot in front of her, she was still trembling all over and couldn’t calm down.
With such a major security incident at Shian, Fu Xingchuan hit rock bottom. If he were to request a transfer from Unit Nine now, Shian would probably not refuse…
Huang Jin lowered his eyes. For some reason, this time he couldn’t feel any relief when he thought about this.
He took a deep breath and extinguished the cigarette after only a few puffs. Just as he was about to turn and head back to the hospital, he saw a huge mosaic carrying a suitcase rushing towards the hospital gate.
As it passed by Huang Jin, the mosaic named “Yin Ren” moved as if saluting.
His spirit was hazy and trance-like, approaching a state of seventy-two hours without sleep, and it seemed like his thoughts could stop at any moment. His surroundings were like an ice cave, making it difficult to breathe…
Wait, it seemed like he wasn’t breathing.
Zhong Chengshuo lay there motionless, with both his “heart” and “brain” destroyed, thinking he was as good as dead.
What is the situation now?
Were those previous memories just illusions or dreams?
Zhong Chengshuo struggled to move his arm and gradually touched his own body. His skin was cold and stiff, but fortunately, it had been cleaned, and there was no blood, brain matter, or shredded flesh. However, he was also subjected to the standard treatment of a corpse, with all of his clothing missing.
The scar on his chest and abdomen was still in its old position, with his chest blown apart by a bullet. His ribs were broken, and his heart had turned into a mass of rotten flesh. Zhong Chengshuo poked the wound with his fingers several times, but his fingertips didn’t touch the normal body temperature of a human being. His sense of touch was also numb, and he felt no pain.
The memory of his attack earlier wasn’t an illusion.
Could it be that his body was healing itself?
Zhong Chengshuo tried to bend his stiff joints and solemnly touched his neck.
Collarbone…sternocleidomastoid muscle, the Adam’s apple…up higher…
He felt around but found nothing.
The section of his neck was rough, with typical blast marks. Zhong Chengshuo felt the positions of his “chin” and “top of his head” with disbelief, as he only felt the cold air.
…His head was gone.
Realizing that his brain was absent, Zhong Chengshuo was stunned for a full two minutes.
He still had vivid memories and tactile processing abilities, but his thinking was slow. Among his countless speculations, there was no such wretched and bizarre “death.”
Zhong Chengshuo tried to tense his toes and spread his fingers, measuring the surroundings with his four limbs.
The space he was in was extremely small, resembling a rectangle, but the corners were made of convenient rounded structures. The material of the walls was some kind of metal, hard and smooth.
He was particularly careful when touching the door above his head… That door was tightly sealed, heavy to the touch, and not something he could open barehanded.
The sealed space was very cold, and considering his situation, he was probably in a specially made morgue.
Zhong Chengshuo struggled to turn his thoughts.
After his head was blown up, he completely lost consciousness. When he “woke up” again, he was already in this place… According to the regulations of Shian, his body would be placed in Haigu Municipal Hospital, waiting for his adoptive parents to dispose of it.
This was definitely not Haigu Municipal Hospital.
So his body was taken away by the enemy, from…in front of Yin Ren; taken away by the hostile forces.
Thinking of this possibility, Zhong Chengshuo’s already fleeting thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
If Yin Ren’s abilities couldn’t keep his body…
[What would Yin Ren do?]
This showed that the attacker’s strength was very…
[What would Yin Ren’s reaction be?]
His mind was almost torn in half, one half sitting fragmented and deducing, the other half thinking hard about Yin Ren’s possible reactions. Under normal circumstances, this level of mental intensity would have been a breeze for him. But without a brain, he was almost crushed by the pressure of dual thinking.
He couldn’t even choose between the two; he could only subconsciously consider the problem he cared about more—
Yin Ren…
Would Yin Ren be angry? He was angry enough when he acted without permission before. Now that he had “died” in front of him, would he be even angrier?
Would Yin Ren be sad? When he kissed him, his actions were so gentle.
He couldn’t respond properly, Zhong Chengshuo thought vaguely.
…Strange, he shouldn’t be thinking about this. Why couldn’t he stop?
In Zhong Chengshuo’s previous expectations, there was indeed a possibility of dying early. Therefore, Zhong Chengshuo made careful plans. If he didn’t update the schedule for 48 hours, a care plan would be automatically sent to his acquaintances’ emails.
His backup account, a library of voice materials, would also be open for this purpose. His adoptive parents were old and only needed a little bit of a good-natured “business trip” lie to spend their remaining years with hope and prosperity.
Other than that, there was almost nothing else to deal with. Whether he wanted to pass on the information he wanted to pass on or not was up to him. After death, everything was empty, and he wasn’t interested in the so-called “posthumous fame”.
As for death itself, he didn’t seek it, but he didn’t reject it either.
Dying early for him was just an ordinary ending… This was what Zhong Chengshuo used to think.
But now he was a little annoyed.
Zhong Chengshuo rubbed the metal surface with his fingertips, trying hard to maintain the continuity of his thoughts.
He didn’t know what Yin Ren would do.
This thought lingered in Zhong Chengshuo’s mind as soon as it appeared. This unknown made his chest particularly heavy. Zhong Chengshuo had never thought that “caring to the point of being unable to breathe” would physically manifest itself in his body.
Tap, tap, tap. His fingertips lightly tapped the cold metal.
This was an absolutely sealed, narrow space, and he was naked, mutilated, and had no knowledge of his surroundings. There was almost no chance of escape.
In the past, he would have quietly slept here. Whether he woke up decades later or was processed while in a coma, he didn’t particularly care, nor did he have any special thoughts.
But now, once he thought of “possibly being sealed here for decades, until true death, and he would never be able to confirm Yin Ren’s status”, Zhong Chengshuo produced a new feeling.
His chest was heavy, his limbs were numb, and his internal organs were twisted into a ball, as if being slowly crushed by a cold stone mill.
Compared to the “worry” he had tasted before; it was more depressing and sharper. There seemed to be the claws of a beast in Zhong Chengshuo’s chest cavity, scratching and tearing, making it unbearable.
He didn’t want to stay here.
He didn’t want it to end like this.
He wanted to see Yin Ren. He had to confirm Yin Ren’s status as soon as possible. He cared too much.
…He thought, ‘I’m probably “afraid”.’
Zhong Chengshuo’s fingertips tapping the metal wall trembled, and he didn’t know if it was his illusion, but his thoughts became clearer for a moment.
He had to escape…
Even if this were really a theoretical “hell”, he must figure out a way to escape.
……
Ping’an Manor, Room 601, Building 4, Zhong Chengshuo’s home.
“Creak.”
Yin Ren pulled his luggage and pushed open the door to the living room.
Everything in the familiar living room with lush potted plants was just the way they left it.
There was still a small dish of apples on the table in the living room, with the apples looking a bit wrinkled. Near the table, Zhong Chengshuo’s apron with the words “Dangerous Person” hung on the hook, stained with the color of the sunset.
Yin Ren stood by the table for a long time. After a long silence, he released the handle of his luggage, opened the fridge, and took out some fresh apples.
The fridge was also the same as before, with Zhong Chengshuo carefully sticking dates on the egg carton, and his own and Zhong Chengshuo’s milk neatly placed on opposite sides. Yin Ren’s side was filled with some small snacks, while Zhong Chengshuo’s half of the space was reserved for larger vegetables, which made cooking more convenient.
Unfortunately, Yin Ren didn’t have time to learn any of that person’s recipes.
He picked out a bright red apple and replaced the withered one on the table. With this bit of red, the whole room seemed to have a little more vitality. But it was still too quiet, lacking the breath of another person.
Yin Ren didn’t go into Zhong Chengshuo’s bedroom.
After arranging the apple, he took out the tablet that Zhong Chengshuo gave him and randomly played a third-rate romantic drama. Amid the exaggerated music and dialogue, Yin Ren lay on the sofa with his face turned to the back of the sofa, trying to grasp the faint shadows of the past.
Just like in those previous days, every time he did this, there would be a person standing quietly at the table, reading a book.
The sofa was still the same, and the smell was also familiar. Yin Ren lay there until the glory of the sunset disappeared and the night gradually descended. He didn’t move and didn’t turn on the light. The whole room seemed to sink into a deep sea, gradually falling into darkness.
It was already past dinner time, and no one came to ask him what he wanted to eat.
He didn’t want to eat anything anyway.
He had lived too long, so Zhong Chengshuo’s “departure” didn’t crush him suddenly. But this fact was like a faint but never-ending tinnitus, making Yin Ren unable to be at peace.
Time gradually passed, and the tablet’s battery ran out. The laughter and joy in the living room disappeared in an instant, and the room became silent.
Yin Ren sat up with disheveled hair, casually threw the wrinkled apple into the trash can, and then opened WeChat, selecting the red apple avatar that was pinned at the top. Their last conversation was still stuck on the choice of seasonings when buying groceries, and the last sentence was Zhong Chengshuo’s “Okay.”
[Fruit Knife: Zhong Ge, I’m home.]
[Fruit Knife: Just letting you know.]
[Fruit Knife: Can I borrow your room and look for clues?]
[Fruit Knife: I’ll clean up.]
He clicked the lock button and pushed open the half-closed bedroom door.
Yin Ren’s gaze quickly swept over the two pillows on the double bed. If he looked for too long, his eyes would burn. He walked to the computer desk that Zhong Chengshuo had mentioned and took a deep breath before opening the locked drawer.
The fragile mechanical lock surrendered instantly to the Ghost King. The small drawer was almost empty, with only an envelope addressed to Yin Ren inside.
Did Zhong Chengshuo come back?
For a moment, Yin Ren’s hair almost stood on end. With unrealistic hope, he quickly opened the envelope.
Inside, there was only an old key and a small note. Yin Ren’s heart skipped a beat, as if he had just fallen into an abyss.
[To the person I currently trust the most:
If you are reading this, I am likely in serious trouble. Go back to the place where we had our first kiss and search carefully.
I hope you can find it.]
The place where they had their first kiss was Zhong Chengshuo’s secret base, as he had told Yin Ren before when they were renovating the hamster pendant. Wait, the hamster pendant?
“Emergency locator. We can check each other’s location at any time.”
His disappeared lover had once explained this. Shian had tried to locate Zhong Chengshuo’s phone, but it showed it was damaged. However, the enemy might only pay attention to Shian’s special phone and not notice the small hamster phone charm.
Why didn’t he think of this earlier?
Yin Ren quickly opened his phone and followed Zhong Chengshuo’s instructions step by step. He watched the loading animation on the map with hope, but after a few rounds, Zhong Chengshuo’s location didn’t appear.
The light in Yin Ren’s eyes gradually dimmed.
But he just stubbornly looked at the screen until—
“The signal is too weak. Temporarily unable to locate.”
The signal is too weak—not gone or damaged, just “temporarily” unable to locate.
He clutched the key tightly and flew out of the window instead of using the door. In less than ten minutes, he had returned to that dark underground warehouse. The design data for the hamster pendant was on Zhong Chengshuo’s computer, and he could hand it over to Fu Xingchuan. Yin Ren carefully wrapped up the notebook and then began searching for the keyhole.
For anyone else, it would take a long time to search here, and various detection devices would be necessary. However, with his scattered hair as a search aid, the Ghost King only needed a few heartbeats.
What would Zhong Chengshuo leave for him?
With the key inserted into the metal rack, Yin Ren forcefully pulled open the door to the hidden compartment. Immediately afterwards, he was overwhelmed by the books that came crashing down.
The compartment was filled with all sorts of books, with only a small portion of the pages yellowed with age, and the covers printed with cartoon rabbit patterns that only children would use. The vast majority were plain and simple in design.
The collision caused many of the books to flip open, and Yin Ren didn’t need to flip through them to see their contents.
Whether it was a cute children’s diary or a plain adult style, spanning more than 20 years, the font used to record was completely consistent, and the content was more or less the same.
[Year Month Day]
[Height: xxx.xx cm; Weight: xx.xx kg]
[I’m fine.]
The author has something to say:
This arc is over! (Probably)
I have thought about a lot of reactions from everyone, but I never thought that there would be a lot of dirty jokes (…)
Kinky Thoughts:
The arc is over. Summary below:
With Gengsheng Town mostly resolved, Fu Xingchuan deduced who Yin Ren really is. However, in order to confirm his suspicions and test Yin Ren’s motives, he decided to enter Shian’s Haigu branch in the most recent competition among the three largest branches of Shian.
The setting of the competition would be in his own family’s residence, where his ancient ancestor still lay. With the help of Fu Wuya, the ancient director of Huajisi from hundreds of years ago, they set up the setting for the competition.
Fu Xingchuan hoped to use this competition to test Yin Ren more and also use it as an excuse to promote Unit 9 to a B-level team without raising any suspicion.
Using a Corpse Cage, Fu Wuya shrank all participants down, and Shian inserted them into the body of a corpse.
While inside the corpse, Yin Ren encountered white filament monsters that had the “resonance” ability similar to Kong Wangqing. They managed to cover Yin Ren and amplify his emotions. Yin Ren’s fear of losing Zhong Chengshuo increased several folds, eventually making him unable to think clearly.
In the end, after a brief battle, Zhong Chengshuo was able to snap Yin Ren out of it, and Yin Ren was able to overcome the “attachment” feelings of those white monsters. He also managed to gain a new ability that allows him to “isolate” his senses, so he wouldn’t be affected by the “resonance” while inside the corpse cage.
Unfortunately, this backfired. Mr. Qin decided to make his move. Sensing abnormalities, the competition ended early, and everyone returned to normal. As they were leaving the underground area where the competition was held, sniper bullets, made from reality and not magic, assaulted them, killing two while severely injuring others.
Of the two that were killed, Zhong Chengshuo was one of the victims. Though Yin Ren tried, he was unable to save him and couldn’t even prevent his body from being stolen away. In order to not lose control, Yin Ren sealed his own memories and was only later able to piece together what had happened.
Meanwhile, to compensate Sunken Society regarding what happened in Gengsheng Town, the sniper gave Sunken Society Zhong Chengshuo’s body, which was now lying in a special morgue. Surprisingly, despite getting hit in the heart and having his head blown off, Zhong Chengshuo was still alive.
Yin Ren, on the other hand, gave up all pretenses regarding his identity and was determined to find the Sunken Society’s headquarters in Haigu. Using Zhong Chengshuo’s notebook and notes, he went back to Zhong Chengshuo’s secret base to find more clues.
The mountains to the east of Haigu were majestic, with sharp and steep peaks resembling knives. Especially close to dawn, the morning glow could cast long shadows of the mountains on the clouds.
The darkness around the Fu residence was gradually dispelled by the morning light, and even the ancestral hall, which was shrouded in fog, was bathed in a little bit of it.
The personnel from Shian had taken full control of the area where the Fu residence was located. Although no one knew whether conventional defense measures were still effective after such an attack, the wounded needed help, and everything in the world continued to move forward.
Yin Ren was still sitting in his chair, motionless.
He was still wearing the sports jacket that Zhong Chengshuo lent him. The lightweight fabric was stained with blood and flesh, and everywhere carried the scent of Zhong Chengshuo. Yin Ren didn’t want to take it off. The sweet bird songs in the distance announced the arrival of a new day, but Yin Ren couldn’t muster any interest in them. His world seemed to have been sealed again; sealed in the previous dusk.
He thought he had already become accustomed to farewells.
The lonely Ghost King clenched his lover’s notebook. At this time, he was no longer surrounded by the cold and slippery slate of the ancestral hall but a clean wooden floor.
Not long ago, Shian came with a supervisory department that he had never heard of. One of the spirit smiths was well versed in folding techniques. What he brought was not the legendary “portable landscape” used for practice, but a “portable conference room” full of modern equipment.
Yin Ren was sitting in the seat with a “witness” name tag. Ge Tingting was stimulated, and Huang Jing was unable to appear as a regular witness due to his criminal record.
So he was there all alone.
This was the first time Yin Ren saw Fu Xingchuan after the incident.
It was the first time he saw such a weak Fu Xingchuan.
Fu Xingchuan’s left leg was seriously injured, wrapped in countless vines and spiritual tools to barely maintain its original shape. Fu Xingchuan stiffened his injured leg and sat alone in front of the arched single square table.
Like he was on trial.
Yin Ren didn’t pay much attention to what those humans were muttering about. The only familiar name that caught his attention was spoken.
“…There was a major safety accident in the competition. Tao Lan, the science post from the Yandu branch, and Zhong Chengshuo, the science post from the Haigu branch, were said to have died.”
“Besides Fu Xingchuan, participants Fu Tianyi, Lu Xiaohe, Luo Wanxiang, and Sang Jie were also injured. The injured are not in danger of their lives and have been sent to the Municipal Hospital in Haigu for treatment…”
A woman in her fifties on the stage read in a monotonous tone, adjusting her glasses from time to time.
There were murmurs in the audience.
“It’s basically targeted at science posts. It’s so vicious since they can’t be treated with magic…”
“It’s most likely targeted at the science posts. Fu Tianyi was just injured by splash damage, and Sang Jie supported Luo Wanxiang, who only got hit on the side. The rest of the science posts, two died and two were seriously injured… The cat was also targeted, but it survived.”
“What about those two auxiliary cultivators from Haigu, Xiao Ge and Xiao Huang? They walked away separately and weren’t even hit by the splash damage. That group leader, Yin Ren, was also leading by half a step and was completely unharmed…”
There was anger and indignation in the people’s voices.
Fu Xingchuan’s voice was steady. “I take full responsibility.”
The woman glanced at him but didn’t answer. “Based on the current inspection results, the attacker may possess unconventional spatial shuttle capabilities. The security facilities at the Fu residence cannot guarantee the safety of the contestants…”
“I have something to say!” Zhou Gong’s voice suddenly sounded.
Yin Ren raised his eyes and noticed Zhou Gong and Qiao Shang sitting further away from the arched table. Both of their faces were very bad, and a “relevant party” sign was placed in front of them.
The woman sitting in the center of the arched table stopped speaking and looked up at Zhou Gong.
Fu Xingchuan’s voice was steady. “I take full responsibility.”
“We were all at the scene, and it was impossible to defend against such a bizarre attack. I didn’t even notice any spatial fluctuations, and Qiao Shang didn’t sense any killing intent. The attacker was extremely abnormal, and this attack cannot be simply attributed to a security accident.”
Zhou Gong stood up, bent his chubby body, and bowed to the woman.
“Even if the attack occurred in the Shian office area, I can assure you that Shian couldn’t defend against it at all. Everyone, our top priority is to find out the identity of the attacker, not to deal with our own people.”
The people on the stage were silent, and more than a dozen pairs of eyes looked at Zhou Gong together. The members of the supervisory department didn’t have high metaphysical abilities, but their momentum was extremely strong, and even Zhou Gong, who was the “#1 Evil Smith”, couldn’t help but lower his head.
Qiao Shang sighed and stood up as well.
“If it weren’t for Fu Xingchuan, who rushed out first to protect those employees, he wouldn’t have been injured like this. The selection of the competition site and the content of the competition were unanimously approved by the three of us. No ordinary people were injured this time, so can’t we…”
“I take full responsibility.” Fu Xingchuan interrupted Qiao Shang. “The incident in Gengsheng Town also involved my responsibility. We’ll handle it according to regulations.”
Zhou Gong hated that iron couldn’t be made into steel. “Lao Fu, you—!”
Yin Ren looked at the dispute expressionlessly, and he could probably guess the twists and turns in Zhou Gong’s heart.
When such a thing happened, someone had to take responsibility.
However, the attack occurred after the end of the competition, which was very strange, and there was no “eavesdropping feeling” reminder. Even Yin Ren himself couldn’t guard against it. There was still room for maneuver if Shian wanted to show mercy.
The premise was that Fu Xingchuan himself cooperated and actively protected himself.
However, Fu Xingchuan just stood there, wearing a red robe covered in dust and emitting a strong smell of blood.
“I misjudged. I am fully responsible,” Minister Fu repeated for the third time.
He didn’t find any objective reasons for himself, nor did he look at anyone. Looking only at Fu Xingchuan’s expression, he could even be called calm—but if he looked down, his blood-stained hands were tightly clenched into fists, and his knuckles were white.
Yin Ren looked at it blankly, without any waves in his heart.
He didn’t care who was responsible. Even if the so-called responsibility was defined accurately, Zhong Chengshuo wouldn’t come back on his own. Yin Ren was still sitting there calmly only because Zhong Chengshuo designated “contact Shian” in his last will.
If they really wanted to talk about responsibility…
The former Great Celestial Master lowered his head and looked at his own hands.
Why did he maintain that unnecessary “isolation” state just half an hour ago?
It was just a new ability, and he could still practice it in the future. If he had been lazy and rested after the competition like before, would Zhong Chengshuo still be by his side now?
That person would definitely be very excited to discover such a bizarre way of attack…
Why couldn’t he turn back time?
Twenty-four hours ago, they were still lying on the same bed. Yin Ren’s hair was lazily stretched out, and that person’s gentle breath sprayed down continuously, swaying his strand of hair gently.
Did Zhong Chengshuo notice his small movements?
Yin Ren was somewhat surprised to find that he might never know the answer.
……
The result of handling this “major safety accident” came out very quickly.
There was a huge shakeup in the Haigu branch.
Fu Xingchuan was almost on the verge of being fired but was arranged by Shian as an action consultant, theoretically at the same level as Huang Jin. Upon Fu Xingchuan’s recommendation, Xiang Jiang temporarily took over some of Fu Xingchuan’s duties to provide combat support for Li Nian.
The injured participants in this competition would be treated as work-related injuries, and they would receive compensation and resettlement. As for the attack, Zhou Gong and Qiao Shang would lead their two branches to conduct a joint investigation.
It wasn’t until Fu Xingchuan struggled to get up that Yin Ren’s face showed some signs of life.
The two of them had a strange tacit understanding, and they unconsciously stayed until the end, before they withdrew from this “portable conference room”.
“You have something to say to me,” Fu Xingchuan said, “Unfortunately, I don’t know the specific location of Sunken Society’s headquarters. If you want to find it by destroying the city, I will still find ways to stop you.”
“I’m not in the mood right now.”
Yin Ren dropped his words and pressed down on the blood-stained notebook.
He was grateful for his ex-lover’s departure. This blood-stained record came in very handy. Since entering society, for the first time, Yin Ren hoped to keep himself busy, preferably without any idle thoughts.
“About Zhong Chengshuo… About his disappearance, I have something to say.”
Fu Xingchuan turned around with his crutch. The tassel earring on his ear was stained with blood, making it even darker.
“I think I know what you want to say,” Fu Xingchuan said, looking at Yin Ren with complicated eyes.
No matter how they thought about it, with the power handed down from generation to generation and as an evil, this person would not continue to stay in Shian honestly and play an ordinary C-level investigator.
Yin Ren confessed his identity to Fu Wuya, as well as the attack on the statue and murals… Compared to venting his emotions, those actions were more like displaying his power. The current “Ghost King” couldn’t organize an army of evil beings and could only look for powerful and controllable collaborators.
Like the Fu family.
The former Ghost King needed manpower, and he happened to have something he wanted to do.
“You need manpower, and now you have it.” Fu Xingchuan pointed to himself. “Now I can provide round-the-clock support for Unit Nine until you get the answers you want.”
“You’re not the kind of person who would do this for an apology. Fu Xingchuan, what’s your goal?”
Minister Fu reached out a hand and raked through his messy hair.
“My goal has always been the same, to ‘solve problems’.”
He let out a long sigh.
“The problem at hand is difficult to solve with just the surface level of Shian… Oh, well, I know you’re not interested.”
Yin Ren lightly glanced at Fu Xingchuan and nodded casually. “Indeed, you have your own ambitions, and I have my own people to find.”
He rubbed the bloodstains on his tough leather jacket.
“Fu Xingchuan, do you know about the ‘Other Side’?”
“I do.”
Fu Xingchuan’s answer was particularly concise.
“Phenomenon Type-A1, the Other Side. Usually, we’re more accustomed to calling it ‘That Side’…”
……
At the same time, deep underground.
There was no sound or smell; not even darkness existed anymore.
Everything had been reduced to nothingness.
Sense of touch… sense of touch… Oh, there’s still a little bit… It’s cold here, and the feeling is icy, like a metallic material.
“……”
Death should be the end of everything. After the cessation of vital functions, it was impossible to still have senses like touch.
Kinky Translations 