Su Yang, Why Did You Smash My Door Lock Open?

On the edge of the city, in a dim basement.

A gaunt old man sat in a strange formation drawn in blood.

His skin-and-bones torso was split by gash after gash, and countless tiny tentacles grew from the openings and took root in the formation.

His dry, yellow eyelids were shut tight, and he softly hummed a song.

"When that day truly comes, I will fuse my faith and soul into my flesh and blood."

"My flesh and blood will flow into every corner of this city, reaching every filthy place."

"When the sleeping bells ring, this world will be clean once more."

"God will forgive my slaughter!"

"The Omniscients will pick up my corpse and wash away that cursed fate!"

He repeated the song over and over.

Each time he finished, another wound appeared on his body. Another tentacle would grow from it and take root in the formation.

Only when the old man's snow-white eyebrows twitched did he stop singing.

The song echoing through the basement gradually faded away.

The next moment, he opened his eyes, their sockets clouded over—he was blind.

"Two places have already been pulled out!"

"I have to speed things up, or God will punish me."

Boom!

Su Yang leaped from the eighth floor to the ground.

He used the momentum of his fall to roll several times, but he still failed to dissipate all the impact of the jump.

His arms and knees were covered in blood, and waves of piercing pain came from his injuries, but Su Yang paid them no attention.

He was now sprinting with all his might toward another part of the city, in the direction of Ren Yexue's home.

Su Yang ran so fast that people on the street couldn't help casting glances at him.

By the time Su Yang left Teacher Zhao's home, dusk had drawn the curtain of night.

In the early evening, the city was especially peaceful.

The gentle evening breeze, dogs rolling on the ground, children playing within sight of their parents, men eating skewers and singing loudly by the roadside.

If he hadn't just experienced his teacher's death, Su Yang would surely have stopped to enjoy the beauty this world offered.

But now, as Su Yang passed through all that beauty, his former innocence was gone.

"Ren Yexue, you have to wait for me to get there!"

All Su Yang wanted now was to save another life.

The life of the girl whose heart was set on him!

Shortly after Su Yang left apartment 8-5, unit 2, building 5 of City Garden, a man in a suit entered the residential complex where Teacher Zhao lived.

His temples were streaked with gray, and the corners of his eyes bore the marks of time. This man was Zhao Shengshen.

Zhao Shengshen walked through the complex and encountered all sorts of passersby.

If they had stopped and looked closely at the man, they would surely have recognized the director, who often appeared on television.

But it was as though some unseen magic made them all overlook this middle-aged man with his extraordinary bearing.

They all slipped past Zhao Shengshen without letting their gazes linger on him for a moment.

Before long, Zhao Shengshen entered apartment 8-5, unit 2, building 5 of City Garden.

The moment he stepped into Teacher Zhao's home, Zhao Shengshen smelled a powerful stench.

But he gave a light wave of his hand, and the stench vanished.

Zhao Shengshen walked straight into the bedroom, but found no sign of Su Yang.

He saw only the tentacles chopped into many pieces on the floor, and Teacher Zhao's corpse.

"What happened? Where did Su Yang go?"

Instead of examining the scene immediately, Zhao Shengshen took out his phone and called Su Yang.

As far as he was concerned, Su Yang's safety was more important than anything else.

A second later, the call connected.

Zhao Shengshen heard wind, howling past!

Then Su Yang's voice came through the phone.

"Director, I'm going to save someone. I'm not in danger. Talk to you later!"

"Beep... beep... beep..." Su Yang hung up.

Frowning, Zhao Shengshen lowered his phone.

"That guy Su Yang..."

"Save someone? Could people have died somewhere else too?"

Zhao Shengshen shook his head and didn't call Su Yang again.

He had just glanced at the corpse on the floor, which had been chopped into countless pieces. The cuts had clearly been made by Su Yang's pitch-black saber.

And the fluctuations of Sequence Ability remaining on the tentacles were also very weak.

A Sequence Ability that weak could not harm a Sword-Bearer.

Zhao Shengshen closed his eyes, held his breath, and concentrated, carefully sensing the characteristics of the Sequence Ability lingering in the air.

"It's the Third Sequence... an ability from the [Domain] sequence..."

"This is bad. If it's a Domain, then there must be tentacles like these elsewhere. No wonder Su Yang said he was going to save someone..."

"But why didn't the Omniscience Eye in the Soul-Reaping Bureau sense someone using a Sequence Ability? Do the Fierce Ghosts also have something capable of blocking an A-rank containment item?"

Zhao Shengshen looked at the tentacles on the floor and muttered to himself.

After racing through the city for an hour, Su Yang finally arrived outside Ren Yexue's home.

He gasped for breath as he looked at the small two-story villa before him.

Even with his current physique, his body could barely hold up after an hour of racing through the city.

His internal organs were burning hot, like a machine that had short-circuited after running at its absolute limit.

But Su Yang still didn't dare pause for even half a minute. With every moment of delay, Ren Yexue might encounter danger.

What was more, Ren Yexue still hadn't replied to Su Yang's messages, leaving him even more on edge than he already was.

After taking a few deep breaths, Su Yang walked up to Ren Yexue's front door.

He rang the doorbell several times, but no one came to answer.

"This is bad! Could something really have happened?!"

The next moment, Su Yang stopped waiting outside Ren Yexue's door.

He drove a fist into the lock, smashing open the intricately patterned smart lock, which was obviously expensive at a glance.

After Su Yang smashed the lock open, he heard the pleasant sound of a piano, but it soon faded away.

A girl with delicate features poked her head out from the second floor, her eyes full of alarm.

Only after she saw that it was Su Yang did she let out a long sigh of relief.

"Su Yang, why is it you?"

"And... why did you smash my door lock open?"