Black figures ran across the rooftops.
Quite a few residents noticed them. Before they could complain, some realized who these people were and immediately shouted.
"Everybody, run!!"
"These people are monsters from the Evil Cult!!"
"We're going to die!"
In an instant, everyone on the street began to flee. They were, after all, ordinary people, and all they could do when they saw the Evil Cult was run.
A man in a gentleman's hat looked down at the street, strands of black thread hanging from his fingers. He grinned sinisterly. "Uhahaha, the world of ordinary people really is dull. Just a bunch of ants who can do nothing but scream."
But a gunshot suddenly rang out, and his threads seemed to snap.
"Oh? The Special Affairs Bureau got here that quickly?" The man smiled, his face wearing a poker expression.
Following his gaze, he saw that fully armed Special Affairs Bureau personnel had already begun deploying in force. The shot just now had come from a red-haired woman among them.
"Send word to headquarters. The Puppeteer has come to Shenzhou too," the woman said gravely, pressing the watch on her wrist.
"Yes."
The two merely exchanged a glance, and no fight broke out.
The red-haired woman continued leading her team in one direction.
From this moment on, all of Shenzhou City had fallen into crisis.
No one knew why the Evil Cult was acting so frantically, but some people were sneering in the shadows.
"Heh heh..."
"Pandora's Box. The God-Binding Cult really isn't afraid of letting some terrifying existence out!"
"With Black Mist's descent, everything in the world will wither. We have never abandoned our faith, the great Ke..."
Li Chen stood in his consciousness space, surrounded by utter silence. He could sense that the Black Mist seemed to be luring him inside.
"Why is this happening?" Li Chen frowned and hesitated, unsure what lay beyond the Door.
The last time the Door had opened, the terrifying aura that leaked out for just an instant had been enough to crush him to death, let alone if he walked inside himself.
But suddenly, Li Chen seemed to hear a sigh.
"Who's there?" Li Chen turned around, but he saw no one, only endless darkness.
Suddenly, the open white door burst with boundless light, which merged into a barrier around Li Chen.
"What's this?" Li Chen was a little puzzled, but he reached out and touched the barrier. It was like a protective shield, surrounding him completely.
But why was this happening?
Suddenly, a crack rang out.
The red runes in front of the pitch-black Door were instantly swallowed up by the Black Mist. Suppressed for so long, the Black Mist surged toward Li Chen, but the white barrier blocked it all.
At that moment, Li Chen noticed something strange. Why did the Black Mist seem to be interested only in him?
He had discovered that the Black Mist behind him seemed to have no interest in devouring anything else, instead constantly attacking the barrier in front of him.
Just then.
A creaking sound rang out as the pitch-black Door slowly opened.
A very narrow crack appeared, and Black Mist slowly slipped out through it like tiny black snakes.
The opening was just wide enough for one person to enter.
Sheltered inside the white barrier, Li Chen sensed no danger. After thinking for a moment, he walked inside.
After all, this was a rare opportunity. He had finally gotten to see the pitch-black Door open, and he could find out what was really inside.
Just as Li Chen's consciousness sank into the darkness, Jianping and the others outside also noticed something was wrong.
"Damn, don't scare me, Chen-ge! What's wrong?!" Su Zhe looked bewildered as a faint black glow began to appear on Li Chen's body.
Strange symbols began to appear one after another even on his face, looking terrifying.
Jianping had already drawn his sword. A woman's voice spoke in his mind, sounding somewhat surprised. "Little Pingping, don't attack. Your friend may be communicating with an evil god right now!!"
"An evil god?" Jianping replied in his mind.
"That's right. See those runes? They only appear after an evil god possesses a human. Of course, that's what humans knew back then. By now, humans may have forgotten all about it."
"But communicating with an evil god is no good thing. If it fails, the mind will suffer tremendous damage. In severe cases, the person may become vegetative or die."
"But communicating with an evil god is also effectively the same as becoming the evil god's spokesperson. Of course, that's just what people used to say. Nowadays, becoming an evil god's spokesperson might get you hunted down by the Special Affairs Bureau."
"Then doesn't that mean Li Chen is becoming an evil god's spokesperson?" Jianping's expression turned rather ugly.
A petite figure floated within his mind, an evil aura emanating from between her brows.
"Heh... Of course not. Do you really think evil gods are that good to humans? That they're willing to share their power with humans?"
"How utterly laughable. Evil gods are humanity's enemies, after all. Most humans they choose merely become servants. That's how the Evil Cult you know today came about."
"Of course, if he's lucky, he can treat all this as a dream, as if nothing ever happened. But once an evil god has come for you, how could it be so easy to escape?"
"Perhaps he can make it out of this, but it certainly won't be that easy."
Listening to her, Jianping's expression grew increasingly ugly. He could not imagine how Li Chen had gotten involved with an evil god.
Or rather, why had the evil god come for Li Chen?
And he had been pulled in while all of them were paying attention.
Beside him, Su Zhe had already taken out his Student Badge, preparing to call Yu Qingnian and tell him what had happened.
But Luo Lin suddenly used her ability to make him float.
There was worry in Luo Lin's eyes, but she seemed to know something. "Su Zhe, don't notify the instructor yet," she said.
"Huh?" Su Zhe was bewildered. Li Chen was already in this state, and she still didn't want to notify him?
Jianping spoke up as well. "Don't notify him yet. Let's wait a little longer. We're not in a hurry. The competition is already halfway over, and we don't have any more fights coming up."
"Let's see if Li Chen can wake up in a while."
He did not mention the evil god. After all, it was rather absurd for an evil god to suddenly descend upon a companion right beside them.
Yet none of them had suffered any harm, and they had only found out after some time had passed.
Besides, the matter of an evil god had far too great an impact.
Even a student awakening an S-rank ability was not worth mentioning compared to an evil god.
After all, one was a god and the other a human. The two were not in the same category.
While the others outside were still discussing Li Chen's situation, he was walking through the Black Mist.
He could sense his direction, and he could also clearly feel a mysterious force pushing him forward.
It seemed to want him to move faster.
Faster still.