The events in Jing City were not effectively contained; those unaware of the inside story thought it was a joke, while those in the know were deeply worried.
Countries around the world have not paid much attention to this, because they are already preoccupied with their own problems.
The "Supernatural Revival" is not just happening in Jing City, but is a global anomaly.
Almost every country has experienced numerous supernatural events to varying degrees.
Worse still, these paranormal events did not occur in remote areas, but rather targeted densely populated, economically developed cities with a high concentration of powerful and wealthy individuals.
In response, the real mastermind, Hu, said, "If we're going to play, let's play big."
Extraordinary, unnatural, mysterious, and strange things should be kept from the masses, so that ordinary people can live under the common sense of science.
Hu Jiu understood the reasons for doing this: in order to maintain the stability of the existing order, there were some things that the general public could not know.
Knowing too much could cause a lot of unnecessary chaos.
But Hu Jiu was determined to break through this barrier!
He came here to destroy the world; he'll do whatever is perverse and evil he wants!
As a qualified mastermind, Hu Jiu doesn't need to personally handle many things; in fact, he would never show his face in person, leaving the tasks to his henchmen.
He orchestrated the chaos in Jing City, but he didn't have overall control over the Jing City; after all, his goal was to create chaos and disrupt order.
"Destruction" and "chaos" do not require a perfect plan, nor do they require every step to be just right; they can just do whatever they want.
At this moment, Hu Jiu is in a deep mountain.
There is an ancient tomb in this mountain.
The ancient tomb exudes a strong Supernatural atmosphere.
Previously, when Hu Jiu arranged for Bai Jingjing to deal with the mirror in Yunsun City, he reached a consensus with the Investigation Bureau to have Bai Jingjing explore an ancient tomb.
This is the ancient tomb I'm referring to.
Hu Jiu sensed that there might be a ghost in the tomb. Previously, he wanted to promote Bai Jingjing to become the spokesperson for the country's supernatural side, so he had Bai Jingjing stage a scene of saving the people from suffering.
But later, the Investigation Bureau kept dragging its feet.
Hu Jiu grew impatient and decided to overhaul the Investigation Bureau.
The newly appointed director of the Investigation Bureau is a complicated person, but it's also a good thing. This kind of leader, steeped in bureaucratic practices and formalism, is more conducive to the development of villains like Hu Jiu.
If Bai Jingjing can't be a good guy, then let her be the villain. Hu Jiu chose someone else to be the "great hero."
In fact, Hu Jiu didn't put much effort into these people; they were just casually set up schemes.
When people possess great strength and have no opponents of equal caliber, they are less inclined to use their brains. Both Hu Jiu and Du Zhong essentially treat the world as a game, and their actions are rather casual.
Hu Jiu was only concerned with one thing—whether "World Consciousness" existed.
So far, he has not felt anything interfering with him in the unseen world, and everything is going smoothly.
At this moment, a group of tomb raiders had gathered above the ancient tomb.
The leader was a very fierce-looking man with a hideous scar running from the corner of his left eye to his jaw, and his expression was somewhat insane.
In the middle of the tomb raiders, a thin, bony young man was tied up. He was naked, with very pale skin and a creepy ghost face tattoo on his right shoulder.
In the deep forests of autumn night, a cold wind carrying the smell of decay weaved through the treetops. The moonlight was obscured by thick clouds, with only a few beams of Flashlight piercing the darkness and shining on the newly dug tomb hole.
Chen Liu squatted at the cave entrance, picked up a clump of soil with his rough fingers, and sniffed it. The hideous scar running from the corner of his left eye to his jaw looked even more terrifying in the dim light, like a centipede crawling on his face.
"Sixth Master, there seems to be something strange mixed in with this soil..." a short tomb raider whispered, his voice trembling almost imperceptibly.
Chen Liu grinned, revealing uneven, yellow teeth. "A good omen, it means there's something real down there."
He turned to look at Fang Zhitu, who was tied up to the side, his eyes gleaming with a morbid fanaticism. "Kid, don't you think so?"
Fang Zhitu's naked body appeared unnaturally pale in the autumn night. The ghost face tattoo on his right shoulder seemed to writhe in the darkness. His lips were cracked, but his eyes were unusually clear. "Sixth Master Chen, it's not too late to stop now. What's beneath this tomb... is truly dangerous."
"Bullshit!" Chen Liu grabbed Fang Zhitu's hair, forcing him to look at the tomb's opening. "I spent a fortune researching; this tomb is extraordinary. If you can obtain supernatural power from it, why can't I find a cure?"
As he spoke, he suddenly coughed violently, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, but his laughter grew even more maniacal. "My wife and children are waiting for me at home... I absolutely cannot die..."
In his youth, he may have come into contact with some toxic substance in the tomb, which caused him to develop a terminal illness that current medical technology cannot cure.
Chen Liu was already at his wit's end, but he unexpectedly heard from people in the Daoist community that someone had a miraculous encounter in an ancient tomb and became an extraordinary being.
Chen Liu's hope was thus rekindled; he hoped that something extraordinary could cure his illness.
Fang Zhitu remained silent. Not long ago, he was a novice tomb raider who had followed a group of people down into this ancient tomb.
He found a strangely shaped bronze lamp in the tomb. The moment he touched it, his right shoulder felt like it had been branded with a hot iron. Then the ghost face pattern on the lamp disappeared, and he was given an identical ghost face tattoo on his shoulder.
Fang Zhitu can control this tattoo and release an evil spirit from it.
Due to his carelessness and a bit of showing off, the incident quickly spread within the circle, causing him a great deal of trouble.
His family members were kidnapped.
"Prepare the rope, I'll go first," Chen Liu ordered, pulling a military dagger from his waist and pressing it against Fang Zhitu's throat. "You're second. Don't try anything funny. Don't forget your sister is only sixteen. If I go missing or die down there, your whole family will be buried with me!"
Fang Zhitu's pupils contracted sharply. He recalled his sister's innocent smile, and a sharp pain shot through his stomach. He could unleash the evil spirit from the tattoo and easily wipe out these people, but he dared not take the risk... he couldn't risk the lives of his loved ones.
The rope was secured to an old tree. Chen Liu was the first to slide down, followed closely by Fang Zhitu. The damp walls of the tomb passage were covered with slippery moss, emitting a musty and rotten smell.
Halfway down, he suddenly heard a terrified scream from above.
"The rope! The rope broke!"
Fang Zhitu looked up and saw the last skinny, monkey-faced man who had gone down into the tomb frantically grabbing at the suddenly broken rope, his body swinging futilely in the air.
The next second, the rope snapped completely, and the skinny monkey-faced man screamed as he plummeted, crashing heavily onto the protruding stalagmite below. The sound of his skull shattering was exceptionally clear in the narrow tomb passage.
"Damn it!" Chen Liu cursed as he landed, shining his flashlight on the twisted corpse before coldly moving the light away. "Keep going, ignore him."
Fang Zhitu squatted down, pretending to examine the corpse, but actually observing it secretly.
He saw a ring of dark handprints around the skinny monkey's neck, as if something had snapped it off. The ghost face tattoo on his shoulder was slightly warm, seemingly mocking his hypocrisy.
The remaining seven people lined up and proceeded along the sloping tomb passage. Fang Zhitu was sandwiched in the middle, guarded by people with knives in front and behind him. The walls of the tomb passage were covered with strange, incomprehensible runes that flickered in the light of flashlights.
"Stop!" Chen Liu, the leader, suddenly raised his hand. "There's a trap ahead."
Several slightly raised stone slabs were faintly visible on the ground. Chen Liu took out a handful of iron beads from his backpack and scattered them forward.
The iron ball landed on the stone slab, and instantly dozens of rusty arrows shot out from both sides of the wall, embedding themselves deeply into the opposite wall.
"A mere trick." Chen Liu scoffed. "Follow my footsteps, don't make a single mistake."
As everyone cautiously passed through the trap area, no one noticed that Fang Zhitu kicked a stray iron bead while crossing a stone slab.
The iron ball rolled onto an untriggered stone slab.
"Whoosh--"
A new volley of arrows rained down from above. Before the burly man behind Fang Zhitu could react, three arrows pierced his throat and eyes. He fell to the ground, his hands futilely gripping the arrow shafts, making a "crunching" sound, and blood splattered on Fang Zhitu's pale back.
"Damn it! What happened?!" Chen Liu roared, turning around in fury. His flashlight swept over his brutally murdered companion, finally settling on Fang Zhitu's face. "You did this?"
Fang Zhitu showed a look of horror. "I... I don't know, it might have triggered a time-delay mechanism..."
Chen Liu stared at him suspiciously for a few seconds, then finally spat. "Watch your step! If this happens again, you'll regret it!"
The procession continued forward, but the atmosphere became noticeably more tense. The tomb passage gradually widened, and a huge circular burial chamber appeared ahead, with a dried-up pool in the center, the bottom of which was engraved with intricate patterns.
"Let's split up and search for any hidden doors," Chen Liu ordered, then walked to the edge of the pool and carefully shone his flashlight on the ancient carvings.
Fang Zhitu was pushed to the corner to be searched. He pretended to feel around on the wall, but actually secretly observed the others.
A middle-aged man named Old Wang saw something, suddenly squatted down, but his body stiffened abruptly, and he fell straight into the dried-up pond.
"Old Wang!"
The closest young companion jumped in to save him, but the moment he touched the bottom of the pool, he let out a heart-wrenching scream. His skin turned black and festered at a visible speed, and then he died.
"Poison! There seems to be poison in this pool!" someone exclaimed.
Fang Zhitu coldly watched as the two corpses at the bottom of the pool eventually turned into a pool of black water. The tattoo on his shoulder throbbed slightly again, as if he were enjoying this feast of death.
This ancient tomb is fraught with danger.
He had warned them long ago, but these people still came to their deaths.
"Two more broke..." Chen Liu's voice was unusually calm, even carrying a hint of eerie excitement. "If we've found a way, it means we've come to the right place."
He grabbed Fang Zhitu and said, "You go first from now on."
Fang Zhitu was forced to lead the team forward along a passage in the circular tomb chamber.
At the end of the passage was a stone door carved with images of demons, and a chill seeped out from the cracks in the door.
"Where did you obtain your extraordinary power when you last came to this tomb?" Chen Liu asked.
Fang Zhitu: "The structure inside the tomb seems to have been reset; it's very different from what I saw last time I came."
This sounded a bit far-fetched, and Chen Liu didn't say whether he believed it or not, only ordering, "Find a way to open this door."
Fang Zhitu to push the door, but the stone door didn't budge. Suddenly, the tattoo on his shoulder throbbed with intense pain, and the ghost face twisted and deformed, as if warning him something.
"Use your 'superpower'." Chen Liu pressed his dagger against Fang Zhitu's waist. "Don't play dumb, I know you can do it."
Fang Zhitu took a deep breath, concentrating his mind to awaken the tattoo on his shoulder. Black mist seeped from his skin, condensing in the air into a blurry ghost face shape. The ghost face emitted a silent shriek and charged towards the stone gate—
Boom!
The stone door shattered with a crash, revealing a dark passageway behind it. At the same time, the entire tomb began to shake, and rubble fell from the top.
"Hurry up and go in!" Chen Liu pushed and shoved the crowd into the passageway.
Just as the last person stepped into the passageway, a huge boulder crashed down, blocking their escape route.
The beam of the Flashlight flickered in the narrow space, illuminating four terrified faces—besides Chen Liu and Fang Zhitu, there was only a one-eyed man and a young man nicknamed "Rat".
"We... we were buried alive?" the Rat cried, its voice trembling with sobs.
Fang Zhitu offered a lukewarm reassurance. "Don't worry, this tomb might have another exit."
The Rat's expression looked even more desperate; it would have been better not to offer any comfort at all.
The tattoo on Fang Zhitu's shoulder was unusually quiet at the moment. A feeling of being watched suddenly welled up in his heart. He quietly looked around, but found nothing.
At the end of the passageway was a larger tomb chamber, in the center of which was a pool filled with dark red liquid, emitting a strong smell of blood.
Seven grotesque demon statues stood around the pool, each holding a bronze lamp in its hand, six of which had eerily glowing eerie green flames burning in their wicks.
Fang Zhitu's eyes darkened. It was this kind of bronze lamp. He had encountered one last time, and then a ghost head tattoo appeared on his shoulder.
However, the last time I encountered them in the tomb passage, but this time these bronze lamps are gathered around the blood pool. Who brought them together?
"A pool of blood..." the one-eyed man muttered to himself, his flashlight beam flickering on the surface of the pool. "Where did all this blood come from? Blood from an ancient tomb should dry up quickly under normal circumstances."
Chen Liu trembled with excitement. Although the blood pool caused his body to instinctively shudder, this visible abnormality was exactly the extraordinary thing he wanted to pursue!
He turned to Fang Zhitu and asked, "Is this the place? How can I obtain extraordinary power? Jump in?"