Leave This Place!

You Li quickly followed his adjutant to a contaminated corpse, where a number of members of the Devil Squad had already gathered.

"Make way, make way, the captain is here."

The adjutant cleared a path for You Li, which allowed You Li to see the rotting human corpse.

The corpse's face was no longer recognizable, and its body had turned into components similar to the pollutants, making it appear at first glance indistinguishable from the pollutants themselves.

The only difference was the clothes he was wearing—from the night sky ten years ago.

As the adjutant had predicted.

We finally found them.

Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar uniform, You Li felt a moment of realization, but he quickly calmed down and bent down to examine the corpse, asking his adjutant, "Where did this corpse come from?"

The adjutant replied, "It was stuck to the body of a contaminant."

"Hanging up there?"

"Yes." The adjutant nodded. "It was probably consumed by the pollutants, and then exposed after we destroyed the pollutants' bodies."

Pollutants are monsters that only have the ability to eat, but not the ability to digest or excrete.

It can only grow bigger and bigger like a gluttonous snake, but when it gets big enough, it will break down and decompose, and then continue to eat, as if its only purpose in existence is to eat.

"Has your identity been confirmed?"

As You Li asked questions, he turned the body over and then looked at the Sleeve badge. As expected, the Sleeve badge was so blurred that the name was illegible.

Sure enough, the adjutant replied, "We can't find any valid identification at the moment. We only found a few pieces of broken equipment with names engraved on them, but the names are all different."

You Li also found several small pieces of equipment placed next to the body, such as a short knife and a pocket watch. They were mostly broken, but the names could still be vaguely seen on them.

He examined the equipment and, as the adjutant had said, the names engraved on them were all different.

"This is the rule of Xiaoxing," You Li said in a low voice. "Those who are to be left behind will exchange one of their pieces of equipment with those who are to leave. So if someone has equipment with a different name, it means... there has been a sacrifice."

"But these names are all different."

"That means there have always been sacrifices," You Li said. "They didn't all fall at the same time; it was because people kept getting into trouble and falling behind that this situation occurred."

... People kept falling behind.

Upon hearing this, the atmosphere in the room became somewhat tense. The demons wearing heavy masks looked at each other, seemingly unable to imagine such a scene.

You Li didn't put much effort into the equipment, and wasn't even very interested in figuring out the other person's identity, because no matter what, this person was definitely one of those missing persons on the list.

Rather than confirming his identity, You Li was more interested in finding something else from him.

For example, the so-called "Clerk No. 44" written document from ten years ago, which is the evidence Jie La Er has been referring to.

It is precisely because that thing has never been found that the authenticity of Xiaoxing's mission cannot be proven.

If that written document truly exists, then it should remain on the bodies of these deceased Evening Star Knight.

So, will it be found?

Just as You Li was searching intently, his hand was suddenly grabbed.

You Li was slightly taken aback. He subconsciously thought it was his adjutant, but when he saw the hand clearly, he froze.

The hand was pale, rotting, and resembled a contaminated arthropod.

Its owner was... the corpse lying in front of him.

You Li's gaze slowly moved upwards, and then he saw the person who should have been dead for ten years open his "eyes" at him.

His eyeballs had long since disappeared, leaving only two irregular holes that looked like they had been poked out with fingers.

You Li soon realized that it was indeed dug out, because he used his other hand to dig out the mouth.

This made You Li's hair stand on end.

This is definitely not something that ordinary pollutants can do!

He was being held by one hand, but he still reached for the Blazing Fire Sword at his waist with his other hand.

Regardless of the circumstances, the pollutants must be dealt with.

But just as his hand gripped the hilt of the sword, the corpse in front of him made a sound from its gaping mouth.

"Who are you?"

These unexpected words nearly caused You Li's heart to stop.

Pollutants... can talk?

You Li would never have believed it if he hadn't already witnessed so many things that defied common sense today.

You Li tried to calm himself down.

He looked at the corpse in front of him, and then did something he would never have done before.

That is to talk to him.

"Devil Squad, You Li," You Li answered in a deep voice, then immediately asked, "Do you remember who you are?"

He wanted to know whether the corpse before him was a contaminant that had acquired the ability to speak.

Or... the Evening Star Knight has survived to this day.

These two outcomes make a big difference to You Li.

"Demon... Ghost... Troops..." the corpse slowly repeated the word.

You Li gripped the sword hilt tightly, his face covered in fine beads of sweat beneath his heavy mask.

"Yes," You Li repeated the question, "Who are you?"

"Who are you..."

The pollutant repeated You Li's words again, as if it had no way to answer You Li's question and could only repeat You Li's words.

It appears to be just a contaminant that acquired language abilities for some unknown reason.

Upon reaching this conclusion, You Li suddenly felt a little disappointed.

So he slowly drew the Blazing Fire Sword.

There's nothing to talk about with pollutants.

However, just as You Li was about to fully draw the Blazing Fire Sword, the corpse suddenly "remembered" something, and from who knows where, it mustered its strength and stood up abruptly. Then, it pointed its protruding mouth at You Li, You Li saw that the mouth was still rapidly tearing and expanding.

Then, You Li heard a deafening sound pierce through his mask and reach deep into his brain.

"Get out of here!"

"The source is pollution!"

"Live! Up!"

These words, which went straight to the heart of his mind, sent a shiver down You Li's spine.

When they came to their senses, the corpse had returned to its previous state.

The face was blurred, making it impossible to see the features... but there were no gouged-out eyes or mouth either.

It was as if everything was an illusion.

You Li stared blankly at the corpse. He felt something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

But then he heard a "crackling" sound coming from his neck, and it became more and more rapid.

You Li suddenly came to his senses.

Emergency Device?!

He immediately reached for the Emergency Device around his neck.

They then discovered that the spring on the Emergency Device had been wound up to its last rotation; if it continued like this, his head would be on the ground in less than five minutes.

While breaking out in a cold sweat, You Li sensed something even more amiss.

How come his Emergency Device is already on its last cycle?!

How long has he been watching here?!

And why didn't anyone remind him?!

You Li suddenly looked up and found that his men were still standing in the same position as before, without any reaction, like still statues.

But the Emergency Device around their necks didn't stop; in fact, they were moving faster and faster.

You Li immediately stepped forward and roared at his men.

"Wake up!"

"We've been contaminated!"

Pfft, pfft, pfft.

The moment he finished speaking, three heads rolled.

The sprayed blood added a glaring crimson hue to this gray world.

That crimson hue also made You Li realize something he had overlooked.

That is, they are not yet prepared to actively enter the deepest part of the Contaminated Land, which is the abyss.

But the abyss has already come to them on its own.

Why did you come here?

Jie La Er stood in front of a processing plant, with the steel bridge connecting the Fifth District in the distance.

"Why can't we come here?" Bai Wei said lazily. "You know what kind of place this is, right?"

Jie La Er hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Source Oil Processing Plant."

"Judging from your reaction, it seems you've never been here before?" Bai Wei said. "Isn't this what you used to do? Drilling for oil."

What is oil?

"I was talking about source oil," Bai Wei said casually. "You misheard me."

Jie La Er didn't care too much about whether Bai Wei had misspoke. He simply said, "Making source oil is indeed Xiaoxing's main job, but we are only responsible for transporting the produced source oil back to the Fifth District. Then, the technicians from the source oil factory will haul the source oil back... something like that."

As the two were talking, a specially made Gear Train passed over the bridge in the Fifth District and stopped in front of the processing plant. Then, the plant's employees came out of the factory and carried the black barrels that had been transported on the Gear Train into the factory.

Bai Wei asked, "What will these raw oils be processed into?"

"A lot." Although Jie La Er was not in charge of the further processing of the source oil, he still knew some of the most basic procedures, so he replied, "The source oil is responsible for providing power to various large machines, including Gear Train, as well as the source oil for people's livelihood. Some scraps will be converted into lubricants and the like."

"Ah, that sounds quite interesting," Bai Wei said with a smile. "Take me inside for a tour, I've never seen a processing plant like this before."

Bai Wei's relaxed tone did not make Jie La Er feel at ease.

He originally thought Bai Wei would take him directly to a branch tower in a certain district, tell him who was the problem, that they were members of the New Pursuit Society, and tell him to take action as soon as possible.

But Bai Wei brought him here.

Source Oil Processing Plant.

As Bai Wei said, this is a place closely related to his previous work.

"I can try to go in," Jie La Er said, nodding after observing the surroundings. "Security here isn't very tight... but there's something I want to know."

"Go ahead and tell me."

"Do you think there's a problem with the oil processing plant..." Jie La Er asked slowly, "Or is there a problem with the oil itself?"

"... Heh, you're quite perceptive." Bai Wei wasn't surprised by Jie La Er's reaction, after all, they were already here. "As the Evening Star Captain, you should know where the Source Oil comes from, right?"

"Of course," Jie La Er replied, "From the pollutants."

"Specifically?"

Jie La Er hesitated for a moment, then said, "Completely pulverize the pollutant's body and turn it into a liquid; that is the source oil."

"Simply put, it's about juicing it, right?" Bai Wei asked with a smile.

Although Jie La Er found Bai Wei's description somewhat strange, he had to admit it was quite vivid, so he nodded. "Yes."

"So, if they're juiced, will they die?"

Jie La Er's pupils narrowed slightly, but his expression didn't change much. He simply said in a deep voice, "We've conducted numerous experiments, and the source oil itself is neither polluting nor viable."

"Really?" Bai Wei asked casually. "Where did the experimental results come from?"

Jie La Er's eyes widened instantly.

He raised his head and looked at the factory in front of him once again.

The workers in black uniforms were carrying barrels of crude oil into the factory.

Their faces were expressionless, like both precise components and...

A ghost lingering in the Land of Corruption.