The military jeep's door opened with a dull click in the rainy night.
The rain seemed to consciously avoid the half-meter around her, falling to the ground and instantly freezing into a thin layer of frost.
Her name was Shen Bingyue, codename "Frost."
"Secure the scene. Team A, guard the perimeter. Team B, come in with me. Activate the psychic energy detectors and record all abnormal fluctuations." Her voice was cold and clear, without a trace of unnecessary emotion. Every word seemed tempered in ice.
"Yes, Captain Shen!" Several team members in black combat uniforms answered in unison, their movements perfectly synchronized.
Shen Bingyue stepped through the Mental Hospital's wide-open iron gates, her brows knitting almost imperceptibly.
It was too clean.
The lingering resentment in the air was dense, yet it was like a pool of stirred-up stagnant water that had lost its central source. According to the intel, once the E-class Anomaly, the Slit-Mouthed Woman, unleashed her rule-based killing field, the resentment would become as targeted and aggressive as a living creature. But now, all that remained were ownerless, chaotic echoes of energy.
"Captain Shen, the fourth floor, Room 404. The energy residue peak is highest there," came a Team B member's voice through the earpiece.
Shen Bingyue did not respond. Her figure moved like a weightless shadow, and within a few breaths, she had reached the end of the fourth-floor corridor.
The door to Room 404 stood open. A smell of blood, decay, and... cheap chemical fragrance stubbornly lingered in the room.
Shen Bingyue walked to the center of the room, crouched down, and lightly touched the dark brown glob of congealed gel on the floor with her gloved index finger.
"Analyze the composition." She brought her finger close to the miniature device on her wrist.
"Beep... analyzing... Primary components: high-strength styling hair gel, human saliva, blood, and high-concentration resentment condensate..."
The device's cold electronic voice gave several seasoned Special Cases Department agents around her extremely strange expressions.
One of them finally could not help muttering in a very low voice, "Hair gel? What kind of... hairdressing-style exorcism is this?"
Another agent's mouth twitched. "Give the Slit-Mouthed Woman a makeover, then attack while she looks in the mirror?"
Shen Bingyue's expression remained as cold as frost, but an indescribable ripple flashed deep within her eyes. She stood, closed her eyes, and quietly activated her talent, Ice Breath.
Through her extraordinary perception, the entire battle seemed to replay in slow motion.
She "saw" how the Slit-Mouthed Woman had expanded her rule-based domain, only for it to be interrupted by a crude, unreasonable method that threw her into three full seconds of cognitive confusion.
Then, she "saw" that blurry figure use an entire bottle of hair gel to precisely seal the Slit-Mouthed Woman's mouth, the very thing she relied on to activate her rules.
Finally came the fatal blow. There was no ritual, no incantation—just the simplest, most direct thrust, accurately striking the core of the resentment's circulation: the heart.
Violent, efficient, and filled with a primitive, unadorned beauty.
But it was also... unbearably crude.
This was not a method any established school would use. It was full of the reckless absurdity and madness of a "wild" approach. It was like a premeditated street beating, except the victim was an urban legend.
"Captain Shen, no psychic energy residue besides the target's was found at the scene. The other party seems to have relied entirely on physical methods and some special items?" The agent's report was full of uncertainty.
"Investigate." Shen Bingyue said only one word, her voice colder than the rainy night outside. "Check the surveillance footage nearby. This should be a rogue supernatural. His method of cleansing is far too dangerous. We can't let him run wild."
Shen Bingyue glanced once more at the empty hospital room before turning to leave. Yet an absurd image surfaced uncontrollably in her mind—a lunatic wildly spraying hair gel at an Anomaly while shouting, "Pretty lady, want a haircut?"
That thought cracked her usually frozen train of thought.
Elsewhere, inside a rental apartment in an old residential complex in Donghai City.
Qin Feng buried his head in bed and pulled the blanket over himself, but his body still trembled faintly from overwhelming excitement.
He had survived.
Not only had he survived, he had taken down a legend and awakened a system!
It was a hundred times more thrilling than ranking first in his history department exams!
After a full ten minutes, the ecstasy of surviving a disaster finally subsided a little. He abruptly sat up in bed and looked around the tiny rental room, less than ten square meters in size, its walls peeling and the damp air filled with the smell of instant noodles.
The grim reality of poverty did not seem quite so unbearable beneath the system's faint blue glow.
"System!" With a thought, the interface appeared before him again.
[Sin Clearing System] [Host: Qin Feng] [Cleansing Points: 30]
He first opened the [Sin Cleansing Mall], and the first category was [Legendary Armament].
Only one lone icon was lit up on the interface.
[Scissors of Truth] [Current Level: E] [Cleansing Points Required for Upgrade: 50]
"An upgrade costs fifty points..." Qin Feng smacked his lips. His thirty points of starting capital were not even enough to upgrade his weapon once.
He backed out and opened [Origin Enhancement].
[Spiritual Sense Level: Spirit Touch Realm (Early Stage)]
"What a rip-off!" Qin Feng felt his blood pressure rising.
With his last shred of hope, he opened [Forbidden Dao Arts]. A dazzling list instantly unfolded, its glittering effects making him dizzy.
[Mastery of Talisman Drawing for Evil Suppression]: 20 points. [Introduction to Heart-Clearing Incantation]: 15 points. [Introduction to Golden Light Incantation]: 30 points. ... [Palm Thunder]: 150 points. [Righteous Law of Five Thunders]: 8000 points. [Divine Thunder of Nine Heavens]: Points...
Qin Feng's eyes went wide, and he nearly drooled. Palm Thunder! Righteous Law of Five Thunders! This was every man's dream!
Excited, he rubbed his hands together, his gaze sweeping over those blood-pumping names and the long strings of zeroes behind them. Then his eyes settled on his pitiful [Cleansing Points: 30].
His excited heart and trembling hands ultimately turned into one long sigh.
Ideals were full, but reality was skinny. He was like a poor man standing outside a luxury store, unable to afford even the cheapest tie in the display window.
No, he could afford something.
He dragged the list all the way down and found an inconspicuous option in the corner, marked in gray text.
[Item Affinity (Passive)], Price: 10 points. [Effect: Allows you to understand and master any supernatural item more quickly, with an extremely small chance of triggering the "Flash of Inspiration" effect during use, producing unexpected applications.]
Qin Feng's eyes immediately lit up.
Cool lightning arts and Dao techniques were great, but they were castles in the air. This was the real foundation he needed to survive!
If he had not thought on his feet and used hair gel tonight, grass would already be growing on his grave. Didn't this [Item Affinity] turn his ability to pull off these "wild moves" into something quantified and permanent? This was an investment in himself!
"That's the one! Exchange it!"
[Exchange successful. Remaining Cleansing Points: 20.]
A faint warm current flowed into his brain. Qin Feng felt as though his thoughts had become clearer and more agile, while much of the knowledge he had previously seen about folk ritual items came alive in his mind.
Just as he immersed himself in that wonderful sensation, his phone chimed, and a bank deposit notification popped up.
[Your account ending in xxxx received 444.00 yuan at 23:58 on x/x. Current balance: 1451.50 yuan.]
The delivery order payment had arrived.
Looking at that strange yet enticing string of numbers, Qin Feng grinned. This money was a "slaying reward" he had earned with his life.
He closed the bank message, opened the food delivery rider app, skillfully found the "Completed" order from Fourth Psychiatric Hospital, and pressed without hesitation—
[Report].
Reason for report: False address, malicious order placement, requesting platform compensation!
A goose leaves feathers when it passes; a ghost leaves skin when it passes. Qin Feng never took a loss.
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