Entering

Fire Altar Road in the western outskirts of Dongjiang City was an ordinary residential street with no distinguishing features. When Wang Zhifan and the others arrived in the Special Administration Bureau's vehicle, they found that some officials in dark green uniforms had already cordoned off part of the street, forbidding any unauthorized personnel from approaching.

"We're the Special Cleanup Team assigned to this case. Here are my credentials."

After the vehicle stopped outside the cordon, Chu Wei, who led the three-person team, stepped forward as soon as they got out and spoke with the officials responsible for the blockade.

He was a slightly overweight man in his fifties of average height. A medal hung on the left breast of his dark green official uniform. After narrowing his somewhat cloudy eyes to verify the information on the credentials Chu Wei handed over, a few traces of a smile appeared on his previously stern face.

"Go on in. Please make sure to finish the mission as soon as possible."

As he spoke, the man stepped aside and raised the caution tape beside him.

"Thank you. We won't let the country down."

Chu Wei nodded to the man, who seemed to have seen much in life, then led Wang Zhifan and A Liao behind her as they ducked beneath the cordon.

After they entered, the man in his fifties in the dark green uniform outside the cordon watched their backs and began muttering with a touch of emotion.

"Youth is wonderful... If I were twenty years younger, I definitely could have joined the new battlefield..."

Less than fifty meters into the restricted area, after turning a street corner, Wang Zhifan and the others quickly spotted a highly conspicuous anomalous zone. It was a building shrouded in dense gray fog, making it impossible to see what it looked like inside from the outside. Several armed personnel in dark green uniforms stood guard around the fog-covered area.

Chu Wei immediately went forward to speak with the guards. After showing her Special Administration Bureau credentials, they were promptly allowed to approach the boundary of the nearby Ash Domain.

However, Chu Wei did not lead the others directly into the Ash Domain. Instead, she stopped outside it, turned around, and reminded everyone to prepare themselves.

"Brother Fan, A Liao, have you changed into your equipment? We might have to fight as soon as we go in."

"I'm ready."

Wang Zhifan answered at once.

In fact, after they crossed the cordon earlier, he had begun changing equipment. More specifically, he put on the Wolfhide Armor, which was somewhat unsuitable for the current season, took out and wore the Berserk Bracers, and retrieved the Blade of the Wolf Fiend from his personal storage space.

These practical, unflashy pieces of equipment were what Wang Zhifan had decided to use while working as a temporary employee. As for his other equipment, the Chapter of Gloom and Iron Mountain Sash were already equipped, hidden respectively in his collar and waistband, while everything else remained unused in his personal storage space.

He mainly did this because he did not want to attract too much attention from others. If he chose to fully equip himself, wearing gloves and several rings with a fine-grade pistol in hand, that somewhat nouveau riche appearance would clash with his Lv2 elite persona.

"Captain, I'm ready too."

After Wang Zhifan, the teenage A Liao standing beside him also nodded.

Compared with how he had looked in the vehicle, he had not changed much. He merely had an over-one-meter-long rifle in his hands and a stylish pair of sunglasses over his eyes. Combined with his slightly youthful face and the Special Administration Bureau's black uniform, he looked exactly like a teenage war criminal.

"Then let's begin."

Seeing that both her teammates were ready, Chu Wei immediately nodded.

Then, with a light wave of her right hand, a long-haired figure suddenly appeared in the air beside her. Yet the instant it appeared, it shot into the Ash Domain ahead at incredible speed, leaving the others no time to make out its appearance.

Wang Zhifan knew it had to be Chu Wei's female ghost summon. He also noticed something new: when Chu Wei waved her hand, he saw that a silver bracelet had somehow appeared on her right wrist. She had probably hidden it beneath her sleeve earlier, and it had only just been exposed.

"Inside is a grassy field. Within a hundred meters of it are several low-level tree-spirit monsters. Everyone, prepare for battle."

A few seconds later, when the face of a cold, stern, semi-transparent woman with flowing long hair emerged from the edge of the Ash Domain before them, Chu Wei quickly spoke to Wang Zhifan and A Liao. She had used her summon to scout the conditions inside the Ash Domain.

"Then I'll take the lead."

Now that he knew they would be fighting the moment they entered, Wang Zhifan, as a Warrior, naturally had to stand at the front. After saying that, he drew the Blade of the Wolf Fiend and stepped into the Ash Domain before him, with Chu Wei and A Liao following close behind.

Several days had passed since Wang Zhifan last entered an Ash Domain. More accurately, last time he had fallen directly into a newly formed Ash Domain and was later brought out by people from the Special Administration Bureau. This time was a somewhat different experience.

The instant he stepped into the Ash Domain, Wang Zhifan did not feel anything special, as though he had simply entered a patch of mist. But then the enormous difference between the scene before him and what he had seen from outside made his whole body jolt slightly, producing a faintly tense reaction.

It was a natural physical response. Wang Zhifan had never experienced anything like stepping into a gray-fog-shrouded street building only for everything before him to undergo a drastic transformation. The hazy ordinary building had become a dense forest spanning several hundred meters, surrounded by a vast ring of grassland, with dozens of twisted green monsters wandering across it.

This shifting scenery was somewhat similar to entering a dungeon, but whenever he entered a dungeon, there was always an intermediary moment of mental disorientation. It was unlike entering an Ash Domain, where the scene abruptly transformed, as though he had crossed from one world into another in an instant.

Creak... creak... As Wang Zhifan, who had already entered the Ash Domain, began observing the area, the twisted green monsters not far away noticed him as well. They turned their short bodies in unison and began approaching him.

Wang Zhifan found it difficult to describe what these monsters looked like. All he could say was that they resembled ugly, diminutive tree roots that had become spirits. Each had a main body with all kinds of wildly flailing branches growing from it, exuding an aura of life and chaos.

I've killed plenty of animals, but this is the first time I've seen something that looks like this.

When several monsters on the grass had already come within ten meters of him, Wang Zhifan inwardly mocked their crude appearance while quickening his pace and charging at the closest one. Soon, streaks of silver-white blade light flashed through the Ash Domain.