The Missing Girls!

The Missing Girls! Feng Lin looked at Chen Wang and smiled. "Would you like to come in and sit for a while?"

Her tone was gentle, carrying an indescribable allure. Coupled with what she had said earlier, it was obvious she was teasing him.

Chen Wang smiled. "Another day. I still need to draw talismans today, so don't take offense, Sister."

Feng Lin smiled but said nothing more. "All right, then another day."

Chen Wang returned to his residence and shut the door. That mild smile immediately vanished from his face, replaced by a cold expression and eyes sharp as blades.

"What exactly is going on with this woman?"

Chen Wang muttered to himself.

While Xu Yuan was still alive, Chen Wang had dealt with Feng Lin a few times. She had not been such a frivolous woman before, so why had her temperament changed so drastically after her husband's death?

Yet when Chen Wang recalled her alluring expression just now, heat rose in his heart as well. "A young widow... and on top of that, such a drastic change in temperament..."

Chen Wang frowned.

"Quite a few cultivators have gone to the Foundation Establishment Daoist's Tomb lately. I heard several of them died, yet Feng Lin came through safe and sound. Was she truly that lucky, or was there another reason?"

At present, Chen Wang had no intention of getting involved with this woman. If he had remained in the cultivation world, then as a young man brimming with vigor, now possessed of an exceptionally strong body, he might truly have entertained such thoughts.

But in the wasteland world, he was not short of women at all. It was merely a matter of whether he wanted them.

As a result, his self-control had instead grown much stronger.

"I've been drawing talismans here this whole time. I wonder if Qiongqi Mining has lifted the lockdown yet?"

Chen Wang thought to himself.

Once the lockdown was lifted and the turmoil had passed, perhaps he could make another deal with that young and beautiful female researcher.

Winter Wasteland World,

Bai Yao was wrapped up from head to toe, her face smeared with grime. Hugging a loaf of coarse, hard dry bread and some water to her chest, she hurried along.

Yet she kept turning to look behind her.

It was as though something terrifying was following her, something she dreaded deeply.

Chen Wang had rented her a clean apartment, not one in the utterly chaotic Slums.

Bai Yao pushed open the sheet-metal gate and entered, hurrying into the corridor. She kept glancing back over her shoulder, her steps rushed.

After returning to her room, she quickly locked the door and looked outside, only to find the empty corridor devoid of anyone passing by.

Bai Yao tightly gripped the Revolver in her arms. Only this cold gun could give her a trace of comfort now. She returned to the bedroom and wrapped herself in the blanket, trembling slightly. Her voluptuous figure radiated the charm of a mature woman. Though young, she had a mature woman's full curves and soft, fair skin.

She was a beauty who made people's eyes light up at first sight.

But possessing beauty without great strength, in this violent and chaotic age, usually led to a miserable fate.

Bai Yao took a bite of the dry bread in her arms and wolfed it down in just a few bites.

Normally, she would have eaten carefully. Though the food was rough, she would still cautiously replenish her strength.

But today, the immense terror in her heart made Bai Yao feel that only eating could calm her somewhat.

"This is already the third girl to disappear."

Bai Yao murmured, fear in her eyes.

Three young girls had already vanished from the apartment building where she lived over this period. They had vanished completely, without leaving the slightest trace behind.

In this era, the law had utterly collapsed, and violence and chaos filled every corner. Young girls being dragged off the streets into dark alleys was hardly a rare sight.

Especially in the Slum Area, it was nothing unusual for them to be toyed with and then thrown out onto the streets.

But Bai Yao's apartment was located in a civilian district, where Qiongqi Mining maintained law and order. It was relatively safe.

Bai Yao was also grateful to that stern-faced young man. If he had found her a place to stay in the Slum Area, then in those Slums, who knew what she would have been used for by now. Yet the safer this apartment was, the stranger it seemed that three girls had vanished one after another.

More frightening still, Qiongqi Mining's Enforcement Team had specifically come to investigate the matter.

But they had found no clues whatsoever. The corridor cameras had captured nothing either. Those three girls had simply disappeared without rhyme or reason.

Bai Yao had been jumpy and suspicious these past two days.

The missing girls had all been young and beautiful. She did not know whether it was some Thug with twisted, perverse desires or some other bizarre cause, but the fact that they were young girls filled Bai Yao with terror. These days, whenever she went out, she deliberately smeared her face beyond recognition and dressed herself tightly in filthy clothes. Yet that feeling of being watched had not faded in the slightest.

Suddenly,

Bai Yao's expression changed slightly, and her heart jolted.

"Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap."

Bai Yao heard a faint series of footsteps. At first, she assumed someone was passing through the corridor; in such profound silence, it was not strange for sound to carry to her room. But her gaze changed at once. Her eyes flew wide open as she looked up toward the outside! The sound was not coming from the corridor—it was coming from inside her home! Beyond the living room of Bai Yao's apartment was the bedroom. At this moment, not only had she locked the front door, but she had also tightly locked the bedroom door.

A young girl with no one to rely on, and beautiful besides, naturally had to be as cautious as possible when facing such things.

Now, those faint footsteps seemed to beat against Bai Yao's heart like a drum.

"The sound is coming from the living room!?"

Bai Yao could not help holding her breath, curling tightly beneath the blanket with the modified Revolver in her hand. This gun was extremely powerful, but Bai Yao was no special Gene Warrior.

As a young girl, the power she could unleash with the gun was worlds apart from that of a Gene Warrior, perhaps even inferior to an ordinary pistol.

The tremendous recoil would cause her to lose her aim.

"Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap."

The footsteps were extremely faint, yet in this utterly silent environment, they sounded especially abrupt.

Bai Yao felt the footsteps gradually drawing closer to the bedroom. She held her breath involuntarily, her hands and feet turning cold.

Bai Yao swallowed with difficulty, staring tensely at the bedroom door.

She raised the Revolver in her hand, its cold muzzle aimed at the bedroom door. If someone rushed in, she would pull the trigger without hesitation. Bai Yao could now hear her own tense breathing, and the hand gripping the Revolver trembled slightly.

Her entire body was shaking uncontrollably.

"Tap, tap, tap."

The eerie footsteps gradually approached the bedroom door, but after pausing briefly, they headed back toward the living room.