The Four Directions Stir

Deep in the dense forests of Central America.

The ruins of a Mayan temple.

The deep, dark water of the underground cenote stares at the sky like a giant eye.

To the local inhabitants, this dense forest is a forbidden zone of life; countless people have entered, never to emerge again.

Yet, surrounding the ruins at this moment are hundreds of armed guards with live ammunition, hidden sentries, two armored vehicles, and several bunkers camouflaged as boulders.

Venturing further into the temple, the interior has long been hollowed out, with a metal detector resembling a radar standing in the center.

Although the armed guards surrounding the ruins are burly, ruthless men, they keep a wide distance from the temple.

Even so, they occasionally hear eerie, miserable wails and see bloody, terrifying hallucinations, as if they were standing in the depths of hell.

The readings on the Mental Radiation Detectors they wear fluctuate constantly.

Beneath the temple lies a massive, modern facility spanning over a dozen levels.

Researchers in white lab coats bustle about inside.

In a hall on the top floor, filled with electronic screens and control consoles, the researchers all stare at a giant screen covering the entire wall.

The screen displays a 3D model of Blue Star, with waveforms occasionally spiking, accompanied by numerical annotations.

Suddenly, a wave-like protrusion spikes out from a certain location, its length exceeding the diameter of the 3D Blue Star model itself!

The giant radar in the temple above emits a buzzing sound, and a powerful energy fluctuation radiates outward. Many armed guards far from the temple scream, clutching their heads as they collapse, bleeding from their seven orifices and convulsing.

A tall, upright figure stands gazing at the electronic screen, speaking in a trembling voice:

"It's the mental radiation waveform of the Lord of the Abyss! Coordinates?"

An excited researcher in a white coat nearby immediately reports a coordinate range.

"The approximate coordinates should be near Gu City."

"Gu City?" The tall figure's tone shifts, and he says slowly, "Very well! Tell the Collector to search for clues of the anomaly at any cost! The Association will grant him sufficient rewards!"

A temple somewhere on the Indochinese Peninsula.

A group of people in hooded robes chants silently before a statue.

Their robes are pitch black, adorned with nine circles—a large circle containing eight smaller ones—clearly marking them not as Buddhists, but as members of some strange cult.

They are performing their daily devotions.

Their temple is resplendent with gold and jade, attended by numerous servants, clearly possessing immense influence.

Suddenly, a withered, gaunt old man sitting in the front row lets out a shriek, blood and tears streaming from his eyes.

The congregation immediately rushes forward to support him.

With blood flowing from his eyes, the old man points tremblingly at the statue before him and says:

"It is the aura of the Eight-Headed Dharma King! I feel it—the aura of the Eight-Headed Dharma King has appeared in the present world! In the East, in the East! Find it, find it!"

On the ancient portrait, the bizarre deity features eight heads arranged like a flower around a single neck, with strange, monstrous limbs for a lower body!

In the mountain forest on the outskirts of Gu City, inside an olive-drab military tent.

A gaunt man in an olive-drab windbreaker shudders, then stares in disbelief at an ancient bronze vessel beside him.

The lid of the bronze vessel depicts a scene of human sacrifice: a man tied to a pillar, his chest being opened by an executioner holding a sharp blade, surrounded by kneeling crowds.

The object of their sacrifice is a pillar, atop which crouches a fierce tiger, with two giant pythons coiled around the shaft and a giant crocodile supporting it from below.

At this moment, the bronze vessel, which has survived for thousands of years, develops a massive, spiderweb-like crack, tearing through the sacrificial scene above.

The man rises and looks toward Gu City.

In the dense forest behind him, a low rumble echoes, as if some giant beast is slithering through the brush...

In an apartment within the family quarters of the Anomaly Bureau Southwest Branch, located in Gu City.

The urgent ringing of a phone wakes Director Zhao Yifeng, who presses the answer button.

"Director Zhao, the duty officer from the Radiation Monitoring Section of the Research Department just reported that the Mental Radiation Detector has picked up abnormal radiation values from... from that place..."

Zhao Yifeng, initially groggy, wakes up instantly. Cold sweat breaks out on his back as he struggles to ask in a calm voice:

"Location? Value? Duration?"

"The specific location cannot be pinpointed, but it should be near Gu City. The value... is near the critical threshold, lasting 0.31 seconds."

Zhao Yifeng's breath hitches, and he continues:

"Near Gu City... Notify the Investigation Department immediately. Tell them to accelerate the exploration of the ruins. Forget about those people from the Cultural Relics Bureau; while artifacts are important, human lives are more important! Furthermore, this type of abnormal radiation is likely to affect some of the containment objects in the Bureau. Tell every department to keep their eyes peeled to avoid any mishaps!"

"Yes!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhao Yifeng realizes his clothes are already soaked through with sweat.

He stood up and looked out the window; the night was deep and silent.

"Honey, sorry to wake you, it's just work. This world is constantly changing, but this change is coming a bit too fast... Recently, some major events are about to happen..."

Zhao Yifeng spoke to himself, yet the bed behind him was empty.

At the same time, the lights in the office buildings of the Anomaly Bureau Southwest Branch, which had been off, began to flicker on and off incessantly.

Strange, shrill cries erupted from all directions!

Li Fan returned to the duty room.

Everything had returned to normal; the corpses that had "come to life" were strewn about, once again restored to their docile, quiet state.

The fused Amalgam was also sprawled on the floor, its psychic radiation reduced to zero.

The floor was littered with a large number of Shell Currencies, all spat out by those corpses.

Checking his watch, it wasn't even three o'clock yet.

He had spent nearly half an hour inside the Prison of Suppression, yet only a few seconds had passed in reality.

Li Fan touched his chest; the dagger-like Bronze Key was gone.

It wasn't in his hands, either.

On the palm of his right hand, a phantom mark resembling a tattoo had appeared.

It was the Bronze Key itself.

Did it merge with him?

He clenched his right hand and immediately felt a mysterious connection to the Prison of Suppression.

He reached out gently, and a chain made of psychic energy was pulled out from the void.

He could feel that on the other end of the chain was the Amalgam imprisoned within the Prison of Suppression!

Whenever he wished, he could pull the Amalgam directly out of the prison and wield its power!

Thinking of the Amalgam's grotesque form, Li Fan couldn't help but curl his lip.

Regardless, he could now consider himself as having his own ability.

He was no longer a weakling with psychic power only slightly higher than an ordinary person's.

At the same time, his left hand gripped a windproof lighter, and a pair of rusty handcuffs hung from his waist.

All of these had been brought out from the Prison of Suppression.

After a moment of daze, Li Fan began to clean up.

The matter of the Prison of Suppression was far too secretive; he absolutely could not let anyone else know.

Setting aside the principle that "an innocent man is guilty of his own treasure," his identity as a "Collector" made it even more critical that he avoid attracting attention.

The surveillance had been burned, and the external communication had been completely severed; only he knew what had happened tonight.

He moved the broken corpses back to the third basement level, tossed them into the formalin pool, and scrubbed the floor clean with a broom and mop before finally letting out a long sigh of relief.

The strange corpse of the Amalgam remained sprawled in the hall; he left it there.

After all, he had shot both corpses in the head, and other signs of destruction could not be erased, so he still had to report it to the Bureau.

Of course, there was no need to lie; revealing just a small portion of the facts would suffice.

Li Fan then picked up the duty phone, which had regained its connection, and dialed the number for the Investigation Division.

"Hello, this is the Dissection Department of the Support Center. We had a corpse reanimation here just now. Yes, that's right, the Amalgam delivered today. It wasn't processed thoroughly and had residual anomalous infection—the kind with those shells..."

Li Fan looked at the bag full of Shell Currencies in his hand and continued:

"Two of them."

He set two Shell Currencies aside on the table and locked the rest in a cabinet.

Ever since he had detained the Tiger Pillar God into the Prison of Suppression, the psychic radiation from these Shell Currencies had become extremely faint, nearly vanishing.

He wanted to continue studying these coins.

The Anomaly Bureau took internal anomalous incidents very seriously. Less than two minutes after Li Fan hung up, two duty officers from the Investigation Department building arrived.

Soon after, several people from the Research Department followed, beginning to photograph and document the Amalgam, using instruments to scan both the creature and the Shell Currencies Li Fan had handed over for a long time.

After the tests were finished, a researcher entered the duty room to question Li Fan.

Li Fan braced himself, having already prepared a set of excuses to deflect the inquiry.

He felt slightly anxious; although the formalin had been washed away, traces could still be found if someone looked hard enough.

To his surprise, however, the researcher seemed to have expected such things to happen. After asking a few simple questions about the reanimation and the Shell Currencies, he didn't press further.

Instead, he offered Li Fan a few words of comfort and asked if he needed psychological counseling, noting that the Bureau could provide such medical services.

Although he felt he truly needed it, Li Fan declined the offer.

After asking for details, he learned that just moments ago, several buildings housing anomalous objects—including the Research Department and the Investigation Department—had all experienced abnormal phenomena such as reanimated corpses and phantom apparitions.

Li Fan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief; this way, his own situation wouldn't stand out.

Yet, upon closer reflection, the time they mentioned seemed to coincide exactly with when he had just returned from the Prison of Suppression!

Just then, footsteps echoed from outside the door. Wu Qian and Liu Dalong hurried in, beaming with joy, and shouted to Li Fan from a distance:

"Fan, you've been promoted, you've been promoted!"