The patrol squad leader's words stabbed into Zhu Shen's heart like an ice pick. He froze in place, still holding the pose from his "Martial Soul Research Night Exercise," his hips as stiff as rusted gears. Tang San silently turned to face the wall, the back of his neck red enough to drip blood. He wished he could wrap himself into a cocoon with Blue Silver Grass.
"Cough!" Zhu Shen abruptly lowered his hand and stood ramrod straight. His expression instantly shifted to the solemn bearing of a "respected Grandmaster." "Special? The way of the Martial Soul is vast and profound. Body language is also a bridge for communicating with the Soul Power of heaven and earth! At Notting Academy, we believe that practice is the sole criterion for testing truth!" He tried to make his voice sound righteous, straightening his collar as if someone else had just been swiveling their hips.
[ Ding! The host has forcibly salvaged an epicly awkward moment, triggering a hidden reward: skin thickness +5%! Current total skin thickness: 20%! ] The system notification carried a hint of schadenfreude.
Zhu Shen cursed inwardly, ...System, would it kill you to shut up? But he forced a "mysterious" smile at the patrol. "Thanks for your hard work, everyone. With you patrolling late into the night, Spirit City's security is in good hands."
The patrol squad leader's mouth twitched even harder. His gaze shifted between Zhu Shen's "sincere" face and Tang San's back, which looked ready to burrow into the ground. At last, he let out a long sigh and waved his hand. "...Squad, move out! Next time... keep the noise down when you're researching Martial Souls!" With his baffled, barely suppressed grin, he led his men away, their Soul Guidance Lamps in hand. They vanished quickly around the alley's mouth, as if staying another second might infect them with "specialness."
Only after their footsteps faded did Zhu Shen's shoulders slump. He let out a long breath, his back slick with cold sweat. "That nearly scared me to death... San, are you okay?"
Tang San slowly turned around. A trace of embarrassed anger still colored his face, but his eyes had grown calm again, tinged with lingering fear. "Teacher, that was too close. That mental attack... was really sinister. It felt a lot like the one in the cave in the Soul Hunting Forest, but colder." He instinctively touched the back of his head. The Mandala Eye External Soul Bone was faintly hot, its warning not yet gone.
"No kidding. The system sounded the alarm. How could it be harmless?" Zhu Shen grumbled, rubbing his chest. The love letter in his robes was no longer scalding, but an unsettling warmth lingered, like a stone that refused to grow warm. He looked toward the dilapidated three-story building. The red dot on the system map remained fixed underground, emanating an ominous, dark glow. "What a rotten place. The Pope's right under everyone's nose, and they're still hiding filth here. Those rats from the Evil God Temple sure have guts!"
His expression turned grave, and all traces of playfulness vanished. "San, the seed was destroyed just now. Can you still scout ahead?"
Tang San shook his head, his face a little pale. "My mental power was reflected back at me. I can't do it for now. That thing... is very sensitive to life force. The moment my seed got close, it locked onto it and obliterated it."
"Tch. A tough nut to crack." Zhu Shen clicked his tongue, instinctively raising his hand to stroke his chin and look pensive. Halfway up, he remembered his "dance" and awkwardly lowered it. "System, scan this busted building. Any weaknesses? Or can you give me a walkthrough?"
[Scanning... Target structure: old residential building, fragile construction, weak energy concealment. A high-intensity evil energy field exists underground, possibly a small altar or seal node. Weakness: the energy core is located in the deepest part of the third underground level, but an unknown mental barrier is present. Warning: evil energy concentration continues to rise. Host is advised to... uh, maintain elegance?]
"Elegance, my ass! I'm about to lose my life!" Zhu Shen rolled his eyes and rapidly weighed his options. Charge in? They knew nothing about what lay inside, and the evil energy concentration was so high that even the system was sounding the alarm. He had only 32% Dragon God Bloodline, and he hadn't even had time to get used to his new Dragon God Body Protection skill. Tang San was only a little over level thirty. Call for help? They'd appeared suspiciously near the source of the evil energy in the middle of the night. They'd just gotten away with that awkward dance. Going back to the patrol squad would be like walking straight into a trap.
"Teacher, the love letter..." Tang San suddenly reminded him in a low voice.
Zhu Shen froze and instinctively clutched his chest. The love letter in his robes had started trembling again, its temperature climbing once more. And... there seemed to be a faint tug pulling it toward the underground level of the building!
[ Ding! Warning! "Bibi Dong's Love Letter" has been stimulated by high concentrations of evil god energy, triggering a second abnormal activation! A faint spatial coordinate pull has been detected! Target: underground! Warning: this pull may cause the item to escape the host's control! ]
"Holy crap! Don't you dare!" Zhu Shen's face turned green. This thing was key to raising Bibi Dong's favorability. He'd nearly died the last time he lost it in the Soul Hunting Forest. If he lost it again... He clutched his chest with all his might, feeling the envelope flop around in his robes like a live fish. "Boss Bibi Dong, get your love letter under control! It's trying to elope again!"
But the love letter clearly had no intention of listening. The tug grew stronger and stronger, and a pink glow even began seeping from the edges of the envelope, bright against the night. Zhu Shen felt like his hands could barely hold it down.
"Teacher! It's going to fly!" Tang San cried.
Before he could finish, there was a soft pop, and a streak of pink light shot through the gaps between Zhu Shen's fingers, fast as lightning. It headed straight for an inconspicuous cellar entrance on the ground floor, half-hidden beneath wooden planks! It was every bit as fast as it had been in the Soul Hunting Forest!
"My love letter!!" Zhu Shen cried in anguish, pounding his chest—this time for real—and no longer caring about staying hidden. "After it!" He grabbed Tang San, and his Dragon God Martial Soul instantly possessed him. Two purple and two black Soul Rings blazed as Dragon God Body Protection activated passively, a faint layer of golden light flowing beneath his skin. Like a cannonball, he shot after the streak of pink light toward the cellar entrance.
Yanked along, Tang San stumbled and sighed for the hundred and second time: Why did Teacher's key item always go missing and try to elope at the most crucial moment? He fully activated his Purple Demon Eye, keeping the pink glow firmly in sight while warily sensing the increasingly thick, icy evil energy around them.
The two of them plunged into the cellar one after the other. The entrance was narrow and webbed with gray dust. A strong moldy smell mixed with an indescribably foul stench hit them in the face, making their stomachs turn. The love letter's pink glow was like a guiding lamp, darting through a dark, twisting, narrow passage that sloped downward.
"What a rotten place..." Zhu Shen grumbled, tearing through the rotted wood and cobwebs in their way with his dragon claws. "San, watch your step. Stay close!"
The farther down they went, the heavier the evil energy became. The air seemed like solidified glue, making it hard to breathe. The Mandala Eye at the back of Tang San's head burned hot, and his mental power was heavily suppressed. He could barely sense where the love letter was ahead. Blurred symbols, twisted and daubed in dark red pigment, began appearing on the walls lining the passage. They were identical to the runes on the altar in the cave in the Soul Hunting Forest, radiating a sinister aura that made his heart pound.
After descending an unknowable distance, the passage suddenly opened up. The pink glow stopped abruptly, hovering in the middle of a small underground chamber.
It looked like a forgotten underground storeroom, but an intricate, bizarre formation had been drawn across the center of the floor in some unknown dark red substance. It was about three meters in diameter. Its twisted lines formed the image of a huge, bleeding eye, identical to the emblem they had seen on Su Nuo's sleeve and in the warehouse in Nuoding City! At that moment, the formation emitted a faint dark red glow, and wisps of black evil energy flowed through its lines like living things, making a faint hissing sound, as if countless people were whispering.
And Zhu Shen's accursed "Bibi Dong's Love Letter" hovered directly above the center of the formation. Its pink halo and the dark red evil energy surging below it intertwined and gnawed at each other, making a sizzling sound. The several purple lines that had appeared on the envelope after the incident in the cave in the Soul Hunting Forest flickered on and off. It seemed to be resisting—or perhaps... resonating?
"An altar... This cursed thing again!" Zhu Shen gritted his teeth, his dragon pupils fixed on the formation. This one was much smaller than the one in the cave, but the aura it gave off was just as evil, and even more... concealed. No wonder it had stayed hidden in Spirit City for so long! The golden light of Dragon God Body Protection wavered faintly under the erosion of the evil energy, crackling softly.
Tang San's expression was grave. "Teacher, the love letter seems to be... absorbing the evil energy? Or is the evil energy corrupting it?"
"Who cares? Let's get it back first!" Zhu Shen was frantic. That was the key to raising Bibi Dong's favorability! He started to rush forward.
At that very moment!
Vmmm—
The dark red glow at the center of the formation suddenly flared from the pupil of the bleeding-eye design! An evil intent, a hundred times colder and more viscous than before, burst forth like a tangible tidal wave, sweeping through the entire underground chamber!
"Ugh!" Tang San took the brunt of it. He grunted and staggered back, clutching his head. His Purple Demon Eye dimmed instantly, and the Mandala Eye stabbed with pain. His mental power seemed to freeze. Zhu Shen felt his entire body sink as if he'd fallen into a swamp. The golden light of Dragon God Body Protection flashed violently, and even his dragon might was forcibly suppressed by this intent!
[Warning! Under attack by a high-intensity evil god will! Dragon God Body Protection defense reduced by 30%! Mental resistance check in progress... Check failed! Host has suffered mental shock (mild)! Tang San has suffered mental shock (moderate)!]
"Damn it!" Zhu Shen's head rang, and his vision went black. He forced himself to stay upright, staring fixedly at the center of the formation.
Within the surging dark red light, a hazy, pale phantom no bigger than a three-year-old child slowly took shape! Its eyes were closed, its skin a deathly white without a trace of blood, and ragged dark red scraps of cloth hung from its body. It looked exactly like the infant "Holy Child" that had been burned by Dragon Breath in the cave in the Soul Hunting Forest!
The phantom hovered beneath the love letter as the formation's evil energy poured frantically into its body. It seemed to sense the love letter. Its tightly shut eyes twitched, then slowly... opened!
They were pure black, without whites, so hollow they seemed capable of devouring all light. It "looked" at the hovering love letter, then slowly turned its pitch-black pupils toward the master and disciple standing on guard at the entrance.
A bone-chilling malice from the depths of their souls, like solid ice water, instantly drowned Zhu Shen and Tang San.
"Ma... ma..." A layered, twisted child's voice rang from the phantom's mouth, like countless people crying out at once. It echoed through the dead-silent underground chamber, raising goosebumps. Its gaze finally settled on Zhu Shen. Deep in its pitch-black pupils, Zhu Shen's shocked face was reflected.
Bathed in its pink glow, the love letter jolted violently beneath the phantom's gaze!