Official

"Hello, I'd like to report a special incident. There's an anomaly inside Apartment 302 of Old Building Two, Experimental Middle School Family Housing. Someone's life is in danger. I hope the relevant authorities can intervene and investigate as soon as possible!"

Fifteen minutes earlier.

The moment Jiang Qian entered the girl's bedroom, his sensitive nerves were triggered by the environment inside.

The curtains were tightly shut. The room was highly humid, and when he lifted his shoes from the floor, there was a faint sticky sensation...

The entire room felt like a semi-enclosed nest.

His ambiguous interactions with the little girl had merely followed her lead. He could tell that her coy resistance and welcome were deliberate seduction.

Only when the little girl "happily" discovered that Jiang Qian was just a newbie who had breezed through an easy dungeon did she lose interest in him.

That said—

When he pressed the little girl onto the bed, he had made a major discovery: Jiang Qian saw an incredibly fine thread connected to her body.

It began at the tip of a strand of hair, ran down along the edge of the bed, crossed a stretch of floor, and extended into the wardrobe beside the bed.

There, an extremely faint sign of life existed!

Like a human struggling at death's door, around his age.

At that moment, the scene of his first meeting with the little girl surfaced in Jiang Qian's mind: a slender, youthful, shy girl who happened to possess a pair of bewitching eyes brimming with emotion.

It felt as though another soul lived inside a skin.

Later, when Jiang Qian went to the wardrobe to retrieve a knitted jacket, he confirmed his suspicion once again.

Without revealing anything, he continued to play along with the little girl until he found an opportunity to leave. Throughout it all, he had carefully avoided exposing his potential.

His reason for borrowing the authorities' power was simple: he knew too little about the little girl, and if he acted personally, he wasn't confident he could handle her. Yet she had his home address, and every member of his family could become a potential hostage.

Judging by her wildly unstable temperament and her casual way of harming people, either continuing to work with her or leaving her unchecked would become a long-term danger.

Hearing the caller quickly and logically relay this information, the person on the other end of the line clearly paused. "May I ask who you are?"

"A kind citizen, Mr. Jiang."

"Understood. Your report has been accepted. Special Security Officers nearby will take action as soon as possible. Please keep your phone line open."

"Thank you."

After hanging up, Jiang Qian let out a soft breath.

He was about to lower his phone.

Then suddenly, a voice that made his scalp go numb brushed against his eardrum:

"Brother Jiang, you just said we had plenty of time ahead of us. How come you turned around and sold me out right away? You're so mean~"

It was the little girl!

Still clutching his phone, Jiang Qian swiftly looked around. Aside from the plants above him swaying gently in the wind, there wasn't a single living person nearby...

In that moment of danger, he instantly pushed Spirit Vision to its limit!

Every pore and every nerve in his body was poised to react.

The next second, on the hand holding his phone, a Peacock Spider barely five millimeters large was clinging to the face of his mechanical watch!

Impossible. When had it gotten there?

I've been using Spirit Vision to watch my surroundings the whole time. Unless this damned spider was moving through the canopy above my head! And there are simply too many tiny lifeforms in the trees... Memories of the route he had taken rapidly reconstructed themselves in Jiang Qian's mind, practically confirming his guess on the spot.

Seeing Jiang Qian's gaze shift over, the Peacock Spider raised its abdomen. Its gorgeous pattern resembled the face of someone poisoned beyond saving.

It exaggeratedly waved two of its legs.

"Ah, I've been found~" The little girl's resentful voice came through the beautiful tiny Peacock Spider, along with a mournful sigh concealing killing intent—

"Brother Jiang betrayed me so heartlessly. I'm very sad, you know."

"Sad? Were you just as sad when you pushed me into Dungeon AS1741?" Jiang Qian said coldly.

He curled a finger and flicked the Peacock Spider off his watch with a snap...

Then he turned and used Shadow Snake Stealth in the opposite direction!

At that moment, inside Apartment 302 of Unit Three, Old Building Two, Experimental Middle School Family Housing.

The barefoot girl standing in the living room froze in place, her expression blank.

Dungeon AS1741...

"Whispers of the Inner Demon."

Almost every License Holder knew of it. Its reputation was thunderous!

So that was the dungeon he'd entered. So it was that one...

The intense killing intent vanished completely.

She looked like an arrogant princess who had found a new toy. Bending over and covering her cheeks, she suddenly burst into delighted, almost fanatical laughter!

"Ha ha, hahaha... I found him!"

When she raised her head again, the disappointment and anger had vanished without a trace, replaced by a ravenous desire blazing in her eyes.

Amid her crazed, bizarre laughter, the girl's skin began to redden, then crack into patches that peeled away from her cheeks.

Starting from her scalp, then her forehead and cheeks, those bewitching eyes so out of place with her outer skin glimmered faintly with satisfaction, creating a grotesque image against her cracked, peeling flesh.

During this process, she gave a light tug with her fingers, and the wardrobe door in the inner room was pulled open.

A human cocoon, tightly wrapped in dense spider silk, was instantly dragged to her side and suspended in the air.

The little girl reached out and caught the humanoid cocoon in her arms, extending her five fingers... Her fingers were long and sharp, like the barbs of some insect.

With a gentle flick, the spider cocoon split open.

A pale little face was revealed inside, identical to Xiao Lin's before her facial skin had fallen away.

Jiang Qian ran at full speed.

The wrist touched by the Peacock Spider swiftly swelled to the size of an eggplant. Blood seeped from the red, swollen flesh, nearly bursting the watchband on his right hand! He felt a violent toxin spreading through his body, yet his body was greedily absorbing and storing the poison, claiming it for itself...

This drastic change inside his body made Jiang Qian's expression turn savage and uneasy for a moment.

Fortunately, once Snake Shadow Stealth was activated, he became swift as a ghost. Ordinary people could not see his expression at all.

More precisely, the naked eye could only catch a lingering afterimage of him, as though it were an illusion.

Jiang Qian was racing home at top speed.

On the way, he called the number again.

"Hello, Mr. Jiang?" It was a different operator, yet they accurately addressed him by name.

They had clearly flagged his number.

Jiang Qian gave the new operator no chance to make a lengthy introduction. Raising his voice, he quickly gave his home address and demanded immediate backup.

"I have important intelligence you urgently need. If I get killed, that intelligence will be buried with me. I suggest you send support immediately!"

Then he hung up without waiting for a response.

The situation had already developed in a more dangerous direction. There was no turning back.

At this hour, the roads were crowded with cars. Jiang Qian was like a supercar with its accelerator floored, weaving through traffic and soon leaving the vast majority of vehicles far behind!

Fortunately, Teacher Li's home was not far from Jiang Qian's, and he quickly reached the base of his apartment building.

He was so fast that the security guard never even saw him enter.

He rushed into the elevator, pressed his floor, and only then braced his hands on his knees and began to gasp for breath.

From his right forearm to his fingers, his skin and flesh had split apart. Black blood of a horrifying color surged from the wounds, yet he wasn't worried at all. His body was greedily taking in the toxins.

Just give me a little more time...

When the elevator doors opened on his floor, Jiang Qian once again pushed Spirit Vision to the maximum and carefully inspected the space inside his home.

Aunt was in the dining room testing her eight-hundredth durian recipe. Old Buddha was still taking her afternoon nap. Sister had one leg kicked up as she lay on her stomach browsing a fashion magazine, her full chest pressed tightly against the mattress, squeezing out a distinct cleavage.

Mm, she was still wearing the silk dress from this morning, the one she had worn when she barged into his room.

Just as Jiang Qian involuntarily prepared to observe more "closely," Sister suddenly raised her head in his direction...

He reflexively withdrew his gaze.

Was that a woman's sixth sense? She couldn't possibly see me... Jiang Qian felt a little guilty.

No anomalous creatures or phenomena were detected anywhere in the house.

It seemed everything was still under control.

Jiang Qian finally relaxed somewhat, thinking that no matter how crazy the little girl was, she wouldn't want to confront the authorities head-on, would she?

So he leaned against the wall, looking like a drunk nursing a hangover, waiting for his body to digest the deadly poison in his arm while calming the fatigue and racing heartbeat brought on by frequent skill use.

He remained like that for around ten minutes.

Only then did Jiang Qian straighten up, hide his arm beneath his sleeve, and face the keypad lock.

Just as his hand was about to touch the password screen, a faint breeze stirred in the corridor.

The skylight by the stairwell was pushed open one-handedly, and a tall, round figure dropped down behind him!

"Hey, kid!"

Jiang Qian turned his head toward the voice.

At the same time, two more figures nimbly leaped in through the skylights on either side of him!

They moved quickly, but there was something strange about their movements: some were agile and graceful like felines, while another resembled a gecko, walking down a vertical wall with the soles of their feet stuck to it as if walking on level ground.

Other than the round uncle's greeting, none of the others made a sound throughout the entire process.

Jiang Qian maintained his original posture, his expression slightly surprised.

"Don't be nervous. We're from the Operations Department of the Public Security Bureau's Special Affairs Center. You made the report just now, right?"

"Yes."

"Twice. Both times?"

"Yes..."

"Good. Then come with us."

Thanks to:

Old Times

Mu Feng Tou

Fanatical Cloud

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