第50章 诡异降临

The black fog spread in silence, like a grotesque behemoth devouring the darkness.

Those Fallen who had fled burst into the mist, and for some unknown reason, let out terrified screams.

"The Great Ruins! The Great Ruins are here!"

"We've run into the Great Ruins, hahahaha!"

"We're going to die!"

Their retreating figures were gradually swallowed by the fog, then vanished eerily, leaving not a sound behind.

Just before they disappeared, their laughter had been so bizarre—like the hysterical, terrified cackling of someone on their deathbed, yet simultaneously as if they had finally found release. No one knew what they had encountered.

Everything fell into a deathly silence; the remaining Fallen had simply vanished without a trace.

In the stillness, there was only the sound of rustling, crawling movements and the scratching of fingernails against the ground.

It was as if something was writhing within the mist.

Gu Jianlin narrowed his eyes, on full alert.

Cheng Youyu looked on in inexplicable terror: "What the hell, what the hell is this 'Great Ruins' they're talking about?"

Zhang Cheng sheathed his bow, his face dark as he said, "I don't know, but it's definitely nothing good. Even though this thing has indirectly helped us out of a tight spot, whatever can finish off that group of Fallen can finish us off, too."

"W-what should we do?"

Nie Xiangsi asked in a weak voice, looking toward the others.

"It's obvious that there's something wrong with the Black Cloud Stronghold, and the Association didn't tell us about it. There are only two possibilities. First, they didn't know either. Second, someone deliberately concealed it."

Yan Ye crossed his arms, his voice cold: "Given that our operation was leaked and we were ambushed, I'm inclined to believe the latter. In other words, there is a mole in our operation."

"My brother is right."

Yan Feng scanned the remaining survivors: "And there's likely more than one mole."

Mu Ziqing took out her phone, fiddled with it, and shook her head: "Everyone, bad news. There's something here that's jamming the signal. My phone can no longer connect to the Deep Sky."

The others hurriedly pulled out their phones, only to find it was indeed the case.

Having lost contact with the Deep Sky, the backing they relied on had vanished in an instant.

The so-called elites were suddenly plunged into fear.

As it stood, the first team's brains were still functioning quite well.

They at least knew how to analyze the situation and conclude that a mole existed.

After all, Gu Jianlin also knew that the mole was real.

A survivor had a flash of inspiration and said, "Then what should we do now? Should we go find the captains and regroup? If they've also been ambushed, we can go help them."

"Idiot, the captains are all Trans-Dimensional level, and the vice-captains are Third-Order. They are on a completely different level than us. If someone is capable of putting them in danger, then us going there is just suicide. We might even end up being a burden to the captains."

Another person leaned against the wall and refuted weakly: "But I don't think the captains will run into trouble."

Mainly, the death of Vice-Captain Chen Chen had truly shocked everyone.

No one knew what the situation was with the captains now.

"The captains' hotel is just across the street. We can just go take a look."

Yan Ye looked toward the hotel across the street, his voice deep.

The current situation was dire, and the Grave Diggers organization had not yet been dealt with.

As the leader of the Grave Diggers, Hasegawa Shinichi was still alive.

There was no telling how many Fallen were still hiding in this area.

Moreover, they knew nothing about the bizarre nature of the Black Cloud Stronghold.

Danger was everywhere.

And they were isolated and without support.

Regrouping with the captains was indeed the safest method.

Gu Jianlin stared at the hotel across the street, silent.

Tang Ling suddenly walked up behind him, her vermilion eyes filled with curiosity as she asked indifferently: "What do you think? About the captains."

Gu Jianlin turned to look at her, his voice raspy: "The captains are no longer there."

"No longer there" could mean two things.

One was that they were no longer in that spot.

The other was that they were already dead.

After these words were spoken, everyone was horrified.

Stunned gazes were cast toward the youth who was still maintaining his Ghost Humanization.

"How do you know the captains are no longer there!"

After Li Xun deactivated his Ghost Humanization, he hurriedly shoved a handful of Purification Stones into his mouth. Leaning against the wall with difficulty, his emotions spiraling out of control, he roared excitedly: "Are you the mole! Did you leak this operation!"

Gu Jianlin could feel that these two Divine Priest brothers seemed to have always held hostility toward him.

The older brother's mental state was highly unstable after ending his Ghost Humanization.

As for his younger brother, he had already collapsed on the ground, life or death unknown.

Gu Jianlin sensed the gazes coming from all directions.

Especially the first team; the way they looked at him turned cold, filled with hostility.

"The son of a Fallen—it makes sense that he's the mole."

Yan Ye stared at him coldly: "And why did you hide your strength? I need an explanation."

"That's right, who knows if the son of a Fallen is colluding with other Fallen!"

Someone braced themselves and said: "We need an explanation."

These were the people who had been saved just moments ago, only to have their supplies swiped in the process.

If one had fallen, they should commit suicide before losing their sanity.

Those who committed acts of harming their own kind were, without exception, people who wanted to cling to life after falling, eventually succumbing to their desires and becoming killing machines.

Such people completely defiled the Association's faith.

And the son of such a person was naturally untrustworthy.

"No, what kind of talk is that?"

Cheng Youyu said indignantly: "Without Brother Lin, I think you all would have been torn to pieces by the Fallen long ago."

"That's right, now is not the time for infighting."

Zhang Cheng also urged: "We should stand united against the outside. It's not like anyone here hasn't had a Fallen in their family history."

Nie Xiangsi didn't speak, but she stepped forward, silently expressing her stance.

Yan Ye, however, said expressionlessly: "Sorry, even if our families have had Fallen, they never had the chance to commit grave crimes."

"That's right, everyone has had someone mentally corrupted."

Yan Feng laughed: "But those with the ability and the opportunity to cause trouble? We certainly don't have those."

The two groups were clearly divided.

Gu Jianlin was never good with words, nor was he the type to defend himself.

Furthermore, this group of people wasn't worth his defense.

He simply raised the chair in his hand and looked at the two dying Divine Priests.

Seeing him approach, Li Xun's expression shifted slightly.

"If I were the mole, I would just kill you right now. No one could stop me."

Gu Jianlin said coldly: "So, shut your mouth."

Li Xun wanted to retort, but he glanced at his dying younger brother.

Then he looked at the other party's demonic state.

He wisely shut his mouth.

Because he suddenly felt something very strange.

Li Xun and Li Yi were both Second-Order Divine Priests; logically, they should have been stronger.

But the strength they displayed after Ghost Humanization seemed inferior to his.

Most importantly, after using Ghost Humanization, Gu Jianlin actually dared to use the Divine Sacrifice Fire to drain the life of the Fallen, as if he wasn't afraid of losing control at all. Anyone who didn't know better would think he had a few pounds of Purification Stones stored away.

Just wait and see what happens to you! Li Xun thought indignantly.

Yan Ye watched this scene and said coldly: "If you can't prove yourself, we cannot accept you."

"I don't need you to accept me."

Gu Jianlin turned his head to glance at him, saying expressionlessly: "You suspect me, so you should be the one to produce evidence, instead of spouting 'son of a Fallen' over and over and demanding I prove myself."

Actually, if it weren't for the suspicion that the captains might not be dead, he would have definitely found an opportunity to kill these idiots.

They were truly annoying.

Yan Ye narrowed his eyes, staring coldly at him.

Just as the two sides were at a stalemate, Tang Ling had already walked to the hotel across the street and split the door open with a sword strike.

Everyone looked toward the sound and fell silent.

Because inside the hotel, all the captains were nailed to the walls by iron spears, their faces twisted into eerie smiles.

Blood stained the entire wall.

The scene was extremely grotesque; in the pitch-black night, it looked like a bizarre religious painting.

Lu Zicheng and Chen Qing were among them!

Gu Jianlin was shocked and hurriedly walked over to take a look.

At this moment, his brain was boiling, his pupils darting rapidly as he observed the situation inside the hotel.

There were no signs of a struggle, only corpse after corpse that had long since died.

Even Lu Zicheng's phone had fallen to the ground.

The screen was frozen on the memo app.

There was only one character.

East!

Gu Jianlin froze, because he didn't believe these two had just died like this.

There had to be something wrong.

Something had to be wrong somewhere!

Because his intuition told him that the captains' deaths were not right.

It was like a conspiracy, or a play.

Wait, what is the Ether Association's operation actually about? Although the Sea Siren is a mole, she clearly doesn't have the ability to control the entire Feng City jurisdiction. Lu Zicheng sent me a message earlier telling me that my father had lived here too. Would he not know that things go wrong here after midnight? Would the Minister not know? Would Chen Bojun not know?

Gu Jianlin suddenly thought of the key point and took another look at these dead captains.

The way these captains died, along with the eerie smiles on their faces, seemed very intriguing to him.

Just then, the black fog rolled in, surging and boiling like a living thing.

Within the mist, the sound of dense, rhythmic footsteps rang out!

"Tactical formation!"

Yan Ye whispered: "Alert!"

Everyone turned their heads, facing a formidable enemy.

However, when the shadowy figures emerged from the mist, they were all stunned.

Because they actually saw the dead captains!

Wang Bolin.

Lu Zicheng.

Zhang Shiheng.

Chen Qing.

And so on.

In the black fog, some were walking, some were crawling on the ground, and some were simply writhing.

Each person wore an eerie smile as they walked straight toward the group.

"Why so surprised? Don't you recognize us anymore?"

One captain, writhing on the ground, smiled and said: "Newbie, help me, I'm not feeling very well..."

At this sight, everyone, including Gu Jianlin, felt their scalps explode!

They looked back at the rows of corpses in the hotel.

If those corpses were real, then who were these people in front of them!

If these people were real, then who were the ones who had died!

Boom!

Gu Jianlin's mind exploded.

Because from the deepest part of the mist, someone else was walking out in silence, wearing an eerie smile.

That person's face was seven or eight parts similar to his own, only looking more weathered and gentler.

Gu Ci'an!

"No! Run!"

Gu Jianlin roared.