Lord of Shadows

"Stay sharp. Professor Bai specifically warned us that there might be something strange about this manor. Keep your wits about you."

Wei Kang, codenamed "Fire Dragon," and Hong Ying, codenamed "Rose," led a Special Affairs Department squad to the manor. To avoid repeating their previous mistake, they had also brought three convoys, each with around five vehicles, every one packed with twelve armed fighters.

Wei Kang ordered one team of armed fighters to follow them while the rest stood guard outside.

As they walked along the bluestone path, Wei Kang gradually grew tense. A tiny flame remained clenched in his palm.

Crouching low, they advanced inward bit by bit. Before long, they reached the outside of the villa.

Wei Kang immediately frowned, having caught a strong scent of blood.

He took out a small device and fiddled with it for a while. Its needle swayed back and forth, and Wei Kang's expression darkened further. After putting the device away, he gestured for his men to follow behind him as he slowly pushed open the villa's front door.

Bang!

After giving it a tentative push and finding it unlocked, Wei Kang kicked the door open. At the same time, he bent down and rolled across the floor, a longsword formed of flame instantly appearing in his hand. The hall was completely empty, with only faint traces of blood in the air.

Wei Kang and Hong Ying each led several team members to search separately.

Before long, several team members in a room on the second floor shouted:

"Captain Wei, the kitchen!"

Wei Kang stiffened and hurried over.

Three Special Affairs Department agents stood in a circle, staring at something with terrified expressions.

When they saw Wei Kang approach, the three quickly made way.

"Hiss..."

Even Wei Kang could not help drawing in a cold breath at the sight before him. Three lumps of minced flesh were piled together, their individual faces impossible to distinguish. Above them hung an even more gruesome head, its features completely ruined.

Their only common trait was the strands of pitch-black tentacles extending from them like hairs, only to shrivel weakly back together like withered branches.

Though he had carried out plenty of missions before, the sight still made Wei Kang feel nauseated. Just then, Hong Ying hurried inside and said:

"Fire Dragon, we found the villa's servants and butler in a first-floor storeroom. Fortunately, they're only unconscious. Their lives aren't in danger."

Then Hong Ying noticed that Wei Kang seemed to be looking at something. She leaned over for a look, and her face instantly turned pale.

"Th-This... what is this?!"

Hong Ying tried her best to keep her voice calm.

"An out-of-control extraordinary... and... there seems to be some kind of evil aura lingering here. They were very likely cultists when they were alive!"

Wei Kang's expression finally calmed. He turned and ordered the staff to collect the three lumps of flesh so they could be brought back to the Special Affairs Department for the logistics division to examine.

Hong Ying secretly swallowed. Just as she was about to say something, a staff member jogged in and reported:

"Captain Hong Ying, Captain Wei Kang, we found signs of a fight in the kitchen. We suspect someone deliberately moved the bodies here."

Wei Kang frowned.

"What's the point of moving three flesh-like corpses here?"

The observant Hong Ying seemed to notice something. Pointing at a sheet of white paper on the table, she said:

"Look at this!"

"What is this? Two stars?"

Wei Kang put on gloves and carefully picked it up for a closer look, but found nothing unusual. A staff member in a white lab coat beside him said:

"This is the emblem of a sorcerer family. Their family crest seems to be two stars entwined with each other."

"Oh?"

Wei Kang looked at the staff member in pleasant surprise and smiled.

"Old Li, I never would've guessed you knew this stuff."

The staff member called Old Li scratched the back of his head and explained:

"Heh heh, it's all knowledge about old relics. You young people definitely wouldn't be interested. Besides, that family is extremely low-profile. There aren't many rumors about them in the extraordinary world."

Wei Kang stepped closer and frowned. "But if these three lumps of flesh are the owners of this house, then they seem to have worshipped some evil entity... Otherwise, how could they have grown so many inhuman traits?"

Old Li nodded in agreement. "That's right. Many sorcerers collect ancient books containing secret lore. It's quite common for them to use dark magic recklessly, lose control, summon something they shouldn't have, and become contaminated."

Wei Kang nodded. "What confuses me most now is where the Overlord-Tier expert who supposedly advanced here went."

Before coming here, he had received a call from Professor Bai on the way. Professor Bai had informed him that an Overlord-Tier expert had very likely appeared in this manor, and that Burial Venerable might even have been behind it!

That was why the mission had been raised to S-rank and two colonel-level captains had been deployed.

"Could it be... Burial Venerable's doing again?"

Wei Kang lit a cigarette and slowly exhaled a ring of smoke, suppressing the fear constantly rising within him.

Whenever he thought of that terrifying eyeball as large as the moon, and Jiangyuan Psychiatric Hospital, his calves started trembling uncontrollably.

Just then, Hong Ying went out and soon returned with a videotape in her hand.

"Stop guessing. They found this."

Hong Ying raised the item in her hand and said proudly:

"A surveillance tape. But the cameras covering many areas were destroyed. We only found footage from this corridor."

Wei Kang's face lit up, and he hurriedly said:

"Good, good. Play it quickly. Let's see what happened!"

The group followed the staff to a surveillance room on the first floor. Most of the equipment there had been damaged. Apart from this one surveillance tape, everything else had been destroyed.

Hong Ying handed the tape to a staff member, who busied himself for a while before finally managing to play it on a relatively intact machine.

For an instant, Hong Ying had the strange feeling that everything had been prepared in advance, as though someone had been waiting for them to walk into a trap.

But the footage quickly drew her attention.

On the surveillance screen, the lights in the gloomy corridor flickered on and off. A waiter pushed a dining cart over from the other end and entered the frame. He pushed it slowly with his head lowered, making his features impossible to see.

When he reached a room, he stopped. Then, slowly, he lifted the cover. As if there were a delicious meal before him, he even took a sniff. The surveillance camera captured what was on the cart.

What delicious food? Three dinner plates held three piles of flesh, clearly the very things they had found in that room!

"Hiss..."

Someone had already drawn in a cold breath. Even though their scalps crawled, everyone still wanted to keep watching, and anticipation even appeared on their faces.

Because the waiter in the footage was slowly raising his head.

Hong Ying leaned closer. She wanted to see who the man was so she could deploy forces to arrest him.

But in the next second, everyone's expressions abruptly changed.

The waiter on the screen slowly lifted his head. His face was entirely obscured by shadows, darkness seeming to grow directly from it. Then he gently pulled up the corners of his mouth and revealed a wide smile.

The smiling face formed from that dark substance sent chills down their spines at a glance.

"Ah!"

Some had already begun screaming. Others covered their eyes and dropped to their knees, blood seeping through their fingers.

Hong Ying and Wei Kang's faces turned deathly pale, their vision blurring. Boundless darkness spread before them, and they seemed to be standing in a place where only darkness remained. The darkness rose like a tide, reaching their waists and nearly burying them, like a pool of shadows.

Layer upon layer of shadows seemed to come alive, twisting into the shapes of all kinds of demons. They also seemed veiled in white gauze, writhing and swaying endlessly before them.

At their ears rang voices layered together in a complex, discordant chorus, their tones hoarse.

"I am... the Lord of Shadows!"

With a bang, the image shattered. Wei Kang and Hong Ying shuddered at the same time and instinctively touched their clothes. They were indeed wet, but only because they had been soaked through with their own cold sweat.

"Quick! Report to headquarters!"

"Beep, beep, beep... Requesting backup! Someone's been injured!"

"East District, villa on Beiye Street, an... Lord of Shadows has appeared!"

"Come quickly! Come quickly!"