The Girl

An hour later.

Inside an administrative office building at the Sixth Mental Hospital in Night Spirit City.

Xu Ye met Li Yunyao, the woman behind the voice on the phone.

She was even younger than he had imagined, about his own age. Her long, straight black hair fell naturally around her shoulders, and a tear-shaped mole sat at the outer corner of her left eye. Her eyes were clear and bright.

The girl's figure had begun to blossom, like a tender willow in the spring breeze.

"Xu Ye?"

Li Yunyao stood before him and looked him up and down. Her expression was frosty and cold as she handed him a bottle of milk and a bag of bread, then pushed him into an office.

"Thanks for your hard work. Let's start the debrief. Tell me everything in detail. You talk first, and I'll ask questions afterward. I'll write the report."

"You can eat while you talk. I don't mind."

Li Yunyao got straight to the point. She sat down across from Xu Ye, opened her laptop, and waited with a serious expression.

A workaholic?

Xu Ye clicked his tongue. He had not even had a chance to catch his breath before being dragged into a debrief.

The girl's slender brows rose slightly.

But she remained motionless, like an old monk deep in meditation, her gaze fixed on Xu Ye.

Her stare left Xu Ye feeling awkward and uncomfortable. He asked, "How's the captain?"

"Dead."

"..."

"He went peacefully. You can burn incense for him tomorrow."

"..."

Xu Ye realized that the girl seemed to harbor some resentment toward both him and Captain Meng. Had he done something to offend her?

With no other choice, Xu Ye munched on his bread and recounted the day's events.

Pollution Incident code: FKC_068

Classification level: 3 stars

Pollution Source level: Level 0.5 aberration (provisional)

Danger level: Terrifying Level (provisional)

Method of infection: Unknown

Pollution Source characteristics: Originally a middle-aged woman, Lin Aiqiao, age 41. After becoming an Aberrant, she developed a preference for skinning men and using their skin as an energy source. Her aberrant form was that of a spider. (Provisional)

This Pollution Source has caused eight deaths.

Causal chain: ...

Notes: The identification of the Pollution Source remains provisional. Follow-up investigation required. Investigate everyone who has had recent contact with Lin Aiqiao.

Post-incident measures are as follows:

1. Transfer Lin Aiqiao's body to the Sky City research laboratory.

2. After examination, if Zhang Xuliang's body is free of contamination, release it to his parents for handling. (Special circumstances)

3. Cremate all other bodies directly...

"Take a look. If there are no issues, we'll leave it at this for now and wait for the follow-up."

Xu Ye had to admit that Li Yunyao was efficient. In just half an hour, she had clearly documented the entire sequence of events surrounding the Pollution Incident.

Xu Ye glanced over it and recalled the warning his heart had given him. Concerned about what might be happening at the school, he could not help asking, "How do you determine whether a Pollution Incident is over? What if Lin Aiqiao wasn't the Pollution Source?"

As she organized the report and supporting materials, Li Yunyao explained, "Actually, shortly after undergoing aberration, all Pollution Sources tend to become contagious, like a plague."

"For example, in FKC-067, the incident you experienced earlier, that old-man Aberrant turned other living creatures into his grandchildren through the Missing Person Notice or direct contact."

"As for this case, we haven't reached a conclusion yet. We haven't established exactly when Lin Aiqiao underwent aberration, and we don't know whether she ever showed any signs of being contagious."

Xu Ye nodded. "By the way, what happened with case 067?"

Li Yunyao pressed her lips together, her voice cool. "I don't know the specifics. It's been transferred to the Eighth Team, but I heard the old man has already escaped Night Spirit City. This sort of thing has happened occasionally before."

"However, radiation in the wasteland also has a major effect on Aberrants. There was once a level-four Aberrant whose physical body was already completely dead when it was discovered. Only a remnant of its mind remained, and it was soon eliminated."

Radiation had a lethal effect on Aberrants.

No wonder the Federation had deployed nuclear weapons on a massive scale to deal with the 001 Contamination Incident a hundred years ago.

Xu Ye silently committed that to memory.

"Of course, that isn't always the case." Li Yunyao spoke freely, seemingly not as aloof as she appeared.

"Areas of Heavenly Dao Distortion in the wasteland are unaffected by radiation. Some Aberrants hide in those places and survive."

"But the rules in areas of Heavenly Dao Distortion are so badly warped that even Aberrants, let alone humans, may struggle to survive there."

Xu Ye listened attentively. When she brought up Heavenly Dao Distortion, he recalled his Sequence Talent and followed up with a question. "Is there really no way to eliminate Heavenly Dao Distortion?"

Li Yunyao shook her head solemnly. "Scientists all over the world are researching that question. In fact, Heavenly Dao Distortion poses an even greater threat to humanity's survival than Aberrants do."

"We generally call areas of Heavenly Dao Distortion forbidden zones."

"There are only two in all of Night Spirit City."

"One is where you're living now. The other is in the Eighth Team's Jurisdiction, with a distortion rate of 3% and a radius of roughly a hundred meters."

"Some Taboo Objects can slow their expansion."

"Of course, the rate at which each forbidden zone expands also depends on how active it is."

Li Yunyao took a sip of water. "So far, twelve large forbidden zones have been discovered and named across Planet Earth."

"The largest covers over a million square kilometers. Even the smallest covers more than five hundred thousand."

"And that doesn't include the smaller forbidden zones that haven't been assigned numbers."

"The rules in every forbidden zone are distorted to varying degrees. The greater the distortion, the stranger the things that appear inside."

"Sounds hopeless, doesn't it?"

Li Yunyao smiled, revealing two pretty dimples.

"It does. But going by what you said, our generation-and even our grandchildren's generation-might never see the world destroyed. So we should still live our lives properly." Xu Ye stretched.

Li Yunyao gave him a somewhat surprised look.

In her experience, almost everyone who learned the truth, especially the truth about forbidden zones, spent at least some time on the verge of a complete mental breakdown.

And anyone who did suffer a mental breakdown would have their memories erased and leave the Dawn Blade.

"By the way, there's one more thing." Seeing that she was about to pick up her laptop and leave, Xu Ye considered his words before asking, "Do you know what the Eternal Holy Book is?"

Li Yunyao suddenly froze. Xu Ye noticed something strange about the air around her.

She looked at him coldly. "With your clearance, you shouldn't know about that. Where did you hear it?"

Xu Ye had already prepared his explanation. He scratched his head. "When I was dealing with 'Li Kang,' he mentioned it just before he died. Things were critical then, so I didn't have time to tell the captain. I only just remembered."

Li Yunyao closed her eyes and stood still for a long time. Finally, she picked up her laptop and walked straight out, leaving him with a warning.

"Don't get involved in this matter lightly. I'll add it to the report."