Released

The person who got out of the passenger seat was Xia Zhi.

She closed the car door and first looked toward Lin Mo, then at Ning Qingcheng. The cold wind swept in from outside the plaza, stirring the loose strands of hair across her forehead. The words on her lips paused for half a beat.

After all, during the time they had spent together, she had long since come to regard Ning Qingcheng as her own younger sister.

“You really have to go?”

Ning Qingcheng shrugged. “Senior Brother said this is patriotic education, so we have to come. That’s why we could only wait until Auntie Zheng fell asleep before sneaking out.”

In truth, Ning Qingcheng was quite interested in this.

She had never been the type to sit quietly and behave. At school, she was a well-behaved girl, but outside, she was a superpowered individual who controlled the force of space itself.

Ning Qingcheng bounced over to Lin Mo.

“Senior Brother, I’m here! What are we doing?”

After speaking, she turned to look at Lili Plaza.

From an ordinary person’s perspective, the plaza was still the same plaza. The area around it had been sealed off, half the lights were switched off, and the remaining light was pressed dim by the night.

The storefront shutters were down, the ground was spotless, and patrol agents could be seen moving about in the distance.

But Ning Qingcheng could sense that something was wrong.

A feeling of oppression spread through the air.

“I told you, it’s patriotic education.” Lin Mo raised his head and glanced at the night sky.

The appointed time was almost here.

He then looked toward Dongfang Shuye and made a hand signal.

Dongfang Shuye understood. He picked up his radio.

“All units, attention. The operation is about to begin. Initiate Level One alert. Maintain the outer perimeter lockdown. Personnel in the inner perimeter, enter according to the original plan. Technical team, stay close to the action team. Do not fall behind.”

Responses came one after another over the radio.

“Outer Perimeter Team One received.”

“Technical team received.”

“Medical team in position.”

The agents from Yanhuang Awakening, who had still been somewhat relaxed moments ago, immediately stopped chatting.

Some checked their equipment, others tightened their protective gear, while still more hauled detection devices out of their cases.

The metal supports hit the ground with several sharp clanks.

Wang Keting’s throat went dry. He leaned toward Wang Xincheng and muttered, “Dad, I’m starting to get a little scared.”

Wang Xincheng shot him a sidelong glance.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to broaden your horizons?”

“I wanted to see the world, not have the world see me!”

Lin Mo ignored them. He raised a hand and tapped Ning Qingcheng and Jiang Yunlu lightly on the forehead.

The instant his fingertips touched them, both girls felt a cool sensation on their foreheads. In their vision, it was as if a layer of old gauze had been lifted away.

When they looked at Lili Plaza again, it seemed completely different.

Black aura seeped through the cracks between the paving stones, dense and tightly packed, pressing down over the plaza. It did not disperse into the night sky. Instead, some unseen force dragged it back toward the ground, where it grew thicker and thicker.

The storefront signs in the distance were half-obscured, their lights turning a murky red. Even the reflections in the glass doors had become warped.

“Wow! What is this...?”

“The time has come. Go in.”

Lin Mo waved his hand, and everyone began to move.

Lin Mo’s group was not the only party entering Lili Plaza. The action team from Yanhuang Awakening was going in as well.

Their job was to take control of the site, set up the equipment, and establish the inner perimeter lockdown.

One perimeter outside, another inside—isolating both energy and people.

Only then could the impact be reduced as much as possible.

The moment they entered Lili Plaza, the temperature dropped sharply.

It was obvious that the air-conditioning had merely been hiding it.

“Seriously? Is the air-conditioning on in here? Why is it so cold?” Wang Keting had grown up in Hong Kong, where the local terminology differed somewhat from that of the mainland. For example, air-conditioning was usually called “cold air.”

Hong Kong did not use heating, so their air conditioners only blew cold air.

Lin Mo swept his gaze across the area.

Just as before, black aura was emanating from all the paving stones.

Seeing this, Wang Keting’s face paled, and his heart began to pound.

“Dad, how did you seal this place back then? Why does everything feel so wrong? This black aura keeps pouring out nonstop.”

Wang Xincheng did not need to take the medicine provided by Yanhuang Awakening. He could directly see the black aura emerging from the area.

This black aura was actually the baleful energy of the dragon’s tooth. But normally, the dragon-tooth baleful energy should not have been black as ink.

He shook his head. “It didn’t seem like this back then. When Lili Plaza opened, I came to take a look myself. The suppression was working very well at the time. At least, I didn’t see any baleful energy like this.”

“What about before the seal was put in place?” Xie Yuling turned her head toward Wang Xincheng.

Wang Xincheng knew that Xie Yuling was no ordinary person either, so he answered honestly.

“The baleful energy was black back then too, but nowhere near this dark. It’s probably because of the seal. With nowhere to vent, the baleful energy had no choice but to accumulate and condense here.”

What Wang Xincheng meant was that a quantitative change had led to a qualitative one.

But Lin Mo shook his head.

“It isn’t simply a matter of quantity.”

Wang Xincheng looked at him.

Lin Mo stepped onto a paving stone seeping with black aura. A nearly imperceptible sound came from beneath it, and he forced it back down with one step.

“Twenty years ago, you never saw what was truly beneath the ground. You only saw the dragon-tooth baleful energy, so you assumed this place was merely a dragon vein’s dragon-tooth formation.”

Wang Xincheng fell silent.

The words were unpleasant to hear.

But that did not make them wrong.

Back then, being able to identify this place as a dragon-tooth site had already been no small achievement for their group.

Too many forces were involved in Lili Plaza, while both time and manpower were limited. Everyone had wanted to suppress the disaster first.

As for what lay deeper underground, they had not dared to continue digging at the time.

Just then, Liu Zheng walked over.

“The equipment is all set up.”

After speaking, he glanced at Lin Mo. “What are we doing next?”

Lin Mo looked toward the elevator hall at the center of the mall.

“We’re taking the elevator. Are you coming?”

Lin Mo turned his head and looked at Liu Zheng.

Although Liu Zheng was afraid as well, he gritted his teeth and said, “I’m coming. Of course I am. I’m a team leader, after all.”

In reality, Liu Zheng had already put on his protective gear.

“Then let’s go. The time I chose is the yin hour, when the seal is at its weakest. That way, we’ll be able to see the real Lili Plaza.”

With that, Lin Mo headed toward the elevator.

Fang Jun and Luo Ruiyu had been drawn into the other world, but Lin Mo intended to bring them through into it deliberately.

Ding!

The elevator doors opened. Lin Mo stepped inside, and everyone else followed in one breath.

“Which floor are we going to?” Wang Keting asked, unable to resist, as he leaned beside the panel of buttons.

“Just close the doors.”

Before Wang Keting could press anything, the elevator doors closed automatically.

The display above their heads began to change.

B1. B2...

Ding!

Level B18.

“So we’ve arrived at the eighteenth level of hell,” Wang Keting could not help saying.

Everyone turned to look at him. Wang Xincheng smacked his son hard on the back of the head.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened, and a powerful stench of blood washed over them.

A pitch-black corridor filled with the reek of blood stretched out before them.

The women covered their noses, while Liu Zheng charged out first.

The weapon in his hand was the latest model developed by Yanhuang Awakening for dealing with vicious spirits.

But before he could even make it out of the elevator, something erupted from the end of the corridor.

Liu Zheng threw a flare forward. In the white light, they saw a surging wave of blood rushing toward them.