go home

The gray eagle did not stop moving forward because someone fell.

"Hey!" Pei Chanbai instinctively pulled back after losing the support point of his fingertips. He also grabbed the back of Shi Youchen's collar as he leaned forward due to inertia and shouted, "What is he doing?!"

Shi Youchen's nails dug into his palm, and it took a long time for him to be pulled back and sit steadily before being released. There were already purple crescent marks there. "...He said he would not go home." Pei Chanbai grabbed his hair and cursed softly: "If you don't want to go home, you're looking for death. You're sick." The usually lazy and indifferent man seemed very dissatisfied with this behavior.

Maybe he is really sick.

Bulti's mother, Apsu, Panthera, the nameless man—everyone in District 5 seemed ill. Everyone embraced the "gods" of this land as their faith and purpose, each eager to dedicate their body and soul to them. A body woven of decades of flesh and blood, a soul woven with countless emotions, was no match for a "god," perhaps a fabricated creation.

This place is hopeless and disgusting.

A cold wind blew into Shi Youchen's nostrils and lungs, and his breathing suddenly became much heavier. Pei Chanbai heard the sound and turned to look at him: "What's wrong?" At this moment, the gray eagle seemed to have reached its destination, slowing down and landing on the ground, landing beside a lake in the wilderness.

The three people behind them had landed before them and were already waiting there. Ying Yungui had observed everything that had happened along the way, and when Shi Youchen arrived, he went to greet him: "How is it?" Shi Youchen covered his mouth and took a step back, then suddenly turned around and leaned over to vomit. Dizzy and tinnitus ripped through his head, he had no time to care what the man was saying.

As Shi Youchen felt his world spinning, he began to hear cries approaching. A group of birds and beasts had arrived, following closely behind them. "This is the weakest point in spatial energy, the node connecting the inside and the outside." Kulin used his abilities to locate the location, and Red controlled the gray vulture to lead them there. Perhaps because Red had previously laid the "seeds" of the "spell" in the arena and underground, after he activated his ability, almost all sentient birds and beasts followed, leading to the current situation.

Pei Chanbai looked at the surrounding scene with some curiosity and asked, "So they can all go out, right?" Kulin thought for a few seconds and was about to speak when he saw the gray eagle they had just been riding raised its wings and flew towards the lake, and then disappeared as if it had sunk into a curtain of light.

Suddenly, a blood-red hue washed over the lake's surface, dispersing and dissolving in a matter of seconds. Instantly, the birds and beasts near the lake screamed like mad and rushed into the water one after another. Without exception, all of them turned into blood and merged into the lake, disappearing. Shi Youchen wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, stood up, and heard Kulin say regretfully, "They probably can't leave here."

Kulin looked up at the night sky. "As creatures that could be humanoid beasts, my eyes haven't detected any energy within them individually. This means there are two possibilities." "First, they are originally creatures from this space."

"Second, their energy has merged with the energy of this space."

"But no matter which one it is, since the energy supporting this space is collapsing rather than weakening, they are doomed to die." Kulin sighed softly, "Unfortunately, they will disappear along with this place."

Ying Yungui interrupted him: "Okay, this matter ends here. The association will take over the follow-up, and this incident will not be recorded in your files. I hope you will forget everything that happened here after you leave." He stared at Shi Youchen's pale face with complicated eyes, and his throat was unbearably dry.

"Come on, you can get out after you get in the water."

Shi Youchen lowered his eyes, and amid the cries of the surrounding beasts and the gazes of several people, he turned and leaped into the lake. The thick smell of blood, even the entire lake, filled his nose. He endured the soreness in his eye sockets and kept his eyes open as he sank down. The red in his vision gradually faded, but the dark shadows at the bottom of the lake gradually became clearer.

The black shadow's "long hands" appeared again. It stretched out from the depths and attacked Shi Youchen, wrapped around his waist like a water snake, and then pushed his light body straight up.

With a "splash", Youchen closed his eyes due to the pressure during the process of floating up. When he opened his eyes again, he broke through the water and saw that under the moonlight half shrouded in mist, the giant trees by the lake began to decay, cracks appeared on the trunks, and the cracked bark peeled off and turned into powder.

In the rising mist, a group of figures were vaguely standing on the shore. They waved to Shi Youchen and gradually faded away.

When Pei Chanbai emerged, he saw Shi Youchen, who had left before him, already on shore, bent over and twisting his trouser leg. "Why are you so anxious? I could have put a protective suit on you," Pei Chanbai said, touching his shoulder with his palm.

"It doesn't matter." Shi Youchen shook his hands and stood up. "Did you encounter that black shadow under the water?"

"No, what's wrong?" Pei Chenbai looked around and said, "This seems to be Lake Eridu, why is the tree gone?"

"Dead." Shi Youchen pinched his brow, his emotion unseen. "That must have been a transformed human." Its trunk burrowed deep into the earth, spanning two dimensions, trapped for who knows how long. It could only obey the orders of the people within "Baal," repeatedly sending those outside into that hell. And now, the power maintaining Baal's barrier dissipated, and like the birds and beasts within, it too ended its tragic life.

Their wristbands returned to normal. Pei Chanbai glanced at them and said, "How come only two hours have passed?" He contacted Lan. Shi Youchen gazed at the lake, seeing no trace of blood. He realized that even if they died in Baal, they would be unable to transmit a single message to the outside world on their own.

The two of them boarded the association's vehicle, which arrived quietly more than ten minutes later. When leaving, Shi Youchen looked back out the window. Everything and everyone had changed in the intervening time, and there were no more trees by the Lake Eridu.

...

When Lan and her liaison officer rushed to the restaurant at the Fifth District Association's base, Pei Chanbai was feasting to replenish his energy, while Shi Youchen was sitting quietly beside him with a normal expression.

"I have two things to tell you." Lan's gaze shifted between the two men's faces, and he spoke with a deep breath. "First, just now, the Association's headquarters issued an order to the District 5 branch, immediately assuming jurisdiction over District 5, including the social order and system composed of ordinary people."

"Second... Xiaowei was found."

Shi Youchen had been mentally prepared for the first piece of news in Baal Space, so he wasn't surprised. He stood up and said, "Good, she's found it. Have her come to me to confirm the rest of the mission." Lan didn't respond. It was only when Shi Youchen was about to step out of the restaurant that he heard her contact, Ling, whisper, "We found Xiaowei's body in the temple north of Nielidu Town. They've been taken there for burial... Xiaoyue is with them."

Even Pei Chanbai paused, gripping his knife and fork. Ling continued, "She died of suffocation. The circumstances have been thoroughly investigated, and it's manslaughter. The group that kidnapped her were caught on the road outside of Neilidu Town."

Then Pei Chanbai thought of the group of panicked people he met. It turned out that they were in such a hurry to run away because they had caused someone's death.

"Where are they?" Shi Youchen stopped in front of the open door and asked with his back turned, "Those people." Ling carefully glanced at Lan's expression beside him, and in his confusion, he heard Shi Youchen ask again, "Where are they?"

"Well...because it was a minor's fault, according to our local laws, he was sent back to Nierlidu Town after the interrogation."

Lan was silent for a long time before finally speaking, "Shi Youchen!" Her expression was uneasy. "District Five is now under the control of the Association. From now on, the environment, education, and laws here will be comprehensively improved, but all changes must be based on the cooperation of the people of District Five."

"If a fight breaks out between the association and the public at this time, it is very likely that a conflict will arise between the new and old groups."

"You can't go."

The person outside the door stopped for a long time and said, "I know." Then the door closed.

In the next few days, Shi Youchen rejected the association's plan to arrange a new contact for him, and went to more than a dozen villages and towns large and small to carry out tasks alone. Lan, together with the people sent by the headquarters, cracked the mysterious virus that had been spreading for a long time.

"After verification, B-level mission: rescue in the epidemic area, mission location: Area 5, completed, reward mission points: 300. - Association Information Management Center" On the return plane, Pei Chanbai took the initiative to add Shi Youchen's numbered friend, becoming one of the few people in his contact column.

"So what exactly is that virus?" Pei Chanbai asked as he operated a new game console he had redeemed his points for. Lan replied, "Headquarters' experts say it's a type of viral superpower. It spreads through water sources and, upon encountering energy bodies, is broken down and devoured. That's why the fluctuations caused by its devouring behavior can be detected in superpower users. However, in non-superpower users, it only unilaterally slaughters the body's cells, and usually does so in a relatively short period of time, so it doesn't require that little bit of energy."

"I guess it's the work of the Maintenance Bureau. Fortunately, District 5 will be under the management of the Association from now on."

Pei Chanbai, as usual, just said "Oh," but Shi Youchen, dozing with his eyes closed, heard every word clearly. "I'll have to write a separate report about this when I get back. Damn the Maintenance Bureau!" Lan cursed softly and zipped up his jacket.

The scenery outside the plane window turned from yellow to white, and they returned to winter. Shi Youchen said goodbye to the two people at their destination, Area 9. As he left, he clutched the potion in his pocket. Just before he left, Xiaoyue, with red eyes, found him and handed it to him: "Xiaowei said you've been working hard. I used my points to buy it that afternoon, but I forgot to bring it with me in my rush."

On the way back to the 16th floor of Building 7, some snow fell on the tip of Shi Youchen's nose and instantly turned into water droplets and slid down. He raised his hand to wipe it away. He felt that in less than half a month, District 8 had entered the cold winter, and even the wind was particularly biting.

"Hello, are you Mr. Shi Youchen?" Someone blocked the way. Shi Youchen looked over and saw a man with short dark gray hair and a scarf standing there. The air he exhaled from his mouth dissipated, revealing a pair of eyes.

A pair of eyes that look very much like Lu Quezhi's.