Chapter 59
Zhuohua listened quietly, her face expressionless, only her glassy eyes seemed to hold a silent, chilling starlight. On her leg, Shuangling's emerald pupils shrank to dangerous pinpoints, and the downy hairs on her body stood on end, emitting a low, threatening hiss.
Lu Xiao tightened his grip on the phone; he could clearly feel the immense fear emanating from the other end of the line. He looked at Zhuohua, awaiting her decision.
Zhuohua stood up, her movements carrying a calm and unwavering composure. Shuangling immediately jumped onto her shoulder, her small body still taut, yet standing steadily. She walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the city that never sleeps, its neon lights still shimmering even in the dead of night.
In the distance, the direction of the city television station might just be ordinary lights to the average person, but to her, it was a thick, impenetrable, blood-stained, gray-black resentment, like an ugly, festering sore, twisting and writhing, trying to break free of some invisible constraint and spread in all directions. Within that resentment, a glaring scarlet point, like the pupil of a dying beast, was filled with extreme malice and madness.
"knew."
She spoke into the phone, her voice traveling through the airwaves, clear and calm, carrying a strange power that could penetrate all chaos, instantly suppressing the cries and noise on Liang Hui's end, "Stay in the safe zone, everyone, retreat outside the main building. We'll be there soon."
On the other end of the phone, Liang Hui responded with a sigh of relief mixed with tears in his eyes: "Okay! Okay! Thank you, Professor Zhuohua! We'll wait for you! We'll wait for you!"
Zhuohua hung up the phone and handed it back to Lu Xiao. She didn't turn around, still looking in the direction shrouded in resentment, her eyes like those of a deity looking down upon the mortal world, carrying an all-knowing understanding and a hint of...cold annoyance.
"It's a little more troublesome than I expected," she stated casually.
Lu Xiao walked to her side and stood beside her, looking out the window at the night sky in the direction of the television station. He couldn't see any resentment, but he could feel a chilling aura emanating from Zhuo Hua that was completely different from her usual languid or sweet demeanor.
It was an absolute pressure that had been accumulated after countless killings and destructions. Even a slight leak of it was enough to terrify mortals.
"What do you need me to do?" he asked, his voice steady, without the slightest hesitation or retreat.
Zhuohua finally turned her head to look at him. Meeting his calm and trusting gaze, the cold frost in her eyes, belonging to a deity, quietly melted away, turning into a touch of warmth. She reached out and took his hand in hers. His palm was warm and strong, with thin calluses.
“Follow me,” she said succinctly, “Stand behind me.” Her tone was protective, but more importantly, it conveyed absolute trust in entrusting her back to someone.
Lu Xiao grabbed her hand tightly and nodded vigorously: "Okay."
Zhuohua said no more. She lightly tapped her fingertip in the air, and a barely perceptible golden ripple instantly spread out from her, enveloping the entire suite. The space seemed to be folded and compressed by an invisible force. The city night view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows blurred and distorted instantly, like the reflection of a stone thrown into water.
The next second, the view outside the window had completely changed—it was no longer the bustling night view overlooking the hotel, but an empty internal road shrouded in dim streetlights, flanked by tall control rooms and server rooms. In the distance, a lonely warehouse building exuding an old-fashioned atmosphere stood in the darkness, surrounded by a visible, unsettling gray-black mist, as thick as liquid.
All the windows of the building were pitch black, except for a broken lamp above the door, which emitted a dizzying, flickering, pale light, each flash seemingly accompanied by a silent, mournful wail. A rusty, metallic smell permeated the air, chilling to the bone.
Frostfeather perched on Zhuohua's shoulder, its neck fur bristling, and let out a sharp, warning cry towards the warehouse: "Screech—!" The sound waves pierced the silence, carrying pure, exorcising power, temporarily suppressing the churning resentment.
Zhuohua took Lu Xiao's hand and took a step forward. The heels of her high heels landed on the cold cement, making a crisp, cold echo, like a pebble thrown into a cold pond in this desolate area of the television station, haunted by vengeful spirits.
The night breeze ruffled her slightly cool hair, brushing against her expressionless profile. Her gaze locked onto the warehouse building that exuded an ominous aura, and deep within her glassy eyes, a cold, divine light slowly ignited like stars.
The small snowball-shaped frost feather on her shoulder, her emerald eyes narrowed to slits, and her whole body exuded a chilling aura that was completely inconsistent with her petite figure.
Lu Xiao stood half a step behind her, gripping her hand tightly. He could clearly feel the extraordinary, immense power emanating from her palm, as steady as a mountain. He took a deep breath of the cold air, which carried the metallic scent of rust, suppressing the tremor in his heart, his gaze focused and resolute.
Ahead, the thick, inky resentment churned and retreated uneasily amidst the screech of the Frostfeather, yet from a deeper depth, stimulated by that crimson malice, it surged back even more fiercely, like countless invisible ghostly claws, carrying a bone-chilling cold and desperate howls, attempting to drag any living being that had entered this place into the abyss.
Zhuohua tilted her head slightly and whispered to the spirit pet on her shoulder, her voice as clear and cold as shattered jade: "Shuangling, Qinglu."
Frostfeather's clear and resonant cry was like ice water thrown into boiling oil, instantly creating a ripple effect. Visible pale golden ripples spread from its small body, and wherever they passed, the menacing, gray-black tentacles of resentment that tried to entwine it sizzled as if being burned, writhing and retreating in pain. Even the bone-chilling cold in the air seemed to freeze for a moment.
The flickering frequency of the broken lamp at the warehouse entrance had noticeably slowed down, and its pale light seemed to have stabilized a little.
"Ugh! So annoying! A bunch of filthy stuff!"
Frostfeather perched on Zhuohua's shoulder, its little head held high, its emerald eyes filled with impatient disdain. It waved its little paws dismissively, as if shooing away flies. "You crying and whining are hurting my ears! Huahua, hurry up and get ready, I want to go back to sleep!"
Its adorable yet fierce complaint, coupled with its snowball-like appearance, created a striking contrast. Lu Xiao's tense nerves were slightly relaxed by its antics, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly.
A faint smile flickered in Zhuohua's eyes, but when she looked at the tightly closed warehouse door that exuded a rotten smell, her gaze returned to its icy coldness.
"Open the door." She uttered only two words, speaking to the air, her voice low but carrying an unyielding will.
"Squeak—Clang!"
The heavy, rusty iron warehouse door seemed to be violently pulled open from the inside by an invisible giant hand, then slammed against the walls on both sides with a piercing crash. A chilling wind, ten times stronger than the one outside, mixed with the stench of blood, decay, and despair, rushed in as if it were a tangible force, carrying countless sharp, mournful cries and screams from men, women, and children, assaulting one's eardrums and soul!
The warehouse was pitch black, like a gaping maw ready to devour its prey. Only a faint, pale light pierced through the doorway, illuminating a small area—where two men in security uniforms lay on the ground. They were the two security guards Liang Hui had mentioned on the phone who had collapsed near the door, their faces ashen and their breaths weak.
"Tsk, what a nuisance."
Frostfeather impatiently turned its head away, its little paws slashing through the air towards the two security guards. Two faint golden lights flashed, like a warm shield, instantly isolating them from the corrosive yin energy and stabilizing their precarious lives. "Drag them away! Don't block Hua Hua's way!" it commanded, its tone like that of a bossy little butler.
Liang Hui and the others, who were hiding in a safe area in the distance and watching with trepidation, could not hear the specific conversation, but when they saw that Zhuo Hua and Lu Xiao remained calm and composed in the face of such a terrifying scene (Lu Xiao mainly trusted Zhuo Hua), and that the magical little white bird (in their opinion) seemed to have done something, and the two fallen security guards seemed to be in stable condition, they immediately felt that they had found their backbone and were so excited that they almost cried.
Zhuohua, holding Lu Xiao's hand, calmly stepped into the thick, impenetrable darkness. Her high heels echoed clearly on the dusty, debris-strewn ground, each step seeming to tread upon some kind of rule, forcefully suppressing the surrounding chaos and screams.
"Playing tricks." Zhuohua's voice rang out clearly amidst the wailing and howling, carrying a hint of cold mockery. "This little bit of skill is not worthy of alarming me?"
As she finished speaking, the frost-feathered bird on her shoulder suddenly opened its small beak, not to chirp, but to take a deep breath. Instantly, the raging, resentful winds and energy within the warehouse seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, swirling and converging towards its tiny body! The sight was extremely eerie: a palm-sized, snow-white bird, like a bottomless black hole, frantically devoured the immense resentment capable of driving an ordinary person mad!
"Burp~" A few breaths later, Shuangling let out a small, satisfied burp with an icy aura. Her emerald eyes seemed to brighten even more, and the chill around her intensified. "The taste... is barely edible. It's just that there are too many impurities and the texture is rough."
It patted its belly with its little wings in disdain (though it was still flat), giving a very serious critique, as if it were tasting a less-than-ideal dish.
The darkness and noise inside the warehouse vanished almost instantly, revealing its true state. Piles of old props, dusty backdrops, broken stage trusses... and at the deepest part of the warehouse, behind a huge stage prop frame covered in red cloth, thick, almost tangible black energy was violently churning, with a faint crimson light flickering within, emanating an even more malevolent and insane aura—clearly the core of the vortex.
"So you were hiding here." Zhuohua's gaze was fixed on the glasses, her tone calm and indifferent. She didn't even let go of Lu Xiao's hand; instead, she casually raised her free left hand, spread her fingers, and grabbed at the core of the churning black energy!
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