Chapter 168
"Teacher, the fire department has arrived at the scene, but there are no signs of burned items. We tried to contact the factory owner, but we couldn't get through. The staff on duty said the owner came in the morning, but no one has seen him since noon. We suspect he has met with some misfortune."
"The law enforcement team registered the list of missing victims and tried to contact their families to inform them of the situation."
"I'm currently leading a team to the traffic safety supervision department to retrieve road surveillance footage from the area near the chemical plant. I've also arranged for another team to retrieve private surveillance footage from nearby shops to find eyewitnesses and see if we can find the direction that person fled... That damn madman!"
The surveillance footage inside the chemical plant was not completely destroyed; some of the footage captured the scene of the victims spontaneously combusting without a flame.
Xie Kaile's eyes were filled with the tragic image. He couldn't help but clench his fist in front of the monitor screen and slammed it heavily on the table. Bang! The water glass shook.
He knew it was the work of some strange force, and he also understood that the chances of catching the murderer through conventional means were extremely slim.
But now that things have come to this, are we just going to do nothing and let that inhuman executioner go unpunished?
The boy on the phone gritted his teeth, his tone filled with barely suppressed grief and indignation.
Xie Xubai did not comfort him, but waited quietly.
Xie Kaile was no longer the impulsive and impatient boy he used to be. He quickly suppressed his fluctuating emotions with a few deep breaths.
Once the boy's breathing had stabilized, Xie Xubai spoke, giving a gentle "hmm," and briefly explained a few points to note and directions for the investigation, letting Xie Kaile go ahead and investigate.
After hanging up the phone, Xie Xubai's face darkened. His long, slender fingers gripped his gold-rimmed glasses, which remained unresponsive to his calls, and his gaze was fixed on the towering commercial building not far away.
He and Cen Xiangcai, who arrived quickly, were riding a Ping An motorcycle towards Shengtian Group.
Before disappearing, the mysterious man uttered the ambiguous phrase, "The final game is about to begin," which, like a harbinger of an impending storm, gave Xie Xubai an extremely ominous feeling.
I've had similar feelings before, but never as intense as today.
At that time, the gold-rimmed glasses were stiff as a dead object, the little tentacles hiding in his shadow remained motionless, and there was still no news of Yan Shuo.
Xie Xubai remained unmoved when the mysterious man mentioned Yan Shuo, given his initial confidence in Yan Shuo's abilities.
Now, he could no longer maintain that absolute calm, and a sense of foreboding rose to its peak.
Soon, Ping An came to a stop on the ground, accompanied by the cold wind, and shook his head.
Seemingly sensing something amiss, it suddenly became alert, its fur bristling, baring its teeth and letting out a low, warning growl.
Cen Xiangcai jumped down first, then caught Xie Xubai in the process.
He hasn't resigned yet; as the secretary of Shengtian Group, he's more acutely aware of the company's changes.
Almost a moment before Ping An spoke, Cen Xiangcai frowned and looked over.
Behind the glass doors at the building's entrance, many people stood silently.
No, calling them people is no longer quite appropriate.
In the darkness, many twisted shadows overlapped, like a monstrous creature baring its fangs in the depths of hell.
Faces, some large and some emaciated, were pressed against the glass, their bodies no longer recognizable as human.
The uniforms issued by Shengtian Group were still on their bodies, with white name tags bearing their names in blue lettering. The fabric was stretched to its limit by their massive bodies, and the buttons, unable to bear the weight, snapped off one by one, leaving only one or two hanging precariously at the front.
Cen Xiangcai felt uneasy.
These guys are masters of judging the situation. When Yan Shuo is around, they all tuck their tails between their legs and act all high and mighty.
Right now, it's likely that something has happened to Yan Shuo, which is why he's acting so recklessly.
Suddenly, the shadow at the doorway moved.
Like hyenas that have caught the smell of meat, all the monsters instantly became frenzied and violent, staring intently at Xie Xubai.
"Humans! It smells like humans! Humans—!"
Sticky saliva dripped down his bright red, cracked lips, and the shadow slammed his fist against the glass door, making a loud bang.
It seemed as if at any moment, a huge hole would shatter in the door, and monsters would pour out through the crack and devour Xie Xubai!
If it were an ordinary human, it wouldn't make them so eager to eat it.
The problem is that Xie Xubai's body is surging with enormous, vigorous energy, like the flesh of Tang Sanzang, which has a fatal attraction to monsters who crave power.
Cen Xiangcai's previously mild expression instantly turned icy cold, his eyes flashed with bloodlust, and a fierce aura swept over the employees of Shengtian Group like an overwhelming pressure!
"I think you're all tired of living!"
Under the overwhelming pressure, the monsters collapsed one after another, showing signs of pain, and finally became much more docile, spreading out slightly from the doorway.
But when Xie Xubai reached the door and stepped into the territory of Shengtian Group, the group of monsters, like weeds that grow back after being blown by the spring breeze, once again stood greedily against the glass door.
Cen Xiangcai released his oppressive aura once again.
The monsters were in so much pain that their faces turned pale and contorted, their skin dissolving and crumbling, yet they refused to move an inch further.
A pair of inhuman eyes stared intently at Xie Xubai's head, so hard they almost bulged out of their sockets, with thin blue veins faintly visible.
It seemed that they would be willing to die just to eat Xie Xubai.
This extreme desire could no longer be described as madness. Cen Xiangcai suspected that the rules were at play, and a chilling murderous thought arose in his heart.
But before he could make a move, countless golden rays pierced the silent night, accompanied by a howling cold wind, and blasted open the door, pinning all the snarling monsters to the wall!
Cen Xiangcai paused, then looked at Xie Xubai, who was striding into the company beside him.
Xie Xubai, amidst the writhing and twisting employees, spotted a guy who looked somewhat human, grabbed him by the collar, and coldly asked, "Where is Yan Shuo?"
The monster, enduring the pain, looked at him in terror and mumbled incoherently, "I don't know, I don't know..."
As soon as Cen Xiangcai walked over, he saw the seemingly timid monster shift its position, its thick, long tail lifting up as if it were about to pounce.
Like a scorpion's stinger excitedly unfurling, reflecting a faint, menacing glint in the moonlight, its tip aimed directly at Xie Xubai's back!
Cen Xiangcai rushed over anxiously: "Get out of the way! Xie Xubai!"
But Xie Xubai didn't turn his head back. His indifferent gaze shifted backward, and golden light instantly condensed into a thick barrier behind him.
Before the monster's tail could collide with the barrier, an extremely terrifying pressure instantly spread from above, carrying the force of thunder and lightning, crushing the monster's tail into blood and flesh dust!
"Ah!!!" The monster's pupils shrank suddenly, and it let out a sharp scream.
The clear night was suddenly covered with dark clouds, and a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating half the sky as bright as day and also brightening the dimness of the company's first floor.
Rumble—
The countless restless monsters in the shadows sensed this terrifying pressure and immediately became weak in the knees, crawling on the ground, trembling and not daring to move.
Xie Xubai smelled a familiar salty scent in the air, like a sea breeze, and instantly stood up, calling out above his head, "Yan Shuo?"
There was no response.
Xie Xubai strode into the elevator and said to Cen Xiangcai, "I'll go up and check the situation."
"Hey, wait...!" Cen Xiangcai, who had been frozen in shock, immediately came to his senses and tried to stop them, but he was too late; the elevator doors had already closed.
The elevator display screen points to the second floor, the third floor...
Upon reaching the tenth floor, Cen Xiangcai, as expected, heard a hissing sound behind him.
He stared at it stiffly.
The once arrogant monsters were now frozen in place, as if petrified.
It's like the pressure is released from the inside out, destroying their muscle tissue. A series of swollen blood blisters appear on the skin, and then, in a moment, they all burst open, turning into black and red dust.
The entire floor fell into deathly silence in the blink of an eye. Apart from Cen Xiangcai, there was no other living creature in sight, only a dense mass of blood and flesh dust.
Cen Xiangcai tried to hold back, but couldn't help taking a step back and stepping outside the building to avoid the foul-smelling debris.
He looked solemnly at the thunderous sky.
The top floor of the Shengtian Group was surrounded by dark lightning, ring after ring, like a thicket of thorns, or a huge, constructed nest, exuding an eerie and chilling aura.
Although these employees would be dealt with sooner or later, this was the first time Yan Shuo had used such brutal methods.
What exactly happened?
Meanwhile, Xie Xubai took the elevator to the top floor of the building.
Almost every time the elevator goes up a floor, it shakes unsteadily, and the built-in lights flash continuously.
Several sinister gazes locked onto him through the elevator doors, as if some monster was watching him intently from outside.
Xie Xubai held his breath, preparing for battle.
Strangely, after a short while, those gazes completely disappeared, becoming as quiet as if they had never existed.
Xie Xubai arrived at the thirty-second floor without any obstacles. As he exited the elevator, the corridor was lit up with warm yellow lights.
He walked straight to the president's office door, knocked again, and called out, "Yan Shuo? Yan Shuo!"
They couldn't hear Yan Shuo's voice, or even the slightest sound.
Xie Xubai frowned and released his spiritual energy, but it was like throwing it into a bottomless pit, with no response whatsoever.
His expression hardened, and he took two steps back. With the push and momentum from the golden light, he kicked open the office door!
"Yan Shuo!"
The office was empty.
Only a huge, pitch-black object, resembling a silkworm cocoon, floated silently in mid-air, almost taking up half of the office.
Xie Xubai sensed Yan Shuo's aura on it, and the oppressive force that had restrained the monster earlier seemed to have been released by it.
As they were observing, the giant object suddenly moved.
As if sensing Xie Xubai's approach, the airtight eggshell cracked open from the very center of the top down in several fissures.
Slippery, thick tentacles stretched out from inside, hooking around Xie Xubai's waist and slowly pulling him close.
Xie Xubai had been wrapped in Yan Shuo's tentacles many times. Through the familiar touch and the tension of the suction cups, he recognized that this was Yan Shuo's true form and there was no doubt about it.
He was about to show a relaxed smile, but then froze again.
The tentacles pulled Xie Xubai close, gently pressed against him, and then stopped moving.
Its tentacles are stiff, its outer skin is soft and elastic, containing a powerful and terrifying force, but it has no vitality at all, just like a dead object like a table or chair.
Xie Xubai hoped that he had misjudged the situation and misunderstood.
He used his mental power to examine the enormous object in front of him from the inside out, searching it over and over again countless times, and his heart finally sank down little by little.
“Yan Shuo…” Xie Xubai’s trembling hand pressed against the tentacle, his voice slightly unsteady, “Where has your consciousness gone?”
Author's Note:
Late apology QAQ I'll be sending 66 small red envelopes in the comments section as compensation.
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