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墨書 Inktalez
The Blue-Purple Gridded Matrix Light scanned down from the sky, weaving back and forth through the forest several times before finally disappearing just as Miao Chengmin was about to reach his limit. It seemed to have stopped due to a lack of findings. All the zombies stood silently, like statues, even the faint vibrations caused by their souls drawing energy from the outside world had become intermittent, unlike the previous chaotic rhythm. The howling sound swirled above their heads, continuing for five minutes, with everyone’s nerves taut, occasionally glancing at their leader, Miao Chengmin.
Among the zombies, Miao Chengmin held his arms high above his head. Fortunately, he did not experience pain like a human would; if he had to maintain such a position with human physical capabilities for so long, he would likely be too sore to move. Even so, Miao Chengmin still felt extremely fatigued as his strength continuously surged outward along his arms, a sense of exhaustion growing stronger—he was solely sustaining a Anti-Cosmic Energy barrier that spanned over five hundred meters. Anti-Cosmic Energy was the primary form of energy within the Chaos Crystals. Apart from Chaos Crystals, this energy only existed in the negative Yulou layers of cosmic space, accessible only to beings from the demon realm. No one knew the composition of Anti-Cosmic Energy, including Miao Chengmin and Virgil, who had gained power from the Chaos Crystals. However, there was a legend in the Divine Realm that Anti-Cosmic Energy and Cosmic Energy were not mirror-symmetrical entities; yet when they collided, they produced very peculiar reactions.
For Miao Chengmin, he only knew that the energy within him could counteract any radiation present in this space. It seemed that once Anti-Cosmic Energy was unleashed, it could create an independent space apart from Earth. This was why when Virgil and he gathered energy together, it evoked a sense of strangeness.
The microwaves emitted by An Xiaotian’s Soul Detection Equipment were completely blocked by the massive barrier that Miao Chengmin had erected, functioning like an anti-radar system. However, this equipment relied on displaying soul intensity to mark life locations; not detecting any souls among all the Spirit Corps did not mean it could not see life forms with zero soul intensity. It found life, but that life lacked a guiding soul—the Soulless Zombie was what it had scanned. Soul and life are two different entities; if a complete organism is a ship, then the soul is its helmsman while life is the ship itself. A life without a soul would unconditionally obey its creator in all actions.
Currently, only George from the Spirit Corps Vanguard had caught a glimpse of this Soulless Zombie in the woods by chance; he could not even determine whether it was an animal or a Soulless. Yet the imaging brought by An Xiaotian clearly indicated the existence of Soulless, right near the graveyard where Gravekeeper Shi Jinwen had gone missing. Nars had sent An Xiaotian to scan with the intention of confirming whether these true zombies were still in this forest. If not, it would mean that those who had summoned the Soulless here had already led their zombies elsewhere; then everything would become dire. If they were still here, then they—the Celestial Warriors—would immediately mobilize to eliminate future threats. However, what they did not know was that besides the Soulless, there was also a group of Spirit Corps Vanguard descended from the Divine Realm.
“Still here?” asked Miao Chengmin, his legs beginning to tremble unnaturally.
“They flew away,” George confirmed at last.
Only then did Miao Chengmin dare to lower his arms slowly after ensuring that whatever it was had vanished into the distance. All the zombies let out a collective sigh; some collapsed onto the ground like puddles of mud, complaining as if they were more exhausted than him.
“When will these days of hiding end…”
“Exactly! Why did I even come back!”
…
With his shoulders slightly drooping, Miao Chengmin didn’t sit down but sighed softly. The morale within the team was nearing collapse; he knew that if he failed to lead well, his teammates would eventually blame him. As the only soul chosen by the Chaos Crystals, he had to protect his comrades as compensation for them. Although he felt he owed them nothing, there was an underlying feeling that he hadn’t given them hope.
“Let’s rest for now, brothers,” said Miao Chengmin.
George was the only one who came over to comfort him: “Big Brother, you’ve worked hard. If it weren’t for you, I think we would have been completely exposed by now.”
“It’s not over,” gasped Miao Chengmin, his chest swelling and deflating like a balloon. “It’s still not over.”
“What’s not over?” George suddenly became tense again.
Turning to face George, Miao Chengmin asked: “Did you just find an ID badge?”
George hesitated but nodded.
“And did you see a pool of blood?”
George nodded vigorously.
“Isn’t that clear? That’s our answer.” With intense focus on where the Fierce Eagle had disappeared, he said: “Virgil summoned all the Soulless here and casually dealt with an innocent Caretaker. The disappearance of the Caretaker will inevitably attract human society's attention; then there will be police investigations—but this case will be too bizarre for them! They will need some special powers, like those from soul detection.”
“Is Earth so advanced now? Didn’t humans not believe in souls?” George asked incredulously.
“There’s nothing impossible; only possibilities yet to occur,” pondered Miao Chengmin. “Or perhaps there are mature civilizations in space willing to lend us their technology… oh no, I mean for us Earthlings to use; their relationship must be quite good.”
“Are you saying Earth has entered a star domain society?” George said with relief. “It seems Earth’s development has never let me down.”
Suddenly recalling something, Miao Chengmin nudged George: “What we’re discussing now has nothing to do with us anymore; remember we are merely the vanguard sent by the Divine Realm. George, enlarge your view towards where we originally saw it disappear; I feel something is about to happen.”
George magnified his vision and spotted two helicopters on the ground where the Fierce Eagle had vanished.
"It seems like..."
"It seems like what?"
"Hurry and gather the others, big brother! It seems they are starting to come this way."
From the perspective of The Celestial Warriors Alliance
The rotor blades of the second helicopter slowly came to a stop, and the swirling dust made it hard for Lu Sha to open her eyes. Lu Sha shielded her nose with her arm, squinting as she watched the police jump down from the helicopter, waiting for orders.
"The temporary police team called by Mayor Tan is assembled. How we proceed depends on the arrangements made by The Celestial Warriors," General Jiang said to An Xiaotian and Liu Xuan.
"What do you say, Captain?" Liu Xuan pointed at Sister Jiao An and Lu Sha.
"Lu Sha will team up with you, Jiao An will be with me."
Jiao An nodded, but Lu Sha seemed to have some objections; her mouth formed a small circle as she said, "Ah, can I be with Sister Jiao An?"
In fact, she had just swallowed back the words she almost said—Can I be with Captain Xiaotian?
"Stop messing around, Sasa. This isn't child's play; follow orders during the mission," Jiao An poked her. Lu Sha pouted and had no choice but to walk over to Liu Xuan. She playfully punched Liu Xuan's shoulder and mischievously looked at his profile, "Long time no see." Liu Xuan just smiled shyly and said nothing.
According to General Jiang's plan, The Celestial Warriors and the police would split into two groups, pairing one with the other. They would initially set off along the same route to jointly respond to any unknown situations that might arise. The forest was eerily quiet, and occasional sudden bird calls would make one's heart skip a beat. The police members tightly gripped their handguns, scanning their surroundings in fear that something might suddenly appear. An Xiaotian's armor quickly assembled around his head, obscuring his face behind the heavy armor. He adjusted the Thruster's power to its lowest setting and began a slow low-altitude patrol in front of everyone. Jiao An followed closely behind him with the Fate Conqueror, her alert gaze scanning left and right through the dark green holographic analysis visor. After walking quietly in the forest for about half an hour, Jiao An spoke up suddenly, startling everyone: "We’ll reach it in a few more steps."
A few more steps forward would reveal the full view of the graveyard. After a brief exchange with the second group, An Xiaotian and Sister Jiao An were tasked with leading the search for clues within the graveyard while Liu Xuan and Lu Sha were responsible for actions on the periphery; their goal was to find the Soulless mentioned by Nars. An Xiaotian ascended again, hovering fifteen meters above ground to carefully survey the graveyard. The soil was littered with footprints, chaotic and disordered, and there were also some torn pieces of fabric near certain tombstones. An Xiaotian glided through low altitude like a ghost; his gaze swept over two connected graves when he suddenly sensed something.
An Xiaotian turned his head back—there was a white object on the ground, clearly marked by previous police sampling. He landed and initially doubted his guess until he tentatively kicked at the small white ball; when it flipped over revealing blackness underneath, it startled An Xiaotian.
The black part was a pupil—it was an eyeball.
Suppressing the acid churning in his stomach, An Xiaotian picked up the dirt-covered eyeball. After hesitating for a long time, he finally placed it into a storage box at his waist.
"Did you find something?" Jiao An asked as she noticed he was taking too long to move.
"Nothing; I must have seen things," An Xiaotian replied as he turned to take off again but felt something tugging at his ankle. Looking down, he saw Sister Jiao An gripping him tightly.
"You're lying," Jiao An said.
An Xiaotian unlocked his helmet and gave a wry smile: "You won't want to see it; we have to turn it in anyway. I'll show you later."
"Wait a moment." Jiao An pushed past An Xiaotian and crouched down to examine closely where the eyeball had been embedded because she noticed that there were large gaps in the soil ahead and obvious dampness; along that line was loose soil. She reached her fingers into the semicircular pit where the eyeball had sunk in; as soon as she touched the edge of the soil, stones and sand began to collapse inward revealing a thin line that pointed directly toward an exposed stone block just a step away.
"This..." An Xiaotian couldn't comprehend; it was clearly man-made but what was its purpose?
"It should indicate the distance between two locations," Jiao An analyzed while raising her camera. "If that's true, then this stone represents the next victim target."
"The next grave?" An Xiaotian muttered to himself.
"Officer Qiao!"
A team member interrupted their thoughts as he approached to report: "According to images provided by law enforcement, there should have been an ID card lying in this patch of grass, but now it's gone."
Jiao An brushed aside her fallen short hair and took over his holographic tablet—there was a photo taken by law enforcement showing an ID card in that patch of grass, but now it was completely empty.
"I have a question," Jiao An said, resting his chin on his hand. "Why don't they just take it directly?"
"I'm not sure," the guard replied.
Jiao An decisively pulled out his communicator and dialed General Jiang's number at the helicopter.
"General, I need your help with something," Jiao An said, looking towards the helicopter.
"Go ahead."
"Could you please ask Mayor Tan if his police officers have come here a second time? If they have, why didn't they take the work ID on the ground as evidence for investigation? Thank you, General."
General Jiang acknowledged and hung up the phone. On the real-time display screen in the helicopter, he saw Jiao An's perspective pull back from his direction and look towards An Xiaotian. General Jiang felt reassured about the two of them since they were both Special Forces Soldiers. However, he couldn't let his guard down with the other two. In fact, General Jiang wasn't very satisfied with An Xiaotian's grouping, but he wasn't the type to voice his concerns openly. He chose to trust An Xiaotian's arrangements, even though he was still just a young recruit in his twenties with only a few years of service.
The perspective shifted to Liu Xuan and Lu Sha's side.
The dense foliage severely affected Liu Xuan and Lu Sha's progress as they led their team.
"Lu Sha, move over that way," Liu Xuan pointed towards the direction of the stream.
Lu Sha nodded and went alone towards the bushes without calling for backup.
"Hey, don't stray too far from us," Liu Xuan called out quickly.
"Don't worry, it's fine," Lu Sha replied without looking back, not out of unwillingness but because she had forgotten. She had seen something shocking.
"What on earth...?"
Lu Sha leaned against a tree, staring blankly at the murky river water. Upon closer inspection, it seemed mixed with blood flowing into the muddy water down the mountain.
"How could this happen?" Lu Sha approached the riverbank, extending her hands into the water to scoop up some of the murky liquid, her eyes trembling slightly.
"Lu Sha?"
"Lu Sha!"
"Hey!" Lu Sha suddenly snapped back to reality and turned to run back inside.
"Uh... uh..."
Lu Sha's head buzzed as if she were being pressed by ice, feeling uncomfortable all over.
That sound...
It felt like her neural connections had short-circuited; she didn't dare glance sideways.
"Uh..."
She could sense something rapidly approaching her!
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