The night is deep, the streetlights dim, the streets of the old town seem far quieter than the city center. A night wind blows through the buildings, sounding like an invisible giant beast crouched in the night sky, breathing deeply.
The snow on the roadside hasn't lted yet, shining coldly under the lights. Yu Sheng leads a few family mbers down the street where his nephew lost his roasted sweet potato during the day. Zheng Zhi just walks beside Yu Sheng, wrapped up in a down jacket like a dumpling, sniffing in the wind.
Yu Sheng is wearing a loose overcoat, and Erin (blonde) is snuggled into his arms, only exposing a small head. Upon hearing the nasal noise, the little puppet whispers while hanging onto the head, "You kind of have a weak constitution, little nephew. Young n just aren't resilient to the cold..."
"How can I compete with you all?" Zheng Zhi almost laughs in exasperation, rolling his eyes at the group of demon-like creatures nearby—a three-thousand-year-old puppet, a nine-tailed demon fox, an artificial saintess with a body of steel—and the only one left, Yu Sheng, is barely human-shaped. This bunch could probably butterfly stroke back even if tossed into Subspace. "I'm just an ordinary person, how am I supposed to compete with you guys in terms of physical endurance?"
Before Zheng Zhi's words could land, a gust of cold wind sweeps down the street, making him sneeze repeatedly.
"Ah-choo..." The little nephew rubs his nose and looks up at Yu Sheng, "Brother Yu, you haven't said where we're going yet. Is there a plan? Did you guys hear any inside info from the director?"
Yu Sheng and Erin respond in unison, "No plan at all."
Zheng Zhi is suddenly taken aback, "...Huh?"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you when we left," Yu Sheng says, finally slapping his head and earnestly explaining the plan to the super intern agent in front of him. "Here's the idea, we'll take you to places where the artificial saintess has appeared or might appear again, then if you see anything suspicious, dangerous, or pitch-black, just go ahead and stick your nose in, and we'll be here to back you up. The main goal is to pull you back before anything happens…"
Zheng Zhi listens, dumbfounded, and suddenly steps back half a pace: "This plan doesn't sound scientific!"
"But it's mystical," Yu Sheng steps over and pats the nephew on the shoulder, "There's enough mysticism in you. Leave the rest to us professionals—just think positively, after all, we don't have any clues yet and the Special Service Bureau has been searching for a whole day without finding a hair. Consider it an evening stroll anyway, it's not a loss."
Zheng Zhi nods absent-mindedly, unsure whether he's been fooled by Yu Sheng or stunned by the pats. Suddenly, he shivers in the night.
Nearby, Hu Li suddenly perks her ears up (especially since there's no one around at night, she hasn't even hidden her tail), "Did you sense sothing?"
Zheng Zhi wraps himself tighter in his down jacket, "...I'm cold."
Yu Sheng: "…"
But no matter, Zheng Zhi eventually accepts the setup smoothly—mostly because he's used to it. He had coordinated similar tasks on Qianfeng Ling Mountain, having abundant victim experiences and an excellently high psychological endurance regarding the "human at map exploration."
They did not discover anything unusual near the street alley where the incident occurred during the day.
They only ran into a Special Service Bureau action team patrolling nearby—upon seeing Yu Sheng, the team almost got scared to death, probably thinking sothing had happened. Later, they relaxed when they realized the travel agency folks just couldn't stay ho and decided to go wild outside. Their expressions relaxed as if the world had restored peace...
And Yu Sheng decided they'd better avoid the bureau patrol teams.
After checking several spots in the old town, Zheng Zhi still hasn't triggered any special map events, and ti draws near to the late hours. Yu Sheng pulls out his phone to check the ti, muttering, "This isn't much better than a headless fly…"
Sothing squirms in his arms, and the little puppet's head pops out again, looking solemn, "Do we need to add so trigger condition?"
"What trigger condition?" Yu Sheng casually asks while surveying the surroundings—this place is near a comrcial street on the edge of the old town, where stores and malls have long plunged into darkness. Silence leaves only the streetlights' warm, dim glow, and a shimring indicator light by an underground parking entrance is the only thing nearby.
Erin ponders seriously, then turns to Zheng Zhi with a grave expression, "Little nephew, how about sending a ssage to your family? Say you love them. Then ssage Li Lin, telling him you're glad to be colleagues. If you have a secret crush on a girl, confess now—if that doesn't work, start a diary, rip it out, and hide it in a roadside trash can, landscaping belt, or security booth, writing so mysterious number or letter on each page…"
Zheng Zhi listens and gets increasingly uneasy, finally looking up at Yu Sheng, "Brother Yu, why do I feel like I've heard this lousy idea before?"
Yu Sheng nods in agreent, "It does sound familiar… but her last suggestion wasn't this detailed."
He suddenly opens a small door nearby and pulls out a pen and several pieces of paper to hand to Zheng Zhi, "Anyway, just give it a try."
Zheng Zhi is completely shocked, never expecting this lousy idea to be serious. He looks up at Yu Sheng in disbelief, "Really gonna write it, Brother Yu?"
"A desperate asure for desperate tis, no one can say for sure with mystical matters—and mainly, it's already late night, without progress, we'll have to call it off and go ho," Yu Sheng waves his hand, "Don't worry, I've got you covered."
Zheng Zhi took the papers with a worried expression, pondering whether to write a diary or a letter to soone. After much hesitation, he finally started writing, muttering while he did: "Alright, I've got a sister in junior high school—I'll write her a letter. But I can't actually send it, might scare the girl. So, what's the most 'trouble-starting' opening line?"
Yu Sheng stroked his chin: "Oh, then start with 'Our family has fallen'—that's serious business."
Zheng Zhi looked up blankly: "…there's only four of us total…"
"Write it like that anyway."
"Okay."
Zheng Zhi sighed, wrote the salutation, followed by "Dear sister, I've got sothing to tell you, our family has fallen…"
Yu Sheng was watching from the side, not really taking this thod seriously. Mainly, it had been a long night with no progress, everyone was exhausted. His mindset was 99% on forcing so fun—the Special Service Bureau's experts couldn't figure out Spiritual Vision, an unpredictable thing; how could Erin's sketchy idea possibly…
A faint mist appeared on the edge of the view, shimring with the crooked light from the streetlamp.
Snowflakes began to drift down from the sky—big ones, like shattered letters, falling slowly from the darkness. They joined the thin mist, gradually covering the ground.
Zheng Zhi was writing, the cold making his fingers tremble, but the tremor slowly shifted into a rapid vibration—the speed of his writing increased rapidly, leaving lingering shadows of the pen tip on the paper. The intersecting lines completely lost their shape, resembling chaotic symbols layered on the paper.
"…What the hell!"
Erin let out a small exclamation.
Yu Sheng reacted even faster—he stepped forward sharply, pressing down on Zheng Zhi's swiftly writing hand, while simultaneously pulling away the paper held in his other hand.
Hu Li then raised a hand and waved, sending a streak of dark blue spiritual light straight at Zheng Zhi's face, which transford into Protective Spirit Qi and swiftly perated his body.
Zheng Zhi snapped awake suddenly, seemingly confused about what had happened, but soon regained his senses. He pointed towards the underground parking entrance nearby: "Brother Yu, there's sothing… sothing there!"
"Got it," Yu Sheng opened a door leading to a valley in the air before Zheng Zhi even finished speaking, "You've completed your task, leave the rest to us—go rest at Mr. Yun's place tonight."
Zheng Zhi didn't dawdle after hearing this; he straightforwardly walked through the door: "Okay—Brother Yu, be very careful!"
The next mont, Zheng Zhi's figure passed through the door, and the illusory door vanished into the air.
The surrounding mist quickly thickened, more snowflakes fell from the sky.
Erin was still a bit stunned, muttering as she looked at the direction Zheng Zhi had left: "Hey, what's the principle behind this? How is it actually working…"
"I have every reason to suspect the young nephew is so sort of rule-based anomaly. The Special Service Bureau claiming he simply has higher Spiritual Vision than ordinary people is definitely concealing sothing," Yu Sheng spoke quickly, "But now isn't the ti to pursue these details—did you all sense it? This environnt… feels familiar."
"Like when that 'Dark Alley' suddenly widened," Hu Li was most sensitive to changes in atmosphere, and she imdiately said, "Another space is overlapping."
The Nine-tailed demon fox behind her slowly unfurled, puncturing the fog with ghostly blue Fox Fire. Erin climbed out from Yu Sheng's embrace, speaking quickly as she perched on his shoulder, "Yu Sheng, open the door and get my pot…"
Luna remained silent, simply sweeping her hand across the split nun's gown hem, ejecting blades from hidden compartnts on both thighs, preparing for battle.
Yu Sheng's gaze fell on the underground parking entrance nearby.
The environnt was shifting; the entrance expanded visibly, transforming into a bizarre cave mixed with steel, concrete, rock, and soil. The entrance lights and signs tilted, and their glow turned dark red like blood. From several lamps, viscous matter dripped, hissing with corrosion as it fell on the snowy ground.
The group stepped towards that increasingly twisted, bizarre entrance.
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