202: Chapter 202 Gate

The morgue on the third basement level of Jiangzhou First People's Hospital.

The air was filled with a pungent mixture of formalin and disinfectant, and cold air drifted down in wisps from the overhead vents, sending a chill deep into one's bones.

Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan leaned against the cold tiled wall of the corridor, holding a freshly lit cigarette in her hand.

The crimson tip of the cigarette flickered in the dim light, casting a glow on her face, which was lined with exhaustion and bloodshot eyes.

She rarely smoked, only resorting to nicotine to suppress her inner agitation when faced with the irreversible casualties of ordinary people.

The heavy metal door of the morgue was pushed open.

A girl who looked to be in her early twenties stumbled out, supported by two special service agents.

Her eyes were red and swollen like walnuts, and she tightly clutched a crude peace talisman worth only ten yuan in her hand.

She was Zhang Ya, the younger sister of Little Zhang, the night shift security guard at Jinxiu Huating.

"Captain Chu..."

Zhang Ya's voice was incredibly hoarse as her tears burst forth once again.

"My brother... before he left yesterday, he told me that once he got paid, he would take me to that new barbecue place. How did he... how did he turn into a pile of porcelain shards and gears?"

Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan felt as if her heart had been violently squeezed.

She stubbed out her cigarette, stood up straight, and walked over to Zhang Ya.

As a female captain of The Ninth Bureau who was accustomed to life and death and had fought her way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, she should have had a standard official speech of comfort ready.

But when the words reached her lips, she couldn't bring herself to say them.

The seven homicides that occurred last night had all claimed the lives of innocent, ordinary citizens.

They hadn't provoked anyone; simply because they had heard the melody of a music box in the foggy dead of night, they had their lives forcibly stripped away and their physical forms rewritten by that overbearing and unreasonable Western rule-based anomaly.

The citizens of Great Xia had only recently learned the truth about the supernatural revival, and they were currently in an extremely sensitive period.

These living, breathing human beings, who were bustling about for their livelihoods one second, became victims of the power play between major nations and the shadow wars of extraordinary forces the next.

"Zhang Ya, I'm sorry. It's our Ninth Bureau's fault for failing to protect your brother."

Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan reached out and tightly hugged the girl, who was on the verge of a breakdown.

"Rest assured, the state will take full responsibility for your brother's matter. I promise that the thing that killed him, as well as the masterminds who brought it to Jiangzhou, will be made to pay in blood."

After seeing Zhang Ya off in a private car heading home, Deputy Director Gao Guoliang walked over from the other end of the corridor.

The face of this deputy director of the First Division of The Ninth Bureau was currently just as dark as night.

"Have the family members been comforted?"

Deputy Director Gao Guoliang handed Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan a bottle of mineral water.

Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan took the water and squeezed the plastic bottle tightly, making it creak loudly.

"What's the use of comforting them? The dead cannot be brought back to life."

Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan grit her teeth, a chilling murderous intent flashing in her eyes.

"Deputy Director, those bastards from Eagle Country's S.H.I.E.L.D.—this kind of indiscriminate rule-based attack that treats human lives like grass is even more vicious than evil cultivators."

"Are we really only able to defend ourselves passively?"

Deputy Director Gao Guoliang sighed and looked into the darkness at the end of the corridor.

"Hongyan, you have to understand. I also looked at those corpses from last night. There was no yin energy, no ghostly energy—it was pure conceptual and rule-based erasure."

"If Lin Ye hadn't used a Qimen formation last night to forcibly reverse cause and effect, causing a backlash that killed the agent hiding in the dark, I'm afraid there would be hundreds or thousands more ceramic dolls in Jiangzhou City's morgue this morning."

Deputy Director Gao Guoliang patted Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan on the shoulder.

"This is just a warning. Eagle Country's S.H.I.E.L.D. is telling us that their methods of attack are pervasive, and that is the truly terrifying part."

"Issue an order immediately to have the Technical Department monitor all abnormal electromagnetic wavebands and broadcast frequencies in Jiangzhou City twenty-four hours a day."

"Western anomalies usually require a specific medium to trigger their rules, such as sound, images, or a certain wavelength. We must not let them exploit any more loopholes."

Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan nodded solemnly, turned, and walked away quickly.

...

At the same time.

In the backyard of Lins Funeral Shop on Taiping Old Street.

The sunlight fell softly on the bluestone slabs of the courtyard.

A few potted green plants in the corner of the wall looked vibrant, nourished by the morning dew.

Lin Ye, dressed in loose grey cotton and linen loungewear, was lying on the old wicker chair in the center of the yard.

Next to the wicker chair was a small wooden table, on which sat a pot of brewed Biluochun tea and a notebook with yellowed pages and slightly tattered edges.

This notebook was a relic left behind by his grandfather in a hidden compartment of the Funeral Shop before he disappeared.

Lin Ye held a piece of rubbing paper previously sent by Blind Chen. The cinnabar handwriting on it, which read "King Zhou's Underworld Array has begun to loosen," was in the exact same calligraphic style as the notebook.

He opened the notebook, the pages rustling softly.

He had flipped through this notebook countless times before.

Most of what was recorded inside were obscure and difficult feng shui arts of dragon-seeking, as well as methods for drawing various talismans.

Today, as he calmed his mind and connected these words with recent events, he actually discerned some different clues.

In the latter half of the notebook, the handwriting on a few pages appeared particularly chaotic.

The writer's state of mind at the time must have been extremely unsettled.

"The Year of Jiachen, Winter. Observing the stars at night, Mars is in Antares. There are unusual movements in all the eyes of Great Xia's dragon veins; that 'door' can barely be suppressed any longer."

"The resurgence of spiritual energy brings both blessings and disasters. Even if this old man possesses heaven-defying abilities, a single tree cannot support a falling house. I can only leave those two coffins of extreme yin on Taiping Old Street to nurture the transformation of pure yang."

"Ye'er, if you open this scroll one day, remember that all things in the world cannot escape the concept of Yin and Yang."

"Do not be blinded by appearances. The ghosts you see may not be ghosts; the gods you see may not be gods. The true catastrophe is hidden within the 'reflection'..."

Lin Ye's gaze lingered on the word "reflection" for a long time, unable to look away.

"Just how many things is the old man hiding from me?"

Lin Ye picked up his teacup and took a gentle sip.

"He ran off to travel the world on his own, leaving me with such a huge mess and two lethal, peerless, malevolent entities."

"How is this a real grandfather? He's practically the reincarnation of Zhou Bapi... Once I catch him one day, I'll definitely make him settle all the child support and mental distress fees from these past few years."

Although he grumbled and complained, in his heart, he was deeply concerned about the stubborn old man who had raised him since childhood.

In this chaotic world where the supernatural ran rampant, the old man was setting up his plans all by himself out there; the level of danger was easily imaginable.

"What are you reading?"

A voice as clear and cold as spring water came from behind him.

Leng Yue slowly walked up behind the wicker chair.

She reached out with her soft, delicate hands, placing them naturally on Lin Ye's temples and massaging them with just the right amount of pressure.

The slight chill from her fingertips perfectly eased the exhaustion brought on by Lin Ye's overthinking.

"Reading the heavenly book left behind by the old man."

Lin Ye leaned back, comfortably resting the back of his head against Leng Yue's abdomen, closing his eyes to enjoy this rare moment of warmth.

"This old fellow is so mysterious, and his handwriting looks like chicken scratch. I reckon he must have failed his language class back then."

A very faint smile appeared at the corners of Leng Yue's mouth.

"You just can't say anything serious. If Grandpa were here, he would probably chase you with a broom again."

Having been with Lin Ye for a long time, Leng Yue had unconsciously adopted his way of speaking, naturally calling him "Grandpa" as well.

She looked down at Lin Ye's relaxed face, a hint of reminiscence and melancholy showing in her dark gold eyes.

"Husband, have you ever thought about how long a thousand years is?"

Leng Yue's voice was very soft, as if she was afraid of shattering the sunlight that filled the courtyard.

Lin Ye opened his eyes, reached back to hold her jade-like hand that was massaging his forehead, pulled it to his lips, and gently kissed the back of her hand.

"A thousand years? That is indeed too long. It's enough for dynasties to change several times, and enough for the people on the streets to be replaced a hundred times over. Why the sudden sentimentality?"

Leng Yue sat down on a nearby stone bench.

"While I slept in that black coffin of aged wood, though I could not speak or move, my consciousness was always awake."

Her gaze drifted past the courtyard walls, looking up at the high, distant sky.

"That feeling was like being discarded in a bottomless deep sea, with nothing but endless darkness and coldness around me."

"Every day, every moment, I could hear the sound of the death energy condensing within my body. There was no sound, no light, only time ruthlessly carving its marks upon me."

Leng Yue's tone was extremely flat as she described a terrifying experience that would have driven any ordinary person insane.

The price of the Millennium Drought Demon's ultimate cultivation was this thousand years of extreme loneliness.

"Until that day, when a drop of your blood fell onto the coffin."

Leng Yue turned her head, looking straight into Lin Ye's eyes.

In those eyes that had always been indifferent to everything, there was now a blazing and deep bond.

"That was the first warmth I felt besides the darkness. Husband, you are my only anchor in this world."

"Without you, what does it matter to me what becomes of this world, or whether this spiritual energy revives or withers? As long as you are here, I will be here. If anyone dares to harm you even a fraction, I will turn this mortal world into a true purgatory."