Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ling PingAn became completely unaware of the passage of time as he immersed himself in the world of his imagination.
When he looked up again, the clock on the wall was already pointing toward 10:00 o’clock.
“Time passes so quickly!
“But this author writes too slowly!
“I finished the novel in just two or three hours…”
Ling PingAn stood up and stretched. He picked up his cup and walked over to the water fountain. He made himself another fragrant cup of tea.
He then carried this cup of tea to the counter and started to drink it.
Meow!
Lying on the counter was a small cat who had seemed to be sleeping but had obviously detected the fragrance of the tea and meowed at Ling PingAn.
“You want to have a drink too?” Ling PingAn scratched his head. He was confused. How would cats know how to drink tea?
“All right, all right…” Ling PingAn’s heart softened when he looked at the pitiful little cat. He took out a disposable cup and gave the cat half his tea.
The cat immediately got up and extended its pink tongue into the cup. It licked up the tea, enjoying itself.
……
Situ He stopped the car at the corner of the street.
Through his car window, he could see that the shops on the nearby street had already closed for the night.
It was already past 10:00 o’clock.
According to his investigation, the shops that operated on that street were either selling everyday items or breakfast.
Thus, it was normal for them to be closed at this hour.
As he watched, the shops on the street were closing their shutters, one after the other.
Soon the streetlights started to come on.
It was silent. It was extremely silent.
“Indeed…,” Zhang Hui, who was sitting shotgun, observed the goings-on through the rear-view mirror, “…it seems very odd.”
The street in front of him seemed normal on the surface.
However, then Zhang Hui took out a bottle of medicine and dripped some of its contents into his eye.
What he saw now was completely different.
The entire street seemed to lose its realism.
Both the illuminating streetlights and the tightly shut shops on the silent street…
Everything resembled stickers on the page of a book.
However, to the average person, they were incredibly realistic.
Zhang Hui didn’t know if this was something intentional that the person who occupied the bookstore had orchestrated.
Or if it was a result of the contortion of the psionic power that he had unintentionally released.
However, no matter what the reason, Zhang Hui knew that what he was facing was an existence that far exceeded his imagination.
He picked up his phone and dialed a number.
“Commander in Chief…,” After the call connected, Zhang Hui calmly reported, “…I’ve already arrived at the perimeter of the target location.
“Yes, I’ve used the medicine you created.
“Based on my current observations, I think that the situation is even more extreme than what we had previously thought.
“He seems to have contorted space. Time might even have been muddied by him.
“This is an unprecedented discovery!”
The Blackguards had encountered similar situations to this.
Once, at Mount Li…
Where the mausoleum of Emperor Qin was located…
Space had been contorted and severed by a terrifying power.
People who stepped into the area would frequently and unknowingly appear at a place thousands of miles or even tens of thousands of miles away.
Finally, the situation had only been resolved after the Commander in Chief had personally stepped onto Mount Li.
However, Zhang Hui knew that the Commander in Chief had been injured during that incident.
But then the abnormalities at Mount Li had disappeared.
The power that had contorted the space had been temporarily subdued.
Thinking about this, Zhang Hui calmly said, “I wish to step into the fog together with General Situ.
“To meet with the person…
“Don’t worry, Commander in Chief, I will act with caution!
“Judging from the situation as reported by General Situ, there shouldn’t be too much danger as long as I don’t break his rules.
“Yes…” Zhang Hui hung up.
Then he turned to Situ He and said, “General, do you remember how you entered the fog last night?”
Situ He nodded.
“Great!” Zhang Hui said, “Then I’ll have to bother you, General…”
So the two of them pushed open the car door and stepped outside.
They walked to the edge of the street.
Situ He immediately performed a hand gesture, “Stars on the terrace, flickers in the everchanging causatum. Demons be exorcised, spirits be shackled, break the barrier, and expose the evil!”
He placed his palms on the ground. Two yin-yang fishes appeared on the ground.
But…
The street in front of them did not react.
Seeing this, Situ He cast the spell again in a hurry, “Stars on the terrace, flickers in the everchanging causatum. Demons be exorcised, spirits be shackled, break the barrier, and expose the evil!”
This time, he only pressed his palms on the ground after he had taken a deep breath.
The yin-yang fishes that appeared on the ground were much larger than before.
But…
There was still no effect.
“There’s no point in trying anymore!” Zhang Hui stopped Situ He who was about to cast the spell a third time. He looked at the street in front of them. The shops looked like an oil painting that had been pasted onto this world.
The streetlights that were illuminating the street looked even more like graffiti that had been scrawled by a child.
“It is clear.” Zhang Hui said, “General Situ, you only managed to go into the bookstore the previous time because the master of this space was not guarding against your barrier-dispelling technique.
“But now…
The same technique won’t work twice.”
Since that was the case…
Zhang Hui knit his brows.
If they could not even see this person, how could they communicate with him?
Did they have to come during the day?
Zhang Hui fell deep in thought.
He had a premonition that there would be two different results if they met the person in the daytime rather than at night.
“Try this…” Situ He took out a flashlight.
It was the flashlight that he had asked for from Ling PingAn the previous night.
He turned it on. A bolt of light illuminated the area in front of them.
The area in front of them immediately became hazy.
It was as if a door had been opened or a visitor had pressed on the doorbell and received a reply from the master to enter.
Fog. An endless fog appeared before their eyes.
“General, you have to take good care of your flashlight,” Zhang Hui said seriously.
That was a key. It might also be their safe passage.
“I understand.” Situ He nodded.
“Let’s go!” Zhang Hui took a deep breath, then stepped into the fog. Situ He followed closely behind him.
……
Gasp!
Zhang Hui immediately noticed that something was off when he stepped into the fog.
His senses had been suppressed…
His senses had been suppressed completely the moment he stepped into the fog.
More important, his psionic senses had been blocked completely.
This meant that he had become an ordinary person in the fog.
At this moment, even a few hooligans would be able to defeat him, a Blackguard expert whose reputation had spread throughout the world and a lieutenant general who presided over the safety of the palace.
Furthermore, the fog not only sealed off his powers.
It also obscured his field of vision.
He could not determine left from right.
Fortunately, at this moment, the light from the flashlight fell onto his body.
“Secretary,” Situ He walked up to him, “please follow me!”
The flashlight shone in front of them. It made the fog in front less thick.
He could finally see a path in front of him.
Zhang Hui looked into the distance. He saw a flickering light wavering in the distance.
That was the place where Situ He had been last night.
It seemed like a place where an ancient deity resided.
According to Situ He’s report, it was there that he’d encountered unprecedented peril. It was also there that he had obtained the mysterious book, “Ghosts and Souls”.
“That’s right!” Zhang Hui suddenly said, “If everything goes well tonight, come with me again tomorrow during the day, General. We’ll have a look at the bookstore during the day…”
