The night was pitch-black, like spilled ink.
Outside a villa, the red glow of police tape silently sliced across the street.
Several black panel vans bearing special markings were parked in a triangular formation in front of the residence, their engines idling low to power the silver searchlights mounted on their roofs.
The beams pierced the fog, only to twist and dim strangely the moment they touched the outer walls of the house—as though swallowed by some invisible darkness.
More than ten fully armed personnel stood at various positions on alert.
Their armor showed clear traces of energy flow, and the firearms they carried were noticeably different from standard-issue weapons—heavier, bulkier.
“Unauthorised personnel, do not spectate! Do not attempt to cross the perimeter! Violators will face severe punishment!”
A clear, commanding female voice rang out across the entire street, causing some of the distant onlookers to turn toward the woman who had spoken.
She was a black-haired adult woman who radiated authority.
Both her gaze and her tone made it impossible to underestimate her.
Although she wasn’t wearing the same heavy gear as the others—only a blue uniform similar to a police outfit—she still held a “Truth” in her hand, which lent her more than enough deterrence.
“Additionally, recording and photography are prohibited on site! Anyone caught will face severe consequences!” the black-haired woman continued in a stern warning.
She knew some defiant civilians would try to sneak photos from afar.
She couldn’t catch them herself, but that wasn’t really a problem.
Their organisation had reviewers on every platform those people could possibly upload to.
If anyone posted footage of the scene, it could be taken down very easily.
“Report.”
One of the fully armed members approached the woman in charge.
“Miss Li Meng has arrived.”
“She’s here? Let me check the time… seven minutes. Not bad. Bring her over quickly.”
“Understood.”
After receiving the order, the armed officer immediately escorted Li Meng to the person in charge, then returned to his previous position to resume watch.
When Li Meng stood face-to-face with the woman, even someone as normally carefree and playful as her couldn’t help feeling a little nervous—though she still wore that cute smile on her face.
“Um… Sister Nan, good evening?”
The woman called Sister Nan turned to look at her and gave her a quick once-over.
This girl… her hair isn’t even dry.
She probably rushed over right after a shower?
But… there’s something strange about her…
“Hm… Li Meng, is there… something on you…”
Sister Nan narrowed her eyes, leaned in close, and sniffed.
She could smell a fragrance, but it wasn’t shower gel.
It was something… very hollow… and oddly unsettling.
Years of experience as a ‘Youxun’ dealing with the guiyi told her this was definitely not an ordinary scent.
“Huh? No, probably just the shower.”
Li Meng tried to deflect, but her near-unchanging expression made it impossible for Sister Nan to tell whether she was lying.
With a sigh, Sister Nan pulled back.
“Still feels off somehow… Never mind. You’re all grown up now; it’s normal to have a few little secrets.”
“Mm… so… what’s the situation right now?”
“As you can see, we’ve locked down the scene and evacuated all unrelated personnel from the house. The Bowler detector is showing a ‘chimei’-level reaction inside, but for some reason it’s unstable. The ‘Xianyi’ can only keep running for about another thirteen minutes. With your speed, though, you should be able to handle it in three minutes, right?”
“Mm, then I’ll head in now~”
After a brief goodbye to Sister Nan, Li Meng stepped across the perimeter tape, pushed open the villa’s main gate, and entered the front courtyard.
Because high walls blocked the view from outside, once she was in the courtyard, Qiu Qiqian—who had been residing inside Li Meng’s body the whole time—could finally come out for some “fresh air,” even though she didn’t actually need it.
“Phew… that woman has a really strong presence… By the way, why didn’t you let me out earlier?”
“Um… first, because some of the security personnel out there have x-ray gear. If you came out, you’d definitely be spotted. Second… Sister Nan… because of some things that happened in the past, she basically hates guiyi to the bone. If she found out you were here, who knows what she might do.”
“Is her position really high?”
Qiu Qiqian asked subconsciously after seeing how much respect Li Meng showed this “Sister Nan.”
“Mm… if we’re ranking by combat ability, Sister Nan is a ‘Youxun.’ ‘Youxun’ are the ones who rely on equipment to fight guiyi but aren’t ‘Nether Bodies’ themselves. Actually, almost everyone you saw standing guard outside just now is a ‘Youxun.’ But Sister Nan has a ton of instructional experience—many of the Nether Bodies in our organisation were her students when they were little.”
By the time Li Meng finished speaking, she had already reached the villa’s front door.
Both she and Qiu Qiqian could feel an endless stream of ‘Nether Breath’ leaking outward from inside the house.
Unlike the ‘Nether Breath’ of Qiu Qiqian and Li Meng, this one was far more chaotic, far more violent.
Li Meng raised her hand, gently placed it on the doorknob, and slowly pressed down…
Creak…
The latch gave the groan of something long neglected, even though from the outside the door looked brand new.
The moment the door opened, the first thing Qiu Qiqian and Li Meng felt was a wrenching distortion of space.
By the time they reacted, they were already standing inside the house.
The entrance door behind them remained open… only for an invisible hand to slowly push it shut, accompanied by repeated “creak… creak…” sounds.
Bang.
Classic horror-movie scene…
Qiu Qiqian stared at the door that had closed on its own and couldn’t help thinking of all those horror-film shots.
Once the door finally shut completely, the entire house plunged into darkness and dead silence.
Logically, even with all the doors and windows closed, they should still hear the security personnel outside… but right now it felt exactly as though they had entered another space entirely.
And Qiu Qiqian—with her slightly non-human visual system—could still clearly make out most of the surroundings even in pitch blackness.
This place… didn’t look like the interior of any villa at all.
The hall was absurdly large—definitely bigger than the villa appeared from outside.
A red carpet stretched across the floor all the way to an impossibly wide staircase leading to the second floor.
Doors lined both sides of the hall, and at the far end was a corridor that vanished into unfathomable darkness.
Old windows stood open all around, letting cold wind blow in and lift the white bed curtains into eerie, unnatural arcs.
The windows themselves swayed in the gusts, producing sharp, almost human-like shrieking noises.
This… didn’t feel like a villa anymore.
More like… an ancient castle?
“This place inside… is really… ridiculously huge,” Qiu Qiqian couldn’t help remarking.
“This is the ‘Inner World.’ Guiyi of Hidden Hunter rank and above usually have this ability. By distorting and reshaping the local space around themselves, they can replace and expand the original ‘interior,’ creating a space that gives them the advantage.”
Li Meng calmly explained to Qiu Qiqian, clearly having seen this kind of scene many times before.
She walked to the nearest wall, wiped it lightly with her hand, then brought her fingers close to look.
The dust on the wall began to rapidly disintegrate the moment it touched her skin, crumbling into particles even finer than dust before vanishing completely.
“The matter in an Inner World isn’t as stable as people imagine. Looks like this one only recently advanced to ‘chimei’ rank. No wonder Sister Nan said the Bowler detector readings were unstable.”
“Can… guiyi advance in rank?”
Qiu Qiqian drifted over and asked.
“They can. By absorbing life force and devouring other guiyi, they can advance. But… I’m not sure whether that rule applies to you, little Qian.”
As she spoke, Li Meng slowly closed her eyes, extended one hand to grasp a wisp of Nether Breath in the air, then adjusted her breathing and began to draw that breath into herself, apparently preparing to do something.
So guiyi can devour other guiyi… feels like big fish eating little fish…
But the other guiyi all look so disgusting…
Could I really swallow them?
Qiu Qiqian pictured the grotesque monsters from horror movies, imagined herself actually trying to devour them, and her expression instantly soured.
At that moment, a single drop of liquid fell from the ceiling.
Hearing the sound, Qiu Qiqian drifted downward in a prone position—only to realise the so-called “drop of water” was actually a glob of pitch-black fluid.
This feels way too familiar… no way…
As though realising something, Qiu Qiqian slowly raised her head.
High on the ceiling clung a cyan, humanoid monster whose limbs were completely disproportionate.
Its elbows bent outward at impossible angles; its body was shrivelled and desiccated, seemingly held together only by bone.
Its fingers and toes were all unnaturally long and razor-sharp.
Where a head should have been was only a grotesque, tumorous mass.
Two vertical pupils—pure black, no whites—stared unblinkingly down at Qiu Qiqian.
A cross-shaped fissure in the “face” continuously oozed black liquid, drip… drip… falling to the floor.
This thing… isn’t targeting me, is it?
“Grrraa…”
The creature hanging overhead let out a low, meaningless growl.
Then its entire figure vanished in an instant—no, more accurately, it moved so fast that Qiu Qiqian couldn’t follow the motion at all; she only barely caught the afterimage it left behind.
Where did it go… wait, according to horror-movie and horror-game rules, next it’ll appear right—
The instant Qiu Qiqian frantically turned around, a grey blur shot past her like lightning.
Then came a deafening
Bang!
By the time she reacted, the creature that had been about to attack her was already pinned to the floor by Li Meng, who held its throat in a single iron grip, immobilising it completely.
“Hey now… what exactly were you planning to do to little Qian just now?”