“How many people did the Investigation Bureau send for this operation?” Yue Shi asked suddenly, his voice steady and devoid of emotion.
“Why are you asking that?” Bai Wanyang, sitting in the passenger seat, was confused.
Though puzzled, he thought back carefully and told Yue Shi the exact number.
Yue Shi did the math. The deceased colleagues plus those still alive in the cars added up to...
One too many!
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the investigator in the rearview mirror, who had been keeping his head down, suddenly curled the corners of his mouth upward without warning.
It wasn't the relaxed smile of a normal person, but a grotesque grin with an exaggerated muscular pull that nearly tore to his ears, filled with malice and mockery!
Yue Shi's pupils shrank. Just as he was about to shout a question, a sudden change occurred—
“Swoosh!”
The scenery outside the window suddenly distorted!
The clear city night, streetlights, and road markings seemed to be thrown into a kaleidoscope. All colors and lines stretched and swirled, turning into a surreal chaos.
“Ah!!”
“What's happening?!”
This sudden anomaly lasted only a second or two, but for the people who had just escaped the cold storage with their lives, it was no different from another terrorist attack.
Two low cries came from the back seat of Yue Shi's car, and the faint sounds of panic could be heard from the cars behind them.
Yue Shi slammed on the brakes, the tires screeching against the ground.
By the time the car stopped, the hallucinatory vision outside had completely vanished.
However, the scene outside was no longer the familiar road back to the Investigation Bureau, but a desolate wasteland!
In the distance were the blurry outlines of a city, but nearby there were only withered yellow grass and scattered rubble, with no streetlights or buildings in sight.
“What... what's going on now?” Bai Wanyang stared at the completely unfamiliar environment outside, dumbfounded.
“Don't get out of the car yet. We don't know if it's dangerous out there,” Yue Shi reminded him.
“Oh.” Bai Wanyang immediately pulled back his hand from the door handle and rolled down the window instead, shouting to the cars that had also screeched to a halt behind them, “Everyone stay in the cars! Don't get out! The situation is unclear!”
Someone in the car behind had already pushed open their door, but upon hearing the shout, they hastily retracted and slammed the door shut.
Bai Wanyang rolled the window back up. His face was pale; he had been frozen in the cold storage earlier and had forced a recovery using his unique supernatural power, but his body still felt uncomfortable.
“Brother, did we run into another supernatural incident? It's just never-ending! Whoever's behind this better hope I never find out!”
Yue Shi didn't reply. He slowly turned his head, his gaze locking onto the investigator in the middle of the back seat.
By now, the man had tucked away his strange smile and kept his head lowered, as if everything that had just happened had nothing to do with him.
“When did you sneak in?” Yue Shi's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a heart-pounding pressure that echoed clearly in the car.
The question came out of nowhere, startling everyone else in the vehicle.
Bai Wanyang frowned and turned to look back.
The investigators on either side of the back seat seemed to realize something. Their faces went bloodless instantly, and they looked at the man in the middle—the one Yue Shi had singled out—with terror, instinctively shrinking toward the doors.
They had scrambled to be in the same car as the transcendents, thinking it would be the safest place. They never expected...
The singled-out investigator raised his head, shadows obscuring part of his face. His tone carried just the right amount of innocence and a hint of confusion. “Mr. Yue Shi? What do you mean? Do you suspect I'm a supernatural creature in disguise? I'm Xiao Zhang from the Intelligence Department! I've been with the team the whole time. Just now in the cold storage, I even...”
“The rules in the cold storage, the spatial anomaly on the road—was it your doing?” Yue Shi interrupted his defense and asked directly.
Xiao Zhang's voice became even more aggrieved, even bordering on tears. “Mr. Yue Shi, you can't just suspect your own people because you're under too much stress! I almost died in that cold storage just now. How could I be a supernatural creature in disguise? What evidence do you have?”
He pointed excitedly at his own face and tugged at his uniform. “Look at me! I'm a living human being!”
It was a perfect performance; the helplessness and sense of injustice were all there. The other two investigators in the back didn't dare speak, but a hint of doubt began to mingle with the fear in their eyes.
Could Mr. Yue Shi be mistaken? After all, Xiao Zhang looked and sounded completely flawless.
Bai Wanyang's gaze swept back and forth between Xiao Zhang and Yue Shi, feeling undecided. He considered finding a knife to cut open Xiao Zhang's skin to check.
Yue Shi took in everyone's reactions. According to normal logic, he should present evidence to expose Xiao Zhang.
Unfortunately, his patience had run out.
Without warning, Yue Shi threw a punch with lightning speed, striking straight at Xiao Zhang's face!
The move was so sudden that no one expected Yue Shi to act so directly.
Thud!
The sensation was wrong!
It felt nothing like hitting the skin, flesh, and bone of an ordinary person's face.
Almost simultaneously, an unstable ripple of brilliant light and shadow shimmered across “Xiao Zhang's” face and entire body. It looked like colors swirling in a kaleidoscope, identical to the brief anomaly outside the car window earlier!
The other two investigators in the back broke into a cold sweat. Their last shred of doubt was completely shattered, leaving only pure terror.
“He really is a problem!” Bai Wanyang snapped to his senses, instinctively condensing an energy ball in his palm while shouting, “Get out! Hide in the cars behind us! Move!”
The two investigators practically scrambled and crawled out of the doors, sprinting toward the cars behind them at their top speed, as if being a second too slow would mean instant death.
Only Yue Shi, Bai Wanyang, and the “strange thing” in the back seat—now flashier than a kaleidoscope—remained in the car.
At that moment, the air seemed to solidify.
The chaotic light and shadow on the “strange thing” didn't persist; it receded and vanished like an ebbing tide.
What appeared in the back seat was no longer the investigator Xiao Zhang, but a stranger dressed in a purple evening dress.
The figure had messy, medium-length chestnut curls. His face was painted with colorful greasepaint over a deathly pale base, with a red smile stretched to his cheeks and black teardrop patterns at the corners of his eyes.
The paint couldn't hide his naturally handsome features, lending him an air of elegance amidst the grotesque.
He raised a hand to gently stroke the cheek Yue Shi had just punched; there wasn't a single mark on it. Then, he broke into a terrifying smile that seemed to take up half his face.
Bai Wanyang went on high alert. Without a word, he fired the energy cannon shell from his palm, aiming straight for the stranger's head!
Yue Shi took the opportunity to activate his Insight vision. A flow of text information covered his field of vision, and large blocks of text began to emerge...
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