Chapter 22

Any normal person would be angry if attacked for no reason, but Xia Lingze was not; he simply could not grasp the concept. Perhaps it was because he knew he could not be hurt, just as one would not get angry if a newborn kitten bit or scratched them.

"Hello?" Xia Lingze offered a friendly smile and a greeting.

However, to Lou Yingqian, that smile seemed incredibly hypocritical. With his brows slightly raised and his eyes sparkling as he gazed at him—much like one would appraise a piece of food—the expression made Lou Yingqian’s hair stand on end. His intuition screamed that this was extremely dangerous. Yet, not only could he not run, he had to pretend to be calm as he stared back into those deep, abyssal eyes. After just two seconds, Lou Yingqian felt a suffocating sensation, as if he were encased in concrete, unable to breathe or move.

He desperately wanted to look down at the readings on his wristwatch, but his neck was frozen stiff. He had to keep his eyes locked on the youth, not daring to relax for even half a second—fearing that in the blink of an eye, the boy might do something irreversible.

Even without checking the watch, Lou Yingqian could sense that the youth was undoubtedly a powerful supernatural entity. If the boy really intended to do something, he lacked the strength to stop him.

The chasm between humans and supernatural entities was like an unbridgeable abyss. This sorrowful sense of powerlessness was a boulder pressing down on the hearts of humanity. Fortunately, the Research Institute had recently developed artificial supernatural artifacts, and this breakthrough progress had finally brought hope to mankind.

Lou Yingqian gripped the other—and final—table knife he had hidden in his jacket pocket. His gaze grew resolute, and a "ready to die" aura emanated from him.

"Come on then!" he shouted in grief and indignation.

Xia Lingze: "?"

Come on with what?

Why were all the people he met today so strange? Were people in the city all like this?

Xia Lingze wondered, puzzled. The earnest teachings of Uncle Tiedan (one of many) drifted into his mind: ["Lingze, we must stay away from not only 'mentally unstable youths,' but also from those who are truly mentally ill."

"Mentally ill?"

"Yes, 'mentally ill' refers to people with psychological disorders. They... well, to put it plainly, their brains aren't working right, and they could do anything. In short, if you encounter one, just avoid them. Getting hurt by them isn't worth it... I know you've learned great martial arts from Zhao Yan, but a gentleman does not stand under a crumbling wall. Remember that, remember that!"]

Recalling Uncle Tiedan’s repeated warnings, Xia Lingze silently took half a step back and glanced around. There was nothing nearby, though there was a door on the other side of the banquet hall; perhaps he could leave through there.

Thinking of this, Xia Lingze lowered his gaze to the dog-man entity following beside him. He crouched down, pulled back the creature’s large, floppy ears, and whispered into its ear canal: "Go find your master. I'm leaving."

He then stood up, turned, and strode into the banquet hall.

Though the dog-man entity was a supernatural being, it still possessed the instincts of a dog. So... it subconsciously followed him.

Seeing this, Lou Yingqian grew anxious. He had provoked the youth specifically to draw his attention and buy time for everyone else to escape, yet the boy wasn't interested in him at all and was heading straight for the defenseless civilians.

"You are not allowed to leave!" he yelled in desperation.

Xia Lingze was startled, thinking to himself that he had indeed encountered a lunatic. He picked up his pace and headed straight for the banquet hall.

The crowd, who had been huddled on the other side, saw the youth charging toward them and immediately scattered to both sides like Moses parting the sea, leaving a clear path for the boy.

Xia Lingze, having been taught to be polite since childhood, gratefully said, "Thank you," and then slipped out through the half-open side door.

The crowd, who had thought they were about to die: "..."

Lou Yingqian, who was charging in a frenzy with a spirit of self-sacrifice: "Don't run! Stop right there!"

Hearing this, Xia Lingze ran even faster.

In a few seconds, the two of them were far away, leaving the crowd looking at each other in a daze. After a long silence, a weak voice piped up: "Um... should we split into teams to find the passageways? There are so many of us; surely some of our paths are adjacent."

***

In the hotel hallway.

Three figures were staging a scene of "he runs, he chases, and none of them can escape."

"Stop chasing me!" the one in front shouted.

"Woof!" the one beside him echoed.

"Then stop running!" the one behind replied.

"You stop first," the one in front said again.

"Woof, woof!" the one beside him barked.

"If you stop, I'll stop," the one behind replied.

Uncle Tiedan, mental illness is truly as terrifying as they say!

Xia Lingze wasn't afraid of Lou Yingqian; he was confident he could win a fight. But Uncle Tiedan had warned him repeatedly to stay away from the mentally ill, so he subconsciously did just that.

His pace wasn't actually that fast; if Xia Lingze had used his full strength, Lou Yingqian wouldn't even have seen his "exhaust fumes." The reason Xia Lingze was running so slowly was that he was looking for Qin Jinhua.

Yes, he was running while distracted by searching for someone; he could do both at once.

The confused dog-man entity, having finally regained its senses, inwardly cursed itself for being a fool. Why was it following him? Its eyes darted around, and a greasy, lecherous smile curled its dog-lips as it thought of a good idea: to take the opportunity to slip away.

Thus, the dog-man entity began observing its surroundings, planning to run in the opposite direction the moment they hit a fork in the road.

At some point, the hotel had become shrouded in mist. The brand-new exterior walls seemed to have been corroded by time; the vibrant wallpaper turned gray and loose, falling to the ground with every gust of wind.

Simultaneously, the interior of the hotel was changing.

Wallpaper peeled, electronic devices (televisions, screens, registers, computers) aged, ironwork rusted, and flower petals withered and dehydrated...

The hallway seemed to have grown longer.

The proof was that the room numbers now exceeded 1450—Xia Lingze had been checking floor by floor starting from the first, and he had a good memory; he remembered that no matter the floor, the room numbers never went above 49. But now, they had.

At first, Xia Lingze hadn't paid it any mind, until the room numbers reached 70. He stopped, his face not even flushed, and turned to the nearest door. The plaque on it read 1471.

Seeing him stop, Lou Yingqian reflexively stopped as well.

The dog-man entity, which had intended to run away at the first fork, had already passed two forks without leaving, sticking close to Xia Lingze’s heels.

It sensed it... a terrifying aura was approaching.

Greater supernatural entities would eat lesser ones. While Xia Lingze was dangerous, he didn't seem interested in eating entities, but the owner of that terrifying aura might be different.

"You..." Lou Yingqian, panting, had just managed to utter a syllable when Xia Lingze interrupted him with a "Shh, don't talk."

For some reason, he actually listened and went quiet.

Xia Lingze stood before door 1471, knocked, and received no response. He pressed his ear against it, heard nothing, and turned to look at Lou Yingqian, humbly asking, "If a human life is at stake, is it okay to break in?"

Lou Yingqian: "?"

What kind of nonsense was that? If a life is at stake, of course you break in!

"Oh, I see." Xia Lingze nodded, clenched his right fist, stretched his shoulder, and threw a punch with all his might. With a loud *bang*, his fist punched clean through the door.

Lou Yingqian had been wondering what he had "seen," but seeing the youth punch through the door, he realized the boy had just spoken his thoughts aloud.

"Excuse me," Xia Lingze said as he reached inside to find the handle. He found it, but the door didn't open when he pressed it down.

Having never left Guiyi Village, he hadn't seen much modern technology and thus didn't know that hotel room doors required keycards.

Lou Yingqian reminded him, "It's useless. We don't have a keycard."

Xia Lingze didn't know what a keycard was, but he understood "useless," so he threw a few more punches until the door was completely smashed.

While he said, "Sorry, I'm coming in," his actions showed absolutely no sense of apology.

The dog-man entity at his feet, however, suddenly refused to follow. It glanced fearfully into the room, then bolted, quickly disappearing from Lou Yingqian’s sight.

Lou Yingqian hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and followed him into the room.

Looking from the outside, the room seemed normal, but only by stepping inside could one see the truth.

Clusters of black hair, resembling seaweed, crawled all over the room, covering everything. The sensation of stepping on it made one's scalp tingle. The air was thick with a damp, fishy stench—like the smell of seafood—so pungent that it would have made anyone not used to living by the sea retch.

"Ugh!" Lou Yingqian, a southerner, covered his nose and mouth, his stomach churning violently.

In contrast, Xia Lingze, who had never even seen the ocean, adapted perfectly well without the slightest discomfort.

Xia Lingze stopped in the middle of the room and looked up.

Lou Yingqian pinched his nose, held his breath, and followed his gaze to see a human-shaped protrusion on the ceiling; clearly, someone was trapped inside. Fortunately, he had a lighter in his pocket. Ignoring the stench, he reached in, pulled out the lighter, and bent down to try and ignite the "hair carpet." If the hair was afraid of fire, or if it caught fire, they might have a chance to rescue the person on the ceiling, though he didn't know if the victim was still alive.

As for whether the fire would burn the trapped person, at this point, he couldn't afford to care.

"What is this?" the youth's curious voice suddenly came from beside him.

Lou Yingqian’s hand shook. He had forgotten about this... entity.

He felt annoyed with himself, thinking he must be under some kind of spell. Regardless, since things had come to this, Lou Yingqian lowered his head to check his watch. There were two arrows on the display: a red one pointing outward and a green one pointing forward.

Next to the red arrow was the number 7356, and it was still rising. Next to the green arrow was the number 50.

The former was pointed at the hair, the latter at the youth.

A number below 100 meant a human; 100 to 500 was an E-rank entity; 500 to 1200 was a D-rank entity.

1200 to 2000 was C-rank, 2000 to 3900 was B-rank.

3900 to 6000 was A-rank, and above 6000 was S-rank.

If the watch could not calculate a number above 9999, it meant... Super-S rank.

The reading Lou Yingqian had detected in the banquet hall was a Super-S rank exceeding 9999, which was unheard of, which was why he had been so shocked back then.

Furthermore, the watch had two modes: one for general detection and one for nearby detection. Lou Yingqian had switched to "nearby" when he was chasing the Faceless Entity.

The nearby mode could detect up to three objects simultaneously.

That was why there was one red arrow and one green arrow; arrows for numbers above 100 were red, and those below 100 were green.

In other words: Red arrow = entity, Green arrow = human.

Lou Yingqian looked up, staring in shock at the curiously inquisitive Xia Lingze, and let out a strange cry: "You're a human?!"