Inside the dim tunnel, a little girl wearing a red hat walked upside down across the ceiling, her hands drenched in fresh blood. Such a bizarre, sinister sight was enough to scare anyone out of their wits.
Jiang Yu'er frowned slightly and said, "Sis, something's come up on my end. I'm hanging up... Sis? Sis?"
Pulling her gaze away from the ceiling, she glanced at her phone and realized the call had dropped at some point.
She looked at her car's dashboard screen, which displayed "No Signal."
Not only had the power cut out, but even the cell reception seemed gone.
"Holy shit, what the hell is that?!" a man's terrified scream echoed from the distance.
Screams erupted one after another. Clearly, others had spotted the little girl walking upside down along the top of the tunnel. Even though the red hat obscured her face, such a terrifying, eerie spectacle still scared the people in the tunnel senseless.
"A ghost! It's a ghost!"
"Run! There's a ghost in the tunnel!"
"Hurry, call the police!!"
Car doors swung open one after another. Drivers and passengers scrambled out of their vehicles in sheer panic, fleeing backward in an attempt to escape the tunnel.
The slightly calmer ones fumbled for their phones to call the authorities as they ran, only to find they had no service.
In short, not a single person stayed behind or held up a phone to record this supernatural "ghost" encounter.
It was clear that in the face of true terror, fleeing was pure human instinct.
Suddenly, a middle-aged man running frantically with a contorted face vanished without warning.
Then came a second, a third, a fourth... Alongside the footsteps of the little girl in the red hat, more and more people vanished into thin air inside the tunnel.
Every person she overtook could not escape the fate of disappearing.
Jiang Yu'er let out a shriek and pushed open her car door to flee. But by then, the little girl in the red hat had already reached the ceiling right above her head.
*Click!*
The car door swung open. The moment Jiang Yu'er threw herself out of the vehicle, she vanished.
***
At eight in the evening, in the compact villa at Fujia Bay.
Having washed away all the blood and sweat, Zhang Yuanqing changed into pajamas and chewed a couple of pieces of gum. Feeling the abundant vigor of the pendulum between his legs, he was just about to cast Astral Escape to slip into Guan Ya's room, put in some hard work, and then enter the room of his future child...
Suddenly, a loud ringtone interrupted his spellcasting.
The phone on his desk was ringing.
Zhang Yuanqing glanced over from afar. The caller ID showed "Grandma."
"Grandma, your grandson was just working hard to make you a great-grandson..." Zhang Yuanqing answered with a laugh.
"Yuanzi, Yu'er is missing!" Grandma's voice was laden with urgency and panic.
Auntie is missing?! Zhang Yuanqing's expression changed instantly, every inappropriate thought vanished from his mind. He called out, "When did this happen? Grandma, tell me clearly."
As he spoke, he kept the phone to his ear, stepped over to the bedside, and swiftly slipped on his running shoes.
Grandma's anxious voice echoed from the speaker: "Yu'er didn't come home after work today, so I called her phone. It went through, but nobody answered. I called her hospital, and the colleague on duty said she wasn't there. You know Yu'er always comes home on time. If she has a shift or surgery, she always lets me know in advance."
That was indeed completely out of character for his aunt.
Zhang Yuanqing asked, "Did you tell my cousin? Did you have him check the hospital?"
Grandma said mournfully, "Your cousin said a lot of people went missing in the Inner Ring Tunnel today. Yu'er's car is inside, and she's missing too. He's busy handling the case, and your grandpa went to the Public Security Bureau as well. Come back and keep your grandma company."
A mass disappearance in the Inner Ring Tunnel? Zhang Yuanqing knew at once that this was no ordinary case.
With Morality Points keeping them in check, Spirit Realm walkers wouldn't target valueless ordinary people. Had someone picked up an item left behind by the Merchant Guild's President, let power go to their head, and started committing crimes?
Zhang Yuanqing quickly analyzed the situation, immediately overcome with intense anxiety.
Spirit Realm walkers still had reservations about killing, but those who suddenly gained superpowers wouldn't hesitate in the slightest when harming others. His aunt was in grave danger.
"I understand. I'm coming home right now."
Time was of the essence. Zhang Yuanqing hung up quickly and dialed Fu Qingyang's number.
The moment Fu Qingyang answered, Zhang Yuanqing said impatiently, "Boss, I heard there's a mass disappearance in the Inner Ring Tunnel, and my aunt is caught in it. Who's handling the case? What are the findings?"
Fu Qingyang replied, "Go to the Kangyang District Public Security Bureau and find Tianxia Guihuo. He reported the case to me half an hour ago. There are no results yet."
Money Prince was an Elder now, no longer a Deacon who had to micromanage everything personally.
"Understood."
Zhang Yuanqing hung up, opened his inventory, and retrieved a pair of light-blue leather gloves—the Gale Walker Gloves.
His body dissolved into a dreamy starlight and reappeared in the villa's courtyard. Then, pressing his hands down beside his hips, a fierce gale whipped up from the ground, lifting him into the night sky where he swiftly vanished into the darkness.
***
Third floor of the Kangyang District Public Security Bureau.
In the conference room, Tianxia Guihuo sat at the head of the table, his elbows resting on the surface and fingers interlaced, listening to Team 2 Captain Li Dongze's report.
"The mass disappearance in the Inner Ring Tunnel took place at six-thirty," Li Dongze, leaning on his cane, recounted in a grave tone. "At that time, the tunnel's lighting suddenly went dark, and the surveillance cameras stopped functioning. According to drivers outside the tunnel, they heard screams at that moment. They heard people inside shouting that there was a ghost before scrambling out of their cars to flee. But bizarrely, those shouts quickly vanished. By the time power was restored, there was nobody left in the tunnel except for the empty vehicles."
Li Dongze raised a hand, pressed a button on the remote control, and a video began playing on the projection screen.
"This is footage recovered from a dashcam."
The captains seated around the table stared intently at the screen. The tunnel's interior was dim, lit only by the bright beams of car headlights.
At the top of the video, along the ceiling of the tunnel, a petite figure faintly appeared, walking upside down as effortlessly as if on flat ground.
On her head was a red triangular hat, pulled low to conceal her face.
Next came the chaotic, frenzied screams, the sound of running footsteps, car doors opening, and desperate cries for help... Within half a minute, all of those scenes vanished completely.
"We can now confirm this is an incident caused by a Spirit Realm walker. The target individual is a young girl—at least judging by her physical frame," Li Dongze said. "Whether the missing persons are alive or dead remains unknown, so we cannot determine whether the girl is an official Spirit Realm walker or an ordinary person who stumbled upon an item. However, deducing backward from the motive, I lean toward the latter."
A Spirit Realm walker wouldn't be this pointlessly bored.
"I'll add one point," Qingteng chimed in. "Colleagues from the Kangyang District Bureau found traces of blood in the tunnel. Tests show it dripped down from the ceiling, most likely originating from that girl."
Hearing this, Tianxia Guihuo fixed his gaze on the screen and said, "Li Dongze, rewind ten seconds."
Li Dongze pressed the rewind button.
Tianxia Guihuo narrowed his eyes, closely observing the red-hatted girl's gait. His bold, thick brows knit tightly together. "She doesn't look injured. The blood probably doesn't belong to her. She might have just killed someone before entering the Inner Ring Tunnel."
The captains of Kangyang District exchanged glances, their expressions shifting slightly.
If that was the case, they could rule out a mere prank. The red-hatted girl was very likely bloodthirsty. In that case, the missing people...
Li Dongze's cheek twitched. "A total of forty-two people have gone missing this time. If all of them have been murdered..."
That would become a massive case that shocked the entire nation.
"Dammit!" Da Jiba slammed the table in fury. "Spirit Realm walkers unconstrained by Morality Points are simply terrifying. We must eliminate her as fast as possible."
"Anger will only cloud your reason and ruin your judgment," Tianxia Guihuo rebuked his subordinate, being a Fire Master himself. He asked, "Where did she go? Did the cameras outside the tunnel capture anything?"
Li Dongze shook his head. "The cameras outside didn't capture a thing. That girl vanished into thin air inside the tunnel."
Tianxia Guihuo mused, "Since the dashcam caught her, we can first rule out a vengeful spirit. Yet the surveillance outside caught nothing. There aren't many abilities that allow someone to vanish into thin air. We can start from there, and perhaps follow the clues to identify the functions of that item."
Li Dongze let out a sigh. "All of that takes time. I'm just afraid those innocent people..."
Tianxia Guihuo's brows furrowed deeply.
Just then, a fierce gust of wind blew outside, rattling the windows. Everyone turned toward the sound and was astonished to see Yuanshi Tianzun floating outside the floor-to-ceiling window.
The next second, he dissolved into dreamy starlight, only to materialize again inside the office, having phased straight through the glass.
"Why are you here?" Li Dongze was stunned for a moment.
Under normal circumstances, Zhang Yuanqing would have quipped, *"Lately, I felt I lacked elegance, so I came to receive guidance from the Decurion and soak in some refined air."*
Right now, however, he had no mood for jokes. He glanced at the paused video on the screen and said, "Play it again. Decurion, brief me on the findings of your investigation."
Without even checking with his direct superior, Li Dongze immediately pressed play and briefed Yuanshi on the analysis and conclusions from the meeting.
Not a Spirit Realm walker, bloodthirsty, vanished without a trace... After understanding what had happened, the anxiety in Zhang Yuanqing's heart surged.
It had already been an hour and a half since his aunt went missing. A frail woman like her had no means of resisting danger... At the thought, Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts fell into total disarray, and his emotions nearly spun out of control.
This was a panic he hadn't experienced even in S-grade dungeons.
"You want to take over this case?" Tianxia Guihuo grasped Yuanshi Tianzun's intention.
Hearing that, Qingteng, Bailong, and the other captains looked delighted.
"I understand. Leave this matter to me." Zhang Yuanqing nodded to everyone, and his body dissolved into starlight.
***
*Beep, beep~*
Harnessing the fierce wind and casting Astral Escape, Zhang Yuanqing returned home in an exceptionally short time. He intentionally avoided teleporting into the house, instead entering the passcode and opening the front door.
The moment he opened the door, his uncle's comforting voice reached him: "Mom, don't worry. Technology is so advanced nowadays, there are cameras everywhere. Yu'er will be fine."
Then his uncle's wife chimed in with comforting words: "That's right. Maybe in a little while, Yuanjun will bring Yu'er right back. Please don't worry."
Grandma sat on the sofa, silently weeping.
The moment she saw her grandson return, she immediately left her son and daughter-in-law behind and hurried over. "Yuanzi, if anything happens to your aunt, how am I going to live?"
"Don't worry, Grandma. Auntie will be fine." Zhang Yuanqing supported Grandma and led her back to the sofa.
Meanwhile, inside Jiang Yu'er's bedroom, the real Zhang Yuanqing pulled back the quilt and inspected the bedsheets lingering with his aunt's scent. With precision, he retrieved a strand of hair from the pillow.
The Zhang Yuanqing outside was an illusion; the moment the door had opened, the real him had slipped into his aunt's bedroom using Astral Escape.
Saving lives was like fighting a fire; there was no time to waste.
Zhang Yuanqing's plan was to use the Red Dancing Shoes' tracking ability to locate his aunt.
Pinching the hair between two fingers, he summoned the Red Dancing Shoes.
*Tap-tap-tap-tap!*
The Red Dancing Shoes scampered cheerfully in circles around him.
"Keep it down. My grandma and uncle are outside..." Zhang Yuanqing muttered as he stuffed his aunt's hair into the dancing shoes.
*Tap-tap-tap-tap...*
The Red Dancing Shoes' tracking function activated on its own. Phasing between reality and illusion, the shoes dashed straight through the wall and bolted away.
Zhang Yuanqing immediately cast Astral Escape to give chase.
The night was hazy and desolate. Whistling above the city on fierce winds, he looked down upon the glittering, radiant lights of Songhai City, beneath a relatively clear night sky.
Yes, a relatively clear night sky.
Only after learning to fly did Zhang Yuanqing realize that the inability to see stars at night was half due to atmospheric pollution, and half due to light pollution.
It was the blazing lights of the metropolis that concealed the stars scattered across the celestial dome.
Pursuing the Red Dancing Shoes, he continuously alternated between Astral Escape and flight. After a dozen minutes, he watched the shoes dash into a tunnel.
The Inner Ring Tunnel? Auntie is still inside the tunnel?!
Chapter 364