In a certain tall building in Cangnan City.
Creak.
The door was slowly pushed open, and Zhao Kongcheng walked in listlessly, sighing from time to time.
"Lao Zhao, what's wrong with you?"
The five people sitting in the room were a bit surprised and asked when they saw Zhao Kongcheng's appearance.
"Were you injured last night?"
"Judging by your expression, it's more likely that you're broken up in love..."
"Damn it, Lao Zhao, isn't your wife going to divorce you?"
"Don't talk nonsense."
The five of them started to guess one after another. After a while, Zhao Kongcheng, who had been silent, let out a long sigh.
"Am I really... that unappealing?"
"…"
The five of them rolled their eyes in unison, pretending not to have heard this sentence, and continued to busy themselves with their own things. Some were sharpening knives, some were cleaning guns, some were playing with their phones, and some were sleeping soundly...
"Hey, I'm seriously asking you guys!" Zhao Kongcheng was getting anxious.
Seeing that no one paid attention to Zhao Kongcheng for a long time, Hongying, who was cleaning the gun, let out a sigh. "Brother Kongcheng, did you get stimulated?"
"You could say so." Zhao Kongcheng paused. "I met the owner of that golden Forbidden Ruins last night."
Upon hearing these words, everyone suddenly raised their heads, stopped what they were doing, and their eyes lit up.
"That guy who is suspected to be the agent of the Seraphim?"
"Yeah."
"Is he very powerful? Who is he?"
"You guys are thinking too much." Zhao Kongcheng shook his head. "He's just an ordinary high school student. That 'Klein'-level power fluctuation should just be the remaining power that the Seraphim left on him. He's still a newbie who has just stepped into the 'Zhan' realm now."
Upon hearing this, a hint of disappointment flashed in the eyes of several people.
"I thought a 'Klein'-level powerful person had come to Cangnan City..."
"But then again, if that extremely dangerous god really chose an agent and the agent had grown to the 'Klein' level, the higher-ups couldn't possibly not know about it."
The man sitting on the sofa squinted his eyes slightly. "Anyway, the Seraphim choosing an agent and bestowing a Divine Ruins is a major event. We need to report it to the higher-ups immediately."
"By the way, Lao Zhao, since you met him, where is he? Didn't you bring back such an important person?"
"He ran away..." Zhao Kongcheng said sorrowfully. "He told me he was going to get his schoolbag, and then he ran away while I was distracted."
"…" Everyone was speechless.
Just as the group was about to complain, the door of the room opened again.
A man still wearing a dark red cloak walked in. There was still blood on his face, and his steps were as heavy as if they were filled with lead.
When they saw this man, everyone, including Zhao Kongcheng, immediately stood up.
"Captain!"
"Captain, are you okay?"
The captain waved his hand, took off the blood-stained cloak, and sat down on a small stool beside the door. There was an indescribable weariness between his brows.
"I'm fine, but... the Masked King got away."
The expressions of several people immediately became solemn.
The captain continued, "I chased the Masked King all the way to the outskirts outside the northern city last night and fought with it. It was seriously injured. Later, it forced itself to escape at the cost of injuring its own origin."
"So, the Masked King may have already escaped from Cangnan City?"
"No, not necessarily." The man sitting on the sofa suddenly spoke.
Everyone looked at him, and the captain raised his eyebrows slightly. "Tell us, Xiangnan."
Wu Xiangnan slowly stood up, took out a map of the area around Cangnan City from under the sofa, and spread it out on the floor.
"Cangnan City is located in a relatively remote area, and it's quite far from the nearby cities. The captain fought with the Masked King in the northern outskirts last night. Apart from Cangnan City, the nearest city from there is also dozens of kilometers away." Wu Xiangnan drew a circle on the map.
"So what?" There was a look of confusion in Hongying's eyes.
At this moment, the captain's eyes gradually lit up. "The Masked King was seriously injured. Before it recovers its strength, it simply can't cover such a long distance."
Wu Xiangnan continued the captain's words, "And if the Masked King wants to recover its strength, it can only do so by eating people. That is to say..."
"It will definitely come back to Cangnan City?"
"Exactly."
Zhao Kongcheng frowned slightly. "But Cangnan City is so big. We have no idea where it will appear."
"The sewer." Wu Xiangnan pushed his glasses and outlined a curve on the map with a red pen. "Masked Men like to sneak through sewers, and the Masked King escaped through the sewer before. There's only one sewer connecting to the northern outskirts. That means the place where the Masked King appears is likely to be somewhere along this sewer."
"Send people to search along this sewer immediately. This time, we must not let it get away!" A cold glint flashed in the captain's eyes, and he immediately gave the order.
"Understood!"
"By the way, there's one more thing." Wu Xiangnan turned to look at Zhao Kongcheng. "We must bring back the agent of the Seraphim. His potential is too great, and he absolutely can't fall into the hands of the Ancient God Church! In a sense, the priority of this matter is higher than eliminating the Masked King!"
Zhao Kongcheng immediately puffed out his chest. "Leave this matter to me. I will definitely catch this kid myself!"
"He ran away, didn't he? How can you still find him?" Hongying muttered softly.
"He was wearing the school uniform of No. 2 Middle School. I'll be waiting at the school gate today. I don't believe I can't catch him!"
A confident smile appeared on the corner of Zhao Kongcheng's mouth.
...
"Brother, why aren't you going to school today?"
Yang Jin looked at Lin Qiye, who wasn't wearing a school uniform and didn't have a schoolbag, and asked curiously.
"I have something to do today, so I'm not going for now." Lin Qiye opened the door while putting on his shoes. "Is Aunt still sleeping?"
"She just came back an hour ago."
"I see. Go to school early later. Don't be like me."
"Okay."
Lin Qiye closed the door and silently took off the black ribbon on his eyes and put it in his pocket.
His eyes had recovered, but he hadn't told his aunt and Yang Jin yet. One reason was that his aunt had worked the night shift last night, and the two of them hadn't seen each other at all.
As for the second reason, Lin Qiye had just regained his eyesight and still couldn't control the power in his eyes well. That golden light would sometimes suddenly appear from the depths of his eyes. Although it wasn't very obvious, if his aunt and the others saw it, they would definitely force him to have his eyes checked again, wasting money.
He wanted to wait until he could fully control his eyes before announcing this matter.
However, since he had already gone out, there was no need for Lin Qiye to wrap the black ribbon anymore, as that would be too eye-catching.
Lin Qiye took out the sunglasses that Yang Jin had bought for him from his pocket, put on the glasses, and strode towards the bus stop.
After more than an hour of bumpy travel, Lin Qiye finally arrived at his destination.
The Sunshine Psychiatric Hospital.
The last time Lin Qiye came here was ten years ago.
In these ten years, Lin Qiye had changed a lot, and this psychiatric hospital had also changed a lot.
All the old walls had been renovated. The gate was twice as wide as before. Two modern high-rise buildings had replaced the original three-story building, and even the six big characters "Sunshine Psychiatric Hospital" had become gilded hot stamping!
Standing at the gate, Lin Qiye could no longer connect the modern hospital in front of him with the small building in his memory.
Perhaps the only thing that hadn't changed was the old doorman.
He was just much more hunched and his hair was much grayer.
The old man seemed to have seen Lin Qiye. He squinted his eyes and raised his right hand to point at Lin Qiye...
Just as Lin Qiye thought the old man still remembered him and was about to greet him,
The old man shouted loudly:
"Hey, that silly kid over there! You're blocking the car behind you!"