The night passed by in a mundane fashion. At 7:00 AM the next morning, Xiao Lin woke up on time, had breakfast, packed his things, and set off. If all went well, he should be able to find the Wisdom Demon before noon today.
When he stepped out of his hideout, the two Graverobbers from last night were standing on top of a building watching him. Xiao Lin didn't greet them; he just glanced back and walked alone deeper into the city.
"Ah, it seems he didn't listen to a word we said. We really made fools of ourselves," the fat man squatted down, his tone somewhat disgruntled.
"He is just destroying himself," the thin man said calmly.
"Tsk, if I knew this guy was this stupid, I should have robbed him of everything last night. Without water or food, he would have obediently gone back," the fat man sighed.
"Enough." The thin man coldly spat out two words, turned, and raised his binoculars to his eyes, as if the previous complaints had never existed. "Let's just focus on work."
Perhaps because of Xiao Lin's "disregard for advice," the atmosphere became slightly dull. The two didn't continue their conversation for a long time, just standing at the high point, watching the surroundings. This was their job: to keep watch and warn off suspicious intruders.
A few minutes later, the thin man frowned slightly and looked through his binoculars in one direction. "Someone's coming, from the east."
The fat man also looked through his binoculars. A group of about ten people was walking from a distance, led by a middle-aged man in his forties.
"Yang Jufeng. These are the Yang Gang. They look like they're heading straight for us," the fat man said.
"The Yang Gang? Weren't they heavily beaten by the Satellite Town recently? How dare they still operate out here? Aren't they afraid of retaliation from the Satellite Town?" The thin man frowned slightly.
"Who knows? They do look like they're looking for us. You stay here and keep watch. I'll go down and inform Boss Shen."
The fat man displayed astonishing agility. He leaped across the complex rooftops and soon disappeared from sight.
The thin man didn't say a word. He subconsciously glanced in the direction Xiao Lin had disappeared, and then began to carefully monitor the movements of those people.
Two hours later, Xiao Lin finally arrived at his destination—Block 13. This block looked no different from the others, except for a blue road sign next to it marked with the number 13. The only difference was that the sign, along with the nearby walls and ground, was densely covered in blood-red warning graffiti, warning people to stay away. The sight was quite horrifying.
Block 13, the lair of the Wisdom Demon. This terrifying Calamity-corrupted creature had killed countless Graverobbers, and for the victims, death was a relatively good outcome. So, even the most seasoned Graverobbers didn't dare to approach here lightly.
Xiao Lin ignored the warnings, pushed aside the wooden planks blocking the street entrance, and walked in. Inside the block, there was no feeling of a "living hell." Instead, it appeared somewhat cleaner. There were no marks left by various gangs, no makeshift wooden boards or ladders, and the atmosphere seemed quieter.
Xiao Lin took out his phone, opened the dynamic satellite map, and looked for the trace of the Wisdom Demon. But the buildings here were densely packed, and the colossal nets were everywhere. He stared at the small phone screen until his eyes ached, but found nothing. Helpless, he decided to wander around the block for a while. Maybe he could attract the attention of the Wisdom Demon, making it come to him.
Just then, Xiao Lin saw a large domed building two streets away. It was much more prominent than the surrounding buildings, with a dilapidated large billboard hanging on it. A small part of it had collapsed, and a few train carriages were diagonally stuck into the dome, looking quite shocking.
Only then did Xiao Lin remember that he had been to this place before he crossed over. That domed building was the Qianxiang Mall in Yanzhou. When he first arrived in this city, he had bought clothes in this mall.
"The interior space of a mall is much larger than that of a normal residential building. Could the Wisdom Demon's lair be there?" Xiao Lin muttered to himself. He decided to go and take a look.
But just as Xiao Lin turned a street corner, he suddenly stopped. He saw a... person. At least it looked like a person, with a normal human body shape and limbs, completely naked.
He was hunched down in the shadow of a building, his body covered densely with numbers, symbols, and letters. But Xiao Lin knew clearly that a normal person could not be here.
He frowned slightly and cautiously approached a few steps, suddenly feeling a chill. This guy wasn't human, not at all.
He had no reproductive system, and no hair on his body. And...
Those numbers and symbols covering his whole body weren't drawn on; they were growing out from inside his body! His skin was therefore uneven, looking as if it was covered in dense scabs.
He seemed to have no perception of the outside world at all, and didn't notice Xiao Lin's approach. He just squatted there, constantly hitting his head against a piece of building debris. It was a concrete slab with steel bars, with a section of rebar protruding outward about ten centimeters.
This person just hit that rebar over and over again. Every time he hit it, the rebar would pierce into his forehead, emitting a sticky sound. But he seemed to feel no pain at all, just mumbling empty words in a low voice.
"Stop thinking... stop thinking... stop thinking..."
A Calamity-corrupted creature...
Xiao Lin recalled the information Lin Nian had told him. After a person is affected by the Calamity-corruption effect, they will slowly mutate and lose their reason. Needless to say, although he was prepared, seeing this scene before his eyes was still horrifying, raising a thin layer of goosebumps on his arms.
However, after a few deep breaths, Xiao Lin calmed his mind and decided to take a few photos first. He squatted down, set up his camera, and considering the potential conditioned reflex of this thing, he turned off the flash and set the shutter to a near-silent state.
Click.
A faint mechanical sound, and the image was captured on the camera.
But the very next second, the corrupted creature stopped its mechanical hitting motion. It slowly turned its head and looked at Xiao Lin.
His pupils were bloodshot, and his forehead was a bloody conical hole, the depth of which seemed to go straight into the brain, full of rotting flesh and blood. He looked at Xiao Lin, and then suddenly pulled out a highly weird smile, whispering something rapidly while smiling.
At first, Xiao Lin didn't hear what he was saying. It wasn't until he listened carefully that he finally heard it. He was saying: "I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him."
The next moment, his body stiffened abruptly, his eyes rolled up showing only the whites, and the hole in his forehead began to wriggle. An eye appeared from behind the hole, as if someone was peeking at him through the hole in the corrupted creature's head.
After that eye saw Xiao Lin, its pupil contracted slightly, and then the eye retreated. Immediately after, a withered, thin hand suddenly shot out from the bloody hole!
Something was coming out of the bloody hole on the corrupted creature's head... and descending into this world!