That single blow knocked Lin Feng straight to the ground.But his reaction wasn't slow—he rolled once and immediately bolted down the corridor.
I had thought Yinbai would chase after him until either Lin Feng or Hao Zhengyi was torn to pieces.Surprisingly, even as Lin Feng fled farther away, Yinbai didn't make another move.Instead, Gao Liang's face changed the moment Lin Feng disappeared from sight.He leaned in and muttered to me, "Follow me—now!"
Without another word, he turned and vanished into the demon mist.
I followed close behind, sticking with the Fat Director as we veered left.The demon mist moved with us, keeping us hidden within its swirling cover.Thanks to the concealment, none of Lin Feng's men dared approach—They couldn't see what was happening in the mist, and all they could do was follow at a cautious distance.
That's how we ran—until we reached the wall at the far side of the floor.
I'd only been to this third basement level once before, so I had no idea what lay beyond the wall.I was about to suggest we skirt along it to find a way out when Gao Liang suddenly grabbed me.
"This is the place," he said in a low voice.
I looked at him, expecting more explanation.But before he said another word, he yanked me backward—just as the wall before us began to tremble violently.
Before I could process what was happening, a hole—roughly the size of a water vat—collapsed open in the wall.It was pitch-black inside, but I could just barely make out what lay beyond: a storage room.
Based on our position and the layout, this should fall under Division Four's jurisdiction.
Great… back in Lin Feng's turf again.
Suddenly, something inside the storage room twisted and shimmered.A pale, gray-white shadow began to form on the ground—slowly sharpening into a clear image.
It was Yinbai.
But it was no longer the towering wolf-beast that had shaken the entire facility.Not even the scruffy dog shape it used when disguised outside the Bureau's front gates.
Now, Yinbai had shrunk to barely half its previous size.Its once-silver fur had turned dull and lifeless gray.The wounds on its neck and face were so deep that bone was exposed.
Its head drooped to the ground, mouth agape, panting raggedly.Blood oozed from its nose and lips.Meanwhile, the demonic aura outside was seeping into the room, swirling around Yinbai, forming a massive vortex of Aura of the Arcanobeast.
I followed Gao Liang into the storage room.He didn't spare Yinbai a glance—just headed straight for the exit on the far end.
Seeing Yinbai in that state, I couldn't bear it.I stepped toward it, wanting to pick it up and carry it out with us—But Gao Liang stopped me.
He looked back and said quietly,"That would only harm it further."
His gaze fell onto Yinbai as he continued,"The injuries are manageable. It's the scattered aura that matters.It needs to re-gather its Aura of the Arcanobeast—even slight jostling would disrupt the process.Let it stay here and recover on its own."
I was still uneasy."What if Lin Feng or Hao Zhengyi charges in here? What then?"
As I spoke, Gao had reached the exit door and was already fiddling with the lock, pulling a bundle of dragon whisker wires from his pocket.
While picking the lock, he replied,"Even a rotting ship has three pounds of nails.Yinbai's surrounded by Arcanobeast aura—no one can touch it.Lin Feng's cronies, the Soul Husks, they all walk the ghost path in some way.Aura from an Arcanobeast counters ghost energy. None of them would dare approach it."
He hadn't mentioned Hao Zhengyi.I followed up, "And what about him?"
Just as the words left my mouth—Click. A soft snap from the lock.
Gao cracked the door open a sliver, peeked through to ensure Lin Feng's people hadn't caught up yet, and turned to look at me.
"What you saw back there… does he still look human to you?"
There was a dark shadow over his expression.He took a deep breath, said nothing more, and slipped through the door.
He moved fast.I had to jog just to keep up.
I wanted to press further—ask what he meant about Hao Zhengyi no longer being human—But the weight on Gao's face made me swallow the words.
Lin Feng and Hao Zhengyi hadn't chased us immediately.Yinbai's swirling aura still lingered at the broken wall, keeping them at bay.
Without knowing what was happening, they weren't going to act rashly.
Taking advantage of the gap, I followed Gao as we sprinted toward the emergency elevators.But due to the layout of the facility, we had to take a long, looping route to get there.
As we passed the main elevator shaft—where we usually rode up and down—one of the lifts happened to be parked on this floor.
Gao Liang's plan was for me to take that elevator down to the fourth sublevel.He said once I reached the fifth sublevel, even if Xiao Sanduo came back from the dead, and teamed up with his brother Xiao Siyan, Lin Feng, and Hao Zhengyi—All of them tied together still wouldn't be able to touch me.
Seeing how disheveled Gao Liang looked, I suddenly recalled something Fatty Sun had told me days earlier:He'd asked me to keep a close eye on Boss Gao, and no matter what happened, to make sure nothing happened to him.Only now did I realize—Fatty must've sensed something was going to go wrong within the Bureau.
With that promise in mind, there was no way I could leave Gao Liang behind to save myself.Seeing that I refused to take the elevator, and with Lin Feng's people likely closing in, Gao had no choice but to continue running with me.
After just a short while, we finally reached the massive hole in the ceiling—the one Lin Feng's group had jumped down through.Beyond it, not far away, was the emergency elevator.
"Don't take the elevator!" Gao Liang stopped me just as I was about to make a dash for it.He pointed up at the hole in the ceiling and said, "We're going out that way."
My breath caught—The ceiling was at least seven or eight meters up.There was nothing nearby to climb with. Unless I could fly, I didn't see any way up.
But then again, if Gao suggested it, he must've had something planned.
"How are we getting up there, Chief Gao? You got some wall-scaling gear stashed away?" I asked.
"This time, you're finally using your brain."Gao's eyes stayed locked on the hole above as he spoke.He casually loosened his belt—Only then did I notice he was actually wearing suspenders. The belt was just for show.
And it wasn't even leather—It was a long rope, woven from coarse hemp fibers.
With a flick of his hand, the "belt" unraveled into a long hemp rope.
Gao swung the end with the buckle upward.He had great aim—The rope coiled cleanly around a piece of exposed rebar above the hole.He tugged it a few times to test its strength, then turned to me and said,"I remember you were special forces. Shouldn't be a problem for you to climb, right?"
This sort of climb wasn't exactly my specialty, but it was well within my capabilities.I tested the rope, felt that it could bear a man's weight, and said,"Chief Gao, you should go up first. I'll cover—"
Before I could finish, Gao cut me off."You think I can climb that?"He was already tying the other end of the rope around his own waist."You go up first, then pull me up."
Looking at his hefty frame, I felt a wave of dizziness.But there was no time to argue.I tied the two short swords to my shoelaces and started climbing.
I was about two-thirds of the way up when a cold voice rang out above:
"Dead end."
My heart froze.I looked up just as a gunshot cracked.
A searing pain tore through my neck.
Whoever it was had terrible aim.At that range, he should've hit my head.Still, the shot was enough to make me lose my grip—I fell straight down.
Luckily, the bullet passed clean through—no fragments, no blockage.Painful, sure, but nothing debilitating.
I looked down—The front of my already bloodstained clothes was soaked with fresh blood again.Couldn't the bastard have shot me somewhere else?
The shooter must've been a rookie.After that one shot, he assumed I was either dead or crippled, and didn't bother to fire again.
By the time he realized I was still alive, I'd already rolled into a blind spot in his field of fire.
As I stopped, I saw Gao Liang standing not far from me, looking almost amused.
I took a few deep breaths—the pain in my neck was subsiding.Gao was giving me that sheepish smile of his, and I suddenly understood—He'd guessed there was an ambush above, and had used me to scout it out.Sure, I didn't die, but still—He could've told me something!
I'd gone through military service without a single scar—Now that I was a civilian, I'd taken two bullets in a day...
The shooter above fired off another wild burst—seven or eight rounds with no clear target.When nothing happened, he pulled a knife and started hacking at Gao Liang's "belt."But after ten slashes, the hemp rope didn't even have a frayed edge.
I untied the short swords from my laces and was gauging the angle to strike—But Gao Liang suddenly pressed down on my arm.
"No need," he whispered. "I'll handle this one personally."
He pulled a stack of talisman papers from his coat pocket and picked one.Without fire, he shook it gently, and it ignited on its own.
As the talisman burned to ash, the rope—Which Gao usually wore as a belt—Suddenly twisted violently like a living snake.
With a snap, the rope shot upward, coiling into the hole above.
A dull thud sounded from above.
Ten seconds later, the shooter came tumbling down, bound head to toe like a dumpling, hanging in midair.
He struggled desperately for a minute or two.Then his head slumped forward, tongue hanging long from his mouth—He had been strangled to death by the rope.
I stared in stunned silence.I'd never seen—or even heard of—anything like that before.So this was the kind of terrifying artifact the Bureau kept in its arsenal?
I turned to Gao and asked,"Chief Gao, if you had that rope, why the hell did you send me up there to take a bullet?"
Gao didn't even look at me.
He walked over to the spot under the hole where the corpse dangled.While walking, he replied,"You think I'm some immortal sage? That I can predict everything?"
He paused, then added,"Besides, you actually helped me out. That rope's called the Beam Lock.It only obeys commands after it's soaked in fresh human blood…and after it's felt your grudge."
That's what he said—But the smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth made me doubt how much of that was true.
By then, he had walked up beneath the dangling corpse.Sensing a living presence nearby, the Beam Lock began to writhe again.Its loose end flung itself toward Gao Liang.
Gao pinched a talisman between two fingers and flicked it into the air.
The flimsy paper flew like a playing card, spinning until it struck the end of the rope.
Crack!A spark flared.The talisman turned to ash instantly, and the rope went limp—Dropping the corpse to the ground with a thud.
Gao Liang stepped over, glanced at the dead man's face, and sneered.
"Li Yongjin… Lin Feng really doesn't like outsourcing, does he?"