Fang Xiu frowned. Who could it be? The Investigation Bureau? Or Zhao Hao?
Knocking on the door in the middle of the night? With communication so convenient nowadays, why not just call?
He got up and slowly walked toward the door, not opening it immediately but instead looking through the peephole.
When he looked through the peephole, he was startled to see a human eye filled with bloodshot veins!
The eye was wide open, with no eyelids visible, as if someone had removed the entire eyeball and pressed it firmly against the other side of the peephole.
The whites of the eye were blood-red, and the pupil was pitch-black, as if the blood vessels in the whites of the eye had multiplied so densely that they completely covered the whites.
Just as Fang Xiu was about to act, suddenly, the bloodshot human eye emitted an eerie spiritual fluctuation.
The next moment, Fang Xiu's vision went black, and his consciousness sank, as if someone had struck him hard on the back of the head with a hammer....
After an unknown amount of time, when Fang Xiu woke up again, he found himself in a dilapidated warehouse.
He was bound to an iron chair, with cold, bone-chilling chains tightly wrapped around his body.
The warehouse was large, with a rough cement floor covered in dried, dark red bloodstains. There were no windows in the room, and the only light came from a few incandescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling, casting a dim, eerie glow over the space.
The air was filled with a putrid stench, reminiscent of the smell of decomposing corpses.
Not far from Fang Xiu, there was a row of torture devices, of various kinds, each covered in blackish-red bloodstains.
It was clear that many people had been executed here.
Whether due to environmental factors or not, the number of eerie entities roaming the warehouse was unusually high.
Many grotesque and terrifying entities wandered about, and several even gathered around Fang Xiu, constantly drooling. Unfortunately, they couldn't touch him until they "saw" him.
At the very center of the warehouse stood a meat grinder, rusty and dilapidated in appearance. Its unique design featured a funnel-shaped opening facing Fang Xiu, with rows of sharp metal blades inside.
Coincidentally, the meat grinder was also covered in dried, dark red bloodstains.
At that moment, a man dressed in black and wearing a black baseball cap was standing beside the meat grinder, seemingly repairing it.
Suddenly, the man seemed to sense something, paused in his movements, and then abruptly turned around.
A pair of bloodshot eyes, almost devoid of whites, came into Fang Xiu's view.
The owner of those eyes was a young man with an extremely pale complexion, a gaunt build, and skin stretched tightly over his bones.
Fang Xiu stared calmly at the man. He knew this was the same man who had attacked him earlier at the peephole.
As for the method of attack, it must be related to those eerie eyes.
A Spirit Tamer?
Abilities related to the eyes?
"You woke up pretty quickly. You don't seem like a new Spirit Tamer at all." The man stared intently at Fang Xiu and spoke, his voice hoarse, even tinged with a hint of maniacal madness.
"It seems you're also a genius like me. How wonderful! Torturing geniuses is my favorite pastime."
The man spoke to himself, his face involuntarily breaking into a maniacal, cruel smile.
Facing this scene, Fang Xiu showed no sign of fear, instead calmly asking, "Is it fixed yet?"
The man paused for a moment, then his face betrayed a hint of awkwardness. "Sorry, I haven't killed anyone recently, so the machine is a bit rusty. Please be patient for a moment longer; it'll be done soon."
"Fix it quickly. I don't like wasting time."
The man looked at Fang Xiu's calm expression and froze again. But the next moment, his body began to tremble uncontrollably, and the muscles on his face twitched constantly.
"Hahaha..."
He burst into a maniacal, crazy laughter.
"Fang Xiu, huh? I must say, you're quite an interesting person, right up my alley. But unfortunately, my cousin is dead, so you have to die too."
"Oh? Are you Prince Teng's cousin?" Fang Xiu asked calmly.
The man nodded. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Lin Ziyang, the genius cousin of that good-for-nothing brat."
"You seem to have some kind of illness."
Lin Ziyang burst into laughter: "I'm not sick. I'm more awake than ever. At least, I still know to avenge my cousin, right? Hahaha..."
Hearing Lin Ziyang's manic words, Fang Xiu immediately recalled the description of spiritual breakdown on the Global Strange Forum.
It was clear that Lin Ziyang was on the brink of spiritual breakdown, his entire being consumed by madness.
"You must be curious why I'm seeking revenge for my cousin by targeting you. After all, we were just escaping together in the Strange Domain, and in a way, we shared life and death. It was the Strange that killed him, so why am I targeting you? We have nothing to do with each other."
As he said this, Lin Ziyang's expression suddenly became ferocious, glaring at Fang Xiu with a savage look.
"Because you deserve to die! Why didn't you die instead of my cousin? Since my cousin is dead, why are you still alive? Doesn't that make my cousin seem inferior to others? I, Lin Ziyang, have never been weaker than anyone else, and neither should my cousin!
It's not just you; there's also that kid named Zhao Hao, right? Don't worry, you two..."
"I killed your cousin." Fang Xiu cut off Lin Ziyang's crazy speech.
Lin Ziyang, who was in a state of madness, suddenly froze, seemingly unsure of what to say next.
"What did you say?"
"Actually, your cousin's death isn't entirely unrelated to me. To be precise, his death was entirely my doing.
He could have lived, but I ambushed him, rendering him unable to move, forcing him to watch helplessly as the strange creature approached and devoured him alive.
I stood by and watched quietly as he was eaten, savoring the intoxicating despair emanating from his body.
Oh, and the most ridiculous part is that your cousin tried to drag me down with him as he was dying, using his hands covered in filthy blood to grab my pant leg. Do you know how I responded?
I stomped on his hand with my shoe, crushing it until I heard the sound of his bones breaking. At that moment, the agonized screams he let out were truly beautiful."
Lin Ziyang: "..."
He stared blankly at Fang Xiu, taking several seconds to snap out of it, his entire being growing increasingly frantic and agitated.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! You deserve to die! You fucking deserve to die! Do you know how stupid this makes me look? Ah!!"