January 14th, deep into the night, in an abandoned industrial area on the outskirts of Beijiang City.
Hong Huang stood in the shadow of a dilapidated factory building, her red trench coat swaying slightly in the night wind.
She walked deeper into the factory, stepping on slightly damp soil.
The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the mournful sound of wind whistling through the corrugated iron roof and the occasional distant howl of wild dogs.
This place had been abandoned for years.
The ground was littered with rusted steel pipes and broken glass, and the air carried the damp, musty smell of decay.
After several days of investigating the traces left by Guixu Zhiying, they had finally pinpointed this abandoned industrial area.
‘Damn it! What is that smell?’
As Hong Huang walked deeper into the factory, a strong, putrid odor hit her nostrils, causing her to frown slightly.
If she wasn’t mistaken, this kind of smell was the stench of rotting corpses, likely formed by a large number of decaying bodies.
She cautiously stopped and crouched down, shining her flashlight on the ground.
On the concrete floor was a shallow red scratch.
It wasn’t natural; it was deliberately carved by some kind of sharp instrument.
She followed the direction of the scratch and walked forward.
After about a dozen steps, she found another one.
The two scratches were parallel, spaced about a meter apart.
She stood up and shone her flashlight deeper into the factory.
At the far end of the building, on the ground, was a massive pattern.
Hong Huang’s flashlight beam swept through the darkness, illuminating a portion of the pattern.
She quickened her pace and walked over, stopping at the edge of the pattern.
Her light swept from one end to the other.
The pattern was roughly ten meters square, incredibly intricate, carved into the concrete floor.
The lines were deep, the edges clean.
It was clearly not something done on a whim but meticulously planned.
Hong Huang crouched down again and ran her fingers over the grooves—the edges were smooth, with no signs of recent chiseling.
The exact date couldn’t be determined, but it wasn’t too old, likely within the past week.
She then shone her flashlight toward the center of the pattern.
“Disgusting.” Seeing what was at the center, Hong Huang covered her nose in disgust, fanning away the stench.
“What the hell is Guixu Zhiying up to?”
In the center of the pattern was a pile of animal carcasses, including but not limited to rats, wild dogs, chickens, and ducks.
The bodies were in an advanced state of decay, swarmed by flies.
As for the pattern itself, she didn’t know its exact purpose.
But based on records from the archives at the Headquarters in the capital…
Guixu Zhiying—an organization that worshipped evil deities, believing that “death is not the end of life, eternal life is never an illusion.”
They researched black magic, evil arts, and were obsessed with various sacrificial rituals.
Over the past few decades, they had left countless similar patterns all over the country.
It wasn’t hard to guess that this pattern was also related to sacrifice.
But what result they sought to achieve was unknown.
Hong Huang stood up and carefully examined the pattern with her flashlight.
The pattern was a circle, about three meters in diameter, densely carved with red runes—seemingly either sacrificial runes created by Guixu Zhiying or some ancient incantation.
She pulled out her phone from her pocket and began taking pictures, snapping several shots of every detail.
After finishing, she closed her eyes, trying to sense any residual magical fluctuations.
“Strange…”
Contrary to Hong Huang’s expectations, the magical residue from this pattern felt… warm.
Like sunlight on skin.
‘Did those maniacs actually research something real?’
Hong Huang opened her eyes, her frown deepening.
‘How could such an evil, ominous array give off a warm feeling…’
She shook her head and turned to leave.
She walked out of the factory.
The night wind blew past, clearing her head a little.
She then took out her phone and called Eri.
It rang twice before being answered.
“Hello,” Eri’s voice came through the receiver, “Any new findings?”
“I’ll send you the pictures,” Hong Huang said, “Seems to be some kind of array experiment by Guixu Zhiying.”
Hong Huang sent the photos over.
“It’s a Guixu Zhiying activity site. An abandoned factory. This array is likely from within the past week. It looks like a miniature test version.”
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds.
Eri was looking through the photos.
“This is…” Eri said, her voice serious, “The foundation for a large-scale sacrificial array?”
Silence again on the phone.
Eri was thinking; Hong Huang could hear the faint sound of her tapping on a desk.
“Check the areas near those vertices for any other anomalies,” Eri finally spoke, “Since there are three vertices, similar patterns might be hidden there.”
“Alright, I’ll check tomorrow.”
“Mhm,” Eri said, “Tell me the results when you’re done. Be careful. Guixu Zhiying members might be lurking nearby.”
“Oh, right. The Seven Blades in the capital have already dispatched one person. Another inquired about the location and happens to be in Beijiang. I’ve already notified them of the specifics. With you, that makes three. Combat power should be sufficient. The capital can’t spare any more.”
“Alright, understood.”
She then hung up.
Hong Huang looked at her phone screen and sighed.
Putting her phone away, she tightened her trench coat and walked towards the red sports car parked by the roadside.
Just as she pulled the car door open, a voice came from behind.
“All alone in a place like this in the dead of night… Aren’t you afraid of running into ghosts?”
Hong Huang’s hand paused.
The night wind blew from the direction of the abandoned factory, carrying that putrid smell, along with a faint, familiar presence.
“If there are ghosts, I suppose you’d be the only one,” Hong Huang turned around, leaning against the car door, her hands in her trench coat pockets.
“Changmeng, why are you here?”
Changmeng stood at the edge of the factory’s shadow, her silver-white hair gently flowing in the night breeze.
“Hehe~ Just passing by,” Changmeng said with a slight smile at the corner of her mouth, “I smelled something familiar and came to take a look.”
Hong Huang stared at her and asked, “What did you do here?”
“Me?” Changmeng tilted her head, “Oh my, oh my~ You can’t wrong an innocent person, you know~ I didn’t draw this array. I didn’t kill those animals either.”
“Hmph! Are you saying you had no involvement at all?”
“At least with the things here, I had no part,” Changmeng stepped out of the shadows, walking slowly, her high heels making crisp sounds on the gravel.
Hong Huang’s fingers tightened inside her pockets.
“What exactly are you all trying to do?”
Changmeng stopped, tilting her head to look at Hong Huang, her eyes filled with amusement.
“You guess.”
Hong Huang remained silent.
“You should know what that array is for without me telling you, right?” Changmeng chuckled, “Right now, they’re using animals… but in the future… that might not be the case…”
“Changmeng,” Hong Huang’s voice turned cold, “What exactly are you trying to say?”
Hong Huang pulled her hand from her pocket.
The flaming red longsword was already in her grasp, its blade flickering with fire in the night wind.
Seeing this, Changmeng just smiled and took a step back into the shadows.
“Hong Huang, I don’t want to fight you right now,” her voice came from the darkness, growing fainter.
“Let me tell you a secret. What’s happening here is just an interesting play to me. The one who wants to move against you, or rather, against humanity, isn’t me~ The only one I’m interested in… is that person named Lin Lu…”
The night wind blew past, carrying away the last trace of her voice.
Hong Huang stood in place, slowly sheathing her sword.
She wasn’t sure if there were other Hui Yan nearby.
Choosing to fight here wasn’t wise; if she got ganged up on, she’d be in danger.
She took a deep look in the direction Changmeng had left, then opened the car door and got in.
The engine started, the headlights illuminating the dark road ahead.
She stepped on the gas and drove off into the night.