Chapter 1 Night Falls

Ten o'clock sharp.

At the entrance of Yulan Alley in the old district, a figure slowly came to a halt. The person was dressed in black, wearing a baseball cap, walking close to the walls of the alley. He moved swiftly, disappearing into the night in a matter of seconds.

It was Shi Li.

After Shi Li's figure vanished, a wisp of blazing fire slowly emerged in the night sky not far away.

Gu Shen's expression was calm as he slowly approached Yulan Alley.

With the [Blazing Fire Vision] activated, the trail left by Shi Li was very clear... like fireworks in the night, one glance was enough to see the path he had taken.

Gu Shen frowned slightly.

This shadow, symbolizing Shi Li's path, twisted and turned, sometimes running quickly within the alley, sometimes pausing, wary of being followed. He was so cautious... he must be carrying a sealed item that could detect extraordinary auras.

"Shi Li knows someone is following him?"

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

Who walks like this normally?

Could it be Hu Danian's usual investigations that aroused his suspicion? This close-combat extraordinaire shouldn't be so perceptive, should he?

In any case, Hu Danian's choice not to pursue too closely was the right one.

Shi Li was already suspicious.

Gu Shen pondered for a moment before slowly moving forward, keeping the maximum distance while following these residual traces... His Blazing Fire ability was unique, and his keenness in capturing details was unmatched by many high-level mental-type individuals, so he was quite adept at tracking.

He was confident that he would not be discovered by Shi Li.

But to be safe, it was better to be cautious and not chase too closely.

...

...

"Achoo!"

The moment he entered the alley, Shi Li sneezed again.

His expression was gloomy as he rubbed his nose vigorously.

What the hell?

Last time he sneezed, he didn't take it seriously... and soon had a gun pointed at his head.

What was happening this time?

Was the Goddess of Fate giving him another warning?

"Is someone... following me?"

After pausing in place, Shi Li pondered for a long time before coming up with a reasonable explanation... He continued forward, then suddenly stood still against the wall, holding his breath, and began to wait.

After waiting for a long time, he received no response.

So he continued forward with an unchanged expression, but before long, he suddenly reversed direction and began to sprint back the way he came.

If anyone saw these actions, they might just laugh... but in reality, this was a very useful way to test for trackers.

Unfortunately, Shi Li found nothing. He even ran several hundred meters back the way he came in one breath, without seeing a single ghost. The old district was desolate at night, and he had chosen the most remote alleyway. There wasn't even a sound here, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Shi Li stood suspiciously where he had sneezed, looking around. Tree shadows swayed, and leaves rustled.

An extraordinaire's intuition rarely erred.

He was so cautious because of what happened last time.

"In that case, I'll take out the compass... and have a look."

Shi Li took out a compass from his pocket... The compass was square and about the size of a palm. The edges were gilded and silver-plated, making it look very new, not like an old object.

His fingertips were surrounded by silver light, which he slowly injected into the compass.

"Swish, swish, swish—"

The pointer on the compass spun around quickly before finally returning to its original position.

Shi Li breathed a sigh of relief and muttered to himself.

"Is it my... imagination?"

He started to move forward along Yulan Alley again.

Gu Shen, in the bushes, was drenched in cold sweat after seeing this scene.

He had been following well, but suddenly, without warning, Shi Li's aura froze, and then this guy ran back the way he came like a madman. If he hadn't made the right decision to follow at the maximum distance from the start... he probably would have been discovered.

In the end, he held his breath, quickly retreated, and returned to his hiding place.

What made Gu Shen's heart leap to his throat... was the compass that Shi Li had taken out. That sealed item, which looked very old, was obviously from the Eternal Foundation. Gu Shen guessed that the compass should have the function of detecting the surrounding extraordinary mental energy... He had prepared himself to draw the Ruler of Truth and fight Shi Li head-on.

But... the compass didn't detect him?

Indeed.

Blazing Fire was an extremely special existence.

Normal detection methods could not capture him through mental energy.

This time.

Gu Shen's tracking progressed much more smoothly. Shi Li no longer went around in circles, presumably because he didn't have time to waste on the road... He moved very quickly, and Gu Shen also quickened his pace a little more boldly.

But as he walked, his expression became solemn.

"Going forward... is Yuandan Street!"

He secretly had a bad feeling... Eventually, Shi Li's figure disappeared into the darkness of Yuandan Street.

Blazing Fire swirled as Gu Shen looked towards that dreaded old street... To the naked eye of ordinary people, it was just a thin layer of gray fog, but in his eyes, it was a dense smog that couldn't be dispelled.

"Wait a moment..."

Gu Shen's pupils contracted.

Not far from the entrance of Yuandan Street, he saw an overturned motorcycle. It was the vehicle that Hu Danian had used to bring him here, lying crookedly in the ruins and garbage heap at the entrance of the long street.

Cautiously approaching, Gu Shen's expression changed drastically after seeing the scene clearly.

The motorcycle was down.

There were also patches of blood on the roadside.

Not far from the car, there was also a dry, thin skeleton lying diagonally. The flesh and blood had been drained clean, leaving only a layer of skin. The face was destroyed, making it impossible to identify... But what was certain was that this skeleton was dead, beyond dead.

"Damn it."

Gu Shen's expression became very ugly. Didn't Hu Danian say he was very cautious?

How long had it been?

What kind of existence was there in that street?

He didn't hesitate and immediately began to retreat.

But what made Gu Shen's scalp tingle happened... He clearly remembered the route he had taken, but after returning along the original route, the surrounding scenery became unfamiliar, and the fog became thicker and thicker.

The Blazing Fire Vision began to blur, and visibility suddenly decreased.

He stopped, silently held his breath, calmed down, and allowed himself to accept this reality.

"I've entered Yuandan Street..."

Only by entering Yuandan Street could one feel... that the fog in the dreams of the old district residents was so solid, almost to the point of being unable to see one's fingers, let alone discern directions in such a fog.

The first thing Gu Shen did was to stop.

He had lost his sense of direction, and even the Blazing Fire, which he was best at, could not find the right direction in this fog... Since that was the case, he should minimize wrong attempts as much as possible.

And at this juncture, he did not dare to easily summon the Blazing Fire.

Because at this moment, Shi Li was in Yuandan Street!

Now that things had come to this, it was basically certain... that the smog in the old district was the plan of the Eternal Foundation. These lunatics had the dominant power over this sealed item. Who knew how much they could see?

"This is not a dream, but a real world."

A sense of familiarity welled up in his heart.

Gu Shen had seen this fog more than once in other people's dreams. At that time, he could not comprehend the despair of the original owner of the dream. Only by being truly in the smog did he gradually feel something was wrong...

In the fog of Yuandan Street, his mental energy was being consumed every moment.

After being tempered by the Awakening of Insects Breathing Technique, his mental energy was now considered solid, but how long could he last in this fog? Once it was exhausted, would he be the same as those before him?

Or... even worse.

Recalling the corpse next to the motorcycle, Gu Shen's expression became solemn. Perhaps this would be his fate.

For some reason.

The more he inhaled this mental energy-consuming fog, the calmer he became, so calm that he could hear every heartbeat and the sound of a pin dropping and footsteps in the silent district in the fog.

He stood there quietly for five minutes.

Not a single sound came from the fog.

"Shi Li disappeared after entering Yuandan Street..."

The Blazing Fire could no longer capture his trail.

"If... he can see in this fog... with the caution he showed all the way here, he must have discovered me."

"He didn't take any action... I can only guess that he doesn't know I've entered this street."

"Then... I can only guess that this fog blocks the view indiscriminately."

Gu Shen muttered, "Yuandan Street is full of dilapidated factories. He should have entered one of them. That factory should be where the sealed item is located..."

If that was the case.

Then he only needed to find the place where the "fog" was the thickest, and he could determine where Shi Li was!

"If I can't get out of Yuandan Street... then maybe I can try... destroying the sealed item..."

This idea was crazy.

Shi Li was at least a Level 4 close-combat type.

However... in the fog, he didn't know he was there, and he would probably let his guard down in Yuandan Street.

According to his previous calculations, he had a chance of winning with a Blazing Fire sneak attack.

If he failed in one strike, he could retreat back into the fog and successfully escape.

Rather than wasting time and turning into a dried corpse... he might as well take a bold gamble!

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes. He carefully summoned a wisp of Blazing Fire and attached it to the position between his eyebrows... The thick fog seemed to reach out a palm to cover the eye that Gu Shen had opened between his eyebrows.

But he could still feel the changes in the fog in different areas.

Slowly groping, Gu Shen advanced little by little, controlling his steps and trying not to make any noise.

"It's in this area..."

Gu Shen stopped in front of a heavy iron gate. Such gates would tremble in the wind, and he didn't dare to touch them at all... Relying on the intuition of the Blazing Fire, he found such an area, probably a row of three to four abandoned factories. This was the smallest area he could determine.

"Shi Li is likely in one of them."

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

He took a deep breath, preparing to move forward again.

"Snap!"

A hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.