Bai Yingxue waved her hand, dismissing their hesitation with quiet finality. She had long accepted the fragility of her life, but the thought of dying without purpose—that, she could not bear.
"What's wrong? Do you all intend to stay and die with me?" Her sharp gaze swept over them, her voice as cold as the frost beginning to spread outside.
"Director," Qin Changqing's face twisted into a bitter grimace, "even if we wanted to leave now, it's too late. The evil spirits… they've arrived."
Her eyes narrowed, her expression hardening as she snapped her head upward toward the sky. A suffocating darkness loomed over the city, black clouds rolling across the heavens, swallowing every trace of light. The once-sweltering air plummeted from blistering heat to a bone-chilling frost.
The wind howled, a cacophony of wails and whispers, like the cries of vengeful spirits. Frost formed across the earth, clinging to surfaces with an unnatural cold that seeped deep into the marrow of anyone nearby.
But the cold was not the source of their terror.
It was them.
Emerging from the depths of the oppressive clouds, they came—twisted shapes of nightmares, spectral forms radiating malice so pure it could suffocate the unprepared. The evil spirits floated with distorted, incorporeal bodies, their features an amalgamation of human and beast. Faces stretched unnaturally into grotesque grins; some bore empty eye sockets that seemed to stare directly into the soul.
Their laughter—a blend of jealousy and fury—rippled through the air like a chorus of madness. The city beneath them trembled.
"Those… those are evil spirits?" whispered a trembling member of the Special Affairs Bureau. His voice cracked as fear overtook him. The mere sight of the spirits paralyzed him. Even their fleeting gaze seemed to freeze his blood and chain his limbs.
"Just three of these things caused thousands of deaths before…" Qin Changqing's voice wavered. He clenched his fists, his face pale as he continued, "But now there are hundreds of thousands. No… millions. How can anyone survive this? This isn't just Hyakki Yakou. This is the march of ten thousand ghosts—a disaster beyond reckoning!"
The agents of the Special Affairs Bureau were consumed by dread. The skies were crowded with spirits, a ceaseless tide of malice that blocked out hope itself. Their forms merged into a churning sea of horrors, shifting endlessly within the darkness.
The evil spirits made no attempt to conceal their presence. They reveled in their dominance, mocking the helpless mortals below.
"This… this is impossible…" whispered another agent, trembling as his eyes darted from one ghostly figure to another.
"No weapon, no strategy… no one can stop this," murmured another.
Their despair was palpable, a weight that pressed down on the entire room. The presence of the spirits shattered their composure, rendering even the bravest among them speechless.
Bai Yingxue stood silent, her icy eyes fixed on the oppressive scene unfolding above. Though her face betrayed no emotion, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, knuckles whitening.
She had seen death before. But this?
This was death incarnate.