Inside the operations room of Yanhai City's Special Department, a group of people sat smoking, the air thick with swirling smoke.
The one-eyed man sat in the leader's chair, a cigarette dangling precariously from his hand, burning backwards. He flicked his tongue against the heat, corrected the cigarette's position, and stared intently at the projected image on the wall.
A woman with long, coiled hair, clad in a tight black pencil skirt, pointed at the image with a slender pointer. Occasionally adjusting her glasses, she explained, "This is the footage recorded by the cameras near the Cross-River Bridge. Due to the malevolent entity, many cameras were damaged, so this is all we could recover."
"We don't know who eliminated the entity, but it definitely wasn't Vice President Li Laifu."
The woman was Jin Heli, the team leader of the Special Department's Post-Incident Analysis Team. Standing tall at 1.72 meters, with a slender figure and perfect curves, she reached almost 1.78 meters in heels. Highly intelligent, she could easily be mistaken for a CEO's personal secretary. A beauty mark near the corner of her eye added to her allure.
Many in the Special Department had tried to woo this attractive team leader, but their advances were met with a dismissive, "Do you want to eat shit?"
Secretly, the rejected men would think, If it's your shit, I'd gladly eat it. It just depends on whether you're willing to turn your ass towards me.
The one-eyed man leaned back in his leather chair, his left hand on the desk and his right hand gripping the armrest as he silently smoked. The smoke drifted in front of his face, his single eye glinting with unease.
He recognized two familiar faces in the footage. Unmistakably, two individuals he'd never forget: patients from Qingshan Mental Hospital. They were there, alive, while the malevolent entity had mysteriously vanished. Dead or alive, no trace remained, save for a pool of blood on the ground.
He recalled Director Hao's words: The malevolent entity, Mangy Dog, was eaten by him, leaving only a canine tooth.
The experts from the four academies discussed the situation, their minds racing, trying to piece together the events at the Cross-River Bridge. Had an unknown expert passed by and eliminated the entity? Or had the entity simply lost its way and wandered off?
Various possibilities were suggested, filling the room with lively, yet ultimately inconclusive, debate.
"Quiet!" the one-eyed man interrupted, his voice slightly hoarse. His remaining eye was fixed on the screen, a sharp glint within. "I think I know what happened."
Everyone looked at him curiously, eager to hear his explanation. However...
"But I can't say," he added slowly.
The others leaned back in their chairs, exasperated. Wasn't that just stating the obvious? If anyone else had spoken, they would have erupted in anger. Damn it! You might as well have said nothing.
The one-eyed man had his reasons. He had encountered the two at the mental hospital, then ended up in the hospital himself. He didn't know the exact details, but he knew the beginning and the end.
They could be considered ordinary people, yet they possessed extraordinary abilities. He himself was quite powerful, one of Yanhai City's strongest, yet they had managed to paralyze his leg with acupuncture needles, leaving him without sensation. This demonstrated a terrifying level of skill.
He had later inquired about his blood work at the hospital. The hematopoietic stem cells in his blood were astonishingly high, a phenomenon unheard of in ordinary people, even himself. Therefore, he was certain that these two mental patients were incredibly formidable, far more than they appeared.
If he had to offer an explanation for the entity's disappearance, he could only say that it had probably been eaten by them.
"We'll cease the investigation into this incident," he declared gravely. "Continue searching for traces of other entities. I suspect a high-level entity is hiding in Yanhai City, orchestrating everything that's been happening." His greatest concern was the possibility of a larger threat lurking in the shadows. The seven-level entity that emerged from the sinkhole in Mount Tai might be a mere decoy, diverting attention while other entities dispersed and hid.
The experts from the four academies were intensely curious about what the one-eyed man knew, but they understood it was a lost cause. Extracting information from him would be like pulling teeth, literally.
Jin Heli, clutching her files, clicked her heels as she swayed her hips and exited the operations room. The Buddhist expert stole a glance, then closed his eyes, chanting, "Amitabha."
The Medical expert took out some pills. "You two can have a good fight. With me here, you won't die."
Lin Daoming, the Maoshan expert, propped a foot on his chair, rolled up his sleeves, and glared at Liu Haichan. Liu Haichan, in turn, looked unconcerned, his gaze filled with disdain, as if daring the other man to make a move.
"What did you fucking say? I've been putting up with you for a long time," Lin Daoming sputtered, his missing front teeth whistling as he spoke, his anger undeterred. "Come on, let's go outside and settle this. I'll show you how I can poke holes all over you with my money sword."
"I'm not afraid of you," Liu Haichan retorted.
"You fucking say that again!" Lin Daoming pointed at him, but remained seated.
Liu Haichan chuckled. "I'll say it again. A knock-off is a knock-off. Just admit it. Still claiming to be the authentic Maoshan sect? You don't even recognize your ancestors anymore. You think you're so great."
The Buddhist expert, holding his prayer beads, pressed his palms together. "Amitabha."
Slap!
The one-eyed man slammed his hand on the table. "The four of you are nearly four hundred years old combined! Can you act your age? We brought you down from the mountains to teach at the academy, and you complained it was boring. Now you're here in Yanhai City, and all you do is bicker. If this continues, pack your bags and get out. I'll find someone else." His anger was palpable. With such serious matters at hand, they still found time to quarrel.
"Hmph!" Lin Daoming turned his head, refusing to acknowledge the other man.
Liu Haichan chuckled. "The Celestial Worthy says, 'Don't lower yourself to the level of a fool.'"
Jin Heli, holding her files, clicked her heels as she swayed her hips and exited the operations room. The Buddhist expert stole a glance, then closed his eyes, chanting, "Amitabha."