Tang Xiaoyu naturally has her confidence.
As the priest of the Sinking Iron Church, she has the right to mobilize and use the Sealing Objects owned by the church. Apart from the divine staff in her hand, she also carries a protective Sealing Object.
It’s worth mentioning.
Only magical items officially recorded, recognized, and numbered can be referred to as Sealing Objects.
Ordinary, folk magical items are simply magical items.
To become a Sealing Object, an item must have a certain strength or special function, different from the ordinary, flashy folk items.
The item in Tang Xiaoyu’s hand is precisely such an example.
Sealing Object A-78—Reverse Watch:
Description: The Reverse Watch is an old-style quartz watch from the Sunless Empire, its original manufacturer is untraceable. It was first discovered at a farm in the North Cold Continent, where the farmer handed the strange watch over to the state. The watch has only two opposing scales and a single minute hand, which always moves counterclockwise.
Effect: Adjust the minute hand to any scale on the watch. When the minute hand rotates to another scale, all wearers during this period will have their physical state revert to the time of the previous scale.
Accurate experiments have been conducted.
The magical ability of the Reverse Watch can only affect each individual once. Those who have used it before will find it ineffective whenever they attempt to use it later.
Tang Xiaoyu took this ancient watch from her pocket and explained its use in detail to the few people around her.
The watch’s effect does not disappoint its A Level Sealing Object status.
This watch, upon activating the scale adjustment, will alter the state of creatures that wore the watch within thirty minutes to revert to thirty minutes earlier.
It sounds a bit convoluted.
But the function amounts to having thirty minutes of invincible time, though each person can only use it once in their lifetime.
"If we die within these thirty minutes, does the watch still work?"
Tang Xiaoyu replied, "Previous cases and experiments have shown that those who die within thirty minutes will still be reverted back to thirty minutes before death by the watch, giving us essentially thirty minutes of invincible time, which is why I dare to go down to find the source."
Indeed, with the watch, the danger of descending greatly diminishes.
Everyone wore the watch and began to open the manhole cover, using the faint light from flashlights, they entered the pitch-black sewer pipes.
The sewer system in the North District connects to the Jiujiang outside Linjiang City.
Due to the groundwater from Jiujiang, the area below is not very dirty, yet the old lighting equipment has mostly become ineffective.
The sewer is pitch black.
The white fog within is even thicker, and the flashlights only illuminate a small area ahead.
The sound of flowing water echoes by their ears.
The five didn’t progress much before they had to stop.
Two corpses lay ahead on the ground.
Only half of their bodies remain, emitting a rotting smell.
Judging by their tattered clothing, they seem to be sewer workers repairing the pipes.
"They were likely killed by some rodent and their bodies eaten away; it’s been at least ten days since they died."
The flashlight’s beam shone on the corpses.
Baiyu gave a simple analysis.
"What kind of rodent can kill two robust adults? Is someone breeding capybaras in the sewer?"
Baiyu was about to answer when the squeaking sound in the darkness approached.
Scarlet eyes glowed mysteriously in the dark like sparks, the flashlight’s light revealed what the creatures in the dark were.
Rats the size of Huskies!
Their sharp incisors gleaming like blades, with murderous intent in their scarlet eyes.
From Baiyu’s perspective.
Within these rats, those red light points from the white fog keep entering, akin to a bacterial infection, forming a symbiotic entity.
Without wasting words.
Tang Xiaoyu and Lin Shan almost instantly attacked, killing the two giant rats, powerful Blood Qi combined with Extraordinary Power, swiftly ended their lives.
These mutant monsters remain pitifully weak in front of Lin Shan’s combination of Martial Artist and Extraordinary.
Yet Baiyu’s focus is not on them.
After the giant rats died, the red light points within them floated out. Rather than randomly dispersing in the air, they purposefully drifted deeper into the sewer.
Baiyu vaguely senses he grasped the working principle of these red light points.
The others cannot see the light points.
Tang Xiaoyu learned about the Devouring Fog because a research institute studied the black fog from the Lijiang Shelter three years ago, discovering the fog’s characteristics.
Without pausing much.
Time is precious now, and after dealing with these giant rats, they continued deeper, encountering more waves of various animal attacks, all easily resolved.
These animals were infested by those red light points, causing mutations, and upon their death, the red light points again floated from the corpses, flying into the dark.
During which light points in the air formed tentacles, attacking them.
The path forward was not easy.
Luckily, Baiyu could see those unique light points, and by following their path, after a series of twists and turns, the group stopped before a door.
Seeing such a thing in the sewer was beyond their wildest expectations.
Although it had been superficially disguised, with close observation one could see the entire door was made of B Level alloy.
Its sturdiness could easily rival a bank vault.
Those small red light points entered the thumb-sized vents at the top of the alloy door as they floated and wandered.
Lin Shan felt some trouble looking at the door.
"It’s simple, we’ve come this far, can we really turn back?" Baiyu took out his Living Iron Short Saber, casually slicing into the alloy door like cutting tofu.
Then he began to maneuver the blade, creating an opening for passage.
The inside was unexpectedly revealing.
Brand new walls, neatly paved hallway floors, crisscross corridors, and lighting equipment on the ceiling every three meters...
It was exactly like an underground laboratory.
Except for the bizarre murals on the walls and the spreading black vines, it was almost indistinguishable from a regular human research institute.
Tang Xiaoyu’s face grew increasingly serious.
"The sewer beneath Linjiang City has a place ? It’s not something built overnight, you had no information at all?"
Baiyu curiously glanced to the side.
Lin Shan shook her head, "The Anomaly Bureau has no records whatsoever, this is not a government organization..."
Tang Xiaoyu seemed to recall something severe, coldly replying, "Have you forgotten what’s beneath the North District?"