What’s beneath the North District?
This question made everyone in the team react instantly.
The North District, being the industrial area of Linjiang City, is the heart of the entire city. Buried underneath is the largest steam engine in Linjiang, directly driven by the underground currents of the Jiujiang River. It provides energy to half of Linjiang City’s steam city infrastructure.
And this place, resembling an underground laboratory...
If not controlled by the Linjiang government, it’s practically a dagger plunged into Linjiang’s heart.
The group hesitated whether to continue delving deeper.
Given the statuses of Tang Xiaoyu, Lin Shan, and others, they should know all official facilities in Linjiang, yet this information was unknown to them.
The level of secrecy was too high.
But if this facility wasn’t built by the authorities.
Building such a high-end underground facility here, and also linked with the Devouring Fog of the Abyssal Ascetic Association, the organizational power behind it must be unimaginable.
How could the government be connected with the Devouring Fog?
Everyone leaned toward the second guess.
"Withdraw, the situation here isn’t better than in the Spirit Realm. If we rashly proceed, we’ll definitely have problems."
Tang Xiaoyu immediately decided.
Even with the Reverse Watch, she didn’t dare to take risks.
Moreover, with half the time gone, they didn’t have the capital to continue exploring.
They remained silent along the way.
After recording the situation at the entrance with their phones, they quickly began retreating, not wanting to stay below for a second longer.
Who knows what terrifying things were inside.
The Devouring Fog was troublesome enough; if something went wrong, they might all perish here.
The world of adults doesn’t play games.
The path back was not smooth for everyone.
During this time, Lin Shan and Tang Xiaoyu both experienced bursts of negative emotions, and Baiyu quick-wittedly threw them each a Purification to stabilize the team. However, the blood smell from the previously killed mutated animals attracted more to come.
With a few beautiful fighters, Baiyu didn’t worry.
When they eventually fought their way out and covered the manhole, Baiyu even fetched a few big stones to press it down, just to be safe.
The bright moon hung high in the sky.
The surrounding fog had already thinned out.
Those red light points seemed unable to penetrate solid objects, swirling just outside the manhole cover.
Baiyu wanted to bottle some of them.
But these crafty things seemed to have a mind of their own and couldn’t be captured. Meanwhile, the white fog without the red light points appeared no different.
The group walked all the way to the street entrance.
Finally, they encountered three ordinary people’s mutants.
These three creatures had completely transformed into half-human, half-seafood forms, with their bodies covered in scales, and thick moist liquid dripping constantly, spreading a stench through the air.
Although their bizarre appearances startled the group,
they handled the Pollution Level steadily. Generally, the pollution level caused by ordinary mutants was quite small. Throughout this journey, Baiyu had been suppressing their negative emotions, so it wasn’t a big issue.
Tang Xiaoyu and Lin Shan solved these mutants, and the group quickly exited Settlement Street.
The originally unremarkable street now appeared terrifying in their eyes, like the entrance to an abyss, chilling their hearts.
And the massive underground facility below...
exuded a strong malice.
"Seal off several surrounding streets, evacuate all residents to other places for relocation. It’s no longer safe to live here," Tang Xiaoyu instructed the Linjiang City government personnel, preparing to dispatch the few police forces they had.
The city had no stationed troops.
The military was all in shelters, constantly defending against Exotic Beasts and unable to manage the city.
"Everyone, stay alert, and no one is allowed to enter inside. This is for your own safety and the responsibility of Linjiang City."
Tang Xiaoyu’s face was extremely serious.
Baiyu did not follow Jiang Xi back to Golden Rainbow Academy but returned to his long-neglected home in the neighborhood instead.
Due to the previous mutant incident, many tenants had moved out.
However, after a period of emptiness, many residents moved into the neighborhood again. With such inflow and outflow, Baiyu’s collected rent didn’t decrease at all.
After all, housing is never short of people wanting to live, especially with such a large population.
The Anomaly Bureau and the Church were generous with their rewards this time, Lin Shan promised to send someone with them in a few days. However, the matters underground left Baiyu somewhat unsettled.
"Does the Devouring Fog have a relationship with the Abyssal Ascetic Association? Are these people really like rats that can’t be eradicated?"
"No, their continued existence disturbs my peace. Such destabilizing, citizen-threatening scum must all be eliminated."
"Find a way to give them one hell of a shot!"
Baiyu took out the Heart of the Dance, twisted the Magic Cube, and a projection about the size of half a palm of Erza appeared above.
The ship girl’s green eyes swept over, her voice devoid of joy or sorrow, revealing little emotion.
"Can you monitor North District’s Settlement Street No.1, Settlement Street No.2... those streets?" Baiyu asked.
"With my current permissions, can I launch an attack?"
"Really, can’t you make an exception? Is there any backdoor?"
Erza’s eyes flashed as she shook her head: "I can help monitor the situation there. Did something happen?"
Baiyu recounted the entire event, detailing the sequence of events.
Hearing this, Erza also showed a serious expression: "I will consult with Qiong Yue. Linjiang City has been cleansed no less than three times recently. Most of those secret organizations have been cleared out, leaving Linjiang to deal with the seven Spirit Realm passages outside, plus the place you’ve now discovered.
You should avoid approaching it; I can conduct 24-hour surveillance around your neighborhood, so you won’t be in danger.
Your Elf Banshee requested to see you. I’ll send her down to you another day."
Even someone capable of taking down Allen with one shot says so, I really have no way right now.
Need to focus on improving myself instead.
The ship girl is ultimately something external.
Baiyu closed the room, lay on the sofa, and slowly immersed his consciousness in the scholar space.
The glaring red lights on the Subject Experience Tree panel almost blinded him.
[Mysticism Experience 1000/1000, ready for upgrade to LV2!]
Seeing this line of prompts, Baiyu was almost moved to tears.
Finally, I can upgrade!
It’s worth noting that the mysticism discipline has been stuck for a long time, making it impossible for other disciplines to advance to Level Two.
Given the knowledge encountered in high school, raising other subjects to Level Two was also challenging.
He then checked how he accumulated the experience.
"Encounter with a mystical creature - Firefly, Mysticism experience +300!"
"Encounter with a mystical building - Firefly Nest, Mysticism experience +100!"
These were the two prompts for gaining Mysticism experience.
The task pane on the side, which had the nightmare difficulty task of leveling up Mysticism to LV2, was finally completed!