All along the way, Sun Fatty kept pestering Yang Jun, asking what exactly had happened to him down below. But Yang Jun was so utterly drained that he was barely hanging on. If not for sheer willpower, he would have already passed out.
The rest of us simply kept walking forward. Nothing particularly unusual happened until we reached the altar Crow had described earlier. Just then, Hao Zhengyi and Crow, who were leading the way, suddenly came to a halt. Crow gripped the Six-Spoked Dharma Pestle tightly, his eyes darting around while he exchanged hand signals with Hao Zhengyi. Sun Fatty, curious, tried to shine his flashlight in the direction of Crow's gaze, but Hao Zhengyi quickly pushed his hand down and said in a low voice, "Don't move. Don't startle them."
"Startle what…" Sun Fatty ignored him and swept his flashlight around the space. When the beam landed on the ceiling above the altar, his hand started trembling. "If you'd told me this was their nest, I wouldn't have come…"
Up on the ceiling, densely packed together, hung no fewer than sixty or seventy semi-formed Nyeh. Nearly all of them were in their bat forms, hanging upside down in eerie stillness. If not for Crow's alertness, we might have walked right beneath them without even noticing. Fortunately, these half-formed Nyeh didn't seem interested in us at all—they just clung there like they were in hibernation.
Once he understood what he was seeing, Sun Fatty lowered his flashlight and instinctively took a step back. After waiting a while and confirming the creatures weren't reacting, he finally regained a little courage. Still, when he spoke again, his voice was hushed: "Director Hao—Big Brother Hao—didn't your Crow just signal that when he came through earlier, there weren't this many freaks… Wait a second, how did Crow even see them just now? Not to criticize, but what the hell have you been feeding him? Why can he see things like that?"
"You think the Heaven's Eye is the only way to perceive Yin and Yang?" Hao Zhengyi replied after gesturing something to Crow. "Crow has another method of discerning the spirit realm. But the limitations of this method are severe—you can't just use it whenever you want."
As soon as he finished, Sun Fatty immediately jumped in: "What kind of limitation? Not to nitpick, Director Hao—Big Brother Hao—but when you start explaining something, could you just finish it? Quit leaving us hanging all the time." But no matter how he pushed, Hao Zhengyi kept his mouth shut and wouldn't say another word.
Sensing that we had stopped, Yang Jun managed to raise his head from my back and took a heavy breath. "It's fine… they're not dangerous… just keep moving… don't stop." He bit out the words with effort, then motioned from my back that we should keep going.
Though Yang Jun looked exhausted, his words still carried weight. And with those half-Nyeh creatures silently clinging to the ceiling like they were hibernating, we carefully pressed on. We were nearly at the exit when a sharp screech rang out from above—then came a frenzy of wings flapping.
We looked up and saw dozens of the bat-like half-Nyeh launching into the air. These things were massive, and once they spread their wings, they practically blotted out the ceiling. We panicked at first, thinking they were coming for us—but then we realized they weren't.
The swarm shot past us, rushing back in the direction we had come from, shrieking the whole way.
There, at the altar's entrance, stood a dark silhouette. In that silent space, not a single one of us had noticed when that person had arrived. Sun Fatty aimed his flashlight and lit up the figure—it was Zhang Rantian, the same man Yang Jun had dragged underground earlier.
Apparently, the giant bats' target was Zhang Rantian. They shrieked as they dove at him, and in mere seconds he was buried beneath layers of the creatures. They piled over him, flapping madly, jostling each other for space, stepping over their own kind in desperation.
Soon, Zhang Rantian was completely out of sight. It was as if he had never been there at all. The bats were in a frenzy, screaming and trampling one another to get closer—as if possessed. We were all frozen in place, stunned by the sight. It was Sun Fatty who finally muttered, "This is… civil war? Why so desperate to destroy one of their own?"
Yang Jun, still on my back, watched for a moment, then snorted and said, "Don't stop. Keep moving." He'd already seen Zhang Rantian stabbed through the heart with a sword, riddled with crossbow bolts, and yet still walking around. Who knew what these bats could really do to him—but we weren't about to stick around to find out.
As we kept moving forward, Sun Fatty started to act strangely. He clutched his stomach and wore a complicated expression, like he had something he wanted to say to Yang Jun. But seeing how drained Yang Jun was, he kept his mouth shut and stuck close beside me as we walked on.
Hao Zhengyi and Crow led the way out of the altar. Just as I was about to carry Yang Jun through the exit, both men suddenly turned back, their faces full of terror. Hao Zhengyi yanked me into a corner by the door. Sun Fatty and Hugo were also dragged aside by Crow.
I didn't know what had happened outside, and I was about to ask—when Hao clamped his hand over my mouth.
Before I could react, Hao Zhengyi suddenly reached around my back and pulled the short sword from my waist. With Yang Jun still on my back, I wasn't on guard at all. By the time I realized what was happening, Hao Zhengyi already had the blade in hand. "Are you trying to rob me in broad daylight?!" I was so furious I nearly saw sparks. I opened my mouth, ready to bite his wrist, but just then, a streak of black shadows burst through the altar gate.
Black dogs, black foxes, black cattle… There were so many half-formed Nyeh creatures, I couldn't even count them. One after another, they surged into the altar chamber, all charging toward the spot where Zhang Rantian was buried beneath the heap of bats. The scene quickly descended into chaos. Those that couldn't squeeze into the pile simply climbed over the mountain of bats, trying to find an opening from above.
The place was already a boiling mess, and more half-Nyeh kept pouring in through the gate. It was as if none of them could even see us—they all zeroed in on Zhang Rantian. My heart was pounding as I watched, and even Hao Zhengyi's hand, which was covering my mouth, slackened in shock.
Just then, Sun Fatty let out a startled yell. "What the hell is happening?!" His belly started to twist in an unnatural way, as if something inside him was trying to claw its way out. He clutched his stomach with all his strength, but a black feline head forced its way out through the button gap of his coat. The black cat's fur was bristling like a porcupine.
Luckily, Sun Fatty reacted quickly. As soon as half the cat emerged, he grabbed it tightly. But the cat had clearly lost all sentiment toward him. It twisted its body and slashed at Sun Fatty's hand, leaving four bloody gashes across his skin. Still, Sun Fatty didn't let go. He gritted his teeth and clung to the cat's back, enduring its clawing and biting without releasing his grip.
The cat's struggles became more violent, and it even started to emit a faint sound: "Nyeh—." Sun Fatty was drenched in sweat. At that moment, Yang Jun, still on my back, reached out to him and said, "Give it to me."
Grasping at the lifeline, Sun Fatty handed the black cat to Yang Jun without a second thought. Yang Jun got off my back, standing on his own feet and staring into the cat's furious eyes. At first, it thrashed wildly, but then Yang Jun raised it to eye level, locking his gaze onto the creature.
Something unexpected happened.
The black cat started avoiding Yang Jun's eyes. Its own gaze became shifty and uncertain, as if afraid to look directly at him. Slowly, its struggles diminished, and eventually it went limp, allowing Yang Jun to hold it without resistance.
Sun Fatty was dumbfounded. "Da Yang, what the hell is going on?" Once the cat quieted down, fatigue returned to Yang Jun's face. Cradling the cat in his arms, he took a deep breath and said, "This… was Dong Qichao's final trump card." But exactly what that trump card entailed, Yang Jun no longer had the strength to explain.
By now, no more half-Nyeh were rushing into the altar. Yang Jun caught his breath and said, "They'll hold it off… Let's get out of here." He no longer needed me to carry him. With the black cat in his arms, he headed toward the exit of the altar. Hao Zhengyi and Crow followed, but they only got a few steps before Sun Fatty and I moved to block them, one on each side.
I looked at him and said, "Chairman Hao, aren't you forgetting something?"
Hao Zhengyi blinked in confusion, as if he didn't understand what I was talking about. Sun Fatty continued, "No offense, Director Hao, but you shouldn't go pocketing things that don't belong to you. We're all in the same boat right now—no point making enemies over a little short sword." As he spoke, Hugo stepped up as well. He didn't say anything, but there was a look of open disdain in his eyes as he stared at Hao Zhengyi.
"Oh, you meant this sword?" Hao Zhengyi said. "You should've said so earlier! I only borrowed it in a pinch. Forgot to give it back." With that, he reversed the grip and handed the sword over. Though he returned it, there was clear reluctance in his eyes.
I sheathed the sword once more. Sun Fatty, Hugo, and I followed behind Yang Jun. As we walked, I couldn't help but wonder: someone like Hao Zhengyi—Chairman of the Religious Affairs Commission—stooping to trick a lowly investigator like me out of a short sword? It didn't add up. And then, where did Hugo get his short sword?
After leaving the altar chamber, we deliberately kept some distance between ourselves and Hao Zhengyi's group. Along the way, we saw hole after hole along the corridor walls. Illuminated by Sun Fatty's flashlight, we could tell the edges of each opening were freshly broken.
"These weren't smashed out by those monsters, were they?" Sun Fatty frowned and asked Yang Jun.
Yang Jun had noticed the holes too. As we walked, he replied, "No, these… were created by the mechanism array just now." Seeing that Yang Jun's speech was much smoother now, Sun Fatty pressed on, "You mean to tell me this was all to let those things loose on Zhang Rantian? Not to nitpick, but what the hell was that Dong-whatever guy thinking? Didn't he dream his whole life of making a full-fledged Nyeh? Why go to all this trouble just to sabotage himself?"
At that, Yang Jun suddenly stopped walking. He turned to look at Sun Fatty and said, "Dong Qichao regretted it."
With those few words, plus my own thoughts, the picture became clear enough: Near the end of his life, just as Dong Qichao was on the verge of creating a complete Nyeh, he had a sudden realization—that the Nyeh didn't belong in this world. His life's work had been a mistake. But by then, he was already old and frail, incapable of destroying the tools he'd created. He had long sealed away all the documentation regarding the Nyeh.
Left with no choice, Dong Qichao altered the controlling array. He ensured that all the half-Nyeh could never leave the bounds of the Yin Convergence Point. He even set a restrictive enchantment into the mechanism, serving as a last line of defense against the full Nyeh that might appear years down the line.
He then separated a fragment of his Celestial Soul and embedded it into the formation's core. Back when he first arrived at the Yin Convergence Point, he had already prepared a Soul Husk to act as a vessel. Once his soul detached from his body, it would automatically enter that Soul Husk. That's why the skeleton we saw earlier in the tomb was his—it was just a shell. His soul had long since merged with the Soul Husk, leading to that brutal battle we witnessed.
As Yang Jun spoke, we continued forward. The tunnel grew narrower and narrower, until only one person could pass at a time. Sun Fatty had to turn sideways to squeeze through.
Halfway down the passage, we suddenly saw a long, thin crack running through the floor, walls, and ceiling—splitting the corridor neatly in half. Yang Jun stopped in his tracks, staring at the fissure. Sun Fatty shone his light on it; the cut was smooth, like it had been made with a precision blade.
Hao Zhengyi and Crow caught up, squeezing past Sun Fatty with some effort. When Crow saw the crack, he immediately started gesturing to Hao. Hao's eyes narrowed, and he stepped up to the edge, saying to Yang Jun, "There wasn't a crack here when you and Crow passed through earlier. This must mean the array's broken, right?"
Yang Jun glanced back at him, but said nothing. It was clear he couldn't make sense of the crack either.
Mystery or not, we still had to move forward. Originally, Yang Jun had planned for the three short swords to be used to sever this path—but now that the array had done it for us, we crossed the crack and continued on. After two or three more minutes, we finally saw the exit.
We emerged into the same tomb that Yang Jun, Hao Zhengyi, and Crow had entered earlier. At its center sat a lone bronze coffin, its lid half-open, revealing a skeleton inside.
We circled the chamber, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Sun Fatty walked up to the coffin and nudged the bones with an arrow. "Not to question you, Da Yang, but this guy lying here—is he Dong Qichao?" Yang Jun nodded. "That's only Dong Qichao's shell. He accounted for everything… except for the evolution of the Nyeh."
The tomb had already been searched by Yang Jun and the others. With little left to investigate, Yang Jun pushed open the chamber's stone door—only to find a giant stone slab blocking the way.
He didn't look surprised. He tapped on it, and the echo was heavy and dull. His brow twitched. He turned to me and Sun Fatty. "You two—come here and dig us a hole. Hugo… Director, lend a hand too."
Sun Fatty and I didn't mind; we were used to this grunt work at the Bureau. But Hugo seemed reluctant. He had just regained some dignity, and he wasn't eager to lose it again. He stood still and said, "Yang, I'm still a department head, you know…"
Before he could finish, Hao Zhengyi stepped forward and said, "Director Hugo, no need for you to get your hands dirty. Just lend me your short sword—Crow and I will do the heavy lifting."
Hugo blinked at him and said, "Hao, don't take us foreigners for fools." Still, he drew his short sword and stood beside us, hacking away at the stone slab without complaint.