Chapter 108: A Night of Terror

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Early the next morning, the first to rise was neither Yaoling nor Ye Bai, but Cao Xiaoseng, who was usually a deep sleeper. Yesterday, Ye Bai had rented a small three-person suite. Ye Bai and Yaoling emerged from their rooms, still half asleep, their mouths wide open in mid-yawn—their sneezes unfinished. Yaoling’s hair was a little tousled, her rosy lips parted so widely they could almost fit a peach inside.

“Xiaoseng?” Yaoling rubbed her sleepy eyes, hardly believing the figure standing before her was Cao Xiaoseng. She had even prepared to wash up and wake him herself, never expecting the sun to rise from the west today.

“Breakfast. Guard station.” Cao Xiaoseng’s terse, commanding words reminded Ye Bai of Zhang Jian, their sparing-spoken instructor. Since when had Cao Xiaoseng developed such an instructor-like demeanor?

Glancing at Yaoling’s astonished expression, Cao Xiaoseng sat at the table, forgetting even to wash up, eating the breakfast he had somehow bought earlier.

“Xiaoseng, you said yesterday that we’d have results today. What exactly is it?” The sixteen-year-old girl, youthful yet carrying the maturity of decades, was both steady and deeply curious about the unknown.

After breakfast, they headed to the Purple Marten District guard station as before, but today there was hope; unlike yesterday, they were not lost in confusion.

Cao Xiaoseng followed behind Yaoling, or perhaps Yaoling held his hand; maybe she was willing to entrust her back to him—something rare in her family, but she believed in him.

Cao Xiaoseng opened his sharp, clear eyes—not sparkling like a galaxy, but pure and black, crystal clear.

“Maybe yes, maybe no.”

His answer was ambiguous, as if he himself was still puzzled, uncertain.

“Then why are we rushing to the guard station? Won’t all the mysteries be revealed once we get there?”

Ye Bai, who walked at the front, suddenly felt the power of attributes flicker around his legs. In a flash, he burst forward at the speed of an entry-level mid-tier Star Core Warrior, dashing into the distance.

Ye Bai himself was curious what Cao Xiaoseng had discovered. Could a single Purple Marten’s hair reveal anything? Could it really be the Purple Marten’s doing? Everyone knew that once a Purple Marten reached adulthood, it was only an entry-level creature—how could it have made the entire guard station’s people vanish?

In Cao Xiaoseng’s eyes, Ye Bai’s figure vanished into the distance, and the pure blackness in his eyes faded; a battle intent began to spread within.

Yaoling felt a breeze behind her, and then Ye Bai and Cao Xiaoseng disappeared from her side.

“You two wait for me, Ling’er!” Yaoling didn’t understand why battles between men broke out so suddenly. Ye Bai had said it would be just a brief fight, yet she saw battle intent flashing in Cao Xiaoseng’s eyes.

Annoyed, she stomped twice on the ground and slowly gave chase.

They rushed swiftly toward the guard station, the surrounding scenery retreating—trees, flowers, and the people pursuing them—all soon brought the three back to the guard station.

Cao Xiaoseng did not linger beside Ye Bai but passed him, heading directly to the place he had marked yesterday. Ye Bai waited nearby for the still-running Yaoling.

“How is it?”

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The clothes scattered messily on the blue curtain stall looked just like yesterday. Cao Xiaoseng stood alone in front of the clothing booth, staring at the disorderly garments with a troubled expression.

“Perhaps no one actually disappeared.”

Suddenly, Cao Xiaoseng turned to Yaoling and Ye Bai, then held out his hand, revealing a nearly finished compressed food bar, its bite marks clear.

“Are you saying someone or some mutated beast came back to the guard station last night and ate the food?”

Ye Bai took the compressed food from Cao Xiaoseng and noticed multiple sets of teeth marks—some small and dense, looking like those from rodent-like mutated beasts, while others resembled human bite marks.

“Someone and mutated beasts must have come to the guard station last night. The clothes look messy and still arranged like yesterday, but in fact, there is a big difference—though we normally wouldn’t notice such details.”

Cao Xiaoseng turned and entered a shop, continuing, “Day and night here may be two different worlds. During the day, everything remains unchanged. At night, who knows what happens.”

Ye Bai recalled clearly that they were the only ones who entered the guard station yesterday. It was almost dark when they left, and the bitten compressed food proved that something had entered after they left.

Though the Purple Marten District guard station incident was officially forbidden to discuss in Yang City, rumors spread wildly underground—everything from the guard station offending some powerful person and everyone being killed overnight, to it being a mutant beast massacre, and even ghostly involvement. Since no bodies were ever found, some claimed people were pulled into another dimension. In Yang City, the rumors about the Purple Marten District guard station were endless.

Since Cao Xiaoseng said something came out at night, they had no choice but to wait inside a shop for nightfall. They had searched the guard station thoroughly yesterday and found nothing abnormal, so their efforts wouldn't be wasted—they would simply wait for night’s arrival.

“Xiaoseng, how did you guess something would appear at night?”

Yaoling had always wondered. Yesterday, Cao Xiaoseng only produced a Purple Marten’s hair—how could he be so certain something would come at night? The Purple Marten hair found near the weapons pile could have naturally fallen off as someone captured the creature passing by the stall.

“There is more than one Purple Marten hair at the roadside stalls. Every few dozen meters along the guard station, there are one or two hairs. Clearly, it’s not trapped in a cage. Whoever caught the Purple Marten wouldn’t place the cage on every stall they passed.”

Cao Xiaoseng took out the Purple Marten hairs collected yesterday and handed them to Yaoling. “Look closely.”

“I guess these hairs didn’t fall off naturally, but it’s hard to say why. One thing’s certain: this Purple Marten might already be dead, or extremely malnourished; otherwise, its fur wouldn’t be…”

“Dark purple, with a hint of black,” Yaoling said, holding the Purple Marten hair up to the sunlight streaming through the window.

“That’s not malnourishment. It’s because the skin lost vitality and can’t hold the fur, causing it to fall out. No animal can survive with dead skin. In other words, this Purple Marten is already dead.”

The answer seemed to slowly emerge, somewhat unexpected. Everyone had thought this was a no-man’s land, but who would have guessed the guard station transforms into a completely different scene by night?

Ye Bai sat silently nearby, withholding judgment. Until the truth was truly revealed, everything was just speculation. He dared not assert whether Cao Xiaoseng’s guess was right or wrong. So far, all evidence seemed reasonable, but he still felt a bad premonition.

Sunrise, blazing sun, sunset—the three passed the day in quiet recuperation, unaware of what the night would bring. They would do their best; the unknown variables were beyond their control.

Everything was like a rope buried underground. They had now found one end. To know the whole truth, they would have to dig up the earth and pull out every strand.

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Night often conceals all sins, but as the three walked down the deserted corridors of the guard station, a sense of evil seemed to grow from all directions. The situation fell into the unknown once again, as if they had returned to the radiation zone, facing the simple question of survival against all mysteries.

The night was not deep, but the summer air seemed hazy. Occasional warm breezes stirred the hairs on their arms, yet brought no chill.

“Do you smell anything?”

Suddenly, Ye Bai’s nose caught a faint, slightly irritating stench.

“Yes, very faint.”

Yaoling closed her eyes, concentrating, comparing the scent to those she had encountered in her family.

“Seems like the smell of decaying corpses.”

After a moment, Yaoling opened her eyes. The odor was so faint it could easily be missed, and she remained somewhat unsure.

Cao Xiaoseng’s finger guards began to glow softly. Ye Bai slowly drew his Flashing Swan Blade from its sheath, its cold gleam shimmering in the moonlight.

“Anything you think impossible might be a warning.” That was what Instructor Zhang Jian had told them—not to dismiss the impossible as nonexistent.

The three took positions, each facing a different direction, maintaining a 360-degree watch. Their smart brains gave no alerts—it was safe around them. Their vision was unchanged from daytime, with no abnormalities.

Deep inside the guard station, the wall of a certain room suddenly rippled like water. A mutated beast crawled out, and once it appeared, the wall returned to normal. The creature emerged from the wall, then retreated back into it.

White moonlight bathed the guard station, cloaking it in a silver veil. Suddenly, under the pale moonlight, black and purple hues appeared.

Yaoling glanced down at her smart brain. At that moment, a mutated beast, not much larger than a Pre-Dark Era cat, slipped across a beam above her head.

The smart brain showed no signs of life nearby. Yaoling looked up and around, seeing nothing unusual. Turning to check the other side, she suddenly caught a glimpse of purple in her peripheral vision.

“What’s that?”

A chill ran through Yaoling’s body. Could there really be ghosts? Back in Yang City, she had heard all the people at the Purple Marten District guard station vanished, apparently due to supernatural interference.

The mutated beast emitting faint purple light was moving in the direction she had just glanced down at her smart brain. Yet no life signs appeared on the device. “Could what I saw already be dead?”

Yaoling suddenly called out, causing Cao Xiaoseng and Ye Bai to tense and quickly turn toward where she was looking—only to find nothing there.