Chapter 108: A Night of Terror

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Early the next morning, the first to rise was not Yaoling or Ye Bai, but Cao Xiaoseng, who had always been a legendary sleeper. Yesterday, Ye Bai rented a small three-person suite. Ye Bai and Yaoling emerged from their rooms nearly simultaneously, still drowsy. Their sneezes were unfinished when their mouths opened wide, especially Yaoling’s, her hair slightly tousled, her rosy lips opening wide enough to fit a peach.

“Xiao… Xiaoseng?” Yaoling rubbed her sleepy eyes, hardly believing that it was Cao Xiaoseng standing before her. She had been ready to finish washing up and then wake him—never expecting the sun to rise in the west today!

“Breakfast. Guard Station.” Cao Xiaoseng’s succinct five words reminded Ye Bai of their taciturn instructor Zhang Jian. When did Cao Xiaoseng start sounding like an instructor?

Glancing at the still-surprised Yaoling, Cao Xiaoseng sat at the table, forgetting even to freshen up, eating the breakfast he had somehow already purchased.

“Xiaoseng, you said there would be results today. What exactly do you mean?” The sixteen-year-old girl had the maturity of decades while still harboring an immense curiosity for the unknown.

After breakfast, the three of them headed to the Purple Marten District Guard Station, just like the day before—but this time with hope, not confusion.

Cao Xiaoseng followed behind Yaoling, or perhaps Yaoling held Cao Xiaoseng’s hand, or willingly entrusted her back to him, for she trusted him—a rare sentiment within her family.

Cao Xiaoseng opened his intelligent eyes; they held no sparkling starlight, only pure blackness, clear and pristine.

“Maybe yes, maybe no.”

His answer was ambiguous, perhaps even he was confused, uncertain.

“Then why walk faster? If we arrive at the guard station sooner, won’t all the mysteries be revealed?”

Ye Bai led the way, suddenly a surge of power flashed around his legs, and he burst forward at the speed of an entry-level mid-tier star-core warrior, sprinting into the distance.

Ye Bai himself was curious about what Cao Xiaoseng had discovered. What could be gleaned from a single Purple Marten’s fur? Could it really have been the Purple Marten’s doing? Everyone knew that a mature Purple Marten was only entry-level; how could it cause the entire guard station to vanish?

In Cao Xiaoseng’s eyes, Ye Bai’s figure receded, and the pure blackness in his eyes faded, replaced by a spreading aura of battle intent.

Yaoling felt a breeze at her back, then Ye Bai and Cao Xiaoseng disappeared beside her.

“You two, wait for Ling’er!” Yaoling was puzzled why the men’s battle had erupted so suddenly. Ye Bai had said it would be brief and somewhat provocative, yet she could see the fighting spirit burning in Cao Xiaoseng’s eyes.

Stamping the ground twice in frustration, Yaoling slowly chased after them.

They dashed swiftly toward the guard station, the scenery rolling backward—trees, flowers, and the pursuers alike. Soon, the three returned to the guard station.

Cao Xiaoseng did not linger beside Ye Bai but passed him to head directly to the spot he had marked yesterday. Ye Bai waited behind, watching Yaoling still running.

“How is it?”

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The scattered clothes on the blue cloth stall looked just as they had yesterday. Cao Xiaoseng stood alone in front of the stall, staring at the disorderly garments, his expression somewhat grim.

“Perhaps no one disappeared after all.”

Suddenly, Cao Xiaoseng turned to Yaoling and Ye Bai and said warmly. Then he extended his hand, revealing the nearly finished compressed food, its bite marks clear.

“Are you saying someone or some mutant beast came 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 densely packed, resembling rodents or mutants, others distinctly human.

“Someone and mutant beasts must have come to the guard station last night. The clothes, which look as scattered as yesterday, in fact differ greatly from yesterday’s arrangement. We just didn’t notice these details before.”

Cao Xiaoseng turned and entered a shop, continuing, “Day and night here might be two different worlds. Nothing changes by day, but at night, who knows what happens.”

Ye Bai clearly recalled that they were the only ones who had entered the guard station yesterday, and it was near nightfall when they left. The bite marks on the compressed food showed something entered after they departed.

Though the Purple Marten District Guard Station incident was officially forbidden to discuss in Yang City, rumors ran rampant underground—everything from the guard station offending a powerful figure and being wiped out overnight, to mutant beasts passing through and massacring the city, and even ghostly slaughters. No bodies had ever been found; some claimed victims were pulled into another dimension. The stories were endless.

Since Cao Xiaoseng predicted something would emerge at night, they could only wait inside the shop until nightfall. They had searched the guard station thoroughly yesterday, inside and out, finding nothing unusual. Their efforts had not been in vain; they simply awaited night’s arrival.

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

Yaoling had always wondered. Yesterday, Cao Xiaoseng only produced a single Purple Marten’s hair. How could he be so sure something would come at night? The small Purple Marten hair found near the weapons pile could have fallen naturally when someone captured a passing Purple Marten.

“There’s more than one Purple Marten hair scattered along the roadside stalls. Every few dozen meters inside the guard station, there are one or two hairs. Clearly, they weren’t trapped in cages. Whoever caught the Purple Marten wouldn’t place the cage at every stall, would they?”

Cao Xiaoseng took out the Purple Marten hairs he had collected yesterday and handed them to Yaoling.

“Look closely.”

“I guess these hairs didn’t fall naturally, but I can’t say exactly why. One thing is certain: this Purple Marten may already be dead, or severely malnourished. Otherwise, its fur wouldn’t be…”

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

“That’s not malnutrition. It’s because the skin lost vitality and can no longer hold the fur, causing it to shed. No animal can survive after its epidermis dies. In other words, this Purple Marten is dead.”

The answer seemed to slowly emerge, unexpectedly. Everyone thought this was a deserted place, but who could have imagined the guard station at night was an entirely different scene?

Ye Bai sat quietly, offering no comment. Until the truth was fully revealed, everything was speculation. He dared not judge Cao Xiaoseng’s guess as right or wrong; so far, it all made sense. Still, an uneasy feeling stirred in him.

Sunrise, blazing sun, and sunset passed as the three rested and recuperated, unaware of what the night held. They did their best, though variables remained beyond their control.

Everything was like a buried rope; now they had found its end. To know the whole truth, they had to unearth the entire rope.

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Night often conceals all sins, yet the three walked the empty corridors of the guard station, sensing evil breeding all around. The situation seemed to fall back into the unknown, much like facing the irradiated zone and the simple question of survival amid uncertainty.

Night was not deep, and the summer evening ahead was blurred. Occasional warm breezes brushed past them, raising their hairs but failing to bring any coolness.

“Do you smell anything?”

Suddenly, Ye Bai’s nostrils caught a faint, slightly pungent foul odor.

“Yes, very faint,” Yaoling closed her eyes, concentrating, comparing the incoming scent to those she had smelled in her clan.

“Seems like the smell of decaying corpses.”

After a moment, Yaoling opened her eyes again, unsure. The odor was so faint it was nearly imperceptible.

Cao Xiaoseng’s finger guards began to glow faintly, and Ye Bai slowly drew his Swift Shadow Blade from its sheath, its cold light flickering under the moonlight.

“Everything you think impossible could be a warning,” recalled Instructor Zhang Jian’s words to them. Never dismiss what seems impossible.

The three stood facing different directions, covering 360 degrees. Their smart brains gave no alerts; the surroundings were as safe as daytime—no changes, no abnormalities.

Deep inside the guard station, a wall suddenly rippled like water. A mutant beast crawled out from it, and after its appearance, the wall returned to normal, as if the creature had shrunk back inside.

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

Yaoling looked down at her smart brain. At that moment, a mutant beast, no bigger than a pre-Dark Era cat, darted across the beam above her head.

No other life signs appeared on the smart brain. Yaoling looked around again—nothing unusual. Turning to check the other side, a flicker of purple caught her peripheral vision.

“What is that?”

A shiver ran through Yaoling. Could there really be ghosts? She had heard in Yang City that the disappearance of everyone at the Purple Marten District Guard Station was said to involve supernatural forces.

The mutant beast emanated a faint purple glow as it moved, precisely where Yaoling had looked down at her smart brain. Yet no life signs showed on the device. “Could what I saw already be dead?”

Yaoling suddenly called out, tightening Cao Xiaoseng’s and Ye Bai’s hearts. They quickly turned to look in the direction she indicated but found nothing at all.