Chapter 165: 162 Eye of Kusuen

Chen Xiaolin first silently drank down more than half a glass of wine in one breath, and only then did she slowly open her mouth to explain: "I saw a similar symbol in that place, and I had felt it looked familiar for a long time. After coming here again, I became even more convinced that the owner behind this bar cannot be separated from the death of Zheng Yu..."

She hadn't actually finished speaking; every word Yu Lianyun told her by the hospital bed was engraved in her mind. The background of this Haoyunlai Bar likely involved several other organizations implicated in creating major, terrifying Abnormal events: House of Cards, Yellow Sand Truth School, Inverted Sanctuary, and that deeply hidden Eye of Kusuen.

After obtaining the names of those organizations, Yu Lianyun launched an investigation using her own news-gathering channels, while simultaneously investigating that rare "miraculous sight" she had seen in the cave.

Just as Chen Xiaolin was investigating the mysterious society of the "Eye of Kusuen," she found a set of photos hidden on the dark web. Those photos were of a mass murder case involving the organization on the southern land of the Southern Hemisphere. According to the poster who released the photos, this was something she had inadvertently discovered on a user's computer while randomly hacking into a user of a filthy live-streaming platform she had designed out of boredom. Because the content inside was extremely bizarre and interesting, she posted it on a dark web forum to share with everyone.

In this set of photos, Chen Xiaolin saw the way the master of the house and his young son died in the mass murder.

In a blasphemous Ritual Array drawn with fresh blood, in a house corridor filled with sin and gore, the father and son died miserably at the core of the array in the center of the corridor. The father had been subjected to nearly a thousand cuts, his tendons pulled and skin peeled, his internal organs hollowed out; his appearance was wretched. In the end, only his skeleton and a portion of his flesh remained. He maintained a ferocious expression in death, tightly embracing his child. The child, who had also died a tragic death, had his head severed and impossibly embedded into his father's ribs, replacing the position of the heart.

This scene of brutal slaughter reminded her of her encounter in the cave. Wasn't the way Wang Kuishan died almost exactly the same as the child in the photo? His head had likewise been replaced by the heart area of the Giant Corpse.

Chen Xiaolin was almost immediately certain that the perverts who committed that mass murder on the southern continent and the group of people who revived the Sky Demon absolutely shared a common "bloodline root," because they would both perform the exact same rituals.

Chen Xiaolin forcibly suppressed her nausea and sense of guilt, carefully observing the content of those photos. Finally, whether it was a flash of inspiration or the influence of some unknown force, she experienced a momentary hallucination, actually feeling that the scene of the father and son dying in each other's arms was "aesthetically pleasing" like an "artwork," just like a scarred, blood-colored angel in the midst of repentance.

It was this instant of hallucination that made Chen Xiaolin unable to shake off such an imagination ever again. She even felt that the scene of Wang Kuishan dying inside the Vessel of the Sky Demon possessed a cold sense of beauty amidst the horror.

Chen Xiaolin realized that she must have been subjected to mental pollution. Fortunately, it was not severe, because at least she could still feel fear from those images and memories. Once the day came when her sense of fear became too faint or disappeared entirely, perhaps she would become something like Zheng Yu, Wang Kuishan, or the father and daughter Wang Zijing.

This was not the end. Chen Xiaolin struggled to cool her burning reason. As she observed the death of the father and son in the photos again, she felt a wave of familiarity wash over her. The longer she stared, the stronger that inexplicable sense of déjà vu became.

It was a feeling of having seen it long ago, even earlier than when she saw Wang Kuishan's corpse before the cave. She carefully recalled, carefully imagined, and carefully associated.

Suddenly, Chen Xiaolin had a flash of inspiration. She placed a piece of high-translucency tracing paper over the electronic screen and began to trace the general outlines of the father and son's corpses. Then, she divided those outlines into basic geometric shapes, and finally, she was shocked to discover that these basic shapes actually outlined and depicted the logo of a well-known bar in the Magic City.

When there was a breakthrough in the matter, Chen Xiaolin couldn't wait to come to the scene to confirm it, and incidentally wanted to probe Drake, who worked at the bar, to confirm whether the other party was related to the "Eye of Kusuen." If she could confirm he was not an enemy, she wanted to pull him into their investigation camp.

After hearing Chen Xiaolin's explanation, Drake fell into a long silence.

Chen Xiaolin comforted him: "This is not your fault; you don't need to blame yourself too much."

Hearing this, Drake glanced at her, but calmly said: "I am not blaming myself, I am just thinking about how to deal with this organization."

"Deal with?" Chen Xiaolin was startled. She hadn't expected Drake's ability to accept things to be so strong, his reaction even being so calm it was almost cold. However, she didn't mind; instead, she was pleasantly surprised and glad that Drake was a partner who could potentially be brought into the fold, so she invited him: "Come with us. Since you and I have both been to that shop, you must either have some tools or some special abilities. If we coordinate with each other, we will definitely be able to solve the problem quickly."

Who would have thought, Drake told her with a look of regret: "I'm sorry, I will not cooperate with the Xuanmi Group."

"Why?" Chen Xiaolin was puzzled. Although she hadn't been in contact with all the members of the Xuanmi Group, taking Yu Lianyun, with whom she had interacted, as an example, she felt the impression was good and that she was trustworthy.

Moreover, the Xuanmi Group had many members and was the largest and most capable organization for investigating and eliminating Abnormal factors in the entire Shenzhou Region. If they could have their support, it surely wouldn't be a difficult task to uncover the true mastermind behind this incident.

Such an advantageous thing, she didn't know why Drake would refuse.

Regarding this, Drake said somewhat helplessly: "Because I am currently being wanted by the Xuanmi Group."

"... Wanted?" Chen Xiaolin's heart pounded. She was almost nervous enough to want to leave her seat and slip away immediately.

Whether someone who could be wanted by the Xuanmi Group was even truly human remained to be determined, and the level of danger was clearly to the point where even the Xuanmi Group found it a headache. Yet now, she was alone in a room with such an extremely dangerous existence, and a sense of crisis suddenly welled up in her heart.

Drake realized that Chen Xiaolin might have some misunderstanding about him and said: "Don't worry, the wanted status stems from a misunderstanding, it's just that I have no way to explain it to the Xuanmi Group, so I have been running ever since."

Chen Xiaolin was speechless. She also didn't know what kind of misunderstanding could make the Xuanmi Group go to the lengths of spending money to put a bounty on him.

Drake smiled and said: "So, I can help you investigate, but only in my own way. I will go look for it by myself, and you can just stay with your partners, then contact me secretly when there is an opportunity."