Chapter 73: Mist Returns

The plaza was empty, with only a few crows cawing as they flew over his head, as if mocking Ji Chen silently.

This eerie silence made him even more uneasy.

"Playing with me, huh? Grandpa has seen a lot of battles, you think this little trick can fool me? Want to eat shit!" Ji Chen sneered, his fists clenching until they creaked.

He wasn't scared; soldiers come to block, water comes to cover, afraid of a hammer!

He began to search for clues.

The ground of the plaza was paved with a special kind of black stone brick, cold to the touch, faintly exuding a strange energy fluctuation.

This energy...

Looks a bit familiar!

It looks exactly like the black auras he had absorbed before.

Ji Chen squatted down, carefully observing the patterns on the stone bricks.

These patterns seemed chaotic, but they seemed to hide some kind of rule.

He tried to sense it with his Ability. As soon as his fingertips touched the stone brick, a strong repulsive force bounced him away.

"Hiss... has some substance!" Ji Chen rubbed his numb fingers; this thing was even more tricky than he imagined.

He walked around the plaza and found that the patterns on these black stone bricks all pointed in the same direction—a statue in the center of the plaza.

The statue was a warrior holding a long sword, carved vividly, but the face was blurred, as if it had been deliberately erased.

Ji Chen narrowed his eyes, this statue must have a problem!

He approached the statue cautiously, carefully observing the surrounding environment.

Just as he was about to walk in front of the statue, the ground suddenly vibrated, and the stone bricks around the statue began to emit dazzling light, stinging his eyes so he couldn't open them.

"Damn! What's the situation?!" Ji Chen hurriedly retreated, cursing in his heart.

This routine, why does it feel familiar?

When the light dissipated, the statue actually disappeared!

Replaced by a bottomless black hole, exuding heart-palpitating suction.

"No way, playing the teleportation set again? I get motion sickness, hey!" Ji Chen complained, and before he could react, he was sucked in by a powerful force.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a dim room, filled with all kinds of strange instruments.

A figure wearing a black cloak slowly turned around and said in a low voice: "You finally came..."

"Who are you?" Ji Chen asked vigilantly.

The black-robed man didn't answer, but pointed to a map on the wall and said slowly: "Look, here..." Ji Chen looked at the map on the wall, his brows tightly locked.

The map was marked with one red dot after another, densely distributed throughout the city, and one of the red dots was particularly eye-catching, pointing to the room he was currently in.

He felt like an NPC in a game, arranged clearly and logically.

"So, what does this mean? Lured me here to look at a map? Playing 'Werewolf'?" He complained in his heart, but his mouth didn't stop, "I say, buddy, you're so mysterious, just say what you have to say!"

The black-robed man still didn't reply, just raised his hand and waved it lightly.

The lights in the room suddenly turned on, and the originally dim corners became clear.

Ji Chen then discovered that the things placed in the room were not so much instruments as...

Alchemy equipment?

Various glass containers were filled with liquids of different colors, bubbling, and the air was filled with a thick smell of chemical reagents.

"What kind of place is this?" Ji Chen looked around, his doubts deepening.

This style, no matter how you look at it, is different from the conspirators he encountered before.

Suddenly, a voice broke the silence of the room. "Are you... Ji Chen?"

Ji Chen looked in the direction of the sound, only to see a man wearing a white coat and thick glasses walking out, looking like he had just finished an experiment.

He looked at Ji Chen in surprise, the test tube in his hand almost falling to the ground.

"How could you be here? This is..."

"This is what?" Ji Chen asked back, he had a premonition that things were not simple.

The man in the white coat hesitated, looked at the black-robed man, and then said slowly: "This is... a secret base of the Ability User Research Center, we belong to... the Special Action Group."

"What? Special Action Group? No way, this reversal came a bit too fast!" Ji Chen felt his brain was not enough.

He originally thought he had found a secret stronghold of some mysterious organization, only to find that this was actually the territory of friendly forces?

This plot was simply more outrageous than a TV series.

He hadn't had time to digest this sudden news when the alarm in the room went off.

Red lights flashed, and the harsh alarm sound resounded throughout the base.

"Bad, there is an abnormal energy fluctuation!" The man in the white coat's expression changed, and he said hurriedly, "We must leave here immediately!"

The black-robed man didn't speak, just nodded, and then walked out of the room first.

Ji Chen followed closely behind, his heart full of doubts and incomprehension.

What exactly is going on?

He felt like he had entered a maze, encountering new puzzles with every step he took.

Just as they walked out of the base, what greeted them was a storm.

Dark clouds pressed down, the wind howled, mixed with cold raindrops, hitting his body painfully.

"Damn! What kind of weather is this? Playing with me!" Ji Chen couldn't help but complain.

This weather was simply more difficult to deal with than the Ability Users he had encountered before.

He had to struggle forward against the strong wind.

This damn clue, where exactly is it taking him?

Just then, he felt that the ground seemed a bit unusual, as if it were about to crack.

He looked down and saw an eerie crack appearing on the ground before his eyes, slowly spreading toward him...

Ji Chen tried his best to stabilize his figure. Seeing the crack gradually approaching, he leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding the collapsing ground.

Just after landing, he noticed that the ground under his feet seemed a bit different—there seemed to be a thin barrier here, almost integrated with the ground. If he didn't sense it carefully, he wouldn't be able to detect it at all.

Ji Chen thought to himself: "Sure enough, there's a trap!" He associated it with the red dots on the map before, and this place was clearly a trap set deliberately.

"Heh, playing with me? Grandpa is not a vegetarian!" Ji Chen sneered and quickly launched an investigation.

He found a faint energy fluctuation around the crack, clearly a trigger point for some kind of trap.

He moved cautiously around the edge and finally found a hidden mechanism. With a light touch, the crack stopped spreading.

Ji Chen breathed a sigh of relief, and the tense atmosphere around him dissipated accordingly.

His wisdom manifested again, and a confident smile appeared on the corners of his mouth: "This little trick, still want to stump me?"

Before he could completely relax, suddenly, several giant wild beasts rushed out of the surrounding woods.

These wild beasts were covered in deep black fur, their eyes flashing with ghostly red light, clearly controlled by some mysterious power.

Ji Chen felt a chill in his heart and quickly entered a combat state.

"Come on, let's see what you can do to me!" He gave a low shout, his body agile like a leopard, dodging left and right, avoiding the attacks of the wild beasts.

His fists emitted a "hissing" sound of breaking through the air as they rubbed against the air, every strike carrying huge power.

Although the wild beasts were fierce, they gradually fell into a disadvantage under his swift counterattack.

The surrounding trees were affected by the battle, breaking one after another, and the fallen leaves on the ground were rolled up, forming a chaotic vortex.

The battle was exceptionally intense, but Ji Chen clearly occupied the upper hand.

He fought one against many, shuttling flexibly between the wild beasts, every punch accurately hitting the vital points.

Finally, the wild beasts wailed and fell to the ground one after another, turning into strands of black smoke and dissipating in the air.

After the battle ended, Ji Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a breath.

However, his brows furrowed again very quickly.

In the woods not far away, he discovered a stone stele engraved with strange runes.

The energy fluctuation remaining on the stone stele made him feel a heart-palpitating sensation. Clearly, a bigger secret was hidden here.

"This thing, won't it be a trap again?" Ji Chen thought to himself, but still walked up to carefully observe the runes on the stone stele.

At this time, he noticed that the end of the runes pointed to an unknown area, where the atmosphere was eerie and strange, making people shudder.

Ji Chen took a deep breath and said firmly: "No matter if there is a mountain of knives or a sea of fire ahead, Grandpa has to take a walk!" He turned around, looked at the unknown dangerous area with firm eyes, and resolutely took the first step. ===== CHAPTER 74 =====