**Chapter 61: Just Using It**
At exactly ten o’clock at night, at Changlekou Station on the Shancheng Metro Line 1.
Since just after five in the afternoon when night fell, over four hours had passed, and the night had deepened significantly. The last trains on all metro lines in Shancheng had already arrived at their final stops two hours ago. Logically, all the metro stations should have closed by now, but this particular station was still lit.
Within Changlekou Station, there was a special area, the circular passage connecting Line 1 and Line 2. This passage was long and wide, far exceeding the dimensions of an ordinary metro tunnel.
The reason this passage was so “ample” was said to be because it was once a part of the vast underground air raid shelter network of Shancheng.
Based on the existing foundations of the air raid shelters, the metro infrastructure had been built, saving a lot of manpower and resources.
Faint footsteps came from one end of the passage, echoing in the empty space as if amplified, gradually becoming clearer.
Then the footsteps stopped, and a rough, hoarse voice sounded.
“Xiaoyuer, I can only help you up to here.”
Sitting at the end of the passage, Zhang Yu, who was resting with his eyes closed, raised his head, smiled at the middle-aged man in a security uniform in front of him, stood up, and patted his shoulder. “Uncle Li, you’ve already helped a lot. Just go back and rest easy!”
“By the way, if someone finds out that you secretly opened the door for us, just say that we took the key by force. We can’t let you lose your job over this little matter, can we?”
This middle-aged man, Li, was one of the few subordinates when his father was employed by the Solar Eclipse Society. After his father’s passing, he left the Solar Eclipse Society and returned to normal life, taking up the role of manager and security at this metro station.
Hearing Zhang Yu’s words, the middle-aged man looked at the few young people accompanying Zhang Yu.
Each face was familiar yet unfamiliar in his eyes.
These young people were the children of his deceased colleagues, who had grown up with Zhang Yu since childhood, essentially raised by him.
Retracting his gaze from the young people, he looked down at their bulging backpacks and sighed silently, advising, “Although I don’t know what you all plan to do, after you’re done, make sure to come back early. Staying out until the early hours of the morning is unacceptable.”
“Don’t worry, Uncle Li…”
“Come on! With us brothers together, it’s very safe!”
As the young people spoke up, Zhang Yu placed his hands on the shoulders of the middle-aged man, turning his body 180 degrees, gently pushing him a bit closer to the metro station’s exit.
“Uncle Li, hurry up and go. If you get too late, Wan Biao will clean you up again.”
“Will I be scared of her? Let’s see if she dares to clean me up!” The middle-aged man said, clearly lacking energy, as he increased his pace.
After walking a short distance, he suddenly stopped and looked back at Zhang Yu and the others, frowning.
He had a feeling that after tonight, at least more than half of these people would never be seen again.
Just like what happened after Zhang Yu’s father sent him away, and the things that took place afterward.
But he didn’t dare to ask further questions or stop them.
Because he knew that for Zhang Yu and the others, they firmly believed that what they were doing was right, and no matter what others said, it wouldn’t change their minds.
Watching the middle-aged man’s figure disappear at the end of the passage, Zhang Yu slowly let out a breath, turned to his companions behind him, placed his hands on his waist, and smiled, “Uncle Li is gone, so we should be getting started too, right?”
“According to what we discussed before.”
Before Zhang Yu finished speaking, a young man with messy hair and close to two meters tall stood up, casually throwing his backpack over his shoulder, and said in a deep voice, “I’m going to Zengjiayan Station.”
Seeing this, the other few stood up in turn.
“I’m going to the underground circular passage.”
“You guys are dead. Then I have to go to the gas station?”
“That’s still better than a hotpot restaurant.”
In less than a minute, the young people had silently distributed their tasks among themselves.
The locations they mentioned were all modifications of air raid shelters, just like this passage.
And within these modified air raid shelters, there were also secret entrances connecting to the vast underground network.
As those young people one by one donned their high-spec spiritual energy item “suits” and left the metro station, soon the passage was left with only Zhang Yu and a round-faced girl with a black mole on her forehead.
As if ignoring the girl’s presence, Zhang Yu stretched lazily, put on his backpack, and walked deeper into the metro station. After taking a few steps, he heard a resentful light exclamation from behind.
“Hey, what about me? I haven’t been assigned a task yet! Didn’t we agree that I would be brought along this time?”
Zhang Yu turned around and saw the girl’s pouty little face. He smiled and said, “Ah, sorry Mumo, I forgot about you.”
“Hmph!” Mumo snorted coldly. “You never brought me before; now that I’ve grown up, don’t think you can exclude me.”
This group of young people had practically grown up together, except for Mumo.
When Zhang Yu and the others were hanging out in their teens, she was just a little kid in open-crotch pants, sniffling, and even if she wanted to join them, they wouldn’t have taken her along.
But now, she, like her older brothers and sisters, was already a spiritual ability user.
She could join them now!
“Absolutely not!” Zhang Yu waved his hand. “This time your task is the most important.”
“Really?” Mumo tilted her head, doubtful.
“Absolutely true.” Zhang Yu patted his chest. “Whether our group survives in the end depends entirely on you.”
Hearing this, Mumo’s expression became serious. “So what should I do?”
“Wait.” Zhang Yu said, “Wait until we find out how Zhang Shuisheng that old man intends to enter the underground, and then you can contact your colleagues.”
Colleagues? Mumo was startled for a moment and asked in surprise, “You actually intend to ask the Siye Society for help?”
“Correction!” Zhang Yu raised a finger. “We’re not asking for help; we’re using them!”
“We’re utilizing the powers of the Siye Society to achieve our goals. It’s fundamentally different from asking for help.”
“Just like my joining the Solar Eclipse Society was merely to utilize their power.”
Though he respected and was grateful to Adelaide Phoenix and was willing to do some dirty work for him within his means, his goal had never changed from the beginning.
To take revenge on Zhang Shuisheng and protect the land he loved.
To achieve this goal, he needed power, and the Solar Eclipse Society could provide that power, so he joined them. In his eyes, this could be called a form of usage.
Although there might be people who didn’t understand his thoughts, there were indeed people like him in this world, who cherished something beyond ordinary comprehension and were willing to sacrifice everything for it.
As for why he didn’t inform the Shancheng Siye Society about Zhang Shuisheng’s real plan through Mumo or other more covert methods right after learning about it, it was because after dealing with the Siye Society for so many years, Zhang Yu understood their operational style too well.
He only knew that Zhang Shuisheng would, at some point late tonight, enter the vast underground network from one of the modified air-raid shelter buildings with a crowd of believers of X Tianzong, to complete their evil rituals in some dark and unknown corner.
Informing the Siye Society about this intelligence was like knowing that a person planned to engage in illegal activities over a vast period in a large area, and then rushing to the police to report it.
Though the Shancheng Siye Society would likely take some action, priorities mattered. With Tan Qiuming detained in the Three Gorges Psychiatric Hospital and that hospital already attacked by a large number of Sunrise Biotechnology Company employees, the Siye Society certainly wouldn’t allocate sufficient forces to investigate this uncertain matter.
Unless the situation here became more severe than that in the Three Gorges Psychiatric Hospital.
As time pushed towards the latter half of the night, dark clouds began to pile up above the city.
An ominous atmosphere, accompanied by thick fog, slowly rose amidst the near-dead silence of the city streets.
[Conflict arises tonight; amidst chaos, the delusion shall d*e in pain. The master devours the bl**d of his fathers, descending to the world amidst the offerings of devoted subjects.]
Anonymous User 017: “Willing to follow my lord.”
Anonymous User 125: “Welcome my lord.”
Anonymous User 887: “Looking forward to tonight’s feast.”
The logs on that eerie website, published three hours later, saw the number of replies below exceeding four digits at a visible speed, and gradually approaching five digits.
The urban legend that once brought terrible calamities, the offspring had descended, and the crazed followers quietly gathered in the deserted streets. Countless ghostly figures emerged from their hiding places, old and young, men and women alike.
Ragged homeless people, youthful and lovely middle school girls, well-dressed social elites—people of all sorts, all wore the same frenzied expression, holding distorted scrolls, resembling zombies marching in a parade.
In the thickening fog, they moved toward a certain direction.
The fog swirling around the streets continually gathered around them, almost like the ghosts hunting live prey, wavering beside them.
Thus, under the invasion of fog, one after another, figures rapidly turned ill, like felled trees collapsing, but their companions seemed to see nothing, continuing on their way.
Observing this chilling scene through the city’s surveillance, a network user, often a lecher, couldn’t control his changing expression, rapidly tapping away at the keyboard to type messages, sending them to Lin Nian.
Network User 10086: “d*mn, what is the calamity doing? Haven’t you passed the message to her yet?”
Mumo Jin Xin: “I passed it long ago, but she hasn’t replied. Maybe seeing the situation isn’t good, she’s run away.”
Network User 10086: “Ah this…”
Although… if it’s the calamity, it really could be? thought the network user.
**Jing Dou Pigeon**
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We’ve reached the first climax of this volume, but there’s a serious writer’s block, and forcing an update would result in a short and disconnected plot. Allow me to take a day’s leave to sort things out.
I’ll try to update more tomorrow!
Chinese Name: Jing Dou Pigeon
Common Name: Tumbling Pigeon
Geographic Distribution: Germany, the UK, the USA, the Netherlands, Denmark, and China
Body Characteristics: Small size, weight between 170 and 330 grams, but strong and well-adapted to the environment, good at rearing young pigeons. Plumage is in colors like crimson, black, white, gray, speckled, and snow-white. They may appear stout or slender, resembling peacocks or cranes.
The Jing Dou Pigeon, also known as “Tumbling Pigeon,” is a foreign ornamental pigeon breed, famous for its ability to tumble, leading to its name. It is an ancient breed, originally transmitted from the East to Europe. Prior to 1590, this pigeon breed existed in India and was also recorded in the Ming Dynasty’s “Pigeon Scripture” in our country.
Jing Dou Pigeons have concave backs and a wide tail, appearing particularly agile and spry. Trained aerial tumbling pigeons are known as “masters of aerial artistic performance.” They dive down from the air at the trainer’s signal, tumbling several times in succession. They can rotate continuously along their axis and immediately take off again upon reaching the predetermined position, continuing their tumbling performance. Another type is ground tumbling pigeons, known as “ground acrobats.” They can tumble freely on tabletops. They can perform backflips and roll like a ball on the grass.
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