The snoring gradually faded from faint to nonexistent in a reasonable and unnoticeable manner.
Silent.
It was approaching him, bit by bit.
Head down, belly up, the "high-legged cat" that almost folded itself in reverse, with its fingertips and toes supporting it, walked across the floor like a ballet dancer, elegant.
Xin Nan truly felt nothing unusual, and truly heard no sound.
This ghostly thing seemed to possess extraordinary stealth abilities.
But don't forget, Yan Yu had been to the Hot Pot Restaurant with Xin Nan today. Anyone who has eaten there knows that hot pot leaves a rich scent on clothes and hair.
So when that memorable hot pot fragrance approached, it was hard not to notice.
Xin Nan's first reaction wasn't to turn back, but to lunge forward. Just as he left the railing, he heard two soft leaping sounds. Then Yan Yu, whose body was almost folded in half, lunged at the position he had just been sitting in, almost embracing him.
It was unimaginable that she could make a hugging motion with her hands while suspended in the air, as if doing a backbend.
Xin Nan frowned, looking at her. Was this the mutation the youth had mentioned?
No, it just looked like it.
Behind Yan Yu, the background painting was still the tentacles growing from her head, now dragging on the ground and twisting wantonly, looking quite eerie.
But they made no sound, nor did they have color—except for a few red lines and small blue spots that were not expanding.
All of this indicated that Yan Yu had not crossed into the Transcendent realm, nor had her pollution worsened.
Therefore, a more reasonable explanation was that she was sleepwalking.
But to sleepwalk to this extent was truly astonishing!
Not only could she contort her body in reverse, but she also possessed such mobility. It was no wonder Yan Yu's stamina had been so good before.
Xin Nan was beginning to understand why Yan Yu had said her parents were often not home.
What parent wouldn't be scared if their daughter was this eerie?
It was already good that she wasn't sent to a mental hospital to be studied with Xin Nan.
At this moment, Yan Yu was leaning against the railing, head down, eyes closed, her black hair spread across the floor, her hands constantly scratching upwards as if wondering why something was blocking her.
She wanted to get closer to Xin Nan.
Fortunately, there was the railing.
Just as Xin Nan thought this, he saw Yan Yu exert force with her waist, her legs kicked upwards, and then she spun ninety degrees in the air. Using her slender body, she squeezed through the middle of the railing.
So thin, but so flat!
At such a moment, Xin Nan couldn't help but glance at Yan Yu's figure.
Did I just discover a significant little secret?
However, her head shouldn't be able to fit through, right?
That's right, although her body got through, Yan Yu's head was still stuck on the other side.
Even though she used her hands to force the iron bars, she couldn't pry them open.
Of course, that was high-strength steel. Although Yan Yu's current state was weird, she was still human. With those small arms and chest, being able to pass through the railing was already a gift.
However, seeing Yan Yu with her head stuck on the other side, her body through, and arching her back like a bridge, Xin Nan felt like he had walked onto the wrong set.
Soon, the stuck Yan Yu began to repeatedly jump back and forth like a strange creature.
Although Xin Nan was curious about what she would do in this state, he had no intention of approaching.
Because the Moon outside the window was already peeking out.
He sat on the other side of the detention room. Although the angle was lower, he could still see the Moon.
Under the bright moonlight, watching Yan Yu continuously stretch her body and perform various difficult moves was quite interesting.
Finally, as time passed, the equally bright far side of the Moon entered Xin Nan's field of vision.
Before this, even though he had seen ninety-nine percent of the Moon's body, Xin Nan had felt nothing unusual. On Earth, with the naked eye alone, even he would have found it difficult to discern the patterns on the far side of the Moon.
But the moment the far side of the Moon was fully revealed.
Xin Nan saw it.
He saw a scarlet centerline descending vertically from the far side of the Moon.
It was huge, it was broad!
It was weird, it was ancient!
It was unnamable!
It was unimaginable!
Xin Nan saw it.
He saw countless things like octopus tentacles climbing outwards from this line towards both sides of the Moon.
Those tentacles were like reins, more like monstrous beasts crawling out of the abyss, deeply rooted in the far side of the Moon, trying to tear, or rather, pull open that line.
And that scarlet centerline had already opened a trace.
An elliptical shadow, like a colossal behemoth, lay prostrate in the crevice where the line had split, gazing, casting a similarly scarlet light that no one could see.
Yan Yu, who had been "sleepwalking" in the compartment, suddenly shrank into the furthest corner within reach as if encountering a natural enemy, emitting a low, sharp cry like a cat's wail.
And under the moonlight, blood tears streamed directly from Xin Nan's eyeballs, and countless dense, worm-like granulation tissues melted out from his face, flesh, and bone marrow.
The existence known as a human, at this moment, was on the verge of collapse and splitting, splitting into countless even tinier existences, simply because of this insignificant glimpse from below.
His fingernails, his hair, every drop of his blood, suddenly came alive at this moment!
Countless tiny wills were born within them, emitting a cacophony of murmurs that threatened to turn his brain into liquid.
His last remaining reason silently stated in his mind.
"It's an eye! He is watching the human world!"
"What went wrong?"
"A mutation, a mutation that surpasses any depth we have seen so far!"
In the night, three vehicles successively stopped at the entrance of this police station. A jk girl who soothed Xin Nan and Yan Yu, an old man with white hair wearing a Zhongshan suit, and a middle-aged man carrying a briefcase got out of the cars one after another, quickly exchanging information.
And around them, not only was the police station cordoned off by a large police line, isolated by heavily armed SWAT, but residents within a two-kilometer radius were also forcibly evacuated from the area under the pretext of a large gas leak incident.
Behind the three were a large number of accompanying teams, wearing various specially made protective suits, quietly and professionally awaiting further commands.
"How long has it been?"
"At least half an hour! I was handling some business nearby and was attracted by that overpowering smell."
Speaking of which, the elder and the middle-aged man who arrived later also twitched their noses, as if smelling something pungent.
"This level of mutation can cause significant pollution to people nearby. How many people are inside?"
"Including the police on night duty and the detainees, no less than 20. We still don't know who exactly caused the mutation, only the two primary suspects. Here is their information."
Saying this, the jk girl handed over the already printed documents to the two.
The most prominent information was that of Xin Nan and Yan Yu.
"These two only came into contact with an LV3 intensity weird event more than three hours ago. I personally confirmed afterward that the infectivity was not high, but because today is a special day, perhaps the youth saw something, or the girl dreamed something."
As they spoke, the two had already reviewed Xin Nan and Yan Yu's information.
"Heh, one can see almost real illusions by birth, and the other can engage in extremely special sleepwalking at night. These two are practically time bombs. How did they end up together, and on this particular day!"
"I only noticed it recently. I was too busy investigating that case before to delve deeper into their information."
"JK, you arrived first. Have you sent explorers inside yet?"
Saying this, the old man grumbled indignantly.
"I told that guy Ye Lan not to be lazy and always bring his auxiliary team. It's too dangerous to face the weirdness alone without understanding anything. This time he lost an arm, next time it might be his life!"
"He just has more sympathy than us and doesn't like people to sacrifice casually."
Defending their absent companion, the girl codenamed JK opened the tablet she was holding and clicked on a video.
In the screen, a squad of eight people wearing black protective suits, completely covering themselves without a single gap, was cautiously approaching the police station.
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