The Special Affairs Bureau had dedicated aircraft for missions, ensuring their operations were always covert and never drew attention from ordinary people.
This time, they were headed to a city in the south—FH City.
FH City was a third-tier city, inconspicuous in the grand scheme of the country. However, just the week before, several small counties under its jurisdiction had been flooded. Though the water levels weren’t exceptionally high, a significant number of people had been caught unprepared, leading to casualties. The death toll wasn’t massive, but over a dozen lives had been lost, prompting concern from the relevant authorities.
If that had been the only issue, the Special Affairs Bureau wouldn’t have needed to intervene—rescue efforts and post-disaster reconstruction could have been handled by higher authorities. However, in an area outside FH City, an inexplicable thick fog had suddenly appeared, dense enough to obscure all vision. It had drawn the attention of many locals, and some curious individuals who ventured into the fog never returned.
With disappearances came searches. The families of the missing reported the incidents to the police, and officers from the FH City Police Department formed teams to enter the fog. Unfortunately, not only did they fail to rescue anyone, but they also vanished themselves.
Over time, the police became wary of reckless action. Some considered sending in lifeless robots equipped with surveillance devices to record the situation inside, but no matter how advanced the machinery, they either malfunctioned upon entry or, if they did return, were found completely inoperable upon inspection.
Eventually, this bizarre incident was reported to the Special Affairs Bureau. After several days of preparation, the Bureau dispatched multiple teams—only for them to disappear as well. In the end, Lin Yangfeng was called in to handle the matter.
After a two-hour flight, they arrived in FH City.
The plane landed at a private airstrip, where the local police captain in charge of the case greeted them and briefed them on the situation.
Lin Yangfeng’s team consisted of eight members, and by now, they had a full understanding of the incident.
As the deputy captain, Fang Zhenbang usually handled diplomacy in place of Lin Yangfeng, who rarely concerned himself with such matters. After carefully analyzing the case, Fang Zhenbang summarized it for Lin Yangfeng as usual before asking, “Captain Lin, how should we proceed?”
Lin Yangfeng remained expressionless. “We’ll go in this afternoon.”
Fang Zhenbang was taken aback. “But that fog is dangerous—”
Lin Yangfeng’s impatience was evident in his expression, and he made no effort to hide it. “Enough talk.”
Fang Zhenbang’s heart skipped a beat, and he quickly lowered his head in agreement. “Understood. We’ll follow your orders.”
The other team members, having worked with Lin Yangfeng before, all voiced their compliance.
Lin Yangfeng said nothing more.
Fang Zhenbang then resumed communication with the police captain, who led them to the police department’s internal dormitory for accommodation.
The dormitory was fairly spacious, and the Special Affairs Bureau members weren’t overly particular. They settled into their assigned rooms without complaint.
As always, Lin Yangfeng had a room to himself—the largest one available. He maneuvered his wheelchair inside, braced his arms slightly, and transferred himself onto the bed in the bedroom.
He didn’t feel like eating or sleeping. He just wanted to lie there.
Closing his eyes, Yan Zhen’s face flickered incessantly in his mind.
Huh.
He was hungry.
After Lin Yangfeng and the team members had lunch, he led them, guided by the police captain, to the eerie thick fog ahead.
Fang Zhenbang and the others had heard the police captain’s account, and their expressions turned grave upon seeing the fog.
Only Lin Yangfeng remained the same—his aura still bristling with hostility, yet indifferent to the fog.
Fang Zhenbang spoke softly, “Captain?”
Lin Yangfeng gave a faint “Hmm” before maneuvering his wheelchair forward, gliding straight into the fog.
Within seconds, the dense mist swallowed him whole, and his figure vanished.
Fang Zhenbang panicked but knew their abilities were far inferior to the captain’s. He quickly signaled the other team members to follow. Before entering, he tossed a final remark to the police captain: “We’ll handle things inside. You all wait out here.”
The police captain watched them with a complicated expression, silently wondering if this group would emerge unscathed… He could only hope they would bring a new dawn.
·
Once Fang Zhenbang and the team entered the fog, they were immediately surrounded by a thick, chilling current that stung their lungs. The next moment, their blood began pumping uncontrollably.
—Here, it’s worth mentioning that the Special Affairs Bureau was, after all, a national department dealing with the extraordinary. Members had to possess unique talents—be it supernatural abilities, Taoist arts, Buddhist practices, or even Demon Arts. The origins were diverse, many with long-standing legacies—because only among such individuals could true elites be cultivated, capable of serving the nation at headquarters. Only a rare few were scouted from across the country, rigorously selected.
Even so, with the full might of the state apparatus, the Special Affairs Bureau had managed to recruit several hundred members, divided into twelve full divisions, each further split into multiple squads.
The first two divisions were the strongest, tasked with high-difficulty missions. The next seven were relatively weaker, handling less challenging assignments. The following two functioned as support or technical units, providing resources and managing aftermath for the preceding ten. Then there was the most unique—the Twelfth Division. Unlike the first eleven, which were composed of humans, the Twelfth was made up of non-humans. Though still bound by the Bureau’s rules, they typically worked alone, rarely cooperating in teams.
This Twelfth Division was also the only one not rigidly subdivided into squads, as it prioritized respecting the nature of its non-human members within permissible limits.
Of the three squads that had gone missing, the first was an ordinary team from the Fifth Division, followed by an elite squad from the Second, and finally an elite unit from the First—each stronger than the last, yet still to no avail.
Thus, Lin Yangfeng, the overall commander of the Twelfth Division, arrived with his handpicked elite from the First and Second Divisions—his fixed team members—along with a White-haired Rat Spirit skilled in aura detection, also a permanent member of his squad.
This team, which rarely assembled except under extraordinary circumstances, only acted together when Lin Yangfeng took the field. Outside of coordinating with him, they were all squad leaders in their own right.
As for Deputy Captain Fang, he was actually the chief deputy, serving directly under Lin Yangfeng as his right-hand man. In practice, his rank was on par with the captains of the Twelfth Division.
—Back to the main topic.
The squad members included practitioners from Buddhist and Taoist traditions, whose cultivation required absorbing the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth. Even though Spiritual Energy had been scarce for many years, they were still intimately familiar with it.
Indeed, it wasn’t until they entered the thick fog that the entire squad realized—this dense mist was nothing but Spiritual Energy gathered together. No, it was more like a Spiritual Energy spring had been unsealed, gushing forth like a fountain and dispersing outward. Yet, since the fog only accumulated in this area without spreading further, it almost seemed as if something was confining it.
There’s a saying: “A weak body cannot endure strong tonics.” This was precisely why Fang Zhenbang and the others kept choking, nearly suffocating.
At this moment, they endured the discomfort and charged forward, desperate to find their captain—otherwise, they couldn’t even imagine how they would deal with the monsters that might emerge in such dense Spiritual Energy if they lost contact with him.
Fortunately, luck was on their side.
The familiar wheelchair stood quietly ahead, and Lin Yangfeng seemed to be slightly tilting his head, gazing forward.
Fang Zhenbang and the others followed his line of sight and couldn’t help but collectively suck in a sharp breath.
A mountain!
A towering mountain shrouded in mist!
And from that mountain, faintly but unmistakably, came a terrifying…
A terrifying…