The night market was close to the Nightwatch base.
You Shuo pushed open the door of the closed bar. A wind chime jingled, and the sign reading "Jinse Bar" glowed under yellow light. Behind the counter, a bartender of about forty — neatly dressed in a vest, his graying temples combed back with precision — polished a stemmed glass. He glanced up at the sound, looked at You Shuo, then lowered his head again, though a trace of worry crossed his face.
You Shuo strode to the back room door and swiped his card. As he pushed it open, the mark on his palm emitted a faint red glow, and a mask with a fierce blue face and bared fangs materialized in his hand.
He donned the mask and stepped through. The Nightwatch's base in the Surface World was a dimensional pocket — connected to reality, yet leading to a space that did not exist within it.
Before him stretched a long corridor. Fluorescent lights glared off white floor tiles, casting the place in a cold, eerie pallor.
You Shuo moved at a pace that was nearly a run. He stopped before a door, swiped his card again, and after a beep, the door slid open. Beyond it lay row after row of metal bars — the Nightwatch's holding cells. The foremost cell stood open, and You Shuo halted at its iron door.
Inside, the room that should have held a prisoner was long empty. The metal rings on the restraint jacket had snapped apart, as though wrenched open from within.
The bastard who had killed his sister was gone. Escaped from a Nightwatch facility. Practically right under his nose.
He had been just one street away, browsing the night market with Bi Xi.
A masked teammate stood inside the cell, his guilt-laden voice muffled beneath the covering. "I'm sorry, Shuo-ge. I was on guard duty, but I drank too much water and needed the bathroom, so I asked Xiaoxiao to keep watch. I didn't think — in that window, the prisoner 【Quick Blade】 broke free of his restraints, attacked Xiaoxiao, stole her access pass, and ran."
"How's Xiaoxiao?" You Shuo forced down the emotions churning inside him, straining to keep his voice level. The tail end still trembled.
"Mild concussion. She's already with the medical team." The teammate's voice shrank further. "I'm sorry, Shuo-ge. It's all my fault — "
You Shuo cut him off. "Go contact 【The Listener】. Tell her to focus on Xinsheng Estate in Jinli District and the crowds near Jinse Bar."
【The Listener】 was the Nightwatch's information-type ability user. When she activated her ability, it could blanket half the city, allowing her to hear every word spoken by ability users within range. Because the drain was enormous, she could sustain it for only ten minutes — any longer would cause harm to the user herself.
The more precisely the search area was defined, the more effectively her ability could be deployed. These two locations were all You Shuo could think of at the moment. The prisoner knew You Shuo's name and in all likelihood also knew about 【The Listener】, the information-type ability user they relied on. Blending into a crowd would be the best counter to her surveillance. That was the self-preservation angle. Then there was the other possibility — the prisoner still had to complete his original mission: hunting down You Shuo's sister.
His home in Xinsheng Estate, Jinli District, and the populated areas near Jinse Bar, the Nightwatch base — the two most likely directions the prisoner would head.
The teammate mumbled an acknowledgment, then all but fled the scene.
You Shuo closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. His hand pressed against the wall, and for one instant, the strength drained from his shoulders.
He did not want to assign blame right now. If blame had to fall somewhere, he placed it on himself.
He had known his teammates might not manage without him. Why had he not been more resolute? He had already left home, unable to protect You Ling regardless — why had he not returned to the base? At the very least, he could have kept the prisoner from escaping.
The prisoner had killed You Ling. You Shuo had seen the body — he knew what it looked like. So he knew. You Ling was truly dead.
Now the prisoner had escaped. Would he go after You Ling again?
You Shuo did not know.
All he could do was act immediately — catch the prisoner before the prisoner found You Ling.
You Shuo retraced his steps at a rapid pace. Along the way, his mind churned through thought after thought: whether You Ling was safe, why someone had managed to break out of the Nightwatch's dimensional prison, where the escaped prisoner might go, and the memorial tablets of his parents sitting on his nightstand — a constant reminder that never let him rest.
When he opened the door, accompanied by the jingle of the wind chime, and saw the person sitting at the bar counter, every last one of those chaotic thoughts vanished. His mind went suddenly still.
In that moment, he had only one thought —
Why was he still here?
At the counter, the long-haired man in red-tinted glasses sat in a languid sprawl. He still wore the same outfit from that afternoon — his coat draped loosely over his shoulders like a cape. One hand rested on the counter; the other held aloft a stemmed glass, the amber liquid within swaying gently. Bathed in golden lamplight, he raised it toward You Shuo.
"Cheers." The word rolled off his tongue in flawless English. Behind the red lenses, emerald eyes curved with amusement. The red tassel dangling by his ear swayed — its hue deeper than fresh blood.
...
You Ling had just taken a sip right in front of her brother, and the burn hit her at once.
For a dead person, she was being far too brazen — able to drink alcohol, even taste the sting of it. I'm dead, dead people don't have muscle reflexes, she chanted silently, trying to suppress the urge to stick out her tongue and gag.
Without a word, she set the glass back on the counter — not another sip — spread both hands, and said innocently, "If you're busy, go ahead. Don't mind me. Pretend I don't exist."
She thought for a moment, then added, "And don't worry about me getting bored. I rather enjoy watching you run around."
You Shuo's expression darkened further. What had been self-reproaching guilt twisted into something approaching a breaking point, his face as good as saying: Oh, how generous of you.
"Bi Xi, I..." You Shuo started, then turned away and deflated. "Just follow me. Can you talk less?"
She had probably been too nice to You Shuo — he was not even afraid of her anymore, You Ling mused.
How delightful the old days had been, when he called her "devil" every other sentence, all wariness and dread. So much more entertaining.
Then You Ling cheerfully flashed an OK sign, curled the corners of her lips, and said nothing more.
The Nightwatch's operational structure had been depicted in the manga. The action squads were primarily responsible for pursuit and capture, composed mostly of ability users with formidable combat prowess. You Shuo relied on his own battle instincts and was generally very accurate when tracking someone down. But the real investigative work fell to information-type ability users.
The one closest to You Shuo's 【Edge Squad】 was 【The Listener】, Meng Zhezhi. She appeared frequently in the story.
Anyone who had read the manga knew she existed.
You Ling trailed behind You Shuo at a leisurely pace. She had no intention of telling him she had already encountered the prisoner. In the manga, the prisoner's code name was 【Quick Blade】. She knew — but she would not say. You Shuo was genuinely frantic, too consumed to worry that You Ling tagging along might expose Nightwatch's internal secrets. He simply could not manage everything at once.
You Ling preferred to play the long game.
And she needed some answers —
Why had 【Quick Blade】 feared 【Bi Xi】 when he had clearly never met her?
This identity had only been activated that afternoon. The only person who had seen Bi Xi in the flesh was You Shuo. Beyond that, Bi Xi's appearance had only been published in the manga.
Perhaps the ability users really had discovered the manga. Nothing else could explain it. If 【Quick Blade】 knew about the manga, then he certainly knew of 【The Listener's】 existence as well.
He had dared to run — but with his voiceprint already on file with the Nightwatch, he would not get far.
You Ling gazed at the brightly lit city at the end of the road. She had to prepare for the possibility that ability users already knew of Bi Xi's existence. After she and You Shuo had been seen together at the night market, they would all learn that the newly appeared character was called Bi Xi.
A name carried a different weight of deterrence than anonymity, and the disarming persona she had cultivated would inevitably dilute her intimidation.
She needed to strengthen that deterrence — to demonstrate through action that the strongest was not someone to be trifled with.
Clouds veiled the moon in the night sky, and a shadow settled over You Ling's heart as well.
Tonight was her chance. Golden threads extended from her fingertips, sinking into the city.
She seemed to understand instinctively what these threads were for.
Bang.
A muffled boom echoed from the distance. You Ling watched as a massive red barrier rose over the city, dyeing the streets a somber crimson.
"An ability barrier." You Shuo stood beside her, face grim. "How did he know..."
It was common knowledge in the Hidden World: when ability users were about to engage in large-scale destructive conflict, they would petition the SS-rank ability user 【Red Moon】 to raise a barrier. Outside abilities could not interfere with anything within, and abilities inside could not reach out — like an arena where internal conflict could not affect the outer world, and the outer world could not reach in.
Simultaneously, ordinary people inside the barrier would lose partial consciousness, retaining no awareness or memory of what transpired.
This was also why the Surface and Hidden Worlds remained separate even in the information age. 【Red Moon】 was a neutral ability user — less like a person, more like a rule governing both worlds. She would not question the purpose behind raising the barrier, and the Nightwatch had neither the authority nor the power to stop her.
The barrier was an established law in all but name. Once it rose, every ordinary person within its range became defenseless — lambs awaiting slaughter.
The barrier enveloped the night market and the shopping center connected to it. You Ling stood at its edge, a point of red light igniting at the center of her emerald pupils.
The crimson barrier shimmered five paces ahead of them. The bustling night market looked the same as ever, but the ordinary people within could not notice one another's vacant stares — their awareness had been thoroughly sealed away.
"Shuo — 【Yanmo】, 【The Listener's】 ability is useless!" You Shuo's teammate rushed over, phone in hand.
Anyone who had read the manga knew 【The Listener】 Meng Zhezhi was not currently in Jinli City, much less could she have appeared inside the barrier in such a short span. Her surveillance had been blocked outside it.
There were too many ordinary people within the barrier. A sweep could not possibly be completed in time.
Once 【Quick Blade's】 contacts arrived to extract him, they might never find him again.
"Can't let him escape," You Shuo murmured. He could no longer maintain his composure. His eyelids trembled — this was fear. "He'll go after Lingling..."
Just then, a pair of black hands slowly encircled his neck from behind. Sharp, inhuman fingertips came to rest gently against his cheek.
"Aiya, aiya. What ever shall we do?" The devil's voice drifted from behind him, each syllable drawn out slow and lazy, the final note lilting upward.
Coiling like a python. Emerald eyes disappeared beneath red lenses, the narrow corners curving into crescents. The devil was smiling.
"Why don't you beg your master?"