Outside the Lotus Mountain Range.
A group of battle-hardened search and rescue personnel—men who had survived countless life-and-death missions—stared at the dense white expanse before them. Their eyes were filled with helplessness and anxiety.
The thick white fog stood like a physical barrier, sealing off the mountain entrance completely. The moment anyone stepped even half a step into the fog zone, all communication devices went dark. Radios emitted piercing static before dying entirely, cutting off every signal.
The mountain range stretched continuously for dozens of miles. The situation inside was unknown; for ordinary people, entering it meant almost certain death.
The ground operation was immediately scrapped. The command center switched to an aerial rescue plan. However, no one anticipated an even stranger and more dangerous development.
Several helicopters lifted off and roared toward the Lotus Mountain airspace. When they reached within three kilometers of the fog-covered mountains—
Buzz—
All cockpit instruments went haywire instantly. Screens flickered, navigation failed, altitude readings distorted, and radar systems locked up.
The helicopter’s entire electronic system collapsed. Just as a crash seemed imminent, a sudden wind from within the mountains pushed the aircraft outward. Once they were forced beyond the three-kilometer boundary, all systems immediately returned to normal.
But the pilots, shaken and terrified, no longer dared to approach. Any further attempt could result in total destruction.
This fog did not merely seal the ground—it isolated the sky as well. Completely airtight. A dead zone where instruments failed and human entry was impossible. A true death trap cut off from the world.
At this point, it was 8 p.m. Thirty-two hours had passed since Fighter Pilot Ling Xiao lost contact and crashed.
As the military’s ace pilot, Ling Xiao’s value was immeasurable and irreplaceable.
In fact, the previous afternoon, the base radar had already detected his aircraft disappearing from the system before it went completely silent.
Just as the command center prepared to locate the crash site based on the last radar coordinates, a sudden and unexplained blackout occurred. When power was restored, all data had been wiped clean. Ling Xiao’s position was gone.
Bad news: Ling Xiao had an accident.
Worse news: he could not be located.
It was not until 3 p.m. the next day that they received new information—Ling Xiao was alive and unharmed.
Everyone’s tightly held nerves finally relaxed.
General Zhou (“Old Zhou”), Ling Xiao’s superior, immediately contacted the reporting party. The caller turned out to be the village chief from the only settlement in the Lotus Mountain Range—Lao Wo Village. The man was extremely talkative.
For over two hours, he spoke about how remote and impoverished the village was, repeatedly requesting government funding, electrification, and road construction.
These proposals had already been reviewed locally. The cost of infrastructure was too high; the only viable solution was full relocation of the village out of the Lotus Mountain Range.
But not a single villager agreed. They insisted the village was their root and refused to leave.
So the matter was left unresolved.
Still, since this was the only source of information about Ling Xiao, Old Zhou patiently listened. He could understand their poverty and their reluctance to abandon their home.
Only after the village chief himself felt embarrassed did he finally stop rambling and move on to Ling Xiao—and the wreckage of the dismantled fighter jet.
The aircraft was in ruins. The pilot was unharmed.
Old Zhou suddenly stood up, gripping his phone tightly. “What did you say?”
The entire room, which had just begun to relax, tensed again.
If the aircraft was destroyed, how could the pilot be fine?
The already assembled rescue teams immediately mobilized toward the Lotus Mountain Range.
Outside the mountain range was a wide river. Lao Wo Village relied on a small boat for transport. Officials from the town followed the village chief back first.
But once they boarded the boat, the fish in the river suddenly went berserk, slamming into the vessel. The already dilapidated boat quickly capsized and began leaking.
With no boat available, they retreated to shore. Soaked and grim-faced, the officials immediately reported the situation.
The village chief forced a smile. “The fish here were always very docile. They’ve never attacked boats before.”
But the explanation was meaningless in the face of the bizarre behavior.
By the time the county-level rescue team arrived with equipment to cross the river, it was already sunset. The mountain fog had fully formed. Their equipment was no longer suitable for a foot search in such conditions.
The village chief sighed bitterly. “It was fine when we came. Now we can’t get out.”
When Old Zhou arrived with the second wave of rescue teams, it was already 7 p.m. Every possible approach—land and air—had failed.
Old Zhou kept smoking, constantly reassessing rescue possibilities, but each option was eliminated in turn.
Hundreds of rescuers, helicopters, drones, robotic dogs—state-of-the-art equipment filled the area, overwhelming even the village chief, who had never seen such a scale of operation.
He began to feel uneasy. That pilot might not be an ordinary pilot. If he was fine, everything would be fine—but if something had happened, Lao Wo Village might also be implicated.
Old Zhou pulled the village chief forward again. “Are you absolutely sure Ling Xiao is fine?”
The village chief repeatedly assured him. “He’s fine, really fine. He arrived yesterday afternoon, spoke to villagers, and identified himself as Ling Xiao, asking us to report it.”
“I even saw him this morning. He walked around the village. My family even gave him noodles. He told me to come out and report it.”
Old Zhou narrowed his eyes. “Then why didn’t he leave with you?”
Yes. Why didn’t he leave?
Ling Xiao was a cautious man. He would not fail to prioritize extraction and reporting unless there was something extremely important keeping him there.
Was he being detained by villagers for leverage?
The village chief’s earlier insistence on the village’s poverty now looked suspicious.
Old Zhou’s gaze turned cold. The village chief collapsed onto the ground under pressure.
“I don’t know why he didn’t come out… I only know he’s currently staying at the house of a girl named Xie Jinwen.”
Old Zhou repeated slowly, “Xie Jinwen. A girl?”
The village chief nodded. “Yes. She’s about to turn eighteen in a few days—her coming-of-age ceremony.”
He added quickly, “Leader, you don’t understand. That girl is strange. People say she’s a disaster star. Maybe it was her that brought the pilot down from the sky…”
Old Zhou snapped. “Enough of this nonsense. This is a scientific era.”
The village chief lowered his head. “Yes, yes… but can science explain what’s happening here?”
Old Zhou was momentarily speechless. The fog outside was indeed abnormal.
The village chief continued, “Xie Jinwen’s curse is very effective. Anyone who gets close to her becomes unlucky. Even her grandmother was supposedly harmed by her. Now that she’s coming of age, strange things are happening one after another…”
Suddenly, the village chief’s eyes widened. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.
“Sir, we found a girl at the mountain boundary.”
A rescue team member led a young woman forward.
She was very young, but carried an unusual maturity and urgency. A gray pigeon stood on her shoulder.
The pigeon spoke. “I have a way into the mountain, but I need manpower. Please lend me people. Coo~”
The rescue member scratched his neck awkwardly. “Sir… when I found her, she wasn’t speaking at all. No matter how I asked, she didn’t respond. Only this pigeon talks. How should we handle this?”