[You have once again witnessed the horrors of the Inner World. To ordinary people, this place is no less than hell.]
Listening to the system announcement in his ear, Yan Jing's expression remained natural.
"Old Zhang's move is pretty strong," he said calmly.
"Strong my ass. These illusions can be broken as long as they know how to use Weird Energy. Plus, he can't move while using the ability, and it has a ten-minute time limit at most. There's even a fifty-meter distance limit."
Old Liu put away the Eerie Coins and said with satisfaction, "It can only be used to bully these rookies."
"I can't hold on. The other side has Weird Energy..."
Old Zhang suddenly spoke up, sweat breaking out on his forehead.
Through the fog, Lin Mian could faintly be seen activating the single horn on his forehead. Wisps of black energy flowed from the tip, crashing into the surrounding mist.
The fog visibly melted away wherever the energy touched it.
"Is it too late for a refund now?"Yan Jing decided to take back his comment about Old Zhang being strong.
"Don't panic."
Old Liu calmly adjusted his sunglasses, gesturing for Yan Jing to stay calm. He pulled another five Eerie Coins from his pocket and stuffed them into Old Zhang's pocket. "A fifty-fifty split. That's fair."
Old Zhang's pitch-black eyes seemed to flash. He smiled and said, "Don't worry. If they used Weird Energy to break through that wall, that would be one thing, but trying to dispel the fog is overestimating themselves. My Tier is higher than theirs, after all."
Sure enough, as Old Zhang channeled his power again, the dissipating fog gathered once more, and a wind whipped up through the surroundings.
Meanwhile, the halos of light surrounding Lin Mian and An Ranran in the fog began to flicker erratically.
Old Liu smiled.
"These two humans really do have some skills. If their halos hadn't been so weak when they came in this time, Old Zhang might actually have failed."
By now, the clash of Weird Energy between Old Zhang and Lin Mian had reached a white-hot stage.
Seeming to realize that dispelling the fog wasn't working, Lin Mian gripped the Dagger, coated it in Weird Energy, and viciously stabbed it into the wall behind him.
Old Zhang instantly stumbled, nearly planting face-first into the dirt.
But as Old Liu stuffed another Eerie Coin into his pocket, he resiliently climbed back up. Letting out a low shout, he pushed with all his strength, his entire body trembling.
The fog surged and churned. The stabbed wall trembled, yet it only grew taller and wider.
Finally... in the last moment before Old Zhang's Weird Energy was completely exhausted, the halos of light around Lin Mian and An Ranran practically vanished.
From their perspective, no matter what methods they used, they couldn't shake the eerie phenomenon in the slightest. Instead, it only grew increasingly terrifying and bizarre. Anxiety and dread had worn away their inner calm.
Their Mental Immunity Value, originally only at 70, began to drop bit by bit. The situation was precarious.
But just as Yan Jing thought the task was accomplished, the two of them pulled out a green potion and downed it in one gulp.
Yan Jing felt a little helpless. He knew what this Mental Immunity Potion was; he had drunk it himself a while ago.
It seemed he still needed to strengthen his own power. This method was simply too strenuous.
Old Liu patted the face of the unconscious Old Zhang on the ground and said helplessly, "Old Zhang did his best. This isn't something money can solve anymore."
But just as he spoke, dozens of Eerie Coins appeared before his eyes with a clatter. Yan Jing remained expressionless.
"Then hire another one."
...
...
"Huff— Huff—"
Lin Mian leaned against a wall, panting heavily, his eyes filled with absolute terror.
He never expected things to suddenly turn out like this.
It felt as though in just a short while, the Inner World had undergone an earth-shattering change, becoming incomparably dangerous.
Could this be the true horror of the "Dangerous Village" mission? Was the so-called killer just a decoy?
In just the past ten minutes, he and An Ranran had consecutively run into two extremely terrifying Inner World Residents who severely shook their minds using nothing but anomalies.
Even drinking the Mental Immunity Potion they had brought in didn't help. By the time they encountered the second Inner World Resident, both of their Mental Immunity Values had dropped below 60.
And it was exactly from that moment that the true horror began.
The Inner World had originally maintained a cold color tone, but after their Mental Immunity Values dropped, it seemed to completely shift into a gray-black hue.
The surrounding wind carried eerie shrieks and the inexplicable sound of a woman crying. Shadows of people constantly darted past his vision, laughing.
Moreover, the Inner World Residents who originally looked no different from normal humans had all revealed their true faces.
A burly man with human skin pasted all over his body, an old woman with a mouth full of sharp teeth, a little boy whose grin stretched all the way to the roots of his ears... There was even a swarm of things resembling snot bubbles in the sewer, baring their fangs and roaring at him.
An Ranran hadn't been able to hold on during the second anomaly. Her legs had given out completely from fear, leaving him to flee all alone.
Raising his head now, all he saw were intersecting alleyways leading who knew where. He couldn't tell his direction at all.
"I have to find the others quickly..."
He had completely lost the desire to go looking for Yan Jing right now. With his Mental Immunity Value dropped below 60, any Inner World Resident could potentially attack him.
"Need some help?"
The gentle voice made his entire body shudder.
He turned his head and saw a man in a white shirt stepping out from the corner. Sitting glaringly atop his neck was a camera instead of a head.
"No, I don't need any."
He hurriedly turned to leave. The single horn on his forehead flickered, indicating that the Weird Energy of the Inner World Resident before him was not weak.
But the man took quick strides and easily caught up to the exhausted Lin Mian.
Looking at the vigilant Lin Mian, the man smiled.
"Let's take a picture."
Lin Mian's heart tightened instantly, and he tried to turn and run.
As the click of the shutter rang out, he felt his entire being plunge into a boundless darkness. All the scenery around him began to break away from its current dimension, continuously expanding and vibrating.
The walls twisted, the ground smiled, and the sun in the sky turned into the terrifying grinning face of a bald man, smiling as it stared at him.
Clouds, garbage piles, door panels—everything drifted out. Even a single speck of dust seemed to exist in a higher dimension than him.
"I'm the one who became lower..."
He came to a realization. It wasn't that the dimensions of the other objects had become higher, but that his own had been lowered.
Watching those things crushing toward him like inflating balloons, he instantly broke out in a heavy sweat.
Yet from Yan Jing's perspective, Lin Mian was completely motionless, as if even his breathing had stopped.
He walked over, delivered a chop to the back of his neck, knocked him out cold, and tossed him over his shoulder.
"Need a hand?"
Old Liu walked out from the side, his hands tucked in his pockets.
"I'm very good at cooking this kind of delicacy. If you want to treat this old man to a meal, I think I'd gladly agree."
Yan Jing shook his head.
"Next time. I have a use for this one."
Old Liu shrugged and turned to leave.
"Although the Order Management Bureau won't care if you lay a hand on these humans, it's best not to let the other humans see. Otherwise, your customers will dwindle next time, kid."
Yan Jing nodded, carrying Lin Mian as he walked toward his home.
Arriving in front of the familiar security door, he pulled out his keys, opened the door, and tossed Lin Mian next to An Ranran, who was already lying inside. He completed the actions in one smooth motion.
An unknown amount of time passed before Lin Mian and An Ranran opened their eyes one after another.
Their bodies were tightly bound with ropes. The Dagger and bread had been taken by Yan Jing and set aside. They could only stare helplessly and fearfully at the camera-headed man in front of them, completely clueless about what he intended to do.
Yan Jing tilted his head and smiled.
"Do you know what I need?"
"No... Tell us. We'll give you whatever you want."
Lin Mian forced himself to calm down.
Since the other party had demands, there was still room for negotiation.
Yan Jing held up two fingers.
"Two things. First, I want money."
"I'll pay!"
Lin Mian's eyes lit up. That was easy.
Beside him, An Ranran also nodded frantically.
The two of them took out all their remaining Eerie Coins from the system, totaling nearly 78,000.
Yan Jing collected the money and nodded in satisfaction. He had spent 8,000 and netted a profit of 70,000.
Perhaps there were other Inner World Residents doing this kind of thing, but rarely would anyone be as profitable as him.
It was hard to find such fat fish, and with such a good opportunity at that—only a 70 Mental Immunity Value.
Furthermore, ruining one's reputation would mean no one visiting their stall, which would sever the path of cultivation in Order.
This was also the reason why Old Zhang was so weak.
In the Inner World, being weak but wealthy meant death was not far away.
"What's the second thing?"
Lin Mian gradually calmed down.
He prided himself on understanding these Inner World Residents.
The elders of his Clan always taught that Inner World Residents didn't all harbor vicious attitudes toward humans; one had to learn how to cooperate.
But the next second, Lin Mian felt his entire view of the world begin to shift horizontally. Something seemed to snap in an instant, rolling onto the ground. The faint sound of An Ranran's scream rang in his ears.
A second later, he felt as if he were lying on his back, looking up at the bloodstained ceiling. Then he could see no more.
A few dozen seconds later, the screaming in the room stopped as well.
Yan Jing held two torn photographs in his hand. He looked at the fresh blood on the floor, his eyes serene.
He stepped out the door and, after a while, came back in carrying two buckets.
After figuring out a way to scoop the blood from the floor into the buckets, he carried them over to the tree at the foot of the bed and poured them out.
[You have watered the mysterious Sapling. The Sapling has been revitalized and is expected to bear fruit soon.]
Yan Jing spent some time thoroughly cleaning up the mess, then sat on the edge of the bed.
He began to mentally replay the course of the entire incident.
The most critical point of this matter lay with his visit to the Order Management Bureau that day.
At the end of the interrogation that day, he had requested the list of Inner World Residents who weren't at their stalls that afternoon. There were forty-seven in total.
According to his memories, out of those thirty-nine stalls, only five were positioned to keep a constant watch on his own.
Among those five stall owners was the two-headed woman.
And what made Yan Jing treat the two-headed woman as his primary target of investigation were the words Old Liu had once said:
"All the neighbors know that I, Third Master Liu, never talk nonsense!"
"I've been observing that girl for a long time. She just arrived half a month ago. Ask her where she's from, she doesn't answer. Ask her why she came to our place, and she won't say a word either."
"Most importantly, whenever you try to pry into what she knows about this place, she just stammers and stays quiet. If she isn't a human in disguise, what is she?"
Not speaking. That matched up with the voice issue.
Moreover, the flash of white he had photographed on the day he was hunted down now had an answer—it was the two-headed woman's leg.
Therefore, she was the prime suspect.
But the most crucial issue at the Order Management Bureau that day wasn't actually this; it was the photograph of Sleepland that the Order officer had shown him.
Yan Jing closed his eyes, and the scene from that day seemed to replay again.
"Have you seen this photo?"
The Order officer pulled out a photograph. On it were the corpses of the Inner World Residents who had died a few months ago. It was a clue sent over by the Dream Township Branch Bureau.
"...I haven't, officer."
He had actually lied at the time.
He had seen those corpses. Of course he had seen them.
Because "he" was the one who killed them.