Li Lin broke out in a cold sweat upon hearing his nephew's words—even though he looked up at the sky and saw nothing, it didn't lessen his trust in Zheng Zhi one bit.His trust mainly stemmed from Zheng Zhi's strange ability to lead a platoon of wandering spirits to march under the blazing midday sun.
So, he immediately took out his phone, ready to report while quickly confirming the situation: "What's it like exactly? How did it fall? Location and scale?"
"It covers half the sky, the city is filled with fog, and there are obsidian pillars standing everywhere. It feels like Mist City, but the building layout is much more chaotic," Zheng Zhi quickly explained, "I just recalled those spiritual illusions, and suddenly felt a heavy pressure in my heart. I looked up and almost got a heart attack. My goodness, that dark city was just suspended overhead..."
By now, Li Lin had quickly contacted the Special Service Bureau and, without wasting any words, spoke into his phone: "This is the Wutong Road observation point. Zheng Zhi just witnessed a large-scale illusion, suspected to be Boundary City's mirror image suspended in the sky. Requesting analysis on the spatial structure of my area..."
A piercing noise suddenly came from the receiver, causing Li Lin to feel dizzy, then he noticed that his phone had lost signal.
A gray-black smoke began to rise from all directions, causing the distant street scene to quickly become blurry.
Li Lin instantly thought something was wrong, realizing he had begun to fall into the Exotic Realm. Then he turned to look at Zheng Zhi beside him, only to meet his gaze as well.
"Hey Brother Li, look at the mess I've made, now you're involved too," Zheng Zhi said awkwardly while reaching into his pocket, "Wait a moment, I have an escape card with me, let's quickly..."
"Hold on," Li Lin abruptly interrupted before Zheng Zhi could finish, having already pulled out his sidearm and grasped a potent syringe, ready to administer a shot to himself at any moment. "Don't always withdraw at the first sign of trouble—you now have combat capabilities. Observe the surroundings, gather initial intel, and provide basic information for the colleagues who will follow up later."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Zhi paused, seemingly realizing only now that he was also a Special Service Bureau officer—although not formally inducted due to various reasons, collecting necessary information before retreating in the event of accidentally falling into the Exotic Realm was still part of his duty.
So, he swallowed hard, drawing his firearm with one hand and grabbing his companion, the big yellow dog, with the other, both staying vigilant of their surroundings alongside Li Lin.
The surrounding mist gathered and dispersed, making the environment appear dull, yet this fog was not like the thick haze that enveloped Mist City, but more like a continuously shifting and drifting... thin shadow.
Amidst this chaotic shadow, distant buildings gradually showed a twisted and stacked posture.
"What is this... It's not Mist City," Zheng Zhi muttered, "'Estate' or 'Farm'? Doesn't seem like it either..."
Li Lin remained silent, only glancing toward No. 66 Wutong Road.
In that direction were only disordered ruins piled on top of each other, continuous walls and roofs stretched out, almost without gaps.
Li Lin frowned deeply, verified his recording equipment was on, and then looked toward another gap at the end of the street.
"Let's go over there to check the situation, there's an intersection," he whispered, "This place is definitely not Mist City... But it seems like something else has merged with Mist City."
Thus, the two cautiously headed toward the street exit, followed by the big yellow dog Zheng Zhi had casually summoned earlier taking the lead.
After walking a few steps, the big yellow dog sniffed the air and turned to speak: "A strange smell."
Zheng Zhi suddenly halted.
"Brother Li, look at that!"
He raised his hand pointing to the shadows at the end of the street, Li Lin followed his finger and saw a stone tower standing crookedly, its style clashing with the modern urban buildings around it.
The tower had a rough and heavy structure. The top appeared to have been hit by something forceful, with a large amount of stone structure collapsing, broken sections jaggedly pointing to the sky, carrying a desolate vibe.
A pale, powerless daylight somehow covered the sky, with smoke rising from afar, gathering in the clouds.
They took a few more steps forward, spotting a rooftop that seemed to have fallen from a large building, crashing into the city. It was adorned with grotesque gargoyles, but all sculptures were shattered.
"Oh my..." muttered Zheng Zhi, "Could this be the legendary Lodaxim High Wall... but it can't be, didn't Brother Yu say there was also a particularly grand city wall..."
Li Lin pressed his lips tightly without speaking, he saw more and more peculiar building remains scattered in this area, which was so twisted it barely resembled Boundary City, some of these remnants even fused entirely with the surrounding structures, almost as if... directly "grown" from the space around them.
Just then, from the dark curtain ahead, a sound suddenly echoed, causing both to slow their steps unconsciously.
It sounded like the sharpening of a blade.
Zheng Zhi felt his muscles tighten all over; he glanced at Li Lin, who seemed tense too, and together, they peeked around the corner of the wall toward the direction the sound came from.
In the clearing ahead, a twisted and skewed Windmill Mill stood amidst the rubble, a towering figure draped in pitch-black armor sat on a large stone, sharpening the long blade in his hand.
Humanoid.
"A person?" Li Lin frowned, his voice lowered.
"...Could it be like that knight?" Zheng Zhi murmured softly as well, "Did they also come out from 'over there'?"
"I wonder if communication is possible..."
Li Lin had not finished his last sentence when a deep, resonant bell suddenly rang from an unknown location.
The burly figure grinding the long blade instantly raised his head and slowly stood up like a black iron mountain.
Li Lin and Zheng Zhi's hearts surged into their throats as each inch of the giant's body rose, until the nearly 4-meter-tall giant stood completely upright.
A pitch-black monster bird suddenly descended from the sky, landing on a wall beside Li Lin and Zheng Zhi, and screeched piercingly: "Foreigners have invaded the Royal City!"
Zheng Zhi broke out in a cold sweat on the spot, shouting: "Damn it!!"
At almost the same time, the four-meter-tall Iron Armor Giant also suddenly turned his head towards them—with the instantaneous glimpse of the giant's face, Li Lin and Zheng Zhi abandoned the idea of communicating with him.
The giant's helmet front was already a complete mess, and inside the exploding face armor, there was no flesh, only a mass of burning black flames collapsing inwardly.
"Intruder!!"
A furious roar nearly shook the entire street, as the giant raised his long blade and charged towards the direction where Zheng Zhi and Li Lin were hiding. His heavy footsteps caused the ground to tremble slightly, the long blade flickered with cold light, weighing over a thousand pounds.
With a sudden dodge to the side, Zheng Zhi and Li Lin evaded while at the same time, the big yellow dog summoned by Zheng Zhi had already charged forward.
The yellow dog was as tiny as a bug compared to the giant, yet it was fearless when rushing forward, but the giant merely raised a foot and easily stomped it underfoot.
The yellow dog let out a cry and instantly transformed into a red motorcycle at the moment of being stomped, its fuel tank completely full, it burst into flames.
A fireball surged from the giant's foot, the giant seemed slightly startled, next to the fireball appeared an aunt wearing a cheongsam with hair bundled up, she reached out and grabbed the giant's iron boot, shouting loudly: "My—big yellow—ah! Sun Thief! Don't go!!"
In the next second, the shouting figure turned into a vague chain, wrapping around the giant's entire right leg, pinning it to the ground.
The giant's movements paused temporarily, Li Lin watched in shock from the side: "Wow, can you actually use these moves this way?!"
"I don't even know! I'm just going on instinct—"
Zheng Zhi shouted loudly, meanwhile, he saw the giant's body starting to move again, the "moral chain" entangled around its right leg lasted merely two or three seconds before fracturing, then the giant violently stepped forward, and a dark red flame ignited on the long blade, chopping straight towards them.
Zheng Zhi gasped in shock, instinctively throwing a punch forward in haste, using a move he had recently figured out: "Ancestor Fist!"
The sound of the wind howled in the air, and the suppressed spiritual energy was unleashed almost uncontrollably. Li Lin didn't even have time to question whether the name of that move was serious, before he saw a mass of shadow illusions frantically surge out from Zheng Zhi's side!
Those illusionary shadows were chaotic and absurd, like an out-of-control frenzied dream, a large group of old men and women rushed out, some pedaling bicycles, some riding motorcycles, some driving electric tricycles, and even some riding donkeys, horses, pigs, and cows. Some shadows were complete and still resembled human figures, while others were exaggeratedly twisted into various bizarre postures.
An old man with a pipe led the charge, followed by a bunch of illusionary phantoms with absurd weapons, ranging from kitchen knives to carrying poles, from erhu to yellow dogs, and there was even an old lady holding one identical old lady in each hand...
Li Lin glanced at the phantom storm and instantly injected himself with a dose of Sanity Blocker without hesitation.
He thought another couple of glances would awaken his spiritual energy, and surely it would result in a loss of control and explode in that round.
At the same time, the chaotic spiritual illusion army also charged towards the giant—the out-of-control physical monster encountered an even more out-of-control weird artifact, the long blade slashing left and right in a frenzy.
Numerous overlapping illusions transformed into items of various symbolic representations, haphazardly striking the giant; others turned into monstrous evil spirits, entangling around it, an old man with an erhu sat in place, the sound of the erhu pierced the liver and intestines, and there were two old gentlemen in long jackets flying midair in the chaotic spiritual energy storm, bowing respectfully towards an unknown direction: "We two elder brothers, are here to perform for everyone…"
Li Lin thought for a moment, gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, injecting himself with another dose.