45: Chapter 45 Abandon the Port, the Monster is in the Reservoir!
At the Northern Reservoir dam, wild winds whipped up a massive amount of water vapor, slamming it fiercely against the grayish-white concrete defensive wall.
Su Yun walked up the stone steps along the edge of the dam with his hands tucked into his trouser pockets.
Fifty meters ahead, a defensive fortress constructed entirely of alloy straddled the center of the road.
Four heavy spiritual energy machine guns stood in front of the gate.
A red warning laser grid was interwoven, completely sealing off the passage.
The Sanctuary had stationed two fully armed Adjudicator squads here, tightly guarding the spirit vein anchor below.
Su Yun did not stop, nor did he hide his tracks.
The two standing guards immediately raised their spiritual energy rifles, their muzzles locking onto Su Yun.
"Stop! This is a restricted zone of the Sanctuary. Take one more step closer, and you will be executed on the spot!"
Su Yun ignored them and continued to walk up.
He activated his will.
Growth-stage divine skill, [Curtain of Delusion] activated.
Dozens of purple-black Void Tentacles silently spread out from the shadows beneath his feet.
The tentacles clung to the ground, rapidly covering an area with a radius of one hundred meters.
The two Adjudicators were just about to pull the triggers.
A transparent tentacle crawled up their combat boots and plunged directly into the back of their heads.
Sight, hearing, smell, and touch were instantly hijacked.
Dozens of visual windows appeared in Su Yun's brain. He took a glance and issued an extremely simple command.
"Off work. Go home and sleep."
A bizarre scene unfolded.
The fingers of the two armed Adjudicators loosened, and their heavy spiritual energy rifles dropped to the ground.
The muscles in their tense cheeks relaxed, their originally sharp gazes turned extremely dazed, and finally transformed into a kind of exhaustion and serenity, like someone finally liberated after half a month of overtime.
"Off work..."
The Adjudicator on the left let out a huge yawn, turned around, and walked toward the direction of the foot of the mountain.
The fortress gate swung open.
More than twenty fully armed Adjudicators walked out in a neat formation.
They chatted and laughed; some took off their heavy tactical vests and threw them by the roadside, while others pulled non-existent keychains from their pockets and swung them around.
They even hummed a cheerful little tune.
Dozens of people simply ignored Su Yun standing in the middle of the road, queued up, and strolled down the mountain with light steps.
There was no fighting, and not a single drop of blood was shed.
After their five senses were tampered with, they were experiencing the most ordinary daily routine of getting off work in their own worlds.
Su Yun looked at the firearms and body armor scattered all over the ground and stepped over the warning laser grid.
The lasers hit his body, but the alarm did not make a single sound.
He had just happened to tear apart the internal structure of the radar sensor.
He walked to the gate of the fortress's core area.
A hidden wave of Mental Energy swept over from a great distance.
This wave had no physical form, piercing directly through concrete walls and spiritual energy shields, scanning the entire Northern Reservoir area with precision.
It was the scanning wave of Ye Zhiwei's [Omni-dimensional Vision].
Su Yun stopped.
Ordinary people, and even low-rank Awakened, could not detect this kind of mental scan at all.
But in front of him, this Mental Energy was very clear.
And it smelled delicious.
Su Yun sniffed.
The air only contained the scent of water vapor and moss, but he smelled the aroma of strawberry-flavored potato chips.
That mental wave scanned a circle within his tentacle Domain and was about to retract.
Su Yun shifted his will slightly.
An extremely thick purple-black tentacle suddenly shot out from the Void Realm, aimed at that invisible scanning wave, and took a fierce bite.
"Crunch."
A crisp chewing sound echoed in the Void Realm.
Su Yun smacked his lips.
Strawberry-flavored, very crispy, with a bit of the charred aroma of fried food.
He glanced in the direction where the wave retreated, but did not pursue.
Getting to work was more important.
Su Yun reached out and pushed open the heavy alloy gate of the core area.
...
Linhai City Strange Tales Investigation Bureau, Bureau Chief's office.
"Ah!!"
An extremely shrill scream tore through the silence of the office.
Ye Zhiwei rolled off the sofa and onto the floor. She covered her eyes tightly with both hands, her body rolling frantically on the ground.
Blood gushed out along the edges of the black ribbon embroidered with runes, instantly staining the collar of her white hoodie red.
"Zhiwei!"
Executive Jiang Xu stood up abruptly, stepped over the desk, knelt on one knee beside Ye Zhiwei, and pressed down on her shoulders.
A gentle spiritual energy flowed from Executive Jiang Xu's palm into Ye Zhiwei's body, forcibly stabilizing her mental sea, which was on the verge of collapse.
"What happened?"
Executive Jiang Xu frowned.
Ye Zhiwei was shaking uncontrollably.
She gripped Executive Jiang Xu's sleeve tightly in return.
"Eaten... It was eaten!"
The girl cried out, her voice filled with terrifying despair.
"Captain Jiang, there is a deep-abyss monster that is tens of thousands of meters huge! It's right at the Northern Reservoir! It reached across half the city and licked me!"
Executive Jiang Xu's expression darkened.
Reverse devouring along a purely mental-attribute scanning wave.
This did not conform to existing spiritual energy laws.
Even an S-rank mental-type Awakened could at most block or shatter a scanning wave.
Devouring the mental Origin from a distance—this kind of method exceeded the scope of human understanding.
Su Yao, standing to the side, felt as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.
Deep-abyss monster.
Devouring.
These two words pierced into her neural pathways.
She remembered that wasteland shrouded in darkness, and that unspeakable thing that tore the sky apart.
"It's it."
Su Yao's voice trembled, and her face was deathly pale. "Executive Jiang, it is definitely it!"
Executive Jiang Xu looked up at her.
"The monster larva that devoured the sequence weapon black day at the factory in the south of the city yesterday noon!"
Su Yao braced her hands on the desk, her knuckles losing color from the force.
"It is not at the port; it went to the Northern Reservoir! There is a spirit vein anchor of the Sanctuary there!"
Su Yao spoke faster and faster.
"It wants to break the reality barrier. Once all the anchors collapse, Linhai City will become an entrance to a deep-abyss rift. This city will be reduced to scorched earth! All of us will die!"
There was a dead silence in the office for two seconds.
Branch Chief Wang Weiguo's hand holding the tablet shook.
"But Executive, at the port, Bai Cang and the Saintess are fighting with real intent, and the energy fluctuations have already approached the critical value. If we don't stop them, the port will be razed to the ground."
Executive Jiang Xu stood up.
He walked to the desk and took a glance at the red light flashing on the tablet.
It represented the chaotic battle zone of three S-rank powerhouses.
Executive Jiang Xu extended his right hand, which was wearing a white glove, and decisively pressed the off button on the screen.
The red light went out.
"Abandon the port."
Executive Jiang Xu's voice was devoid of any temperature.
Branch Chief Wang Weiguo was stunned: "Abandon it?"
"The port is just internal strife among human powerhouses. Whether it's Bai Cang or the Saintess, even if they smash through the breakwater and trigger a tsunami, it would only be physical casualties. It can be rebuilt afterward."
Executive Jiang Xu turned around, tore the silver-white tactical belt hanging on the coat rack, and fastened it around his waist.
On his left wrist, that blocking wristband emitted a faint, ghostly blue light.
"If that thing at the Northern Reservoir isn't dealt with, this world will truly be finished."
Executive Jiang Xu pulled Ye Zhiwei up from the floor and handed her to two medical officers who had rushed in.
"Notify all members of the Firmament Squad. Target: Northern Reservoir. I want to see the transport plane take off within five minutes."
"Investigator Su." Executive Jiang Xu turned his head to look at Su Yao, "You come with me. You have seen that monster, and I need your intelligence support."
Su Yao gritted her teeth and nodded heavily.