175: After Night

His warning carried an undeniable weight, tightening the atmosphere that had relaxed upon reaching a safe point.

Lin Feng’s heart stirred.

Old Jack’s words confirmed the subtle unease he had felt upon entering the city.

An invisible, unsettling shadow hung over this fortress city.

During the day, Lin Feng silently followed the caravan, moving goods, replenishing fresh water and dry rations.

He acted like a true guard, head down, working quietly, but his mental energy, like invisible tendrils, subtly perceived every corner of the city.

He carefully distinguished the ubiquitous alchemy arrays, finding that they were not only used to reinforce buildings and regulate temperature, but some even contained faint energy protection and mental interference effects, their structure far more intricate and complex than anything he had seen before.

However, beneath this 'order' formed by alchemy arrays, Lin Feng detected a highly discordant spatial fluctuation, like background noise—a very familiar, heart-pounding fluctuation—the aura of a Space-Time Rift!

Although extremely faint, as if suppressed and sealed by some powerful force, its source... Lin Feng’s gaze involuntarily turned towards the city center.

The tallest, most majestic building—a spire constructed entirely of dark red megaliths, with a massive black crystal embedded at its apex.

It stood like the stabilizing anchor of the city, yet also like the source of some power, exuding a vast and ancient aura.

The fluctuations of the Space-Time Rift were faintly emanating from deep within the spire!

Night fell, like a vast black velvet curtain, slowly enveloping Redstone Bastion.

As the last ray of sunset disappeared behind the towering spire, the entire city seemed to be muted.

Shop lights quickly extinguished, and pedestrians on the streets vanished into their homes at an almost running pace.

The sound of heavy door bolts falling echoed, and windows were sealed with thick wooden or iron boards.

In just over ten minutes, this fortress, bustling with people during the day, transformed into a deathly silent stone forest.

Only the faint, ghostly blue glow from certain alchemy array nodes along the streets barely outlined the buildings, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

Lin Feng stood before a dilapidated wooden window in a narrow room on the second floor of the inn, quietly observing the city swallowed by darkness through the cracks in the boards.

He had reined in all his aura, as if he had merged with the shadows of the room.

Old Jack and the other caravan members had already tightly shut their doors; the inn was utterly silent, even breathing suppressed deliberately.

Time passed, minute by minute.

When the moonlight barely penetrated the thin clouds, casting a bleak silver glow upon the city, the anomaly occurred.

First, on the streets, the ghostly blue lights of the alchemy arrays seemed to be disturbed, beginning to flicker and sway erratically.

Then, the air temperature suddenly dropped, and a bone-chilling cold permeated, quickly forming a thin layer of white frost on the window boards.

Then, “they” appeared.

Like mist, they slowly seeped out and coalesced from the ground, walls, and even the void.

Their forms varied; some were vaguely human-shaped, wearing ancient, tattered armor or robes, wielding illusory weapons.

Others were twisted into a rolling mass of resentful shadows.

Still others drifted silently through the streets, dragging long, translucent tails.

They had no physical bodies, their forms appearing translucent with a grayish-white or ghostly green sheen, exuding intense deathly silence, resentment, unwillingness, and cold negative energy—Specters!

A large number of diverse Specter creatures!

They surged like a tide onto the silent streets, wandering and lingering soundlessly.

Some aimlessly circled in empty squares.

Others lingered before certain buildings, emitting silent wails, or futilely clawing at walls with illusory hands.

Some even clashed with each other, silently tearing and devouring, releasing even denser negative energy.

The entire city instantly transformed into a vast, living ghost realm!

Lin Feng held his breath, his pupils slightly constricted.

Such a large-scale, high-frequency appearance of specters was by no means a natural phenomenon!

This was more like... a continuous supernatural disaster caused by some unstable spatial structure, or a weak connection point with a negative energy plane!

And the source, without a doubt, was the spire in the city center, which emanated the aura of a Space-Time Rift!

No wonder the residents here were so “accustomed”!

Behind this “accustomedness” lay countless nights of fear and helplessness.

No wonder all buildings were inscribed with alchemy arrays; besides reinforcement and functionality, a large part of their purpose was probably to resist the erosion of these nocturnal “visitors”!

Just then, Lin Feng felt a stir from Old Jack’s aura in the adjacent room.

That old fox seemed to have also moved to the window, observing the scene outside.

What concerned Lin Feng more was that Old Jack’s gaze seemed to intentionally or unintentionally sweep towards his room, and then he let out an extremely faint, almost inaudible chuckle, carrying an air of anticipation, even encouragement.

Old Jack knew!

He not only knew about the anomaly here, but he seemed very certain that, given Lin Feng’s displayed strength and “curiosity,” he would never ignore such a bizarre phenomenon!

He deliberately didn’t restrain him, and his words even seemed to incite... “Don’t cause trouble, especially at night.”

This was more like a reverse provocation!

A cold arc formed at the corner of Lin Feng’s mouth.

This old fox, as expected, had ill intentions.

Was he trying to kill with a borrowed knife?

Or was he trying to use him to probe the depths of that spire?

Or, was the force behind him, the “Shadow Serpent,” also interested in what was inside the spire?

The wailing of the specters seemed particularly “noisy” in the silent night.

Lin Feng’s gaze pierced the darkness, once again locking onto the towering spire.

The aura of the Space-Time Rift, coupled with the city full of specters... the secrets hidden in this Pagoda Country border fortress were probably more astonishing than imagined.

He needed to figure out what exactly was inside the spire?

Who was maintaining this dangerous balance?

Was this “anomaly” related to the destruction of the Zu Long Secret Realm seal in the Dragon Country?

What role were the Western powers playing here?

Old Jack wanted to use him?

Very well.

He wanted to see what kind of big fish was hidden beneath these troubled waters.

However, before acting, he needed to observe the behavior patterns of these specters more carefully, and... the changes in the spire at night.

He composed himself, like the most patient hunter, heightening his perception to the extreme, silently merging into this desolate ghost realm night, carefully capturing every trace of energy flow, every trajectory of specter resentment.

He noticed that these specters seemed to be bound by some invisible force, unable to truly invade the interiors of the buildings inscribed with alchemy arrays, only able to wander the streets.

Their activity range also seemed not entirely random, but subtly revolved around the central area of the city, like iron filings attracted by a magnet.

Moreover, when the moonlight occasionally brightened, the figures of some specters would become more solid, and the resentment on them also seemed more... active, even with a hint of eerie “satisfaction,” as if absorbing something.

This Redstone Bastion, under the cover of night, was like a huge, pathological symbiont.

And that spire was the heart radiating an ominous aura.

Lin Feng’s fingertips unconsciously tapped lightly on the cold window frame.