68: Source of the Curse

Anqing City, Third Water Purification Plant.

Located in the western suburbs of the city, this place was usually filled with the roar of machinery and bustling foot traffic.

But at this moment, there was only dead silence; not a single worker could be seen.

Lin Yunshi led ten instructors, infiltrating the grounds of the purification plant like ghosts.

The deeper they went, the more intense the cold, putrid scent in the air became, making them feel nauseous.

"Everyone, hold your breath! Use your vital Qi and blood to protect your mouth and nose! This air is poisonous!" Lin Yunshi immediately issued the command.

Although she had not experienced this in her previous life, years of combat experience told her that this environment was absolutely abnormal.

Following her instructions, the robust power of their vital Qi and blood formed a thin protective shield around their bodies, isolating the foul air outside.

They proceeded unimpeded until they reached the core of the facility—the Central Water Treatment Building.

Pushing open the heavy metal door, the scene before them made everyone gasp.

In the center of the spacious hall, a massive, complex, and bizarre magic array, drawn with a dark red liquid, was slowly glowing.

Every line of the array seemed like a living thing, subtly wriggling and emitting a terrifying, evil aura.

And at the very center of the array, a man was bound to a metal frame, barely alive.

Transparent tubes were inserted all over his body, and streams of gray-black, visible airflow were continuously being drawn out from his seven orifices and all the pores on his skin, flowing along those tubes and converging into the array's patterns.

Finally, these gray-black air currents, filled with the essence of death and decay, were guided by the array and injected into the main pipeline connected to the city's entire water supply System!

"This is bad!" Lin Yunshi's face instantly turned ashen.

She finally understood the enemy's plan!

They weren't trying to use the beast tide to breach Anqing City at all!

They were using the beast tide to attract everyone's attention, and then here, through this vicious blood sacrifice ritual, they were injecting a deadly curse into the city's entire tap water System!

If they succeeded, the millions of residents across Anqing City would be unknowingly eroded by the curse.

At best, they would fall gravely ill; at worst, their life force would be depleted, leading to death!

This was ten thousand times more terrifying than the beast tide breaking through the city!

"Quick! Destroy that array!" Lin Yunshi shouted sharply.

Even without her command, the instructors behind her had already moved.

A hot-tempered Third-Rank instructor roared, the battle saber in his hand igniting with blazing vital Qi and blood flames, and he slashed toward the edge of the array.

However, a strange scene occurred.

The saber light, powerful enough to split stone tablets, was absorbed directly into the bloody patterns of the array the moment it made contact, like a clay ox plunging into the sea, failing to cause the slightest ripple.

Immediately afterward, the glow of the entire array intensified slightly.

"It can absorb vital Qi and blood attacks!" the instructor exclaimed.

"I'll try physical destruction!" Another strength-type instructor directly hoisted a machine weighing several hundred pounds nearby and smashed it violently toward the array.

The result was the same: ineffective.

The moment the machine touched the array, it was repelled by an invisible force and crashed to the side.

"Damn it!"

Everyone was helpless.

"I will go save the man! As long as the sacrifice is interrupted, the array should fail!" Lin Yangshu was relatively calm; he saw the crux of the problem.

As he spoke, he prepared to rush toward the man in the center of the array.

"Don't go!" Lin Yunshi grabbed him.

Pointing at the gray-black aura constantly overflowing from the man, she said gravely, "That is the source of the curse! Touching it means certain death!"

To prove her point, she picked up a piece of shattered metal and threw it forcefully at the man.

The metal piece traced an arc in the air, and just as it was about to touch the man's body, a wisp of gray-black aura coiled around it like a venomous snake.

*Hiss...* a soft sound.

Under everyone's gaze, the hard metal piece rapidly dissolved, like paper corroded by strong acid, finally turning into a pinch of black powder that scattered into the air.

Everyone felt a chill shoot straight from their soles to the tops of their heads.

If even metal could be instantly corroded, the consequences of this touching a person were unimaginable.

They were trapped in a dilemma.

They could neither destroy the array nor approach the sacrifice.

They could only watch helplessly as the deadly curse was continuously injected into the city's water System.

Lin Yunshi immediately made a decision and contacted Lin Qian on the city wall using the Lin family's internal encrypted communicator.

"Grandpa! We've found the source! It's a blood sacrifice curse array, and it's polluting the entire city's water supply System! The array is extremely strange, and we can't destroy it!"

Her voice carried a trace of anxiety and helplessness that she herself hadn't noticed.

On the city wall, Lin Qian, who had been focusing on the battle outside, instantly grew grim upon receiving the communication.

What a vicious method.

What a thorough plan.

If he hadn't happened to understand this type of cursed aura, and if he hadn't been careful enough to send Lin Yunshi to investigate.

By the time problems started appearing throughout the city, it would have been too late.

He glanced outside the city.

The students' counter-charge had already achieved great results.

Having lost their command structure and the pressure of the King-level creature, the mutated beasts were no longer a threat and were being steadily routed by the iron torrent of the Martial Artists and the army.

The battle situation was stable.

He could finally free himself.

He turned and looked at Zhuang Hanchi, who was still directing the battle beside him.

"General Zhuang, I'm leaving this place to you for now. I have a private matter to attend to."

Zhuang Hanchi now revered Lin Qian like a deity; upon hearing this, he immediately stood at attention and saluted.

"Elder Lin, please go without worry! I have this covered! We will certainly hold the line until you return!"

Lin Qian nodded slightly.

The next second, his figure flickered out of thin air in front of Zhuang Hanchi and countless live camera feeds, and then, just as abruptly, he vanished from the spot.

It was as if he had never been there.

Zhuang Hanchi's mouth once again stretched into an "O" shape.

Almost simultaneously, inside the hall of the Third Water Purification Plant, Lin Qian's figure appeared beside Lin Yunshi and the others, as if teleported.

He glanced at the bizarre array, then at the dying sacrifice in the center of the array.

A hint of imperceptible surprise flashed in his eyes, immediately turning into understanding and coldness.

"So it was him..."

"The Deputy City Lord who opposed the construction of the Martial Arts University."