Chapter 317: Soul

Chapter 317: Chapter 317: Soul

Feng Ling closed the video and opened the one from Bai Lu’s perspective.

The beginning was largely the same. It started when Bai Shuang spotted a figure in the woods, after which the sisters split up. Bai Lu’s camera was aimed at the slope beside the road.

The slope was covered in lush horsetail pines and littleleaf boxwoods. A dark figure was fleeing deep within the thicket. Bai Lu drew her gun and fired. After several shots, she closed the distance, then condensed an Ice Crystal Cone and hurled it at the target!

The Ice Cone pierced the target’s back!

The figure in the darkness staggered a few steps before collapsing to his knees.

Bai Lu sped up, grabbing the back of the target’s neck and yanking it upward! Simultaneously, her other hand formed an Ice Cone nearly half a meter long. The instant her target screamed in pain, face tilted to the sky, the Ice Cone plunged into their throat like a sword!

This was a new move Bai Lu had recently developed. It not only destroyed the blood vessels in the neck but also released a freezing aura inside the target’s body, and the extreme cold would cause cardiac arrest.

On camera, the suspect, his throat pierced by the Ice Cone, lost consciousness. His face turned a deathly, purplish white, and a layer of frost coated his lips and eyes. He remained in a kneeling position, dead.

Bai Lu let go and saw a Card materialize from the suspect’s body.

She muttered suspiciously, "Why is it a Bat Card?"

The Bat is a Mid-level Card. Its design is easy to recognize, making it a fairly common Card.

Feng Ling, who was watching the video, also found this strange, because a Bat Card clearly didn’t have the ability to control corpses.

Bai Lu used the phone she carried to collect the Bat Card, then turned and hurried back.

Bai Lu was obviously running with increasing urgency, as the camera shook more and more violently and her breathing grew heavier.

The night was utterly silent. It was this unnatural quiet that sent Bai Lu into a panic.

The concrete road at the bottom of the hill came into view. It was no exaggeration to say the ground was littered with bodies. Bai Shuang and the members of the Special Attack Team were all lying on the ground, as were the previously unkillable corpses, which were now just dismembered remains.

Bai Lu, gasping for breath, reached Bai Shuang. Then the screen went black, and the video ended.

"Huh..."

Feng Ling frowned, scrubbing back through the video.

In the previous footage, she distinctly remembered Bai Shuang falling flat on her back. But in Bai Lu’s video, Bai Shuang was lying on her side.

This meant Bai Shuang hadn’t completely lost consciousness when she fell; she had at least struggled.

’And Bai Lu’s video seems too rushed. It was already shaking violently in the woods, and just when I could finally see what happened where Bai Shuang was, it cuts off after a few hasty seconds. Why is the rest of the video missing?’

Frowning, Feng Ling switched back and forth between the two videos.

She rewatched the part where Bai Lu was running through the woods. It was shaking so violently that she was about to skip past it, but then something occurred to her. On a whim, she changed the playback speed to 0.25x.

The video began to play at an extremely slow speed.

One frame suddenly skipped jarringly.

Feng Ling froze. She watched it again in slow motion. The jump in that frame was extremely subtle; it could have been a mark left by editing, or it could have been a normal video stutter.

Feng Ling mulled it over for a moment.

’If the video was really edited, then any suspicious content would have been removed. It would be impossible for me to find any valuable clues. There’s no point in watching any further.’

’But why would Bai Lu tamper with this video?’

’What is Bai Lu trying to hide?’

’From my perspective, Bai Lu’s biggest secret is that she has a Card that wasn’t issued by the Inspection Bureau. So, could it be that a special Card appeared in the video, one that Bai Lu pocketed for herself, forcing her to edit the footage to fool her superiors?’

As she was thinking, she heard a noisy and anxious conversation from the hallway outside.

"A citizen reported a large Pollution Body in Yongshan Tunnel! We need to notify the Inspectors immediately!"

"Deputy He is seriously injured. Captain Fan Ze will be responsible for all matters related to Alien Species!"

"Isn’t Captain Fan injured too?"

"Just follow the order. It’s what Captain Bai wants. Hurry up and notify the Special Attack Team!"

Feng Ling immediately got up and went outside. "I’m a Hunter," she said to the people there. "I can assist the Special Attack Team."

She had become quite famous, so everyone in the Inspection Bureau recognized her. The staff members’ faces lit up. "That’s great! Quick, take the Wind Hunter to the armory to prepare!"

The armory was underground, and its security was extremely tight. Not even staff members were authorized to enter without Bai Lu’s permission.

But the Special Attack Team was allowed inside.

A staff member first called Bai Lu to report the situation, then led Feng Ling to the armory entrance to rendezvous with the Special Attack Team.

Feng Ling had just arrived when she saw Fan Ze and his teammates walking toward her, already changed into their gear.

She couldn’t help but remember what Ye Zheng told her: everyone on the Special Attack Team had died last night.

’Ye Zheng couldn’t have checked every single one to confirm they weren’t breathing, but several team members had been torn to pieces. It was absolutely impossible for them to be alive.’

Yet now, right before her eyes, the team was walking toward her, completely unscathed. Forget serious injuries; Feng Ling couldn’t see so much as a single scratch on them.

Fan Ze walked over and shook her hand. His expression was placid as he said in a business-like tone, "Thank you for your assistance. The Inspection Bureau will provide some weapons and ammunition. Please wear a portable camera during the operation and be mindful of your own safety."

Feng Ling shook his hand, thinking, ’I should use this chance to spread the news about the Pollution Body in the tunnel. I need to make sure Xing Guang sees this performance as soon as possible.’

Just then, a sudden gust of wind swept through the area!

In a windowless space with the metal blast door shut tight, the sudden, inexplicable wind immediately put everyone on high alert.

"Fan Ze!"

The furious shout led Feng Ling’s eyes to the source of the wind—a floating, humanoid phantom was descending from the ceiling. Vaguely, she could make out He Xingluo’s features.

Feng Ling was secretly amazed. ’The Black Impermanence and Ghost Cards are incredible. They can actually make a person seem like a spirit.’

’Logically, Cards with such high compatibility shouldn’t have a high Pollution Value. But the He Xingluo before me is clearly unstable. I can only attribute it to the severe psychological trauma her sister’s sudden death has caused.’

"Fan Ze! Why aren’t you dead?!" Like smoke and shadow, He Xingluo passed through Fan Ze’s body with a chilling expression. She then moved to the other Special Attack Team members, scrutinizing them one by one. "...And you! Why aren’t you dead?! You were all dead! All of you! Yue Ning is the one who should be alive!"

Fan Ze said with a deadpan expression, "Deputy He, your injuries are too severe. You’re hallucinating. Last night, Captain Bai and you two Inspectors sustained injuries of varying degrees while covering our retreat. We withdrew safely, but Inspector He Yue Ning could not be saved due to excessive blood loss. We are all deeply saddened. I hope you can accept the reality of the situation and move past this tragedy."

"You’re lying!" He Xingluo shrieked. "Liar!!!"

Her body remained spectral, but her hands solidified—a pair of ghastly white hands materializing from thin air! They shot toward Fan Ze’s throat!

Fan Ze raised his arm to block. The ghostly hands tore his sleeve, leaving bloody scratches on his forearm.

And within the bloody scratches, a familiar tattoo was clearly visible.

He Xingluo froze, stunned. Then her eyes turned bloodshot. Unable to contain her seething hatred, she roared, "Alien Species!!! I’ll kill you!!!"