GRMFBS CH53

In a single instant, Zhan Yan understood everything. Why Bao Qingshan had suddenly taken frequent leaves of absence, and why he had gone out late at night to observe the stars—it all made complete sense now!

Turns out you brat aren’t an ordinary mortal after all!

However, Zhan Yan had no time to digest his gossip logs right now.

The situation on the front lines was critical. Garbled Anomaly No. 2’s combat strength was noticeably several tiers higher than Garbled Anomaly No. 1.

The ancestral matriarch did not appear to be a combatant, leaving her and Bao Qingshan struggling desperately to hold their ground.

Meanwhile, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was tied down.

They had also deduced the same pattern Zhan Yan noticed earlier.

While sweeping the areas Garbled Anomaly No. 2 had already visited, they simultaneously established heavy ambushes in locations it had yet to step foot in, as each of those sites could potentially be where Garbled Anomaly No. 2 would appear next. Consequently, the Bureau’s operational manpower was forced to spread thin.

Out of respect for the ancestral matriarch’s wishes, they had not approached Tianshui Lane directly, stationing operatives on the adjacent block instead. Yet every single one of those agents was currently trapped inside an illusion.

“Grandma, save me, aaaaahhh!!!”

Just as Bao Qingshan was on the verge of being dragged inside by Garbled Anomaly No. 2—

[The Former Ghost King arrives in force, rescuing the ancestral matriarch and Bao Qingshan.]

Zhan Yan let out an immense sigh of relief alongside the update.

The Former Ghost King’s combat prowess was formidable, and the gossip logs refreshed with dazzling intensity.

Tianshui Lane had already transformed into a ghost domain saturated with chilling Yin energy; an anomaly caught within this domain had no hope of escaping.

Ancestral Matriarch: “What it wants is down in the well, don’t let it in!”

Bao Qingshan: “It’s going to disperse itself!”

[The Former Ghost King blesses the fly with longevity.]

Zhan Yan: ???

What in the world is the Former Ghost King doing?

[Having received the blessing, the fly will exist in this world for at least a century, unable to dissipate.]

Zhan Yan: !!!

A blessing can be weaponized like this!

[The fly decides to make a gamble before attempting an escape.]

However, Zhan Yan had already pinpointed its escape route:

Earlier, he had diverted his attention to investigate the trapped personnel. The illusion was not an ability native to Garbled Anomaly No. 2; someone else was setting up formations on its behalf!

Extracting key terms from those gossip logs and connecting them with the clues uncovered while tracking the fly earlier, he had uncovered the critical link.

The “leap” was not Garbled Anomaly No. 2’s own ability, but the power of the entity orchestrating the illusions.

[The fly absorbed nectar from the Corpse Flower Konjac clone.]

[The Corpse Flower Konjac uses the nectar-fed fly to cast an illusion.]

Garbled Anomaly No. 2 could freely leap between flies that had fed on the nectar, but executing this maneuver relied entirely on the Corpse Flower Konjac clone lurking within Beiling City as an anchor point.

Using the Corpse Flower Konjac clone situated outside the ghost domain, Garbled Anomaly No. 2 was very likely to slip right through the Former Ghost King’s fingers!

Zhan Yan had located where the Corpse Flower Konjac clone was hidden, but he had no way of striking it himself.

Contact the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau? Zhan Yan hesitated briefly before discarding the idea. The Bureau was currently being watched by the mastermind; even if they dispatched operatives to handle it, those agents might get bogged down. Any further delay, and Garbled Anomaly No. 2 would make its escape.

He only knew one capable person currently in Beiling City.

Logging onto the chaofan forum, he pulled up his private messages and found “I Just Saved the World!”

Approaching Science: [Emergency commission. Are you taking it?]

Gu Jiancheng was in the middle of communicating with Wan Shitong.

Wan Shitong was briefing him on the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s movements in Beiling City. Ever since Approaching Science tipped him off days ago about the Bureau’s presence, he had assigned Wan Shitong to look into the situation.

However, Wan Shitong was a network-type whose abilities were comparatively restricted, resulting in his intel arriving several days late.

“Boss, your guess was spot on. What they’re chasing this time is identical to the incident back in Yunjin City,” Wan Shitong’s voice came through the earpiece.

Gu Jiancheng: “What about now?”

“Still hunting it.”

Gu Jiancheng scoffed: “Still haven’t caught it after so many days? Useless.”

Wan Shitong: Is the boss in a foul mood today?

“Boss, do you want to get involved?” Wan Shitong asked.

If it were an ordinary bounty, he definitely wouldn’t ask. His boss remained prominently perched on the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s hidden wanted list to this day.

Yet this matter was potentially tied to Infinite; neither of them could afford to remain bystanders.

“How do we get involved?” Gu Jiancheng asked.

Wan Shitong froze.

They really had no angle of entry. The boss had the raw power, but finding their target was entirely out of reach. Information gathering had always been their weak link. Wan Shitong knew his own limits: if the countless information-type masters inside the Bureau couldn’t dig it up, he certainly couldn’t either.

“Waaah, I’m holding you back, Boss…”

“Cut the nonsense,” Gu Jiancheng snapped.

Dropping his fake tears, Wan Shitong asked dutifully, “Boss, are we really leaving it alone?”

Gu Jiancheng remained silent.

It was easy to say, but deep down, he truly couldn’t just walk away and ignore it.

In the past, he might have left it to fate. Back when his side effects were severe, he hadn’t even known how long he had left to live, so what else was there to care about?

Now, things were different.

Intervening in this affair was rather tricky. First, he had to grasp the whole picture, avoiding any reckless meddling that might disrupt the Bureau’s operations.

This was intel Wan Shitong could never obtain.

Approaching Science most likely knew, but having already partnered with the Bureau, he would never resell that intelligence to a third party. It was a matter of professional credibility.

He knew a few defectors from Infinite had sought shelter with the Bureau, but those individuals were of limited competence and wouldn’t know much either.

As he mulled it over, his phone chimed with a priority alert.

Approaching Science.

Reading the message from Approaching Science, Gu Jiancheng clicked his tongue softly.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had truly slipped up.

I Just Saved the World!: [Accepted.]

He glanced toward Zhan Yan, who lay sleeping peacefully on the bed. Beneath Gu Jiancheng, shadows flowed like water, spilling into the ambient darkness of the night and weaving toward the coordinates Approaching Science had provided.

The moonlight cast a cool, desolate glow across the barren, cracked earth.

Gu Jiancheng stepped deliberately onto this soil. Lowering his gaze, a smile brushed his lips, cold as midwinter moonlight.

Shadows seeped down from his soles, inundating every inch of grit like rising water, piercing every fraction of depth like radiant light.

Whatever lurked underground was promptly submerged in shadows, forced to breach the surface like a suffocating fish breaking water.

Countless pointed shoots erupted from the earth, sprouting rapidly into dark red buds encasing pale, sickly pistils. In the blink of an eye, the barren soil transformed into an impending sea of dark red blossoms.

Treading across the blooming field, Gu Jiancheng stepped into the moonlight. Yet his form remained indistinct—as if he were merely an ethereal, shifting silhouette, visible yet impossible to grasp.

Dark red buds were crushed beneath his stride, their viscous juices pooling across the ground like murky blood.

Yet the shadows enveloped them relentlessly; under the moonlight, the blossoms straining to open froze into solid black sculptures.

The ground began to tremble as a colossal Corpse Flower Konjac broke through the soil, surging past the height of a grown man. Translucent, grotesque veins webbed its corpse-pale spadix like carved and polished bone, straining to tear free from its dark red shroud—a macabre spectacle ripped straight from a horror film.

“A demon?” Gu Jiancheng spoke with frigid contempt. “You disgust me just like an anomaly.”

Shadows snaked up the Corpse Flower Konjac. Its dark red petals shuddered, weeping streams of crimson fluid like open wounds. Yet the moment they oozed out, the dark shadows coated them as well, petrifying them into pitch-black statues.

Its illusions were snuffed out before they could even begin.

Gu Jiancheng inspected the captured Corpse Flower Konjac.

This thing lacked sentience—it was merely an instinctive clone, entirely incapable of yielding information.

Then kill it.

Tianshui Lane.

At some point, cold, damp dew had begun beading on the aged bluestone pavement, while a thin, wispy mist drifted into the alleyway.

That mist seemed to absorb all sound; the eerie buzzing from before had fallen dead silent, leaving behind a heavy stillness.

The fly puppet piloted by Garbled Anomaly No. 2 had long since mutated.

The leap ability was not its own; the illusion ability was not its own; it couldn’t even commandeer a sentient spirit like Garbled Anomaly No. 1 did.

Every single one of its skill points had been allocated entirely into explosive output.

Within the thin mist, a colossal, grotesque shadow twisted and thrashed. Its mass had long exceeded the narrow confines between the alley walls, yet no matter how it struggled, it could not break past the boundary of the Yin mist.

Abruptly abandoning its struggle, it surged toward the sweet-water well with crushing pressure!

Dew poured from the brick walls as the sound of ocean waves crashed through the mist.

The anomaly failed to get close; it was shoved away from the wellhead by surging, water-like Yin energy. An invisible tide swept in from every direction, ten thousand layers of nether springs pressing down onto its crown, forcing it down and compressing it smaller and smaller until it was reduced to a fly once more.

Standing atop the well rim, Zhan Jinli looked down upon it with fathomless eyes.

“What you seek is beneath the well,” he stated.

Yet it could not reach it. Nor could it flee.

Its escape method via dissipation had been nullified by his “longevity” blessing, and its retreat pathway had just severed seconds ago.

Zhan Jinli felt the bizarre resonance within its body dissolve. Someone outside had neutralized its contingency.

Perhaps someone from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau?

Now, this anomaly was backed into a corner. In that case, did the mastermind who dispatched it truly plan to sit idly by and watch it fall into someone else’s hands?

Zhan Jinli waited for the mastermind to take the bait.

Yet nobody arrived. Instead, tremors rumbled deep beneath the earth.

A deafening roar erupted from below the well. Spring water sealed beneath the shaft for over twenty years blasted violently toward the sky, drenching Bao Qingshan, who hadn’t managed to dodge in time.

Standing at the corner of the wall beside him, the ancestral matriarch was shielded completely, not catching a single drop of water.

“Ah, so that’s why I reckoned I should stand here.”

Bao Qingshan: …

Something was thrust out by the rushing spring water, vibrating wildly as it tried to breach the Yin-saturated ghost domain.

Drifting upward, Zhan Jinli curved his pale fingers, clamping the object firmly inside his palm.

Catching sight of talismans flaring brightly along the surrounding walls, his left hand clenched, drawing every scrap of Yin energy in the alley back into his palm.

With the ghost domain disbanded, the fly puppet carrying Garbled Anomaly No. 2 flapped its wings frantically, desperate to flee Tianshui Lane.

Yet the talisman runes contracted into a light net, locking the fly inside and solidifying into a translucent box.

Perched atop the perimeter wall, a young man clad in an Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau uniform reached out, letting the box drop squarely into his palm.

This was a custom containment device purchased from Craftsman and modified specifically to capture this variety of special anomaly.

Dropping from the wall into the alleyway, Fang Zhen regarded Zhan Jinli with extreme caution.

He couldn’t make out the appearance of this ghost cultivator, seeing only a robe condensed from Yin energy draped over his frame—black silk embroidered with gold patterns, aristocratic and imposing. Merely standing there, he radiated a stern, chilling majesty.

Combing through his mental files, he asked with cautious deference, “Your Excellency, Lin Yuan Ghost King?”

Zhan Jinli gave a slight nod.

Those talisman runes were contingencies the Bureau had embedded in Tianshui Lane beforehand. To avoid spooking the target, they had been concealed deeply, requiring time to activate; or perhaps, the Bureau had also wanted to use this place as bait to draw out the mastermind.

Seeing the young agent preparing to speak further, Zhan Jinli tossed the object retrieved from the well water toward him, turning decisively into the shadows to depart via the Underworld road.

No desire to speak.

No need for pleasantries.

He despised complications; leaving this to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was best, as they were far more professional.

With his mission accomplished, it was time to go study cake making.

“You…” The rest of Fang Zhen’s words choked in his throat. Lowering his gaze to inspect what Lin Yuan Ghost King had tossed him, his pupils dilated in shock. This was an Infinite Fragment! A cold sweat instantly broke out across Fang Zhen’s back.

The ancestral matriarch consoled him: “Don’t panic, don’t panic, I reckon that thing’s plenty stable now.”

Fang Zhen exhaled a long breath, stowing the Infinite Fragment away with extreme care.

This thing was a massive source of contamination; if it detonated, an entire district could fall to ruin!

Thank goodness Lin Yuan Ghost King had stepped in; he honestly had zero confidence in sealing an Infinite Fragment on his own.

Collecting himself, Fang Zhen addressed the ancestral matriarch and Bao Qingshan: “Thank you both for your hard work over the past few days. You two may go rest now; transport is waiting outside the alley.”

Bao Qingshan was still reeling from the rapid turn of events: “Grandma, what just happened?”

The ancestral matriarch looked upon the silly boy with grandmotherly fondness.

“I spent days on end idling in this spot.”

Bao Qingshan nodded blankly.

The ancestral matriarch patted his head: “Could that Deputy Chief of theirs keep from overthinking it?”

She had chosen Tianshui Lane simply because she felt something was off here!

The Deputy Chief of the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, Ning Xi, was an absolute control freak. Control freaks loved to overthink, and loved setting up contingencies and backup plans even more. It was only natural for him to arrange an ambush here in advance!

Not only were there arrays laid in Tianshui Lane, but she also carried protective talismans on her person—and so did this silly boy Bao Qingshan, though he remained entirely unaware of it!

Yunjin City.

“Xiao Ran, book me a ticket to Beiling City, the earliest and fastest available!” Zhan Suiru instructed her puppet butler.

Her phone was currently dialing Zhan Yan’s number.

Zhan Yan carried the protective barrier she made for him, but this special anomaly was far too bizarre; Zhan Suiru didn’t want to gamble on whether it possessed a way to breach her defenses.

Before the call connected, the Broker—whom she had berated earlier—sent another update.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s operation in Beiling City had concluded; they had successfully captured the special anomaly.

Puppet Butler: “Do you still require the ticket, Master?”

Zhan Suiru: “…No need.”

Hanging up, she let out a long breath and began replying to the Broker’s ingratiating messages.

This guy only behaves when he gets beaten into line! Treat him normally, and he constantly tries to push boundaries; threaten him once, and he instantly turns attentive.

Still, utilizing him as an intermediary to hide her identity was rather practical, so she would keep using him for now.

Now that the Bureau had secured a special anomaly, the tracking device she constructed earlier could be deployed, meaning there would be plenty of areas to collaborate with the Bureau moving forward.

Zhan Yan had been monitoring the developments in Tianshui Lane the entire time.

From start to finish, the clash involving so many individuals hadn’t even lasted ten minutes.

Garbled Anomaly No. 2 had come specifically for the Infinite Fragment buried beneath the sweet-water well.

Relying on her “reckoning,” the ancestral matriarch waited out Garbled Anomaly No. 2, intercepting it right as it attempted to seize the Infinite Fragment.

Coincidentally, the Former Ghost King caught up while tracking Garbled Anomaly No. 2, taking over the battle and planting himself firmly between Garbled Anomaly No. 2 and the Infinite Fragment.

Over the following minutes, the contingencies the Bureau had planted in advance finally activated.

Deep Shadow accepted his commission, severing Garbled Anomaly No. 2’s retreat.

Unable to flee or dissipate, Garbled Anomaly No. 2 was captured red-handed by the Bureau.

Only now did Zhan Yan have the luxury to slowly comb through the gossip logs and piece the situation together.

Scrolling down to the gossip logs on Deep Shadow’s side, he froze solid.

During the initial sweeps, that control freak Deputy Chief Ning Xi had flagged several high-priority zones, stationing a two-man squad at each location to maintain watch. The plot containing the Corpse Flower Konjac clone happened to fall squarely within Ning Xi’s designated perimeter.

Because he had poured all his daily quota into tracking Garbled Anomaly No. 2 earlier, Zhan Yan had missed this detail completely.

The two Bureau operatives assigned to the area had already arrived at the remains of the Corpse Flower Konjac clone; though they hadn’t arrived as swiftly as Deep Shadow, they managed to box him in directly…

Meanwhile, beside the remains of the Corpse Flower Konjac clone.

Two Bureau agents glared warily at the figure cloaked entirely in darkness: “Who are you?”

Cornered on the spot, Gu Jiancheng: …

APPROACHING! SCIENCE!