Start with iron blocks, upgrade them into armor summoners.

Zhou Hai led Xing Yun to push open a door at the end of the corridor.

Inside was a small office with a metal desk, two folding chairs, and a whiteboard on the wall with a few place names and numbers scrawled on it in marker.

"Sit down." Zhou Hai pulled out a chair and sat down. He then took out a pack of cigarettes from a drawer, took one out and put it in his mouth, but did not light it.

Xing Yun sat opposite him, his gaze sweeping over the whiteboard, but quickly returning to Zhou Hai.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Xing Yun asked first.

"Hmm." Zhou Hai took the cigarette out of his mouth and twirled it between his fingers. "You should know about the recent spread of cults in S City, right?"

Seeing Xing Yun nod, Zhou Hai took out a photo from the drawer.

The photo shows a stone pillar, exactly the same as the one in the factory, with dark red runes that look like they were drawn with blood.

"This thing is called a sacrificial stone pillar, a tool used by the Walderley Church to set up ritual arrays."

"The four you destroyed today are only the lowest level. A truly large-scale ceremony requires dozens, or even hundreds, of them."

"The Walderley Church..." Xing Yun repeated the name.

"An organization that worships an evil god," Zhou Hai's expression darkened. "They operate all over the country, specifically targeting factories, construction sites, and urban villages—places with high foot traffic and weak oversight. Today it's your factory, tomorrow it might be some construction site, and the day after tomorrow it might be some school playground."

Xing Yun's fingers tightened on her knee.

"What is their purpose?"

"The god who resurrected them." Zhou Hai said this in a very calm tone, as if he were talking about something very ordinary. "He accumulates energy by sacrificing the life force of the living. Those workers you saw were the sacrifices. You should have seen the sacred object in his hand, right?"

"Something that looks like a black bone?" Xing Yun thought for a moment and replied uncertainly.

"That's right, that thing is called the Bone of Walderley. It's said to be a bone left behind by an ancient evil god, and they use it to perform rituals."

"That person..." Xing Yun recalled the name the man in the suit muttered, "Who is the 'blood hand' he mentioned?"

Zhou Hai held the cigarette between his fingers, tapped the table with his knuckles, paused, and said, "The Walderley Church has four executive officers who are responsible for carrying out the leader's orders."

Bloodhand was one of them; that person was probably instructed by him to perform the ritual.

"Their activities in S City have become more frequent recently, which means that more and more things like this morning are happening." Zhou Hai said, then looked at Xing Yun.

"I hope you can join us and help us deal with what's coming next."

…………

Inpatient Department, S City First People's Hospital.

The hospital was much quieter at midday than at other times of the day. The lights in the corridors hummed softly, and the air was filled with the mixed smells of disinfectant and medicine.

Sixth floor, oncology department.

The nurse on duty sat at the front desk, writing something with her head down.

In the ward at the end of the corridor, the faint beeping of an electrocardiogram monitor could be heard.

Everything is normal.

until.

"Bang!"

The door to the ward at the end of the corridor was kicked open from the inside, and the wooden door smashed into the opposite wall, breaking into several pieces.

The nurse on duty looked up abruptly, dropping her pen to the ground.

Smoke billowed out of the ward; it wasn't ordinary dust, but rather a dark red mist.

The nurse instinctively stood up, wanting to run over to check, but as soon as she took a step, she saw something emerge from the smoke.

It was wearing a hospital gown, with a fist-sized hole in its chest. Looking through the hole, you could see charred flesh and broken ribs.

His skin was grayish-white, as if it had been soaking in water for a long time, and it was covered with dense black runes.

Its eyes were empty, with only two dark red lights in their sockets.

Category C, Sin Eater.

"Ah!" The nurse's scream got stuck in her throat, and her legs went weak, almost causing her to fall.

The sin-eater tilted his head, as if he didn't understand why she was afraid.

It slowly raised its right hand and gently waved it in the direction of the nurse.

The light bulbs in the corridor shattered simultaneously, and shards of glass rained down.

The nurse crouched down, clutching her head. Shards grazed her arms and calves, and beads of blood seeped out.

The sin-eaters began to move forward.

Its pace was slow, and with each step it took, the tiles beneath its feet would crack, and dark red mist would seep out from the cracks.

The doors to the wards on both sides of the corridor began to shake, and the patients inside screamed in terror.

"Help! The door won't open!"

"What's outside!"

"Call the police immediately! Quickly!"

The sin-eater continued walking forward, ignoring the surrounding noise.

Its target was clear: the stairwell at the end of the corridor.

Once you go downstairs, you'll find yourself in the outpatient hall, where there are even more people.

Just then.

"Click."

The elevator doors at the other end of the corridor opened.

A person stepped out of the elevator.

She looked to be in her early thirties, wearing a black trench coat that reached her knees, and her hair was messy.

His face still had a sleepy look on it, his eyes were half open and half closed, as if he had been dragged out of bed.

He was carrying a sword.

The scabbard was white with ice-blue patterns, and it glowed faintly in the dimly lit corridor.

"Can't you just behave yourself?"

The sin-eater stopped and turned his empty eye sockets toward him.

"Another sacrificial ritual." The man sighed, using his thumb to pry open the scabbard, revealing the silver-white blade inside. "You people really have no originality whatsoever."

A chill spread from the sword, and frost began to form on the tiles beneath his feet.

The sin-eater let out a low growl and charged at him.

They were moving incredibly fast, crossing half the corridor in the blink of an eye.

The man did not dodge.

He simply pulled the sword from its sheath.

"Ice prison".

A chilling aura erupted from the sword tip, condensing into an ice wall in front of the sin-eater.

The sin-eater crashed into the ice wall with a piercing cracking sound. The ice wall exploded with dense cracks, but did not break. Instead, the sin-eater was pushed back more than ten steps due to the reaction force.

The man took a step back, twisted his wrist, and the ice wall exploded instantly, sending countless ice crystals flying like bullets toward the sin eater.

The sin eater was forced back by the ice crystals, its hospital gown torn to shreds, but the black runes seemed to come alive as they moved across its skin, pushing back the chill.

"Interesting." The man's eyes sharpened, his previous laziness gone.

The sin-eater steadied itself, shook its head, and more dark red mist began to pour from the hole in its chest, causing the temperature in the entire corridor to rise suddenly.

"Oh?" The man raised an eyebrow. "It'll get hotter?"

He held the sword horizontally in front of him, and with two fingers of his left hand together, he slid them across the blade.

An icy blue light flowed along the blade, and the chill intensified.

"Then I'll be more serious."