What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

As I listened to Jin Wanliang's words and felt the extremely steady flow of the malevolent energy within my body, I lowered my eyes slightly.

"Old Jin."

I pressed the send button on the communicator, my tone still slow and deliberate: "The matter is not resolved."

Have all your informants withdraw and find a safe place to hide.

You must stay obediently in Tingyuxuan. No matter what happens outside, you are absolutely not allowed to step out of your room before dawn.

And you're absolutely forbidden from joining in the fun.

"This... Brother Chen, what exactly happened? Your tone is giving me the creeps."

Jin Wanliang was extremely perceptive on the other end of the communicator, sensing the chill in my words.

"It's nothing, they're just closing in."

I replied calmly, and then decisively cut off the communication.

Then, I looked up at the few remaining flashing red dots on the big screen, and the "funnel" center that Li Qing had drawn pointing to the City God Temple.

"The crisis is not over at all."

I turned my head and looked at Lu Yan, whose brows were furrowed, and Li Qing, whose face was extremely ugly: "The mastermind behind the scenes has completed the initial clearing and gathering of strength."

Now, they are about to begin their real core operations.

As soon as I finished speaking, it was as if to confirm my deduction.

A strange and deep low-frequency fluctuation suddenly surged up.

This surge of energy ignored the thick reinforced concrete defenses of the three underground floors of the Folklore Bureau, penetrating directly and pressing heavily on everyone's chest.

The incandescent light above the control room dimmed inexplicably for a moment.

The strong coffee aroma that was originally in the air was replaced by a faint, musty smell of old pit soil.

"Buzz—"

The compass in the feng shui black box that Li Qing had placed on the main control panel, stained with the blood from his fingertips, suddenly emitted a soft sound.

I turned my head and saw that the magnetic needle in the center of the compass, which was originally extremely stable, was now wildly darting left and right.

Finally, with a soft "snap," the pointer's tip actually curled upwards.

"The earth's energy is flowing backward, and the Yin Eyes are wide open..."

Li Qing stared at the damaged compass, his face expressionless, but his voice was unusually dry.

At the same time, the data on the huge curved LCD screen in the control room also underwent extremely strange changes.

The red dots that originally represented paranormal events throughout the city have completely disappeared.

Instead, an extremely deep black vortex appeared at the coordinate point of the City God Temple in the old city of Jiangcheng.

In an instant, all the indicators in the surrounding data monitoring panel, such as the Yin energy index and the magnetic field disorder, all mysteriously dropped to zero.

"Director Lu, the detectors in the City God Temple area are not damaged, but... but all the data they are transmitting is zero."

The communications team leader's hands hung stiffly on the keyboard, and fine beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

"The system has determined that the conventional physical laws and spiritual energy field of that area have been completely blocked by some higher-dimensional force."

Lu Yan did not speak.

She glanced at the deep black vortex on the screen, then turned and strode toward a standalone control panel at the far end of the main control room.

There was an old red landline telephone there.

Lu Yan picked up the red receiver, and the miniature scanner on the control panel scanned her pupils extremely quickly.

Then a highly mechanical electronic voice came through: "Identity confirmed, Jiangcheng Branch Chief, Lu Yan. Encrypted channel established."

There was no dial tone on the other end of the phone; the call was answered almost instantly.

"I am Lu Yan. There is an anomaly at the Jiangcheng City God Temple. All the ghosts in the city are walking around at night, and the yin energy has gathered here. The earth's veins seem to have been reversed, and the monitoring data has dropped to zero."

Lu Yan's voice was extremely cold and steady. Without any unnecessary pleasantries, she went straight to reporting the core situation.

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a slightly aged male voice.

"Understood. The suppression plate left behind by Tiangong ultimately couldn't survive this calamity."

The voices of the high-ranking officials of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television were extremely calm, but they carried an irresistible sense of oppression.

"Lu Yan, listen carefully."

"Yes." Lu Yan stood ramrod straight.

"The thing buried under the City God Temple was a top secret established in the early days of the People's Republic of China."

It absolutely, absolutely cannot fully awaken in a city like Jiangcheng with a population of tens of millions.

I've given the support team from headquarters a firm order: they must arrive in Jiangcheng within three hours.

The voice on the other end of the phone paused slightly, then became extremely stern:

"In these three hours, I don't care what methods you use, or how many lives you lose at the Jiangcheng branch."

We must protect the City God Temple.

Even if you're the only one left in the end, you still have to be nailed to the gate of the City God Temple.

This is a direct order, understand?

"Jiangcheng Branch obeys. As long as we're here, we'll stand."

Lu Yan answered decisively and then gently hung up the phone.

She turned around, and in her clear, cold eyes burned an extremely resolute light.

"Old Zhao."

Lu Yan looked at the communications team leader, her voice not loud, but it clearly carried throughout the entire control room.

"Disconnect all regular scheduling of external channels."

A supreme mobilization order was issued to all special operations teams, action teams, and even logistics personnel still on field duty throughout the city.

"Abandon all peripheral paranormal event handling, and abandon all secondary tasks of protecting civilians."

Tell them that as long as they are still breathing, they should all be evacuated to the underground parking garage of the branch office within ten minutes for integration.

Ten minutes later, the entire group set off for the City God Temple.

The communications team leader, Lao Zhao, was startled; he knew perfectly well what this order meant.

Abandoning the outer perimeter means that many ordinary people in Jiangcheng may encounter misfortune tonight.

The fact that all officers were committed to the City God Temple meant that the Jiangcheng branch was making a final, desperate gamble.

But without the slightest hesitation, he began typing extremely fast on the keyboard.

This blood-stained order was sent via an encrypted channel to the terminals of every field staff member of the Jiangcheng Folk Customs Bureau.

I stood aside, watching all of this in utter silence.

The cool sensation between my eyebrows felt like a gentle spring, slowly flowing through my limbs and bones.

"Looks like tonight is going to be a sleepless night," I said calmly.

Lu Yan looked at me, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes.

"Chen Yang, this is the responsibility of our Folklore Bureau. You are just an unofficial consultant, and you have already done enough at Jinxiuyuan."

The City God Temple area... is not a place you should go.

You can stay at the base, or go back to Tingyuxuan.

Lu Yan spoke to me in an almost pleading tone, which was extremely rare for her.

Upon hearing this, I shook my head slightly.

"Lu Yan, you're being too polite."

I looked at her with utmost calmness.

"Although I, Chen Yang, am not a great hero, I understand one principle."

That is, when the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken.