After descending the mountain, my aloof fiancée became completely devoted to me.

A while later, Zhu Ming and Xiao Wu went on patrol. When they returned, their faces were grim, and Xiao Wu was trembling all over.

The two turned their heads stiffly and looked at each other, their eyes filled with extreme fear.

"Ping, Brother Ping..." Xiao Wu's voice trembled, his teeth chattered, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat. "Something's wrong outside."

Lin Ping casually turned off his phone screen, put it back in his pocket, and asked calmly, "What's wrong?"

Zhu Ming swallowed hard, gripping his clothes tightly, his voice trembling noticeably: "We were patrolling the mezzanine just now, and we could hear a woman's low sobbing coming from deep within the stairwell. It was intermittent, but very clear; it was definitely not just the wind!"

Xiao Wu nodded hurriedly in agreement, his face as white as paper: "I heard it too! The voice was eerie, swirling around our ears. There were only the two of us on the entire empty floor. It's so creepy!"

"Something's been going on in this building lately—lights flashing erratically, and eerie drafts blowing. Could it really be haunted?"

The two were still in shock; the eerie crying sound seemed to linger in their ears, and the hairs on their bodies stood on end. They didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

Lin Ping raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping across the dark corridor, his eyes clear and undisturbed.

"There are no ghosts in the world; it's all the work of inner demons." He said calmly, his voice steady. "It's just lingering evil energy, a hallucination."

"Impossible!" Xiao Wu immediately shook his head, his tone certain. "Zhu Ming and I both heard it at the same time; it's impossible for us both to be hallucinating!"

Zhu Ming chimed in, "Yeah, Brother Ping, that voice was so realistic, it was definitely not an illusion! We're too scared to go out on patrol anymore."

The two were completely terrified and refused to step out of the monitoring room no matter what. The building was already empty and gloomy at night, and the eerie sounds they had just heard were enough to make two ordinary people tremble with fear.

Seeing their frightened expressions, Lin Ping reluctantly stood up and said, "Alright, I'll go with you."

He didn't want to expend too much energy, but the team members were filled with fear, and there was bound to be something wrong with their duty. Moreover, he had a vague suspicion in his mind—this was by no means a simple supernatural event, but most likely an anomaly caused by the movement of the Blood Shadow Pavilion's barrier.

The three of them got up, walked out of the monitoring room, and stepped into the dark and secluded corridor.

The commercial building was eerily silent in the dead of night. The long corridors were deserted, and the emergency lights emitted a pale, weak glow, casting flickering shadows that made the corridors heavy with dark and unsettling light.

Xiao Wu and Zhu Ming followed closely behind Lin Ping, each holding onto his sleeve on either side, not daring to leave his side for a moment, their eyes frantically scanning their surroundings.

The entire walk to the basement was quiet and peaceful, without a single unusual sound.

"Strange, why did the crying stop?" Zhu Ming muttered to himself.

Xiao Wu also looked puzzled: "I was clearly in this area just now, I heard it very clearly..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lin Ping's gaze suddenly fixed on the wall in front of him.

The once smooth, flawless white wall has now disappeared!

Instead, there was that heavy, cold black iron door!

The iron gate was tightly shut, its patterns ancient and deep, and a faint black mist swirled around it, making it both deathly silent and mysterious. It was the entrance to the secret realm that had disappeared three days ago!

Xiao Wu and Zhu Ming's pupils shrank instantly, their scalps seemed to explode, and their blood almost froze.

"A door! A door! There really is an extra door here!"

Just then, an extremely gloomy, hoarse, and piercing noise suddenly exploded from deep within the iron gate!

The woman's sobbing, mixed with a chilling growl, suddenly swept through the entire basement corridor, and the coldness instantly seeped into her bones.

This time, the sound was clearer and more terrifying than what they had heard before!

"run!!"

Xiao Wu was so frightened that he lost his mind and could no longer hold back. He grabbed Lin Ping's arm tightly and retreated frantically.

Zhu Ming's face was ashen, his legs were weak and he could barely stand. He clung to Lin Ping, wanting nothing more than to escape this terrifying place immediately.

The two were completely consumed by fear, their minds blank, with only the instinct to escape remaining.

Lin Ping's eyes turned slightly cold; the timing was perfect.

Without making a sound, he exerted a slight force in his arms, and two precise and swift hand chops fell silently, accurately striking the back of the two men's necks.

Two soft "plop" sounds.

Xiao Wu and Zhu Ming's bodies went limp, their eyes closed, and they fainted without even uttering a sound.

Lin Ping reached out and steadily caught the two limp bodies, gently placing them in a clean and safe shady corner of the corridor to ensure they would not be disturbed or encounter any danger.

After doing all this, he stepped forward and faced the mysterious iron gate that had reappeared after three days.

Sure enough!

The barrier set up by the Blood Shadow Pavilion is not permanently closed, but appears randomly and periodically.

The array's core shifts and the barrier opens and closes without a fixed pattern; the entrance is only briefly revealed at night when the yin energy is at its peak.

Ordinary people who stumble upon it would only be frightened by the strange phenomenon and flee in panic, not daring to investigate further. Instead, it perfectly helped Blood Shadow Pavilion conceal the secrets of the secret realm.

Lin Ping raised his hand, condensing a wisp of refined internal energy in his palm, and gently pressed it against the iron gate.

There was no violent shaking, no loud noise.

The heavy black iron door, accompanied by a low, mechanical grinding sound, slowly slid open inwards.

The scene behind the door completely overturned my understanding.

Outside the door is an old and ordinary basement corridor of a building, but inside is a completely different and brand-new space!

The space is distorted and overlapping, as if the inside and outside are separated into two independent worlds, completely breaking the rules of secular space.

What hit you wasn't a damp, chilly feeling, but rather a cold, sophisticated technological chill, with a faint blue glow and the incessant hum of machinery.

Looking out, this otherworldly space is vast and boundless, constructed entirely of metal and blue light screens, exuding a strong sense of technology. In stark contrast to the ancient and mysterious style of the Southern Border Secret Realm, it is full of advanced modern scientific research atmosphere.

Inside the space, dozens of transparent, sealed, independent alloy compartments are neatly arranged, densely packed yet orderly.

Each cubicle contained a slender human figure, both male and female, all stripped of their outer clothing, their bodies connected to a dense network of fine sensor circuits and pulse instruments.

Various data cables wrap around the body, precisely fitting the meridians and acupoints, just like treating a critically ill patient, comprehensively monitoring the body's condition.

Lin Ping's gaze sharpened as he swept his eyes over the familiar yet unfamiliar faces, a chilling glint flashing in his eyes.

These people floating in the cubicles are none other than top martial arts masters who have mysteriously disappeared from the martial arts world over the past ten or even several decades!

There was a master of palm techniques who was once famous in the south, a sword master who had been in seclusion for many years, and several martial arts seniors who had met him once before!

They were all highly skilled in cultivation. They disappeared without a trace back then, and the rumors in the martial arts world were that they had perished or retired. No one knew that they had been secretly imprisoned here by the Blood Shadow Pavilion!

At the top of each compartment hangs a high-precision laser emitter, with fine, pale blue laser beams crisscrossing to form a dense optical net that tightly envelops the expert inside.

Even if these martial arts masters regain their senses and activate their cultivation, they will be locked in their meridians and their power sealed by the laser, unable to break free at all. They will be trapped inside and at the mercy of others.

The huge electronic screen in front of the cubicle kept flashing, with densely packed brainwave maps, meridian data, and internal energy fluctuation curves being updated in real time, accurately recording the physical condition and cultivation status of each martial arts master.

It is obvious that the Blood Shadow Pavilion has been secretly capturing martial arts practitioners and using advanced black technology to extract and study the origins of martial arts and the mysteries of internal energy!

The ultimate purpose of the Southern Frontier Suppression Array, the Secret Realm Barrier, and the bizarre secret guard techniques was not merely to imprison Shen Aoxue, but to conduct live martial arts research!

They want to use technology to deconstruct martial arts, forcibly replicate internal energy, break through the limits of the human body, and create an invincible fighting force belonging to the Blood Shadow Pavilion!

Lin Ping stepped into this alternate dimension step by step, his aura restrained. He seemed to be strolling leisurely, but in reality, killing intent surged in his eyes.

What a Blood Shadow Pavilion!

Hidden in the shadows of the city, they plotted for decades, harming countless martial arts masters; their wolfish ambitions are now blatantly obvious!

Just as his gaze swept over a sealed compartment at the deepest part of the room, his steps suddenly stopped.