117 Beiling Road, Shi Manor.
In the car across the street, He Li put on his communication headset. Min Liang’s voice came through, and then he looked at the map watch on his left wrist. He Li breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, some high-end equipment. The scene of Tao Xue fighting monsters in pajamas last night made He Li doubt if his team were Wakandan soldiers, possessing the best technology to fight the most primitive battles.
And Bai Fei, too. He clearly had so many guns in the armory, yet he insisted on using a knife. Why couldn't he just be a stable shooter?
He Li tied a chain of shotgun shells around his waist and then slung the shotgun over his back, making it easy to grab at any time.
Bai Fei adjusted his communication. "Hello, White Wolf, respond if you hear me."
"Received! Good afternoon, Brother Fei, good afternoon, Xiao He." Min Liang’s mischievous voice came through the headset.
"White Wolf? Is that Min Liang’s codename or..." He Li asked Bai Fei.
After Bai Fei finished packing all his gear, he smiled and said, "It's a nickname. Min Liang, Min Liang, meaning to extinguish conscience, isn't that a white wolf?"
He Li was stunned for a moment, then asked, "Then what about Brother Fei?"
Bai Fei didn't answer, but Min Liang in the headset answered for him, "Brother Fei's nickname is 'Slacking Off.' Bai Fei, Bai Fei, doesn't it mean 'wasted effort'? Doing anything is wasted effort, might as well do nothing and just slack off."
Bai Fei rolled his eyes, but didn't refute it.
He Li suddenly realized that their nicknames were all derived from their names.
Min Liang became more animated as he spoke. "Tao Xue's nickname is 'Slacker.' Tao Xue equals 'escape school,' and a student who escapes school is a slacker."
"Sister Jiang Zhen's nickname is 'Big Sister.' That old-fashioned demeanor is just like my mom."
"As for you, He Li, do you want to know the captain's nickname?"
He Li, who was about to push open the car door to get out, paused. He looked at Bai Fei beside him.
Bai Fei shook his head, raised his watch, and pointed to the screen, which displayed the public channel.
He Li was shocked. Good heavens, so Min Liang had revealed everyone's nicknames on the public channel, and now he was going to talk about the captain.
He Li swallowed and didn't answer Min Liang, but he was ready to listen to gossip.
"You really want to know, right?"
"Haha..."
"Okay! Since you want to know, I'll tell you. The captain's nickname is... Auntie!"
"Susan Auntie!"
"Hahaha..."
*Crackle...*
Bai Fei cut off the communication channel and sighed. He looked at He Li and earnestly instructed, "Don't say 'Da' and 'Ma' together in front of the captain. You must promise me."
He Li was completely bewildered. Were all these people so unserious?
"Alright, Min Liang is probably dead. The rest of the mission will be carried out by the two of us alone."
Bai Fei said with a serious expression, "117 Beiling Road, Shi Manor, an abandoned old house. It has front and back gardens, three floors above ground, and two basement levels.
At 5:17 PM, the monitoring system detected significant demonic energy fluctuations here. It's now 5:33 PM, sixteen minutes have passed since the demonic energy fluctuation.
Our mission is to investigate this place. If there are any demons, eliminate them directly."
He Li nodded, indicating he understood. Simply put: there's a monster, shoot it, and we're done.
"Okay, mission clear, let's get to work!" Bai Fei said, then pushed open the door and got out.
He Li followed him out, patting the shotgun on his back and the shell chain on his waist. He felt a sense of security. As long as the firepower was strong enough, there was no fear.
At the entrance of Shi Manor,
Bai Fei said, "After we go in, we need to check every room. Basement or upstairs, you choose one."
He Li looked at Bai Fei and blinked his big, innocent eyes.
Bai Fei nodded, "I'll go to the basement, you go upstairs. Be extremely careful."
"Okay, thank you, Brother Fei," He Li grinned.
Bai Fei rolled his eyes again, leaped up, and landed in the courtyard. He opened the door, entered the house, and headed straight for the basement.
"Good skills!"
Watching Bai Fei's fluid movements, He Li couldn't help but admire him. Then, he gently pushed open the courtyard gate and swaggered in.
Why go through the door when you can climb over the wall? Are they crazy?
Although Shi Manor was dilapidated, judging by the general decoration and furniture arrangement, it was not difficult to see that the owner at the time was a big shot in Binjiang.
A solid wood carved spiral staircase, with entire slabs of natural-grained rock inlaid on the walls. The decorations on the stairs were cloud patterns, inlaid with gold thread. Although the gold thread had been pried off by thieves, the remaining traces in the corners were enough to indicate its presence.
There is a kind of wealth called luxury, and there is also a kind of wealth called understated.
He Li began to check room by room. He also felt an extremely faint demonic energy, but he couldn't pinpoint its location.
*Creak...*
The door, worn out by time, made a bone-chilling creaking sound. He Li entered a room. Judging by the decoration, it should be a young girl's room. The window was very large, and the desk was about one and a half meters away from the bed. This way, the morning sun would fall perfectly on the foot of the bed and the desk.
He Li looked at the wardrobe by the bed and pulled it open from behind.
"It's not very polite to search a girl's room like this."
A lazy, teasing voice came from behind him.
He Li, however, was unfazed. "So many years have passed, the owner of this room is probably already three feet tall with grass growing on her grave."
Li Qin sat on the windowsill, then leaned back, his upper body passing through the window, sitting on the windowsill in a half-reclining position. He was looking up.
"He Li, have you considered going to the rooftop to take a look?"
"Mmm, I have two more rooms to check, then I'll go to the rooftop," He Li replied.
"You also think the demon is on the rooftop?" Li Qin asked.
"No, I think the demon is in the basement."
"So, that's why you let Bai Fei go to the basement?"
"Don't frame me. Brother Fei proposed the two options, and I didn't choose. Brother Fei chose it himself."
"Heh heh... He Li, you know, that innocent and yet manipulative look is truly adorable."
"Thank you for the compliment."
He Li finished checking all the rooms and walked up the stairs, preparing to go to the rooftop.
Li Qin stood at the entrance to the rooftop, arms crossed, and asked with a smile, "What if the demon is on the rooftop?"
He Li calmly raised the shotgun, already loaded, and said,
"One shot and it's dead!"
Standing before the iron door, Li Qin smiled again and asked, "What if the gun doesn't work?"
He Li pondered for a moment, then raised his hand, which was about to open the door, and clenched it into a fist.
"My fist is very strong, you'll have to endure it."
Li Qin spread his hands in resignation, signaling He Li to open the door.
He Li pulled the bolt, pushed the door open, and raised his gun.
*Bang!*
The huge ghostly face in front of him instantly shattered into pieces.
He Li stepped onto the rooftop, then closed the door.
Looking at the wriggling fragments of the ghostly face on the ground, He Li moved two steps to the right and raised his gun again.
*Bang! Bang!*
Conduit weapons can transmit spiritual power and special abilities. The bullets fired carry the effects of the user's abilities.
Li Qin stood behind He Li. The bullets He Li fired carried gravity.
The bullets with gravity effects blasted a hole in the rooftop.
He Li didn't even look at the hole he had created. Instead, he calmly pulled three bullets from the chain on his waist and loaded them into the gun.
Then, he turned around.
He looked at the basin-sized, beautiful crimson flower in the corner of the rooftop behind him. Each petal was a vibrant red from the inside out.
The crimson petals surrounded a black stamen.
In the center of the stamen was a terrifying ghostly face.
Even more terrifying was that the ghostly face was facing He Li... and smiling.
...