The development history of H City is not long, and the division between the new and old urban areas is still quite severe.
The new urban area has developed extremely rapidly with the support of the municipality, with various modern facilities being built at lightning speed, but the old urban area is different.
The old urban area seems to have been forgotten, or rather, abandoned by the municipality, because there are too many holdouts, and it is also the place where the city hides its filth. The cost of development is too high, so the municipality basically stopped caring.
This has also led to the old urban area becoming increasingly impoverished. Those who have slightly better conditions have chosen to move away. Those who still remain here are either of questionable identity, or truly poor, or have eccentric personalities and are unsociable. Of course, the total number of these categories of people is not large, and they appear even more sparse in the old urban area.
Even on weekends, the entire old urban area appears exceptionally desolate.
But today, the lifeless old urban area welcomed a group of strangers.
There were about a dozen people in this group, and the leader wore a baseball cap and an dark green trench coat. He was in his forties, and the people behind him were also around his age, in their thirties and forties.
However, strangely, in the hot September, one of them was wrapped up tightly, with several people protectively surrounding him.
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"Old Six, are you sure the Resentment Pearl is here?" the man in the black jacket asked the leader.
Old Six held a compass in his hand, looking at the needle, and replied, "If the treasure map you provided is not wrong, based on the direction of the earth veins, the tomb of the Blood Prince must be around here."
"The treasure map is absolutely not wrong, you can rest assured," the jacketed man said confidently. "This is a treasure my young master's maternal grandfather collected for many years. If it weren't for the young master being tainted by resentment, he wouldn't have taken it out."
"I hope so," Old Six shook his head. Whether the treasure map was fake or not had little to do with who collected it.
Suddenly, Old Six exclaimed with joy, "Found it!"
The constantly spinning compass suddenly pointed steadily in one direction. Everyone was overjoyed. As long as they dug up this great tomb, they would have enough to live without worry for the rest of their lives!
After all, the client next to them had said that apart from the so-called Resentment Pearl, all other burial objects belonged to them. A prince's tomb would surely contain many valuable treasures!
Old Six followed the direction of the compass and ran quickly, with the others following closely. The jacketed man also followed with the wrapped man on his back.
What they didn't know was that their actions had long been noticed by some people.
In a dilapidated building not far away, a young man with dyed yellow hair held a cigarette in his mouth, his single foot propped against the windowsill, and observed the group with binoculars. Behind him, several grim-faced youths were playing with knives.
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"Brother Chicken, they've sped up. They must have found their target," the yellow-haired youth reported.
Brother Chicken chuckled coldly, "These tomb robbers suddenly showing up in our territory must mean there's a big tomb nearby. Keep a close eye on them, and when they find the tomb, take care of them."
"Even a single item from the tomb would be enough for us to eat and drink without worry. Ruling the entire old urban area is just around the corner!"
"This is all thanks to Brother Chicken's brilliance," his subordinates flattered.
"Ah, keep a low profile, keep a low profile," Brother Chicken said pretending to be embarrassed. "How can you praise me like that? You're just speaking the plain truth?"
"Brother Chicken, something's wrong!" the yellow-haired youth suddenly exclaimed.
"What's wrong? Why the sudden alarm?" Brother Chicken walked over to the yellow-haired youth.
"They've entered the eighteenth floor!"
"What?!" Brother Chicken was shocked and quickly snatched the binoculars from the yellow-haired youth, looking at the tallest building in the old urban area. He only saw the last few of the tomb robbers disappear through a ground-floor entrance.
"Brother Chicken, what do we do?" asked another subordinate with some worry.
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Brother Chicken put down the binoculars and was silent for a moment. "Are you afraid of dying?"
"..." The subordinates were also silent for a while. The eighteenth floor was the nickname the locals gave to that tall building; its original name had been forgotten.
The reason this tall building instilled so much fear in them was because it was "haunted." Everyone who entered died without exception! So far, they hadn't heard of anyone who had gone in and come out intact.
More importantly, a journalist had once risked going in to broadcast the entire event. Afterward, he was suddenly attacked by something and then, in front of the camera, was eaten alive by a shadowy figure!
Since then, no one dared to go in again. It had become a forbidden zone in the old urban area!
"How about... we wait for them outside?" a subordinate tentatively asked.
The others nodded repeatedly, "We also think this is feasible."
Brother Chicken hesitated for a long time. Money was secondary, but life was paramount. They would wait outside then.
"Then we'll keep a 24-hour watch on the eighteenth floor."
"Understood, Brother Chicken."
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"Hey, hey, hey, Brother Chicken, another person is heading towards the eighteenth floor," the yellow-haired youth suddenly shouted.
"Another one? Are they with the group?"
"Doesn't look like it, seems like he's alone?"
"What? Someone dares to go to the eighteenth floor alone?"
...
Two hours earlier.
"Slept so comfortably," Fang Ming yawned, stretched, and habitually opened his diary to check it.
"Huh? A new entry?"
Fang Ming quickly straightened up and began to read his diary.
"After learning my parents' location from Bai Mu Village, I knew that to find them, I had to re-enter the white fog. The main factor producing the white fog is a large amount of resentment. Following this clue, I first searched for places with a large number of deaths nearby. I found that in the old urban area not far away, in a tall building called the Eighteenth Floor, there have been many murder cases in recent years. So, I packed my bags and entered the Eighteenth Floor."
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Fang Ming felt a headache coming on when he saw the words "Eighteenth Floor." As a native of H City who had lived there for twenty years, how could he not know this place? If there was any place where he could enter the white fog, this was it.
It was a notorious haunted place. Entering meant certain death. No one knew what was inside, but since the incident with the journalist, no one dared to try it again.
At that time, the journalist's broadcast was said to have caused a sensation among the high-ranking officials in the capital, after which the matter was suppressed, the video was completely deleted, and the Eighteenth Floor was sealed off.
"Should I go...?" Fang Ming sat on the bed, hesitating. Then, he gritted his teeth. "Hmph! Let me see what's inside the Eighteenth Floor! I'm a man who has even experienced fierce battles. Am I afraid of a little ghost?"
Of course, after so many experiences, Fang Ming also understood the truth behind so-called "ghosts." A single "ghost" could not survive in the real world. An individual, no matter how deep their resentment, could not sustain them for a long time. Only by condensing into a malevolent spirit could they possibly survive for hundreds or thousands of years.
Given the strange legends about the Eighteenth Floor, Fang Ming thought there were two possibilities: First, there was a malevolent spirit in the Eighteenth Floor, but its strength should not be strong, as its influence was limited to one building. Second, there were some malevolent seeds in the Eighteenth Floor, trapped there and unable to get out. When humans entered and were discovered by them, they would be killed.
If they were malevolent seeds, Fang Ming would still have some confidence. But if it was a malevolent spirit, Fang Ming didn't know if he could rely on Nannan. Her abilities were truly unfathomable to Fang Ming, and she was always sleeping.
However, regardless of which possibility it was, Fang Ming believed he had a 50% chance of escaping the Eighteenth Floor. Compared to the situation of entering Bai Mu Village with no clue, this was an epic start.
This was enough for Fang Ming to go all out!
Get up, eat.
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There was no rush for the adventure. Fang Ming got up, made a meal, ate something casually, then grabbed a fruit knife from the kitchen (so he had a weapon by his side). He packed the necessary items into a cloth bag, then took a bus. An hour later, he stopped in the old urban area.
"This must be the Eighteenth Floor." Fang Ming stood at the base of the tall building, looked up, and counted the floors. It was indeed eighteen floors.
"Huh? The main entrance has been broken open? Who's so brave?"
Fang Ming walked to the ground floor entrance and found that it had already been violently broken open, with a hole half a person's height.
He really didn't expect that at this time, someone would still dare to enter the Eighteenth Floor. Were they explorers? Or some internet celebrities trying to gain attention?
"I hope these people are still alive," Fang Ming muttered, and then crawled through the large hole.
Meanwhile, Old Six and his group followed the compass and stopped in front of a room in the building.
This building was a residential building. The corridors were in the center of the building, with rooms distributed on both sides. However, judging by the dilapidated state of the doors and walls, no one had lived here for a long time. A damp and rotten smell of disrepair permeated the air.
"The location is in this room," Old Six's expression was a bit strange. This was not the first floor of the building. According to common sense, the tomb of a great prince should be built underground. Why would the location of the Resentment Pearl be shown on an upper floor?
Let alone Old Six, everyone else felt something was wrong. Even the jacketed man, an amateur, knew that what they were looking for couldn't possibly be in this room.
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"Are you mistaken? This is the third floor. Isn't the Resentment Pearl placed in the Blood Prince's tomb? How could it appear in this building?" the jacketed man asked doubtfully. "Is your compass broken?"
Old Six shook his head. "Impossible. This compass is a family heirloom. It can't be wrong. Whether the Resentment Pearl is in the room or not, we'll know when we open the door."
With that, Old Six signaled to one of his subordinates. The man came over with a flashlight and a piece of wire, and fiddled with the door.
"Click." The lock was opened.
"Master Six, the lock is open," the man said.
"Push the door open," Old Six gestured with his chin. The person who opened the lock cautiously pushed open a crack and shone his flashlight inside.
Suddenly, a strange cry rang out, and something like a giant toad shot out from inside the doorway, its scarlet eyes flashing for a moment.
"Holy crap!"
"Bang!" The lock-picker screamed and instinctively slammed the door shut. The others were also startled and quickly retreated, pulling out their pistols.
"Bang bang bang..." The thing behind the door was still frantically banging on the door.
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Old Six, being a seasoned tomb robber, had seen all sorts of strange things. He remained relatively calm.
"Everyone, prepare," Old Six also pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the door. "I'll kick the door open in a moment, and you all open fire!"
The others nodded. These people had also seen a lot and wouldn't be scared into fleeing by an unknown thing. Moreover, the employer this time was very wealthy, equipping each of them with a set of silenced firearms and bulletproof vests, giving them a lot of confidence.
"Bang!" The door was kicked open by Old Six, and a dark shadow rushed out.
"Bang bang bang..." Faint silenced gunshots rang out. The basin-sized dark shadow was immediately riddled with holes.
When the dark shadow finally stopped moving, someone quickly stepped forward to check.
"What... what kind of monster is this..."