Start with push-ups to gain experience

Tick, tick.

The night was dark and hazy, and the autumn rain was falling softly.

Raindrops kept hitting the glass, meandering and leaving muddy streaks.

Even the morning glory outside the window was beaten and drooped its head.

Fang Cheng stared at the stinking black paper in his hand, his heart involuntarily quickening.

But just then, a sharp pain suddenly shot through the back of my hand, which I had just wiped clean.

He suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked carefully.

On the surface of her originally fair skin, a dark red lump had appeared.

The surrounding capillaries bulged out one by one, forming a spiderweb-like purplish-black pattern.

A piercing, burning sensation drilled straight into the skin through the pores.

The lump even twitched slightly under the skin.

"hiss--"

Fang Cheng gasped and immediately threw the blackened tissue into the trash can at his feet.

Then he quickly walked out of the bedroom, went straight to the bathroom on the same floor, and turned on the faucet.

The cool tap water gushed down.

He picked up the remaining half bar of soap on the sink and scrubbed his hands three times.

The pungent stench subsided slightly, and the excruciating pain was barely relieved.

Fang Cheng turned off the tap and shook the water off his hands.

Looking down, the dark red lump was still protruding high.

It was like being bitten hard by a poisonous mosquito, red, swollen, and shiny, with an indescribable eeriness.

This illogical phenomenon cannot be explained away by ordinary rainwater pollution.

"What exactly happened... Could something have happened in Pingjiang County recently? Did a chemical plant explode and cause acid rain?"

Fang Cheng frowned and gently pressed the hard lump with his thumb.

A sudden, throbbing pain shot through me; it was definitely not a normal allergic reaction.

He took a few deep breaths, turned around and went back to his bedroom, where he sat down again at his desk.

I glanced up at the alarm clock on the table; the second hand was ticking, and it was almost nine o'clock in the evening.

Forcibly suppressing his chaotic thoughts, he picked up his pen, intending to finish the two sets of test papers in front of him first.

rustling, rustling...

The room was silent, the pen tip moved quickly across the paper, making a monotonous scratching sound.

Just as Fang Cheng finished writing half of the test paper, he put down his pen and prepared to stretch.

The movement of stretching out his arms suddenly stopped in mid-air.

He realized a problem.

It seems too quiet at home.

The sounds of my parents watching TV and arguing downstairs have completely disappeared sometime ago.

Even my younger brother, who usually loves to run around in the living room, has become completely silent.

Inside the entire two-story self-built house, only the monotonous sound of the continuous rain outside the window echoed.

Fang Cheng gripped the pen tightly, and his nose twitched slightly.

An even stronger stench than before wafted over from somewhere.

The smell was like dead fish and rotten meat that had been rotting for half a month in the sweltering heat of summer, thrown into a closed room, constantly emitting a nauseating fishy stench.

At this moment, Fang Cheng inexplicably recalled the twisted black shadow he had seen that morning.

He then lowered his head and glanced at the large, dark red bulge on the back of his hand.

A chill ran down my spine and up to the back of my head.

Fang Cheng felt a chill run down his spine and immediately stood up, his eyes quickly scanning the bedroom, searching for the source of the smell.

A moment later, they finally noticed something was wrong.

The sticky, foul stench seemed to be seeping into the tightly closed bedroom door, bit by bit.

His eyes flickered slightly, and he tiptoed to the bedroom door, pressing his ear against the wooden door to listen for a few seconds.

There were no footsteps outside, only the muffled sound of rain hitting the ground from the eaves.

Fang Cheng gripped the doorknob and slowly turned it.

"Click".

The crisp click of the latch sounded particularly jarring in the corridor.

The door hinges turned, and the corridor was dark as the lights were off.

Fang Cheng stretched out his left hand, felt around on the wall for the familiar plastic switch, and pressed it down hard.

"Clap."

The switch was pressed all the way down, but the incandescent light overhead did not respond at all.

The power is out? But the desk lamp on the bedroom desk is still emitting a warm yellow light.

Fang Cheng frowned even more deeply, pressing the switch repeatedly with his finger.

There was still no movement, and the unease in my heart grew stronger.

The temperature in the hallway seemed much lower than in the bedroom.

Fang Cheng held his breath and tried to pinpoint the source of the smell once more.

The nauseating stench permeated the air even more thoroughly.

It seemed as if it was surging up from downstairs along the stairwell.

He moved quietly, close to the cold wall, and slowly descended the wooden stairs.

The main light in the living room on the first floor was not on.

The only pale light source came from that old-fashioned CRT television.

The screen, which was originally playing a TV series, is now filled with flickering black and white static, emitting a hissing sound.

The sofa was empty; his parents and younger brother were nowhere to be found.

Fang Cheng's gaze swept over the toys scattered on the ground, finally stopping at the passageway leading to the yard.

By the dim, flickering light of the television, he saw a hunched figure standing quietly in front of the drawn curtains.

The man was wearing a familiar dark gray sweater, and judging from his figure, it was the grandfather who always sat there coughing.

As they drew closer, the stench grew stronger and stronger.

Fang Cheng's eyes lit up; he had finally found the source of the anomaly.

The stench of dead fish and rotten flesh was emanating from the fibers of the dark gray sweater, making his eyes sting.

"grandfather?"

Fang Cheng opened his mouth and tentatively called out.

The shadowy figure did not respond, remaining frozen in place like a piece of dead wood.

Fang Cheng swallowed hard, forcibly suppressing the unease that was pounding in his heart.

He took a step, walked around the toys on the ground, and approached that corner step by step.

five meters.

three meters.

one meter.

When Fang Cheng finally reached the shadowy figure behind him, he stretched out his right hand, intending to pat the figure's shoulder.

The hunched black figure suddenly twisted its head 180 degrees backward at an angle that no living person's cervical spine could possibly achieve.

The moment Fang Cheng saw that face clearly, his pupils suddenly contracted, his scalp tingled, and the hairs all over his body stood on end.

That can't even be considered a human face.

The loose, old skin was soaked in some kind of liquid until it turned white and swollen, and the eyes rolled completely upwards, leaving only the whites of the eyes covered with red blood vessels.

His lips curled into an exaggerated upward arc, and dark brown saliva dripped from between his teeth onto his sweater.

Before Fang Cheng could retreat, the monster let out a whistling roar, and its two withered arms, like iron pincers, lunged straight at Fang Cheng. Whoosh—

A foul stench wafted towards us.

Fang Cheng's body was already weak, and when he was hit by this tremendous force, he fell backward to the ground.

The back of his head slammed hard against the terrazzo floor, making his vision go black for a moment.

Foul-smelling slime dripped onto his face, and those cold, stiff hands gripped his throat tightly.

The oxygen was rapidly deprived, and my lungs burned as if they were about to explode.

The disparity in strength was too great; there was no way to break free.

My vision started to blur.

But under the pressure of impending death, it was as if a string deep in Fang Cheng's mind suddenly snapped.

A violent instinct, not belonging to this frail body, suddenly surged up.

He gave up trying to pry the arm off his neck, and groped around with his right hand, finally grabbing a hard plastic toy car that had fallen to the side.

Fang Cheng clenched his fingers, and the dark red lump on the back of his hand instantly bulged with purple veins.

He poured all the remaining strength in his body into his right arm.

"roll!"

Fang Cheng forced out a hoarse roar from his throat.

He then grabbed the toy car and smashed it hard against the temple of the monster's distorted face.

"boom!"

A dull thud resounded, and the monster's movements froze for half a second.

Taking advantage of this opening, Fang Cheng bent his knees and slammed his feet heavily against its chest, exerting force suddenly.

"Splash!"

The black figure was kicked away like a tattered sack, crashing heavily next to the coffee table.

The glass water glass on the coffee table was knocked to the ground and shattered.

Just as Fang Cheng was about to get up, grab the shards of glass, and continue his relentless attack,

"Snapped!"

The overhead incandescent light suddenly turned on, and the glaring light instantly filled the entire living room.

The static on the TV screen flickered twice, then immediately returned to normal.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? Has a thief broken in?"

The bedroom door at the far end of the first floor was suddenly pushed open.

The father, wearing only shorts and carrying a broom, rushed out.

The mother followed closely behind, her face deathly pale.

"Wow--"

The younger brother, wearing pajamas, peeked out from the stairs and saw the mess in the living room. He was so frightened that he started crying.

Fang Cheng was panting heavily, his chest heaving violently.

He slumped to the ground, following his parents' horrified gaze, and turned to look at the coffee table.

The figure he had kicked away was curled up in the shards of glass.

There were no rolled-back eyes, nor a split mouth.

Lying there was an elderly man, thin as a rake, wearing a dark gray sweater.

Grandpa's eyes were closed, and his face was slightly distorted from the pain of being beaten.

Dark red blood was continuously oozing from his nostrils, pooling into a small puddle on the floor.

"dad!"

The father threw down the broom, rushed over, picked up the old woman, and turned to yell at the mother:

"What are you standing there for? Quickly call an ambulance!"

The mother rushed over, trembling, and grabbed the landline phone from the coffee table.

Fang Cheng sat stiffly in place, his clothes completely soaked with cold sweat.

He looked down at his still slightly trembling hands, then at his grandfather lying in a pool of blood, his life hanging in the balance, and his mind went completely blank.

How is this going?

Where did that incredibly strong and terrifying-looking monster go?
Could it be that from beginning to end, all I attacked was... an ordinary old man with hemiplegia?

The lights in front of me were still bright, and the anxious shouts of my family were incredibly real.

Fang Cheng, however, felt as if an invisible net was tightly enveloping him.

That chaotic and eerie sense of unease climbed up my spine like a bone-deep infection.

....................................

The interrogation room on the third basement floor of the Special Investigation Team headquarters, which serves as the interview venue.

Fang Cheng sat quietly in the metal chair in the center of the room.

At this moment, his eyes were closed, his chest rose and fell gently, and he seemed to be in a deep sleep.

He was wearing a black metal helmet, with thick black cables extending from the back of the helmet and winding their way to the interrogation table a few meters away.

The young examiner stared intently at the various data indicators flashing on the laptop screen, his right hand gripping the mouse, occasionally scrolling the wheel.

"Commander Chen."

He turned his head and reported in a low voice:

"Candidate No. 263's brainwaves just showed a momentary peak. The electrical signals in the amygdala region were abnormally active, suggesting that he encountered some kind of sudden danger in the hallucination."

"However, his alpha and beta wave amplitudes quickly self-regulated, and his brainwave frequency remains stable in the range of 8 to 12 Hz, without any turbulent fluctuations that would indicate extreme panic."

Chen Bingzhong's body was mostly hidden in the shadow of the chair back, his gaze fixed on the silent bronze bell.

He picked up the thermos beside him, unscrewed the lid, took a sip of strong tea, and spoke in a flat tone:

"This is normal. This kid has been practicing martial arts for many years, so his blood and energy are vigorous and his will is naturally strong."

Even though his power was suppressed by the laws inside, his instincts were far sharper than those of ordinary people, and he wouldn't be easily kicked out.

Upon hearing this, the young examiner nodded slightly and looked back at the glowing computer screen.

Chen Bingzhong swallowed the warm tea, his deep gaze sweeping across the dark and enclosed room.

The design of the circular basement of the special search team was not based on any architectural aesthetics, but rather on a desperate and unavoidable reason.

Deep beneath the very center of the building lies a special, extremely dangerous, and highly polluting sealed object.

The ancient bronze bell on the table, used as an exam prop, only extracted a trace of the aura emanating from the sealed artifact. As a derivative of it, it possesses unimaginable power.

Speaking of which, the original site of this special search team headquarters was once an underground sacrificial pit of the ancient Yue Kingdom thousands of years ago.

Thirty years ago, the Eastern Capital underwent urban expansion.

While excavating the foundation, a construction team accidentally broke through the top layer of the sacrificial pit and touched the enormous object buried deep in history.

That night, the hundreds of workers in the entire construction team went into a frenzy.

They tore at each other, killed each other, and finally all died in a state of extreme madness.

Because that strange object was so enormous, the technology and supernatural powers of the time were simply insufficient to safely relocate it.

Ultimately, it was Chief Li, the highest-ranking officer of the Special Investigation Team at the time, who personally made the decision to mobilize the team's core combat force and risk their lives to suppress the rebellion.

Subsequently, a nuclear reactor-grade concrete wall, tens of meters thick, was poured directly onto the original site of the incident.

They completely sealed off the contaminated area and built a special search team building on top of it.

It wasn't until recent years that the research department of the special search team gradually figured out some of the patterns of that sealed artifact and began to use them cautiously.

The "illusion" in front of us, used to test the candidates, is one of them.

Chen Bingzhong glanced at the young examiner next to him who was staring intently at the screen, a complex look flashing in his eyes.

Some top-secret information is not even known to senior officers within the special investigation team.

For example, the sound of the bronze bell does not actually create a false "illusion".

Instead, it forcibly draws the subject's consciousness through a specific frequency of mental resonance, projecting it into a fragmented world evolved from the sealed artifact itself. (End of Chapter)