Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 96 White Master
The judge sneered.

That laugh was like a blade lightly slicing across glass.

"Bring them back? Do you know what that means?"

His gaze was fixed on the camera.

“That’s not a ‘device,’ it’s—its eyes. Without Xu Yan’s soul pressure, it’s like a living observer. It’s watching us. At the ‘recording’ center.”

The conference room fell into dead silence.

The green flame in the lamplight was forced to shrink to almost the size of a needle tip.

The woman in the iron mask stood ramrod straight, her gaze always lowered, not daring to look up.

The judge's voice became extremely low, yet clear as the resonant sound of metal:
"Listen up, all of you. The coffin-locking agreement is effective immediately."

"Iron Coffin Zone Level 1 Sealing. Anyone touching the target within three meters will have their soul pressure severed immediately. No reports may be made without authorization. Now—Sealing the Zone."

"Yes!"

Several guards responded in unison.

The lamplight raised its hand and set up a seal.

Green flames meandered along the walls, like chains welding the space shut.

The air was completely still.

The judge's face was so pale it was almost transparent.

He looked at the camera, his fingers trembling slightly.

“We thought the ‘Abyss’ was sealed deep inside.”

"But now, it has been brought in."

He exhaled a very light breath.
His tone, however, was like iron nails driven into everyone's nerves:
“Xu Yan’s soul is gone, but ‘Yuan’ is awakening. Once it fully sees us—the entire memory of the center—it will be erased.”

The moment the seal was completed, Xu Yan's true form—the body that had been still all along—slipped almost imperceptibly in the little finger of his right hand.

Only Xu Yan, who was observing everything through the drill arm's eye, noticed this detail.

After the iron coffin area was sealed, the cold white light went out, leaving only the magnetic patterns on the wall pulsating slightly, like the cold, exposed heartbeat of a massive machine.

Xu Yan's consciousness was trapped inside the shell of the "drill arm," as if observing the world through frosted glass.

He could feel the body's instinctive tension, and the subtle, uneasy tremors emanating from the internal mechanisms of the heavy prosthetic limb in his left arm.

The judge's figure, illuminated by the magnetic blood-red light, resembled a judge emerging from the Yama's palace.

His unusual golden vertical pupils burned brightly in the absolute darkness, like the eyelids of a dragon lurking in the abyss, the only and most chilling source of light at that moment.

“In urgent situations, expediency is necessary.” The judge spoke, his voice dry and cold, as if filtered through incense ash, carrying an undeniable decisiveness. “What I’m about to say is not for you to hear. Get out.”

The last word fell, carrying an invisible repulsive force.

Dengying was the first to bow, clutching his flickering oil lamp, and retreated unsteadily toward the door, as if he couldn't wait to leave this suffocating center of pressure.

The shadow, like a real shadow, silently slipped into the deeper darkness outside the door without the slightest hesitation.

Xu Yan manipulated the drill arm, deliberately making his movements reveal a stiffness and obedience befitting his position, driven by orders from superiors. He followed behind the two, the metal soles of his boots echoing heavily on the cold ground.

The corridor outside the door was bathed in a sickly, eerie green light provided by emergency lighting.

The air was filled with the acrid smell of metallic coolant and a faint, almost imperceptible odor of burnt ozone—typical smells of psionic overload.

Xu Yan leaned against the cold, scratched alloy wall, feeling the low-frequency spiritual pressure vibrations from behind the door, which, like the heartbeat of a dying beast, pounded against his metal shoulder armor through the wall.

Just before the heavy metal door slowly closed behind him, about to completely isolate him from the outside world, he caught it keenly out of the corner of his eye.

The judge inside the door had already turned his back.

He reached his right hand into his robes, and when he reached it out again, he had picked up an ancient bronze bell covered in green patina between his fingers.

He didn't even turn around; he simply flicked his left thumbnail across the tip of his index finger, drawing out a drop of bright red blood that he then precisely flicked onto the bell.

The bell did not ring.

The drop of blood, as if alive, was greedily "sucked" into the ancient cloud patterns on the surface of the bronze bell when it touched them, disappearing instantly without a trace, leaving only a fleeting, eerie red glow in the grooves of the cloud patterns.

The dull thud of the metal door closing completely severed the last connection with the outside world.

Xu Yan stood outside the door, isolated from the other two in the dim light of the corridor.

The drill arm's hearing picked up a faint, yet soul-stirring, bell-like vibration coming from inside the door, but the sound seemed to be separated by an entire world, indistinct and unclear.

The next moment, the copper bell rang automatically without wind, emitting a low ringing sound that pierced the depths of the soul.

The sound of the bell rippled outwards, and the air in front of the judge slightly distorted, revealing a blurry, ink-wash painting-like phantom.

In the painting, a figure dressed in a plain white robe with half-white hair stands with his back to the viewer. Although his face is not visible, an invisible pressure penetrates the shadow and descends upon him.

A detached voice resonated directly in everyone's hearts, devoid of any human warmth.

The judge bowed, his tone more solemn than ever before:
"Reporting to Master Bai, the No. 7 warehouse in the western suburbs has been destroyed, the Soul-Sealing Array has been broken, and the Abyss Corrosion Qi has leaked out. The target, Xu Yan, has lost his soul and is nowhere to be found. His 'Evil Mirror' is here with his body."

The illusory figure remained silent for a moment, then the telepathic message rang out again, its chill intensifying: "How long has your soul been separated from your body?"

"Three hours have passed, and we are approaching the four-hour mark."

"Time has passed." The White Master's voice remained calm, yet carried a chilling pronouncement. "If the soul has been separated from the body for more than three hours, the physical body becomes an empty shell, easily possessed by wandering ghosts or even more ferocious beings. At that time, a great calamity may arise."

The judge's forehead was beaded with cold sweat: "Finding a new 'container' capable of withstanding its soul pressure will take time, at least another day..."

“We can’t wait.” Bai Zhu interrupted him. “Activate ‘Summoning’.”

The judge's body trembled violently, and he abruptly looked up: "Lord Bai! The first prohibition of the Xuan Law is to strictly forbid performing soul-summoning rituals on the 'Key Body,' lest it disturb the inner seal, this..."

"Laws are dead. When the soul leaves the body for three hours, the shell becomes empty. If the empty shell is not guarded, the abyss will surely turn against it."

The White Lord's thoughts suddenly intensified, and the figure with its back turned seemed to ripple outwards, causing the judge's bones to hum.
"Back then, Xu Haoyu took a risk and cut off a wisp of the 'Abyss' source, forcibly sealing it deep into the soul of his own child. He used the child's bloodline and memories as a cage and the child's living soul as bait to exchange for this twenty years of false peace."

Once this seal is placed, it is bound to the host's fate, and forcibly removing it is tantamount to releasing 'Abyss' into the mortal world—a path to certain death, and must never be undertaken!

He paused briefly, his voice returning to its indifferent tone, yet sounding even more cruel:

"That's why Xu Yan is the only living 'container'. Arranging for him in that photo studio, under the guise of a cleansing mission, continuously exposes him to faint supernatural phenomena."

(End of this chapter)