I changed the world.

The conference room was furnished with a huge circular conference table, and it was already quite full of people dressed in various styles, including police uniforms, military uniforms, and most of them in official uniforms.

A moment later, several middle-aged men with serious expressions strode into the conference room. Upon seeing them enter, the others stood up to greet them.

"Alright, everyone, please sit down." The slightly overweight middle-aged man at the front was Zhou Zhiqing, the director of the Special Crime Investigation Bureau. He gestured to the two people next to him before gesturing to the others, "Everyone, please sit down." He then took his seat.

"As you all know, due to some recent events, we have facilitated this joint meeting through our internal coordination mechanism to coordinate various departments and focus on discussing some special issues we are currently facing. First of all, on behalf of the Imperial Special Crime Investigation Bureau, I would like to welcome Major General Wang Shangxun of the Southeast Military Region, Deputy Director Li Xiangxian of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police Headquarters, Deputy Director Zhang Tao of the Imperial Religious Affairs Bureau, and all colleagues."

Zhou Zhiqing led the applause, and a round of applause followed.

"Before we begin, I must clarify that all information involved in this meeting, including all documents, video materials, and meeting content, is a state secret. After the meeting, no one may disclose it to the outside world in any form."

"Then, let's begin the meeting."

After the applause subsided, Zhou Zhiqing nodded to Wang Yunzhou, the assistant director who was sitting not far away, signaling the start of the meeting.

Seeing this, Wang Yunzhou understood and continued, "Gentlemen and colleagues, recently we have monitored some unusual events in many parts of the Empire. According to the information we have obtained so far, such events occur occasionally not only within the Empire, but also around the world."

"Currently, within our Bureau of Investigation, we temporarily refer to these types of incidents as Category IV incidents. Let me briefly explain this name: internally, Category I incidents refer to cases that occur within the Empire; Category II incidents refer to cases involving foreign forces; Category III incidents refer to incidents involving extraterrestrial civilizations; and Category IV incidents are what I just mentioned, incidents involving unknown factors that cannot be explained by common sense."

"Before the meeting, I'm sure all of you have some information to some extent. Here, I'll show you some more videos."

As Wang Yunzhou finished speaking, the lights in the conference room went out, and a large screen on the wall next to him projected an image, which began to play several video clips.

The first video, judging from the lighting, is set at night in what appears to be an old residential building. Several heavily armed soldiers are firing wildly into the darkness ahead. Then, a soldier uses a light guided weapon, and amidst the flash of the explosion, some extremely agile creature darts across the screen...

At the end of the video, the soldiers appeared to be attacked from the side. Some kind of extremely agile monster rushed into the ranks, and screams and gunshots rang out. The video ended sideways on the ground, and it seemed that the soldier carrying the recording equipment had been killed.

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"On November 11, 2015, the thirty-sixth year of Chenghe, in Yuangu City, Lingdong Province, the police received a report from a citizen... According to subsequent statistics, two police officers and four soldiers were killed in the incident." As the video ended, Wang Yunzhou's deep voice echoed in the conference room.

Then the second video begins. Also at night, in the stairwell of an old residential building, several police officers, armed with guns, rush into a resident's home with the door wide open in a defensive formation. With the help of flashlights, you can see bloodstains all over the floor, with pieces of flesh and splattered blood everywhere... and one of the police officers even vomits.

At the command of their supervising officer, the officers advanced into the room. At this point, shouts could be heard coming from the room ahead. The camera then panned down a corridor and found two officers sitting on the floor in a bedroom.

One of them had lost an arm, while the other was struggling to get up...

The officer, who had struggled to his feet, looked relieved upon seeing the newcomer and began to recount the events that had just transpired incoherently…

Afterwards, the camera conducted a preliminary search of several rooms. What impressed everyone in the conference room the most were the sharp claw marks on the walls, resembling knife and axe cuts.

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The scene then shifts to an interrogation room, where the same rescued officer is present. He appears much calmer now, explaining his experience to those questioning him. As he recounts his story, the people in the meeting room understand: he is a patrol officer who, along with his partner, responded to a call and, upon discovering a suspected murder in a room, broke down the door after obtaining permission. During their search of the bedroom, they found a black cat, which instantly transformed into a monster and attacked them. His partner lost an arm in the attack. Finally, just as they ran out of bullets and were about to die, a mysterious man claiming to be a demon hunter rescued them and, through a brief close-quarters fight, eliminated the monster…

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"On November 16, 2015 (the 11th year of Chenghe), in Linzhou City, Jiangdong Province, two patrol officers who responded to a call were attacked by an unknown monster after entering a house suspected to be the scene of a murder... According to subsequent statistics, one officer was seriously injured in the incident."

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Chapter 170 Top Secret Files

Wang Yunzhou opened another video. The screen showed an ordinary two-story building. The person filming was obviously in the yard in front of the building. As the video moved, three people in police uniforms could be seen standing nearby, holding guns and looking wary.

Then, a window on the second floor shattered suddenly, and two figures rushed out of the window amidst the shards of glass.

With a dull thud, a monster crashed heavily onto the granite paving stones in the center of the courtyard, struggling to get up.

Immediately afterward, another figure landed directly on it. It was a figure in a trench coat with a hood, holding a sword in one hand, and stepping on the monster with a fierce and domineering posture. With this step, radiating cracks instantly appeared on the stone bricks below the monster like a spider web.

This powerful impact, even through the screen, made everyone in the meeting room look serious.

Immediately afterwards, the figure used the momentum of its fall to plunge its long sword down, instantly piercing the monster's head...

With a "bang," the monster turned into a cloud of gray mist...

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As the video progressed, the two-story building began to change. In just a few breaths, everything in the courtyard seemed to have entered a time machine, transforming into an abandoned and desolate house...

A faint, dim yellow flame rose from the house, and soon the entire house was bathed in raging flames, crackling and popping as it burned...

"It's so hot! It's so hot! It hurts so much!!!" Cries of agony echoed from the burning flames...

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As the video progressed, what impressed many people in the conference room who were seeing it for the first time was the hooded mystery man's appropriate responses, his mysterious secret techniques, and his powerful, clearly superhuman strength.

"On November 29, 2015 (the 11th year of the Chenghe era), in Kuaizhou City, Zhongzhou Province, a citizen reported that her husband had gone missing after entering an abandoned house. Three local police officers entered the house to investigate... According to subsequent statistics, one police officer was killed in the incident."

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After each video finished playing, Wang Yunzhou would open the next one and then briefly describe its background. Most of these videos were edited; some were relatively complete, even including brief interviews with the parties involved, while others were fragmented, appearing somewhat chaotic and eerie.

Two videos stand out as particularly memorable.

One scene depicts a monster resembling a giant maggot swimming in a sky filled with rolling thunderclouds, seemingly unaffected by gravity.

Due to the distance, the video footage is not very clear, but after technical processing, it is still possible to see that in front of the monster is a person dressed in a blue Xuanmen feather robe, with black hair dancing in the wind, holding a weapon that looks like a longsword, standing still opposite the monster. And like the monster, this person is also completely unaffected by gravity.

Using that person's height as a reference, the people in the conference room, especially the military personnel, could immediately tell that his length was roughly the same as that of an aerospace force frigate.

It is clear that the two sides in the sky are in a standoff. In terms of size, the two sides are completely unequal. However, judging from the situation in the video, for some reason, the human side does not seem to be at a disadvantage at all.

On the contrary, the monster curled itself up into a ball, as if it was worried about something.

Immediately following was the battle, with thousands of green beams shooting out from the monster like cannon fire, hurtling towards the person in the air.

However, without the person making any movement, these beams of light were blocked by some invisible barrier...

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Lightning from the thunderclouds converged, forming chains that firmly bound the monster... The monster struggled fiercely, its countless black tentacles growing wildly around it. However, the chains, which seemed to flow like plasma, were exceptionally strong, holding the monster tightly and preventing any of its struggles from breaking.

But then the person in the air pointed a finger and made a sweeping motion, and a flash of light seemed to appear between heaven and earth...

A protective shield, faintly glowing red, appeared around the monster, but it shattered very quickly...

Immediately following, a shrill wail rang out. This wail seemed to affect the person filming the video, and the entire video became chaotic. Through the chaotic fragments, one could vaguely see that the monster appeared to have been blown to pieces... The video ended abruptly there.

"On January 8, 2016 (the 1th year of the Daisho Seiwa era), in Linju City, Gangdong Province, a citizen photographed an unusual event while taking a walk. An investigation confirmed that the incident was suspected to have been caused by an unknown ritual performed by seventeen students of the 'Pendant Society,' a student club at Gangneung Cheonbu University, during a club activity. To date, the incident has resulted in the death of one student, and fourteen others remain in a coma."

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Another video, taken from the perspective of a soldier, shows a scene of intense fighting in what appears to be an underground parking lot. In the darkness, some indistinct monsters are running about, and the soldier in the video is constantly adjusting his gun, firing at what appears to be a location…

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The scene shifts to a building whose surface appears to be covered with some strange, mud-like substance...

An elderly man in feathered robes stood in mid-air, his eyes flashing with blazing white lightning...

What is particularly surprising is that the old man's face in the video always seems blurry and indistinct, making it difficult to see clearly.

One after another, giant swords that looked like they were made of lightning fell from the sky and crashed into the ground...

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"My name is Zhou Dingshan... May I ask your esteemed name, and where your sacred mountain is located?"