Livestreaming Forbidden Zone: Starting with a Qilin Tattoo Terrifies the Entire Internet

The moment his fingertips touched her, Jiang Han's eyes shrank to pinpoints.

It's hot. Not warm. It's scalding hot.

The coffee in this stainless steel mug is still steaming.

The plume of white smoke rising into the quiet bronze tree hollow was more terrifying than the killing machines from before.

Jiang Han's hand froze in mid-air.

My heart felt like it was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

thump.

thump.

thump.

My heart was pounding so fast it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.

"Sir... what's wrong?"

Jin Ye clutched his broken ribs and groaned as he moved closer.

He glanced at the cup of coffee, then at Jiang Han's frighteningly pale face, still not having reacted.

"This coffee...it smells delicious, who made it?"

Jin Ye reached out to touch the inside of the cup.

Snapped!

Jiang Han slapped his hand away.

His strength is terrifying.

Jin Ye's hand immediately turned red.

"Don't move."

Jiang Han's voice was hoarse, as if he were swallowing charcoal.

He stared intently at the cup of coffee, as if he were staring at a nuclear bomb about to explode.

"It's hot."

Jin Ye was stunned for a moment.

"Hot? Hot is good, this place is so gloomy, a sip of hot water..."

Halfway through his sentence, Jin Ye's eyes suddenly widened.

It sounded like someone was choking him, and he was making a gurgling sound in his throat.

He finally realized what was happening.

This is Sanxingdui.

It is a folded space several thousand meters underground.

It's a forbidden zone where nothing but monsters and the dead exist.

This camp looks like it was built decades ago.

The canvas on those tents had all turned yellow.

The red stars on that notebook have faded.

But this cup of coffee is hot. What does that mean?

This means that just minutes, or even seconds ago, someone was sitting in this folding chair and making this cup of coffee.

And then, right as they slid down...

That person left. Or... never left at all.

Jiang Han turned around abruptly. His Golden Eyes activated instantly, and two beams of golden light swept across the entire camp like searchlights.

No.

There's nothing there.

There were just a few empty tents and a bonfire that had gone out but whose embers were still glowing red.

"come out!"

Jiang Han let out a low growl. The sound echoed through the huge tree hollow.

No one answered. Only the gurgling sound of liquid flowing from the bronze pipes in the distance could be heard.

Jiang Han took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

He turned his gaze back to the notebook on the table.

The cover was made of old-fashioned kraft paper. Printed on it was the code name that haunted his dreams.

【Bureau 749 - Top Secret File - 049】

And below the code name was the name. The penmanship was sharp and forceful, penetrating the paper.

Jiang Shan

Jiang Han's fingers lightly traced the name. Her fingertips trembled.

Old man. You're really here? You're still alive?

If you're alive, why don't you come out and see me?

Or is it...?

Jiang Han glanced at the cup of hot coffee.

Is this a trap? Or some kind of time-space distortion trick?

He gritted his teeth and turned to the first page of his notebook.

The paper was brittle and yellowed. A musty, musty smell wafted from it.

The handwriting was very messy, and the person writing it seemed to be in a hurry, or their hand was shaking.

October 3, 19X3.

[It's our third day inside the sacred tree.]

Old Li has gone mad.

He said his fingers wouldn't obey him. I checked and found that his left index finger had turned bronze.

It's not that the outside was coated with copper; it's that the flesh turned into copper.

He felt no pain. He was even smiling. He said it was good this way, that he'd be more steady holding a gun from now on.

【idiot.】

This is not enhancement, this is a plague.

This tree is alive. It's assimilating us. It wants to turn us into its parts too.

Jiang Han felt a chill run down his spine. Assimilation. Parts.

He glanced at his fingernails instinctively.

There was an eerie metallic sheen there.

It turns out that the feeling of being eroded was not an illusion.

He continued scrolling down.

October 5, 19X3.

Old Li is dead.

Or rather, he completely transformed into a gardener.

His entire arm transformed into wind-up springs and gears. He began to attack us.

I had to smash his head open with my own hands.

But I didn't see any brain matter. Just a bunch of black engine oil and springs.

This place is hell.

We can't get out.

The handwriting became increasingly messy. In some places, it was even scratched.

Those were marks left by applying too much pressure with the pen tip.

Jiang Han could sense the despair and anger her father felt at that time.

That man who always smiled and said, "If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up."

They were driven to the brink of collapse in this dark and hopeless place.

December 7, 1983.

Found it.

The only antidote.

At the top of the tree.

[That glowing thing. A wood-type metal figure.]

It's not dead. It's a heart.

[If you eat it... you can reverse the metallization. You can survive.]

But I don't have time.

My legs are immobile. The rust has crept up to my thighs.

[If anyone can see this notebook...]

Don't drink that water!!!

The last five characters were written in enormous size. Three exclamation marks followed them.

Jiang Han suddenly looked up at the cup of hot coffee.

Water? This isn't coffee.

Jin Ye was currently sniffing the glass.

"Sir, this smells a bit strange... like... rust?"

"Don't touch it!"

Jiang Han kicked the table over.

Clang! The cup fell to the ground. The liquid inside spilled out.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!

That wasn't coffee at all. It was a black, sticky, strong acid!

It landed on the bronze floor, instantly corroding a large pit and emitting a pungent yellow smoke.

If I had drunk that just now... my intestines would have turned to water by now.

Jin was so frightened that he sat down on the ground with a thud, his face as white as paper.

"Holy crap... what... what is this thing?"

"Digestive juices".

Jiang Han coldly uttered three words. He closed the notebook and tucked it into his pocket.

"This is not a camp at all."

"This is a stomach."

"The stomach of the divine tree."

The words had barely left his mouth when a sudden change occurred.

Gollum-

The surrounding fleshy walls suddenly began to writhe violently, like countless giant earthworms burrowing under the skin.

Then, from the gaps in those bronze patterns, countless green viscous fluids seeped out.

The slime had a strong, sour, foul smell.

Tick.

A drop of slime landed on Jinye's backpack.

Sizzle—!

The military canvas bag was burned through with a large hole.

The compressed biscuits and water bottle inside instantly turned into a puddle of black water.

"Oh my god!" Jin Ye scrambled back as fast as he could.

"This wall is drooling! It wants to eat us!"

"Run!" Jiang Han grabbed Jin Ye.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Jin Ye shouted, his voice trembling with tears.

There are walls on all sides.

The hole we just slid down into was too high; we couldn't climb back up at all. And the mucus was being secreted faster and faster.

The liquid on the ground had already reached above our feet. The soles of our shoes were making a sizzling, corrosive sound.

Jiang Han's golden eyes darted around frantically. He was searching for an exit, even just a crack.

"there!"

He pointed to a valve-like opening on the upper part of the stomach wall.

It was more than ten meters above the ground, but that was the only road.

"Climb up!"

Jiang Han pushed Master Jin in that direction.

"Sir, are you kidding me? This wall is so slippery, it's like it's been greased. How are we supposed to climb it?" Master Jin was on the verge of despair.

"Then fly up there!" Jiang Han roared.

【Kirin Arm - Gravity Field!】

hum-

He reversed the gravity field, and the surrounding gravity immediately decreased.

The two of them floated up like weightless astronauts.

"Hurry up!"

Jiang Han stepped on a falling table in mid-air for leverage.

He charged toward the valve like a cannonball, gripping the edge of it with one hand.

"Open it for me!" The muscles in his arms bulged, and the veins popped out.

crunch--

He managed to pry open a crack in the rusty bronze valve.

A wave of heat emanated from it, carrying a strong smell of sulfur.

"Go in!"

Jiang Han stuffed Jin Ye inside, and then crawled in himself.

Bang! Just as his heel tucked in.

A torrent of green acid flooded the campsite.

That table, that bonfire, vanished without a trace.

"Huff...huff..." Jin Ye collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.

"Master...we've... gone inside our intestines?" Jiang Han ignored him.

He shone his flashlight forward.

This is a huge passageway. It is surrounded by a complex network of bronze pipes.

A glowing green liquid flowed through the pipes, like the veins of a sacred tree.

"It's not over yet."

Jiang Han stared into the pitch-black depths ahead.

He heard a sound.

Click.

Click.

That was the sound of metal joints rubbing together, very dense, and... getting closer and closer.

"Get ready to work." Jiang Han drew his black gold ancient sword.

The Qilin Fire blazed on the blade, its brilliance particularly striking in the dim pipe.

"Sir... what's that?"

Jin Ye pointed ahead and saw countless red eyes shining in the darkness.

That's... a gardener.

Hundreds and thousands of gardeners wearing masks with protruding eyes.

What they held in their hands were not weapons, but all sorts of strange bronze tools.

Some look like wrenches. Some look like chainsaws. Some look like welding torches.

They blocked the road.

"They're not here to fight," Jiang Han said, squinting.

"They're here for repairs."

"In their eyes, we are two malfunctioning parts."

"Or...two viruses."

"It needs to be dismantled and recycled."

"Roar—!" The lead gardener let out a roar that sounded like an electronic voice.

All the red eyes suddenly lit up, and they rushed over like a tide.

"Stay close to me!" Jiang Han shouted in a low voice.

His figure transformed into a blur as he charged into the monster horde, his blade flashing like a waterfall, and the Qilin Fire exploding.

Clang clang clang—!

The sound of metal clashing was as dense as a torrential downpour.

With each strike of Jiang Han's knife, he could sever several parts.

But he dared not linger in the fight; the space here was too cramped, and there were simply too many of these creatures to kill.

One batch falls, and another batch surges in.

"Ah—!" A scream of agony suddenly came from behind.

Jiang Han was startled and turned around.

Jin was covering his mouth, his face full of terror.

"Grandpa... my teeth... my teeth..." Grandpa Jin trembled as he opened his hands.

In his palm was a bloodstained gold tooth, his signature large gold tooth.

But it wasn't knocked down, it was pushed out.

Jiang Han looked at Jin Ye's mouth, and his eyes shrank instantly.

On the gum where Jinye's gold tooth had grown, a brand new one, gleaming with a cold light, had sprouted...

Bronze fangs.

The teeth were sharp and long, like the fangs of a wild beast, and they were growing outwards at a visible rate.

[Warning! Teammate Jin's metallization progress: 15%.]

[Warning! The virus is spreading!]

"Master...am I going to turn into a monster?" Master Jin asked with a mournful face, touching the cold copper tooth.

The sensation reminded him of Old Li, the madman who had turned his fingers into bronze and was still laughing, as mentioned in his notes.

"Shut up!" Jiang Han slashed a gardener who lunged at him with his sword, then grabbed Jin Ye by the collar.

"If you don't want to become scrap metal, you'd better run!"

"Run uphill!"

"As long as I can taste that heart..."

"As long as you eat that heart, you can live!"

A hint of madness flashed in Jiang Han's eyes. He was not only trying to save Master Jin, but also to save himself.

Because he felt that his left little finger had also lost all feeling and become... hard and stiff, like a cold iron rod.

"Fight your way out!" Jiang Han roared.

The Qilin Fire surged three feet, carving a bloody path through the sea of ​​bronze monsters.

Target: The top of the tree.