Starting as a prodigy wanting milk? A world-destroying deception in the opposite direction.

A solid feel came from beneath my feet.

Shen Zhen staggered a step and was supported by Chen Xi.

The two stared intently, their hearts pounding.

This is a natural grotto, not very big, with rough stone walls all around.

In the center of the grotto, there is a simple stone platform, on which a lamp stands quietly.

The bronze lamp has a simple and unadorned design.

There was no oil in the lamp, only a steady, burning blue flame, which emitted a soft light that illuminated the cave.

This flame... is exactly the same as the one on the top floor of the clock tower in Qingwu Town.

"A blue lamp?" Chen Xi also came to her senses and was astonished when she saw the objects on the stone platform.

"Isn't this something from Green Mist Town? How come we have it...?"

Before he finished speaking, the skull fragment in Shen Zhen's hand suddenly trembled violently, flew out of his hand, and hovered in mid-air, echoing the blue lamp on the stone platform.

The flame of the green lamp suddenly shot up, its light intensifying, losing its original gentleness and instead exuding a solemn and majestic aura that seemed to purify everything.

A solid beam of cyan light shot out from the lamp flame, enveloping the suspended fragments within it.

The fragments floated and sank in the beam of light, and the dim patterns on their surfaces seemed to be ignited, bursting out with a dark golden light.

The blue and gold lights intertwined and collided, emitting a low buzzing sound.

A gentle yet powerful force spread along the pillar of light, enveloping him and Chen Xi.

The depleted meridians in his body, like parched land receiving sweet rain, greedily absorbed this power, and his mental energy recovered, replenished, and even continued to rise at an incredible speed.

The hidden wound also felt numb and itchy, and it was healing quickly.

"It was the fragments that triggered the power of the Azure Lamp." Shen Zhen reacted instantly. He could clearly sense the qualitative change in the mental power within his body. The barrier that had been stuck at the peak of the first rank for a long time was loosening and disintegrating.

"I'm about to break through to the early stage of the second tier."

He guided this force to break through the barrier.

A faint "crack" sound came from inside her body, and the barrier shattered completely. Her mental power swept through her body like a flood, and her meridians rapidly expanded and became stronger under the nurturing power of the green lamp.

His aura suddenly surged, becoming agile and powerful, and the pressure of the early stage of the second rank quietly spread out.

Chen Xi, who was standing to the side, was also undergoing a transformation. The power of the green lamp was also nourishing her meridians, and her mental power was increasing wildly. Her aura was becoming more and more condensed and profound.

Before long, he felt the stagnation in his body dissipate, and his mental energy flowed more and more smoothly. He had already steadily stepped into the late stage of the first level, and his heart was filled with joy and shock:

"Me too! I've jumped straight to the late stage of Tier 1! That power is just too overwhelming!"

The two were each immersed in the transformation of their breakthrough, and only slowly opened their eyes when the mental energy in their bodies gradually stabilized.

At this moment, the flame of the blue lamp was still strong, and the beam of light steadily enveloped the skull fragments. The dark gold patterns and blue light intertwined more and more tightly, and the energy fluctuations in the cave reached their peak.

But an even more significant change than the breakthrough in strength was quietly occurring with that skull fragment.

Enveloped and washed by the cyan light, the dark golden patterns on the fragments grew brighter and brighter, eventually projecting several fragmented, ancient, light-based phantom images that were imprinted in Shen Zhen and Chen Xi's minds:

[...Forbidden Gate, beyond boundaries and realms...]

...only by offering sacrifices of living beings' blood and souls, and fueled by grief, fear, and despair, can the cracks be opened...

We, the Night's Watchmen, swear an oath to stand guard here with our lamps, to cut off their path, and to ward off evil forces...

[...Those who see this mark can recognize it as a relic left by a fellow practitioner...]

The textual information is incomplete, but the core meaning is crystal clear:

There is an extremely dangerous "forbidden door" that can only be opened by a human sacrifice and a huge amount of negative emotional power; and the mission of this blue lamp and the so-called "night watchmen" is to seal this forbidden door and suppress the evil forces associated with it.

At the same time, on the surface of the fragments, next to the original dark gold patterns, a new set of more complex and mysterious silver-white patterns emerged.

It is completely different from the patterns on the Night's Watch robes and the wolf-batu totem, exuding a more ancient and primal aura.

These patterns are the markings mentioned in the message, "left behind by fellow believers."

As the last piece of information was imprinted, the light of the blue lamp gradually faded, and the dark gold patterns on the fragment also dimmed, but the newly emerging silver-white patterns remained.

The fragments returned to Shen Zhen's hands, their temperature returned to normal, but they seemed to have gotten a little heavier.

The flame of the lamp returned to a gentler state, but it was noticeably weaker than before.

Shen Zhen held the fragments, processing the information he had just received. Many clues from before were now connected, and a terrifying outline gradually became clear:

"The Wolf Batu tribe collects the essence of the heart to refine the spirit dust liquid, perhaps to cultivate aberrant variants that can generate a lot of negative emotions, or directly for some kind of ritual."

The "guide" used the naturally occurring "power of cycles" in Qingwu Town to collect the negative emotions such as despair and numbness that the townspeople experienced in the endless cycle.

The same was true of the earthen city altar deep in the sand sea outside Dayue City, but we destroyed it without success.

They colluded, exploiting each other, intending to use human sacrifices and negative emotions to shake this forbidden gate.

Chen Xi's face turned pale:

"So now we can confirm that those bizarre cases in the capital, where the mutants collect negative emotional power or instinctive desires, were also the work of the 'Guide'?"

Shen Zhen shook his head and then nodded, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes:

"The methods are similar, but the style of the Illusion Demon and Devourer is different from that of the Guide and Wolf Batu. It is more like a premeditated slow harvest, or simply creating panic and chaos."

The guides, on the other hand, are even more ruthless, readily collecting emotions from the entire town and even the whole city.

Perhaps he felt that harvesting the mutants was too slow, which is why he chose this extreme method instead.

At this moment, Shen Zhen still thought that these were just different methods used by the same group of people.

Shen Zhen paused, then said:

"Or perhaps there are two different forces that are using the power of negative emotions. One is the 'Guide' and Wolf Batu, and the other is the heretics who caused a ruckus at the Fushen ceremony in Shendu, that is, the group whose leader is called the God Child."

But this is just speculation.

Shen Zhen had guessed most of it, but what he didn't know was that the bizarre case of the mutant in the capital was the work of Song Yue, Chu Yan and their gang of heretics.

Furthermore, the Forget-Worry Winery, which this group of heretics deliberately led Shen Zhenglan to discover, was originally a stronghold of the "Guide" group.

This action was nothing more than a retaliatory act of two heretics throwing dirty water at each other.

"Never mind that for now." Shen Zhen walked towards the stone platform, his gaze falling on the blue lamp.

"This lamp was left by the Night Watchmen; it is the key to suppressing the evil power of the Forbidden Gate."

"If we stay here, they'll find us and destroy it sooner or later; we have to take it with us."

In addition, Master Yi Tianxing once said that this lamp might be related to a powerful being involved in the Dao of Space, and accepting it might bring unexpected gains.

He carefully picked up the bronze lamp; the surface of the lamp had subtle patterns.

Shen Zhen brought the fragment closer. The patterns on the fragment and the surface of the blue lamp complemented each other, with several subtle overlaps. Moreover, the overlaps corresponded faintly to the engravings on the altar at the bottom of the lake.

He instantly understood that the reason the altar was moved by the fragments was because of the resonance of these patterns.

Fragments, altars, and green lamps all originate from the same ancient system.

"Captain Shen, how are you?" Chen Xi asked softly as she approached Shen Zhen, noticing his fluctuating expression.

"I'm fine." He gripped the shards tightly and looked at Chen Xi.

"This fragment must have a deep connection with the Night's Watch and the Forbidden Gate."

Chen Xi seemed to be deep in thought, and was about to speak again when the flame of the green lamp suddenly flickered a few times. The light in the cave began to distort, and countless blurry images appeared and became clear in the air. They were old memories of Qingwu Town.

In the scene, a young man sits atop a clock tower, wiping a lamp, his gaze solemn as he looks toward the town entrance.

Shen Zhen recognized the man at a glance as the old man from the clock tower in Qingwu Town. At that time, he was full of vigor and showed no signs of aging.

"Descendants of the Night Watchers of the Dead..." Shen Zhen murmured softly.

The scene shifts to a young man offering a green lamp to the bell tower, bowing and chanting obscure incantations.

Decades passed in the blink of an eye, and he grew old, yet he remained a silent guardian of the town.

Until one day, a strange cyclical force enveloped the town. The old man took out the green lamp, and the flames surged to repel the evil force. However, the cyclical force became more and more intense. He used all his strength to activate the green lamp, and his hair turned white in an instant. He still protected the green lamp tightly to prevent the town from being corrupted.

The scene shifts to a forest outside the town, where several people dressed in barbarian attire are surrounding a man in a black robe.

The man in black robes was thin and had a hoarse voice. He pointed in the direction of Qingwu Town and whispered something to the barbarians.

Those barbarians were from the Wolf Batu tribe. After hearing the black-robed man's words, they all showed fanatical expressions and boldly called the black-robed man "the guide".

Shen Zhen clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white.

The tragedy of Qingwu Town was caused by the collusion between the Guide and Wolf Batu. The Guide deliberately triggered the power of the cycle to harvest negative emotions. The ancient will he had sensed before was not something the Guide could control; the other party was merely taking advantage of the situation.

But unexpectedly, he gained spatial powers.

"Captain Shen, what do we do now?" Chen Xi's voice pulled Shen Zhen back to reality.

Just as Shen Zhen was about to speak, the skull fragment in his hand trembled again without warning, and the newly emerged silver-white patterns burst forth with dazzling silver light.

At the same time, the flame of the blue lamp began to flicker violently, its blue light clashing fiercely with the silver light of the fragments.

The two forces are actually repelling each other!

"Oh no!" Shen Zhen only had time to whisper.