Chapter 3: The Most Dangerous Mission

“What?!”

After a brief, deathly silence, the mission hall erupted like a pond struck by a boulder. Muffled cries of shock burst from every direction.

The mission takers who had been holding weapons, ready to gang up on Lin Ye, retreated as one. Someone knocked over a chair and didn’t bother to right it, their gaze darting between Lin Ye and the body in the wall.

Everyone in the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs dead, except for those two.

From anyone else, such a claim might have been dismissed as an attempt to sound mysterious.

But coming from a Bureau deacon, it was another matter entirely.

Several enforcers’ weapon hands dropped involuntarily. The loudest hecklers quietly slipped toward the back of the crowd, terrified that Lin Ye might suddenly remember their faces.

Su Jin covered her mouth in disbelief.

She’d thought Lin Ye killing the middle-aged man in one blow had already overturned everything she knew about the young master. Only now did she realize the power he’d shown might have been just the tip of the iceberg.

She looked at the familiar profile beside her and suddenly found the young master she’d served for years a little unfamiliar.

The lead enforcer had clearly been shaken by the woman’s words too.

He stared at Lin Ye for several stiff seconds, his throat bobbing, before he managed to ask, “Deacon, could you have… seen it wrong?”

The woman snapped her head toward him.

The urgency in her gaze was gone, replaced by an icy warning.

Meeting her eyes, the enforcer swallowed whatever else he’d been about to say. He seemed finally to remember that he’d already questioned one order. This time he had the sense to keep quiet and silently lead the other enforcers farther back.

Soon a large space opened in the center of the hall.

The woman ignored the uncertain, suspicious looks around her. She straightened the buttons she’d fastened wrongly in her haste and slowly steadied her breathing. Only when she had recovered an outward appearance of composure did she turn back to Lin Ye.

“My name is Gu Qinglan. I’m a deacon at the Skyvault City branch of the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, primarily responsible for assessing the risks of anomalous incidents and assigning personnel.”

She didn’t offer her hand, keeping a safe distance instead. She was even more cautious than she would have been with the branch’s senior officials. “What happened just now was a failure on the Bureau’s part. That man insulted your companion. We’ll investigate the responsibility afterward, and we won’t hold you accountable for this.”

Her gaze flicked briefly to the body in the wall.

It really had been a rather gruesome death.

Gu Qinglan looked away, choosing her words even more carefully. “May I ask what brought you to the Bureau? Whether you wish to consult records, find someone, or use Bureau resources, I’ll do my best to help, as far as my authority allows.”

The people around them listened, their expressions betraying a mix of emotions.

The Bureau of Supernatural Affairs had always stood above Skyvault City’s ordinary administrative bodies. Even with the Upper City’s powerful figures who truly controlled its resources, it rarely adopted such a humble stance.

But Gu Qinglan was clearly not concerned with appearances right now.

She only wanted to establish, as quickly as possible, what this young man—whose level of danger she couldn’t even assess—wanted.

Lin Ye rubbed his chin.

Naturally, he needed to look through the records.

But the Bureau handled too many anomalous incidents every day. Sifting through them one by one on his own to find the cause of Skyvault City’s destruction wouldn’t be easy.

Since someone had offered to help, he might as well be direct.

“What’s the most dangerous mission you have right now?” Lin Ye looked at the still-scrolling screen, sounding as casual as if he were asking for a restaurant’s specialty.

“Preferably one that’s close to getting out of control, where an ordinary person would be unlikely to come back.”

Every response Gu Qinglan had prepared came to a halt in her mind.

She’d expected him to ask for access to a sealed object or a senior official’s confidential file. Neither would have surprised her.

But he really was here to take a mission.

She couldn’t help studying him again.

Did someone capable of flattening the entire branch need to earn rewards by completing missions?

It was like someone carrying a cannon powerful enough to demolish the city wall into a slaughterhouse and earnestly asking how much he’d get paid to kill a pig.

She didn’t press him.

After a brief thought, Gu Qinglan’s expression grew serious. “There is a mission, and it’s urgent. It hasn’t been posted publicly, though, and ordinary mission takers aren’t qualified to hear about it.”

The people who had been listening in pricked up their ears.

Gu Qinglan noticed the movement around them, but chose not to explain further in the hall. She gestured toward the office at the side, inviting Lin Ye to speak somewhere else.

Lin Ye didn’t move. He simply waited for her to continue.

She had no choice but to lower her voice and briefly outline the most important facts. “There’s a place called White Stone Town outside Skyvault City, not very far from here. According to its registration records, it had well over a hundred thousand residents. But a few days ago, every person in the town disappeared overnight.”

Su Jin’s grip on Lin Ye’s sleeve tightened slightly.

More than a hundred thousand people.

That wasn’t something an ordinary anomalous incident could explain.

Gu Qinglan didn’t dramatize it, but her calm delivery only made the facts more chilling. “There were no calls for help, no mass exodus, and no obvious signs of a fight. The first reconnaissance team we sent in lost all contact after entering the town. It included a Sequence 7 powerhouse.”

She paused, apparently still considering how best to convey the seriousness of the situation.

“They sent nothing back. We don’t even know what happened after they entered.”

All conversation in the hall died away.

Anyone who made a living here knew, more or less, what Sequence 7 meant.

To ordinary people, a powerhouse at that level was almost godlike. Yet after entering White Stone Town, even that person hadn’t managed to send a warning.

Gu Qinglan continued, “The Bureau is treating this with the utmost seriousness. The branch has been gathering personnel from several nearby cities. The team is assembled and will leave tomorrow morning.”

Lin Ye’s eyes lit up.

Even an ordinary Sequence 6 might not be able to make a Sequence 7 powerhouse disappear without a sound.

Unable to win a fight, a Sequence 7 should still have had a chance to escape, or at least send a warning.

That town was very likely connected to some higher being.

Skyvault City had less than thirty days left.

And an anomalous zone capable of making over a hundred thousand people vanish overnight had appeared nearby. Lin Ye wouldn’t believe the two were unrelated.

“I’ll take it.” He made up his mind without further consideration. “I’ll leave with you tomorrow.”

Su Jin turned sharply toward him.

She’d had a bad feeling the moment she heard the Sequence 7 had disappeared, but she hadn’t expected Lin Ye to actually go there himself.

“Young Master…” Forgetting the crowd around them, she grabbed his arm to stop him. But before she could say more, he turned and patted her gently on the head.

“You go home first.” Seeing the worry in her eyes, Lin Ye offered a rare patient explanation. “It wouldn’t be convenient to take you somewhere like that. Don’t worry. I might be average at other things, but if I really want to run, I doubt there’s anyone in this world who can catch me.”

He spoke lightly, but Su Jin didn’t relax.

Still, she was only a secretary, and a secretary had to listen to her boss.

She opened her mouth, then decided against arguing further in front of so many people. She smoothed the cuff she’d crumpled in her grip, her fingers lingering for a moment before she slowly let go.

She tried to keep her voice steady, but couldn’t resist one last warning. “If anything feels wrong, come straight back. Don’t fight those things head-on for the sake of a mission. There are still plenty of company documents waiting for your signature. If you don’t come back, I’ll send every last one to your father.”

Lin Ye heard the anxiety beneath the threat. Smiling, he waved a hand. “I know. Go home and get some sleep. By this time tomorrow, I might already have it all sorted out.”

Su Jin clearly didn’t believe him, but she didn’t say so.

She took one last look at Lin Ye, as though trying to fix his face in her memory, then walked alone through the crowd that parted for her and headed out of the hall.

Only after she’d disappeared through the entrance did Gu Qinglan speak again.

“Mr. Lin, I must warn you.” Rather than relax now that he’d agreed to join, she sounded even more solemn. “I once tried to use divination on White Stone Town, but got no result.”

Lin Ye looked away from the entrance. “You didn’t see anything?”

“That’s right.”

Her answer came at once.

There were generally two possibilities in a case like this. Either a Sequence or a contained artifact in the town was blocking divination, or whatever was in the town was of such a high rank that any attempt to observe it was directly obscured.

Neither possibility was something the Skyvault City branch could handle easily.

“This operation is primarily an investigation.” In the end, Gu Qinglan avoided the worst possibility and explained the Bureau’s plan. “We need to identify the source of the anomaly, how the corruption spreads, and the level of danger before deciding whether to request higher-Sequence personnel from headquarters. White Stone Town may well involve a higher being. The real danger could be far greater than our current assessment.”

Far from being deterred, Lin Ye nodded with satisfaction.

“Dangerous is exactly what I want.” He glanced at the low-level missions on the screen again, having lost all interest in them. “If it weren’t dangerous, I wouldn’t bother going.”

Gu Qinglan watched his unconcerned expression, unable to tell whether it came from absolute confidence or some kind of ignorance.

She didn’t try to dissuade him again.

At least from her earlier divination, letting Lin Ye join the operation was far safer than trying to stop him.

Gu Qinglan led him into the offices at the side of the hall. Only after the door closed behind them did the long-suppressed discussion outside erupt.

Gu Qinglan spent the entire afternoon briefing Lin Ye on White Stone Town.

Records from the relevant departments, the makeup of the missing team, the terrain around the town, and the broad arrangements for the operation were compiled into documents and brought to him.

Some of the material required internal Bureau authorization, but Gu Qinglan withheld none of it.

Lin Ye read quickly. He didn’t spend much time on the scattered details, focusing instead on when the anomaly had appeared, its extent, and whether it might spread to Skyvault City.

By the time he put the last document back on the desk, the light outside had turned a dusky gold.

Lin Ye leaned back in his chair and nodded with satisfaction.

The anomaly at White Stone Town had appeared too suddenly, and its inhabitants had vanished too completely.

The fewer clues there were, the more it suggested that ordinary investigations couldn’t reach the true cause.

This place might well be connected to the disaster that would destroy Skyvault City.

Lin Ye declined Gu Qinglan’s offer to arrange accommodations and left the Bureau alone. He intended to find a decent hotel nearby for the night and leave with the investigation team in the morning.

The Middle City was still bustling at dusk.

Transport vehicles passed one after another, and illuminated shop signs glowed through grime along the street. Pedestrians finishing a day’s work crowded the narrow sidewalks, bringing with them the weariness and everyday bustle rarely seen in the Upper City.

Lin Ye had barely gone any distance from the Bureau’s entrance and was considering finding something to eat when a distinctly surprised woman’s voice called from behind him.

“Lin… Young Master Lin?”

“What are you doing here?”