“What kind of person would live in a place like this!”
“Brother Ji, the city proper has long been abandoned. Anything that shows up around here is either an Infected or a monster that crawled out of the Abyss.”
“Even if someone really does live in this mist, we’d never find them!”
The group chattered away, and Si Lingfei voiced the question on everyone’s mind: “Could this be a trap set by a rival guild? There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.”
The others all agreed.
“This is a private mission sent to us by Lei Kunlun. I was thinking of everyone’s interests when I brought you all together!”
Si Lingfei clearly wasn’t convinced: “Be straight with us—who’s the target? What’s their awakening level? If you’re hiding anything, I’m walking right now.”
Seeing he couldn’t keep it hidden any longer, Ji Yiwen had no choice but to come clean: “Actually…”
When everyone heard the full story, their expressions varied. Si Lingfei let out a soft sigh: “Ji Yiwen, you’re really something, taking on even this kind of mess.”
“Sending a bunch of assault specialists like us to bully a kid who hasn’t even graduated middle school—if word gets out, we’ll never live it down.”
“Yeah, Brother Ji, no matter how broke you are, you can’t go around kidnapping someone’s kid!”
“I didn’t want to take it either, but that Lei Kunlun guy paid way too much!” Ji Yiwen said, holding up five fingers.
The others exchanged glances, then guessed: “Fifty thousand?”
“Guess again.”
“Five hundred thousand!!”
That price really made their hearts race.
“Keep guessing!”
“Don’t tell me it’s five million!”
When Ji Yiwen nodded, the group instantly erupted.
“My god, the Lei family really is filthy rich—spending five million just to mess with a middle schooler!”
“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s charge in!”
“If we pull this off, we can kick back and relax for a whole year!”
Ji Yiwen chuckled: “We need him alive. Just give him a beating.”
But Si Lingfei had her reservations—she quietly sent a message to the guild master.
After the group entered the mist, everyone’s expressions turned serious.
“Drive straight ahead. We’ll see the buildings soon enough,” Ji Yiwen said, looking at the map.
Si Lingfei also pulled out her phone. Ever since entering the mist, the signal had gotten terrible—after just a few steps, it cut out completely.
…
Not long after Ji Yiwen’s group entered the white mist, two more off-road vehicles pulled up in front of it.
“This is the place!” The leader chuckled.
A neatly dressed young man stepped out of one of the vehicles—none other than Ming Xuanyuan, who’d had a run-in with Huang Quan before.
Since Huang Quan lived outside the city, Ming Xuanyuan had specifically hired three Level 4 Awakened to escort him for safety.
“You dare touch the woman I’ve got my eye on? Tonight I’ll make sure you don’t even know how you died!” Ming Xuanyuan’s face was full of malice. He’d long since considered Lei Aoxue his own property—how could he let anyone else covet her?
“Follow me. Once we find that bastard, kill him on the spot. He likes living outside the city, does he? Well, today he can die out in the suburbs and no one will even care!”
With that, Ming Xuanyuan got into the off-road vehicle and charged straight into the white mist.
…
Inside the white mist, Ji Yiwen’s military off-road vehicle had been driving for about ten minutes, but all that surrounded them was still white fog and the faintly visible branches stretching out.
No matter how they drove, they remained completely wrapped in that white mist.
Now Ji Yiwen was getting anxious: “Are you driving crooked or something? I told you to go straight!”
“I am going straight! I haven’t even touched the steering wheel,” the driver said defensively.
“Then why haven’t we arrived yet? We should be there if we just go straight!” Ji Yiwen glared at the map in frustration.
Si Lingfei snatched the map and examined it carefully: “Where did you get this map? This must be from before the white mist appeared!”
“After the white mist appeared, no one’s been in here, let alone drawn a map,” Ji Yiwen said helplessly.
Since entering the mist wasn’t like entering an Abyssal Rift, he hadn’t been careful—it was just fog, so he figured going in was no big deal.
But he never in his wildest dreams imagined they’d get lost in this white mist.
“I used to think the story about a Level 6 Awakened starving to death was just a rumor. Now it seems it was true!”
Si Lingfei poked half her head out of the vehicle and said, “I have flight equipment. I’ll fly above the clouds to scout. Wait for me here—I won’t fly too high, and if there’s danger I’ll warn you immediately.”
Ji Yiwen, however, was completely unconcerned: “What danger could there be? At most there are some Level 1 or 2 Infected or Abyssal monsters around here—nothing high-level, they can’t cause any real trouble.”
Si Lingfei just shot him a fierce glare, then activated the crystal necklace around her neck. A faint blue light gathered behind her, solidifying from illusion into reality, gradually taking the shape of wings.
Then Si Lingfei leaped out of the vehicle and shot straight up into the sky.
A hint of envy flickered in Ji Yiwen’s eyes: “Flight equipment is extremely rare. I’ve been raiding the Abyss for years and never came across a single piece, and the ones at auction houses are way out of my price range.”
“Brother Ji, if you save your money, visit fewer brothels, and raid the Abyss more often, you could still afford one.”
“You think that’s possible?” Ji Yiwen shot them a look.
But before even a few breaths had passed, a huge crash sounded beside them—Si Lingfei came plummeting straight down, tumbling across the ground several times before coming to a disheveled stop.
Ji Yiwen’s expression changed instantly. He started directing his team: “Liu Ren, Du Hu, stay on guard! Da Shan, come with me to get Si Lingfei!”
At his command, the four instantly summoned their companion weapons and burst out of the vehicle. Two scanned the surroundings while Ji Yiwen, scythe in hand, rushed to Si Lingfei’s side.
Si Lingfei was a Level 4 Awakened—anyone who could knock her out of the sky in an instant had to be extraordinary.
“I’m fine,” Si Lingfei said, getting up and brushing the dust off her clothes, her expression grave.
“Brother Ji, no Abyssal monsters or Infected detected!” Du Hu reported.
Ji Yiwen nodded, then looked at Si Lingfei: “How did you fall?!”
Si Lingfei shook her head: “That’s what’s so strange. I was clearly flying upward, but suddenly the ground appeared right in front of me. If I hadn’t used an attack to break my fall, the impact would’ve been rough.”
Ji Yiwen was confused too, but one thing was certain: “…This white mist is strange. It looks like flying up to scout the terrain won’t work.”
“Let’s turn back the way we came. We shouldn’t take this mission after all,” Si Lingfei said, a sense of unease creeping into her heart.
“There must be a way through this white mist…” Suddenly something clicked for Ji Yiwen, and his face lit up with understanding: “I see now—that kid must have figured out the secret of this white mist. That’s why he dared set up base inside it.
A natural barrier like this—there’s nothing safer than this place!”
