"Come in."

Lin Lin looked as if nothing had happened, his expression calm.

Zou Hai glanced at the commodore, then at Zhong Yuan behind him, his expression hesitant, but his meaning clear.

"What I did was not right."

Lin Lin reached out and brushed the wet stain on his chest. He said softly, "Detaining the person is one thing, but not giving an explanation is a bit too overbearing and unreasonable… What does it matter if Zhong Yuan threw a cup of water at me?"

Zou Hai gave a wry smile.

He had already guessed why the two were arguing.

However, even without this incident… Zhong Yuan and the commodore would still have had a "spar." The two were close friends, corresponding frequently. Most people in the North Continent believed they must be bosom buddies who would meet with joy and drink until they dropped. But, on the contrary, the two were friends and rivals.

Their relationship was subtle.

Every meeting sparked with tension.

This time was no exception.

"It seems he gained something from the Doru River Disaster mission. His strength has improved again, and he's not far from the 'titled' realm." Lin Lin watched his friend's departing back, recalling the details of their earlier exchange, and shook his head with a smile. "If we really fought, I wouldn't be 100% sure of winning."

These words… were full of meaning.

Zou Hai respectfully pondered them, then stated the purpose of his visit: "Commodore, there may be some problems at the fortress cemetery."

He recounted the sentinel's report in detail.

After listening, Lin Lin actually breathed a sigh of relief.

He had a bad feeling in his heart for a long time.

He always felt that… Hong Zhong's matter was not that simple!

That ominous premonition was like a shadow that could not be crushed. Although the person involved was dead, the darkness remained. Lin Lin knew that things were not over yet… That was why he was so tough on the investigation corps's Second Team, who had come to demand the body!

The strange happenings in the cemetery were clearly related to Hong Zhong!

"Very good." He stood up and said calmly, "Disperse the idlers. Tonight, you and I will take a trip."

He wasn't afraid of trouble.

He was only afraid that… trouble wouldn't come!

…

…

At night, the Gubu Fortress cemetery was covered with a faint silver light. This cemetery, specifically for burying the fortress's warriors, was not large, taking only ten minutes to walk through.

But it was a "key patrol" area for the sentinels on night watch.

Because the bodies of the deceased buried in the cemetery might still contain "extraordinary source substance" (chaofan yuanzhi).

The North Continent did not have miraculous places like "Qingzhong Cemetery."

Therefore, the fortress did not have the ability to digest "overflowing source substance." According to the laws of the extraordinary, the source substance in the bodies of the dead would slowly diffuse… But after all, this was an uncontrollable force. There had been precedents of "extraordinary disasters" erupting in cemeteries.

Since that accident, every fortress of the Zheng Wing had strictly controlled the cemeteries within their cities!

Tonight, the Gubu Cemetery was particularly deserted.

A cordon had been set up… Dozens of sentinels waited outside the cemetery.

They had been notified not to enter the park.

At the entrance of this small cemetery stood a small, desolate mountain, covered in frost and snow. It was actually an excellent position to command a view from a height. At this moment, two figures, one large and one small, stood on the top of the mountain. Lin Lin wore a cloak, stood with his hands clasped behind his back, and looked expressionlessly at the rows of tombstones below.

All was quiet.

There was no sound.

His gaze was mainly locked on Hong Zhong's tombstone, while his mental strength spread out, remotely covering the entire cemetery.

If there was any disturbance, he could "perceive" it immediately!

However, he had been waiting for two hours.

So far, none of the tombstones in the cemetery showed any abnormalities…

Zou Hai wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Although the cemetery was quiet, for some reason, his mind was tense. He always felt like someone was "staring" at him in the dark, but after looking around several times, he found nothing…

You should know that he was an extraordinary person whose strength had reached the fourth level!

Such a thing as misjudgment would not happen to him!

Even Zou, who had always been calm, was experiencing some mental fluctuations.

Lin Lin remained calm.

A breeze swept past—

"Here it comes."

Lin Lin's voice echoed softly in the air above the small mountain.

Zou Hai's pupils constricted.

At Hong Zhong's tombstone, which had been dead silent for so long, a gloomy figure appeared in an instant.

The figure stood in the dim light of the sky.

The moonlight and snow dyed the ground silver, and this strand of extreme black shadow stood between the gaps of the silver snow clouds. He was like a weightless ghost, easily dispersed by the wind. After gathering his form, he immediately cast his gaze towards the small mountain where living people were… It was a gaze of disgust, cold to the extreme.

Zou Hai met his eyes.

At this moment, his mind seemed to have been struck hard by a heavy hammer.

"Ugh…" Zou Hai groaned.

Hong Zhong's pupils were golden!

The guy's pupils were vertical, like the sinister and strange eyes of a snake.

It was clearly an extremely cold gaze, but it seemed to possess endless charm, making it difficult to look away after just one glance.

"Don't look 'it' in the eyes."

The next moment, Lin Lin's voice pierced into Zou Hai's dazed mental sea like a knife, instantly restoring his consciousness!

"Swish…"

Immediately afterward, Lin Lin shook out a cloak, blocking the path of their eye contact.

On a physical level, the eye contact was terminated!

Zou reacted quickly, seized the short opportunity when the cloak obscured his vision, and hurriedly moved his entranced, uncontrollably gaze away.

The next moment, he heard a violent wind in his ears.

Before the wind died down, Lin Lin's figure had already rushed down the small mountain.

He was faster than the wind.

Almost the instant that "Hong Zhong" made eye contact with Zou Hai, he acted, throwing out the cloak to block his vision, and then, during the short time it took for the former to adjust his gaze to look at him, he directly bombarded the other party's face like a shell!

He arrived in front of "Hong Zhong" in an instant. Facing this "hero" whose expression was as pale as a corpse, he showed no mercy and directly punched the latter's face!

"Boom!"

Lin Lin was indeed a shell!

This punch unleashed power comparable to a shell!

In Gubu Fortress, it had been many years since anyone had seen this commodore go all out!

The manic hot wind swept out, directly crushing "Hong Zhong's" face… Such a punch could not be resisted by a third-level extraordinary like Hong Zhong!

However.

The hot wind swept out for dozens of meters.

Lin Lin frowned.

His fist did shatter "Hong Zhong's" face. To be precise, it shattered the shadows that pieced together this face in the darkness. After the hot fist wind swept and spread, this face was reconstructed from the tears.

What the hell was this?

Hong Zhong, who could launch a "mental attack" on Zou Hai, was just a mental phantom?!

The guy in front of him had no substance at all!

However, even more terrifying things happened…

After this punch, "Hong Zhong," who had been moving slowly and looking dazed, slowly looked at Lin Lin.

Lin Lin saw those golden pupils.

With a "buzz"!

He felt the terrifying pressure that Zou Hai had faced earlier. This vertical pupil seemed to contain an extremely sinister and dark mental consciousness.

That consciousness surged like a滔天flood!

Lin Lin's expression suddenly turned gloomy. Source substance surged in his palm. This time, he condensed the power of his domain and struck again, slapping "Hong Zhong," who was standing in the gap of darkness!

With a "boom"!

This time, "Hong Zhong" was directly crushed into wind dust.

Gusts of wind swept, and the snow dust on the surrounding tombstones was blown away.

This shadow was also directly blown away by this strong wind.

"Commodore!"

Zou Hai hurried over. He saw Lin Lin cover his forehead with one hand and shake his head vigorously, then said hoarsely, "I'm fine… I'm fine… Call everyone outside in and open the coffin!"

…

…

The cordon around the cemetery was lifted.

But not completely lifted. This time, sentinels and elite extraordinary people from the fortress were allowed to enter, but the new cordon was not far from Hong Zhong's tombstone.

Only a few people were allowed inside.

Zhong Yuan was also in the cemetery because of his special status… However, he was blocked by the cordon. At this moment, the Second Team Captain was not angry, but frowned and watched the "opening of the coffin."

He had already heard about what happened in the cemetery earlier.

At first, he thought that "Gubu Fortress" was putting on a show for him!

Due to the continued pressure from external public opinion, a large number of people were watching the news of Hong Zhong, the returning hero… Zhong Yuan believed that his personal visit to the fortress to bring back his brother's body was a sure thing.

It was just a matter of time.

As for Lin Lin being attacked… it was simply absurd. On the entire North Continent front, how many people below the titled rank had the strength to attack this guy?

These thoughts all changed when he saw Lin Lin for the first time.

The young commodore wearing a cloak looked exceptionally pale.

Unlike Zou Hai, Lin Lin had borne almost all of the "mental attack" from the ghost in the cemetery at close range. At this moment, his mental sea was still in a state of turmoil.

Whether he opened his eyes or closed his eyes, ノ亅丶說壹2З

A mark of a "golden serpent pupil" appeared in the very center of his vision.

However… Lin Lin did not directly tell his subordinates about this mental abnormality. He was directing the scene. Hong Zhong's coffin was dug out. What was creepy was that the coffin, which had only been buried for a few days, was already decayed. As for the corpse after the coffin was opened, it was even more corroded beyond recognition.

"The decay started from the head…"

The doctor in the team said in a complicated tone, "Judging from the current scene alone, no one would doubt it if you said this guy had been dead for a year…"

This was really ironic.

But in the world of extraordinary people, anything was possible.

"This is mental toxin."

A low voice sounded outside the cordon. Lin Lin raised his eyes and looked at the blond man who spoke.

He raised his hand to signal the guards not to stop him.

Zhong Yuan squatted down and looked at the corpse, his voice a little hoarse: "We also encountered similar situations in the Doru River Disaster Zone. This kind of mental toxin often lurks in the mental sea, deceiving people's organs. Before the outbreak, everyone, including the 'person involved,' thinks that everything is fine."

Zhong Yuan said in a low voice: "However… after the mental toxin erupts, it is the beginning of the disaster. Hundreds of extraordinary people died in the Doru River. This was still the result of the corps commander's timely handling. This toxin first appeared within the Five Continents, possessing extremely fast aggression and unparalleled transmission speed."

Lin Lin narrowed his eyes.

"How is mental toxin transmitted?"

Zhong Yuan looked at Lin Lin and said slowly: "All ways."

Unknown.

The greatest fear of human beings towards extraordinary power comes from this.

Six hundred years ago, the greatest danger faced by the first pioneers who had not yet stabilized order within the giant wall was constantly recognizing what the power they were fighting against and using every day was, where it came from, and how to control and master it… This ultimate problem has not been truly answered to this day.

Whenever humans think they have found the answer.

The tide of history will slap down hard.

Giving humans a profound lesson!

"…Seal off Gubu Fortress and strictly prohibit anyone from entering or leaving." After listening to Zhong Yuan's description, Lin Lin issued an order very quickly, his voice hoarse: "Then, use sealing objects to isolate this cemetery. When necessary, special means can be used to deal with it."

"Special means…" Even Zou hadn't reacted yet.

Lin Lin looked at Zhong Yuan silently. This last silent glance was the last kindness allowed by the rules.

"Burn it."

Zhong Yuan opened his mouth softly, speaking the order for Lin Lin.

He stood up and looked expressionlessly at the corpse below him.

The blond man snapped his fingers.

With a "snap"!

The ring worn on Zhong Yuan's thumb suddenly burned. The scarlet phoenix fire echoed in the sky above the cemetery with a crisp cry.

He set fire to Hong Zhong's corpse without hesitation.

He used the spiritual fire from the A-level sealing object 【Phoenix Ring】. It was said that as long as the fire was strong enough, even ethereal spiritual power could be burned to ashes!

His purpose in coming to Gubu this time was originally very clear: to bring the body of the "returning hero" Hong Zhong back to the North Continent inland. But at this moment, Zhong Yuan suddenly realized what a terrible and wrong decision he had made.

Hong Zhong's corpse contained "mental toxin" of unknown origin.

In the Doru River Disaster Zone, the explorers paid a huge price to isolate the toxin within the Disaster Zone.

Once he brought this corpse back to the inland…

Then the sacrifices in the Doru River Disaster Zone would be meaningless, and the entire North Continent would usher in a violent attack from the 【Old World】's power of disaster…

Zhong Yuan stared at the firelight below him.

He couldn't understand.

What exactly happened in the Maze Thirty-Eight mission north of Gubu?

…

…

(I took the high-speed train home for three hours today, so the time to finish writing was later than usual, please forgive me)