Chapter 1
The Sound of the Devil

"Hoo..."

The exhaled breath quickly turned into white mist in the cold wind, adding a touch of blur to the curved lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses.

This was a peak in the Kunlun Mountains.

The summit was covered in silver, frozen all year round, and the mountains were surrounded by clouds and mist, like a fairyland.

Bai Haozheng, an intelligence analyst from the Special Affairs Bureau, walked slowly on the wide road paved with black stone slabs.

He was only wearing a thin suit, ignoring the knife-like cold wind,

His eyes were only on the metal gate at the end of the road, which was integrated with the mountain.

On both sides of the stone slab road, engraved with intricate runes, were fully armed sentries, standing guard every three steps, every five steps, never looking away.

In the sky, hundreds of drones circled and patrolled.

Faintly visible were the low-rise base not far away, as well as armored vehicles, flying vehicles, and stationed personnel in the base.

This was one of the entrances to Qiu Mo Ku (Demon Imprisonment Cave) in the real world.

The closer he got to the metal gate, the fewer sentries there were along the way.

Bai Haozheng knew very well what was happening—with each step he took forward, the noise that inexplicably rang in his ears became more intense.

As the sentries completely disappeared, the noise in his ears also turned into thousands of roars, wails, and mournful howls,

As if countless demons and monsters from the depths of hell were shouting in unison.

This was not an ordinary sonic attack.

The air did not vibrate.

Recording equipment could not detect any sound fluctuations.

The demonic sound, from an unknown source, would directly affect the soul, and even some more essential things,

Like a kind of nuclear radiation that could affect everything—machinery malfunctioned, genes collapsed, and magic arrays dissipated. No man-made object could last for three days without disintegrating within the range of the demonic sound.

Even though the black stone slab road was personally paved by cultivators from the Different Arts Society, and could weaken the effect of the wails,

A short distance had already eroded nearly three hundred points of Bai Haozheng's sanity.

If it were an ordinary person, or even some ordinary Wan Jia Xiong Meng players, they would probably have fainted to the ground at this moment, their hands and feet twitching, losing their will,

Even producing terrifying distortions.

Tap, tap, tap.

This place was a mountain hollow, the wind gradually weakened, and the sound of footsteps gradually increased.

The black stone slab road ended in front of the metal gate.

Bai Haozheng stopped, took a few breaths,

Took out his credentials from his pocket, and showed them to the two humanoid, simple stone statues guarding the door—these stone statues were the prized possessions of the Different Arts Society,

Nearly three meters tall, their faces were already blurred, making it difficult to distinguish whether they were human or beast.

The ancient stone statues, whose intelligence was questionable, turned their slow bodies and pushed open the metal gate, revealing the dark cave inside the mountain.

Whoosh.

The biting cold wind, carrying frost, rolled up a corner of his suit and poured into the dark cave—this place was too close to the entrance of Qiu Mo Ku, and no man-made object could function normally, so there was no light.

Bai Haozheng stepped into the doorway, letting the two stone statues close the door behind him.

In the huge cave, only his own heartbeat and breathing remained.

"..."

The intelligence analyst pushed up the frame of his glasses with one hand, and the lenses of the glasses immediately emitted light, illuminating the entire cave like a military searchlight.

The special effect description of this prop, called [Yuanguang Glasses (High Beam Glasses)], was [When wearing the glasses, release two strong beams of light that are enough to blind people].

It could indeed do this—at the cost of hurting himself eight hundred for every thousand enemies he killed.

"No matter how many times, I want to say that the design of these glasses is really stupid..."

Bai Haozheng muttered to himself, stepping forward.

Deep in the cave was a chain of unknown material. One end of the chain was nailed to the ground, and the other end extended out, hanging down into a bottomless abyss.

Bai Haozheng slid down the chain, and the demonic sounds in his ears kept changing,

Sometimes charming and graceful,

Sometimes rough and unrestrained,

Creating illusions in front of his eyes.

The black mist permeating the abyss, like piranhas smelling blood, surged towards Bai Haozheng, whose eyes were shining (literal meaning).

"Alas... I'm just an intelligence analyst..."

Bai Haozheng sighed, lightly holding the iron chain with one hand,

And wielding a stiletto-like, purely light-composed thorn sword with the other hand, casually waving it a few times,

Easily shattering the black mist, comparable to a thirteenth-level spirit body.

Pa.

His feet stepped on solid ground, and the iron chain reached its end, shaking and rubbing against the cliff walls, making a long, clanging collision sound.

"You've come..."

A hoarse, low voice, like iron sheets scraping against each other, came from the depths of the darkness.

A bizarre creature with the body of a horse, the trunk of an elephant, the face of a lion, the forehead of a rhinoceros, the tail of an ox, and the feet of a tiger, walked into the beam of the High Beam Glasses.

It was the Baku (dream eater) that once tried to lure the Special Affairs Bureau to develop man-made urban legends.

"Why the change?"

The Baku stepped on the ground with its four feet, and its body was surrounded by a faint black mist. A "frowning" expression clearly appeared on its lion-like face, "Where's the original contact person?"

"He has something to do temporarily, so I'm here instead."

Bai Haozheng said indifferently. He naturally couldn't explain that the Special Affairs Bureau was seriously short of manpower, and the Different Arts Society member who was originally responsible for communicating with the Baku had now been pulled to Yin City to suppress the restless Sheng Nan Wang (King Sheng Nan).

Bai Haozheng was the most resistant to the impact of the demonic sound among the people who had the authority to communicate with the Baku,

At the same time, he was the most authoritative and combative among those who could resist the impact of the demonic sound,

Therefore, he was urgently sent to the Kunlun Mountains.

After the Baku in front of him tried to induce the Special Affairs Bureau to develop man-made urban legends last time, it suddenly disappeared.

Then, the Sheng Nan Wang incident broke out in the real world.

The Special Affairs Bureau once thought that Sheng Nan Wang was related to the Baku, and believed that the Baku was the mastermind behind the scenes.

Unexpectedly, after Zhu Xuemin and others brought Sheng Nan Wang out of reality and sealed it, the Baku reappeared in Qiu Mo Ku.

Its explanation for its disappearance was that it sensed the aura of the Transcender and hid in the depths of Qiu Mo Ku out of fear.

As for what the Transcender was, the time and place of the Transcender's appearance,

The Baku only responded with a strange "hehehe" laugh.

Thinking of this, Bai Haozheng couldn't help but purse his lips. The Baku, who hid a lot, should definitely not be fully trusted,

But this alien beast, which had lived for thousands of years, did know quite a few ancient secrets.

The Baku shook its elephant trunk and said leisurely, "This time, what do you want to know?"

Bai Haozheng pushed up his glasses and said indifferently, "I don't know if you've heard of the Doorway Scramble."

"Doorway?"

The Baku narrowed its eyes and scratched several marks on the ground with its tiger claws, "Are you sure it's not Gate of Life, or Gate of All Marvels?"

Bai Haozheng frowned. Just as he was about to ask,

He saw the Baku shake its head and mutter, "Ah, I almost forgot, this may be your name for this reincarnation.

Well..."

The Baku pondered for a moment, then looked down at Bai Haozheng, a hint of a smile flashing in its eyes, "Grotto-heavens, Blessed Lands, Immortal Realms, Divine Domains, Heavenly Palaces, Alien Realms.

The so-called doorways lead to things like that."