“Are you alright?”

Li Ang glanced at Wanli Fengdao, who was covered in wounds, and asked casually.

“I’m fine.”

Little Knife bro shook his head, gripped his sword-wielding right hand, and with a crack, put his dislocated shoulder back in place. “Just a little troublesome…”

Just now, in the dense forest, he had been besieged by more than ten floating corpses. After desperately killing several of them, reinforcements arrived—Miss Chai, wearing the Qing’e armor, descended from the sky, wielding a bronze sickle and chopping through the rest like melons and vegetables. The two of them worked together to eliminate all the remaining floating corpses.

Thinking of this, Wanli Fengdao couldn’t help but glance out of the corner of his eye, almost imperceptibly, at the red and white armor that hadn't said a word.

So strong…

Strength, agility, reaction speed, impact resistance, self-healing ability… every single attribute surpassed the vast majority of players Wanli Fengdao had seen before.

And this armor was merely an appendage of Li Risheng.

When they first met in Guhan Temple, the other party was still a few levels lower than him, but now…

Wanli Fengdao shook his head, casting the chaotic thoughts to the back of his mind, and asked Li Ang, “What do we do now?”

“Take him over there and see if Brother Xing can wake up.”

Li Ang tugged on the iron chain. With the death of all the floating corpses, the Shui Yan (water ghost) had also suffered heavy damage, trembling all over with its eyes rolled back, looking as if it could die at any moment.

Unfortunately, this miserable state did not arouse any sympathy in Li Ang.

He dragged the iron chain unhurriedly toward the tree hollow, occasionally turning his head to scold it, telling the Shui Yan to hurry up, completely disregarding the fact that the latter was already spasming all over.

The group dragged their prisoner to the tree hollow. Li Ang held the iron chain in one hand and grabbed the Shui Yan by the neck with the other, letting it take a look at Xing Hechou, who was lying unconscious inside the tree hollow.

Li Ang asked indifferently, “How can we wake him up?”

“…”

The Shui Yan stood there, its neck stiff, tears and snot running down its face, silent.

“Are you deaf?”

Li Ang slapped it without hesitation, saying barbarously, “Still looking? Still looking? Believe it or not, I’ll tear off your skull.”

Faced with the brutal threat, the Shui Yan, bound like a dumpling, silently shed tears, shuffling its feet, slowly bowing its body, reaching over Xing Hechou, opening its mouth, and spitting out a puff of white smoke.

“What a big breath.”

Li Ang complimented, watching the puff of white smoke drift into Xing Hechou’s nostrils. He gripped the bronze long sickle he had taken from Miss Chai, holding it against the Shui Yan’s neck.

Any slight movement, and he could directly slice off its head.

“Alright.”

The skinless Shui Yan slowly straightened up, retreated from the tree hollow, looking gaunt and extremely haggard.

Xing Hechou, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly made a hoarse, labored inhaling sound, his chest rising and falling as he opened his eyes, staring straight at the top of the tree hollow.

“What… what happened to me?”

Xing Hechou supported himself with some difficulty, standing up and clutching his forehead as he looked at the people standing outside the tree hollow. “Brother Fengdao, and Miss Liu, what are you doing here?”

Li Ang said softly to Wanli Fengdao, “Ask him a few questions that only the two of you know.”

Wanli Fengdao understood. He was afraid the Shui Yan had done something, so he asked a few private questions.

After Xing Hechou revealed his player ID and confirmed his identity, he breathed a sigh of relief, pulling the sturdy man up from the ground. “Welcome back.”

Xing Hechou nodded, looking at Li Ang and Qing’e Armor, dressed in bright red, “Who are these two?”

“Old acquaintances, Li Risheng, and his… partner.”

Liu Wudai directly interjected to help introduce them. Just by looking at Li Ang’s expression, she knew that this kid was brewing some flamboyant self-introduction lines again. It was better to save some time.

“Brother Li.”

Xing Hechou’s eyes lit up. “I didn’t expect you to come too.”

“How could I miss this kind of excitement?”

Li Ang chuckled. In the real world, he had also had a lot of contact with Xing Hechou through the Killing Field game friend chat system. He hadn’t said hello when entering the Sheng Nan King’s dream this time, but he hadn’t expected to meet him in the end.

Teaming up with Special Affairs Bureau agents always felt a bit inconvenient…

Li Ang waved his hand, telling Miss Chai to take the Shui Yan to play on the side.

Feeling neglected, Miss Chai was a little sullen, pouting her lips and muttering something like, “You never include me when you discuss things.”

She nonchalantly swung the iron chain dumpling around, breaking one tree after another nearby, incidentally causing the Shui Yan to let out bursts of terrified, painful screams.

“Anyway,”

Li Ang turned back to look at Xing Hechou. “Brother Xing, can you tell us a little about the Special Affairs Bureau’s knowledge of the Sheng Nan King’s situation?”

Liu Wudai and Wanli Fengdao perked up their ears. Their security clearance wasn’t high enough to obtain internal information.

But Xing Hechou, as one of the captains of the Yin City Mobile Task Force, was undoubtedly an insider.

Xing Hechou hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, “You are all reliable people trusted by the Special Affairs Bureau. It’s fine to share some information.

Whether you want to leave the Sheng Nan King’s dream after hearing this information, or continue to delve deeper, I won’t stop you.

Of course, it would be even better if you are willing to cooperate with the Special Affairs Bureau’s work and assist us in completing our plan.”

A plan… It sounded like the Special Affairs Bureau had something in the works?

Li Ang nodded calmly. Liu Wudai and Wanli Fengdao also expressed their agreement with silence—they believed that Xing Hechou wouldn’t lie on such a matter.

“Then I’ll say it.”

Xing Hechou took a deep breath, his brows tightly locked, and said in a low voice, “The Sheng Nan King’s matter stems from the escape from the Prisoner Demon Cave caused by the departure of the Shenlong (蜃龙) before.”

Li Ang was stunned when he heard this. “Are these two things related?”

“Yes.”

Xing Hechou said in a deep voice, “I believe you have also received some news. The Prisoner Demon Cave, which imprisons countless demons, has developed some intelligence. After the Shenlong, who served as the prison guard, left,

it moved westward on its own, and is now entrenched near the Kunlun Mountains, temporarily lying dormant.”

Li Ang and the others were silent.

To prevent the Prisoner Demon Cave from erupting into a mutation, the government immediately launched a large-scale evacuation of the residential areas near the Kunlun Mountains, evacuating the local people.

And at the foot of the mountains, they demarcated a large no-fly zone.

On satellite maps, that area had also become pitch black, making it impossible to survey.

Internationally, there was a very strange collective silence on this matter.

Rumors were circulating on the player forums, saying that the government had established a very high-security military base in that area.

Li Ang and Liu Wudai were both personally involved in the Shenlong incident and knew a lot of inside information.

Wanli Fengdao, on the other hand, was hearing this kind of news for the first time. His expression changed slightly as he felt a faint regret in his heart, feeling that he seemed to have been dragged into some incredible secret.

“The guesses on the forums about the military base and the no-fly zone are all correct.”

Xing Hechou spread his hands and said, “We have sealed off the area where the Prisoner Demon Cave is located and built a research center on its periphery, responsible for monitoring, exploring, and studying the essence of the Prisoner Demon Cave.”