After the college entrance examination, my identity as a Mahayana Immortal Venerable could no longer

Chapter 88 Under the Dragon-Locking Well, someone knocked on the door first.

In the latter half of the night, the old town of Jiangnan was completely immersed in a deathly silence and chill.

The autumn night wind was biting and piercing, rushing wildly through the crisscrossing old alleyways, scraping away at the mottled walls, sending shards of decaying cement and withered leaves swirling and flying across the ground. The entire abandoned area was deserted, even the chirping of insects and the sound of the wind gradually fading away, leaving only a heavy sense of oppression hanging over the entire world.

A black minivan lay silently outside the gate of the abandoned textile factory, its engine and lights off, like a lurking beast, blending into the thick night without making a sound.

Shen Qingci leaned against the cold car door, her posture upright and aloof, her aura both distant and tense.

She held a half-lit cigarette between her fingers, the flame flickering and leaving a long trail of ash, teetering precariously, but she completely ignored it. She had no desire to smoke; she was merely using this restrained gesture to desperately suppress the heavy-heartedness and anxiety surging within her.

The old town is so quiet tonight.

It was eerily quiet, unsettlingly quiet.

This deathly silence was not the tranquility of an ordinary night; it was a deathly silence created by some kind of cold, oppressive atmosphere, where all things were silent and life was extinguished.

Just then, a clear and steady sound of footsteps came from deep within the alley.

It landed neither too fast nor too slow, landing lightly, piercing through the deep night and breaking the deathly silence.

Shen Qingci's eyes flickered, and with a slight exertion of her fingertips, she stubbed out the cigarette butt and tossed it precisely into the mineral water bottle at her feet. Her movements were swift and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

Looking up, at the end of the night, a white figure slowly walked towards us.

Lu Yuan was still wearing that simple white casual outfit, spotless from head to toe. He had just traversed rugged night roads and muddy alleyways, yet the soles of his shoes were ridiculously clean, without a speck of mud or a speck of dust. It was as if all the filth and evil spirits of the world were naturally unable to approach him.

His expression was calm, his steps were unhurried, and there was no deliberate display of power about him, but he naturally exuded a relaxed and confident air that looked down on all living beings.

Shen Qingci straightened up, concealing all the seriousness in her eyes, and went straight to the point without a single word of formality: "Mr. Lu, you arrived sooner than I expected."

"The annotations you left on the documents are not nonsense." Lu Yuan said calmly, his gaze sweeping across the dark depths of the factory area. "Being able to accurately pinpoint the anomalies at the wellhead and the rhythm of the alarm means you've got the core details down, which is why I made this trip."

"It's good that it's useful." Shen Qingci nodded slightly, her tone crisp and decisive. "I hate it when I travel all night, only to waste my time and return empty-handed."

She pointed to the factory area with its iron gates tightly locked, speaking rapidly and clearly, every sentence containing crucial intelligence: "I've established three layers of security inside, each layer defended without interference. The outermost layer is the city's special police, responsible for maintaining order and clearing the area, stopping all unauthorized personnel; the middle layer consists of my bureau's core personnel, monitoring energy fluctuations throughout and guarding the line; and at the most critical wellhead location, engineers welded a high-density protective steel mesh overnight to prevent any foreign objects from escaping."

At this point, her tone suddenly turned somber, revealing a hint of barely concealed apprehension: "Half an hour ago, without any warning, the steel mesh at the wellhead was suddenly pushed up from the inside, and the six reinforcing welds instantly shattered and fell off. It wasn't an external impact; something underground was forcefully pushing it outwards."

"No one went down the well to investigate?" Lu Yuan's gaze darkened slightly.

"We sent two of our most experienced engineers." Shen Qingci's lips tightened, a hint of frustration and strangeness flashing in her eyes. "They were both pulled back by ropes."

"Dead?"

"They are still alive, but their consciousness is blurred, like living dead." Shen Qingci said each word heavily. "Their mouths, noses, and ear canals are filled with fine silt from the bottom of the well. Their bodies are cold and stiff. No matter how we try to rescue them, we cannot wake them up. The instruments show no abnormalities, but they have completely lost their minds. We cannot get a single clue from them."

Lu Yuan glanced at her indifferently, instantly seeing through her.

It was no accident that Shen Qingci was able to maintain her position as deputy director of the Jiangnan branch of the Tianjian Bureau.

She was neither a soft-hearted, sentimental fool, nor a reckless, impulsive warrior. Faced with an unclear situation and unknown dangers, she didn't blindly throw herself into danger or launch a forced attack. Instead, she immediately secured the scene, gathered intelligence, stabilized the situation, and blocked all controllable risks. She herself never acted rashly, but prepared all contingency plans and all available resources, quietly waiting for the optimal solution to emerge.

Calm, patient, discerning, and knowing when to advance and retreat.

The ability to gain a foothold in the Jiangnan region on the eve of chaos and amidst frequent strange phenomena has never relied on luck, but on exceptional intelligence and a keen sense of proportion.

Lu Yuan, too lazy to beat around the bush, went straight to the point: "You took the initiative to contact me, so just say what you want in return."

Shen Qingci chuckled softly upon hearing this, meeting his gaze frankly and without any pretense: "Straightforward. Then I won't beat around the bush with you. Tonight, strange phenomena are occurring frequently throughout Jiangnan, with many places experiencing unusual earth vein movements, but the crisis surrounding this Dragon Locking Well is the most deadly and urgent."

"If you can completely suppress the source of the disaster underground and eliminate the hidden dangers, I will give you two substantial rewards."

"speak."

"First, I'll smooth over all the visible troubles for you." Shen Qingci spoke with absolute confidence, each word ringing with conviction. "Tonight's battle at Cloudtop Manor, the foreign superhuman corpses, all energy anomaly records, street surveillance footage, all archived and monitored data from the city and province—I'll erase them all. All relevant personnel will be silenced. Those who should be blind will be blind, those who should be mute will be mute. From now on, no one will investigate, no one will dare to ask."

This promise was tantamount to completely eliminating all worldly troubles for Lu Yuan, and it carried immense weight.

"Secondly," Shen Qingci continued, throwing out another major offer, "the Jiangnan General Warehouse of the Celestial Observation Bureau will be open to you once. You can choose any three items from the century-old medicines, feng shui jade pieces, ancient artifacts, and cultivation secrets treasured within the warehouse without reporting, registering, or returning them."

After hearing this, Lu Yuan did not immediately agree.

He quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind, his eyes swirling with thoughts.

To quell a catastrophic disaster and open the official secret vault—the price to pay far exceeds the scope of ordinary requests for help. Shen Qingci, wielding considerable power and accustomed to storms, is by no means a generous person. The fact that she dared to take such a heavy risk demonstrates that the dangers lurking beneath the surface are far more terrifying than what is recorded on paper or detected by instruments.

She must have secretly lost manpower and glimpsed some of the strange truth, knowing full well that Jiangnan's current resources are simply insufficient to suppress it. If she were to forcefully resist, it would only lead to a city-wide catastrophe. In desperation, she went to seek help at any cost.

"What will be your price?" Lu Yuan cut to the chase, showing no greed for undeserved gains.

Shen Qingci's eyes narrowed, and her tone became extremely serious: "After you go down the well, if you find or obtain any clues or objects related to the Jiangnan geomantic veins, ancient seals, or underground secrets, you only need to tell me one truth."

"Just one sentence?"

"First, tell the truth."

Shen Qingci looked up, meeting his eyes directly. Her eyes held a mixture of helplessness and clarity befitting her high position: "Since I'm in this position, my brothers need a way out, they need stability. My superiors need to give me an explanation and deliver results. I can't just keep passively covering for them, watching helplessly as chaos erupts in Jiangnan. If you want me to shield you from the storm, I need to have a clear understanding of what we're fighting against."

Lu Yuan nodded slightly, and said decisively, "Okay."

Shen Qingci quietly exhaled a breath of stale air, and her tense shoulders completely relaxed.

Her biggest concern was that this extraordinary expert would find it troublesome and tedious, and simply turn around and leave.

If Lu Yuan abandons the matter, she will have no choice but to use heavy explosives to bury the entire Dragon-Locking Well and destroy the entire factory area. However, this method is only a temporary solution, suppressing the source of the disaster but not eradicating the hidden danger. Once the evil entity in the well breaks free, the entire old city area, and even half of Jiangnan City, will be devastated and plagued by disaster.

"Come with me."

Shen Qingci stepped aside to lead the way, leading Lu Yuan deep into the abandoned factory area.

The vast factory area was desolate and empty. Fire trucks, engineering vehicles, and ambulances were parked in neat rows, but all were dark and silent. There was not a single ray of light on the entire site except for a ring of low emergency lights spread across the ground, their pale glow flickering eerily, illuminating the ruins and cracks. The atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Layer upon layer of cordon tape stretched out, and fully armed personnel stood solemnly around the perimeter, their faces tense and their eyes grave, barely daring to breathe. On either side of the site, two signal jammers operated at high speed, continuously emitting a faint hum, completely isolating any signal or energy fluctuations within a radius of 100 meters.

Upon reaching the second iron gate checkpoint, a middle-aged man wearing glasses quickly approached; it was Zhou, the on-site technical supervisor.

His eyes were bloodshot, his face was pale and haggard, and his voice trembled uncontrollably: "Director Shen, there's another sound from down the well."

"How many times?" Shen Qingci asked in a cold tone.

"Just twice in a row."

"Has the rhythm remained the same?"

"Exactly the same, still three short and one long."

As Zhou Gong spoke, his gaze fell on Lu Yuan, and he suddenly paused, his face full of doubt: "And who is this?"

"Foreign aid," Shen Qingci said succinctly.

"Foreign aid?" Engineer Zhou frowned instantly, his face full of rigid resistance. "Director Shen, this is against procedure! Unfamiliar foreign aid must register with their real names, undergo radiation screening, and be tested for contamination before entering the site. The situation underground is extremely unknown, harboring unsettling and dangerous risks. If a leak or a runaway accident occurs, who will take responsibility?"

"If anything happens to him, I will take full responsibility." Shen Qingci's tone was firm and left no room for argument.

"But the procedures, safety regulations..."

"Engineer Zhou." Shen Qingci turned her head and looked at him coldly, her eyes sharp as knives. "If you have a compliant, safe, and effective method to suppress the abnormal activity underground and rescue the missing personnel, bring it out immediately."

Zhou Gong's lips moved repeatedly, but he couldn't utter a single word for a long time.