Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Lin Juan clenched his fists. "Didn't you hide them? How could you not know where they are?"

The boy simply sat down, tilting his head to "look" at Lin Juan. His empty hospital gown billowed in the wind, occasionally stained with dark red blood.

"I really don’t know. My movements are restricted to this small area; I can’t go anywhere else. Here," the boy pointed to the cavern below, "you can search wherever you like."

Sheng Tianzong and Lin Juan exchanged a glance. Sheng Tianzong raised his left hand and gestured forward.

The superpower holders, well-trained, descended.

"To ensure you’re not lying," Lin Juan stepped forward and lifted the boy, "you’re coming down with us."

"Okay." The boy appeared very docile.

"Your legs…" Shi Haochen stepped closer, staring in surprise at the boy’s legs.

Beneath the empty pant legs, the boy’s legs were missing.

Yet, his missing legs didn’t hinder his movement. The boy smiled apologetically. "Sorry, did I scare you?"

After speaking, the pant legs filled out, and his exposed bare feet showed traces of mud.

From these unique feet, it wasn’t hard to guess that both of the boy’s legs were made of clay.

"Legend says Nüwa molded humans from clay. Do I count as someone Nüwa just finished making?" the boy joked.

Shi Haochen felt a pang of sorrow. As an observer, he could hardly bear witnessing that horrific past—how much worse must it have been for Gong Siyuan, who lived through it all?

After Gong Siyuan died, his body was dismembered and scattered, leading to his grotesque revival, forced to fashion a new body from clay.

Sheng Tianzong led his team deeper underground.

Inside the massive underground cavern stood many half-formed clay figures. As Lin Juan dragged Gong Siyuan along, he recognized many familiar ones.

"Did you make all those monsters above?" Lin Juan asked.

As if aware of his wrongdoing, Gong Siyuan lowered his head nervously. "Yes, I made them to pass the time. I’m confined here with nothing to do. Time drags on, so I made many clay figures to keep me company."

Shi Haochen’s sympathy for him was almost overflowing.

Sheng Tianzong glanced at the students, still somewhat naive newcomers to the world of the supernatural, and sighed inwardly. Seeing that Lin Juan remained silent, he said nothing.

Some things leave a lasting impression only when truly experienced.

Some detours must be taken personally; no matter how others warn against them, if one is avoided, another will surely follow.

The superpower holders searched the underground cavern but found no sign of the missing students.

Several squad leaders came to report their findings. Unnoticed by anyone, the motionless clay figures on the ground all turned their heads in unison, staring intently at the group in the center.

When a superpower holder sensed something amiss and looked over, they would revert to their original state.

"Mr. Lin, there’s nothing here. Let’s go back up and search elsewhere." The domain was vast, and a thorough search would take considerable effort.

Many superpower holders wished the boy could just provide direct clues.

Shi Haochen thought the same. He approached Lin Juan and quietly asked the boy, who stood with his head bowed, "Gong Siyuan, can you try to remember where they might be hidden?"

"I don’t know," the boy shook his head. No one could see the expression on his face, just as no one noticed the opening above slowly shrinking.

Everyone’s attention was on the search; few paid attention to the ceiling. Lin Juan, hearing the wind, looked up. "Was the opening this small when we came down?"

Discovered!

Gong Siyuan’s heart tightened. He wanted to speak but feared raising suspicion, so he remained silent.

Just a few more minutes. That’s all I need.

The boy clenched his hands at his sides. If he had a human body now, he would surely be sweating nervously.

Hearing Lin Juan’s voice, many superpower holders looked up.

"No, I don’t think so. I remember the opening wasn't that big when we came down."

"I remember that too… Wait, do you remember exactly how big it was when we came down?"

"Who would deliberately remember that? I just know it was more than big enough for us to descend."

"Mr. Lin wouldn’t ask such a question for no reason," a suspicious superpower holder frowned. "Earlier in the temple, those temples obscured our perception, constantly shrinking and squeezing our living space. Could this underground cavern be the same as the temple?"

This statement startled many.

"Very likely. After all, this is still within the domain, and there are so many half-formed clay figures. Perhaps this underground cavern is a half-finished temple!"

All superpower holders went on high alert. Sheng Tianzong sent one of them to check above.

The dispatched superpower holder possessed extreme speed, allowing him to climb quickly—if nothing went wrong.

As he climbed, he felt a resistance.

It was powerful, suffocating. The higher he went, the stronger the contamination felt—no, wait, the contamination was pressing downward.

Realizing this, the superpower holder descended rapidly, but it was too late.

An overwhelming wave of contamination enveloped him. His body began to transform against his will; thick mud shells grew on his skin, tightening around him. Breathing grew difficult, his lungs constricted as if by a giant hand, blocking air.

His face turned red, his strength ebbing. With his last breath, he warned his comrades, "Contamination above! Don’t come up!"

Then, his grip loosened, and he fell.

As he fell, his body rapidly turned to clay. If unchecked, hitting the ground at this speed would shatter him to pieces!

"Someone, catch him!" Sheng Tianzong ordered loudly.

A superpower holder stepped forward, using his ability to slow the fall.

The moment their powers connected, the rescuer noticed the fallen one’s condition: "Bad—he’s almost fully mutated!"

How?!

That was everyone’s first thought. The superpower holder had been gone for less than five minutes. How could he mutate so fast?

Sheng Tianzong’s expression turned grave. With Zhuang Yufeng absent, they couldn’t purify a mutating superpower holder in time. To save him, they had to evacuate him as quickly as possible.

But at his current rate of transformation, he wouldn’t last that long.

What should they do?

Were they supposed to just watch their companion deteriorate into a pollutant right before their eyes?

While thinking all this, Sheng Tianzong’s movements didn’t stop. He strode over to check the superpower holder’s condition.

With just one glance, Sheng Tianzong’s heart sank.

The situation was even worse than he had imagined.

This was Shi Haochen’s first mission, and he was confronted with such a brutal scene. He couldn’t hold back, his eyes turning red.

"Lin-ge, is there really no way? If only I had known, I would’ve used my superpower to check instead. If he hadn’t gone up, wouldn’t he have avoided all this?" The more Shi Haochen thought about it, the more he blamed himself.

Lin Juan frowned. Pollution itself had no weight, yet he could feel it—it felt heavy.

This meant the pollution had been gathered artificially and released here at thousands of times its normal density.

Lin Juan glanced sideways at the young man who had been keeping his head down obediently all along. He grabbed him by the nape and shook him. "Quit playing dead. You know what’s going on, don’t you?"

Shi Haochen instinctively spoke up, "But doesn’t he know nothing?"

Lin Juan smirked at him. "How much of what an Anomaly says do you think is believable?"

Shi Haochen’s expression froze for a moment, disbelief washing over him. "You mean… he’s been lying all along?"

Lin Juan neither confirmed nor denied it. "Not too stupid, then."

Shi Haochen was stunned. "But he clearly…"

He clearly seemed so weak and had suffered so tragically. How could it be?

Sheng Tianzong spoke up, "You think he’s weak?"

Shi Haochen nodded.

"And you think he’s tragic? That his suffering makes you angry?"

Shi Haochen continued to nod.

"Then do you know that human called Gong Siyuan has long been dead?"

Shi Haochen paused for a moment, then nodded.

He suddenly realized, "I was wrong. The current 'Gong Siyuan,' no matter how much he resembles Gong Siyuan, isn’t him. That young man named Gong Siyuan died long ago at the hands of the organ trafficking ring. What’s been standing before us from the start was never Gong Siyuan—it was the Class A Anomaly, the *Clay Bodhisattva*!"

"Correct," Lin Juan’s lips curled slightly. "But no reward."

Gong Siyuan—no, the *Clay Bodhisattva*—lifted its head, glaring viciously at Lin Juan. "You knew all along?!"

"Yeah."

"Why didn’t you say anything?!"

"I thought you were enjoying your act as a weak, easy-to-bully victim, so I kindly didn’t interrupt. What, am I not considerate enough?"

The *Clay Bodhisattva* stared at him, wanting to smash that face to pieces.

In a fit of extreme rage, the *Clay Bodhisattva* suddenly burst out.

Its body rapidly expanded. Though called the "*Clay Bodhisattva*," its true form wasn’t a Bodhisattva statue but a bizarre creature made of mud and sludge. It had no fixed shape, flowing like mud, assimilating wherever it went into its new body.

The semi-finished clay figures quickly merged into its body, becoming part of it. Lin Juan still held a chunk of wet mud in his hand—slimy, with an indescribable touch, utterly disgusting.

The wet mud tried every means to assimilate Lin Juan but was held tight by him. Though it was a fluid that should flow freely, it couldn’t break free.

The *Clay Bodhisattva*, which had thought it had the upper hand, panicked. "Just who are you?"

It was a Class A Anomaly, and within its own domain, superpower holders like Sheng Tianzong were suppressed, not enough to make it fear. Only Lin Juan.

Why did its domain have no suppressive effect on him?!

He wasn’t an S-class superpower holder—if he were, the domain would have detected it immediately. The domain gave no alarm, meaning this person’s level was below its own.

Lin Juan clenched the mud-like liquid in his hand and yanked it back hard. "I told you, I punch Anomalies hard."

With those words, Lin Juan moved.

He leaped forward and threw a punch.

"BOOM!!!"

A loud crash echoed as the *Clay Bodhisattva* was sent flying.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" The Class A Anomaly, which hadn’t even had time to boast, let out a blood-curdling scream.

The semi-finished clay figures that had merged into its body scattered, crashing to the ground and leaving deep pits.

The superpower holders fighting the pollutants at the bottom of the pit all shuddered. Just hearing the sound was enough to imagine how much it must have hurt.

No matter how many times they witnessed it, such scenes always shocked them.

Suddenly, Class A Anomalies didn’t seem so hard to deal with.

No matter how strong an Anomaly was, in Mr. Lin’s hands, it couldn't withstand a hit.

Since Mr. Lin was this powerful, they couldn’t afford to hold him back. Instantly, the superpower holders felt like they'd been injected with adrenaline, their combat power doubling and redoubling.

Powers were flying all over, beating the endlessly regenerating pollutants down so hard they dared not revive again.

Because a part of the *Clay Bodhisattva’s* body was in Lin Juan’s grasp, every time Lin Juan pulled it back, the thrown Anomaly would be dragged back, only to be punched away again.

After several rounds of this, the *Clay Bodhisattva’s* form shrunk dramatically.

In an instant, the pit echoed with one scream after another.

Only this time, unlike before, the ones screaming were the Anomalies.

"Someone’s here!"

A sudden shout interrupted Lin Juan’s actions. He dragged the barely alive *Clay Bodhisattva* over with him.

Leaving a few superpower holders to deal with the much fewer pollutants, the rest went toward the sound.

Behind a dirt wall at the bottom of the hollow was a small space where over thirty students lay completely unconscious.

Sheng Tianzong entered first, checked their breathing, and felt relieved. "They're still alive."

Everyone felt a wave of relief.

On the way, they'd thought of many scenarios. A long time had passed since the children's disappearance, and they feared the worst—that all the children had died. At the very least, they needed to bring the children's bodies back to give their parents closure.

Luckily.

Shi Haochen rushed over, his voice in an excited tone. "These are the students from our class!"

He looked around at each one. "They're all here, everyone is accounted for!"

The superpower holders also checked the students' conditions. Aside from being unconscious, they were all breathing.

All of them were alive.

What a relief!

The superpower holders exchanged glances, each seeing the shared sense of relief in the others' eyes.

The children had been found, but the biggest problem now was how to get them out.

And then there was the superpower holder who was on the verge of complete corruption.

His corruption was different from what Sheng Tianzong and the others had encountered before. He was fully conscious, just trapped inside a mud shell, unable to move.

Without Lin Juan, many of them would have ended up like this superpower holder—trapped in mud shells, fully aware as they slowly corrupted into pollutants, becoming killers of their own comrades, eventually giving up and breaking down.

But with Lin Juan here, none of that would happen.

Lin Juan had the superpower holders bring over the nearly fully encased superpower holder.

"We tried using our superpowers to clear the mud shell from his body, but every time we managed to remove a little, the cleared area would quickly be covered again. The rate at which the mud shell spreads has doubled. We didn’t dare act recklessly," said the superpower holder supporting the nearly fully encased individual, in a heavy tone.

Lin Juan glanced at the Clay Bodhisattva. "Do you want me to beat you up and then save him, or do you want to save him directly?"

The Clay Bodhisattva didn’t hesitate to choose the latter.

Forget about losing face as a Class A Anomaly being threatened—any anomaly that said such a thing clearly hadn’t experienced Lin Juan’s fists.

Each punch didn’t just hurt the body; it penetrated the outer shell, striking at the very core, inflicting pain on the most fundamental level of existence.

The Clay Bodhisattva tremblingly extended a mud tendril.

The superpower holder supporting the nearly fully corrupted individual instinctively looked to Lin Juan, unsure whether to intervene.

After all, this was an anomaly!

Would it really save someone?

Lin Juan squeezed the wet mud in his hand, and the Clay Bodhisattva reflexively tensed up. "I’ll save him right away, right away! Please don’t hit me!"

With that, it quickly placed the mud tendril on the mud shell, which was then absorbed by the Clay Bodhisattva.

The Clay Bodhisattva, turning what might be considered its head, spoke in an ingratiating tone. "He’s fine now, he’ll recover soon. Mr. Lin, are you planning to leave? I’ll open the domain right away to send you out."

"Do we have to climb up?" Shi Haochen frowned as he looked up at the opening, which had stopped shrinking at some point.

The opening was far from their current position, mainly due to the height. By rough estimate, they were about five stories below the opening.

When they had descended earlier, it had only been about one or two stories high. How had it suddenly become so much higher?

"Don’t worry, I have a way to get you up. You won’t need to walk," the Clay Bodhisattva said humbly.

It had no choice but to be humble. Even though Lin Juan was only holding onto a part of its body, when it tried to sever that part to escape this terrifying person, it discovered in horror that the part being held was its most essential core. If it abandoned this part, the consequences would range from a significant loss of power to complete disintegration.

It had worked so hard to gain a body and consciousness, and it hadn’t had much time to enjoy them yet. It didn’t want to vanish just like that.

After all, it was a Class A Anomaly. If it hadn’t crossed paths with Lin Juan, wouldn’t it be at the top of the food chain wherever it went?

At this thought, it felt a wave of regret.

Why had it been so foolish as to provoke a group of students and attract such a deadly force?

So much regret!

But it couldn’t show it, afraid that any misstep would lead to its physical destruction at Lin Juan’s hands.

The Clay Bodhisattva fashioned several carriages out of mud and, for appearance's sake, even conjured a few strong, majestic horses to pull them.

Placing the most luxurious carriage in front of Lin Juan, the Clay Bodhisattva fawned, "Mr. Lin, this is your exclusive ride. Please, have a seat."

Lin Juan got into the carriage, and the Clay Bodhisattva shrank into a ball, rolling to rest at his feet.

Shi Haochen and the remaining superpower holders worked together to load the thirty-three unconscious students into the carriages before boarding themselves.

The carriages moved as smoothly as if gliding on flat ground.

Shi Haochen marveled, "I never thought a Class A Anomaly could be so obsequious."

Sheng Tianzong laughed lightly. "That’s only because Mr. Lin is here."

Shi Haochen nodded in agreement. "True. With Brother Lin around, even the most powerful anomalies are nothing to fear."

As long as Brother Lin remained on humanity’s side, there was still hope for them.

With the Clay Bodhisattva actively helping, Lin Juan and the others managed to bring the thirty-plus students out of the domain with little effort.

Director Liu and the others saw their vision darken momentarily, and the next moment, they found themselves outside the ruins of the Cherish Clinic.

They were out.

Director Liu and the others were momentarily dazed: Had they gotten out so quickly? It felt completely different from what they had imagined.

But what surprised them even more was yet to come.

Lin Juan and the others emerged from the ruins, riding in carriages made of mud.

What a scene it was!

It was as if death knights born from the ruins were loyally escorting their master, conquering new territories.

What am I thinking?

Director Liu shook his head, dismissing the unrealistic thoughts from his mind.

The carriages came to a stop.

Lin Juan and the others got out one by one. The thirty-three students were taken away by ambulances waiting outside and sent directly to the hospital for treatment. The superpower holder who had nearly fully corrupted had already regained consciousness. After a check-up confirmed he was fine, he repeatedly expressed his gratitude to Lin Juan.

He dared not imagine what his fate would have been without Lin Juan.

Those who join the Paranormal Special Affairs Office aren't afraid of dying in battles against anomalies; what they fear most is losing control and becoming monsters that turn on their former comrades.

Lin Juan had saved him from such a fate—he could never thank him enough.

"I really haven't harmed anyone," pleaded the Clay Bodhisattva, now looking like Gong Siyuan, trying to convince Lin Juan to spare it. "I was just born recently and truly haven't hurt a single person. Mr. Lin, look, you're all safely out now. Could you perhaps let me go?"

"I promise, I'll never harm anyone again. I'll stay far, far away..."

The Clay Bodhisattva spoke with such sincerity, as if it were genuinely remorseful and determined to turn over a new leaf as an anomaly.

Lin Juan watched it, his expression unreadable.

The Clay Bodhisattva pressed on, striving to persuade Lin Juan to let it go.

To gain sympathy, it exaggerated Gong Siyuan's tragic story.

"I just wanted revenge, I swear! I would never harm innocent people!"

The young man appeared frail and pitiable, having suffered greatly and even lost his sight. A few young superpower holders looked moved and were about to speak up when their teammates pulled them back.

Of course not—the Clay Bodhisattva simply didn't dare reveal its malicious intentions in front of Lin Juan.

"Don't believe it..."

A faint voice spoke up. Lin Juan frowned slightly; the voice clearly came from the Clay Bodhisattva, but it wasn't the Clay Bodhisattva's voice.

It sounded more like the real Gong Siyuan.

The Clay Bodhisattva's voice resembled Gong Siyuan's, but carried an inhuman chill. Gong Siyuan's voice was shy, belonging to a young man who had endured great suffering—the difference was clear.

The Clay Bodhisattva also heard the voice coming from within itself and paused, a wave of terrifying corruption burst out.

Lin Juan threatened it by squeezing the wet clay in his hand.

He'd grabbed it without thinking, almost disgusted enough to throw it away, but when he noticed how much the Clay Bodhisattva valued that piece of wet clay, he kept holding onto it.

After all, it was a Class A Anomaly—he couldn't make the mistake of releasing a tiger back into the mountains.

"Since you've kept your promise and brought us out of the domain, you're of no more use to me," Lin Juan said, looking down at it, his tone ambiguous.

The Clay Bodhisattva thought it had convinced him and was about to be set free, trying to hide its excitement: "Yes, yes, I'm just bothering you here. Why not toss me far away? I swear I'll never step into your territory again!"

The Clay Bodhisattva spoke carefully, afraid of angering Lin Juan: "You promised me inside that you'd let me go once we were out of the domain. You said you never lie to people."

It said all this out of fear that Lin Juan might change his mind and not release it.

Director Liu, worried that he might actually release the Class A Anomaly, looked at him anxiously.

Since Lin Juan had captured the anomaly, Director Liu couldn't tell him what to do.

The Paranormal Special Affairs Office and Lin Juan were equal partners; Lin Juan wasn't his subordinate, so he couldn't give him orders.

Something inside the Clay Bodhisattva panicked. Despite the crushing pressure threatening to crush it, it struggled to speak: "Don't let it go! It's lying!"

"Shut up!" the Clay Bodhisattva snarled at the other presence within it. "What would you gain from my death? Don't forget, it's because of me that you still have a chance to survive!"

As it tried to suppress the other presence deep within its consciousness, the Clay Bodhisattva was shocked to find that the other consciousness was destroying itself just to keep talking.

"It will harm people! Don't believe it! It's already killed many! It took those students to kill them!"

"Don't believe..."

The faint voice suddenly cut off.

After silencing the other voice inside it, the Clay Bodhisattva looked at Lin Juan pleadingly: "Mr. Lin, don't believe what that thing said. It was the one trying to grow stronger by devouring humans. It captured the students to take their organs and piece together its own body. I was the one who hid the students—if not for me, they would already be dead. Believe me, I really don't want to hurt humans."

Lin Juan squeezed the wet clay harder.

The Clay Bodhisattva's expression changed.

The superpower holders couldn't see what Lin Juan was doing, but they saw the Clay Bodhisattva looking more and more terrified.

"You said you never lie to people?!!!" the Clay Bodhisattva shrieked desperately, its face twisted in pain as if suffering terrible pain.

"That's right," Lin Juan cocked his head, he said innocently. "But here's the thing—are you human?"

Not lying to people doesn't mean I won't lie to anomalies.