Bai Yu’s consciousness slowly floated up from the depths of darkness, like a diver finally breaking through icy seawater to draw his first breath of sun-warmed air.
His eyelids trembled a few times before he managed, with difficulty, to open them.
What entered his sight was a ceiling so familiar it could not be any more familiar. The air did not carry the lingering dampness of Luoshui Village, but instead the reassuring scent of disinfectant.
He moved his fingers, feeling the dry softness of the sheets beneath him. This was the Nightmare Investigation Bureau—his single dorm room at headquarters.
He was still alive.
That realization finally allowed his taut nerves to relax completely.
Bai Yu slowly sat up and leaned against the headboard, closing his eyes to sense the condition inside his body.
That dark power, which had seemed capable of devouring heaven and earth, had now receded like the tide, once more lying dormant in the deepest part of his consciousness. He could sense Hei Yan’s existence. There was a trace of languid, satisfied connection there, like a giant dragon dozing in its cavern after a full meal.
This time, Hei Yan did not mock him or speak in that proud tone as he usually did. He merely remained there in silence. Yet Bai Yu could clearly feel that the barrier between them seemed to have completely melted away during their final battle side by side.
They were no longer merely a source of power and the one borrowing it, nor simply a parasitic Nightmare and its host. They were more like symbiotic partners in a bond that could not be described in words.
“Thank you, Hei Yan,” Bai Yu said softly in his heart.
Deep within his consciousness, the sleeping dragon seemed to lazily turn over. A vague thought came through, like an impatient nasal snort, yet without the slightest malice.
Bai Yu could not help but smile.
He turned his gaze toward the bedside table. There, the simple and ancient wooden ladle lay quietly.
It looked no different from before, still bearing that weather-beaten appearance. There were even a few fine scratches on its surface left behind during the battle.
He reached out and picked up the wooden ladle.
It felt warm and smooth in his hand, like jade, without any of the roughness wood should have. When his fingertips touched its surface, a gentle emotion, flowing softly like a stream, slowly seeped into his heart. Within it, there was no longer Lin Sheng’s overwhelming hatred, nor the loneliness of a hundred years of waiting. All that remained was washed-clean tranquility and attachment.
That was the last and truest emotion belonging to Lin Sheng and Awan. This wooden ladle had already transformed from a mere medium that carried power into a “keepsake” bearing a complete story and a love that had crossed a hundred years. It was no longer cold; it had its own warmth, its own “soul.”
Bai Yu stroked the smooth inner wall of the ladle, and before his eyes there seemed to appear once more Awan’s gentle smile and Lin Sheng’s final, relieved gaze.
There was no doubt that this mission had been brutal and dangerous, but its final conclusion had also granted the dead the best possible rest.
“Perhaps this is the meaning of our fighting,” he murmured softly.
Not merely to survive, but to protect those emotions that still shone brightly even in the deepest darkness.
After sitting quietly on the bed for a long time, Bai Yu finally felt some of his strength return. He lifted the blanket, got out of bed, and walked to the washroom. Turning on the faucet, he splashed his face with cold water, making himself wake up completely.
The person in the mirror looked somewhat haggard, his face pale, but those eyes were brighter and more resolute than ever before.
He changed into the casual clothes uniformly issued by the Investigation Bureau, carefully placed the wooden ladle into the storage pouch at his waist, then opened the door and walked out.
The corridor was brightly lit, the alloy walls reflecting a cold sheen. From time to time, investigators in the same uniform hurried past. When they saw Bai Yu, they merely nodded in greeting, maintaining the professional tacit understanding and distance between them.
Everything here was orderly, a world apart from that village twisted by rules and hatred.
“Yo, little Bai Yu, you’re finally awake! I thought you were going to sleep straight through until the next mission started!”
A full, booming voice came from beside him.
Bai Yu turned his head and saw Mo Fei leaning against a nearby wall. He had changed into a loose set of physical training clothes, and one arm was wrapped in a white bandage, but the signature roguish grin on his face had not diminished in the slightest.
“Mo Fei.” Bai Yu smiled and greeted him. “Your injury…”
“Ah, don’t even mention it!” Mo Fei waved a hand and bared his teeth as he moved his injured arm. “Just a flesh wound. Those guys in the medical department insisted on making a big deal out of it and wrapped me up like a zongzi. You, on the other hand—I heard you slept for two full days and nights. Captain An Mu specifically ordered that no one was allowed to disturb you.”
“I slept that long?” Bai Yu was a little surprised. He had completely lost any sense of time passing.
“Of course you did.” Mo Fei came closer, slung an arm around Bai Yu’s shoulders, and lowered his voice. “You have no idea. In these two days alone, I rewrote the mission report three times! Three times! Captain An Mu said my description of the battle read like a running account, with no logic and missing details. Tell me, we’re responsible for charging in and fighting, not standing off to the side taking meeting minutes. How am I supposed to remember that much?”
Looking at Mo Fei’s face, which was practically written all over with “I have no will to live,” Bai Yu could not help but laugh aloud.
For this brawny man who believed in broad strokes, making him sit down quietly and write a report was indeed more painful than fighting a Nightmare.
“Where are Captain An and Lan Ce?” Bai Yu asked.
“Where else? The conference room.” Mo Fei curled his lip. “That guy Lan Ce probably plunged headfirst into the data analysis room the moment we got back and hasn’t come out since. The captain just sent me a message saying that once you woke up, we should go to the conference room together for the debriefing. Let’s go. Perfect timing—when it comes to the part about you in this report, I really can’t make anything else up. You can explain it to the captain yourself.”
The two chatted and joked as they walked toward the tactical conference room.
The tactical conference room of the Nightmare Investigation Bureau was a semicircular room filled with a futuristic sense of technology.
When Bai Yu and Mo Fei pushed the door open and entered, An Mu and Lan Ce were already waiting inside.
An Mu was still wearing his crisp captain’s uniform, seated at the main position, his expression steady. Lan Ce sat closest to the holographic console, wearing a pair of thin AR glasses. His fingers were flying rapidly over a virtual keyboard, clearly still making final preparations. He also looked somewhat tired, but his mind was highly focused.
“Bai Yu, how do you feel?” When An Mu saw him, his originally stern expression softened slightly.
“I’m already fine, Captain.” Bai Yu pulled out a chair and sat down. “Sorry for making everyone worry.”
“We should be the ones thanking you,” Lan Ce said with a smile as he removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “If you and Hei Yan hadn’t opened up the situation at the end, we probably really would have died in that hellhole.”
“All right. Since everyone is here, let’s begin.” An Mu braced both hands on the table and swept his gaze around his team members. “This mission debriefing is of utmost importance. The Luoshui Village incident is the first origin-concept Nightmare incident our squad has resolved since its formation. Every detail must be thoroughly analyzed and summarized.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Lan Ce swiped a hand across the console. The holographic projection in the center of the conference room lit up, and a three-dimensional model composed of countless streams of data slowly rotated.
It was the simulated form of the “Mountain God,” the origin-concept Nightmare.
“According to the post-incident analysis of the residual energy at the site, as well as all data from the mission recorders,” Lan Ce’s voice regained the cool precision unique to an analyst, “we can confirm that the ‘Mountain God’ we encountered this time was an incompletely descended origin-concept Nightmare.”
A series of crimson warning markers appeared on the projection.
“There are only a handful of recorded cases of this level of Nightmare in the Investigation Bureau’s archives, and every single one caused a massive division-level disaster. Their very existence is a kind of rule pollution. They can distort reality and define life and death. The reason we were able to successfully expel it this time was largely because it appeared in a descended form, and because we found its ‘anchor.’”
“You mean the hatred of that unlucky guy called Lin Sheng?” Mo Fei cut in.
“Exactly.” Lan Ce nodded and pulled up the files on Lin Sheng and Awan. “This Nightmare cleverly used Lin Sheng’s hatred toward the villagers, as well as his love for Awan, as the coordinate and energy source for its descent and to maintain its form. It does not generate hatred itself; it is merely an amplifier and exploiter of hatred. This point was confirmed by Bai Yu and Hei Yan inside its consciousness core.”
Everyone’s gaze focused on Bai Yu.
Bai Yu took a deep breath and described in detail everything he had seen and heard within Lin Sheng’s sea of consciousness. From how Hei Yan opened the path leading to the “heart,” to how they used the truth to shake the cage constructed by lies, and finally, how Awan’s pure love was awakened through the wooden ladle and ultimately became the “deadly poison” that dissolved the foundation of the “Mountain God.”
“To use pure love to oppose pure hatred…” After listening, An Mu spoke thoughtfully. “This is indeed a completely new line of thought. In the past, when we dealt with Nightmares, we relied more on energy annihilation, physical destruction, or sealing. Cases like this, in which the foundation of their existence is directly dismantled from the internal level, are extremely rare. It must be recorded as a highest-priority archive.”
“I have one more thing to add.” Lan Ce operated the projection again. “I analyzed the energy composition of the fused power Bai Yu guided at the end. Apart from Bai Yu’s own power and Hei Yan’s power, I also detected a very special fluctuation.”
On the projection, an energy waveform emitting a faint glow was displayed separately.
“I’ve named it a ‘belief field.’” Excitement flashed in Lan Ce’s eyes. “It does not belong to any energy system currently known to us. It originated from the power of belief in our hearts, including our will, the hopes of the villagers’ remnant souls, and the emotions of Lin Sheng and Awan. These powers of the heart were amplified by the wooden ladle, then guided by your will, Bai Yu, thereby achieving a temporary, massive enhancement. I believe this ‘emotion’ itself may be a kind of power that can be utilized. And you, Bai Yu, along with your Nightmare Hei Yan, seem to be naturally endowed with the trait of touching and guiding this kind of power.”
This conclusion plunged the conference room into a brief silence.
If emotion truly could serve as a kind of power, it would undoubtedly greatly increase the Nightmare Investigation Bureau’s current combat capabilities.
“This subject is too vast. We’ll set it aside for now.” An Mu broke the silence and looked at Bai Yu. “Did you bring the wooden ladle?”
Bai Yu nodded, took the wooden ladle out of his storage pouch, and placed it on the table.
Almost the instant the wooden ladle appeared, the precise energy detectors in the conference room emitted a series of soft beeps.
Lan Ce’s eyes instantly lit up. “What a pure energy reaction! Stable, peaceful, and without any negative corrosive properties. Bai Yu, may I conduct a comprehensive nondestructive test on it? Don’t worry, it’s only a scan. It won’t damage its structure.”
“Of course.” Bai Yu had no objection.
“All right. The analysis regarding the Nightmare will stop here for now,” An Mu continued. “Now, let’s review our own performance. Mo Fei, you go first.”
“Me?” Mo Fei froze for a moment, then cleared his throat and said with a solemn expression, “Reporting, Captain! I believe that during this mission, I fully carried forward the combat spirit of fearing no death and pressing forward courageously. I successfully attracted most of the enemy’s firepower and created an excellent output environment for the main attacker! The only shortcoming… is that my battle-axe needs an upgrade. That thing’s roots were too hard. The recoil made my hands hurt.”
His dead-serious manner, paired with that arm wrapped in plaster, looked both funny and oddly endearing. Even the ever-serious An Mu could not stop the corners of his mouth from lifting slightly.
Lan Ce mercilessly commented, “Translation: he charged blindly the whole time and nearly got himself killed several times.”
“Hey! What kind of talk is that, Four-Eyes!” Mo Fei shouted indignantly.
“I told you not to call me Four-Eyes!”
The conference room was filled with cheerful air.
In the relaxed atmosphere, everyone summarized their gains and losses.
An Mu affirmed the team’s ability to adapt and cooperate under extreme disadvantage, and also pointed out several dangerous situations caused by insufficient intelligence.
Finally, An Mu made his summary. “The Luoshui Village incident has ultimately been rated S-class by headquarters. In view of the fact that our entire squad survived and successfully expelled the target, headquarters has granted the highest level of reward. Everyone’s merit points and bonuses will be issued to your accounts shortly. In addition…”
He deliberately paused, looking at the expectant gazes of his team members, before slowly saying, “We have one week of paid leave.”
“Oh yeah!” Mo Fei was the first to cheer. In his excitement, he slapped the table, only to pull at his wound and bare his teeth in pain.
Bai Yu and Lan Ce also exchanged smiles, their eyes filled with relaxation and joy. After experiencing such a high-intensity mission, they truly needed a proper rest.
“The leave starts tomorrow.” An Mu stood up. “After we disband today, all of you go back and rest well. Lan Ce, give me the test report on the wooden ladle as soon as possible. Bai Yu, you just get a good rest. Mo Fei…”
“Here!”
“Go back and rewrite your mission report according to today’s debriefing.”
Mo Fei’s cheer came to an abrupt halt. His entire body instantly petrified, and the expression on his face was even more despairing than when he had seen the “Mountain God.”
Looking at him like that, Bai Yu, Lan Ce, and An Mu could not help but laugh. The debriefing meeting came to a perfect close amid that relaxed laughter.
After the meeting ended, the four of them walked out of the conference room together.
“Hey, listen, it’s rare for us to have a holiday. How about we go out for a feast tonight?” Mo Fei quickly recovered from the grief of having to write his report and cheerfully suggested, “I know a barbecue place. The taste is incredible! My treat!”
“I have no objection.” Lan Ce nodded. “It’s just right for replenishing energy. My brain has been overconsumed lately.”
“Bai Yu, what about you?” An Mu looked at him.
Bai Yu smiled and nodded. “Sounds good.”
The afterglow of the setting sun shone in through the corridor’s porthole windows, stretching the four of their shadows very long. The joy of surviving disaster, the deep bond between companions, and boundless hope for the future all transformed, in this moment, into that most simple invitation.
Tonight, they would have a proper barbecue meal!