Reverse flow of the Yellow Springs

Chapter 29 Black Prison
Inside the luxury car, the handsome man...

Carefully, he placed the cassette tape that had suddenly appeared in his hand into his specially made handbag.

He only breathed a sigh of relief after closing his handbag and locking it with the combination.

“Now that we have the Song of Extinction, our plan is already half successful.” A beautiful woman in a short skirt sat next to him.

She stroked the man's cheek with adoration and smiled, "I'm already looking forward to the reward that lord will give us after the mission is completed. We're both confident that we can both achieve our fifth awakening."

"Don't let your guard down! Black Umbrella has still run into trouble. According to the original plan, he was supposed to launch a feint attack on the East City branch of the Disposal Department with the forbidden item and his followers after the plan was initiated. But he was caught off guard, and three of his followers have since gone missing."

At this point, the handsome man's expression darkened slightly. He picked up the woman, reached under her skirt, and said, "If it weren't for that, those three followers wouldn't be qualified to know the plan's information, much less enter the 'Ark.' I wouldn't dare enter Border City Number Three!"

It is called the Border City because it is closest to the Forbidden Zone of Calamity.

It is humanity's first-line fortress in the fight against calamity, possessing formidable internal strength. It comprises four branches and one headquarters, each staffed with numerous powerful agents and possessing a vast array of forbidden artifacts.

Moreover, this third border city has an old man who has experienced calamity and fought his way out of the fog of disaster.

This place is extremely dangerous for them, and even for the 'Ark'.

He wouldn't have come here to take the risk if the reward hadn't been so generous.

The woman blushed at the man's actions, but giggled, "It's alright. With the Song of Extinction, they'll be too busy taking care of themselves. Those cunning forbidden creatures won't let go of such a good opportunity to escape; that's enough to give them a headache. Let's continue with the plan."

"Besides, what we're doing isn't destroying the giant city," the woman whispered in the man's ear, nestled in his arms. "It's forcing that king to take action, to see if he's dead of old age yet."

"Force that old mad king to take action!" the man whispered, seemingly wary of the king's name; his voice was barely audible.

Old Mad King, the former Mad King.

He is a powerful being who challenges the King of the Forbidden Zones. He overcame all difficulties, led the human army to explore this place, and then established Border City No. 3 right under the noses of the three Forbidden Zones.

Defend the three forbidden zones!

They even made a bold statement, saying that one day they would reclaim 1260 million square kilometers of territory.

That would require wiping out several restricted zones—utterly arrogant!
Therefore, he was called the Mad King by the King of the Forbidden Zone.

To be recognized by the King of the Forbidden Zone for a mere human is an immense compliment, but he possesses the formidable strength to match that title. At his peak, even the King of the Forbidden Zone did not wish to clash with Border City No. 3.

But now, as a psionicist, he has aged due to the curse.

They may have aged beyond recognition.
Some people wanted to know if this old mad king could fight again, so they devised a crazy plan.

'Ark' was the middleman in this transaction.

As an organization detached from the physical world, they are not inherently good or evil.

The 'Ark' is more like a place for communication that disregards physical distance.

Their leader, or captain, will find qualified psionicists to enter and grant them exclusive tickets.

This allows members of the 'Ark' from all over the world to gather together.

They traded intelligence, traded items, or, in other words, issued missions within the 'Ark'.

This effect allowed their strength to increase rapidly, transforming them into colossal entities lurking in the shadows.

They addressed each other by code names and were unaware of each other's identities.

This time, a mysterious visitor issued a very rewarding mission within the 'Ark'. So rewarding that many 'Ark' members were willing to join forces for the adventure.

Who could that mysterious visitor be? Could it be some kind of king of the forbidden zone? The handsome man pondered.

The car then slowly came to a stop, the door opened, and the beautiful woman inside disappeared with her handbag. Only the handsome man stepped out of the car and waved to the fans on both sides.

His face was full of smiles and enthusiasm, but no one noticed the coldness and madness hidden in his eyes behind his sunglasses.

On the other side, Li Ye arrived at the branch and saw many familiar faces.

Spark, Shadow Stream, Heavy Cavalry, and Detective are all located within the branch.

"What a coincidence! If you're going to eat, take me with you," Li Yelai said, stepping forward to greet him.

"I heard that you've awakened for the second time." The seemingly emotionless girl from Heavy Cavalry spoke first, a slight smile appearing on her otherwise pale and expressionless face: "Congratulations! I'll catch up with you soon."

The heavy cavalry have been quite busy lately, though not as unlucky as Li Yelai, who always seems to run into trouble.

But she also resolved some dangerous incidents and was on the verge of a breakthrough.

"Okay, keep it up, but be careful of the allure of the power of the illusory realm." Li Yelai recalled the illusion he had encountered during his previous breakthrough.

He banished the image of the naked rider from his mind and solemnly reminded himself, "Don't believe you've succeeded until the very end. Don't be misled by any images. They're all fake!"

"I've got it, thank you. Next time I surpass you, I'll share my experience with you too." The heavy cavalryman nodded.

The detective picked at his ear, widened his eyes, and asked, "What do you mean, 'when he's here'? 'When he's overtaking him'?"

The heavy cavalryman glanced at him, then returned to his usual indifferent state.

Xinghuo, on the other hand, looked much more mature. The incident involving Mada had been a great blow to him, but it had also helped him grow a lot.

Gone was that competitive spirit; instead, he became much calmer and more composed.

"Brother Ye, thank you so much for last time," Xinghuo said. "Also, congratulations on your successful second awakening."

"Hmm," Li Yelai replied, "I remember you just graduated from high school, right? Did you go straight to university?"

In this era, the threshold for university admission is very high.

For example, Li Yelai only has a high school diploma. Normally, after saving up a few years' salary and gaining a considerable amount of work experience, he would be able to continue to take the college entrance examination.

Of course, there are exceptions: those who excel academically and get guaranteed admission, or those who are wealthy and want to gain prestige through university. They don't need to worry about this.

Therefore, a college degree is highly valuable.

“Yes, I’m a college student now.” Xinghuo nodded. “My current daily task is to keep an eye out for any hidden anomalies or strange tales on campus. There’s been a little trouble lately though. A famous band has come to Border City No. 3. The students are all very enthusiastic. The higher-ups are worried about potential problems, so they’ve asked us to keep an eye on them. But at least we can get two free tickets.”

The authorities took some precautions regarding the band's arrival.

Perhaps some intelligence made the authorities uneasy. They dispatched many personnel to the scene.

After all, once a concert starts, it will be packed with people. Any problems that arise will be magnified infinitely.

However, this has nothing to do with Li Yelai anymore.

He's going to jail today, and he won't be out until next month.

After chatting with the others for a while, Li Yelai retrieved his crimson longsword and put on the combat uniform provided by the authorities.

He wandered around the branch office, waiting for his turn to change.

During this time, he saw a group of experienced handlers who had just returned from outside the city. They were all members of the same team and were also fully armed.

Li Yelai even saw a knight covered in dragon scale armor, wielding strange twin swords. The dragon scale armor was made from real dragon scales, supposedly crafted from materials used to hunt a formidable fire dragon in the Forbidden Zone's Doomsday Forest.

Those seasoned handlers are often ruthless individuals who have left the megacity, stepped out of the high walls, and faced disasters head-on in the wilderness.

They restrained the expansion of those extraordinary beings and protected communication and trade routes between the great cities.

Therefore, they are also known as night scouts.

They are among the elite of the processors!
Li Yelai knew that this name came from ancient history before the calamity.

Although I only have a high school diploma, I work in an antique shop and have some knowledge of this history.

The name comes from the ancient Great Wall that Li Yelai had never seen before.

The Great Wall was a defensive measure used by agrarian civilizations against nomadic civilizations.

The Great Wall played an important role in most feudal dynasties.

Powerful dynasties, such as the Han and Tang, used the Great Wall as a base to attack foreign tribes.

Weak dynasties relied on the Great Wall for defense.

You should know that beyond the Central Plains lies the world's most expansive grassland.

Countless steppe cavalrymen roared across the land, becoming the most feared cavalry of that era.

The Xiongnu, Xianbei, Rouran, Shiwei, Tujue, Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongols were all powerful beings for a time.

The Great Wall stands along that long, despair-inducing border.

It can be used for early warning by beacon fires, for defense by high walls, and for troop deployment and transportation.

Thus, the Great Wall became the most troublesome defense for nomadic peoples.

It was precisely because of the existence of the Great Wall that many northern nomadic peoples were forced to abandon their southward migration and instead march westward, crossing the Danube or Rhine Rivers.

The Night Scouts, on the other hand, were troops stationed outside the Great Wall's protection. Their duties included gathering intelligence, launching surprise attacks on enemies beyond the Great Wall, and scouting enemy movements.

They are a unit that walks on the edge of a knife. Once discovered, their chances of survival are slim.

High walls, like a steel Great Wall protecting humanity from calamities.

These clerks are like night watchmen walking outside the Great Wall!
During this crackdown on the Black Prison, the Night Scouts who were originally stationed elsewhere also returned to the Giant City.

Compared to the minor skirmishes within the giant city, the dangers they faced outside it were far greater.

These colleagues were quite friendly to Li Yelai, even suggesting that he go out and explore, saying things like they might be able to hunt down a high-level supernatural being.

This left Li Ye completely bewildered.

At this moment, Li Yelai felt his arm being pulled.

Looking back, I saw a small dinosaur.

It's a doll!
This time, she changed into a dinosaur mascot costume, which made her look quite comical among the group of fully armed psionicists.

After the doll pulled Li Ye out of the training room, it raised the advertising board.

I've prepared something for you (..)
Then, he handed Li Ye a small black cloth bag with gold trim.

"Snacks? I don't think we need to prepare any, right? I heard from Cheese that there are some at the bottom." Li Yelai asked curiously, opening the bag to find a long lock of hair.

In an instant, the two senior Night Watchers who had come over to watch the show gasped and quickly retreated.

Li Yelai immediately closed the cloth bag.

He instantly understood; it was the doll's own hair, and given the nature of the curse, if anyone saw her hair, it would trigger a state of terror.

"This is..." Li Yelai was somewhat surprised.

[My hair will still have a curse effect for about ten days after it leaves my body, as long as it's properly preserved. It's not something to be proud of, and it's quite troublesome to maintain. (〃ω)]
[If other colleagues use this, it will affect you. You're not afraid of me, so this is a good opportunity to defend yourself (*`*)]
[Be very careful, forbidden items are very dangerous. Quite a few colleagues have fallen victim to them (；′⌒`)]
[Some forbidden creatures possess immense intelligence and bewitching power; they throw my hair at me whenever they sense something's wrong—they're afraid of me too! (ω)]
The doll continuously changed the words on the billboard.

His words conveyed his concern.

Li Yelai was somewhat touched; this dining companion was too kind to him.

So he said, "Thank you so much! I'll treat you to a big meal when I get out! Definitely!"

[Okay, I'm really looking forward to it (▽*)]
The doll seemed somewhat pleased after Li Yelai hid the cloth bag.

After chatting for a few more minutes, they skipped away.

Li Yelai carefully packed away his cloth bag, grabbed his weapons, and headed to the rendezvous point.

It's almost time.

When Li Ye arrived at the black elevator, he saw hundreds of fully armed psionicists.

Behind him, cheese was waving.

"Are we going down?" Li Ye asked, leaning closer. Cheese had unusually changed out of his hoodie and was wearing his combat uniform today, carrying several bags.

“Yes, they’ve already started going down. But the black elevator has a small capacity, so it’ll take several round trips,” Cheese said. “After we go down, the fifth team will take over, and then we’ll officially begin our deployment. Don’t be careless, but don’t be nervous either.”

Li Ye nodded and looked at the small bag hanging on Cheese. She discovered that it contained saccharin that she had brought.

To prevent the saccharin from being lost again, Li Yelai stepped forward and took a bag.

“I’ll bring a bag, so you don’t lose the candy again,” Li Yelai said.

Cheese didn't refuse, but smiled and said, "Well, don't choke this time, and don't get it all over me."

Li Yelai was already somewhat immune to Cheese's flirtatious remarks. So, he simply replied with "You scoundrel."

A dozen minutes later, Li Yelai, Cheese, and the other processors finally boarded the black elevator.

There was a viewing window in the elevator, but it was completely dark.

After the elevator descended rapidly for dozens of meters, a bright light suddenly appeared before my eyes.

What appeared before Li Yelai was a fairly spacious underground space. There were also many brightly lit buildings.

Meanwhile, squads of Iron Guards and groups of fully armed psionicists gathered in the large plaza of the underground space.

"It's so big?" Li Yelai was taken aback. He had thought Black Prison was a dark, empty prison.

“Initially, the Giant City was intended to be an underground city. Later, it was realized that it wasn't needed, so it was converted into a Black Prison halfway through. This is the first floor, which is also our rest area and canteen.” An unfamiliar handler in the elevator explained, “There are several more floors below, but those are not our targets. Remember, if the situation gets out of control and multiple forbidden objects breach containment, we must immediately retreat outside the Black Elevator.”

"This is the only exit from the Black Prison!"

(End of this chapter)