I'm caught in the cycle of endless competition, you're waiting for me in the apocalypse.

"I never expected anyone would dare to steal here! I'd like to see who it is!"

Just as An Xin felt her head being hit and decided to play along by falling unconscious, she heard a familiar voice. A voice sighed in her mind, saying, "This malevolent energy is too overpowered! It even stole our five senses! We didn't even notice the village chief, an ordinary person! It's truly terrible! Luckily, our light-elemental shield can be passively triggered, otherwise it would be disastrous! Is it too late for me to unleash my power and injure him?"

"Xinxin, he can't hurt you without using special methods..."

"Father! Where are you?" A sudden shout broke the village chief's movements and interrupted his listening.

"Damn it!" The village chief dropped the man whose hands had just been tied and strode away from the ancestral hall.

An Xin lay on the ground, but her ears were perked up; she knew that Butcher Zhang had come to see the village chief.

"Keep it down! Are you trying to wake up the whole village? And I've told you so many times, don't call me 'Dad,' don't call me that!" The village chief's voice, though kept as low as he could, revealed his impatience and disgust.

"But you told me to come find you at this time! I looked all around and couldn't find you, so I had to call out!" Butcher Zhang said timidly.

"I heard some noise in the ancestral hall, so I went to check it out, and sure enough, I caught a little thief."

"Who is it that dares to come to the ancestral hall! Father, you've never even let me in before!"

"I don't know, you were wearing a mask and I couldn't see what you looked like. I was just about to take a look when you arrived."

"What should we do? Should we still go? If we miss this opportunity, we'll have to wait another month."

"Go, you absolutely have to go! That kid already wasted so much time, if we delay any longer, we won't have any time left! Here's what we'll do: the person in the ancestral hall isn't very tall, I'll move him to the small courtyard first. You wait for me in the car, I'll be right there!"

As the two separated, An Xin quickly closed her eyes and continued to feign unconsciousness. A short while later, the village chief re-entered the ancestral hall and, this time, tied An Xin's feet as well. The village chief groped along the wall and pressed a mechanism; with a "snap," a large marble slab on the floor broke open. He carried An Xin in one hand and, holding a flashlight in the other, walked towards the large hole in the floor.

An Xin secretly opened her eyes and started chatting with Di Ting in her mind: "Wow, isn't this a tunnel? What's wrong? Is this a royal secret passage, or a passage left over from the tunnel warfare in the past?"

"Judging from the conversation between the father and son just now, the village chief is probably going to take you to the small courtyard behind the village. No wonder he has the key to that place!"

"Where are they going next and what are they going to do? I'm so curious! There are more and more mysteries here. I really want to find out the truth soon. It's going to be incredibly dramatic!"

"Xinxin, why do you seem to enjoy watching the drama unfold?"

"You said he can't hurt me, so of course I'm not worried. I'll just watch the show. Besides, I was going to investigate that courtyard anyway, so isn't this perfect?"

Just as An Xin and Di Ting were discussing their next move in their minds, the village chief had already carried An Xin to a secret room at the end of the tunnel. He threw An Xin off his back, snorted, and said he'd deal with her later before locking the door and returning the way he came.

An Xin, who had been thrown to the ground, winced in pain but dared not utter a sound. She lay motionless on the ground with a blank expression until she could no longer hear the village chief's footsteps.

"Luckily, I had already reached the bone refining stage of body tempering, and I also had the protection of the light-elemental shield, otherwise this fall would have definitely caused internal bleeding."

"Xinxin, why don't you try using your Heavenly Eye and Heavenly Ear here?"

“…” An Xin shrugged helplessly and said, “It’s no use. It seems that this really is the small courtyard behind the village.”

"So, shall we play along and wait for them to return?"

"Hmm, they won't be back too soon. Let's look around first. You come out and help me untie myself... You have to admit, this village chief is really good at tying people up. He's tight and quick... By the way, why does he carry rope with him?"

"...A habitual offender?" Di Ting mumbled, pulling on the rope with his dog teeth.

"Don't break it, we'll need it later! Otherwise he'll notice something's wrong."

After loosening the ropes on her wrists, An Xin untied the bonds on her feet. She rotated her wrists, took out a small flashlight from her storage space, and shone it around.

The smell in the small, enclosed room was quite strong, but fortunately An Xin was wearing a mask, which filtered out some of it.

"It smells like a toilet, and there's a hint of blood." An Xin wrinkled her nose. "Xiao Jiu, why don't you smell it? Your nose is better than mine!"

Di Ting, with a resentful expression that seemed to say "you're treating me like a dog," reluctantly said, "There must have been quite a few people locked up here. Xin Xin, shine your flashlight on that bed in the corner."

An Xin shone her flashlight in the direction Di Ting pointed and saw a dirty, messy bed.

The bed sheets were dirty and stained with blood, and there were handcuffs with chains attached to the headboard.

For An Xin, who had spent 10 years in the post-apocalyptic world and witnessed countless instances of human depravity and distortion, this scene was so familiar that she dared not continue to contemplate it.

"Damn, this is illegal imprisonment and abuse... This father and son are utterly depraved, and this hypocritical village chief is even worse!"

"Xinxin, it seems there are quite a few victims..."

An Xin then thought of the fact that the son in the father-son pair was a butcher, and her stomach suddenly churned. She leaned against the wall and began to dry heave.

"Xinxin, are you alright...?"

An Xin waved her hand, indicating that everything was fine: Luckily, I hadn't had breakfast yet...

"Xiao Jiu, there won't be any... ugh..." in the meat we eat.

"So that's what Xinxin was thinking about! No, no, didn't you see last time that the meat you bought came from pigs? And pork and human flesh taste very different!"

“…That’s good…I was just scaring myself…” An Xin patted her chest and straightened up again. “Xiao Jiu, let’s find the way up together.”

An Xin, holding a small flashlight, tapped and felt around, and after a while, she found another locked doorknob near the lock on the door she came in through...

—How many locks must this village chief have to open to make this trip? Doesn't he get tired?

After An Xin's actions, the door opened, and she went down the stairs to the wooden door at the end. She pushed it open and saw that, well, it turned out there was a door inside the large cabinet. No wonder the police couldn't find anything when they came.

Opening another cabinet door, An Xin smoothly entered a simple and clean little room. There was a tidy bed, neatly arranged items, and most notably, a small shelf in the corner displaying several children's books and toys. It was clear that although these items were a bit worn, their owner cherished and cared for them.

"Awooo... Awooo..." Suddenly, a cloud of black mist, accompanied by a gust of cold wind and a ghostly howl, rushed towards An Xin.

She swiftly conjured orbs of light and hurled them at the oncoming attack, unleashing one after another burst of light energy as if it were free. A moment later, the oncoming black mist stopped moving, and after two more orbs of light, a ethereal figure appeared.

"Xiao Jiu, is this a ghost?"

"No, this doesn't seem like it. It should be a soul, but one that's been trapped and corrupted. I can sense that the soul's energy is very clean. Why don't you give it two more orbs of light energy to purify it?"

"Okay!" An Xin released several more bursts of light energy until the soul was transparent and devoid of any blackness.

This soul clearly belongs to a young adult man, with three-dimensional but soft features. If you look closely, he also looks a bit like the village chief.

An Xin was just starting to feel a bit surprised when the soul's eyes slowly opened.

The two souls stared at each other, stunned for two seconds... An Xin quickly covered her mouth to stifle the scream that was about to escape her lips, while the soul opposite her had already bounced onto the bed and curled up in a corner, trembling.

Once An Xin calmed down, she looked at the soul and remembered what Xiao Jiu had said about its pure energy, so she let out a long sigh. Turning to look at Di Ting behind her with a disgusted expression, she finally felt relieved and slowly walked to the bedside, cautiously saying, "Um, don't be scared, I'm not a bad person! Turn around and look at me, I'm just a pretty and cute little girl!"

Di Ting looked even stranger, as if a strange aunt was seducing a little boy.

"Don't be afraid. I just purified your soul, otherwise you would still be controlled by the evil energy... Oh! That black aura. Look back, the light energy in my hand is what saved you."

Under An Xin's gentle guidance, the soul seemed to have stopped trembling. It cautiously turned its head to look at An Xin, then quickly turned back. After a while, the soul seemed less afraid and slowly turned around to look at An Xin, glancing at the ball of light in her hand.

An Xin smiled gently and continued, "See, I meant no harm. It's okay, you can come and touch this light."

The soul hesitated, then reached out and slowly floated closer. It quickly touched the ball of light with one hand before withdrawing it, and with a "whoosh," it flew back to the bed, curling itself into a ball.

An Xin found this soul adorable, so she smiled and patiently continued to extend her hand.

A moment later, the soul straightened up, looked at his hand in surprise, then back at the ball of light in An Xin's hand. After waiting a while, it floated to An Xin's side and reached out to touch the ball of light. Watching the ball of light radiate a gentle glow through his soul, the soul reached out his other hand and placed it on the ball of light as well. He looked up at An Xin, then at the ball of light, and smiled. It was a beautiful, genuine smile.

“…Warm…warm…is…warm…” Suddenly, the soul uttered a broken, ethereal, and fleeting sound.

"Yes, it's warm. Shall I give it to you?" An Xin tilted her head and looked at the soul.

"Is it... okay?" The soul looked at An Xin and asked weakly.

"Yes, of course!"

"Thank...thank you!" The soul was clearly very happy, nodding and trying to pick up the ball of light, but it couldn't manage it. After trying for a while, it shook its head in frustration, "I...can't lift it..."

"...Because you're a soul, it's alright. I can give it to you as energy, and your body will glow too~" With that, An Xin tossed the ball of light upwards, then controlled it to disperse like fireworks. After floating in the air for a while, it all entered the soul's body.

The soul clapped its hands with joy when it saw the ball of light explode above, and now, seeing its body radiating light as the light merged into its soul, it was overjoyed and its smile became even brighter.

A moment later, the energy was exhausted, and the soul returned to its original form, only seemingly more solidified. An Xin said gently, "Fun, wasn't it! So, are we friends now? My name is An Xin, what's yours?"

The soul seemed to be thinking about something, and after a while it seemed to react, nodding and saying, "Hello An Xin, my name is Dong Chuanzhi, we are friends now!"