Nonsense! How could my adopted son be a villain?

Because of some tacit understanding, the two walked very fast and soon arrived at the building downstairs of Xu Lingguang's company.

Xu Lingguang looked up at the office building but didn't see anything unusual, so he couldn't help but wonder, "Is there anything special about this place?"

Lan Jian chanted the calming mantra the whole way, and now he was less restless. He forced himself to turn his attention to the important matter at hand, and observed the towering building that pierced the clouds in front of him.

"The energy here is not right."

He slowly said, "This dream and illusion have something in common. Such a large dream could not have been formed out of thin air. There must be a core that provides it with spiritual power, otherwise it would not be able to maintain the operation of the dream."

As soon as he stepped into this place, he repeatedly searched the city with his divine sense.

The entire city was eerily silent, except for this tall building, where a faint trace of life could be seen.

Although it was well hidden, it couldn't fool him.

"Go in and take a look. If there's any key to it, it must be here."

The two entered the building one after the other.

Xu Lingguang went to the elevator lobby as if he knew the way well and waited for the elevator.

He pressed the elevator button, the red numbers slowly ticked, and the elevator doors opened with a soft creak, causing the little one in his arms to exclaim in surprise.

Sui Chun jumped straight into the elevator and paced back and forth inside: "What is this metal box? It came down from above?"

"This is an elevator that can take us from the first floor to the thirty-second floor."

Xu Lingguang's company is on the 32nd floor.

Only after Lan Jian came in did he press the close button.

The elevator doors closed slowly, gave a slight jolt, and then began to ascend rapidly.

The little one, riding an elevator for the first time, swayed and felt dizzy.

The little Qilin immediately covered its head, looking at Xu Lingguang with a somewhat dazed expression.

Xu Lingguang laughed and said, "You won't feel dizzy anymore, we'll be there soon."

The little Qilin let out a soft "woof" and buried its dizzy head in his arms.

Just as Xu Lingguang said, the elevator quickly reached the thirty-second floor.

Stepping out of the elevator, there was a glass corridor. Sui Chun curiously leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down, exclaiming in amazement, "You can get to such a high place without flying!"

Seeing him leaning out of the French window with most of his body hanging out, Xu Lingguang quickly picked him up and said, "Be careful, or you'll fall."

Sui Chun wasn't afraid at all. She kept peeking out from his arms and looked around for a while before saying, "I think this place is very nice."

The tone suggested that the person was a tourist who enjoyed the trip and wanted to come back again.

Xu Lingguang was both amused and exasperated. He tugged at his ear and said, "Let's get down to business first. You can look at it slowly after we're done."

Sui Chun thought he made sense, so she jumped down and sniffed around.

"Something definitely doesn't feel right here."

Sui Chun sniffed for a while, then her ears suddenly perked up, and her tone became somewhat excited: "I smell something fragrant, but it's a bit faint, and I'm not quite sure where it is..."

He muttered to himself as he jogged around, searching for that scent.

Seeing his enthusiasm, the little Qilin immediately jumped down and followed him around, sniffing his bottom.

Xu Lingguang originally wanted to remind them to be careful, but seeing that Lan Jian kept glancing at the two cubs, he let them be.

The two of them walked around the entire thirty-second floor.

Finally, the cub stopped in front of Xu Lingguang's former company.

Sui Chun wagged its tail excitedly: "It's right here!"

The little Qilin echoed with "Awoo Awoo".

Xu Lingguang glanced through the glass door and saw that the receptionist was also looking at them.

He recognized that face; it was a colleague he saw every day at work. Although he hadn't seen him in a long time, it wasn't too unfamiliar.

He still remembers that the receptionist's name was Huang Wenwen. She was a very lively and cheerful girl. Before she left the company, Huang Wenwen would often come to his colleague at the next workstation to share snacks and milk tea, and she would also share some with him.

The current "Huang Wenwen" is also smiling, but the corners of her mouth are stretched too wide, making the smile look strange and eerie.

Huang Wenwen stared intently at them.

Xu Lingguang carefully carried the overly excited Sui Chun and the little Qilin back, and looked at Lan Jian beside him: "Something's wrong with the people in here."

The "people" they encountered on the street would occasionally glance at them, but they seemed more like a pre-programmed program. Although they were very fake, they didn't seem to have much malice.

But the "people" here are clearly not.

That smile was full of malice.

Lan Jian said, "This is the core of the dream, so naturally someone should be assigned to guard it."

He gestured for Xu Lingguang to step back, then pushed open the glass door and went inside.

Perhaps it was because Lan Jian's movements and demeanor were too composed that Xu Lingguang's heart, which had just been raised, calmed down again.

He held the two cubs tightly to prevent them from running away, while his eyes remained fixed on Lan Jian.

Lan Jian walked to the front desk, ignoring "Huang Wenwen," and after scanning the area, continued walking inside.

Seeing him walk inside, Huang Wenwen's smile froze, her face turning expressionless. The next moment, without warning, she reached out and stabbed Lan Jian in the back.

After she made her move, Xu Lingguang realized that her five fingers had turned into sharp claws at some point, her skin had become extremely pale, and even her sweet oval face was somewhat deformed, with her features looking as if they had been drawn on with a pen.

Lan Jian, who was walking ahead, was prepared. He turned to the side, raised his hand, and slashed down at Huang Wenwen's outstretched arm. Huang Wenwen's sharp claws were easily cut off, turning into two light pieces of paper that fell to the ground.

Lan Jian raised an eyebrow.

His gaze swept over the pieces of paper on the ground, and he pointed his index finger at the armless "Huang Wenwen" from a distance. "Huang Wenwen" froze in place.

Seeing this, Xu Lingguang carried the cub inside, curiously looking at the pieces of paper that had fallen to the ground, and asked, "Is this a paper figure?"

Lan Jian picked up the scraps of paper from the ground and examined them, saying, "They're paper effigies."

Xu Lingguang had naturally seen paper effigies. In his hometown, paper effigies and paper carts were used during funerals. The workmanship was very crude. When he was a child, he always felt that they were gloomy and eerie.

When he looked at Huang Wenwen's stiff and expressionless face again, he couldn't help but get goosebumps.

"How could it be a paper effigy? These are burned for the dead, aren't they?"

Lan Jian, however, had already made some progress. He said, "I have heard of a treasure called the Soul-Hooking Rope. Legend has it that the Black and White Impermanence use this Soul-Hooking Rope to hook people's souls. Since the Black and White Impermanence are messengers of hell, the souls they hook will naturally remain in the underworld and will never be able to return to the mortal world."

This is naturally just a legend based on hearsay.

However, it's not hard to see from the legend that this soul-snatching rope has two main abilities: one is to snatch a person's soul, and the other is to leave the soul in the underworld.

It's perfectly normal for paper effigies to guard the underworld.

Xu Lingguang, however, was hearing about the Soul-Hooking Rope for the first time: "So this Soul-Hooking Rope is actually a magical artifact created by humans?"

Lan Jian nodded: "This thing can steal people's souls. It is an evil thing. After it appeared in the world, it caused a lot of trouble. Later, it disappeared without a trace, leaving only some rumors that are a mixture of truth and falsehood."

"I never expected to see you here again."