Then let the witch offer her loyalty

Armed guards on duty in the strictly controlled area rushed into the canteen and surrounded the scene. The other witches also quickly followed the rules and procedures and ran to the corner to stand in rows.

The witch hunter on duty tonight arrived soon after. She was a tall and burly man named Yan Meng, who was also a heterogenous psychic.

Yan Meng crossed his thick arms over his chest and looked down at Wu Meiyu and Zhou Yan: "What's going on?"

Wu Meiyu was the first to complain, pointing to her red elbow and saying, "Zhou Yan is unruly. He curses at people and pushes me. Look at my arm. This guy is really lawless."

Zhou Yan was furious, her eyes blazing with anger. She shouted, "She tripped me first! I didn't even touch her. She faked the fall to extort money from me! You can ask anyone else if you don't believe me!"

Yan Meng turned his gaze to the witches around him.

In fact, some witches did see Wu Meiyu provoke them first and also saw her fake fall.

But as the saying goes, when you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head.

For the witches in the Administration Bureau, it's okay to offend the operators, or even the witch hunters, since these people don't directly manage the containment area.

But if you offend the regulators, they have a million ways to make things difficult for you and make your life uncomfortable.

Given Zhou Yan's notorious reputation and her complete lack of kinship with any of them, no witch would be willing to offend the supervisor for her sake.

Seeing that no one spoke, Yan Meng looked at Zhou Yan and asked calmly, "Is there anything else you want to say?"

Zhou Yan glared at the indifferent witches, clenched her fists, and gritted her teeth, saying, "I understand... you're deliberately targeting me..."

"Chen Moxin even told me to perform well, and I'd definitely change everyone's impression of me... Bullshit! No matter what I do, you all still think I'm scum, and you all look down on me from the bottom of your hearts, don't you?!"

Zhou Yan was forced to break down, and Wu Meiyu felt that she had avenged her great enemy. She was secretly overjoyed, and the corners of her mouth turned up in a crazy smile that she couldn't suppress.

Zhou Yan saw Wu Meiyu smirking and immediately threw a punch at her: "Laugh your mother!"

With a thud, Wu Meiyu really fell to the ground this time. Her nose, which had just healed, was knocked crooked again, and blood gushed out. She lay on the ground screaming and howling in agony.

Zhou Yan was now completely desperate and was ready to pounce on that bastard and give him a couple more punches.

Suddenly, she felt her vision go black, and her body was lifted into the air uncontrollably.

Immediately afterwards, a violent impact came from her back, and she was forcefully pushed to the ground.

Yan Meng's large hand pressed down on Zhou Yan's head, and a large number of white, hard bones appeared on the surface of her skin, wrapping around her and pressing her to the ground like vines, making her unable to move.

"Kid, you really are as arrogant as the rumors say, daring to hit someone in front of me." Yan Meng sneered. "Guards, take her away and put her in solitary confinement for 168 hours."

...

Within the Bureau, there is a specific set of disciplinary measures for witches who do not cooperate with regulations.

Solitary confinement is one of the more severe punishments, specifically used to punish witches who deliberately cause trouble.

The solitary confinement cells in the strictly controlled area are very small, only two or three square meters. Adults cannot stand up straight or lie flat inside, and even a short child like Zhou Yan will have his movements severely restricted.

The food conditions in the strictly controlled areas were already poor, and they were even worse during the lockdown. The three meals a day consisted only of steamed buns and boiled vegetables. There was no meat, not even a trace of oil, and the portions were very small, not enough to fill you up.

Compared to the physical body, the mental torment is even greater.

The solitary confinement room had no windows and was pitch black. The guards on duty did not respond to any words, leaving the witch with only endless emptiness.

Many witches couldn't stand being inside for even a day. Anyone who was imprisoned for more than three days, no matter how fierce their original temperament, would come out as if they were a completely different person, becoming timid and submissive.

As for Zhou Yan, a "habitual offender," Yan Meng showed no leniency and directly sent him to seven days of confinement.

Seven days later.

When Zhou Yan came out of solitary confinement, his steps were unsteady, and he looked haggard. His eyes were full of arrogance, and he looked at everyone with a cold and resentful gaze.

Wu Meiyu was on duty today, wearing a transparent nose guard that served both to secure and protect her face. Upon seeing Zhou Yan's gaze, she immediately sneered, "Still not convinced? Want to continue?"

"Anyway, the hunter said that if seven days is not enough, then seven more days, and if that's still not enough, then keep adding more until you submit."

Zhou Yan gritted his teeth and stared at Wu Meiyu with a sinister look, without saying a word.

"You've learned your lesson, huh?" Wu Meiyu took advantage of a blind spot in the surveillance camera to lightly pat Zhou Yan's face twice. "Don't jump around like that again."

At dinner time in the evening, Zhou Yan, who had been eating "swill" during his seven-day confinement, finally got his first normal meal.

For a while, thanks to Chen Moxin bringing delicious food every day, Zhou Yan was able to eat his fill every day, and his habit of wolfing down his food had already been somewhat corrected.

During this period of confinement, Zhou Yan was so hungry that she didn't even use chopsticks. She just held onto the plate with one hand and kept shoveling rice into her mouth with the other, as if afraid that someone would take it from her.

Just as Zhou Yan was engrossed in eating, he suddenly felt someone bump into his back.

"oops."

With a gasp, soup and water were poured over her head, soaking her completely.

A witch straightened her plate and smiled apologetically at Zhou Yan, saying, "Sorry, sorry, the floor here is too slippery."

That smile seemed like an apology, but it actually concealed a mockery.

Seeing this scene from not far away, Wu Meiyu and the witch exchanged glances and secretly revealed a wicked smile.

Zhou Yan sat there like a statue, her long pink hair, soaked with soup, sticking stickily to her face, dripping soup incessantly.

This time, however, Zhou Yan didn't react in any particular way. She simply took the egg drop soup off her hair, put it in her plate, and continued eating.

Seeing that Zhou Yan did not resist, Wu Meiyu also felt bored. She gave the witch a wink, signaling her to go back to eat, and then chatted with her companions.

Zhou Yan glanced coldly at Wu Meiyu, and while shoveling rice into his mouth, he subtly bit his finger and broke the skin with his teeth.

Fresh blood silently seeped out, dripping onto the ground under the influence of psionic energy, swimming towards Wu Meiyu like a small, living red worm.

A single drop of blood is so insignificant, and it falls on the ground, making it impossible to notice. Wu Meiyu was completely unaware of it.

The drop of blood silently swam to Wu Meiyu's side, climbed up her waist along her shoes and pants, slipped into her key pouch, and unfolded into a membrane to cover the key.

After wrapping one key, Zhou Yan continued wrapping the next, controlling his blood to wrap each key one by one, memorizing their shapes.

After doing all that, she controlled the blood as it dripped into the sink, took the empty plate to the recycling bin, and went back to her dormitory.

As night fell, both the supervisors and the witches gradually returned to their dormitories to rest.

In the dead of night, Zhou Yan sat up in bed, his eyes filled with arrogance and malice.

"I've had enough of this awful place."

Chapter 181 The Dead Ashes Gang

Zhou Yan glanced sideways at the surveillance camera that was operating in the corner.

The strict detention area is managed like a prison; being inside is almost like being in jail. The detention cells are under 24-hour surveillance to prevent the witch from causing any trouble.

Without making a sound, she activated her spiritual energy, and a few drops of blood quietly floated to the corner of the wall, spreading out a blood membrane to cover the surveillance camera.

Immediately afterwards, she arrived at the door of her shelter.

Several more drops of blood floated up from Zhou Yan's palm. Under the influence of spiritual energy, they twisted and deformed, eventually forming the shape of keys and hardening.

In the evening at the cafeteria, she used her blood to memorize the shapes of all the keys on Wu Meiyu's body and then recreated them one by one.

Zhou Yan opened the door to the containment room, found the corridor window, flipped over, and jumped out.

The athletic ability of the alien psychic was on full display at this moment. Zhou Yan's body was freefalling in the air, and when he hit the ground, he pushed off with his feet and landed steadily on the ground.

As a notorious troublemaker in the strictly controlled area, Zhou Yan knew the surveillance layout like the back of her hand. She bypassed the surveillance cameras by finding blind spots, and when she couldn't get around them, she used the same trick again, manipulating the blood to spread into a blood membrane to cover the camera lens.

And so, Zhou Yan stealthily made his way through the back door of the administration building and quietly made his way to the main control room.

One of the supervisors was on duty inside, engrossed in watching the monitor screen, completely unaware that someone had come up behind him.

"Guard post! Guard post! Several surveillance cameras have gone dark. Go check what's going on."

"Thump!" Before the supervisor could finish speaking, he was struck hard on the back of the neck and lost consciousness, collapsing in front of the control panel.

On the other end of the communicator, the sentry's impatient voice came through: "Control room, which monitor is malfunctioning? How am I supposed to check if you don't tell me the number?"

Zhou Yan remained silent, quickly scanning the complex control panel.

Soon, she realized that she was uneducated and couldn't understand this stuff.

However, after searching around, she finally found the main power switch located in the control room.

"Go to hell, everyone. Let whoever wants to stay here stay. I'm not staying here."

After saying that, she turned off all the power switches on the circuit breaker.

In an instant, all the searchlights, electrical equipment, and security facilities in the entire containment area lost power, leaving only deathly darkness all around.

...

The room was dimly lit, and the air was filled with the mixed smells of tobacco and old furniture leather.

A man in a leather vest leaned back in his chair, smiling, and personally poured a cup of hot tea for the person sitting opposite him.

The person opposite was wearing a dark cloak that completely covered his body, revealing only half of his face. His slanted eyes were as cold as a knife.

"Sun Kan, what's your opinion on the price we discussed last time?" the cloaked man asked.

Sun Kan's smile remained unchanged, still carrying a hint of ingratiation yet confidence: "Our boss said he's certainly interested in the goods, but the price... seems a bit too high."

The cloaked man tapped the table lightly with his finger and said coldly, "I've shown you the effects. With these, what group in this border region can rival your Dead Ash Gang?"

“I certainly don’t deny the effects.” Sun Kan rubbed the rim of the cup with his fingertips and touched his chin with his other hand. “But the problem is, your stuff is no ordinary stuff. It’s fierce when it’s used, but the side effects are just too damn severe.”

“Using it once is basically equivalent to suicide. What’s the difference between taking it out to fight someone and strapping yourself with explosives? I have to write my will before every fight.”

"The most crucial thing is that that thing will attract the Witch Administration Bureau. They are very sensitive to the matter of madness, and it will impose too many restrictions on our use of it."

The cloaked man chuckled briefly, his eyes filled with mockery, as if looking at a coward who only dared to dart his feet near the pond: "How exactly to use him depends on how you use your brain, doesn't it? Aren't you Death Ash Gang the best at finding people to risk their lives for?"

"Finding a henchman willing to die for his cause, offering him a settlement allowance, or finding someone with terminal cancer or a cynical, lifeless guy shouldn't be difficult, right? There are plenty of people like that who don't care about their lives in this wretched border region."

Sun Kan licked his dry lips, pondered for a moment, and slowly said, "Let's stop stalling and just get straight to the point."

After saying that, he held up four fingers: "This is my target price. I really can't go any higher. You know, we're running a small business. The guys work from dawn till dusk, selling these drugs every day. It's not easy for them, is it?"

"Anyway, this is the price. See if you can accept it. If you can, then let's cooperate happily. If not... that's fine too. Even if the deal falls through, we can still be on good terms and have opportunities to cooperate in the future."

The cloaked man was silent for a moment, glanced down at the untouched cup of tea, raised his hand and drank it in one gulp, and said in a deep voice, "This price is acceptable, but I'm sorry we can't deliver to your door. The risks along the way are too great, you'll have to come and pick it up yourselves."

Sun Kan clapped his hands, a smile instantly spreading across his face, his tone becoming enthusiastic: "Alright~ We know how to pick up the goods, whether by land or water, the brothers know it all very well. Then it's settled!"

"Knock knock knock." Just as the two were shaking hands, a knock sounded on the door.

A henchman poked his head out from outside the door: "Brother Sun, a girl says she wants to see you."

The cloaked man looked at Sun Kan with a teasing gaze: "Boss Sun is quite the ladies' man. Well then, I won't disturb you and your beauty's night of passion. Farewell."

After saying this, accompanied by Sun Kan, the cloaked man left through the back door.

After seeing the guests off, Sun Kan looked at his underlings and asked, "Which girl? I didn't invite any women to keep me company today."

The younger brother scratched the back of his head: "Brother, I don't know the specifics. I only heard it from people outside. It seems to be someone you know."

"An acquaintance?" Sun Kan asked, puzzled, as he walked out with his underling.

The Dead Ash Gang is a notorious large-scale violent organization in the border region. It has been entrenched in the border area for decades, controlling the lifeline of the entire smuggling industry. It has more than a dozen affiliated industrial parks, each of which is a stable and operating criminal machine that continuously supplies this land with blood and drugs.

Sun Kan is the head of one of the parks in this massive machine, with thousands of henchmen under his command, and is a well-known figure in the underworld.

Sun Kan followed his underling to the entrance of the park and saw the "girl" his underling had mentioned from a distance.

She was a little girl who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old. She was small in stature, with long pink hair that hung softly down her back like cotton candy. She was wearing a faded hooded jacket and stood by the cement block at the door, looking around like a wary little mouse.

Sun Kan paused for a moment, then quickly walked up to the pink-haired loli and exclaimed with wide eyes, "Oh? I'm not seeing things, am I—isn't this Zhou Yan?!"

Zhou Yan put on a fawning expression, nervously rubbing her small hands together, and said with a forced smile, "It's been a long time, Brother Sun."

Sun Kan raised his eyebrows and looked her up and down: "I said, where have you been all this time? I haven't seen a trace of you. I thought you'd died in some stinking ditch."

Zhou Yan scratched the back of his head, his head almost buried in his chest: "No, no, it's just that something happened... Brother Sun, I, I'm a little short of money right now, do you need any more manpower here?"

Sun Kan waved his hand magnanimously: "Don't worry, I've watched you grow up. Even if we don't need manpower, if Sister Zhou Yan is in trouble, how could I sit idly by?"

Zhou Yan quickly nodded and bowed, "Thank you, Brother Sun! Thank you, Brother Sun!"

Sun Kan took a deep drag on his cigarette and stubbed it out on the iron railing at the door: "You've done a lot of work for me before, so let's skip the formalities and come with me."

Sun Kan led Zhou Yan into an SUV and drove her away from the park.

It's the early hours of the morning, before dawn, and everyone is still asleep; the streets are deserted.

With electronic drum music playing in the car, Sun Kan casually asked as he drove, "Zhou Yan, what's been going on with you for the past year or so? You suddenly disappeared last year, which I found quite strange."

Zhou Yan shrank back and said cautiously, "I got into some trouble, quite serious, so I went to hide in another place for a while. Recently, things have calmed down a bit, so I came back."

Sun Kan glanced at Zhou Yan, who was leaning against the passenger seat with his arms tightly wrapped around himself, seemingly because he was cold from not wearing enough clothes.