Chapter 6

It wasn't long before Old Hu, who had gone to scout the surroundings, returned. This also announced that they would set off again.

"Let's go, follow me."

The brief rest, though not enough to fully restore their energy, was still better than before. Even Siji felt a bit more capable of moving.

"Where are we going now? Have we found the Netherworld already?"

Lang Shuai asked during the journey.

"How could that be."

Old Hu shrugged.

"Even if we did find it, I wouldn't just let you go through, right?"

Old Hu led the group through the alleys between the buildings and continued, "Though I haven't seen it with my own eyes, according to the original story, it's a formidable enemy. If we really fight, I won't have the energy to take care of you."

"Then where are we going?"

Lang Shuai was even more puzzled about their destination if they weren't going to the mission target.

"Hmm... Where? Just right, you guys think about it. Where am I taking you?"

Old Hu looked at everyone with a playful expression, as if he wanted to test them.

"The source of the evil spirits."

Just as Old Hu finished speaking, Siji answered.

"Why do you think so?"

Old Hu asked without changing his expression.

Siji looked at Old Hu's unchanged face but already knew he was right. No matter how Old Hu tried to keep his actions and expressions unchanged, his inner activities couldn't be suppressed. Siji couldn't read minds to that extent, and for some reason, he couldn't do it now as he did with Qiuhua's memories. However, he could still faintly sense the other person's emotional fluctuations.

"It's from your previous actions."

"Oh?"

"Earlier, when we encountered the evil spirits, you chose to charge forward. If you wanted to avoid them, you didn't have to do that. Since you charged into the group of evil spirits before, it's strange to avoid them now. And although we've been moving through the alleys, our general direction has been the same as the direction the evil spirits came from. So we are heading towards the source of the evil spirits."

After a long speech, and while still moving, Siji was out of breath again.

"Is this the rhythm of Conan?"

Lang Shuai muttered under his breath.

"I really admire you. What you said is very correct."

Old Hu shook his head. After all, that was just a question he thought of on the spot. He didn't expect anyone to answer it, so now he could only laugh bitterly.

"Really impressive. Eh? How did you know the direction we were heading? We can't see the evil spirits here, right?"

Lang Shuai suddenly thought of this question and asked Siji.

"?"

Siji turned to look at Lang Shuai with a puzzled expression.

"By constructing a map in my mind. The terrain here isn't complicated. As long as you remember the distances and angles, it's easy to create a rough map."

"Not easy at all!"

Lang Shuai felt his intelligence was being cruelly mocked.

"Not easy? I see. Sorry, I don't have a memory."

Siji said seriously.

"Don't apologize so formally! This feeling of being pitied! Is this the gap between geniuses and ordinary people?"

Lang Shuai's sharp criticism showed that he had already fully adapted to the new life.

"?"

Siji still couldn't understand the trauma in Lang Shuai's heart.

"That's great, Siji has made friends so quickly."

Qiuhua smiled at Siji.

"Is that so?"

Siji still didn't understand the meaning of Qiuhua's words.

"Yes, that's how it is."

Although he didn't fully understand, Siji decided to believe Qiuhua.

They continued forward, fortunately not as fast as before, so Siji didn't fall behind this time. After advancing for about ten minutes, Old Hu raised his hand to stop everyone.

"There's something."

Siji looked through the buildings. He could feel something dark and negative moving on the other side, a very uncomfortable feeling that could make one instinctively dislike it.

"Your ability is really useful."

Old Hu also looked at the buildings, clearly sensing the enemy on the other side.

"Let's go this way, and be ready to retreat at any time."

As they walked out of the alley, the wide street suddenly came into view. It was no longer the usual street, with no living people, only damaged cars, broken barriers, and still burning flames, as well as things that were absolutely not seen on the street under normal circumstances.

They were black shadows in human shapes, but no one would associate them with humans. They looked like human forms made of black clay, staggering and emitting malice.

The entire street was filled with such monsters.

"What are these things!"

Qiu Wei leaned against the wall to steady himself. Even though he had seen the zombie-like evil spirits before, they were at least human. These were clearly more monstrous.

"Type C, low-level evil spirits."

Old Hu recognized them at a glance because he had prior knowledge.

"Watching exorcists in anime, they could easily defeat them with one strike... I never felt it before..."

Lang Shuai's legs trembled. He now fully understood the difference between reality and stories. Even though they were just low-level evil spirits, just seeing them made his whole body tremble.

"Very uncomfortable feeling."

Qiuhua frowned but stood more steadily compared to Qiu Wei and Lang Shuai.

"Found it!"

Old Hu suddenly said after scanning the surroundings.

Following his gaze, they saw several armored vehicles parked among the burning and damaged streets and cars, clearly military vehicles.

"Good, no evil spirits around."

Old Hu waved and led the group carefully around the evil spirits towards the armored vehicles.

The journey went smoothly, and they weren't discovered by the evil spirits. However, when they reached the armored vehicles, they still couldn't relax their tense nerves because there were countless corpses around the vehicles.

Most of the corpses were incomplete, missing limbs and heads, and some were even torn in half.

"All wiped out? That's terrible."

Old Hu shook his head, having long been accustomed to death. He turned to look at the reactions of the newcomers. Lang Shuai was vomiting uncontrollably, while the others looked much better.

"Are they from the military?"

Siji, who lacked a sense of fear, noticed that most of them were wearing military uniforms, with a few in suits. From their weapon-holding postures, it was clear they had been in a fierce battle.

"This is probably the Special Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense."

Old Hu carefully examined the bodies and answered.

"That's the government's force to deal with evil spirits. Hmm? There are also people from the Special Disaster Countermeasures Office of the Ministry of the Environment. Indeed, it can't be exactly the same as in the anime."

"Ministry of the Environment?"

"Yes, that's also an organization to deal with evil spirits. The Ministry of the Environment is mainly composed of exorcist families and people with special abilities, a group that has been fighting evil spirits for a long time. The Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, is a force created by the government using technology, mostly ordinary people. In short, it's a group created by politicians who didn't like the exorcists' monopoly and wanted to compete with them. Hmph, this meaningless struggle is the same in any world."

Old Hu clearly didn't like the Ministry of Defense's force.

"Never mind, these things are not our concern. Now let's collect their equipment."

"Is this called looting the dead?"

Siji suddenly thought of this term.

"Why do you know such a term! And it's not appropriate to use it here!"

Lang Shuai, who had finally finished vomiting, couldn't help but criticize.

"Not appropriate?"

Siji showed a look of realization.

"Alright, while the enemy isn't paying attention, let's act quickly."

At Old Hu's command, everyone started to act. Collecting the equipment wasn't difficult. They couldn't go too far, and many weapons were damaged, so as long as they could endure the mutilated bodies, it was fine.