# 30
**Chapter 30: The Rain Has Stopped**
Inside the house.
Auntie looked up at the clock on the wall, lost in thought.
On the dining table in front of her, a full spread of dishes had gone cold, almost untouched since Lin Qiye left.
After who knows how long, Yang Jin reached out with his chopsticks and placed a piece of meat into Auntie’s bowl.
“Mom, eat something.”
“Sigh…” Auntie shook her head and let out a long sigh. “Your brother ran out halfway through dinner. Why hasn’t he come back yet? You don’t think something happened, do you?”
“Don’t worry, nothing’s wrong. Maybe his classmates saw that his eyes were healed and insisted on taking him out to eat,” Yang Jin comforted her gently.
Auntie visibly relaxed at his words, but then a new worry crept in.
“But he didn’t take an umbrella.”
“Mom…” Yang Jin stood up and pointed out the window, speaking calmly:
“The rain… has stopped.”
…
Indeed, the rain had stopped.
Faint moonlight pierced through the clouds, casting a glow over the silent, empty night.
Not far away, the broken noticeboard had been removed, and the blood and flesh scattered across the ground had been cleaned up. Only the vicious slash marks gouged into the earth remained, silently recounting the events of the previous night.
Perhaps by tomorrow morning, someone would notice the mysterious gashes and come up with all kinds of theories—but they would never know the truth.
A few drops of water slid off the eaves and fell into a muddy puddle, sending ripples across its surface.
*Plop—!*
A foot stepped into the puddle, splashing up a spray of water.
In the darkness, on the scarred ground, a small, scruffy black dog walked unhurriedly.
Around its neck hung a tiny cloth pouch.
It passed through the slash marks and stopped beside a patch of clean ground.
Just over ten minutes ago, a man’s body had lain here.
The dog lowered its head, its dark eyes glinting faintly.
Suddenly—
It opened its mouth.
And spoke in a human voice—
Deep and resonant:
“Return, O soul…”
…
**Cangnan City, Peace Bridge.**
Peace Bridge was a major bridge on the outskirts of Cangnan City, spanning the Grand Jiangnan Canal that ran through the entire city. Countless pedestrians and vehicles crossed it daily, making it one of the city’s landmarks.
At both ends of the bridge were rows of small shops. Among them, the most unremarkable one bore an old, bright red sign:
**—Peace Agency.**
Like the other shops near Peace Bridge, it wasn’t large—just over two hundred square meters, only slightly bigger than your average Lanzhou noodle shop near a school.
Its unremarkable nature wasn’t just due to its generic name, but also because of its neighbors.
To the left was a festive, brightly decorated wedding company called “Peace Weddings.”
To the right was a funeral service shop draped in white cloth and funeral wreaths, called “Peace Funeral Services.”
On one side, joy and laughter. On the other, mourning and sorrow.
Sandwiched between these two extremes, Peace Agency might as well have been invisible, attracting no attention at all.
If it had any distinguishing feature, it was the name itself. Most agencies specialized in something—law firms, detective agencies, accounting firms…
But this one had no prefix. Just “Peace.” No one could guess what it actually did.
**At this moment, beneath Peace Agency.**
In a spacious, brightly lit underground hall, a teenage boy sat on a sofa, staring silently at the floor tiles.
Six others were also present.
“So, you’re the one Old Zhao recruited—the Seraph’s proxy?” Wu Xiangnan sat on another sofa, looking at Lin Qiye.
“That’s right.”
After a brief silence, Wu Xiangnan spoke slowly:
“My name is Wu Xiangnan. I’m the deputy captain of Night Watch Team 136 stationed in Cangnan City. The man in black leaning against the pillar is our captain, Chen Muye.”
Lin Qiye followed Wu Xiangnan’s gaze. Near a pillar, a man stood with his hands in his pockets, watching him silently.
Sensing Lin Qiye’s gaze, Chen Muye gave a slight nod.
Wu Xiangnan turned to the remaining four. “Don’t just stand there. Introduce yourselves.”
A woman sitting alone on a single-seater sofa, hugging her knees, her hair still damp, lifted her head slightly to reveal reddened eyes.
“Night Watch Team 136, frontline combatant—Hongying.”
Lin Qiye recognized her. She was the one who had brought him here.
After she spoke, the man standing beside her, holding a towel, smiled and said:
“Night Watch Team 136, frontline combatant—Wen Qimo.”
Next, a girl huddled nearby, also in tears, lifted her head and said softly, “Night Watch Team 136, combat support and medic—Si Xiaonan.”
“Night Watch Team 136, long-range fire support—Leng Xuan,” said a man sitting off to the side, cradling a sniper rifle.
Once everyone had introduced themselves, Wu Xiangnan turned back to Lin Qiye.
“Lin Qiye, is there anything else you’d like to add regarding Zhao Kongcheng’s death?”
“I’ve already told you everything,” Lin Qiye said calmly. “Zhao Kongcheng activated the [Borderless Domain] and fought the Ghost-Face King alone to the death. They perished together.”
“Were you present during the fight?”
“I was.”
“How did you enter the [Borderless Domain]?”
“I stared at it, and it opened.”
Wu Xiangnan opened his mouth slightly, frowning. “Can you describe the fight in detail? For example, how did Zhao Kongcheng kill the Ghost-Face King?”
“He swung his blade and unleashed a massive black crescent that beheaded the Ghost-Face King,” Lin Qiye replied.
“A black crescent…” Wu Xiangnan murmured, thinking.
At that moment, Chen Muye, who had been silent, suddenly spoke: “It was [Annihilation Flash Moon]. Old Zhao used the God-Demon Trigger… to awaken his Forbidden Ruins.”
Wen Qimo exclaimed in surprise, “The sequence 083 [Annihilation Flash Moon]? That’s a high-risk-level Forbidden Ruins!”
“I didn’t expect it… Uncle Zhao was right all along. I used to think he was just full of himself…” Si Xiaonan muttered, biting her lip.
“No, he *was* full of himself,” Chen Muye said, the corner of his mouth twitching upward, a flicker of nostalgia in his eyes. “I bet when he first saw his Forbidden Ruins, he couldn’t even believe it himself.”
“If we’d been there, he definitely would’ve bragged that his Forbidden Ruins was the coolest of all…” Hongying seemed to picture the scene and smiled faintly, but the light in her eyes quickly dimmed.
Wu Xiangnan looked into Lin Qiye’s eyes and asked again:
“One more thing. Based on the Ghost-Face King’s corpse, its fatal wounds were a series of blade strikes and strange burn marks… But [Annihilation Flash Moon] doesn’t seem to have those properties.
How do you explain that?”
Lin Qiye frowned, meeting Wu Xiangnan’s gaze, and spoke slowly, word by word:
“I’ve already told you everything. Zhao Kongcheng faced the Ghost-Face King alone…
And in the end—
He *single-handedly* killed it!”