# 525
**Chapter 525: City of Silence**
The moment he heard those words, Lin Qiye’s pupils shrank violently, his mind shaken to the core.
What… did he just call me?
Director Lin?
How could he possibly know that name?
Lin Qiye gripped the Soul-Severing Blade, staring blankly at the shadow that had already vanished without a trace, standing there like a statue.
In front of him, the unconscious Zhao Kun furrowed his brow, let out a low groan, and slowly opened his eyes.
“Huh? Why am I here?” Zhao Kun looked around in confusion. When he saw Lin Qiye wearing the Sun Wukong mask, he froze for a moment, then recalled the figure wearing the Zhu Bajie mask from that morning…
He suddenly clutched the back of his head and shouted indignantly, “You—you ambushed me again?! Does the Fifth Reserve Team really enjoy sneaking up on people?!”
Lin Qiye rolled his eyes. “You were possessed by the Peeping Phantom. I saved you.”
He waved his hand, dispersing the wooden cage around them. Under the control of the ancient tree demon, the wooden platform beneath Lin Qiye and Zhao Kun gently descended to the ground.
“Qiye, is it done?”
Baili Pangpang, who had been waiting beneath the cage, stepped forward and asked.
Lin Qiye nodded. “Just as planned. It’s done.”
He extended his hand and handed the black ring in his palm to Baili Pangpang, who shook his head with a smile. “Give it to Brother Zhu. I already gave him the Soul-Severing Blade.”
Shen Qingzhu raised an eyebrow, took the black ring, and slipped it onto his middle finger.
“Thanks.”
“So, does this mean we won this round?” Cao Yuan asked.
Lin Qiye looked up at the rooftop of a building across the street. There, a figure in a dark red cloak stood silently, gazing in their direction.
“Of course,” he said with a smile.
---
Outside the borders of Great Xia.
Pale mist filled every inch of space, rolling like waves in the air. Sunlight filtered through the haze, casting down on the dry, lifeless earth. This forbidden zone, untouched by humans for a hundred years, silently exuded the beauty of death…
Darkness was slowly devouring the land.
If someone stood on the ground and looked up through the endless fog, they would see a massive shadow suspended in the sky, slowly drifting westward.
It was a city.
A modern city shrouded in a faint, ghostly light.
That light emanated from a floating palace deep beneath the earth, spreading through a towering bronze gate and enveloping the entire city like a dome of dim radiance, repelling the mist that filled every corner of the world and allowing the tens of thousands of sleeping souls within to survive.
That light was the law of Fengdu.
Above the floating city, a figure in cyan-white robes with a blue sash stood amidst the mist. Endless storms swirled around him, and his dark golden eyes held boundless divine might—just one glance was enough to inspire worship.
He was Shu, the Egyptian god of wind, one of the Nine Pillars of Ennead.
His right arm was stretched out as if holding something. Beneath his feet, endless hurricanes surrounded the floating city, slowly carrying it westward.
Shu looked down at the city beneath the ghostly light and frowned. He pointed downward, and a several-kilometer-long deep cyan wind blade condensed at his fingertip, shooting toward the city.
The moment the wind blade touched the dim barrier, the entire city fragment trembled violently. The laws of Fengdu surged, forcibly shattering the wind blade.
Fengdu was instinctively rejecting the laws of an external god.
Shu frowned again. After a moment of hesitation, he slowly lowered his hand.
Throughout this journey, he had tried countless times to break through Fengdu’s laws, but not once had he succeeded.
The laws of Fengdu protected the lives within the city fragment like an impenetrable shell. Even the Wind God couldn’t easily break through. That was why he hadn’t been able to directly seize Fengdu—he had to cut away the entire city along with it.
It was like a thief who couldn’t open the safe to get the treasure inside, so he resorted to the clumsiest method: taking the entire safe back to open it slowly.
The tens of thousands of lives inside were just a bonus.
Since the laws of Fengdu were so stubborn, he would simply bring the entire city back to the Sun City and have the gods work together to crack it open.
He raised his head and continued guiding the ghostly city fragment toward the Egyptian Sun City…
He didn’t notice a nearly invisible sword light flash through the mist and quietly slip into the dim glow.
---
Inside the city.
Under the ghostly sky, the city was completely silent.
The power grid had completely failed. No light came from the streets, and the city center was pitch black and utterly quiet.
As far as the eye could see, there was no trace of technological civilization.
A cold chill drifted beneath the ghostly light, making the city feel like an ice cellar. Frost slowly crept across the roads, gradually consuming the bodies of the collapsed pedestrians.
They were the residents of Anta County, knocked unconscious by the divine wind when Shu descended.
Under the erosion of the frost, their bodies grew colder, their breathing weaker…
In the darkness, the life of this city was slowly fading.
Just then, two blinding beams of light appeared from the other end of the street, sweeping across the dark, silent road and landing on several people lying by the roadside.
“Senior Chen Han, there are still people here!” a young man’s voice called out from the darkness.
The two beams of light quickly approached—two figures in dark red cloaks, flashlights in hand, their lips purple from the cold.
Chen Han rushed to the fallen pedestrian, placed a hand beneath his nose, then touched his burning forehead. His expression turned grave.
“He’s still alive, but the divine wind scattered his soul. He’s running a high fever. If this continues, he won’t last long.”
Chen Han bent down, hoisted the man onto his back, took a deep breath, and began walking slowly down the street.
The young man beside him slung another person over his shoulder and followed, his steps unsteady.
“Senior Chen Han, don’t you need to rest? We’ve been searching and rescuing for 19 hours straight. You’re still running a fever… If this keeps up, you’ll collapse before we finish saving everyone,” he said worriedly.
Chen Han glanced at him. “Just a small fever. It’s nothing.”
“But—”
“No buts.” Chen Han’s gaze swept across the dark city. His voice was calm. “Right now, we’re the only two awake people in this city. If we don’t save them… they’ll really just have to wait for death.”