Su City Spirit Hunter Guild.
When Duan Chen returned, the place was bustling with cleaning. Seeing him come back, someone inside waved him over.
"Duan Chen, you're finally back. If you didn't come back soon, we would have finished all the work here."
Duan Chen raised his wrist and checked his watch.
He noticed it was only just past three in the morning.
The sky outside was still dark.
He hadn't encountered any aberrations on his journey.
This was thanks to the great disaster that Su City had previously suffered, causing many aberrations and strange entities hidden beneath the surface of Su City to emerge.
They were purged during that great catastrophe.
This resulted in Su City's current relatively stable and peaceful state.
However, this was not permanent.
Aberrations from surrounding cities were mobile.
With fewer aberrations here, those from neighboring cities would undoubtedly be eager to flock to this unclaimed territory, seeking to claim a piece of the pie.
They would devour the humans here, dig out their hearts, and present them to the Sea Demons to gain favor.
Today was the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
Also known as Ghost Festival.
For the entire day, regardless of daylight or darkness, even with the sun present, it would not deter the appearance of these aberrations.
Not that they feared the sun anyway.
They merely disliked it.
On this day, the Yin-cold energy would empower them, making them more rampant.
Duan Chen opened his mouth and asked, "What are you all so busy cleaning here for? Even if you clean it spotless, in a while, it won't take a day for this place to become messy again."
This wasn't because he was unhygienic.
It was because any aberrations caught during Ghost Festival, if possible, had to be brought back to the guild.
They would inevitably pass through the hall and be sent to the inspection department. No one knew the characteristics of the aberrations and strange entities that would be brought back.
If there were any slippery or massive entities, dragging them along would definitely dirty the floors of the Spirit Hunter Guild.
Therefore, cleaning now was as good as not cleaning, saving manpower and resources.
It would be better to go out and set up defenses.
Upon hearing this, the faces of those cleaning revealed expressions of bitterness.
Especially Bai Ye, who was inside wearing a cleaning suit. Hearing this, he appeared extremely disheveled, his eyes rolling almost to the heavens.
He said to Duan Chen with a hint of self-abandonment, "Do you really think I don't want to clean up after the fact? But there's nothing I can do! You should worry about your own little ancestor!"
Little ancestor?
Duan Chen frowned, not understanding why Bai Ye was suddenly acting crazy.
What little ancestor did he have?
As he was thinking, a woman in a white coat with a stern expression suddenly descended from the elevator.
Upon seeing Duan Chen standing in the hall, her eyes lit up.
"I was just about to call you, I didn't expect you to be back already."
"Xil, did something happen?"
Duan Chen looked around with confusion, making a questioning gesture.
Xil pouted, showing a rare childlike innocence.
She pursed her lips and said, "It's just too dirty, how can I stand it?"
"Moreover, if standard cleanliness is not maintained, it could very well affect the inspection results. Adding another cleaning step would greatly increase the workload for the inspection department."
She spoke with conviction.
Duan Chen believed her.
He glanced at Xil and suddenly remembered something, asking, "I gave you a card before, how is that card doing in your possession?"
However, he did not expect that when he brought this up, Xil's face would suddenly show a guilty expression.
She fidgeted nervously, tugging at her sleeve.
Duan Chen raised an eyebrow slightly, "What's wrong? Is this question difficult to answer?"
"No," Xil shook her head gently, biting her fair teeth with helplessness. "That card… disappeared."
"Disappeared?"
Duan Chen didn't understand what she meant.
He raised an eyebrow slightly and instinctively pulled out his own card from his hand.
His card was still gleaming in his hand, showing no signs of abnormality.
It had no intention of disappearing.
But Xil said her card had disappeared?
Xil explained helplessly, "I don't know what happened, it just vanished suddenly."
Duan Chen's heart skipped a beat. He felt that this might be the key to activating the usage method of the deck of cards he had obtained.
He couldn't bother with anything else.
He couldn't care about Bai Ye, who was still cleaning miserably.
He immediately reached out, grabbed Xil's sleeve, and pulled her towards the office.
Xil was dazed but instinctively followed Duan Chen's steps.
She was naturally not a smiling person, appearing somewhat stern, but she was also naturally naive, passionate about science and medicine, and even a bit fanatical.
Most of the time, she was very pure and innocent, even a bit silly.
Therefore, she had no resistance to being led by Duan Chen.
Once in the office, Duan Chen slammed the door shut and pushed Xil onto the sofa.
It looked as if they were about to do something illicit.
Xil stared at Duan Chen with wide, uncomprehending eyes, as if she didn't think their current posture was problematic.
Or rather, her mind simply didn't process it that way.
Duan Chen asked, "I need you to tell me, before the card in your hand disappeared, what did you do? What happened? This is very important to me."
Xil nodded.
Actually, if Duan Chen hadn't asked, she would have told him anyway.
She carefully chose her words and began to recount, "I didn't do anything special. It was just during a surgery that the card I was carrying suddenly turned into a stream of light and burrowed into my hands."
"I tried to take the card out, but it was impossible."
She frowned with distress and extended her two hands…
Wait.
At that moment, Duan Chen almost pulled out the Thousand Illusions Pandora.
Not two hands, but two hands.
He almost lost control of his expression. This was truly too absurd!