"I feel a bit uncomfortable here."
At the same time, a voice came from behind Duan Chen.
He turned his head and saw that the speaker was Su Baiyi.
Su Baiyi's brows were tightly furrowed, her beautiful willow-like eyebrows creased into a mess.
Her luminous eyes, like autumn water, revealed a hint of unease. Yet, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pinpoint anything particularly strange about this place.
But she couldn't ignore that faint sense of unease.
This was a promising seedling with excellent perception.
However, when Duan Chen considered her talent, he found it entirely normal.
Su Baiyi's talent was charm, an ability that operated on a spiritual level, naturally requiring strong perception to support it.
Although Su Baiyi was still young, she could already sense that something was amiss here, just like himself.
Even though Su Baiyi wasn't entirely certain, it was enough to prove her talent was indeed remarkable.
Duan Chen took a deep breath.
He had to admit, while he was confident in his abilities and knew that Suzhou must have roughly scouted the area, deeming the danger level manageable for him, which was why they sent him to lead a group of new agents here.
But for some reason, he felt a sense of unease.
This village was not remote.
In fact, it was once a popular tourist spot.
However, with the outbreak of the strange occurrences, its popularity had gradually faded.
One could see many modern features in the village.
Streetlights by the road.
Cute cartoon mushroom nightlights in the corners of walls.
Large green garbage bins.
And they even had garbage sorting.
Inside the bins were empty instant noodle cups, takeout containers, and the soiled shells of disposable plastic bowls.
Occasionally, one could see a stray ice cream wrapper blown by the wind on the ground.
Everything seemed perfectly normal.
But.
Some things could deceive the eyes, but not his pupil technique.
[Sequence 025: Eye of Truth] activated!
Duan Chen's eyes felt a sharp pain almost instantly. Then he blinked, and a scene flashed through his vision, lasting less than two seconds.
But those two seconds were enough for him to see many things clearly.
Visibly, what were merely old, peeling streetlights, under the illumination of his Eye of Truth, at the top of the lamp, perched on a worn-out bulb, was a monkey-like monster.
The monster had its eyes slightly closed.
The reddish sunlight shone upon it, but it offered no real damage.
It seemed to be either sleeping or on guard on the lamppost.
Its massive body caused the lamppost to creak under the strain.
Duan Chen managed to get a rough look at the monkey-like monster's face.
It resembled a water sprite.
It exuded a damp aura, and its limbs were covered in scales.
But it also gave off a feeling of decay and corruption.
Its entire body bore injuries of varying degrees; a large hole was in its chest with clear stitching marks. Its ears were pointed, resembling elf ears, but upon closer thought, they were more akin to fins.
"Damn it!"
The Eye of Truth only supported Duan Chen for two seconds. After two seconds, due to excessive spiritual energy consumption, it automatically shut down at the limit he had set.
However, even after the Eye of Truth closed, the scene in Duan Chen's eyes returned to the village as he saw it before activating the Eye of Truth. Yet, in his vision, the monster standing on the streetlight had not disappeared.
Furthermore, it instantly opened its eyes, its large blood-red pupils locking directly onto Duan Chen.
Its blood-red eyes twitched a bit nervously, then became as still as death, piercing through everything blocking Duan Chen and directly locking onto its target.
"What kind of monster is this?" Duan Chen cursed under his breath.
The others who heard his curse looked around in confusion.
They saw absolutely nothing related to the monster Duan Chen mentioned, not even a living creature other than a yellow dog beneath a tree not far away.
Wang Zihao immediately linked his ancient scroll, but he too found no trace of any monster.
He frowned and asked,
"Instructor, what monster are you talking about?"
They couldn't see anything.
At that moment, Duan Chen quickly made eye contact with Long Yi.
He clearly saw nothing in Long Yi's eyes besides himself.
Long Yi, looking bewildered, turned back to face Duan Chen.
He instinctively opened his mouth to speak.
"What's wrong, instructor?"
"Don't look at me!"
But Long Yi never expected that instead of a calm or stern response from Duan Chen, he would be met with a resounding slap to the face.
Duan Chen grabbed his head and pushed him down. Before he could retaliate in anger, he sensed Duan Chen suddenly flip and retreat rapidly.
As if forced, his steps on the ground were heavy, leaving two large pits in the loess-covered ground.
But that wasn't all.
He looked up in astonishment, ignoring the pain in his neck, and saw Duan Chen appearing to perform a mime, his face tense as he dodged left and right.
Yet, eerily, there was nothing in front of him.
Wang Zihao suddenly realized something. Although he had always been a bit defiant, he wouldn't make mistakes regarding the overall situation.
He roared loudly.
"Everyone, bow your heads! Do not look up!"
"What's wrong?"
Su Baiyi and the others bowed their heads while asking in confusion.
She hadn't yet grasped what was happening.
She was merely instinctively following the order to bow.
Dense cold sweat beaded on Wang Zihao's forehead. His eyes were squeezed shut, terrified of seeing something he shouldn't.
He gasped in response.
"I suspect the instructor is fighting a monster we cannot see."
"Then shouldn't we go help?" Long Yi, suddenly nervous, instinctively lifted his head. However, before his neck was fully raised, he felt a force on the back of his neck.
It directly slammed him to the ground.
Tian Ximeng's fair elbow pressed down on Long Yi, half her body collapsing onto the ground. Her eyes were shut tight, and her delicate hands pressed on Long Yi's head, forcing his face into the dirt.
Her voice was calm, yet carried a power that instilled awe.
"I told you not to look up, don't you understand?"