"No intruder detected?"
Chen Mei’s brow furrowed with a shadow of suspicion. He even doubted that Deep Sea, the system now in control of the building, was an unreliable "false system."
He had watched with his own eyes as "the other person" cut the cable and escaped.
Although he hadn’t seen the true figure... he could be sure that the person was in that elevator!
Now, after a full scan by Deep Sea, which had taken over the building completely, it actually told him... no intruder detected?
"Repeat, no intruder detected."
The flashing red lights slowly returned to calm.
All the security personnel and workers looked at each other in disbelief, sinking into dismay. They stared blankly at the building that had quickly returned to silence... no one inside knew exactly what had happened.
Everything happened fast and ended even faster.
South Bay Building, nineteenth floor.
A pile of cluttered files, as well as worn-out, damaged computers, desks, and chairs, were strewn about in this cramped storage room that seemed long abandoned and unvisited.
The door to the storage room was firmly shut, and the ever-closed blackout curtains blocked all sightlines, hiding the scene within from prying eyes.
Nobody could see the young man sitting amid the clutter.
Gu Shen’s forehead was drenched with sweat, and he stared anxiously ahead... Chen Mei’s presence had left a deep psychological shadow on him. Chen was as keen as a wild dog, and at the moment of looking out from the elevator, Gu had thought he was doomed.
Deep Sea had taken over the building for just under ten seconds.
His only option was to jump out of the elevator while Chu Ling still had access. In fact, in a critical moment, both of their thoughts aligned—Gu Shen had just thought of jumping when the plummeting elevator doors were forcibly opened.
This was his last chance, Gu Shen had decisively fled the moment Chen Mei stepped onto the descending elevator.
The floors of the building that Deep Sea hadn’t connected to... were not just the thirty-ninth floor.
There was also the nineteenth floor.
That is, the "storage room" he was currently in.
"Chen Mei didn’t follow me... he didn’t see me jumping out of the elevator."
After waiting several seconds, Gu Shen took a deep breath, certain that if his escape had been spotted, Chen Mei would have caught up by now.
Choosing the nineteenth floor was the right decision.
Now that Deep Sea was in full control of the building, Chen Mei must still be in a state of suspicion. He would need some time to figure out the situation.
Gu Shen got up as every second was precious to him, and no time could be wasted. In fact, he was also curious as to why there were five locations in the South Bay Building that were not linked to Deep Sea... If the thirty-ninth floor, where Ye Ningqiu was located, contained secrets like a closed-circuit host, then what could the nineteenth floor possibly hold?
After Deep Sea had taken full control, Chu Ling’s voice did not resound again.
Gu Shen didn’t know what price had to be paid to replace Deep Sea’s connection to the South Bay Building, but he knew it wouldn’t be easy and the risk was extremely high... Elevators, surveillance, and the Heavenly Eye in the well, as well as the false alarm, would all be reported by Chen Mei.
After this connection was completed, Chu Ling might need some time... to deal with the subsequent vulnerabilities.
The exploration of the nineteenth floor depended on him alone.
Gu Shen took a deep breath and used Chi Huo to illuminate the room.
The storage room was small.
The clutter was piled up without any discernible order, but judging from the coverage of the ashes... it seemed these were not old items. Items left for years often have a layer of dust on their surface.
Not long ago, someone had been here.
Gu Shen cleared some cardboard boxes and old furniture, and as expected, he found a narrow secret door passage.
"Another secret door..."
Gu Shen narrowed his eyes, hesitating.
Chi Huo conveyed a vague sense of foreboding.
With the building now sealed, he was forced to escape to the nineteenth floor. His urgent priority was to get out quickly... but with Deep Sea now in full control of South Bay Building, his only option seemed to be to move forward.
"Chi Huo has a vague sense of foreboding. Could it be that behind this secret door lies something even more significant than Ye Ningqiu’s secrets?" Gu Shen frowned slightly, holding the Truth Ruler in one hand and his other hand exposing the Six Fulu Beads.
Gu Shen decided to boldly move forward.
If anything went wrong, the Six Fulu Beads would take the hit for him.
If things really went south, he’d have no choice but to try jumping from the nineteenth floor... His instinct told Gu Shen this was the worst plan. That man, Chen Mei, was likely watching the building closely. To force his way out would mean revealing himself officially.
The likelihood of being pursued was extremely high.
Gu Shen crawled forward, finding it hard to believe that the nineteenth floor of South Bay Building concealed such a secret door... It was more like a corridor meant to confine prisoners, utterly oppressive and low-ceilinged, clearly not intended for normal travel...
Meandering and serpentine.
Who could have imagined that beneath the polished exterior of South Bay Building lied such a place?
After a grueling five minutes of crawling.
The winding passage finally came to an end, and Chi Huo, summoned by Gu Shen, had been leading the way ahead, dispersing the darkness where it hovered, and hence broadening the view.
But when Gu Shen poked his head out of the passage, an eerie feeling washed over him.
Something cold touched his cheek.
It was a drop of blood.
Thick, yet a vivid red, like a red agate.
Gu Shen looked up, and there hung a slender figure before his eyes—a young woman, her neck as white as a swan’s, was pierced by an iron hook, her face a blurred mess of flesh and blood.
If one were to look from a distance.
The woman looked as beautiful as a piece of art.
But upon closer inspection... the piece of art was teeming with the scent of death.
An overwhelming urge to vomit rose in his heart, and Gu Shen fought to keep the nausea at bay, crawling out of the twisted passage. Chi Huo illuminated the secret behind the 19th floor’s hidden door... it was an extremely narrow chamber, with the iron door fastened by a heavy lock. The door seemed to connect to the outside world, as gusts of wind occasionally swept in, but the room’s stench of blood remained undispelled.
"...Someone died here."
Gu Shen stared intently at the hanging figure, wanting to see the person’s face clearly... but the visage of the deceased was destroyed, leaving only crimson.
This look... he had seen it before.
In Zhou Yexin’s Dream, Zhou Yu had died , his face covered by countless codes.
Was it done by the Blood Fire owner?
The moment he saw this corpse, Gu Shen was certain that his investigative approach was absolutely correct. Although the information from the 39th floor’s surveillance host had not yet been decrypted, this body... was enough to prove that the Blood Fire owner had a close connection with the South Bay Building.
In a place not connected by Deep Sea, such a corpse was stored.
This was no coincidence.
Gu Shen held his breath, inching closer.
His complexion was somewhat pale, not from a lack of mental fortitude, but because the scene before him was somewhat eerie. White and darkness, death and sanctity; the stark visual contrasts filled the confines of the small chamber.
"How long has she been dead..."
It seemed as though a layer of powder had been applied to the woman’s body.
Gu Shen couldn’t obtain any useful information... could this be a method for preserving the body? Time seemed to have stopped for her, hence the look of an art piece.
He did not touch the woman.
As he crawled through the passage, Gu Shen was exceedingly cautious.
When he confirmed that someone was recently in the 19th-floor storeroom... he began to clean up the traces. Before entering the passage, he meticulously restored the miscellaneous items used to conceal the hidden door.
Under no circumstances could he allow that intruder to discover traces of his own "visit."
If the Blood Fire owner controlled the Changjiu Foundation’s power, and this woman was associated with him... she could very likely be a sacrificial victim to satisfy the Blood Fire owner’s private desires.
Hence, the visitor to this place must undoubtedly be a zealous Believer of the Changjiu Foundation.
The news of the building’s intrusion would quickly spread.
Therefore, this "Believer" would surely return here again for inspection.
After uncovering the secrets of the chamber, Gu Shen did not hesitate; he prepared to leave.
The knowledge of this chamber’s existence was enough for him.
Everything here was impossible to take away.
The game with the Blood Fire owner... was in reality a war of information. For every card he hid, his odds of winning increased.
Gu Shen slowly reached the iron door. Grasping the long lock, picking the lock was not difficult for him. What was difficult was erasing all traces... Spiritual power gently swept out, probing the contours within the lock, and Truth Ruler morphed into a slim steel wire, turning slowly with his fingers.
The chamber’s iron door opened.
It led to a small open-air balcony, just large enough to stand upon... Since the chamber wasn’t linked to Deep Sea, and not within the surveillance range, the balcony would naturally be outside the scope of Deep Sea’s "Eye."
Gu Shen squeezed out onto the balcony, closed the door to the chamber, and using the Truth Ruler, he slowly resecured the door lock from the other side.
He closed his eyes, slowly recalling.
Ensuring that all traces of his presence had been erased.
Gu Shen leaped backward. Truth Ruler transformed into a long rope, and as he fell rapidly, the rope tightened and jerked him to a stop.
Gu Shen let go, and the rope dissipated.
He raised his hand again.
The rope shot out like spider silk.
He then swung away from the building, quickly disappearing into the night.
What Gu Shen did not see was—
Inside the 19th-floor chamber, the hanging snow-white woman seemed to be stirred by the wind.
She slowly turned around.
Accompanied by the creaks of the turning hook.
That blurred face stained with blood quietly faced the direction Gu Shen had left, through the outside of the chamber.