CHAPTER 1161: CHAPTER 1160: UNDERGROUND

If other workers saw it, they would have seen Fatty, Fatty’s uncle, Er Dan, and Big Tiger working at the site. From behind, it indeed looked as if they were still alive.

"Let’s go take a look."

Ye Qiu said.

Ye Qiu, Zhao Ruxue, and the police officers rushed over. When they reached where those shadows were, they realized the figures were moving fast. Ye Qiu and Zhao Ruxue quickly pursued them, but when they finally stopped, Ye Qiu and Zhao Ruxue realized they were in an unknown place.

This construction site covered nearly two hundred thousand square meters, but they increasingly felt they were not walking within the site.

Because they found themselves in a place resembling a palace, surrounded by shimmering crystal lights. Except for those shadows that disappeared, they saw many people moving about and talking. At that moment, Ye Qiu and Zhao Ruxue, along with the officers, realized they were certainly not at the construction site, but didn’t know where they were.

Seeing these scenes, aside from Ye Qiu, Zhao Ruxue and the officers felt an inexplicable fear, causing them to break out in cold sweat.

"What should we do?"

Zhao Ruxue asked.

"We might be underground."

Underground?

Zhao Ruxue and the officers couldn’t comprehend. How could they have gone underground when they were just above ground?

How could such a place exist underground?

Seeing those beings who were neither humans nor ghosts, mingling like people at a market, shopping around, they truly felt everything was real.

In fact, if their minds weren’t clear, they might have thought they were shopping in a small town.

Ye Qiu pulled Zhao Ruxue aside and said, "This might be the Ghost Market."

When Ye Qiu first arrived here, he knew this area was filled with various spirits. Further research revealed it was never a place where living people resided and was once the Pit of Thousand. Nobody knows how many people died here.

As Ye Qiu guided Zhao Ruxue out, the officers fearfully followed, traversing seemingly endless corridors within the palace.

However, so far nothing else strange approached them.

Ye Qiu took out some Yellow Paper, drew symbols with cinnabar, and started chanting.

"Explode!"

The talismans lit up, and Ye Qiu, Zhao Ruxue, and the officers found themselves no longer under the palace but outside.

In other words, they were back on the surface.

They saw the lights of the construction site.

"How did this happen? Where were we just now?"

Zhao Ruxue was confused.

"I know what’s going on now!"

Ye Qiu, Zhao Ruxue, and the frightened officers hurried back to the security booth.

Upon ensuring the safety of other officers, Ye Qiu said, "Ruxue, it’s best to have these officers return to the station by daylight. Staying here will eventually lead to trouble. Tonight, had I not been here, following those shadows would have been perilous."

"Where did those missing people go?"

"The palace you saw."

"What kind of palace is that?"

"It’s likely not a palace but merely coffins."

Coffins?

Zhao Ruxue and the officers were shocked.

Those were coffins!

Even though they clearly saw an imposing palace lit with crystal lights.

"You’ll understand tomorrow."

Ye Qiu, Zhao Ruxue, and the officers didn’t encounter more shadows.

The next morning, when the sun was up, the oppressive aura seemed much lighter.

After leaving, they discovered it was just an ordinary construction site, unlike what they saw last night.

Ye Qiu had the officers check if the workers were still in the shantytown.

There they found the workers resting inside.

The local police station was called in to take these workers for questioning, since they had sneaked in to steal. Without Ye Qiu, their actions might have led to disaster.

"Ye Qiu, you said you understood. What on earth is happening?"

"Simply put, the shadows we initially saw weren’t real people but kidnapped living phantoms attracting us to another world. What we saw as the palace was underground, also an illusion, trapping the living, unable to escape without talismans. I’m certain that the missing people’s bodies are below, in the coffins I mentioned."

Zhao Ruxue understood.

But she felt even more terrified.

Previously, she heard rumors about nine large coffins buried here, dug up and moved or destroyed by the construction workers.

The site hired another Feng Shui master to bury nine new crystal coffins below. If Ye Qiu was right about the missing people being inside, then they, including the missing security guards, lay within those coffins.

Now Zhao Ruxue had to investigate, find these missing people.

So she suspected they were in those crystal coffins and planned to dig them up quickly to recover the bodies.

This would resolve the case.

"Should we start digging for those coffins now?"

Zhao Ruxue asked.

"Regardless of digging, those are likely just skeletal remains, lingering below. The malice here is too strong for me to handle."

"Then what? Workers will return, causing more disappearances."

"Isn’t the site halted? A lasting solution seems unlikely."

Even with disruption, workers risk being led below forever trapped.