After more than twenty minutes, the taxi stopped at an open lot. The driver pointed toward a building about three or four hundred meters away and said, "135 Zhongshan South Road — that fifteen-story building over there. If you want to take photos, just snap a few from outside, but don't go in." It seemed like he took the three of us for some tabloid reporters.
Sun Fatty glared and said, "What do you mean stopping the car here? We still have a mile to go."
"Boss, in the whole Qilin City, I'm the only one who dares to park this close to the fifteen-story building. If you're not happy, I can refund your fare, alright?" The taxi driver pointed at the meter and pulled out about thirty yuan, saying, "Here, thirty-two (6.5 USD), I'll give it back, no hard feelings."
"Cut the nonsense. I just gave you four hundred (60 USD). If you wanted to refund, you should've done it then," Sun Fatty rolled his eyes.
"That was consultation fee."
Finally, Wu Rendi spoke up. He glanced at me and Sun Fatty and said only two words: "Get out."
Watching the taxi vanish into the night, Sun Fatty shifted his attention to Wu Rendi. "Director Wu, that four hundred I gave you counts as office expenses, right? Shouldn't be a problem to get reimbursed, huh?"
Wu Rendi ignored him. He stared toward the fifteen-story building ahead for a while, then turned back and asked me for a cigarette. Without thinking much, I took one out and handed it to him. He held the cigarette but didn't seem to intend to smoke it. I was about to ask if he wanted me to light it when, in the blink of an eye, the cigarette in his hand was already lit.
I hadn't seen him strike a lighter, but at that moment, I didn't have time to ponder it. Wu Rendi's hand began to move; he stretched out his right palm and gently fanned the rising blue smoke. The smoke shifted direction, drifting horizontally toward the fifteen-story building.
Wu Rendi sneered, tossed the cigarette to the ground, then turned to me and Sun Fatty and said, "Let me show you two something interesting."
Wu Rendi walked ahead, with Sun Fatty and me close behind. The closer we got to the fifteen-story building, the more oppressive the aura of gloom became. I even found myself recalling the feeling I had in the Water Curtain Cave in Yunnan.
Director Wu didn't intend to enter right away. Instead, he led us to circle the fifteen-story building from a distance several times, finally stopping on an oddly empty patch of land. The building had been abandoned for over ten years, and the surrounding grounds were overgrown with weeds—no one dared to clear them. Strangely, the five-meter-square patch beneath our feet was different: not only was not a blade of grass growing, but the ground felt unusually soft.
"This is the spot," Wu Rendi said, drawing a circle on the ground with his foot. Then he looked at Sun Fatty and me and said, "You two, dig here."
Dig? Sun Fatty and I exchanged a glance and frowned at the same time. Sun Fatty grinned at Wu Rendi and asked, "Director Wu, any tools?"
"No," Wu Rendi answered flatly. Seeing our sour expressions, he added, "Dig with your hands. This is a Yin-gathering place; solitary Yin won't grow here. The soil is extremely loose, and whatever's buried is very shallow."
Since Director Wu said so, Sun Fatty and I rolled up our sleeves and began digging where he had drawn the circle. Just as he said, the soil was incredibly loose. It looked like regular earth but felt like digging in sand.
After digging nearly half a foot, a tuft of black hair appeared in the soil — a corpse. Though I had somewhat built an immunity to such things recently, having just heard the terrifying stories about the fifteen-story building and then unearthing a dead body, my heart couldn't help but race.
Sun Fatty sat down and called out, "Wu—"
Wu Rendi cut him off. "I see it. Keep digging. Don't stop."
Though I was a hundred and twenty percent reluctant, I kept digging. Soon, a head and shoulders emerged. I finally saw it clearly: buried in the earth was a little girl about two or three years old. There were no clothes visible, so she must have been buried naked.
"Who could be so cruel!" Sun Fatty sighed, looking at the girl's corpse, then said angrily to Wu Rendi.
Director Wu remained silent. Suddenly, he stepped forward, grabbed the corpse's shoulders with both hands, and with some force, lifted the small body out of the ground. The little girl still looked as she had while buried: her left hand pointed toward the fifteen-story building, while her right hand clenched a small knife whose tip was already plunged into her own chest.
Before Sun Fatty or I could ask, Wu Rendi explained, "Someone set up a Descent Formation here. This girl's corpse is the formation's core. Now that we've taken her body out of this Yin-gathering place, the formation is broken."
I had seen some files on Descent Formations in the archives. They seemed to be a branch that originated from the witchcraft traditions in Yunnan, but I couldn't recall the details clearly. Sun Fatty had never heard the term "Descent Formation" before. Curious, he asked, "Director Wu, what exactly is a Descent Formation?"
Wu Rendi glanced at him and said, "Simply put, you guys should have seen Qiu Bulao's Six-Sided Worship Formation back in the desert, right?" Seeing us nod, he continued, "This Descent Formation is the exact opposite. It sends a message to the lost spirits and wandering ghosts for hundreds of miles around — 'Come on, gather here, and slaughter in this building.'"
Sun Fatty's eyes widened in disbelief. "Who set up this Descent Formation? So many people were harmed, and it even turned against its creator."
"Who set up the formation?" Wu Rendi sneered as he looked at the now not far away fifteen-story building. "You'll find out once we go inside."
I said, "You mean the one who set up the Descent Formation is still inside the fifteen-story building?"
Wu Rendi nodded. "Exactly. Maybe he still has some surprises for me."
I had seen some materials about Descent Formation in the archives. It seemed to say it was a sect separated from the witchcraft and poison arts of Yunnan, but I didn't remember the details very clearly. Sun Fatty had never even heard the words "Descent Formation" before, so he asked curiously, "Director Wu, what exactly is a Descent Formation?"
Wu Rendi glanced at him and said, "To put it simply, when you were in the desert last time, you should have seen the 'Six Worship Formation' set up by Qiu Bulao, right?" Seeing Sun Fatty and me nod straight away, he continued, "The Descent Formation works exactly the opposite of the Six Worship Formation. It sends a message to all the wandering souls and wild ghosts within hundreds of miles around — come on over, come to this building, and kill as much as you want."
Sun Fatty's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Who set up this Descent Formation? So many people died, and they even turned against him."
"Who set up the Descent Formation?" Wu Rendi sneered, glancing at the fifteen-story building not far ahead. "You'll find out once you go inside."
I said, "You mean the person who set it up is still inside that fifteen-story building?"
Wu Rendi nodded, "Exactly. Maybe he'll even give me a little surprise."
Although I had already expected we'd have to enter that building, hearing it come from Wu Rendi's mouth still made me a bit nervous. After a smoke break, we arrived at the front entrance of the fifteen-story building.
The water and power had been cut off for over ten years, and inside it was pitch black. Sun Fatty and I steeled ourselves and followed closely behind Wu Rendi. As soon as we entered, we saw two elevators side by side. Because of the power outage, the elevator doors were wide open, long useless for transporting people or goods.
On either side of the elevators, there was a staircase. The fifteen-story building was apparently divided into two zones by these stairs.
"Let's go," Wu Rendi headed toward the left staircase, and naturally, Sun Fatty and I followed. Unexpectedly, Wu turned his head and said, "We'll split up. You two take that staircase."
Wu Rendi, are you joking?!
A few minutes later, Sun Fatty and I reached the tenth floor. Climbing those ten floors, a cold wind blew constantly, but we didn't see any actual entities. I silently comforted myself — if I can't see them, then maybe they don't exist.
"Lazi," Sun Fatty called me, "Looks like there's someone up ahead."
I saw her too — by the elevator entrance, a woman dressed in black was repeatedly pressing the elevator's down button, as if she could really make this elevator that had been out of order for ten years go down.
What's meant to come, will come. Suddenly, the woman stopped and turned to look at Sun Fatty and me, her face pale as death. She said, "The elevator's almost here. Let's go down together."
Until this moment, I thought if I faced such a scene, I'd run away. Unexpectedly, when the reality was right in front of me, I felt no urge to escape. In fact, I was oddly excited. After all, during these months at the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation, I had been training my courage — as the saying goes, I had grown up. Besides, a few ghosts were nothing; twenty hours ago, Sun Fatty and I had our souls out of our bodies. In theory, at that time, we were the same kind of substance as them.
Sun Fatty's reaction was even more surprising. He walked over with his hands behind his back (I could see clearly he was holding the baton clipped on his waist), and said casually, "Which floor are you going to? Not sure if we're going the same way?"
The woman pressing the button was a bit taken aback by Sun Fatty's attitude. She stared at him for a while before slowly saying, "Basement level 18 — you two are just in time." As she spoke, the elevator doors behind her slowly opened, revealing over twenty people packed inside. She said to Sun Fatty and me, "Come on in, there's room for two more."
Sun Fatty looked back at me and grinned, "Lazi, they want you to get in." I replied, "No way. If you want to go down to level 18, you go alone. Don't count me in."
Everyone inside and outside the elevator looked coldly at us. The woman at the door finally couldn't hold back and sneered at us repeatedly, "Whether you go down to hell on level 18 or not is up to you. Since you're here, you're not leaving." Then, she opened her mouth wide and a blood-red tongue stretched out seven or eight feet long, curling around Sun Fatty's neck.
Honestly, at that moment, I didn't feel scared at all, just a bit disgusted. Sun Fatty had already shrunk his neck and ducked his head, stepping back, but he was still a step too slow. The wet, drooling tongue licked Sun Fatty's face heavily.
In his panic, Sun Fatty forgot to close his mouth — their tongues briefly touched. Is this what they call a "tongue kiss"? I felt a tickle deep in my throat.
"Ptooey! Ptooey!" Sun Fatty spat out saliva mixed with slime. The woman withdrew her tongue. Her fingernails were extremely long, like ten steel knives on her fingers, and she stabbed toward the top of Sun Fatty's head.
Sun Fatty didn't hesitate either. He drew the baton from his waist and swung it toward the woman's hands against the wind.
The baton hit the woman's arm with no sound. Unexpectedly, a flash of fire appeared, and from the wound on her arm, flames instantly ignited. The fire burned through her arm, and with her screams, engulfed her body. In moments, she was reduced to a human-shaped pile of ash. A gust of wind blew outside, scattering the ash into the air.
Not only Sun Fatty and I were stunned — the twenty or so people inside the elevator were too. One reacted quickly, screamed, then turned into a puff of smoke and disappeared inside the elevator. That scream alerted the others, and a second later, the elevator was empty, without a single ghost left.
Sun Fatty stood frozen, holding his baton. I was behind him, so surprised I couldn't close my mouth. The last time I used the baton was underground in the desert, fighting a Soul Demon. But that opponent was too strong, and I couldn't tell the baton's true power then.
Sun Fatty swung the baton a few times in the air. The carved spells on it seemed more and more appealing.
"Lazi, didn't expect this baton to be so good," Sun Fatty said, his small eyes narrowing into slits.
I pulled myself together and said, "Show off later. Wu Rendi is still waiting upstairs. Letting him wait? Even if we search the entire Bureau, he wouldn't wait for us, right?" Mentioning Wu Rendi, Sun Fatty finally tore his attention from the baton but still said with some lingering excitement, "Lazi, if cold weapons are like this, how good do you think the gun they gave us is?"
I looked at him and asked, "What do you want to do?"
Sun Fatty winked and said, "What else? When we go up, I'm gonna fire the pistol a few rounds."
Unfortunately, nothing like the chaos just now happened on the fifteenth floor. Sun Fatty sneered, "This so-called ghost building? It should be renamed the Spiritual Civilization Model Building."
We searched the fifteenth floor thoroughly but found nothing.
"Great Sage," I said to the still jabbering Sun Fatty, "Something's off."
"Off?" Sun Fatty looked around. "What's wrong?"
"Didn't Wu Rendi say the person who set the Descent Formation is still in this building? We're already at the top floor — where is he?"
Sun Fatty blinked and thought, "Maybe they met downstairs, and Wu Rendi already handled it?"
His theory made sense. I nodded, "Then let's wait a bit longer. Wu Rendi will come up sooner or later. Let's wait for him."
No sooner had I spoken than we heard some noise coming from the rooftop. Although faint, Sun Fatty and I both tensed up. Sun Fatty whispered, "Up there." I nodded, drew my pistol, and quietly followed Sun Fatty as we sneaked onto the rooftop.
What we saw on the rooftop shocked us both. In the center, where the water tower stood, a person was "nailed" there. Seven huge spikes pierced his limbs and body, pinning him to the water tower's wall. He hung his head motionless, and we couldn't tell if he was dead.
"Lazi, go over?" Sun Fatty asked, raising his pistol and looking at me.
By then, I had seen the face of the person nailed to the water tower.
"Go over?" After surveying the surroundings, I gritted my teeth and said, "Better think about how to escape."
Sun Fatty grew nervous and asked, "What did you see?"
I pointed at the man on the water tower, "That nailed man is Wu Rendi!"