Chapter 30: The Space

“Grand design?” Yi Ke laughed coldly. “Director Mu sent this crowd to cover traces in a hurry? Is this how bureau regulations teach you to work?”
“How dare you!” the man roared. “Don’t think being the director’s foster daughter means I won’t touch you! Two of you, a crowd of us—be smart and leave. Stop meddling!”
They were all Mu’s trusted men. They knew the mother-daughter act was barely holding.
Outsiders still saw a loving pair.
The moment she learned the truth, that relationship was dead in name only.
“Sorry to disappoint—I love meddling.” White light flowed in her palm. She faced the bureau squad without fear. “Tell your people to tell Mu Wenxin—as long as I’m alive she won’t lay a finger on this place!”
The man couldn’t bear it. A long spear formed in his hand, aimed at them both. “Team Leader Yi, you’re opposing the bureau! Do you know the price of betraying the Ability Bureau?”
“Sorry—I never count consequences.” Seeing his gaze darken, she sneered. “I’m not betraying the bureau. I’m questioning your procedure. If I report this upstairs, what will the director do to Director Mu?”
“You—!” He was ready to explode but still feared her strength and didn’t strike.
Someone behind him stepped up, smiling, playing peacemaker: “Team Leader Yi, we’re family—why fight? You’re young; you don’t understand a parent’s heart. Whatever the director does, it’s for your good.”
In her ears it only grew sickening.
“Do you believe that yourself?” She scoffed. “If Director Mu insists on opposing me, I’ve never been good at rules—I’ll skip straight to the bureau chief and let the old man judge.”
Seeing her neither soft nor hard, the lead man’s face went red.
The peacemaker whispered: “Boss, she’s SSS danger-rated. Better not provoke her.”
He dismissed the spear. In the end he didn’t move.
Before coming, Mu had ordered: if they ran into SI team leader Yi Ke on the mission, they must not take her life.
“Well, well—what’s the occasion, so lively? Team Leader Yi and Director Mu’s people both here.”
She turned—Yang Yufei had arrived with Qixie.
Bureau and Qixie in one place—fire and water—bound to clash.
Yang Yufei stood aside, arms crossed, half smiling. “If I’d known it’d be this fun I’d have brought wine and food. Hard on you lot, having leisure to gather at the orphanage gate.”
Every word from Yang Yufei was barbed mockery. She didn’t spare the bureau men at all.
Bare provocation.
The man sneered back: “Yang Yufei, you betrayed the director first and run with Qixie—and you dare show your face? Don’t know if you’re stupid or fearless.”
The bureau squad clearly guarded against Yang’s emotion control—breath held, not easily swayed.
“Not bad.” Yang Yufei’s smile was smug. “But you’re the ones who should fear death.”
No more talk. A light lift of her hand and Qixie rushed the bureau line. A fierce brawl erupted.
Both sides tangled. Apparently they thought two women couldn’t turn the tide—no one watched her.
Perfect.
“Sister.” She squeezed Bai Yanci’s hand, low. “Wangshu has too many clues. Mu’s people or Qixie can’t be allowed to destroy it.”
“All right. I understand.” Bai Yanci answered.
Whatever bureau or Qixie planned—seal the orphanage and the illusion inside the rooms could stay until the right time to open again.
She’d guessed right. Mu sent people to destroy evidence.
Mu’s hurry meant more clues still hidden—things they hadn’t found.
Bai Yanci gathered immortal power, spread a barrier, waved once—a strong ward around Wangshu.
A moon immortal’s barrier—ordinary ability users couldn’t break it. Mu’s squad wouldn’t destroy the orphanage’s proof in this lifetime.
“Barrier art!” The man noticed at once, eyes wide. “Quick—everyone, focus and break it together!”
His men unleashed abilities. Strikes hit the ward and didn’t shake it.
“Damn!”
Mu this desperate—she probably suspected Yi Ke over the lab fire.
She’d left no proof. Mu couldn’t arrest her through proper channels—only erase evidence in secret. And Yi Ke had walked right into it.
When the orphanage was fully sealed, Yang Yufei suddenly called Qixie off and laughed cold: “I won’t play with you today. Tell Director Mu for me—one day I’ll make her kneel and beg.”
Then she left with Qixie.
Qixie came sudden and left sudden—like a walk-on just to spite the bureau.
But Yi Ke knew Yang never did meaningless things. This trip could only be Jade Dust’s order.
Maybe after the fight ability residue was thick enough. When enough was absorbed, the ground shook violently.
After the quake the earth collapsed and revealed space beneath the orphanage. A powerful pull sucked everyone in.
When she opened her eyes again she stood in a dark space.
No lights—like a black cavern.
For miles around, only her. Bai Yanci was gone.
No phone signal. In this place even the green-silk ring on Bai Yanci—her spiritual flame inside—was useless.
Bai Yanci… where are you?
If you can’t find me for long—will you worry?
Wait. I’m coming.
She snapped her fingers. The cavern lit with faint flames—barely enough to see.
Walking alone a long while she realized: time and space were twisted into disorder.
Whichever way she went she returned to where she’d landed.
Before her always stood a huge statue of a beauty—about three meters tall. Long hair fell down, coiffure fine, face merciful and holy like a god.
In the statue’s heart was set a fine ruby. Inside it pulsed strong immortal power—not something nature made in the mortal world.
The moment her eyes touched the ruby a line echoed in her mind: “Yi Ke, you must leave here. Escape. Never look back.”
Two years as SI team leader—she trusted her memory. She was certain she’d never met the voice’s owner.
After the words, fallen-god power in her body began to flow uncontrolled—as if resonating with the ruby.
At the peak of resonance another gentle woman’s voice rose in her mind: “As a fallen god, only by giving up the human body can you truly gain great power.”
The voice paused, sad: “But I only want you to grow up happy. Don’t meddle in fallen-god affairs. Don’t awaken fallen-god power.”
Who was this voice? Why did it feel familiar?
These familiar voices—lost memory?
“Fallen-god power isn’t something she can control!” A man cut in, urgent. “If her power goes fully out of control, how much irreversible disaster? Rather than bet on one chance in ten thousand, kill her now before anything happens!”
“She’s a fallen god. She won’t bring disaster!”
“Wake up!” the man roared. “She doesn’t deserve to be called fallen god. She’s a monster through and through!”
A monster through and through.
Yang Yufei had said that too—she was a monster.
The man seemed to say more; she couldn’t hear clearly. Only his last line: “Keeping her is too dangerous. If you insist on keeping her, don’t come find me again.”
The woman cried: “I’ll prove to you I was right!”
When both voices vanished from the depths of her mind she came back. Eyes open—she was almost nose to nose with the statue.
Invisible force lifted her, floating midair.
A finger’s breadth from the ruby in the statue’s heart.
The ruby kept pulling, tempting—wanting her to take it as hers.
A low voice at her ear:
Come. Possess me. I am part of your soul.
Come. Touch my heart. Take divine power.
The scene was too strange. She struggled to leave but the ruby’s force held her midair—couldn’t use any power.
Behind her, bureau voices: “What kind of hellhole is this—we keep looping the same spot!”
Someone sharp shouted: “That’s Team Leader Yi up ahead!”
“My Lord ordered—take Team Leader Yi alive!”
“Take Team Leader Yi alive!”
Under the ruby’s seduction she couldn’t hold out. Immortal light flowed on her hand. A gust tore the ruby from the statue’s heart.