Chapter 4: The Eastern District
1742 Words
The eastern district was nearly empty by the time Chen Mo arrived.
The sky had darkened again.
Rain clouds hung low over the city, turning the afternoon light gray. Old warehouses stood between newer buildings, their walls stained by years of rain and pollution.
Chen Mo stepped out of the taxi and looked at the address Lin Wan had sent him.
No. 17.
An abandoned warehouse stood at the end of the street.
The metal gate was half open.
Chen Mo frowned.
He had expected security.
At least a few company employees.
Instead, there was no one.
He pushed the gate open.
It made a long metallic sound.
Inside, the air smelled of damp concrete and rust.
"Lin Wan?"
His voice disappeared into the building.
There was no answer.
Chen Mo took another step.
Something felt wrong.
Not dangerous.
Not yet.
Just wrong.
He closed his eyes.
The city became quieter.
A car moved somewhere beyond the warehouse.
Water dripped from a pipe.
A bird landed on the roof.
Then he heard something else.
A faint vibration beneath his feet.
Chen Mo opened his eyes.
The sound was coming from below.
He walked farther inside.
At the back of the warehouse was a staircase.
It led downward.
Chen Mo stopped at the first step.
Lin Wan had said there was a building beneath the warehouse.
He had assumed she meant a basement.
This was different.
The staircase looked old.
Much older than the warehouse itself.
The walls were made of dark stone.
Chen Mo touched one.
Cold.
Almost unnaturally cold.
His right eye began to sting.
He pulled his hand away.
A faint spark appeared near his temple.
It disappeared immediately.
Chen Mo stared at the wall.
"What are you?"
There was no answer.
He continued down.
The stairs seemed longer than they should have been.
Ten steps.
Twenty.
Thirty.
The sound of the city faded completely.
At the bottom was a narrow corridor.
A single light hung from the ceiling.
It flickered weakly.
Chen Mo walked forward.
His footsteps echoed.
Then he stopped.
Someone was standing ahead.
Lin Wan.
She was beside a metal door.
She turned when she heard him.
"Chen Mo."
Chen Mo walked toward her.
"You came alone?"
"Yes," Lin Wan replied.
"Why?"
Lin Wan glanced at the door.
"I didn't know who else to call."
Chen Mo studied her face.
She looked different from the woman he had seen beneath the convenience store awning.
Her hair was tied back.
Her coat was damp.
There were dark circles beneath her eyes.
"You look like you haven't slept," Chen Mo said.
"I haven't," Lin Wan replied.
"What happened?"
Lin Wan looked at the door.
"My father knew about this place."
"You said that on the phone."
"I didn't know how serious it was."
She reached into her bag and took out an old envelope.
The paper was yellowed.
There was no name written on it.
Only a symbol.
Chen Mo recognized it.
The same shape he had seen on Zhao Han's identification card.
His expression changed.
"You've seen that before?" Chen Mo asked.
Lin Wan nodded.
"It was on my father's desk."
"When?"
"Years ago."
She opened the envelope.
Inside was a single photograph.
A younger version of Lin Wan's father stood outside the warehouse.
Beside him were three other people.
Their faces had been scratched out.
Chen Mo stared at the photograph.
"Who are they?"
"I don't know," Lin Wan said.
"Your father never told you?"
"He told me enough to stay away."
Lin Wan looked down at the photograph.
"After he died, I found a locked cabinet in his study. This photograph was inside."
"And the key?" Chen Mo asked.
Lin Wan took a small brass key from her pocket.
"It opened this door."
Chen Mo looked at the metal door.
"Did you open it?"
"No."
"Then why are we here?"
"Because someone else did."
Chen Mo looked at the lock.
The keyhole had been broken.
The door stood slightly open.
A faint breeze moved through the gap.
Chen Mo listened.
Nothing.
Then something brushed against the edge of his awareness.
He turned toward the darkness behind the door.
"Someone is inside."
Lin Wan froze.
"How do you know?"
"I can hear them."
Lin Wan stared at him.
"What?"
Chen Mo didn't answer.
The sound had already disappeared.
He pushed the door open.
The room beyond was enormous.
Much larger than the warehouse above should have allowed.
Old metal shelves lined the walls.
Some were empty.
Others contained glass containers covered in dust.
At the center of the room stood a circular stone platform.
Something had been carved into it.
Chen Mo walked closer.
The same symbol.
Again.
His right eye burned.
He stopped.
"Chen Mo?" Lin Wan asked.
"Don't come closer."
Lin Wan immediately stopped.
Chen Mo stared at the platform.
The vibration beneath his feet had become stronger.
It was no longer something he merely heard.
He could feel it.
A slow pulse moving through the stone.
His heartbeat began matching it.
Once.
Twice.
Then the room changed.
A glass container on the shelf shattered.
Lin Wan flinched.
Chen Mo turned.
A black mist spilled from the broken container.
It gathered near the floor.
For several seconds, it remained still.
Then it moved.
Fast.
Chen Mo barely saw it.
Something struck his chest.
He was thrown backward.
His shoulder hit the wall.
Pain spread through his ribs.
"Chen Mo!"
Lin Wan rushed forward.
Chen Mo pushed himself upright.
The black mist had taken shape.
Four legs.
A long body.
Two pale points where eyes should have been.
It looked almost like an animal.
But there was nothing natural about it.
Its body seemed to shift whenever Chen Mo looked directly at it.
Lin Wan stepped backward.
"What is that?"
"I don't know," Chen Mo said.
The creature lowered itself.
Then it disappeared.
Chen Mo's instincts screamed.
He moved.
A claw struck the wall where his head had been.
Concrete cracked.
Chen Mo stared at the mark.
That should have killed him.
The creature turned.
Chen Mo could hear its breathing.
No.
Not breathing.
Something else.
A vibration.
The same vibration beneath the city.
The creature attacked again.
Chen Mo raised his arm.
He didn't know why.
He simply did it.
The impact came.
For an instant, everything became silent.
Then a pulse passed through Chen Mo's arm.
Blue-white sparks jumped between his fingers.
The creature was thrown backward.
Chen Mo stared at his hand.
The sparks vanished.
His arm trembled.
"What was that?"
The creature rose.
It wasn't injured.
It was angry.
It charged again.
Chen Mo stepped backward.
His foot slipped.
The creature was already above him.
"Chen Mo!"
Lin Wan shouted.
Something inside him responded.
The world slowed.
Not completely.
Just enough.
He saw the creature's movement before it happened.
Its front leg.
The angle of its body.
The direction of the strike.
A faint blue line appeared across his vision.
Chen Mo didn't understand what he was seeing.
But he followed it.
He moved to the side.
The creature missed.
Chen Mo grabbed its arm.
The moment he touched it, something rushed into his mind.
A flash.
Darkness.
Rain.
A forest.
Something running through the trees.
Then another image.
A black c***k spreading across the ground.
Chen Mo released it.
The creature staggered backward.
His vision returned.
His breathing became heavy.
The creature suddenly turned toward the stone platform.
It stopped.
Its body trembled.
Then it disappeared into the shadows.
Chen Mo remained frozen.
Lin Wan slowly approached him.
"Is it gone?"
"I think so."
"You think?" Lin Wan asked.
Chen Mo looked at his hand.
A tiny spark appeared between his fingers.
This time, he watched it carefully.
It wasn't random.
The spark moved toward the stone platform.
Like a thread being pulled.
Chen Mo took a step.
The spark grew brighter.
The platform responded.
A low vibration filled the room.
Lin Wan stared at the stone.
"What is happening?"
"I don't know."
The stone beneath their feet began to glow.
Not brightly.
Just enough to reveal lines carved into its surface.
The lines formed a pattern.
A map.
Chen Mo stared at it.
He didn't recognize the city.
But he recognized one location.
The eastern district.
Then another.
Then another.
Seven points in total.
All connected by thin lines.
Lin Wan stepped closer.
"What is that?"
"I don't know," Chen Mo said.
Lin Wan looked at him.
"You're lying."
Chen Mo turned toward her.
"I don't know what it is."
"But you recognize it."
"I recognize the feeling."
Lin Wan said nothing.
Chen Mo looked back at the platform.
The pattern began fading.
Before it disappeared completely, one final point appeared.
Not in the eastern district.
Not anywhere in the city.
It was directly beneath them.
Chen Mo's expression changed.
The floor shook.
A deep sound came from somewhere below.
Not a roar.
Not an animal.
Something deeper.
Something that sounded almost like a voice trying to remember how to speak.
Lin Wan grabbed Chen Mo's sleeve.
"Chen Mo."
He looked at her.
"Get behind me."
"Why?" Lin Wan asked.
"I don't know."
The stone platform cracked.
A thin black line appeared across its center.
Chen Mo felt the Vein surge beneath his feet.
His right eye burned.
This time, the spark did not disappear.
It spread across his cheek in a thin blue line.
Chen Mo raised his hand.
Electricity gathered around his fingers.
Small.
Unstable.
Barely enough to light the darkness.
But it was there.
Chen Mo stared at it.
For the first time, he understood something.
His ability wasn't simply electricity.
The electricity was only what happened when something inside him reacted.
He didn't know what that something was.
He didn't know how to control it.
But whatever lived beneath the city seemed to recognize it.
And it was getting closer.
Above them, somewhere beyond the stone ceiling, thunder rolled across the eastern district.
Then Chen Mo heard a voice.
Not Zhao Han's.
Not Lin Wan's.
Something else.
A whisper from beneath the floor.
His name.
"Chen... Mo..."
Chen Mo stood completely still.
Lin Wan looked at him.
"What did you hear?"
Chen Mo stared into the c***k.
"Nothing."
The darkness beneath the platform moved.
Something opened its eyes.
And far above them, in a city filled with millions of people who knew nothing about the Veiled, every light in the eastern district went out at once.
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