Chapter 114: The First Angel

Yu Sheng knew there would be compensation—whether for providing intelligence, assisting in operations, directly "contracting" certain projects, or turning over supernatural items, the Special Affairs Bureau would pay Spirit World Detectives and investigators at fixed rates. This was also one of the main and most stable sources of income for "civilian special individuals" like Little Red.

He just hadn't expected the Bureau to deliver the money so directly, and the reward was higher than he had thought.

Clearly, this extra premium was tied to the danger level of the "Angel Cultists."

Yu Sheng recalled Little Red's parting warning to him and gained a deeper appreciation for how the Special Affairs Bureau viewed those so-called "Angel Cultists."

Song Cheng nodded slightly after Yu Sheng took the envelope and said casually, "Under normal circumstances, the reward would be directly deposited into your account through the 'Border Communications' platform. But since this is our first cooperation, I thought a bit of ceremony would be better—and more importantly, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk with you about the 'Hollow Angels' and the 'Angel Sect.' After all, few Spirit World Detectives and investigators get entangled with those crazy Angel Cultists on their first mission."

Yu Sheng adjusted his sitting posture to show seriousness. "I've seen that 'Angel' in the Nightfall Valley before. To be honest, it was... very different from the 'angels' I imagined."

Song Cheng's voice was low. "But you could feel its immense presence, that 'overlooking' as if from a higher dimension, and the... 'sanctity' behind its bizarre form, right?"

"Sanctity..." Yu Sheng recalled the feeling when he saw that huge eye in the sky and seemed to vaguely understand Song Cheng's meaning. "If you're talking about that ultra-rational, cold atmosphere, then yeah, there was a bit of that. That creepy thing was scary, but when it hung high in the sky, it occasionally gave off a sinister sense of 'holiness.'"

"That's exactly how the term 'Angel' came about," Song Cheng nodded. "The first investigator to encounter a Hollow Angel wrote the first sighting report before falling into madness. In the terror of approaching insanity, the recorder described his feelings like this—

"'It looks down, as if from a higher, transcendent place. Mad thoughts fill my mind... It is a messenger, a messenger representing some vaster, more majestic power. I can almost hear it speaking to me, incomprehensible sentences conveying a will beyond human understanding... In the most extreme and pure thought, I see a dim future where all things die out, and they rise into the sky...'"

Song Cheng recited this passage in a low, slow tone, then took a thick stack of materials from his briefcase, pulled out one sheet, and placed it in front of Yu Sheng.

"This is the investigator who left this sighting report. We call him 'Contact Zero.' This is what he looks like now."

Curious, Yu Sheng picked up the picture and looked at it, only to see a strange, twisted... 'tree' standing alone in a pure white hall.

The tree was rooted in a huge cultivation pool. All its roots and branches looked like tangled, coiled, twisted hair, vaguely forming the struggling, hunched outline of a human. From the dark canopy hung numerous suspicious 'vines.' After studying them for a long time, Yu Sheng realized those hanging vines were actually oddly swollen blood vessels.

"He is now contained in a high-security 'warehouse' of the Special Affairs Bureau. We need to trim new branches growing from the canopy every three days to prevent him from suddenly going out of control," Song Cheng's voice reached Yu Sheng. "He didn't turn into this overnight. In fact, the entire transformation process lasted ten years. It was... a terrible process. During those ten years, Contact Zero occasionally regained clarity in his madness, only to fall back into frenzy in great terror."

Ai Lin craned her neck to look at the materials in Yu Sheng's hand and listened to Song Cheng's description. She couldn't help shrinking her neck and muttered, "This looks worse than death... If I were you, I'd just give him a quick end. Isn't this torture?"

"Yes, so we did just that," Song Cheng said calmly. "After Contact Zero woke up for the last time and begged his keepers, we 'executed' him. We were sure we killed him—at least killed his suffering soul—but his body still survived the severe trauma... After careful discussion, the Special Affairs Bureau decided to preserve this body as an important sample for studying the influence of the Angels."

Yu Sheng frowned deeply. After a long while, he spoke, "Just by looking at it, it turned into this? But we saw that huge eye too, and we don't seem to have any aftereffects."

"First, a brief sighting does not leave irreversible effects. Contact Zero was trapped next to the First Angel at the time—he was exposed to it for too long," Song Cheng said slowly. "Second, each Hollow Angel has different 'characteristics.' Some have strong mental contamination, some show direct destructiveness, and some... even appear to be harmless, at least their main bodies don't display any direct aggression. The huge eye you saw should be an inert type with relatively weak 'offensiveness.'"

"There are many Hollow Angels?" Yu Sheng looked up curiously.

"The number confirmed has already reached double digits," Song Cheng said, handing over another set of materials. "This is the 'First Angel,' the one Contact Zero witnessed. It is also the first Hollow Angel recognized to have invaded our world."

This time, even the fox who had been seriously grooming her tail couldn't help but come over to look at the materials along with Yu Sheng and Ai Lin.

"The First Angel, also known as the 'Tree Angel' or the 'Inverted Tree,'" Song Cheng began unhurriedly. "Its 'descent' took the form of a huge plant hanging upside down in the sky, with a crown spanning nearly a kilometer and a similar height. It grew out of a vortex structure suspended in the sky—this vortex would form twenty-four to seventy-two hours before its descent, which is also an important reference for identifying the 'Tree Angel' and issuing advance warnings."

Yu Sheng stared fixedly at the picture of the giant inverted tree, set against a backdrop of large city buildings. Below the picture, he saw a further description of this "Hollow Angel":

"...It does not move or attack proactively, but it continuously emits strong mental interference. Viewers uncontrollably look up at its canopy and hear vast, chaotic sounds until their minds are completely overtaken, even believing themselves to be trees. In some contact reports, surviving witnesses described seeing a 'forest' where they nestled as saplings around the 'Mother Tree'...

"Currently, there is no effective means to resist this 'gaze impulse.' No matter how strong one's willpower, no one can control themselves to look away after the Tree Angel descends. This effect is similar to that of the 'Goddess of Beauty' and the 'Silent Sun'... The most effective known protection methods are active blinding, deep hypnosis, and drinking the 'Snake Venom Wine' of the Desert Court in advance. The main idea is to forcibly block vision or suppress mental activity..."

"The first appearance of the Tree Angel was over the Otherworld 'Silent City,'" Song Cheng said. "It caused the activation of the entire Otherworld, and almost all the investigation teams and scholar teams active there at the time perished. Only 'Contact Zero' survived. Its last appearance was three years ago, over a distant alien planet, directly invading the real world—though it stayed in the sky for only a few tens of minutes, it caused extremely terrible consequences because that planet was remote and backward, with no experience or ability to counter Hollow Angels. Post-incident statistics showed over a hundred thousand people were affected, with direct casualties exceeding ten thousand, and the rest still suffering to this day."

Yu Sheng felt a strong... shock.

When he saw that huge single eye in the valley, he hadn't felt such a real sense of it. But now, from these concrete cases, he finally understood just how dangerous the "Hollow Angels" really were.

"These things... can appear in the real world?!" He looked up at Song Cheng with disbelief.

"Generally speaking, Hollow Angels tend to 'descend' more often in Otherworlds, but in fact they can appear anywhere," Song Cheng nodded. "They are not restricted by dimensions of time and space. Their appearances and departures follow no pattern. They are true 'free wanderers.'"

Yu Sheng didn't speak for a long time. After a brief moment of shock, Ai Lin couldn't help muttering, "...Holy shit."

After a moment of thought, Yu Sheng asked, "Where the hell do these things come from?"

"No one knows," Song Cheng sighed. "But a currently widely accepted theory is that all 'Hollow Angels' come from outside our world—they are a group of 'invaders' attacking our universe."

(End of chapter)