: Spiritual Perception

Sergeant Evans quickly drew his gun on Boko's wife.

Blue arcs of electricity lit up the muzzle of the gun.

Evans, a Tier 2 professional, [Pulse Gunner].

"Stop!"

He shouted sternly, "State your identity! What's the situation on the other side of the fog?!"

Boko's wife did not answer.

She lowered her eyelids and looked at her bleeding fingers.

Then she spoke.

The voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against a wooden board.

"A white man asked me a question."

she says.

"White people always ask me questions. My name, my prescriptions, my beliefs, the men in my bed. They write them down, bind them into books, and put them in museums. They dig up my grave and display my bones behind glass."

She looked up.

"Now they ask, what's on the other side of the fog?"

That's my home.

She paused.

"It used to be my home."

Boko's wife raised her bleeding hand.

Evans immediately fired, and an arc pulse surged forth.

But the pulse vanished as it approached Boko's wife's body.

Blood was dripping down.

One drop, two drops, three drops...

It landed on the ground with a hissing sound.

Above Boko's wife's head, the pupil of the eye in the palm of the Hand of Boko suddenly shifted.

He looked at Evans, who had fired the shot.

The next second, Evans froze.

Without any warning, he fell straight down.

There was no hope left.

"Commander!"

The young Black man tried to rush forward, but the Eye in the Palm looked at him again.

He collapsed too.

Boko's Hand's pupils darted around, looking at each sentry.

Those who were targeted fell one after another.

In the end, only Qiao Qingfeng remained.

He stood there, gun in hand, flustered but not afraid.

Although his companion's death was too bizarre, that's how demons operate, and he didn't force himself to understand it.

I probably won't escape this fate either.

But at least die like a man!

With a fierce determination, Qiao Qingfeng conjured countless crystals out of thin air, which shot towards Boko's wife like bullets.

Bring on, you devil!

My final crystallized gemstone splash!

but,

The jewel approached Boko's wife, but before it could strike, it vanished.

At this moment, the Eye in the Palm had already turned its gaze toward Qiao Qingfeng.

Qiao Qingfeng's breath hitched, and a chilling sensation instantly spread throughout his body.

I'm going to die...

On the other side, Qiao's mother saw this scene and turned her head away in anguish, unwilling to witness her husband's death.

however--

But no death occurred.

Qiao Qingfeng himself did not expect that in that instant, his body would undergo an unexpected change.

The skin began to become transparent, starting from the fingertips and spreading layer by layer to the whole body.

His flesh and blood are turning into something else.

Crystalline substance.

Qiao Qingfeng noticed this anomaly.

I was stunned for a moment, then I understood.

This is the Crystallizer's last trump card.

When on the brink of life and death, one can completely transform into a crystal, pausing the process of dying and awaiting rescue.

Can……

Will someone come to rescue him?

Qiao Qingfeng didn't know.

The transformation was completed quickly.

A humanoid crystal stands in the center of the outpost.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Zhiguo, who had been silent all along, suddenly opened his eyes wide.

"I see……"

My memory ends here.

Then, the world spun around.

When Qiao Ye opened his eyes again, he was already back in his own living room.

The memory crystals displayed on the coffee table have lost their luster.

There was a few seconds of silence in the living room.

"Ono."

Zhou Zhiguo spoke, his voice low and deep, "You saw it all."

Qiao Ye raised his head.

"My dad isn't dead," he said.

It's not a question, it's a statement.

Zhou Zhiguo nodded.

"Your father's last action was probably some kind of life-saving measure, which delayed his death."

"No wonder...your family is still alive."

What?

Qiao Ye suddenly frowned: "Uncle Zhou, what do you mean by that?"

Qiao's mother's expression also stiffened as she waited for Zhou Zhiguo's reply.

"I'm sorry, I kept it from you before."

Zhou Zhiguo took a piece of paper out of his pocket and placed it on the coffee table.

Qiao Ye looked down.

It is a list.

"In fact, on the very day the fog became unusually thick, all the family members of everyone at the outpost had met with misfortune."

Qiao Ye stared at the shocking words and photos on the list—

Evans' wife died in childbirth, taking the life of both mother and child; a young Black man's fiancée jumped to her death; the parents of a Middle Eastern man died of a heart attack...

It all happened on the same day.

"Only your family is completely unharmed."

Zhou Zhiguo said gravely, "After looking at the memories, I realized it was because of a curse from the Voodoo Cult, and Old Joe himself isn't dead yet..."

"Where is my dad now?"

Qiao Ye quickly asked, "Have you searched the outpost? His crystal statue..."

"It's gone." Zhou Zhiguo shook his head. "The outpost was empty. We only found that memory crystal."

"If I'm not mistaken, they were led into the fog by a demon."

In the fog...

Qiao Ye's heart sank.

If that's the case, what's the difference between being alive and dying slowly?

Joe's father's crystalline state could not last forever; once it is resolved, the lives of the entire family will come to an end.

"Uncle Zhou, I have a question."

Qiao Ye frowned. "How long can my father's crystalline state last?"

Zhou Zhiguo's expression was grave: "I don't know, but it shouldn't be too long. Old Qiao is only a first-tier professional; the longest he's ever created a crystallization is no more than ten days."

Ten days?

Three days have passed now, which means that in at most another week, their whole family will die?!

Mom, sister, brother, and even himself—none of them can escape.

How can this be allowed!

Qiao Ye suddenly stood up: "Uncle Zhou, I know this request may be a bit presumptuous, but could you please ask the Allied Forces to send men to rescue my father?"

He was also helpless.

If there were more time, Qiao Ye wouldn't be in such a hurry.

You could simply wait until you awaken to several different professions in your dream before personally going into the fog to rescue people.

But the current conditions simply don't allow it.

Dad, oh Dad!

You didn't persist long enough!

"Ono, I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush."

Zhou Zhiguo sighed, "Things aren't as simple as you think. Over the past ten years, we've sent countless people into the fog, trying to find those lost American cities, but we've always returned empty-handed. Do you know why?"

Why?

"Because dense fog can make people lose their way."

Zhou Zhiguo said, "This kind of getting lost is completely across space. We once had a small team that entered the dense fog from the west coast, got lost for two days, and came out from the east coast, directly crossing 4,000 kilometers!"

"So do you understand now? It's not that we don't want to save your father, it's that we simply can't find his location!"

Can't find the location?

Upon hearing this, Qiao Ye suddenly fell into a daze for a moment.

In a daze, he saw his father's crystal portrait.

It was placed in the center of a square, covered with talismans, and surrounded by circles of oil lamps and candles.

The image flashed by, but it was so clear it didn't seem like a hallucination.

"But, I seem to..." Qiao Ye murmured, "I can sense my father's location."

Jackson Square, New Orleans.

"Can you sense Old Joe's location?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiguo first frowned, then suddenly realized something and said incredulously—

"Does your awakened extraordinary profession possess spirituality?!"