Celestial Human Diagram

An Hour later, everyone returned to the open ground inside the outpost and reported their findings to Chen Chuan. Everything was normal; they had discovered essentially nothing.

Chen Chuan had a theory, but he couldn’t be certain. ’Still, we need to make the necessary preparations. It’s already late, so I won’t worry about it too much. We just need to get through the first night. We can deal with everything else tomorrow when we have plenty of daylight.’

To avoid the danger of being picked off one by one, they didn’t have the team stay in the soldiers’ barracks this time. Instead, they gathered everyone directly in the fortress’s briefing hall.

As dusk fell, he had his men release the ten combat creatures they had brought along. These were combat-insects manufactured in Dashun. While they were inferior in many ways to the concurrent models from Compound Eye Company, they were more than adequate to serve as sentries.

Moreover, in the presence of Domain Creatures, these insects could establish a Domain link to ascertain their condition.

After everyone had entered the briefing hall, he glanced outside one last time before slowly shutting the heavy doors.

As the sky outside darkened, the lights in the hall flickered on. To prevent any unexpected power failures, they had hauled out a small generator while sealing the basement, rerouted the circuits to it, and then sealed off the underground generator room.

Though a bitter wind howled outside under a pitch-black sky, the briefing hall felt surprisingly warm with so many people gathered together and the generator running.

Thanks to the outpost being fully stocked with all sorts of supplies, including preserved food from the officers’ mess, Chen Chuan simply had his men bring everything out so all the soldiers could have a hot meal.

In addition, everyone was given candy bars and hot drinks—rations normally reserved for officers and Fighters—instead of being left to gnaw on cold Nutrition Paste.

After the hot meal and candy bars, the squad’s morale visibly soared. Every team member, holding a hot drink and wrapped in a thick blanket, had a smile on their face.

Even though the members of this squad hadn’t accompanied Chen Chuan on his last mission, they had still received commendations and bonuses. They knew their leader was reliable, so even though they understood this mission was tricky, their motivation was high, and there were no complaints.

Once they had relaxed a bit, one team member spoke up. "Captain, can you tell us your story?"

"Yeah, Captain, tell us about yourself!"

Most of the team members were curious about their captain. He was so young, yet he was already an Execution Captain. They wanted to know his story so they would have something to brag about when they ran into other squads, wouldn’t they?

A squad leader immediately reprimanded him, "What nonsense are you spouting? The Captain is a Fighter. His record and identity are classified. You think you can just gossip about it? What if you leak a secret?"

"But it’s so boring being cooped up like this. We’re not even allowed to play cards. We’ve got to talk about *something*, right?"

A particularly lively team member suddenly joked, "If you ask me, this is the perfect place to tell ghost stories." He shot a teasing look at a large soldier. "I’m just afraid we’ll scare Dakui so bad he’ll piss his pants. And just so we’re clear, if you do, you’re washing up next door by yourself. No one’s going with you."

"Who... who’s gonna piss their pants?"

The big soldier’s face flushed beet-red. He looked at Chen Chuan and said, "Captain, don’t listen to their nonsense. It’s just a bunch of lies!"

"Fine, then we’re going to tell some."

A team member chimed in, "Sounds good to me."

The other team members all hooted in agreement.

Yuan Qiuyuan watched from the side, amused. He had to admit, the atmosphere and the location were absolutely perfect for telling ghost stories.

He glanced at Chen Chuan, who was currently flipping through the personnel files of the former garrison, paying special attention to the records of the Fighters. When Chen Chuan noticed Yuan Qiuyuan looking his way, he gave a slight nod.

Seeing that Chen Chuan didn’t object, Yuan Qiuyuan cleared his throat. "Alright, since everyone’s excited, I’ll get us started. I’ll tell the first one."

"Yeah! All right!" The team members clapped, and someone whistled.

Yuan Qiuyuan puffed out his chest. "I’ll tell you about something a friend of mine saw with his own eyes..."

"Executioner Yuan, that ’friend’ you’re talking about isn’t you, is it?"

"Hey! Are you gonna listen or not? Is that important? Is it?!" Yuan Qiuyuan said with a frown.

"We’ll listen, we’ll listen."

The surrounding team members spontaneously scooted closer. Some grabbed handfuls of snacks, laid out their blankets, and sat in a circle around him.

By now, the sky outside was completely dark. Beyond the windows was only pitch blackness, with the only light coming from the spot where everyone was gathered in the hall.

Yuan Qiuyuan began, "So it’s like this... When I—I mean, when *my friend* was little, he loved to play in a nearby temple. The idol there was very unusual; it was of a goddess. The statue itself... its colors were stunningly beautiful. Everyone’s drawn to beauty, you know? And this statue held a special fascination for my friend.

"One day, my friend was playing hide-and-seek and hid under the altar. A long time passed, but no one came to find him, and he eventually drifted off to sleep..."

The surrounding soldiers were listening intently. No one made a sound.

"When my friend woke up, he realized it was already nighttime. Inside the temple, only the candles on the altar were still burning. The first thing he thought about was whether his family had saved him any dinner, so he quickly scrambled out.

"But just then, a sudden gust of wind blew through. He saw the clothes on the statue actually flutter, and he realized they weren’t part of the sculpture but were actual clothes it was wearing. He got curious and walked closer. Just as he..."

BANG! BANG! BANG!

At that very moment, a series of loud bangs came from the main door.

Everyone looked toward the hall door with a mix of surprise and annoyance. ’Who’s still outside? Don’t they know they’re ruining the mood?’

But then they realized that couldn’t be right. No one had gone out.

The heart of every person present skipped a beat. Everyone was in the room. They hadn’t seen anyone outside before. So who was knocking?

Involuntarily, all eyes turned to Chen Chuan.

Chen Chuan glanced at the door, then said to Yuan Qiuyuan, "Executioner Yuan, please continue."

Yuan Qiuyuan’s eyes darted around. He sighed, throwing his hands up in mock complaint. "Captain, I was just building the mood. This interruption completely ruined it. The feeling’s gone. I’ll finish it some other time, some other time..."

This immediately drew groans of dissatisfaction from the men. ’Hey, you can’t just leave us hanging like that! You trying to get yourself strung up?’

But, it had to be said, his little act did manage to diffuse some of the uneasy atmosphere. The men weren’t quite as tense as they had been moments before.

Just then, the squad leader who had spoken earlier stood up. "If Executioner Yuan won’t continue, then I’ll tell a story."

He went on to tell a rather cliché story about a water spirit from his hometown. It wasn’t very original, but it kept things going. Then another soldier took a turn, and the lively atmosphere quickly returned.

The banging on the door had stopped at some point. But after a long while, another sound drifted in from outside—the rhythmic marching of soldiers, the sounds of a patrol, and voices reporting in.

As each soldier’s name was called, a voice would answer. These were the names of the fortress’s original garrison. But after more than a hundred names had been called, the roll call didn’t stop. It continued.

"Yin Dakui!"

"Here!"

The large soldier nicknamed "Dakui" answered out of pure reflex, then his face went pale. "I... I..."

He wasn’t the only one. One by one, the names of every team member present were called out from the darkness. Though no one else answered, a chill went down their spines, and they grew restless in their seats.

Chen Chuan spoke calmly, "Don’t overthink it. Just keep telling your stories." He then turned to Qin Qingque. "Executioner Qin, go and sit by the door."

"Yes, Captain!"

Without a moment’s hesitation, Qin Qingque stood up and moved to sit in the spot closest to the door, where she could hear the noises from outside most clearly. Yet, her face showed no trace of panic. She simply took out a file of her own and began to read quietly.

The calm demeanor of Chen Chuan and Qin Qingque was contagious. The other team members gradually settled down and continued taking turns telling stories. Each one spoke loudly, and regardless of how good the story was, it was met with enthusiastic applause and cheers.

The sound of their clapping and cheering was loud enough to drown out the noises from outside. At some point, those noises disappeared completely.

After midnight, once every team member had taken a turn, they obediently got into their sleeping bags to rest.

Chen Chuan, however, remained seated, reading through the files in his hands by the lamplight.

And so, the night passed.

When the team members awoke, they found that day had already broken.

"Captain!"

"Captain!"

"Captain!"

One by one, the soldiers emerged from their sleeping bags, stood at attention, and saluted him.

Chen Chuan rose from his seat, returned their salute, and walked to the main door as all eyes watched him.

He reached out, undid the bolt, turned the lock, and pushed the door open. A bright ray of daylight streamed in, and a gust of cold wind rushed into the hall.

The snow outside had stopped, leaving a thick blanket on the ground.

Chen Chuan’s gaze fell upon a line of footprints just outside the door. They belonged to some unknown creature and were about half a meter in diameter.

The prints should have been deep, but it looked as if their owner had left some time ago, as they had been partially covered by new-fallen snow. The tracks led away toward the main gate.

Yuan Qiuyuan walked over. Seeing the footprints, he couldn’t help but crouch down for a closer look before looking up. "Captain, is this...?"

Chen Chuan remained noncommittal. He looked outside and said, "Have the men clear the snow outside. We have a lot to do today."

"Yes, sir!"

As the men went outside, the biological combat weapons they had set on guard duty returned one by one. Their number was unchanged from the previous day; not a single one had been lost. It was as if nothing had happened last night, yet the footprints by the door suggested things weren’t that simple.

After giving a few instructions to Yuan and Qin, Chen Chuan returned alone to the main office. The window there offered a perfect view of the briefing hall’s entrance below.

He set down the files in his hands, his eyes fixed on the scene below. "This angle is perfect for observation, isn’t it?" he said aloud. "Wouldn’t you agree... Defender Fei?"

After he spoke, a moment passed before a voice answered from behind him. "How did you know it was me?"

...

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