The wind shifted that evening.
Not just the weather.
The air itself felt... heavier.
Like something was stirring beneath the surface of the city—beneath all the cases, the memories, the ghosts.
Something deeper.
Older.
Worse.
Shi Mu sat in her apartment with all the files spread across her desk.
Cases that had never fully closed.Spirits that had never spoken clearly.People who vanished without ever dying.
And now—this letter.
The message wasn't just a threat.
It was a signal.
Fu Yunshen stood across from her, arms crossed.
He had seen the pattern too.
"These aren't just loose ends," he said. "They're threads someone didn't want pulled."
Shi Mu circled a name on one of the files.
An old case.
Pre-archive.Sealed records.
A name erased from public record… but not from memory.
"I think this is where it starts," she said.
Fu Yunshen narrowed his eyes. "Or ends."
[System Notification]
Restricted Thread Reactivated – Classified Archive Tier
Subject: Project Echo
Access: Unauthorized / Monitored
Warning: Surveillance Level Increased – System Aware of External Interest
Brotherhood Value +415 (Locked History Probed + Surveillance Risk Accepted)
Current Total: 17,125 / 1,000,000
Shi Mu didn't flinch.
She marked the case and slipped it into a new folder labeled:
MONSTERS.
Fu Yunshen glanced at her as thunder rumbled softly in the distance.
"You sure you want to keep going?"
Shi Mu didn't hesitate.
"I didn't come back to stop halfway."
Some ghosts tell stories.
But monsters?
Monsters tell you the truth only when you're willing to bleed for it.
And Shi Mu—
was ready to bleed.