Once he climbed up to the top of the wall, Shawn Young stood there peering down. In the dim light of night, he could just make out a vast area of newly constructed apartment buildings on the other side—everywhere was a construction site. It was already past midnight, so all work had stopped; the whole place was pitch black.
The policemen were already cursing and scrambling up after him. Terrified, Shawn immediately jumped down from the wall. He slipped and landed awkwardly in a pile of sand—the nearly two-meter drop made his ears ring and his feet go numb, but thankfully he didn’t twist an ankle. He barely had time to think before the cops climbed over the wall, hesitating about how to jump down. Shawn hurriedly scrambled up and, with all his strength, dashed into the darkness of the construction site.
The police climbed down after him and began to close in. Shawn ran blindly, panicked and desperate, feeling like he could cry from regret. He’d never been this embarrassed in his life—normally, he was a shy, honest guy. All this for tonight’s ridiculous “first time night”—now he finally knew what it was like to be chased by cops! Talk about rotten luck!
"Kid, stop running! Freeze! Damn it! If I catch you, you’ll know you messed up!" The fat cop chasing him leapt off the wall and nearly killed himself landing, his temper flaring instantly. Fueled by rage, he suddenly ran much faster, overtaking the other officers and sticking close behind Shawn.
Glancing back, Shawn saw the fat cop getting closer and closer. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest. He didn’t know where the energy came from, but he took off at a sprint, shoes flying off somewhere along the way. Now he was running barefoot, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers—streaking! Desperate, naked streaking!
Shawn ran toward the darkest spots, figuring it was his only chance to avoid being caught.
He charged into the construction site, dodging piles of rebar, cement, and sand, weaving through mixers and equipment like a headless chicken. He ran wherever he could, wild and frantic. Thanks to his mad dash, most of the cops eventually lost track of him—except the fat cop, who was determined to catch him and kept up the chase.
Shawn had no idea how far he’d run. He just kept going, ducking into shadows wherever he found them. Before he knew it, he’d raced out of the construction zone and into the outskirts. In the dim night, a cool breeze blew, and the croaking of frogs echoed around him. He finally noticed he was surrounded by farmland, vegetable patches, and shimmering rice paddies. He’d somehow run five or six kilometers, all the way to the edge of Nanning City!
Even more surprising—the fat cop was still hot on his heels, shouting hoarsely, "You little punk! Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I’ll catch you! Damn it, I don’t believe I can’t! Listen—I’m pissed off! You’re in deep trouble—serious trouble!!"
Shawn barely had time to catch his breath before spotting a patch of dark woods ahead. Without thinking, he bolted straight for it.
Trampling through vegetable fields and rice paddies, Shawn dove headlong into the woods, startling several roosting owls. The crickets fell silent. Through the patchy leaves and dim night, he discovered a ruined shrine—Shadow Hill Shrine—at the foot of a small slope. In the darkness, the decaying temple looked especially eerie.
Shawn peered at the shrine. The doors were long gone, eaves and walls crumbling, and huge spiderwebs everywhere. It was clear this shrine hadn’t seen incense in ages.
A chill ran down Shawn’s spine. He didn’t believe in ghosts, but finding this ruined shrine suddenly before him still made his scalp tingle.
Just as he was catching his breath, he heard the fat cop outside, stomping through the rice paddies and cursing, his voice ragged and angry. The cop had followed him into the woods.
Shawn tensed up, his fear vanishing in an instant. He glanced around and saw plenty of hiding spots inside the ruined shrine. Without hesitation, he darted inside.
Inside the shrine was a dilapidated hall. Outside the doors lay broken beams and shattered tiles, and on the ground, a battered plaque bore the ancient seal-script words: “Celestial Hall.”
Shawn Young shivered as he stepped into the hall. The floor was littered with broken tiles and rubble, while thick dust and enormous cobwebs covered the walls and floor. Large windows lined the sides, each draped with strange yellow curtains of unknown material. On every curtain, bizarre ancient symbols—each taller than a person—were painted, their meanings lost to time. Shawn had no idea what any of them meant.
Only now did Shawn notice that the entire hall was surrounded by these giant ancient symbols. The night wind whistled through, making the symbols tremble and rustle. The vast hall flickered with shifting light, and Shawn felt a chill seep into his bones. Hugging his nearly naked body, he glanced around in terror, his mind filling with fear and dread.
Suddenly, Shawn realized this place was nothing like the Taoist or Buddhist temples he'd visited before. There were no altars, no statues, none of the usual offerings. The hall was completely empty except for a strange rectangular iron plate pressed into the floor at its center, looking utterly bizarre.
A surge of intense curiosity welled up from deep inside him. Unable to resist, Shawn nervously crept closer and saw that beneath the rusty iron plate was a dark, ancient well. Strange archaic symbols were carved into the plate itself.
Suddenly, as if possessed, Shawn felt a powerful attraction from the symbols on the iron plate. He bent down, his mind no longer his own, and reached out with his right hand. With three hard lifts up and three hard pulls down—"ka-cha!"—the huge iron plate slowly slid aside, revealing the pitch-black ancient well beneath.
Before Shawn could see what lay inside the ancient well, a beam of yellow light suddenly shot out, darting straight into his eyes and quickly wrapping around his entire body. All he saw was blinding radiance, his consciousness growing hazy as his body moved on its own, stepping toward the depths of the well.