As soon as Shawn Young stepped out of the fire exit, he found himself in a dim alleyway. On either side were the outer walls of Night Emperor V and a tall building next door. He noticed the night sky was filled with stars, and a chilly breeze carried a sour, rotten stench of garbage. Ahead, there were heaps of baskets wrapped in black plastic bags and several large trash bins. Turns out, this alley was the dumping ground for all kinds of waste.
Shawn heard voices coming from up ahead. He followed the sound deeper into the alley and saw a corner. Peeking around it, he realized it was the entrance to the alley, where two police cars were parked, their lights flashing. At the foot of the building on the right side of the alley was a cold storage room belonging to a food factory. Outside the cold storage, a collapsed wall had drawn several police officers, who were setting up a cordon to secure the scene.
Meanwhile, the duo Lean Tiger & Fat Dragon were standing inside the cordon with the young man in black who had appeared in Night Emperor V. The three of them were looking down at the ground beside the collapsed wall, where a manhole cover had been pried open. Frowning, they were discussing something.
At that moment, Shawn suddenly sensed faint wisps of white spiritual energy drifting out from Night Emperor V, swirling through the alley and gathering like threads, spiraling down into the open manhole cover below.
"Hmm—looks like that spirit-sucking fiendish entity is hiding down in the sewer," Shawn realized at once.
Just then, Lean Tiger—Gavin Strong—said to the young man in black, "Lin, that thing was vicious just now. It smashed down the cold storage wall in one hit, then turned into a cloud of black mist and slipped down there. It should be right below us. Should we go down and find it?"
The young man in black waved his hand, paused, then swept his right hand toward both ends of the alley. A streak of white light quickly shot out, forming a white barrier at the alley entrance, sealing off the area from outside senses and noise. Then he said, "Let's not be hasty. I can sense that thing's aura—it's strong. It's managed to hide here and absorb human spiritual energy for so long without being discovered, so it must be dangerous. Wait—there's movement below. Everyone, be careful—"
As he spoke, the young man in black and Lean Tiger & Fat Dragon quickly retreated several meters from the manhole, watching the ground warily. Suddenly, a shocking scene unfolded—a massive horde of fat, black rats surged out from the sewer entrance. They looked like ordinary rats, except for their eyes, which glowed a terrifying red. There were so many of them, and they moved so fast, that in an instant they covered the whole alley!
The police officers on guard outside seemed prepared. They quickly grabbed special gasoline guns, spraying fuel into the alley, then lit it with lighters, sending flames toward the surging rats. Unexpectedly, the sewer rats were extremely ferocious. Many were burned to death, but the rest, undaunted and shrieking, charged at the officers.
The officers hurriedly retreated, but the swarm was terrifyingly fast and numerous. In seconds, the rats leapt onto them, biting madly. The officers screamed in agony as their uniforms were shredded, their flesh torn. Their gasoline guns dropped to the ground, and their bodies were soon crawling with crazed rats. They collapsed, writhing and shrieking, and in the blink of an eye, were bitten to death!
The whole ordeal lasted less than half a minute, and several officers had already lost their lives! Their mangled, bloody bodies lay on the ground, while the young man in black and Lean Tiger & Fat Dragon were fighting desperately against the sudden rat swarm, too busy to help.
Lean Tiger & Fat Dragon roared and leapt about, using both hands and feet, channeling their inner strength to smash the charging rats. Any rat that got close was shattered by their martial energy. Even so, there were just too many, and the lightning-fast sewer rats tore through their clothes, leaving them looking battered and disheveled.
The young man in black fared a bit better. He formed hand seals, chanted spells, and activated his true energy. With a wave of his hands, a biting cold spread through the alley. The rats charging at him froze into solid white clumps of ice before they even got close.
But more and more rats kept pouring out of the open manhole, relentlessly attacking the three men. For the moment, they were completely surrounded and couldn't break free.
Watching from the corner, Shawn saw something strange among the crazed sewer rats—they always avoided the open manhole cover. Next to it was a pile of old, crumbling wall stones, mixed with yellowish earth. On those chunks of yellow dirt, he could faintly see weird ancient runes carved into them.
"Ah! That's the Five Elements Demon Ward Array! Earth conquers water—so the fiendish fae spirit below the sewer is a water-type spirit! No wonder the rats aren't afraid of that guy's water spells!" Shawn suddenly understood.
More and more rats filled the alley. Lean Tiger & Fat Dragon were now covered in smashed rat guts and blood, looking utterly miserable as they kept fighting off the swarming rodents. Leo Bright, the burly Fat Dragon, fought with raw power—his moves weren't as nimble as Lean Tiger's, so his thick flesh got bitten the most. Even with his tough body, he ended up with torn clothes and red bite marks all over his skin.
Leo Bright yelled, "Damn! Lin, these rats are endless—no matter how many we kill, more keep coming! They're insane! I'm scared of them now, let's pull back for a bit—"
Gavin Strong chimed in, "Yeah! Yeah! There are way too many rats, Lin. Can we pull back first and figure out a plan?"
"No way. These aren't ordinary rats—they've been demonized and are extremely aggressive. If we retreat now and let this many demon rats loose on the streets, the consequences would be unimaginable!" the young man in black replied urgently, casting spells at the frenzied swarm. The alley was littered with shattered rat corpses and frozen rat clumps, but the battle raged on.
The three men's strength and stamina were being drained by the fierce fighting. Exhaustion was showing on their faces, but the endless tide of rats kept coming, as if every sewer rat in the city had gathered here.
Seeing defeat looming, Shawn hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and darted out from the alley corner, shouting, "Let me handle them!"