Forge a path to success

Van der glanced sideways: "You're even speaking up for the old man now."

"I'm just telling the truth. People's thoughts are always changing, and what they want changes without them even realizing it. Very few people can see themselves clearly." Chu Hengkong picked up his spear. "Jin Ye obviously has other plans for the last twenty years, so this visit may not go smoothly."

They erected four small flags at the foot of the mountain to disperse the surrounding people, and then ventured deeper along the only mountain path. The mayor's mansion was hidden on the shady side, its golden dome concealed among the trees. Although it had a courtyard, it was unattended and overgrown with weeds.

Chu Heng entered the abandoned courtyard and knocked forcefully several times on the gate of the mansion. The sound of his knocking penetrated the door, and the echoes revealed the furnishings inside. The mansion was filled with luxury goods, followed by books, but not a single living creature could be found.

No one is empty.

“There’s an elemental aura,” Ji Huaisu suddenly said. “A very high concentration of earth element.”

Chu Hengkong acted decisively and broke down the door.

He saw an ugly statue.

Chapter 119 Golden Leaf Mansion

Not long ago, at the Third Experimental Primary School of Jinye City.

"I'm taking the day off today, could you please look after my little garden for me?"

After handing over his work, Gulibo stepped out of the school gate with the approved leave slip in his hand. His tone and expression were not cheerful, like a gloomy little mouse. He nibbled on a cucumber to cheer himself up and walked towards the station, flipping through a small, exquisite handbook as he went.

[Seafood Bookstore Employee Handbook]

Rating: 3

[Effect: To indicate the general actions of the subject within a city or less.]

A map of the research sites needs to be prepared and relevant intelligence needs to be entered. The amount of research information is related to the total amount of intelligence entered.

[Editor's note: Is it that the sentence "Please put aside your hobbies during work hours" is hard to understand, or is going to work your hobby?]

If you submit your tomato cultivation log as a research report again, I'll plant you upside down in front of the bookstore as a welcoming potted plant.

The map of the small town wasn't hard to find. Lu Bu's egg had brought a lot of intelligence last night, including the general characteristics of the people involved in the brawl and their residences. This intelligence was enough for it to activate its pitiful trump card—or rather, its office supplies.

The manual features a cartoon-style map, with several areas circled and corresponding character portraits drawn next to them. Currently, the character portraits on the map are moving at different speeds, their paths marked with dotted lines. A broadcast bar on the side of the map displays lines of small text in chronological order:

-

Runemaster: Lost three Tier 3 relics

Let's skip this unfortunate guy and look at the others...

-

Tentacle Trio: Investigating the Mayor -

Iceman: Wandering around the hill -

Heartbroken Girl: Tracking the Ice Man

All five icons are located in the west, suggesting another encounter is imminent. Gulibo knew that contacting them beforehand was futile; it followed the dotted line to a hotel, intending to ambush the trio at their hideout…

At this point, the cartoon map refreshed, and a new notification popped up.

-

Runemaster: Obtained three level-three relics

"...???"

Gulibo rubbed his eyes, but the words were still stubbornly shining.

This doesn't make sense! Although a talisman master's job is to draw talismans, how can a level three relic be made so quickly? Even a proper Heart Sword cultivator would need to draw one properly for a while, and you're drawing three??

It's possible that the belongings were previously stored in the storage equipment and the manual didn't detect them... But if that's the case, this person's wealth is simply too immense. What's such a rich guy doing getting involved in this messy little island?

Gulibo secretly noted down this information, planning to discuss it with Shizhong when it returned. It started searching for the other people on the map. Egg was stopped at a market, seemingly having breakfast; another person marked with a gun was stopped at a fork in the road, very close to it…

Very close!

Gulibo looked up, trembling. A conspicuous man stood beside the station. He was tall and thin, with long brown hair, and didn't care much about his appearance, his chin covered in stubble. This was clearly a street where civilians gathered, yet he was dressed in a dark red combat uniform and carrying a long tube covered by a black cloth on his back, seemingly oblivious to everyone else.

He made no attempt to conceal his dangerousness, nor did he care what others thought. When the man's gaze swept over him, Gulibo felt as if he were looking at an eagle from the desert.

"Have you seen that ice man, little guy?" the long-haired man asked.

Gulibo nodded frantically, speechless. It quietly closed the booklet, trying its best to make it look like a children's picture book. But this little trick didn't fool the long-haired man, who pulled out the booklet, saw its contents, and chuckled.

Gulibo felt that this was probably how his life would be.

The man tossed the manual back, which Gulibo caught in a flurry. Its little heart pounded; the narrow escape from death made it almost cry with joy. However, the man's next words plunged it into despair.

"You can keep the seeds for now... Take good care of them and don't lose them."

Gulibo stood frozen in place, and by the time it regained consciousness, sniper Shakes had already gone far away.

·

(Communication test. Can you hear me clearly?)

(Hmm. I've found something you'll like.)

Wu He chuckled dryly, taking the sniper's words as a lighthearted attempt to ease the tension. He tried one last time: (As your employer, I still hope you can hold your ground...)

(Let's stop talking nonsense.)

(Fine, I give up trying to persuade you.) Wu He sighed. (But I must reiterate, I don't want to make enemies unnecessarily. This is for intelligence gathering; please don't engage in pointless fighting.)

(That's hard to say.) Shakes sneered. At that moment, the waterwheel stopped at the terminal station, and outside the window, one could see the yellow leaves covering the hillside.

The ice man had hooks left inside his body, making it easy to trace his movements. Smelling the small animal's scent would reveal the presence of the stone seed. If Wu He had been standing at the elementary school gate, the animal's books would have already been sold, and its life would be in jeopardy. But Shakes had no interest in such details; he only cared about what mattered to him.

He would never willingly leave this island if he didn't understand the mastermind behind yesterday's chaotic brawl and the eel-headed man with his exceptional swordsmanship.

Coincidentally, he learned of everyone's movements through that handbook, as if a hidden shepherd boy was guiding him. Just like the series of encounters yesterday.

But Shax was never suspicious; he used intelligence as he saw fit. He estimated that the original trio had already arrived at the mayor's residence, so he took a detour from the east to approach the hill, climbing the iron tower for a high vantage point. Once the Black Ball was properly maintained and set up, the reconnaissance scope mechanically took off, and Shax, like piloting a drone, maneuvered the scope into the deep mountains.

Wu He, who was at the outpost, couldn't help but speak again: (You seem distracted, as if you're focused on things outside the mission.)

Shakes laughed. He rarely went on at length, explaining to his employer, whom he had only recently met, that this time it really was his fault.

(Have you ever been bitten by a venomous snake?)

(……No.)

(That's a precious experience. The moment the snake bites, your pain and panic are mixed with a sliver of hope. You imagine the venom seeping into your bloodstream, like a gray thread heading towards your heart, as if you have a chance to survive if you can treat the wound in time.)

But that's not actually the case. Those thoughts will flash through your mind in an instant, and then suddenly everything goes black. Only then do you realize it was all over; you died the moment it bit you.

Wu He remained silent, while Shakes continued speaking to himself: (But the most fatal thing is that after you were miraculously saved, of course you want revenge, you want to avenge your defeat, but that snake is long gone. You still have the chance to encounter many wild beasts and hunt lions and tigers, but you know you will never encounter that snake again in this lifetime.)

So you become paranoid, inexplicably anxious and obsessed. You stare at a rope for ages, meticulously following every snake as they slither, as if a venomous snake lurks beneath their skin. Deep down, you know it's just self-deception; they can't possibly transform into your former enemies. Yet, you still persist to the very end…

Only after shattering those self-created illusions can one willingly return to real life.

After a long silence, Wu He said, "(I'm starting to regret hiring you. I didn't expect you to be this crazy.)"

(Killers are all psychopaths.) Shakes ended the conversation.

The sniper scope peered through layers of fallen leaves, approaching the mansion nestled in the mountains. Shax calmed himself; from this angle, he could see half of the living room and a corner of the staircase.

The blonde woman and the strange-eyed creature were standing in the lobby searching through documents, a green hem brushing against the edge of the stairs. Shax adjusted his position to observe, but there were no windows on the second floor. He watched the two people on the first floor. Judging from the blonde woman's lip movements, she was talking loudly to someone upstairs.

Unfortunately, from this angle he couldn't see the statue in the foyer.

·

"No trace of Jinye! Only that ugly statue!"

Ji Huaisu shouted upstairs and carefully searched the first floor with his light shield. The layout of this floor could only be described as a disaster. There was nowhere to stand in the hall, and graffiti-like manuscripts were scattered all over the floor. Neither the sofas nor the vases were buried in the dirty snow. Among this mountain of manuscripts, only two things were recognizable, one of which was an ugly statue facing the door.

The statue had a subtle startling effect when the three broke down the door. It was made of gray stone, of excellent quality, yet its shape was shockingly ugly. It had a shriveled head and long, thin limbs; the entire statue stood before the door, resembling a dried-up corpse.

Ji Huaisu and Fan De both sensed a strong elemental power emanating from the statue, but couldn't discern its source. The statue simply remained motionless, unresponsive to their tapping. To be on the safe side, Chu Hengkong removed the statue's head and limbs, but even then, nothing happened.

After studying it for ten minutes and smashing the statue, the three of them agreed that it was probably just an ordinary elemental sandbag, and they wondered why Jin Ye would put such a thing in front of his house.

Seeing that nothing was amiss on the first floor, Chu Hengkong went upstairs to investigate. With his quick reflexes, there was no difference between the upper and lower floors, and since it was all in one room, there was no need to worry about the risks of splitting up. Meanwhile, Vande's attention was focused on the second item in the hall: a metal desk placed in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, directly facing the sunlight.

It enthusiastically rummaged through drawers and cabinets with its tentacles, trying to find any diaries or similar items. Ji Huaisu casually picked up a manuscript from the ground and discovered that it depicted various bizarrely shaped devices: a torture chair powered by a water turbine, an electric paralysis waterbed covered in sticky residue, a metal bar restraint suit resembling a birdcage…

"Jin Ye must be at least 50 this year, to do this at such an old age, he's old in spirit!" Ji Huaisu exclaimed in amazement.

"Research often gets more and more bizarre. Luckily, it was Chu Hengkong who went upstairs. Who knows, he might have opened a door and found Old Master Jin amusing himself with a clay statue." Fan De was used to it. "While Old Master Jin is still quiet, let's find out what he's up to... Look at this!"

It pulled a thick notebook from the bottom drawer. Ji Huaisu tapped it twice with her light shield to confirm there were no triggered traps, then began to read it by the light from the window. In the distance, Shakes, using his reconnaissance scope, also obtained the information and began to read it backwards with some difficulty.

Unfortunately, due to their limited field of vision, they didn't see that the dismantled, ugly statue moved slightly the moment the notebook was opened.

The first page of the journal gets straight to the point: the writer tore the paper while writing, which is enough to show his turbulent emotions.

"A taboo lies buried beneath this dusty island."

Chapter 120 The Flames of War Reignite

"Beneath the surface of this dusty island lies a 'forbidden' secret."

Writing this word on paper would seem like an exaggeration, like the self-important boasting of a young person, but I really can't think of a more fitting description. I can't study them, I can't find any clues, and I can't even recognize what they look like. I only know that whenever there is conflict on the island, those things will appear from the gray fog to stop the fighting.

Perhaps their presence is related to the island's unusual desolation, or perhaps it's simply a phenomenon caused by some kind of unique local beast... I'll ponder this carefully once the city is completed."

The following pages contained Jin Ye's account of the city's initial construction, his words brimming with a creator's pride. Ji Huaisu, uninterested, ignored Fan De's protests and quickly flipped through the pages until the next chapter contained the relevant information.

"...Even the expensive detection equipment couldn't identify the power of the 'forbidden' beings, and the Flowing Pearl was already stretched thin. I decided to change my approach and observe their impact on the world."

This decision was extremely wise; I noticed many overlooked details. The damage caused by the 'forbidden' elements will disappear without a trace. In the experiment the previous morning, I witnessed a 'forbidden' element cleave through the magical lion puppet and drew the entire process. But by noon today, the abandoned lion puppet appeared perfectly intact in my warehouse, and my sketch had turned into a blank sheet of paper, as if nothing had happened.

While I can still remember it, I'm going to record yesterday's experimental process in a standard format. Yesterday

(The following five lines are blank)

"...I am very glad that I used the ambiguous term 'taboo' to refer to them, otherwise I probably would have forgotten my diary long ago."

Yesterday, a new, large-scale experiment was conducted, witnessed by over a hundred people; the city hall was razed to the ground. This morning, I woke up to find everything peaceful in Golden Leaf City. I went to work as usual, and it took me all morning to deduce my actions from yesterday.

This is insane! How can the impact of a race... a power... be so easily erased? Who is hiding their tracks behind the scenes?

If subjective memories can be freely altered, and objective traces can be erased by that force, how can I obtain 'evidence' to prove its existence? Isn't an existence that is neither verifiable nor falsifiable just idealistic fantasy? Am I supposed to follow the idiots on the path to supreme enlightenment and engage in some kind of subjective judgment?!

I can't write anymore, this is fucking ridiculous.

What followed was a long stretch of Jin Ye's various speculations, and the complaints that arose after refuting those speculations. After eighteen pages of trivial ramblings and drunken chatter, a new conjecture was born.

"...Just think about it simply."

I can't recognize it because the world won't let me see it.

The evidence is gone because the world intervened and erased it.

To put it bluntly, the Submerged Realm doesn't want to see it; it's something that shouldn't exist! Erasure all the evidence, and it will 'no longer' exist!

(New page)

"...Three catties of fruit wine has a significant effect on academic research. Research has progressed significantly even after not drinking it for half a year."

"After a few drinks, I had a brilliant idea. Let's assume that 'taboo' is rejected by the world...forgotten by the world...then it's a species that never existed. Wouldn't that be like that 'non-existent' great war?"

·

As Shakes read the entire page aloud, his interest grew even stronger.

(What is a great war?)

(You didn't know?) Wu He was very surprised.

(War is raging everywhere in the Submerged Realm.)

(That was just a localized conflict. There's only been one major war in the entire Candlelight Era, and it's said that war affected all of Dust Island.) Wu He paused. (I'm afraid of death, so I don't want to say too much. Just think of it as a great battle between good and evil.)

Shakespeare questioned: (Why are there no records of the numerous major battles involved?)

(This is the mystery of the Great War; there are no records, no witnesses, and later generations only know what happened but not why, hence it is called the 'War in the Mist.' Wise men say that the Great War shattered history, and under the influence of fragmented time, even those who experienced it cannot tell the past to future generations.) Wu He seemed to be deep in thought, (This phenomenon in Jinye City is indeed similar to the Great War...)

(That's really interesting.)

(You should retreat.) Wu He ruined the atmosphere with a single sentence. (I don't want to get myself into trouble.)

Shakes considered it carefully, and reason told him that his employer's judgment was correct. He decided to look at it for another three minutes, and then leave no matter what the gold leaf manuscript said.

On the other side of the window, Vande stared with his big, round eyes.