sinovels Chapter 126 Crisis Approaches!
Chapter 126 Crisis Approaches!
Chapter 126 Crisis Approaches!
Looking at the character "death" appearing on the life-and-death stone tablet, Guan Chuandao murmured, "This guy is really dead. Could it be that he really just had an indelible grudge against this Li Jiuhe, which is why he pulled this stunt and used us to get rid of him?"
Guan Jiqian added, "Dad, I think there's another possibility. Because Li Jiuhe is an investigator from the General Bureau, with the power of our family, we can kill this investigator without any consequences. Moreover, our Guan family branch happens to lack a Sequencer with strong mental power, and Guan Jikun is just the right person to merge and advance."
Multiple factors combined led Si Mingyu to conclude that we were the best option, which is why he only sought us out on his deathbed.
Guan Chuanda frowned in thought, but remained silent.
A short while later, there was a knock on the door outside the storage room. Guan Jikun said from outside the door, "Dad, Third Master will probably wake up in about half an hour. The butler said that after he wakes up this time, he may have to sleep for seven days straight before waking up again."
Guan Chuandao immediately placed the life-and-death stone tablet, opened the door, and went out with his eldest son.
"You don't need to come with me. I'm going to ask Third Master to tell my fortune."
He left quickly after saying those words.
Guan Sanye is an elder of the Guan family, a large clan. His sequence ability is of the "fortune teller" lineage. However, Guan Sanye is a great fortune teller, similar to Zhou Yiwen, a great sorcerer.
The fortune teller sequence is similar to the curser sequence; the stronger one's abilities, the greater the power, but the stronger the backlash.
Guan Yu's divination skills were undoubtedly top-notch, but every diviner would be tainted by a "divination curse," which, although acquired randomly, could never be shaken off in a lifetime.
Guan Yu's divination incantation is for excessive sleepiness.
He needed to use his lifelong, incorrigible bad habit of excessive sleepiness to wash away the backlash from revealing heavenly secrets. If he hadn't been so sleepy, Guan Yu wouldn't be alive today.
Because of the existence of Lord Guan, the entire Guan family had to consult him for divination before making any crucial decisions.
This makes the Guan family, a hidden family, the most stable and best-developed among all hidden families.
Although development has been slower, the country has avoided rash actions and maintained a good relationship with the Tian Shu Kingdom, which has led to its current prosperous population.
However, Guan Sanye usually only tells fortunes for close relatives and the main Guan family. Even for members of other branches of the Guan family, it would take a considerable amount of money to get him to tell their fortunes.
So when Guan Chuandao arrived at Third Master's villa, he presented the bronze toad from his home to the steward in advance, saying it was payment for Third Master's fortune-telling.
Lord Guan had long coveted the Discipline Toad, because the toad could ensure that secrets would not be leaked.
If anyone leaks this information, according to the Toad Master's rules, that person will be killed on the spot by the precepts.
Therefore, this thing can be used to keep the owner's secrets very well.
However, Master Guan had been pretending not to know until today, when the matter was of great importance and he wanted to seek a divination, he had no choice but to offer up the Precept Toad in order to obtain this crucial divination.
He believed that Lord Guan would definitely agree.
While presenting the divination toad, Guan Chuandao secretly inquired with the steward whether anyone else was waiting to have their fortune told.
The housekeeper gave him good news—nothing.
If the person seeking divination has a higher status in the Guan family than Guan Chuandao, he has no choice but to wait until the Third Master wakes up again.
Because the Third Master's rule is that he only performs one divination when he is sober.
After waiting outside for more than twenty minutes, the butler jogged over to invite him in, saying that Third Master Jieluchan had accepted the gift and that Guan Chuandao should go in.
Guan Chuandao was overjoyed and quickly went inside.
Following the butler into a spacious bedroom, he saw Guan Yu, who weighed over 500 pounds.
Because of his long hours of sleeping and lack of activity after waking up, Guan Yu became so fat that he resembled a small mountain, with layers of fat piled up, leaving only slits for his eyes and five layers of chin.
The accumulated fat actually makes his wrinkles almost invisible, even though he is now 120 years old.
At this moment, Guan Yu woke up and was eating.
A large, soft straw was inserted into his mouth, and his large cheeks rolled around. Some kind of liquid food was visibly flowing into his mouth through the transparent tube, and he made gurgling swallowing sounds in his throat.
In addition, two strong servants helped him turn over, and another person was busy cleaning up his excrement and urine.
The entire bedroom was filled with a strange, foul odor.
Upon meeting him, Guan Chuandao immediately knelt down, because the Third Master was of the "Qing" generation, two generations older than him, and also a clan elder.
He knelt down, but before he could say anything...
Guan Yu spat out the huge soft straw from his mouth and said directly, "No need to mention your request, I already know. You little bastard, I've told you so many times, openly and secretly, but you pretended not to know, guarding that rotten toad and refusing to open your mouth. So you were waiting for this day to pull this trick on me!"
Guan Chuandao immediately smiled ingratiatingly: "Third Master, you are joking. I am foolish and did not understand your meaning."
Guan Yu waved his huge, Michelin-like arm, seemingly no longer wanting to argue.
"I remember I did a divination for you two years ago, it was a destiny divination. Now it seems your calamity is approaching, what? Are you trying to gamble one last time for your branch of the family?"
Guan Chuandao solemnly replied, "I have this idea, and I hope Third Master will grant my request!"
Guan Sanye stopped wasting words, turned over a layer of fat on his body, groped around for a while, and then grabbed a mud ball the size of an egg and threw it in front of Guan Chuandao.
"I've already divined the answer to your question. Here you go!"
Guan Chuandao quickly picked it up, crushed the mud ball, and revealed a yellowed paper strip with four lines of text written inside.
[The tiger and rhinoceros are released from their captivity, and a star falls into the abyss; in a land of nine deaths, there is a glimmer of hope.]
Bones pave the steps, revealing the path to heaven; souls return to the netherworld, perhaps receiving offerings.
Guan Chuanda's expression changed rapidly upon seeing the note.
Then Guan Yu's voice came: "This journey is like walking on the edge of a knife; blood will be shed every ten steps. If you are willing to gamble your life on luck, you may succeed. The day the calamity ends will be the day your branch of fortune is reversed. However, this is a very ominous sign; it should be the number of the calamity I calculated for you last time. Whether you do it or not, you should weigh it yourself. Retreat."
"Yes."
Guan Sanye's words, along with the words on the note, made Guan Chuandao tremble all over.
He lowered his head, stood up, his mind a jumble of emotions, and quickly left, clutching the note tightly in his hand.
Behind me came the gurgling sound of Guan Sanye continuing to suck the food from the tube.
capital.
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Special Incident Investigation Bureau.
After Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo returned, they planned to first go to see Minister Shao Gang of the Equipment Department to report on their work.
Minister Shao has always had a good relationship with Tong Cheng and is one of Tong Cheng's most trusted people. At the same time, Li Jiuhe also wanted to ask him to use his dream ability to contact the abandoned wooden house.
Unfortunately, Shao Gang is away on a business trip and won't be back until tomorrow.
So that day, the two of them wrote a work report on the reason for Tong Cheng's disappearance, and then contacted the archives to request access to Si Mingyu's file information.
The archives were quite efficient; they notified the two of them to come in and search within half an hour.
The archives here combine tradition and data; the outside is all about computers and database search methods, while inside are traditional cabinet-style archives.
Traditional archival searches are suitable for situations where it is necessary to view the original handwriting.
Li Jiuhe and his team then used the computer to search for information and quickly retrieved Si Mingyu's information.
However, they also discovered that they could not find information on other Order Restorers, and only Si Mingyu's information was available to them.
This suggests that there may be more confidential information about the Sequencers that Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo do not have the authority to access unless they apply in advance.
They were just ordinary investigators at the headquarters, after all.
The General Administration's sequencer files cover the entire Tian Shu Kingdom, and perhaps also include some foreign sequencers.
After careful examination, Li Jiuhe discovered that Si Mingyu had awakened to become a Sequencer at the age of seventeen, and before that, he had always been a healthy ordinary person.
At the age of seventeen, Si Mingyu fell from a height, fracturing his spine and damaging his brain, leaving him in a vegetative state before finally awakening.
As his mental strength grew, he quickly became a qualified Order Rectifier. At that time, an Order Rectifier had just died in the Northwest Region of Tian Shu Kingdom, so he was transferred to the Northwest Region.
He lay there for forty years, during which time he still regularly completed more than a hundred order-correcting tasks with other order correctors.
Then, due to work requirements, I was transferred to the Southwest District, which is the area where Wangchuan City is located.
He served there silently for another ten years, until his caregivers discovered that he had a problem. Specifically, he no longer initiated corrections with other Order Correctors, but his brain activity was abnormally strong and chaotic, with brain signals one to two times higher than those of other Order Correctors.
He was later diagnosed with a suspected brain "mutation" by the shelter and was temporarily transported to Shelter No. 7 for observation and recuperation.
After all, this guy's mental strength is too strong. If he is left outside, he may one day pose an uncontrollable danger to others.
Li Jiuhe guessed that Si Mingyu was probably contacted by the mastermind during that period, and the other party used his mental power to start plotting against him.
In other words, at the very beginning of this plan, at least one Sequencer with strong mental power is required.
Moreover, it's not enough to just be an Order Rectifier; otherwise, why choose Si Mingyu instead of other Order Rectifiers with more stable strength and more experience?
The archive information only shows this much; it doesn't reveal anything particularly special about it.
Li Jiuhe planned to focus more on investigating Lin Fengya, so he also wrote an application to go to Yuanmeng City to investigate the case.
Of course, it wasn't entirely for his own personal matters, but also to investigate cases that the General Administration needed to investigate in the Yuanmeng City area.
Even cities near the Yuan and Mongol borders are acceptable.
To ensure he could see Minister Shao Gang the next day, Li Jiuhe called him and arranged to meet him in the minister's office early the following morning.
Shao Gang was also surprised that Tong Cheng had entered the abandoned wooden house, and he wanted to find out why.
As dinnertime approached, Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo left the General Administration's accommodation building and went to a hotel across the street.
Ma Li is currently staying here temporarily, and Luo Shuo is covering all the expenses, since he's not short of money.
His net worth should rank at least in the top five among all investigators, though much of this wealth is illicit.
However, after spending so much time together, Li Jiuhe could tell that Luo Shuo was actually very frugal and not a spendthrift. In his own words, he was just afraid of being poor when he was a child.
He feels uneasy no matter what he does without some money on him.
But if he spends money on his friends, he'll do it without hesitation.
After swallowing that tongue of the dead these past two days, Ma Li has been sculpting her figure more and more perfectly, and she seems to have become several years younger.
Luo Shuo generously bought her several beautiful dresses.
But Luo Shuo wasn't interested in beautiful women; his greatest hobby was hoarding money.
We found a famous local restaurant outside the hotel, ordered a few of their signature dishes, and the three of us ate and chatted.
Luo Shuo told Li Jiuhe that he had received a call half an hour earlier, saying that he would be working on a case with another team from the General Bureau that evening, because the other party needed to borrow his tracking ability.
This group belongs to another top-level investigator, Wu Hang, who, like Tong Cheng, is a well-known figure in the General Bureau.
They somehow learned that Tongcheng, who never formed teams, had recently recruited two new investigators, both of whom were quite capable, and one of them was particularly skilled at finding things.
Therefore, it was natural to ask Luo Shuo for help at this moment.
After the meal, Luo Shuo rushed off, while Li Jiuhe and Ma Li strolled around the bustling streets nearby.
Ma Li was curious about everything in the capital and wanted to try everything. She looked around and touched everything, and it took her more than an hour to walk through half a street.
Li Jiuhe couldn't stand it anymore and told her to take care of herself, go shopping and go back to the hotel early. He himself went back to the dormitory building in the backyard of the headquarters first.
He had just returned to his dorm and hadn't even closed the door when someone came looking for him.
This person looked very young. Li Jiuhe remembered seeing him in the General Administration's office building. He should also be a staff member of the General Administration and live in the dormitory building.
"Brother Li, hello, this is Guan Guangwei, a staff member from the Information Department. I'm the one who handled your transfer procedures. Are you alone?"
This young man has a very nice appearance and a very friendly attitude, giving people a feeling that he is easy to approach.
Li Jiuhe smiled and nodded: "Hello. Yes, I'm alone; my other colleagues are out on business."
Guan Guangwei rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "I happen to be free, and my minister asked me to invite a few more people for some skewers and drinks at a street stall. How about you?"
"Your minister?" Li Jiuhe was taken aback.
The Minister of Information and the Minister of Equipment, Shao Gang, are both at the same level, belonging to the senior management of the General Administration.
Unexpectedly, this high-ranking leader was so easy to get along with. After work, he would invite his colleagues to eat skewers and drink at a street stall, and he would also invite people to join him.
Guan Guangwei nodded: "Our minister has always been like this, very easy to get along with. You're also a new colleague who just transferred here, so it's not a bad thing for you to get to know everyone."
Since he was meeting with the Minister of Information, Li Jiuhe couldn't refuse, especially since he had already planned to apply to go to the Yuanmeng City area to investigate a case in a few days.
Building good relationships with these high-ranking leaders makes things much easier.
For these people, his work assignments are just a matter of a single sentence.
Li Jiuhe readily agreed: "Okay, I just came in and haven't even changed my shoes yet."
Guan Guangwei was very enthusiastic. He put his arm around his shoulder and led him away from the dormitory building through the back gate of the headquarters.
The two crossed the street and headed towards a wide open space ahead.
As night deepened, numerous barbecue and snack stalls were set up, creating an even stronger atmosphere of lively activity.
Just as the two of them approached the night market stalls, Ma Li returned to the hotel carrying two bags of various strange and unusual decorations she had just bought.
The pocket money she had was given to her by Li Jiuhe. This ant queen didn't know anything about saving money; she spent as much as she had.
She would buy anything that looked nice.
Because the hotel was located on the street opposite the headquarters' backyard, she had sharp eyes and, when she arrived at the hotel entrance, she saw Li Jiuhe and a strange man walking a little further ahead.
The stranger had his arm around Li Jiuhe's shoulder, and they seemed to know each other well.
"————" Ma Li put down the bag of ornaments in her right hand and raised her hand as if to call out to Li Jiuhe.
"Hello there."
A tall and strong girl suddenly stood in front of her, completely blocking her view. "Brother Jiuhe told me to wait for you here. He went to have barbecue with his colleagues."
Ma Li was taken aback.
The tall girl enthusiastically helped her lift the bag of ornaments from the ground. "Let's go, let's go into the hotel first and I'll help you put your things away. Then we'll go to the night market stalls in the back."
Ma Li assumed the girl was Li Jiuhe's colleague at the General Administration, and she immediately became uneasy, fearing that the other party would discover her true identity.
After all, investigators who can stay at the General Administration are much better than those investigators in local investigation bureaus.
"Um—no, I won't go, you guys go ahead." She immediately refused.
To everyone's surprise, the tall girl was very enthusiastic and walked into the hotel with her things in her arms.
"Come on, come on, don't be so polite with us. You're Jiuhe's friend, so you're our friend too."
Helpless, Ma Li had no choice but to follow her into the hotel.
The night market stalls on the other side were bustling with activity, with people coming and going.
Li Jiuhe followed Guan Guangwei to a barbecue stall. Several tables were set up behind the stall, and almost every table was occupied, indicating that the business was very good.
The owner had set up a whole row of meat skewers and poultry offal in front of the charcoal fire, which were sizzling and making one's mouth water.
Several people were sitting at one of the tables, and Li Jiuhe immediately recognized that the Minister of Information was indeed among them.
This minister, who was fat and had big ears, was completely different from Minister Shao Gang. He was waving to Li Jiuhe with a cheerful smile and said something.
However, because of the distance and the noise from the crowd, Li Jiuhe couldn't hear clearly.
He quickly went over and sat down. The noise from before moved behind him, and he was able to hear what the other person was saying.
"Come on, new colleague, don't be shy, let me introduce you to everyone." The Information Minister spoke in a friendly tone, without any airs.
"Hello everyone, I am Li Jiuhe, transferred from Wangchuan City."
As Li Jiuhe explained, a look of doubt appeared on his face.
He found that when he spoke to the Minister of Information, the surrounding noise was normal, but when he turned to look at his other colleagues, including Guan Guangwei, the surrounding noise would take on a strange background sound.
The sound didn't come from all directions, but only from behind him, as if he were no longer there, but rather as if a huge soundproof barrier had appeared behind him, isolating the voices of others.
At almost the same moment, the Minister of Information noticed Li Jiuhe's unusual expression.
He then sighed and said, "Xiao Wei, you still need to work on your skills; your voice transmission control is not right."
As soon as he finished speaking, the night market stall in front of Li Jiuhe disappeared instantly, replaced by an empty space overgrown with weeds. Apart from him and a few colleagues, there was no one else around. The noise had also vanished without a trace, and the surroundings were quiet.
He was suddenly stunned, and saw that the faces of these people, including the Minister of Information, had all changed, only Guan Guangwei still looked the same as he knew.
But he didn't recognize any of the other people.
This isn't the night market stalls on the street behind the General Administration; it seems to be located in the outskirts of the capital.
These guys in front of me clearly have ill intentions.
Li Jiuhe was originally prepared to immediately reset the ongoing "survive" task, but after a moment's thought, he chose to hold back for the time being and see what these people were up to.