Facing an Ancient God for a Year

[Rotten Forest: Forbidden Area]

[Danger Level: Safe]

…

This time the archive manager was quite accommodating, directly exporting the files out, which indicated that the secrecy level of this item wasn’t very high.

After carefully reading the materials, Fu Qian quickly found the information he was interested in.

According to the documents, the place named Rotten Forest was currently managed by the Night Watchman as a Forbidden Area.

...However, it wasn’t always like this; for a long time, it had been under the control of the Kawasaki Family.

Until about a decade ago, some changes occurred within the Kawasaki Family.

Because of “atrocious acts,” more than half of them were directly “dealt with” by the Night Watchman.

The remaining family members split off and voluntarily ceded control to the Night Watchman.

At that point in time…

Fu Qian recalled the content in Su Gao’s files, which coincided with the time she joined the Night Watchman.

The Rotten Forest, that should be the place without a doubt.

Remembering those rotting, twisted plants, the name was indeed apt.

However, according to the documents, the Rotten Forest was now a very safe area.

Anyone who submitted a reasonable request could go there freely, with no restrictions even for Transcendents.

No doubt the source of the distortion was taken away by oneself, and Mr. Luo acted as an air purifier in the end, completely absorbing the remnants of the corruption.

On the principle of actions over intentions, one could only say that Mr. Luo earned some merit too!

The only issue was that Fu Qian didn’t find any information related to Mr. Luo in the archives, not even a similar role with a different name.

It was true Mr. Luo had entirely disappeared, but none of the captured Kawasaki people even mentioned the instigator?

With such an obvious abnormal situation, if you told me no one was behind him covering up, Fu Qian would never believe it.

This Mr. Luo most likely was not a loner!

Fu Qian thought to himself.

Speaking of which, this was good news; if one could touch on this organization later on, maybe then the origin of the secret book could be uncovered.

“Did you find something?”

Yuan Shan, who was nearby, clearly had sharp eyes and could tell from Fu Qian’s expression that he had gained something.

“Yes.”

Fu Qian nodded honestly.

“What did you find? Tell me about it.”

Yuan Shan’s interest was piqued immediately. She had been standing aside, glancing briefly over the material, and absorbing the content at a glance.

However, it was all old news, and she couldn’t see anything particularly special.

“Not telling.”

Fu Qian’s response was just as straightforward, which left her with eyes wide in frustration.

“That Su Gao… is she someone you know?”

After all, being a top leader, Yuan Shan still had decent emotional regulation skills.

After a few deep breaths, she quickly calmed herself down and asked another question.

“Not really, we’ve met before.”

Fu Qian still remembered the conclusion to the Evil Omen incident where Su Gao had helped conceal his presence; naturally, he would not reveal that now.

…

Seeing that Fu Qian was not giving anything away, Yuan Shan was itching with aggravation. She glared at him and then raised her hand to point ahead.

“Have it your way, but don’t say I didn’t warn you, this is your last chance.”

“No need, just keep it for now.”

To her surprise, Fu Qian directly returned the material to the manager for destruction and dusted off his hands, not seeking to read any further.

“Three expensive opportunities shouldn’t be used up all at once; I’ll come back to check when I need it next time.”

Fu Qian looked at Yuan Shan with an expression that said it was only natural.

“Chief Yuan wouldn’t have had it invalidated, would she?”

“… Yes!”

Fu Qian’s words choked off what Yuan Shan wanted to say, and after a moment, she hummed an agreement.

“Chief Yuan is indeed reasonable and understanding.”

Fu Qian praised her with a smile.

Ordinarily, he should have immediately checked for information related to the Kawasaki Family.

But first, his intuition told him that there wouldn’t be any meaningful content.

Moreover, for such a well-known family, a simple search upon returning would reveal plenty of information, or at worst, he could make a trip to scout it out himself; it wouldn’t be worth wasting an opportunity on this.

After all, the three chances to inquire were obtained in exchange for a promise of assistance.

In his current state, synchronized to this world through a Messenger, he couldn’t use SAN Points in place of his life, and with him being in a Blank Slate War God state, the risk of his actions was extraordinarily high.

And based on his understanding of Yuan Shan, she would surely use the opportunity to its limit when the time came, so why should he let it be easy for her to benefit?

Besides, regarding the matter of his special trait, Fu Qian didn’t want too many people to know.

He had just checked two archives, Su Gao and Rotten Forest.

It would be difficult to deduce his intent from this.

To an observer, it would seem more like he was interested in Su Gao.

This was a nice diversionary misunderstanding.

Checking one more piece of information would add another layer of restrictions, easily revealing some intentions.

…

“Whenever Chief Yuan needs my assistance, you can leave a letter at my shop, and I will respond at once when I see it.”

Having come out of the archives, Fu Qian said goodbye to Yuan Shan with a smile, setting up their method of contact.

This was inspired by Wen Li’s previous behavior; as someone who isn’t often around, letters are a very good means of communication.

Fu Qian wasn’t worried about Yuan Shan taking offense, knowing full well that he was a genuine Demigod—a person of such status being too idle would be abnormal indeed.

“Mm.”

As expected, Yuan Shan had no objections and readily agreed.

…

Having left the Night Watchmen Base, Fu Qian wasted no time and made a beeline for Wen Li’s mansion.

When he was borrowing Wen Li’s creativity earlier, Fu Qian naturally recalled what she had mentioned in her letter.

An intriguing find… There was still time before nightfall; it was worth taking a look.

Plus, this girl was conscientious in her work and tight-lipped.

It was worth considering delegating the task of gathering information on the Kawasaki Group to her, which would certainly be more efficient than rummaging through various second-hand news by himself.

Soon, Fu Qian arrived at his destination.

Compared to the Night Watchmen Base’s elder, Wen Li’s mansion’s security seemed much more formal.

The guards were fully armed, alert and serious, meticulously fulfilling their duties and not overlooking any suspicious characters.

Of course, this was all for show, as all these people combined probably couldn’t withstand a poke from the elder of the Night Watchmen Base.

But upon hearing the name Fang Xun, the guards’ expressions changed.

There wasn’t even any questioning; one person immediately ran to report, while the others invited Fu Qian to wait carefully.

What a contrast! Had Wen Li given some special instructions?

In just a few minutes, Wen Li came hurrying out with her skirt in hand.

The moment she saw Fu Qian, a smile broke across her face.

“Mr. Fang, you’ve come!”