I Am Your Natural Enemy

They actually managed to hold back—now we really don’t know what to do.

So what should we do next?

Ha, then let’s leave it alone. The Water Ghosts I let go never did anything wrong anyway. It’s not like they became Water Ghosts by choice, and now that they’re willing to turn over a new leaf, are you really going to stand in their way?

It’s that West River way of doing things again, huh? I’m telling you, you can’t just seal off something like the Sea God. Even the General Director can’t do that.

I know. Don’t worry, none of them want to be the Sea God. The Water Ghosts don’t think like us at all. As long as they don’t hurt anyone, just leave them be.

Alright then, anyway, we’re a bit stuck too right now. The people from the Southern Sea County Scorching Sun Department are even more lost—they’ve never seen something like this, have no idea whether to go fight or just ignore it.

I came to you for something. I need you to make me something. This can’t be filed in the Scorching Sun Department records, or at most, only the General Director can know. If your clearance isn’t high enough, I’ll go talk to the General Director myself.

My clearance isn’t low! As Feng Yao said this, Wen Yan also said something at the same time.

I know your clearance isn’t low.

Hmm? How do you know that? Feng Yao’s face shifted slightly, and he immediately asked.

I just know. That’s why I came to you for this.

I trust you, but I don’t trust everyone in the Scorching Sun Department. You get what I mean, right?

For a while after this, I’ll need to do some things—but I’m worried about being exposed.

So, I’ll need you to cooperate at your highest level of secrecy.

Unconditionally cooperate with me on these tasks.

Any issues?

Feng Yao fell silent for a moment.

Is it serious?

Very. If things go south, it’s more trouble than an out-of-control world boss.

Alright, what do you need me to do?

Make me a Black Box. Here’s roughly what I need…

After Wen Yan finished explaining, Feng Yao nodded.

Easy enough. But your requirements need a high level of clearance, and my clearance might not be secure enough.

I’ll need to report to the General Director to get the maximum clearance.

I don’t know exactly what you’re planning, but since you say it’s this serious, then if I’m doing it, I’ll do it to the max.

If you’re not in a rush, I’ll go see the General Director first.

Okay, it’s not super urgent right now.

After hanging up, Feng Yao chatted with the people from Southern Sea County a bit, brought up the West River case as an example, and told them: as long as the Water Ghosts aren’t hurting anyone—instead, are actually saving people—just leave them alone.

It’s best to register them, that’s all you need to do.

If they haven’t registered, then be a bit cautious. If they do anything bad, hit them hard right away.

Otherwise, just treat them as regular Ghosts on file.

The Southern Sea County Scorching Sun Department isn’t like Nanwu County. Back when Cai Heizi was around, he could take the heat, no matter if things were black or white, he’d take responsibility and act decisively. Southern Sea County isn’t like that.

Then, thinking about Wen Yan’s call, Feng Yao used it as an excuse, said that shifts like this are indeed hard on everyone, and he’d personally go to headquarters and report to the General Director.

With that as a pretext, Feng Yao boarded a plane and headed to headquarters.

He reported on the Southern Sea County situation, and after ensuring absolute security, he brought up the task Wen Yan had given him.

The General Director’s expression subtly changed.

What did he say that made you think your clearance wasn’t enough—that you had to come see me?

He knows my clearance isn’t low. And I only leveled up yesterday—besides you, not a single person knows. My file in the department only shows a slight increase over before. But he was certain I could do it.

You’re not suspicious?

I’d be suspicious of someone else, but not him. I’m sure this is absolutely necessary, and I believe if it needs doing, it should be done right.

You’re right.

The General Director nodded, thought briefly, then opened a mechanism behind him and, after scanning back and forth with a device that looked like a scanner three times, led Feng Yao into the back room.

Inside the room, there was only a table, with something the size of a computer case on top; rows of numbers were written on both side walls.

The General Director brought Feng Yao in, pointed at what was on the table, and there was a time displayed on it.

This is a wondrous item with no serial number—never included in the database.

What’s inside this box is an atomic clock that used to be mounted on a satellite.

At the time, it seemed this thing was broken—the timekeeping wasn’t so accurate anymore, and sometimes it would jump wildly.

And that satellite got hit by space debris, so it was recovered.

After reclaiming it, we found that the atomic clock was definitely damaged, but—strangely enough—it could still run normally.

I found out about this. On the record, this thing is listed as broken and destroyed.

But actually, I brought it back, because I discovered this is a wondrous item.

This atomic clock isn’t broken—it’s too accurate.

The time it records isn’t the same as ours. It records the time it has actually experienced, every minute and second.

All these numbers recorded here, I wrote them down. Every time the atomic clock glitches—when the time starts jumping—I note it.

It’s been three years now.

Feng Yao looked at the last string of numbers on the wall—that time stamp was from this morning.

I used to be really puzzled—wondered if the wondrous item had a problem, or if time itself in our world was broken.

But I checked, kept checking, and came up empty—no matter how the research went, nothing ever came up wrong.

After all, wondrous items aren’t always one hundred percent correct.

I can’t, when all I have is a single unproven lead, use up Scorching Sun Department resources on this.

So after expending some resources and still getting nowhere, I kept doing all this alone.

When you said that just now, and when Wen Yan asked you to do that job, I immediately thought of this thing.

The time he called you, asked you to do that, was after the last time I logged here, right?

Feng Yao pulled out his phone and checked his call log.

Yeah—it was after this last entry. To be exact, 23 minutes later, he asked me to do those things.

The General Director nodded, looking totally relieved.

Then go ahead. Support him completely—whatever it is, don’t hesitate.

I trust my own judgment. I trust the Old Celestial Master’s judgment even more, and I trust Scorching Sun the most.