The Eldritch Files

Li Yiting watched as Han Su forced the veteran from the Disaster Management Bureau to step aside. His expression remained unchanged, but a hint of delighted surprise surfaced in his eyes.

The Doctor and Black Tiger remained expressionless, but they both sighed inwardly. ’What a showoff!’

Meanwhile, Investigator Bai Yang’s face flushed with awkwardness. It would have been one thing if he’d stood his ground, but having subconsciously made way, his imperious air from just moments before deflated considerably.

The Disaster Management Bureau hadn’t been established for long, but the matter of seniority was taken very seriously.

This was, of course, because an Investigator License was exceedingly difficult to obtain and came with immense power, leading the precarious Executors to view Investigators through a lens of profound mystique.

In turn, new Investigators who successfully obtained their licenses developed a reverence for their veteran counterparts, driven by both the Bureau’s tight-knit, ”huddle-for-warmth” atmosphere and the unfathomable depths of the Mysterious Circle. This reverence only served to reinforce the tradition.

This was just in the Disaster Management Bureau; within the Hidden Schools, it was countless times more severe.

But that applied to other people.

Who was Han Su?

He was the star Investigator who had shattered the Disaster Management Bureau’s records for the past three years—a man in his ascendancy, so brilliant he was almost blinding.

With a track record of completing 17 missions in three days, even the four top Investigators had to avoid a direct confrontation.

And having left Investigator Bai Yang outside, Han Su couldn’t be bothered to feign the slightest bit of patience or courtesy.

He had seen him before at the club in Dingxiang Mansion. The man was clearly allied with that Drunkard Investigator, which made him an enemy.

Besides, his codename was Bai Yang, and Han Su’s was Butcher. He was a natural counter to him.

He went straight to the reception area and sat down. He looked at Li Yiting, who sat opposite him, looking both excited and uneasy. ”Mr. Li, what exactly is going on?”

”It’s related to a certain ruins project I recently invested in.”

Li Yiting, as if he had been eagerly waiting to speak with Han Su, answered quickly, ”Not long ago, just after the project started, my workers began to exhibit a kind of hysteria of unknown origin.”

Han Su listened, frowning slightly. ”What kind of ruins project?”

’Something’s not right.’

Although the Magic Box Group was once at the height of its power, Father Li was, by status, still an ordinary person.

According to what Special Assistant Xu had said, he was a man with wealth but no standing.

Yet projects involving ruins from the previous era were all top secret.

Ordinary people didn’t even have the authority to research such things. If any were discovered by accident, they would be immediately confiscated by the Disaster Management Bureau or some other clandestine department. How could an outsider like Li Yiting possibly invest in such a project?

”COUGH COUGH!”

Just then, a cough sounded from a distance. It was Investigator Bai Yang. He took out a handkerchief to cover his mouth, his eyes boring into Li Yiting with an icy glare.

Li Yiting frowned slightly, and his voice trailed off.

Han Su understood immediately. He turned and snapped, ”What are you coughing for? If you’re sick, go see a doctor! Is this how a professional Investigator is supposed to act?”

As he spoke, he shot a look at Black Tiger and the Doctor. The Doctor, who had been listening with rapt attention, immediately frowned as well. He reached out, pulled the decorative screen standing in the middle of the office, and sectioned off the tea area where they were conversing.

Over on the other side, Investigator Bai Yang and his assistant looked instantly annoyed. The assistant, in particular, looked ready to step forward and argue.

But Black Tiger rose and stood outside the screen. He drew his gun, racked the slide, and flicked off the safety.

”?”

Investigator Bai Yang and his assistant froze in place. Staring at Black Tiger’s towering frame and his blank, dark face, any thought of arguing evaporated completely.

’Damn this rookie. It’s bad enough that he’s the man of the hour, but are his assistants this wild, too?’

Han Su took out the Crystal Pendant and held it in his hand. His Spiritual Power seeped out unnoticed, creating a private space around them. Only then did he turn to Li Yiting. ”Mr. Li, you can speak freely now.”

Seeing Han Su’s display of power, a look of delighted surprise appeared on Li Yiting’s face. He still subconsciously lowered his voice. ”Xiaohan, I wanted to find you for this incident from the very beginning.”

”When this strange hysteria first appeared, even some of the security personnel I dispatched and the doctors who examined them were infected.”

”I realized something was wrong and immediately reported it to the Public Security Bureau. I even mentioned you to them, but it seems they didn’t understand my hint. They just sent this Investigator Bai Yang over.”

”After he saw the items I had excavated from the ruins, he immediately sealed and confiscated them. He also recited a bunch of confidentiality clauses that I didn’t quite understand, forbidding me from revealing anything to anyone. I’ve been waiting in a state of extreme anxiety ever since...”

”...”

”I understand. Take your time and tell me everything.”

Han Su nodded and asked directly, ”Projects involving ruins are always dangerous. How did you get mixed up in this?”

”I pulled some old strings.”

Li Yiting let out a soft sigh. ”To explain why,” he said to Han Su, ”it all started when I was invited to that party at Dingxiang Mansion and realized a few things.”

”That time, that Mr. Drunkard and the owner of Dingxiang Mansion wanted to have a serious talk with me. The topic was a piece of land I had bought ten years ago. They hoped I would sell it back to them at a low price.”

”In return, they said they would let me ’Understand’ some of the world’s truths...”

”But that conversation was cut short by a sudden attack. It ended abruptly, and the matter was left unresolved.”

”Perhaps they thought the matter wasn’t urgent and planned to wait a while before approaching me again. But I immediately arranged for a team to survey the land, and we discovered that it might be the site of some ancient ruins.”

”I also realized the importance of this. If I reported it to Qinggang, I might lose my rights to the area. The plot of land is in a remote location, actually closer to Seawall City.”

”So, I used my old connections again, and under the name of a family in Seawall City, I began excavating the ruins. And indeed, we very quickly discovered some important items there.”

”I realized their significance and immediately went against my agreement with my partners. I arranged to have the items transported back here, but... this accident happened along the way.”

”...”

”Mr. Li, you’re incredibly bold.”

Han Su didn’t understand these so-called business dealings, nor was he familiar with the permissions required for excavating ruins.

But he could tell that the chairman of the Magic Box Group was starting to act with a hint of madness.

Not only was he meddling in the excavation of these ruins without any personal protection, but he had even arranged for people to smuggle the findings back...

’Who would have thought, from his gentle and refined appearance, that he could act with such reckless abandon...’

’That family from Seawall City must be quite powerful to have the credentials to excavate those ruins. Isn’t Li Yiting afraid of offending them by acting this way?’

”You’re not the first person to tell me that, Xiaohan. When Investigator Bai Yang came here, it was less about investigating this ’red-eye’ incident and more about intimidating me. He wants me to hand over ownership of these items directly to the people he works for.”

Li Yiting just gave a low, dry chuckle. ”But you see, at my age, there’s nothing I’m not willing to risk.”

”I just want to get Manman back.”

”...”

Hearing the desperate finality in his words, Han Su felt a flicker of emotion.

But he sighed softly, shook his head, and advised, ”I understand how you feel, but rescuing your daughter is something that must be planned carefully. Taking these kinds of risks won’t necessarily help, and it might even...”

”I have to do this, Xiaohan!”

At the mention of this, Li Yiting suddenly grew agitated. He lowered his voice and said, ”I don’t actually care about the other things we excavated from the ruins. But there was a file in there. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to bring it back.”

”That file... one look at it, and I knew... I just knew...”

He was so emotional that his voice choked. ”...I knew that we had wronged you.”

Han Su was taken aback. ”What?”

”Those monsters you talked about back then...”

Li Yiting said urgently, ”The Withered Steward, Lady Meat Horn, Half-Doctor...”

”No one believed you back then. I... I’d never seen such things, so of course, I didn’t believe you either.”

”But this time, in the ruins, I found something similar.”

”I knew it the moment I saw it. The monsters you described... they were real. Otherwise, how could they be so similar to these things that have been buried for ages?”

”...”

”You... found something?”

The words left even Han Su stunned.

The sudden influx of information was so overwhelming his mind couldn’t keep up.

’How long has it been?’

’Ever since the kidnapping, he had been relentlessly searching for information about those monsters. He refused to believe that he could have encountered them, yet find no record of their existence anywhere in the world.’

’He’d checked so much data, flipped through so many books, and still found nothing.’

’He could blame his lack of progress before on not being part of the Mysterious Circle, on being deliberately excluded. But even after joining the Disaster Management Bureau, gaining more authority, and accessing highly classified supernatural files, he had still come up empty.’

’He had since learned about the many truly bizarre things that existed in the world, like the Crystal Skull, Pseudo-humans, Sea Beasts, the Ghost Truck, Living Copper Puppets, and even so-called Banshees and the Round Table Altar...’

’But there was nothing about the monsters from the kidnapping. Not a single mention of the creatures he described in that childhood interview, the ones the media had plastered everywhere.’

’Even the Living Copper Puppet, which he had seen at the Ancient Castle, was just a subordinate type of creature.’

’But because he hadn’t mentioned it ten years ago, he couldn’t use its existence to shut his doubters up.’

’But now, after so long, just as he was about to give up on finding any real-world clues related to the monsters from the Ancient Castle, Li Yiting had actually dug something up?’

A thought suddenly struck him. If this was true, wouldn’t he finally have the key evidence needed to resubmit his report and force the Disaster Management Bureau to reopen the case?

Overcome with excitement, he leaned forward. ”What... what did you find?”

Li Yiting took a deep breath and whispered, ”Something called... the Pale Giant!”