Chapter 62: Returning to the Old Place

I raised my flashlight and shined it toward one of the filing cabinets. "Look at that!"

Ye Huan snapped a piece of wood off the corner of a table and flicked it with his finger toward the cabinet door.

With a soft click, the iron door of the filing cabinet swung open, and a corpse tumbled out. The face of the dead man was none other than the old night watchman who had let us in.

I looked at the body and said, "They've definitely called the police. They're trying to use official channels to deal with us."

Shi Qi asked in shock, "What should we do then? Should we fall back?"

I smiled. "Why would we leave? The good show hasn't even started yet!"

I flicked my wrist and scattered a pinch of Yellow Springs Sand. In less than two minutes, the corpse on the floor was digested into absolute nothingness.

"When someone comes in shortly, nobody make a sound. We'll fool them all." I pulled out a spirit talisman, slapped it onto Ye Huan and Shi Qi, formed a hand seal, and chanted: "Split the earth to divide Yin and Yang; a thousand troops hidden before the eyes. Gods remain invisible, ghosts unquantifiable. Conceal—"

This time, instead of using the Scout Art, I employed my Yuan family's secret technique, "Earth-Splitting Yin-Yang," forcefully carving out a small space between the Yin-Yang barrier for the three of us to hide inside.

Many people believe that the Yin-Yang barrier is easily breached. In reality, the Yin-Yang barrier is as thick as a city wall. When spirit mediums summon ghosts from the underworld, they aren't shattering the barrier; rather, they are temporarily intercepting the spirits along the Yellow Springs road where they normally travel between realms.

The three of us were now standing right in the middle between the netherworld and the mortal realm. The living couldn't see us, and the dead had no way of sniffing us out either.

"Earth-Splitting Yin-Yang" was an ultimate evasion technique. Aside from my grandfather and Old Thief Yuan, no one else knew the profound mysteries of this secret art.

Scarcely had we finished hiding when police officers broke through the door. Yet, aside from three flashlights resting on a table and some old newspapers, they found nothing at all.

Those men walked back and forth right in front of the three of us three times before leading their team away.

No sooner had the police departed than I saw two figures—one tall, one short—materialize inside the archive room. The tall one scanned the room and muttered, "How did they vanish? I saw them come in with my own eyes, and the nearby talismans gave no warning. These people didn't leave!"

The short one said in a deep voice, "Just wait, I'll summon a ghost to help us look!"

As he spoke, the short man lit a red lantern. Moments later, I felt ripples pulsing from all directions simultaneously. Pale white arms began protruding one after another from the archive room's cabinets, ceiling, and floor. Human silhouettes poked their heads and faces out from the walls and the ground; some even squatted atop the filing cabinets, looking down condescendingly at the red lantern.

People always assume ghosts are extremely distant from them, but in reality, they are constantly roaming right beside people, sometimes separated by mere inches.

Preserving archives requires protection from light, so archive rooms generally lack east- and west-facing windows. The indoor lighting is inadequate, and the Yin energy is heavy. Furthermore, those old archives bear too many pasts and obsessions of people, making them exceptionally prone to attracting ghosts.

When you are browsing through archives, someone might well be standing right beside you, reading that very file along with you.

Pressing a hand against the red lantern, the short man demanded, "Where did those three people who just came in go?"

A ghost replied, "Didn't that master tell us to stay far away from the archive room? None of us dared to come near! The three of them entered the archive room and never came out."

The short man first glared at the tall one, then asked, "Did those three practice any magic in here?"

The ghost answered, "I did sense someone using magic just now, but it vanished in a flash."

"Someone used magic?" The short man pondered for a moment, picked up the newspapers on the table, flipped through them rapidly, and pointing at one of the pages, asked, "Old Liu, do you think the events written on this newspaper could actually be coming true?"

The tall man also shuddered. "You mean... those people really are back, just like the boss said? And they dragged those three away?"

"I... it's hard to say!" the short man said. "Quickly contact the boss. Let's go check out the water plant first."

As soon as the two left, we stepped out of the Yin-Yang barrier and quietly tailed behind them.

Sitting in the car, Shi Qi asked in a low voice, "How did they fall for it?"

As I drove, I replied, "Jin Yihou coming to find you in the first place didn't make much sense."

"Since the Thirteen Ghost Gates decided your grandfather misjudged a case back then, why would they still give you a chance? Because of internal discord? I don't think so."

"Where would people of the pugilistic world find so much sense of justice? I believe the Thirteen Ghost Gates came after you probably because something about the past events has changed again."

"Facts have proven that my guess was right!"

Shi Qi thought for a moment and said, "You mean the case back then actually involved a tug-of-war among three factions: the Thirteen Ghost Gates, my grandfather, and the real culprit?"

"Mhm!" I nodded. "After your grandfather pacified the Thirteen Ghost Gates back then, Changchun City never saw another missing person case. From that perspective, it's very likely your grandfather wiped out both the real killer and the members of the Ghost Gates in one fell swoop."

"From the perspective of the current Ghost Gate leadership, it no longer matters whether the real killer conspired with the Thirteen Ghost Gates or if your grandfather genuinely killed a Ghost Gate sorcerer by mistake. What matters is that they need to know the real killer's true objective back then."

"They used your grandfather's reputation as leverage to force you into investigating the case, all to make you dig out the culprit of the past."

Pausing slightly, I continued, "This is the judgment I've made based on the clues currently in hand. As for whether it's right or wrong, we'll only know after verification."

While we were talking, we watched the two men ahead drive their car into a water plant.

I lowered my voice. "According to the records in Grandpa Shi's notes, this place was originally called Yangjia Village, and it was also the very first place where a missing person case occurred."

"That place is the starting point of the entire case. If we want to trace the source, we must return to Yangjia Village."

Roughly calculating the time those two had departed, I parked the car by the roadside and sneaked into the water plant. The moment I entered, I caught sight of the red lantern suspended high above.

The area around the lantern was bathed in an eerie, bloody red glow, looking as though someone had smeared that patch of space with blood.

I gestured to Ye Huan to keep an eye on Shi Qi, then crept forward beneath the red lantern.

The two sorcerers' ritual implements had been dropped not far from the red lantern, but the two sorcerers themselves had vanished without a trace.

I tentatively took a few steps forward and saw a large reservoir not far from the red lantern. Strangely, the lantern light stopped abruptly right at the edge of the reservoir, as if it had been cleanly severed, refusing to illuminate the water below.

As I cautiously approached the edge of the pool, the sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from behind me, instantly tightening every muscle in my body.