"Mister Yang, it seems we're quite fortunate, this is a very famous Hot Spring Hotel. I believe it won't lead to Mister Yang's death. The only pity is that the innkeeper seems to have gone missing, so it looks like no one will be here to entertain us."
A group of people arrived at the hotel, planning to rest and regroup.
Nagase introduced the hotel with a smile, as if he was very familiar with it.
At that mont, Yang Jian glanced over, "That Mishima wasn't acting right from the start, her ntal state seems to be troubled."
"She's probably gone mad."
Nagase said, "Miss Mishima suddenly sensed too many fierce ghosts, her ntal and endurance limits were reached. Though she's safe for now, the trauma seems not so easily healed. She's really unfortunate and pitiful, barely at the last step and yet couldn't hold on."
He also glanced behind him.
That Keiko had been comforting Mishima, but the woman called Mishima was just holding her head, her expression terrified, pupils dilated, muttering to herself, unclear what she was saying. It looked like her condition was quite bad and she wouldn't be able to recover her senses anyti soon, aning she couldn't participate in the next operation.
"Ordinary people are just a bit too fragile," Yang Jian shook his head slightly, not saying much more.
He didn't bla, just reflected.
This Mishima, in fact, had been in a safe state from start to finish, even when he and the old man made contact she wasn't attacked. In the end, she couldn't withstand the ntal strain; nobody else was to bla but her own fragility.
"After settling her in the hotel, we won't need to bother with her."
Yang Jian said, "Keiko, call President Mishima. Have Nagase explain the situation, tell President Mishima that my mission has not been successful for now, and that we need the next plan, which will take so ti."
"Don't worry, Mister Yang, I will communicate well with President Mishima," Nagase assured.
Yang Jian nodded, not saying much else, and walked into the hotel with the Ghost Child, carrying the luggage bag.
He was in no mood to deal with these trifles. As for whether President Mishima would be disappointed upon hearing the mission failed, Yang Jian didn't care, he had his own thods and style of doing things.
He arrived at a secluded hot spring area.
Yang Jian sniffed the rotten stench on his body, deciding to wash it off first.
The Ghost Child couldn't enter the hot spring; it had corpse water on it, which would turn the hot spring into a pool of death water, probably unusable thereafter. So, he had the Ghost Child keep watch nearby, guarding against possible paranormal occurrences.
The warm hot spring water couldn't dispel the chill on Yang Jian's body.
His complexion was still pale, revealing an unhealthy pallor, looking at first glance like a young man with a frail constitution.
Even though Yang Jian was mostly subrged in the water, he held a golden box in hand. This box, obtained from the Door Knocking Ghost, was suspected to contain the secret to a supernatural resurrection. The box wasn't as heavy as expected, but it did have so weight. Shaking it, he heard no sound, unsure what was inside.
Besides, the box wasn't made of pure gold, just an ordinary wooden box painted with a layer of gold paint. Although the paint was thin, it completely sealed the box; not even a crack was left unblocked.
That ant the box hadn't been opened since the day it was put into the Door Knocking Ghost's pocket.
The secret had been preserved in its entirety.
No longer able to contain his curiosity, Yang Jian decided to open it and have a look, after all, he had co such a long distance for this very thing.
There was no hesitation.
Yang Jian directly used the Ghost Hand to open the golden-painted box. Although it was a bit bold and impulsive, his vigilance was strong, and he was ready to instantly activate the Ghost Domain to block any supernatural danger should anything go amiss.
However, it turned out that he was overthinking it.
After the wooden box was opened, everything remained calm; no strange occurrences transpired.
"What is this? Where's the secret I was promised?" Yang Jian's brow imdiately furrowed as he pulled out an old wooden board from inside. The board was so aged it was almost rotting, resembling the material of the Ghost Coffins he had encountered.
Despite its eerie appearance, he couldn't detect anything unusual about the board.
It felt as if it had been broken off from sowhere randomly.
"There are carvings on the board."
Yang Jian flipped it over and saw that soone had forcibly carved so numbers with their nails—114, 22 30, 30.
That was all; the numbers seed unconnected, crudely etched, with deliberate spaces in between.
"Are you playing charades with ?" Yang Jian thought for a mont, his expression growing somber.
The last thing he liked was solving such cryptic puzzles. Why couldn't the information be presented clearly? Instead, it was concealed in this manner. He wasn't a decoding expert. Moreover, deciphering a code from a hundred years ago was akin to groping in the dark with no clues at hand. Even if it were handed off to Wang Xiaoming, he'd likely be just as perplexed.
To guess the correct information, one would at least need sothing to reference and compare.
"The information from the Door Knocking Ghost must be very important. He intentionally left behind this damaged wooden board with those numbers for a reason. Perhaps it was to prevent the information he left from being too easily obtained, so he took an extra precaution. Or maybe he was in a hurry to leave behind the information and didn't have ti for elaborate preparations, so he had to just give it a try."
Yang Jian pondered for a while but ultimately could not figure it out.
He was extrely disappointed, even a bit annoyed.
It was just like the previous owner of the Ghost Cabinet who, despite having used the Ghost Cabinet and knowing all its patterns, didn't divulge a thing, instead leaving behind warning ssages and mysterious riddles.
"However, thinking about the Ghost Cabinet and that Ghost Mirror, I do have a bit of a clue. The people from the Republic of China period who disappeared left behind items that, to so extent, tested the capabilities and temperant of subsequent users. Their mindset when leaving these artifacts was quite conflicted; they didn't want these things to be exposed to the world but also didn't wish for them to be entirely buried and forgotten."
"So they intentionally left so hints, letting you know half and leaving you to figure out the rest, as a form of an invisible test. If the old man had the sa thought before his death, then this number is a test for ."
Yang Jian's eyes flickered with thought.
Putting himself in the old man's shoes, if he knew a great secret, how would he both test others and ensure the item's preservation?
"Who's there?"
Suddenly, at that mont, Yang Jian sensed soone approaching and imdiately shelved his nurous thoughts, shouting out.
"It's , Keiko. I ca to help Mister Yang wash his back," Keiko approached, holding a bath towel in front of her, her cheeks flushed with a careful step.
Yang Jian said, "No need. Your duty is to translate, and there's nothing for you to do right now. You can go rest. Even if there is an action to be taken later, it won't concern you. Nagase is better suited to be the translator than you are."
"Please don't say that, Mister Yang. I have been working very hard, so please allow to continue to take care of you as that is the only value I have," Keiko insisted earnestly and persistently.
"Did President Mishima give you an order you can't refuse?"
Yang Jian asked, "I can have Mishima cancel the order. You're just an ordinary person; there's no need for you to get involved in this sort of thing. After all, nothing is more important than staying alive."
He did not dislike Keiko, so he gave her a way out.
But Keiko shook her head and said, "No, this is my own choice now, and it has nothing to do with President Mishima's order, because I also want to repay Mister Yang for his kindness to ."
Yang Jian frowned slightly, as he found Keiko's way of thinking sowhat incomprehensible.
Or rather, the thought processes of this foreign woman were sowhat strange to him; it was normal for him to have difficulty adapting.
It was actually quite normal for Yang Jian not to understand.
Within the Supernatural Club, there was a strong emphasis on hierarchy and personal honor and sha. Keiko, sent by Mishima to take care of Yang Jian and handle translation, would find it difficult to hold her head up high in the Supernatural Club if she were simply sent back like this, and she would be chided for a lifeti.
"Suit yourself. I have sothing to do now, so just go soak in the hot spring alone. Just don't bother ," said Yang Jian.
Keiko complied softly and tiptoed into the hot spring.
Yang Jian glanced at her, his expression calm. He was in no state to take any interest in this woman, but he had to admit that Keiko's physique was indeed impressive; President Mishima had indeed invested quite the effort in pleasing him, sparing no expense.
Keiko could feel Yang Jian's gaze and blushed with a smile, seemingly unfazed.
Yang Jian shifted his gaze away and continued to ponder the secret of the string of numbers before him.
However, with his current ans, after much consideration, he still couldn't decipher the clue. He could only try to morize the numbers, then go back and consider a strategy, asking all his teammates in Dachang City for their thoughts in order to pool their wisdom.
"Did Mister Yang encounter so trouble? Maybe Keiko can help out a little," said Keiko, pushing the water aside and approaching with a blush.
"This has nothing to do with you."
Yang Jian coldly refused: "And stay away from , for your own safety."
Keiko nodded, but she still glanced at the wooden board Yang Jian was preparing to put away, and seemingly saw the row of numbers, though she didn't see them all, and then said, "Is it those numbers that are troubling Mister Yang?"
"You are too nosy, forget what you just saw. I don't want a second person to know about what just happened. If you let it slip, I will take you out myself," Yang Jian warned.
"Please don't worry, Mister Yang. Keiko will keep a secret. Please trust my integrity," Keiko pleaded.
Yang Jian said nothing, simply packing up the box and then placing it in his luggage.
But Keiko seed to be contemplating those numbers, then uncertainly said, "Mister Yang, the numbers that troubled you just now should be an address, I think. I didn't see the whole thing, so I don't know the exact location."
"An address?"
Yang Jian's expression flickered: "Why do you think that? How could those numbers be related to an address?"
"It's the latitude and longitude, those numbers should represent coordinates, they can precisely determine a location," Keiko explained, her previous knowledge making the numbers seem familiar.
"Coordinates?"
Yang Jian's heart thumped with realization. Although unconfird, he felt Keiko's guess might very well be correct.
It was a set of coordinate addresses.
Recording the address directly could introduce errors, such as a certain street or building, because houses and roads can change, but coordinates are eternal. Hence, coordinate positioning is very precise. Moreover, this thod of positioning has been around for a long ti. The old man had died six months ago, so it is reasonable to assu he had learned this thod.
"Taking the secret with oneself is too obvious; leaving a coordinate address and then hiding the secret sowhere else is a bit more secure. It must be this way."
Yang Jian perked up at once and imdiately said, "I need a phone that can input and locate coordinates." .
"The phone is outside with the clothes. I'll go get it for Mister Yang," Keiko said.
She promptly walked out of the hot spring, covering her body with a towel, obviously unbothered by Yang Jian's gaze.
"Quite a bold woman," comnted Yang Jian.
Soon, Keiko brought the phone. She knelt beside Yang Jian, handed him the phone, and said, "Nagase has already reported this incident to President Mishima just now; I almost forgot to inform you, Mister Yang."
Without a word, Yang Jian took the phone and activated the GPS feature.
He entered the numbers from his mory that were on those wooden boards.
The next mont.
The screen on the phone flickered, and a location appeared before his eyes.
Yang Jian didn't recognize the place, but the nearby city was marked; it's near... Dahan City.
"It's certainly a coordinate," Yang Jian's eyes narrowed as he stared at the phone, as though to burn the address into his mory.
If he wasn't mistaken, that place was definitely where the old man had lived before his death, or it was a place of great importance; otherwise, it would not have been deliberately recorded.
"Near Dahan City? It's not far from Dachang City. Plus, before coming to Kobe City, I also found so clues about Dahan City. No supernatural events have ever occurred there, even in these days of frequent supernatural occurrences. This is not survivorship bias but rather sothing deliberate."
"The old man died there, and the address left behind points to there. It seems that Dahan City hides so great secret," thought Yang Jian.
This was not re speculation but a theory supported by a series of evidences.
"You are more useful than I thought, to have seen at a glance that it was a coordinate," Yang Jian said, breaking his train of thought to offer rare praise to Keiko.
Without her pointing it out, he might have guessed for days, or even weeks.
Keiko imdiately smiled, her eyes curving, "I'm happy I could help Mister Yang."
"Then let scrub your back for you, Mister Yang."
"No need," Yang Jian still rebuffed her firmly.
"Why? I'll be very gentle, and I won't disappoint you, Mister Yang," Keiko asked, puzzled.
Yang Jian replied, "There is no why. I've said before, your task for today is over. Whether you rest or soak is up to you. I'm finished here; I need to think about the next steps. This matter is not yet over. The brief rest now is just to adjust my condition."
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