Yama Rising

His unit was more formally known as the People’s Armed Police Force, Internal Security Division. This unit had a wide ambit of authority, and it was responsible for a variety of tasks, including apprehending suspects and targets, undertaking urban armed patrol tasks, safeguarding key installations, dealing with emergencies, maintaining national security and social stability, supporting national economic development, executing search and rescue tasks, and even engaging in disaster missions.

Mi Gaozhu was already 40 years old. As the Deputy Chief of the Internal Security Division, he bore the rank of a colonel. Dressed in his formal military uniform, he personally escorted Qin Ye to the car.

The front of the barracks bore the national insignia of Cathay. Its interior was spacious, with the flag flying high in the center of the courtyard, and with trees lining both sides of it. From time to time, one could hear vibrant chants of soldiers, followed by the rhythmic sounds of orderly marching and running. Occasionally, one could see a car bearing a military licence plate driving along the roads.

“My office is located on the 4th floor, at Room 412. There’s a sign there indicating that it’s the office of the Deputy Chief. It’s quite easily recognizable.” After walking for about ten minutes, Mi Gaozhu pointed towards a modern-looking building and smiled, “I’ve taken the day off to take you about your business. The archives of the Special Investigations Department are connected directly to ours, and we can access everything save for the files requiring the highest level of clearance. After all, we’re oftentimes the first ones on site in the event of any supernatural incident.”

“That’s right. That usually pertains to large-scale supernatural events such as incidents that were witnessed by an entire city or county. These would include the ones for which the government had no choice but to come up with special reasons such as special weapons testing or factory explosions to explain the anomaly. There are also events considered to be so horrific or bizarre that the Special Investigations Department has basically determined that it’s not in our interest to know any more about these things. Either way, we’re not able to access the files requiring the highest level of clearance.”

Even though Qin Ye was a benefactor to his own family, it still remained a part of his duty to the nation to at least be around while Qin Ye was searching through the records.

It was a green-coloured site.

It wasn’t fanciful by any means. It bore the background of the national insignia, and a thumbnail of the soldiers of the navy, army and air force saluting the national flag lay on both the left and the right sides of the screen. The contents of the screen were set out against a white backdrop, and the functions of each link were easy enough to understand.

“Insufficient browsing privilege.”

That doesn’t make any sense! I didn’t even attempt to access the archives requiring the highest security clearance…

Whoosh… At once, a map of Cathay appeared right on the screen.

“Since when did our army become so tech-integrated?” Qin Ye sighed in exclamation. Then, he brought the cursor directly over Northriver Province.

Then, he clicked on it.

“Ten years ago, our nation was afflicted with a tide of supernatural incidents. Within the first month of this incident, the nation managed to establish a well-reputed line of defense at the northern part of Northriver Province, between Shimen and Skyford City. This great line of defense was the culmination of the joint efforts between Yan Capital and Skyford City.”

“Our comrades are all doing their best to resist the ever-growing tide of netherworldly forces. If you’re willing to join this cause, please scan the QR code and download the app, and we will verify your particulars and get in touch with you. Be prepared to open your eyes to a whole new world out there.”

A minute later, the clip vanished, revealing a map of Northriver Province. Qin Ye immediately clicked on the map of Kalgan City.

Whoosh… The screen instantly zoomed in onto Kalgan City, and the background immediately transformed into a thumbnail of Kalgan City, together with dozens of small video thumbnails below with lines of words above them.

There were very few videos.

He continued scrolling through the various thumbnails, reading the description of each incident. There were practically no casualties, and the incidents were generally so mild that any incident resulting in injuries would already be considered serious news. Next to the rest of the nation, the people of Northriver Province could practically be described to have led an insular life, just like the flowers living in the greenhouse. There were no more than 200 reported supernatural incidents!

“That shouldn’t be the case…” He frowned and clicked on Chonggu County where the Yin Mountains were located. But no matter how much he searched, there were only eight reported incidents in that county, and they were all hardly wide-reaching in nature.

He wasn’t able to bring the Harken along into this building today. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have hesitated to ask the Harken for further clarification right now.

Or could it be that… the files pertaining to this place require clearance of the highest level? I can’t access those files even with the access privileges granted to Colonel Mi? His eyes flickered wildly, but he immediately rejected that possibility - No. That’s impossible. Looking at the records here, I can see that there are still more than 100,000 citizens living here in the county. If large-scale supernatural incidents had been detected here in this place, then they would already have evacuated the citizens a long time ago. Besides, large-scale supernatural incidents are generally defined as incidents that can even affect a large district. How can things be contained in a mere county like this?

But unfortunately, the truth of the matter was that the initiation module of the second generation Forbidden Art had been left right there in the chamber, and Temujin’s soul was also missing at the same time. Likewise, Ghost King Zhao had vanished for some time and failed to return to his post. It was for this reason that both the Harken and Qin Ye had come to the unanimous conclusion that something must have happened to him.

He tapped the mouse softly, and then looked back up at Mi Gaozhu, “Are you able to connect to the internet from here? And by that, I mean the forums accessible by the Special Investigations Department.”

At once, he was directed to the home page of the Special Investigations Department, the Auspicious Omens website.

Unfortunately, Qin Ye was hardly in the mood for reminiscing in the past. He immediately looked into the search results, only to realize that… there was not a single piece of relevant news!

“The archives reveal that there are supernatural incidents sighted in the Yin Mountains. There should be at least some news of these sightings here on the Auspicious Omens website. Given what I understand of the practice of the mortal realm, as soon as they receive reports of a supernatural incident, they would usually monitor them closely, and only close the file after a few years, particularly since most supernatural incidents have potentially far-reaching consequences. At the same time, the lesser supernatural incidents would be ideal for training the young sprouts in the Special Investigations Department.”

“So long as people head down to investigate these places, I’m sure it would be reported on the Auspicious Omens website. Unfortunately, the records are completely clean, almost as though they had been artificially erased. It’s unbelievable!”

“Do I… really have to meet with the leaders of the Special Investigations Department again?”