Yama Rising

Chapter 699: Hidden Truths

There was no need for him to meet with the Special Investigations Department right now. Would it be good for him to be seen repeatedly asking the mortal realm for assistance?

Would they not wonder why they should be sponsoring and supporting Hell’s endeavours?

No. There was no possible justification there.

At once he got a new set of search results, albeit far fewer than pages created by the general public. But this stood to reason. After all, there were far fewer cultivators than there were regular human beings. All in all, there were only approximately a dozen pages of results.

“Excellent. There’s no need to register before looking into these forums…” He immediately entered the website and began trawling through its contents, “After all, they need money for maintaining forums like these, and in order to do that, they’ll have no choice but to let other cultivation-related companies see and understand what exactly they do. Furthermore, it would make sense to omit the registration requirements, since it’s rather foreseeable that the ones using these forums might also be operating from within the military or police force, or even the Special Investigations Department. This makes it more convenient for me as well…”

He immediately typed in the keywords “Yin Mountains” and clicked on the search button with bated breaths.

Found it!

And the title of the post was none other than Yin Mountains.

He immediately looked into the thread.

Just as I’d thought… Qin Ye chuckled victoriously as he read the post - Forums are truly the best place to look into…

In other words, even if someone was out to censor all records pertaining to the Yin Mountains, they wouldn’t have trawled through all of the forums as well. And sure enough, Qin Ye’s guess had been right on the mark.

“The Yin Mountains are very scenic. Soon, we found a place to set up camp and retire for the night. Well, the truth of the matter is that we didn’t actually set up a physical camp, since our cultivation levels already enable us to go a whole night without sleep. What I meant was that we’d found a cave to meditate for the night.”

The sheer number of exclamation marks already revealed how shocking it was for the rookie cultivator. Qin Ye read on.

“It was the clear sound of knocking! And I could’ve sworn that it was coming straight from the mountainside! But… according to the maps and our records, nobody stays in those places! There’s no sign of human beings living in those parts at all!”

“The sound was very strange. I could’ve sworn that it sounded exactly like someone knocking on a stone sculpture or something. It was obviously taking place a great distance of at least a kilometer away, and yet… I could hear it as though it was happening right next to me! In fact… it sounded as though it was taking place right behind me!!”

Qin Ye stopped scrolling for a moment.

A hunch that told him that these knocking sounds… might not in fact be knocking sounds or the beats of drums.

It was the Yin energy attempting to consume itself through wear and tear, so as to fit the rest of the Yin energy in that limited space. This wasn’t the absence of Yin energy. Rather, it was that the entire area had been so filled with Yin energy that it had practically engulfed everything, causing everyone to feel as though the presence of Yin energy was the natural appearance of things!

It was a different line of text, evidently written on the next day. He could already imagine the martial brothers huddling up close to each other, listening to the eerie knocking sounds drumming fear deep into their hearts, and they couldn’t help but redirect their focus to their phones to distract themselves from the tense situation around them.

“It was a long, dreary night. Thus, by the time the sun rose on the second day, we both felt a little bit worse for wear. But just as we were leaving the cave, we noticed that… our surroundings were completely consumed by a dense fog.”

“So, I didn’t turn around, but… I heard it! I really did! There was someone right behind us, and to our side! Someone was talking!”

“And that was when we knew that we’d entered the location of a supernatural incident. We were dead sure of that! I’m typing these things as we’re both walking ahead. I don’t even know if we’ll come out of this alive. A supernatural incident taking place over such a large area can only be caused by Hunter-class Yin spirits!”

“It’s an ancient village, and the ground is covered with wild grass, but… there are people around! There are actually people around!”

“No… there’s more… there’s…”

Instead, it was replaced with a single line of words - “These contents have been deleted because they violate the terms of use of this website.”

It was a formal and official message. However, it was clearly targeted at the writer of the post. Furthermore, Heaven has Eyes’s handle has two eyes located behind it - an indicator that he was a moderator of these forums.

Qin Ye raised his brows quizzically. The third comment was still left by the same person - “Fellow cultivator?”

And there was no sixth comment.

First comment: 4 May 2016.

Third comment: 23 May 2016.

Last comment: 2 July 2016.

“So, what happened here? Is the author of this post… dead?” He glanced at the author’s handle.

There were a few lines of small text in black-and-gold lettering under the author’s handle.

Good stuff… He sighed soft and returned to the website of the Special Investigations Department.

“C-532896…” He typed in the characters of the cultivator’s ID, and then…

Sigh… His grip around the mouse tightened for a moment. This could only mean one thing.

Or, at the very least, his whereabouts are unknown. This would be the only explanation for the revocation of his identification number for the use of the next cultivator in his place.

He scrolled down to it.

Furthermore, there were other words set out right next to the suspension date: “Suspected dead.”

No… That’s probably not the case. If Brother Zhao was there, they would’ve dispatched the entire Special Investigations Department, and even the army and armed police! I’m more inclined to think that nobody returned from the earlier investigations. Thus, the Special Investigations Department must have sent more investigators, and possibly stronger investigators as well. After all, a supernatural incident that results in five missing people is already considered big news to the Northriver Province.

Qin Ye stood up and gently ran his finger across the desk - Unlikely. Thus, this site would turn out to become no different from a bottomless pit, swallowing up every investigator that was dispatched for investigations. To make matters worse, not even the Special Investigations Department knows whether these people are still alive or not. All they know is that this place is dangerous and bizarre, but they’re unable to ascribe it a danger rating altogether because of the sheer amount of uncertainty involved. Is that why… it wasn’t marked on the map at all? Or perhaps it is, save that it’s now classified on the most extreme end of the scale?”

If my guess is right, this place must be completely overrun by investigators of the Special Investigations Department right now, and protected by the armed forces of the nation! Brother Zhao, you’ve truly raised the stakes this time, haven’t you?