Glorious God Throne - Chapter 58

“Unbelievable! Unbelievable!”

“…The experiment was successful!”

“Although we still don’t fully understand the principle, the fact is that this new material can indeed improve the stability of electronic components, even if it’s just a 1% improvement!”

“…It shouldn’t just be the material. It’s also related to the special structure and novel technical approach. I’ve never seen this kind of new electronic component before, not in Yao Country or any other country. And the other samples sent over are all very inspirational technologically, with different approaches from our usual tech products. It’s almost as if they don’t belong to the same scientific system as Blue Star’s, making one wonder if there was an unprecedented scientific civilization in history that was destroyed, and these are relics excavated from somewhere!”

A jumble of background noises came from the other end of the phone, with many excited voices intermingling.

A voice, no calmer than the others and even more excited and enthusiastic, came clearly through the phone:

“…Based on the experimental results, conservatively estimating, the technology level is ahead of our current level by three to five years in various aspects. To be honest, this really isn’t something you guys, Xiao Yin, can obtain from some special private laboratory abroad, or is it that our country has set up some secret research institute?”

At this point, the old man’s voice rose another octave:

“—Please, you must introduce me to such an amazing team! I’m really too curious!”

…

“Another call from the laboratory?” After evading the other party’s questions with vague words, and as always, saying to keep it confidential, Yin Xubai hung up the phone and heard Chu Xingrui beside him ask curiously, “This is the third call this week, has there been another major breakthrough in the research project?”

After the establishment of the Supernatural Affairs Investigation Bureau, several sub-groups were set up, including the Publicity Group, Action Group, Investigation Group, Research Group, and so on. Above these groups was the core Strategy Group, with the director of the Supernatural Affairs Bureau, An Yuansheng, serving as the nominal group leader. The head or leader of each group was also a member of the Strategy Group.

For example, Yin Xubai was both the leader of the Research Group and an ordinary member of the Strategy Group. Li Fufeng was in charge of the Investigation Group, Liu Ningshuang was responsible for the Action Group, and Chu Xingrui, with the most special status, was in charge of the Publicity Group.

The Supernatural Affairs Management Bureau only deals with supernatural events, so the Publicity Group’s sole task is to guide online public opinion. Once a sensational supernatural event occurs, they need to contain it within a small scope as much as possible, or guide it towards aspects beneficial to the country. This is clearly just a preventive measure.

Currently, there haven’t been any sensational supernatural events in Yao Country. Even the legend about the mysterious flower shop is like a fairy tale circulating on the internet, not to be taken seriously.

So, the Publicity Group hasn’t had much use yet, making Chu Xingrui arguably the most idle among those present.

Most of the time, he rarely reported to the Supernatural Affairs Bureau, constantly enjoying the rich spiritual entertainment life of being a royal family member.

Recently, probably bored from too much play, Chu Xingrui came to hang out with other members of the Strategy Group, and discovered the frequent phone calls from the Research Group’s laboratory.

At this moment, several people were sitting in a car. Chu Xingrui, sitting in the passenger seat, looked through the rearview mirror at Yin Xubai, who had just hung up the phone with a helpless expression, his eyes showing obvious curiosity.

“—It seems that the samples obtained from the hotel are really extraordinary. And the team you’ve assembled, Professor Yin, seems to be very powerful too. In just under two months, you’ve achieved significant results. As expected of elites from all over the country!”

He praised sincerely.

“That’s not wrong to say…” Hearing this, Yin Xubai didn’t know how to respond, momentarily stuck.

The three people sitting in the back knew what was going on. Liu Ningshuang, sitting on the left, took over the conversation. “That’s not wrong to say, but it’s not the main reason. There have indeed been research results on items from another world, but the laboratory had reported on that earlier. The reason why they keep bombarding our Professor Yin with calls isn’t because of any breakthrough results in a short time…”

Her tone carried a hint of teasing. “It’s purely because those people are all coveting little Adams’ assets!”

Chu Xingrui didn’t quite understand: “?”

Seeing his confused expression, Li Fufeng on the other side shook his head and explained. “This goes back to the samples we took from the inn. Because they’re products from another world, technologically a few years ahead of us and with different approaches, they’ve been very inspiring for the members of the Research Group. They keep wanting to get more materials, or to meet another non-existent research team. Professor Yin is a bit troubled, unable to leak secrets while having to deal with others’ passionate curiosity and exploratory intentions. It’s really difficult.”

After the two people on his left and right explained the situation, Yin Xubai nodded and summarized. “That’s about it.”

Chu Xingrui showed an expression of eye-opening revelation, while also offering a tiny bit of sympathy to Yin Xubai, but no more than that. Being so young and already the leader of the Research Group of the Special Case Investigation Team, it was only right that he should shoulder a bit more responsibility.

Yin Xubai had no particular reaction.

In fact, he could fully understand why those researchers in the laboratory were so excited. If it had been him in the past, faced with new materials and technologies never seen before, he would have been even more excited than them.

But Yin Xubai, who had already opened the door to a new world and knew more of the truth, was no longer so excited about mere new materials and technologies.

It was just the tip of the iceberg from another world, scattered fragments. How could it compare to the information of an entire other world? How could it compare to more possible space-time overlaps from other dimensions? And how could it compare to supernatural powers that went beyond what current science could explain?

The latter was what he now wanted to explore.

Mere technological breakthroughs of three to five years were no longer enough to satisfy the current Yin Xubai.

He wanted to grasp the essence of supernatural powers. This temptation was no different from having the path to truth open up before him.

“…If you hadn’t stopped me back then, I might have already researched clues related to the supernatural through those two corpses,” Yin Xubai couldn’t help but say. “In any case, there would have been some gains. Rather than in the end only being able to make small innovations and advancements in existing technology, which is completely inadequate to deal with future supernatural powers!”

His tone was hard and cold, as if he were reciting mathematical formulas without expression, devoid of emotion. Although he was stating facts, it sounded more like an unfounded accusation.

Chu Xingrui’s brows immediately furrowed.

Li Fufeng, seeing his expression through the rearview mirror, spoke up before Chu Xingrui could, “But we’re not doing useless work now either. I think you understand too, Professor Yin, that between choosing two cold corpses and a ghost we might be able to communicate with, the latter is the choice with the most value.”

He smiled slightly and reassured, “If we angered a ghost who we might have originally befriended by damaging two corpses, morally speaking, we Yao Country people would find it hard to accept such behavior of damaging someone else’s relatives’ bodies without permission, even if the other party is a ghost from another world. From a benefit standpoint, this approach would also be foolish and short-sighted, don’t you think?”

As he spoke, his gaze swept over Chu Xingrui’s face, which had resumed smiling in the rearview mirror, and then looked at Liu Ningshuang.

Liu Ningshuang understood and nodded repeatedly, saying, “Old Li is right! I say, big cousin, you’re really too heartless. The poor kid lost his parents, became a ghost himself, and then we bad guests barge into his home, moving things around, and finally want to take away his parents’ bodies too. That’s not good at all! We Yao Country people aren’t bandits!”

She shook her head and patted Yin Xubai’s shoulder. “Even though it’s a house from another world, and even though the owner is dead, we should still respect the ghost’s property rights. Taking a few scraps to research is one thing, but if you really dare to turn someone’s parents’ corpses into research materials, do you believe you’d leave there in one piece?”

With Liu Ningshuang’s words, everyone couldn’t help but recall their experience from over a month ago that could only be described as a narrow escape from death.

The eerie space-time fluctuation, the suddenly appearing mysterious inn, the automatically playing TV news in the hotel, and that scene they still couldn’t forget—

On the screen of the old TV, the news anchor who had been calmly reporting suddenly leaned forward, pressing her entire face against the screen. Her face, almost distorted, revealed a smile, with her lips painted as red as fresh blood.

As this image flashed in their minds, it was accompanied by that ghostly voice echoing in their hearts.

[—Find him!]

[—Find him!!]

[—Find him!!!]

“Whew…” Liu Ningshuang slowly exhaled, wiping non-existent cold sweat from her forehead.

Even though more than a month had passed, recalling the scene from that time still gave her a feeling of her scalp tingling and her heart pounding.

Don’t be fooled by how skillfully she could now tease about “little Adams”; in reality, she was just putting on a brave face.

In her opinion, the bravest one was still Li Fufeng.

Liu Ningshuang’s thoughts couldn’t help but drift back again—

At that time, almost everyone was scared stiff, but Li Fufeng’s reaction was different from the others.

His first reaction was to rush towards that eerie television, intending to press the off button, but he found that the strange image had already disappeared, and the TV screen had returned to static.

It wasn’t until a vase was dropped by a startled person that the group, frightened by the recent incident, came to their senses. Their first reaction was: “This place is problematic, very problematic. Should we temporarily retreat and come back when we’re fully prepared to explore?”

Someone suggested, “…Actually, we could try to remotely control machines to come in. It’s our first time exploring a hotel from another world, we were too excited and inexperienced.”

“Yes, we were too reckless.”

Everyone thought this made sense. Liu Ningshuang, who was most afraid of ghosts, wished she could immediately run out of Yuanyang City.

She quietly tried to move her feet, only to find her legs had turned to jelly.

“Sister Liu, what do you think?”

Someone asked for her opinion.

Her? Of course she agreed. She almost wanted to move out of Blue Star overnight! Visitors from another world were one thing, but to have such spooky stuff, QAQ it was too scary!

But she couldn’t say that out loud. Was Liu “the pillar of Yuanyang’s martial arts world” Ningshuang someone who didn’t care about face? A woman should never lose her cool!

Liu Ningshuang cleared her throat lightly, carelessly brushing her hair, trying to sound nonchalant. “I don’t mind… By the way, Fufeng, what do you think?”

Her peripheral vision suddenly caught Li Fufeng still standing motionless in front of the static-filled TV, his head not turning at all, showing only the silhouette of a thinker.

Liu Ningshuang decisively passed the buck to him.

Based on her understanding, although Li Fufeng was persistent in pursuing the truth, he wasn’t a person who acted rashly. Instead, he was very thorough and considerate in his actions, and would surely agree with a more stable plan.

Called out by Liu Ningshuang, the motionless Li Fufeng finally woke from his statue-like state and moved.

—He took a step forward, getting closer to the TV.

“Adams!” In everyone’s astonished gaze, Li Fufeng raised his head, looking at the TV screen on the wall, and suddenly spoke, “Adams! Is that you?”

Not getting a response, he turned around, his gaze ignoring the others around him, as if speaking to the entire inn. His voice was very low and gentle, like coaxing a kindergartener. “Are you bored staying here alone? Can I be your friend? The kind that can play hide-and-seek with you.”

Li Fufeng’s voice was as gentle as a breeze, his gaze constantly sweeping around the inn, as if an invisible ghost was really floating in those places at this moment.

The others were all a bit creeped out.

Liu Ningshuang even discreetly felt the goosebumps on her arm, feeling that her whole being wasn’t right.

Everyone stared blankly as Li Fufeng went to the two corpses lying on the ground and continued talking to the invisible ghost. “The ground is cold, and the floor is hard. You don’t want your mom and dad to keep lying on the ground, do you?”

He slowly bent down. “I can help you settle them first, then send them back…” Li Fufeng used euphemistic language to express the intention of helping with cremation and then bringing back the ashes, not knowing if the ghost could understand.

Whoosh…

A sudden gust of wind swept through the inn, the chandelier swaying precariously in the wind, the dim light overhead flickering on and off, then with a bang, it crashed to the ground.

Li Fufeng’s movement was halted by this.

“Looks like a warning…” Liu Ningshuang muttered to herself, her gaze at Li Fufeng inevitably becoming strange, “This guy, what’s he up to…”

After the momentary disturbance, the inn seemed to return to normal. But the others didn’t dare to breathe. Except for Yin Xubai, whose gaze suddenly became incredibly bright and fervent.

“Alright, alright, if you don’t want to, we’ll let it go this time.” Li Fufeng slowly withdrew his outstretched hand, then gradually straightened up, moving away from the corpses on the ground in slow motion, as if to demonstrate his harmlessness.

He held out his palm to another member who was confused about the situation. “I remember you have low blood sugar and always carry candy. Can you give me some first? I’ll replenish you later.”

That person was stunned for a second, then fumbled in his pocket for a while, finally finding a handful of candies and placing them all in Li Fufeng’s hand. “Oh, here you go, it’s just a few candies, no need to replenish later.”

Li Fufeng softly said thanks, walked a few steps towards the reception desk, then carefully placed the candies on the desk with both hands, even arranging them in a small heart shape.

“We came unannounced and didn’t bring anything, so let these few candies be a welcome gift for our new friend.” His smile was even gentler than his voice, really like a visitor facing the child of the host family, with a bit of fondness and coaxing, in a tone that children tend to like, “Next time I come, I’ll be sure to prepare gifts that kids like. I just wonder what you prefer?”

The inn was silent, with no response.

Liu Ningshuang, observing all this, felt embarrassed and suffocated on his behalf. She felt that her partner’s head wasn’t quite right.

Li Fufeng, however, nodded calmly, seeming understanding. “I see. Looks like you’re still a shy little one. Well then, see you next time~”

He said goodbye, then called to the others. “Let’s go. We came uninvited this time and were bad guests. We even scared the little one, we should apologize.”

Faced with Li Fufeng’s series of unexpected actions, what reaction could the others have?

Of course, they could only mumble in agreement, then follow him out of the inn. Some even waved goodbye and said “see you” after walking out the main door.

Perhaps the only one with a different reaction was Yin Xubai, because he still wanted to take away the two corpses.

And of course, that was impossible.

Not only did Li Fufeng disagree, the others wouldn’t allow it either.

Just looking at the recent disturbance in the inn, if this were a horror game instance, those two corpses would definitely be the items that trigger the final boss. In a game, it would be a certain death level.

Seeing the atmosphere in the entire inn become oppressive again, with a feeling that the killing moment in a horror game was about to arrive, everyone hurriedly worked together to drag the uncooperative Yin Xubai out, only then did they breathe a sigh of relief.

Even after leaving the inn entrance for some distance, Yin Xubai kept looking back, trying to protest. “Those are clues to supernatural powers, if we could take them to research…”

“Isn’t a ghost we can communicate with more valuable than two corpses?” Li Fufeng interrupted Yin Xubai with one sentence, successfully changing him from a state of struggle to contemplation.

“Of course the ghost is more valuable,” Yin Xubai made his judgment in less than three seconds, “But are you sure we can communicate?”

“I think we can,” Li Fufeng gave his answer.

The others all thought of his strange behavior earlier and fell silent. The world was changing too fast; even though they had accepted the existence of supernatural powers, the sudden appearance of a dead ghost still challenged their worldviews.

“Is there really…” Liu Ningshuang had the most intense reaction. She swallowed, not saying that word, “Does this inn really have an owner? Did you see it?”

“No, I didn’t,” Li Fufeng shook his head.

Before Liu Ningshuang could breathe a sigh of relief, he added, “But I could feel its presence. To be precise, I’ve had that feeling of being watched the whole time. This should be a special talent, I suppose?”

“If it’s really a ghost, it should be the child called Adams that everyone’s been guessing about,” Li Fufeng mused aloud. “Judging from the fact that he only scared us and didn’t do anything else, I think he can be communicated with. If possible, I’d like to develop him into a special member.”

—What he didn’t say was that his proposal was largely out of sympathy for this child. Even if it was a ghost, he didn’t want to treat a child with malice.

Li Fufeng’s proposal could be said to be refreshing.

Developing a ghost into a special member? It sounded absurd, but it was quite tempting.

If successful, it would indeed be much more valuable than taking away those two corpses for research. On the contrary, if they followed Yin Xubai’s approach, it would certainly anger the inn’s ghost. Let alone whether they had the ability to confront the ghost, even if they did, they might have to pay an unbearable price, which was unnecessary.

Especially when they returned to the inn the next day and found that the candies on the reception desk had disappeared, Li Fufeng’s guess that “the ghost can communicate” was basically confirmed to be true.

The Special Case Investigation Team unanimously approved Li Fufeng’s proposal. They decided to try to gain the ghost’s favor as much as possible. Of course, this plan also had a time limit. If they couldn’t succeed, it wouldn’t go on indefinitely.

From that day on, someone would go to the inn every day to “approach” the ghost. People often brought various gifts, including candies, snacks, children’s toys, newly released comic books, and so on. Li Fufeng was the most diligent and patient visitor. He would read storybooks in the inn each time, sometimes for hours, and would ask various questions, even though he never received any response.

In the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed. The snacks, candies, and gifts they brought to the inn disappeared the next day every time, showing that the ghost had accepted the gifts. But apart from this, there was no other response.

Everyone’s patience was wearing thin.

Among this group, Liu Ningshuang actually quite liked children, but she was truly afraid of ghosts and couldn’t control herself at all. Most people were like her.

Chu Xingrui had a special status and position, and had never been a patient person, even if he appeared easygoing.

As for Yin Xubai, he was indeed interested in ghosts, but his “interest” was different from most people’s.

By this calculation, Li Fufeng might be the only person who sincerely wanted to befriend the ghost.

This time, it was rare for everyone to visit the inn together. It was also because there had been no progress for over a month, and the Special Case Investigation Team was starting to consider trying Plan B and Plan C.

Li Fufeng hoped to give it more time.

He felt that he had already established a deep friendship with Adams. Although the other party had never given any response.

Recalling this, Liu Ningshuang couldn’t help but glance at Li Fufeng, who was sitting on the far right of the back seat. “You’re truly brave!”

Li Fufeng looked confused. “???”

But he didn’t have time to ask Liu Ningshuang what she meant.

Because they had arrived at the inn.

Everyone got out of the car, took out their IDs, and walked towards the cordoned-off hotel. Yin Xubai’s expression was the most serious. “I still stand by my previous idea.”

His so-called idea was, of course, to research those two corpses.

This wasn’t because he was inherently cold and cruel, but for Yin Xubai, human corpses were just inanimate objects, no different from other materials. If they could contribute to scientific research, it was a very natural choice. If it were his own corpse after death, he would be happy to let others research it if it was useful.

Moreover, he didn’t intend to conduct destructive research, he just wanted to take some samples.

Li Fufeng, however, smiled slightly. “I have a feeling that we’ll have a breakthrough today. The little one won’t play hide-and-seek anymore.”

“Is that so?” Yin Xubai was the first to push open the door, remaining skeptical about this. “—But we’ve already wasted forty-one days.”