Chapter 924

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

Jing Shi's weekends are even livelier than weekdays, with quite a few vehicles queuing to leave the city on the roads.

Huo Mingze and Huo Mingjue lay prone by the window, staring longingly at the scenery flashing past outside, while Shen Xi hugged her notebook, consolidating previous experimental data; her advisor had been badly shaken by the Jinghua University Instance incident, and even though Shen Xi was now a Player, she still wasn't allowed to stay in the Experimental Building for long periods.

Fortunately, the previous experiments were nearly complete, and she had done much wrap-up work these past two days; choosing to go out and play now actually put her advisor at ease — the old man felt anywhere was safer than the school, and he didn't want his closed-door disciple entering dangerous, unpredictable Random Instances again.

Little did the old man know he'd breathed that sigh of relief too early, because his own closed-door disciple was currently on her way to a Random Instance — only compared to the still-unknown Random Instance, this one at least had some inside information.

Crackling away, she edited the computer data into her thesis paper; Shen Xi finished her proper work, then opened a web page and searched for news about Juxian Garden.

Juxian Garden is an ancient architectural garden located in the suburbs of Jing Shi; in earlier years it belonged to the Royal Garden, and without some status one couldn't enter at all; later it became a summer resort, a short-trip destination for many families on weekends.

The Juxian Garden on the web page is very beautiful — green trees casting shade, birdsong and flower fragrance, vitality everywhere.

It's said the Official side intends to build Juxian into a botanical garden combining ancient and modern, but hindered by the current Spiritual Energy Revival, construction still hasn't started to this day.

Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze's two little heads abruptly popped out from Shen Xi's left and right; they stared fixedly at the pretty pictures on the screen, their voices full of surprise.

"Big Sister, are we playing at Juxian Garden these few days?"

Huo Mingjue's phone watch has simple internet chat functions — it's just that opening web pages is too slow; he'd always thought Juxian Garden was a garden, never expecting it was more like an undeveloped wild forest.

"That's right, Juxian Garden has supporting facilities all around," including the hotel they're staying at, which is inside the park; once inside the park private cars aren't allowed, only shuttle buses and other small transport.

Shen Xi explained the Juxian Garden situation to the two children bit by bit, combining it with the online maps; then she opened the map around Juxian Garden and randomly marked several spots — all places children would love to explore.

Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze were clearly interested in the few spots Shen Xi found afterward; boys, no matter how quiet they look on the surface, are Huskies at heart — energetic and curious; don't be fooled by the few years' age gap between Shen Xi and them, from childhood on it's always been Shen Xi handling them, her high-IQ advantage showing in every aspect.

"When we get to Juxian Garden, if there's a chance, we can go to all these places," Shen Xi spoke very conservatively, because she wasn't sure when this Spiritual Energy Revival at Juxian Garden would occur.

But with Uncle Huo, an Intermediate Player, plus her and Mom, two Apprentice Players, just protecting Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze so they clear with a low score — the difficulty shouldn't be high.

The last Instance World, though the process was thrilling and not a few people died, as long as one grasped the specific operations for obtaining Little Red Flowers, one could still clear by playing it safe and staying alive.

After all, there are several ways to obtain Little Red Flowers, and not every one of those shops demands a human life; most are within tolerable limits — even the Bookstore's punishment looks scary and costs Sanity, but as long as you read seriously and answer questions, you can get the Little Red Flower Reward.

After a quick mental calculation, Shen Xi reached out and rubbed Huo Mingjue and Huo Mingze's little heads; the two also understood the purpose of this trip — compared to the adults' worries, they were more excited, treating entering the Instance as a game, and becoming Players as the reward for clearing the game, thinking it was super cool!

Wah-kah-kah-kah

Thinking of returning to school where other classmates are still ordinary chuunibyou teens while the two of them have already undergone a qualitative change — true chuunibyou teens — Huo Mingze grinned wide, as if already seeing himself draped in a crimson cloak, glorious, with classmates looking on in envy.

Shen Xi: ……

Turning left to look at Second Brother, right to look at Third Brother, finally helplessly raising a hand to cover her face — Uncle Huo really has it hard; busy with official duties at the Special Investigation Bureau on weekdays is one thing, but coming home he still has to deal with teenagers' little schemes.

Tsk, no wonder their birth mom didn't take them back then; looking at it now it was entirely for her own sake — she's a perfectly good sixteen-year-old high-IQ genius girl, she can't be worn down into a lifeless sixty-year-old old man.

The two brothers, still unaware they're being disparaged, having fully enjoyed their beautiful fantasy of laughing till they bloom, then clung to Shen Xi's arms like left and right guardians, begging Big Sister to keep telling them things they hadn't heard before.

What could Shen Xi say? As one of the lucky survivors of the Jinghua University Instance, she remembers everything that happened in the Instance vividly; skipping the content she'd already promised to tell before, she selected some segments that were neither scary nor uninteresting — no embellishment needed, just telling them straight pulled full attention.

Huo Mingze and Huo Mingjue now turned into two qualified cheerleaders; whatever Shen Xi said they coordinated perfectly — but what Shen Xi told was indeed good; though her words lacked many decorative adjectives, the scenes she depicted still carried an immersive effect, letting even those who hadn't experienced an Instance baptism project themselves into it.

Shen Yao glanced at Huo Xunqi who was still driving — truly rare, no calls came in the middle; you have to know, in those years they were married, even the dead of night would see sudden situations.

Huo Xunqi: ……

"The Special Affairs Bureau is just the publicly announced name; internal personnel allocation and arrangements are still under negotiation," Huo Xunqi is the Special Affairs Bureau's biggest thorn; for the work to proceed, the Leaders definitely won't disturb Huo Xunqi at this juncture — even if Jing Shi shows signs of Spiritual Energy Revival, aren't there other Special Investigation Bureau Players? They can't really expect Huo Xunqi for everything.

"Sigh, looks like you're not lightly disliked — at least the Leaders all agree not to disturb you; in a certain sense that's pretty hard to achieve."

Huo Xunqi smiled faintly, "The Official side has too many scruples; the Leaders always want balance and stability."

Actually, he doesn't really approve of the Official's current overly conservative, passive attitude — viewing himself as too important (overestimating himself), giving the populace an illusion that the Official can handle whatever happens.

Blindly choosing to sever the populace from danger, making the populace unaware of the huge crisis hidden behind Instances — when the day comes that Instances fully erupt and can easily reap lives, that's the true start of despair.

Shen Yao feels Huo Xunqi has been influenced by Instances, even his thinking has changed; the Official's approach has issues but the overall starting point is controllable — otherwise directly exposing the bloody exposed reality before the populace, I'm afraid they wouldn't wait for Instances to reap them; the populace would sacrifice a wave themselves first, going completely mad.

"Looking across all history, it's often the dynasty's end — war and chaos, the people suffering.

Don't use your own high-and-mighty posture to look down on the populace below; people have limitations."

Shen Yao doesn't think Huo Xunqi's argument is wrong, but those are future matters; what the Official does now is stabilize the present so the populace has a future, not fan the flames and send people straight to the future.

…………

From Jing Shi to the suburbs, normal time needs over an hour; result: weekend traffic jam, Huo Xunqi drove a full three hours before seeing Juxian Garden's main gate.

Outside Juxian Garden there were already quite a few tourists who'd come; many with large and small bundles; parking the car in the nearby parking lot spots, everyone got out and, according to need, took shuttle buses toward the hotel inside Juxian Garden.

Compared to the scorching sun outside, inside Juxian Garden the numerous flowers, grasses, and trees made it very cool; the shuttle buses were four-sided open-air decorations, and sitting on them everyone could still feel a gentle breeze brushing their cheeks.

Smelling the scent in the air, Shen Xi fixed her gaze on the distant mountain forest.

The situation there is wrong!

It was only after becoming a Player that Shen Xi understood: before Spiritual Energy Revival arrives, if the distance is close enough they'll all have a spiritual resonance.

It's a hard-to-describe intuition; Shen Xi feels it's more like soul resonance — the reason being they carry Instance-produced items and Instance-clearance traces on them, and Spiritual Energy Revival is the precursor to Instance appearance; like attracts like, so there's bound to be perception.

Turning to look at Shen Yao, Shen Xi moved her mouth corners, but ultimately said nothing.

Seeing this, Shen Yao raised a hand and patted Shen Xi's hand back to comfort her; she had sensed the signs of Spiritual Energy Revival in the distance the moment she got out of the car, and so had Huo Xunqi — even Huo Xunqi could pinpoint the exact location of the Spiritual Energy Revival, his perception far stronger than hers and Shen Xi's.

This is a Player's ability — the higher the Player's level, the more they can perceive the specific situation of Spiritual Energy Revival; of course, strong special traits can also compensate for insufficient level; Shen Yao and Shen Xi both have mental enhancement traits, so they spotted the distant forest problem at a glance; if they were other ordinary Apprentice Players, they wouldn't detect it unless they got within a certain range.

The shuttle bus delivered the family to the entrance of the hotel with the fountain garden.

This hotel is a chain; its background has a touch of the Official; it offers two options — one is staying here, modern facilities complete, going up the mountain or further in requires renting separate transport; the other is staying directly in the Courtyard House ahead, built imitating ancient Royal courtyards, modern facilities can only be called adequate, but thanks to the antique charm blending seamlessly with the surrounding scenery, it has a distinct flavor.

Huo Xunqi had no objection to where they stayed; after Shen Yao consulted the three children's wishes, they finally chose to stay in the Courtyard House — that side is closer to the Spiritual Energy Revival location, and their movements would be much more convenient.

With the hotel front desk helping complete the procedures, everyone boarded their rented small vehicles and drove forward along the paved road.

On the road, they encountered quite a few people on foot; the vast majority were families going out as units, a small portion were solo, belongings on their persons, looking quite the part.

Huo Xunqi couldn't help but call the Special Investigation Bureau; currently the Special Affairs Bureau is still recruiting, and the public-facing Spiritual Energy Revival activities are still handled by the Special Investigation Bureau — a risk point as big as Juxian Garden, the Special Investigation Bureau couldn't possibly not have people stationed there.

Sure enough, the Special Investigation Bureau had indeed arranged personnel, and they were all Huo Xunqi's veteran subordinates; right now they were stationed at a position not far from the Spiritual Qi Revival.

Because it was uncertain how long after the Spiritual Qi Revival a Spirit Qi Vortex would appear, the Special Investigation Bureau couldn't keep Juxian Garden sealed off indefinitely; in the end both sides compromised, sealing only the area where the Spiritual Qi Revival had appeared, while other locations remained open as usual.

Shen Yao:...

She had an ominous premonition that this Spiritual Qi Revival might once again temporarily expand in scale, dragging all the people in Juxian Garden into it.

"No, that shouldn't be possible; the degree of Spiritual Qi Revival here is far too low, and it has already persisted intermittently for half a month. Normally the Spiritual Qi Revival would have dispersed long ago, but who knows whether this place is special or what — it actually still has the possibility of opening an Instance."

"Don't jinx it; the more you say, the easier it is for trouble to happen." The courtyard house in the distance loomed faintly; it was hidden among the surrounding woods, antique and elegant, with upturned eaves and painted walls, every brick and tile no different from ancient architecture.

The arrangement here was one courtyard house per household; inside was a two-courtyard layout. Pushing open the gate led to the main courtyard and side rooms on both sides; walking further in there was a row of rear rooms, with a beautiful pavilion, stone tables and stone benches in the middle. Exiting through the rear door led to an artificially planted bamboo forest, inside which were rockeries and waterfalls; when the summer heat was more intense one could sit and rest there.

They chose rooms and put down their luggage; the hotel staff responsible for this place contacted them to deliver meals and supplement daily necessities, and any needs could be communicated at any time.

Huo Mingze and Huo Mingjue simply couldn't sit still, as if they had nails growing on their buttocks; they barely finished the lunch the hotel sent over before they clamored to go out.

"Bring your things, we'll go further in." First observe the specific progress of the Spiritual Qi Revival, then decide on the itinerary; most important were the two children's Apprentice Player identities — everything else could be put off.

Having eaten and drunk their fill, and bringing along some items as reserves, they shouldered their backpacks, checked the things on their persons (mainly props), and the group drove their vehicles further in.

Overhead, light was blocked by leaves; inside the forest there was still dampness, and from time to time dewdrops fell, landing on their clothes and leaving water marks.

Shen Yao raised a hand to adjust the hat on her head, watching silently as Huo Xunqi headed straight for the destination, until they were blocked by the fenced-off enclosure.

Huo Xunqi chose a detour, constantly testing the Special Investigation Bureau's operational bottom line.

In the end Huo Xunqi drove everyone back, and by the way still toured carefully through the unsealed places midway, returning home only under the orange-red evening glow at the horizon.

Huo Mingze and Huo Mingjue's minds were full of the excitement from just now playing in the water and climbing trees; they had completely forgotten about the Instance. Shen Xi was responsible for watching them, rarely paying attention to the Spiritual Qi Revival's timing. It was Shen Yao and Huo Xunqi who both felt the Special Investigation Bureau's work was rather crude; given the current sealed-off range, once a Spirit Qi Vortex appeared, the people they had brought in the courtyard house area would definitely be dragged into the Instance.

Who made this Spiritual Qi Revival an explosive type; when it erupts it will certainly expand the Instance range.