Chapter 194

July 3, 2018, 00:00 AM, flames soaring to the sky.

The ticking second hand pointed to the number 12 at the very top of the dial, and pointing to the sky along with the second hand was the fierce firelight erupting from the hollow tree trunk.

But the fire, reignited from the embers, did not spread or expand further; instead, it gradually withered away as time passed, the dancing tips of the flames shrinking back into the hollow trunk like a wick imprisoned in a glass cover.

Because the Plague God had returned.

"Sure enough, after the Plague God returned to Yanglao Village, the burns on the Earth God immediately stopped worsening." Ning Zhe stood up from in front of the Earth Temple and looked back at the village entrance in the distance, where firefighters and the rescue team had already brought Yin Lishang in.

Taking off the mask on his face, Ning Zhe revealed a slightly childish, thin face, walking toward the village entrance against the lights set up by the rescue team, and met with Lan Shiwen, who was leading the team.

"Are you... Yeyao?" Lan Shiwen looked at the evil ghost mask in his hand, his tone uncertain.

"It's me, who else could it be?" Ning Zhe smiled, hung the mask on his waist, and reached out both hands to catch Yin Lishang, who came running over and threw herself at him.

The little girl carried a faint, sweet, and astringent smell of disinfectant; she had stayed in the hospital for too long and was soaked in the scent. Her two small hands hugged his waist tightly, as if afraid he would run away again: "Brother, I missed you so much, where did you go..."

"I'm back, aren't I?" Ning Zhe patted her head and picked Yin Lishang up, lifting the bangs on her forehead to look at the scars on her face; they were still the same as before.

It seemed this skin disease all over her body wouldn't get better. It was a pity that Ning Zhe had previously thought about seeing what Yin Lishang would look like after she recovered.

"I'm sorry to disturb your reunion, but I need to know what happened in Yanglao Village?" Lan Shiwen said.

"There is no such thing as a free lunch in this world; use something to trade for it." Ning Zhe said with a smile.

"Of course." Lan Shiwen handed a sealed document bag that had been prepared long ago to Ning Zhe: "This is a research paper on the frequency and outbreak locations of strange events; you will be interested in it."

The most precious wealth for a Gridder is not currency, gold, jewelry, or beauties, and not even strange products like life-buying money that can purchase life, but information, or rather—intelligence.

Information is more precious than gold, but because there is a lack of an absolutely universal equivalent to price information, the exchange of information between Gridders still remains at the primitive stage of barter. Sometimes you get a bargain, sometimes you suffer a loss; it depends on your character.

"Then I'll be blunt: this entire Yanglao Village is a prison..."

Ning Zhe accepted the envelope handed over by Lan Shiwen and selectively explained his understanding and guesses about the situation in Yanglao Village, with a government official next to Lan Shiwen recording the entire process.

"... In summary, in order to maintain the stability of the Earth God's state and ensure that the fire seed will not burn through the seven-layer world again and spread the fire to reality, the Plague God must stay here and cannot go anywhere."

After Ning Zhe finished speaking, he signaled that the recording could be stopped: "That's all I can say."

Lan Shiwen nodded: "I understand."

If one were to trace the root cause of this fire, it should actually be considered as being caused by Ning Zhe, but Lan Shiwen had no intention of holding him accountable. Secular laws are difficult to constrain transcendent Gridders, and to be honest, someone like Ning Zhe, who is willing to risk his life to clean up the mess after causing trouble, is actually very rare among rogue Gridders.

Ning Zhe's moral standards are a bit bizarre, but they are still better than those zero-moral monsters.

"I plan to buy the land of Yanglao Village and build a manor or something here, enclosed by high walls and not open to the public. You can also have your people stationed here as supervisors to observe the state of the Plague God and the Earth God." Ning Zhe gently stroked the cheek of Yin Lishang, who was leaning on his shoulder, and asked: "What do you think?"

"That would be excellent, but for this kind of thing, you can just ask the government for funding; there's no need for you to spend your own money." Lan Shiwen nodded. "What if I insist on spending my own money?" Ning Zhe's expression was half-smiling.

"... Alright, I understand what you mean." Lan Shiwen shook his head helplessly; of course, he understood what Ning Zhe was saying.

After discussing the follow-up plan for Yanglao Village, the rescue team and the fire brigade set up simple camps on the spot and stayed there temporarily.

After coaxing Yin Lishang, who didn't dare to close her eyes for fear that he would run away, to sleep in the tent, Ning Zhe sat by the little girl's bed and opened the envelope containing the research paper on 'the frequency and outbreak locations of strange events'.

As the name suggests, the author of this paper collected a large number of records of strange events that occurred around the world from 1980 to 2015 through various channels, including the government, the Gridder network, offline oral accounts from Gridders, and folk legends.

By summarizing and analyzing this information, combined with the environmental atmosphere of the event locations and the timing of the strange events, the author argued for a main point.

That is:

【In a region, the more people who know about the existence of the strange, the higher the probability of strange events occurring in that region and the higher the intensity of the events.】

The paper uses the northern part of Qinzhou, controlled by the strange family 'Lou' in the 1980s, as the main evidence to support this point.

The main sphere of influence of the Lou family was located in the Qinfen City area in northern Qinzhou. The family was prosperous, and at its peak, the direct line alone had thousands of people, not to mention the collateral forces and vassal minor surnames.

Among those controlled by the Lou family, most knew clearly or vaguely that there was such a thing as the 'strange' in this world, and they lived in large numbers in Qinfen City.

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Corresponding to this is the family that controls the hilly area in southern Qinzhou, the He family.

The He family has few people, with no more than 3 descendants in each generation, and even if they die, they will not be reborn. Some Gridders speculate that this is caused by the core rules inherited from generation to generation, but there is no conclusion yet.

Because the He family has a small population and does not like to expand its influence, the Qinzhou government has been able to fully control the grassroots organizations in southern Qinzhou for a long time, minimizing the impact of strange events on civilians, and the blockade of information has been the most efficient.

The paper statistically detailed almost all recorded strange events that occurred in the northern and southern parts of Qinzhou over 20 years, and the conclusion is obvious:

From 1980 to 2000, a total of 9 strange events occurred in the northern region of Qinzhou, centered on Qinfen City, 2 of which caused significant casualties.

During the same period, only 3 strange events occurred in the southern part of Qinzhou, centered on Taoyuan City, 1 of which caused significant casualties.

This is data calculated when the total population in southern Qinzhou was far greater than in the north.

Qinzhou is just one of the regions the author of the paper used to support his point. The cases he cited are not only from within the Nine Provinces, but also from other countries across the ocean, islands in the Pacific, and neighboring countries separated by a strip of water...

All over the world, there has been a situation where 'the more people who know about the existence of the strange, the easier it is for strange events to occur in that region'.

"Is that so...?" Ning Zhe put down the paper in his hand and looked down at Yin Lishang, who was already fast asleep on the bed, his eyes deep.

【In a region, the more people who know about the existence of the strange, the greater the probability of strange events occurring in that region, and the higher the intensity of the events that occur in that region.】

It is an interesting point. Trading intelligence about Yanglao Village for such a detailed research report from Lan Shiwen is not too much of a loss.

Or perhaps a small profit.

(End of chapter)