Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
Advance chapters available for patrons on Patreon. And a chapter can be sponsored by buying me a ko-fi
Jiang Lan watched the video repeatedly, his expression growing more serious with each viewing. He asked Xiao Xiaoyu to send him a copy, added his eldest and fourth brothers to a group chat, and then sent the video over for them to watch and confirm.
It took about ten minutes for a reply to come from the WeChat group. First, Bi’an sent a question mark, asking what video Jiang Lan had posted.
Less than two minutes later, he finished watching the video and noticed a fleeting shadow at the very end. He then exclaimed in surprise, “[?? Is that Lao Qi? Where did this video come from? @Taotie who can’t get enough to eat]!”
[A video circulating online which was filmed by a traveler in Yunnan Province. He encountered an accident while traveling there, and this is his second live-streamed appeal for help. You can watch the video to see the details.]
Jiang Lan briefly explained the whole story and sent the first video as well.
The video had just been sent when the eldest brother, Bi Xi, replied: [It’s definitely the seventh brother. Is the location in Yunnan Province? I’ll contact the demon management bureau there to check.]
Jiang Lan agreed, but then, remembering that Ying Qiao was at least a nominal deputy director, and wanting to improve their impression of his boyfriend, he cleverly added, “[Ying Qiao said he would also help investigate.]”
Bi’an replied with a speechless panda head emoji.
Jiang Lan snorted, then turned around and pulled Ying Qiao and the little brats into the group. He also changed the name of the WeChat group to “Our Dragon Palace is Stirring Up Trouble”.
Bi Xi: ?
[@Taotie who can’t get enough to eat, what kind of name is that?]
As soon as he finished speaking, a notification appeared in the group chat, and Bi’an changed the group name to “Our Dragon Palace Rides the Waves”.
Jiang Lan sent a pouting emoji in the group chat and then privately messaged Ying Qiao to tell him about Ya Zi’s appearance in Yunnan Province.
After the initial joy, he was actually a little worried. If the dark figure in the video was really Ya Zi, why didn’t he return to the Dragon Palace?
Many guesses flashed through his mind, but he forcefully rejected them one by one, marking them heavily with an X in his mind.
Ying Qiao roughly understood what he was worried about and said, “[I’ll call the Yunnan branch now to ask. If the video is real, the Yunnan branch should be aware of it.]”
Because of Ji Xian’s appearance, they had dealt with the branch office in Yunnan Province before, so they were quite familiar with each other.
Jiang Lan hummed in agreement and temporarily closed the group chat, handling his work while waiting for news.
Seeing that he had finally put down his phone, Xiao Xiaoyu, who was in front of him, turned around and asked, “Are you alright? Is this serious?”
Jiang Lan’s expression turned strange after watching the video. He kept staring at it repeatedly, and after watching it, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he took out his phone to send a message with a serious expression.
Xiao Xiaoyu was so frightened that she didn’t dare to speak, guessing that this matter was not only true, but might also be very troublesome.
So much so that she didn’t dare ask any more questions, for fear of disturbing Jiang Lan’s important business.
Perhaps he was reporting to some mysterious organization above him to get information.
Jiang Lan hadn’t expected that Xiao Xiaoyu had already imagined 108 terrible scenarios. So he just shook his head and said, “It’s okay, I’ve already contacted my friends in the area to verify the video.”
“…”
Xiao Xiaoyu misunderstood upon hearing this, thinking that he had indeed been contacting someone to verify the situation.
Her suspicions were confirmed, but Xiao Xiaoyu felt no joy whatsoever. She just silently exited the video and silently prayed for the blogger.
The Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Forestry and Grassland Administration did not respond until 10 p.m.
They told Ying Qiao that the Wa ethnic group’s head sacrifice incident, which had been making headlines online recently, was real. The blogger who posted the live stream seeking help had been confirmed missing, and armed police and personnel from the Bureau of Monster Management were searching for him. The police had cordoned off the mountain forest where the incident had occurred and were conducting a thorough search.
After extensive investigation and based on current clues, the Yunnan Provincial Traffic Management Bureau confirmed that the Wa man who committed the murder in the video was not an ordinary person— this was not a simple criminal case but involved non-human factors.
According to investigations, this was not the first time these headhunting Wa men had appeared; they had appeared twice more in the past week.
Their appearance was unpredictable, irregular, and without a fixed location; they simply appeared randomly in towns and villages on the border of Yunnan Province. The only difference from usual, and what could be used as a distinguishing feature, was that when they appeared, the sunset on the horizon became exceptionally red, as if on fire.
The Yunnan branch of the Public Security Bureau speculated that the Wa men in the video may not be people from today. They were more likely “people” who once existed on this land, and for some reason, were projected to present-day Yunnan Province many years later by chance, but still maintained their former habits and behaviors, such as hunting heads and performing head sacrifices.
However, this speculation still needed to be confirmed with more evidence.
Just before contacting Ying Qiao, the Yunnan Provincial Branch had already dispatched personnel to investigate possible locations.
“We have been trying our best to guide public opinion online. Later, we will work with the police to issue a notice classifying this incident as a serious kidnapping.”
The Yunnan Provincial Branch Bureau didn’t usually have much to do, but this case was a major one that required their close attention. Just as they were busy verifying the situation and monitoring online public opinion, the branch bureau chief received calls from Ying Qiao and Bi Xi to inquire about the situation.
In terms of rank, the Jiangcheng Demon Management Bureau was superior to them. Ying Qiao and Bi Xi personally called to inquire, so the Yunnan Provincial Branch could only urge the staff to work overtime. However, their capabilities were limited. Three or four days had passed since the incident, and they had only found this little bit of information after all the investigation.
As for the origins of these mysteriously appearing ancient Wa people, so far it was all speculation, and there was no strong evidence to support it.
When the call came in, the people at the branch office kept passing the buck, afraid that if they didn’t know anything, they would face Ying Qiao’s wrath.
Fortunately, Ying Qiao didn’t say much, only saying “Thank you for your hard work, I understand,” before hanging up the phone.
Jiang Lan was listening in when Ying Qiao answered the phone. So after he hung up, he asked, “Where are they sealing off the area?”
“In the Yuemeng Township area.” Ying Qiao opened his laptop to check the email sent by the branch office, turned the screen towards him, pointed to the location of Yuemeng Township, and said, “Below are the on-site photos they sent. They found a sneaker and a broken cell phone in the woods west of Yuemeng Township and confirmed that they belonged to the blogger who had asked for help.”
Yuemeng Township belonged to Ximeng County. It was bordered by Ximeng Town and Suomo Township to the east, Lisuo Township to the south, and Myanmar to the west, with the river as the boundary.
Police officers from the branch office found the lost shoes and broken cell phone in the forest near the border, which confirmed that the blogger who sought help was indeed in trouble and was currently missing.
Jiang Lan took the mouse and browsed through the photos in the documents one by one. But after looking at them all, his brows furrowed even more. The mouse cursor hovered over one of the images, and he took out his phone to open a video screenshot for comparison: “Look, isn’t this the same place?”
The photos were taken during the day and were very clear, showing the river behind the forest and several large rocks. The video screenshots were much blurrier and were taken at night when the light was dim, but if you looked closely, you could still make out the river behind the forest that was shimmering slightly and the several large rocks scattered along the riverbank.
Although the angles were slightly different, careful comparison of the river and the distribution of boulders revealed that this was the same place.
Ying Qiao noticed it too. He narrowed his eyes slightly and pointed at the screenshot, saying, “It’s the same, yet a little different.”
For example, the distribution of these trees was clearly different. In the photos taken at the scene, each tree was solid and arranged loosely and irregularly. However, the trees in the video screenshots were very dense. If you looked closely, you would find that some trees even overlapped, with one tree casting a solid shadow while another was slightly blurry, like a double image.
“It really does seem like two worlds have overlapped,” Jiang Lan murmured. “But if that’s the case, then Ya Zi’s appearance in the video doesn’t make sense.”
When the blogger was asking for help on his live stream, it was clearly during the time when the ancient Wa people were active. Coincidentally, Ya Zi also appeared in the forest at that time. If they ruled out highly coincidental situations, then it can only mean that the Yunnan Provincial Branch’s guess was wrong.
The appearance of the ancient Wa people[1] was not because their former environment was projected onto reality by some chance and overlapped with reality. After all, according to the time period when the ancient Wa people appeared, Ya Zi had already disappeared at that time. No matter how you calculate it, Ya Zi should not have appeared during this period.
The only possibility was that outside the real world, there existed another space that highly overlapped with reality, where both the ancient Wa people and the Ya Zi lived. When this space overlapped with reality, ordinary people might accidentally wander into it, while the ancient Wa people and Ya Zi within the space could also come out and move around.
But can such a space, which almost completely overlaps with the real world and is imperceptible to people, really exist in this era of scarce spiritual energy?
Even Jiang Lan himself wasn’t quite sure.
He had seen a small space before when he dealt with Bai You, almost identical to the real world. However, it was only connected to the real world through a fixed, special channel; it wasn’t a complete overlap. Moreover, its flaws were obvious; ordinary people might struggle to detect them, but a powerful demon like him could. Furthermore, this small space existed entirely because Bai You absorbed soul power from his fans. If anything happened to Bai You, the small space would collapse.
The one that had appeared now seemed to be more stable and more advanced.
Although the Yunnan Provincial Branch was not strong overall, it had one or two powerful figures in charge, who were also participating in the investigation. The fact that they didn’t find anything unusual was enough to demonstrate its secrecy.
Ying Qiao and Jiang Lan shared the same idea. After thinking for a moment, he said, “I’ll send an email to the Yunnan Provincial Branch and ask them to check again tomorrow to see if they can confirm your guess.”
Jiang Lan nodded and said, “I’ll discuss it with my eldest and fourth brothers. If possible, it would be best if someone could go and confirm it in person.”
He was still a little worried about Ya Zi.
Years ago, several of his brothers disappeared one after another, but only his eighth brother, Suan Ni, was found after transforming into a dragon egg. Because of this, they always believed that the other missing brothers were in the same situation, just not found yet. Now, a thousand years later, Ya Zi was the second brother confirmed to still be alive.
Judging from the fleeting figure of Ya Zi in the video, Ya Zi was not currently in his cub form. Based on Jiang Lan’s understanding of him, if Ya Zi was doing well, it was impossible for him not to return to the Dragon Palace.
But now he hadn’t come back. Either he didn’t want to come back for some reason, but of course, that was unlikely.
Or he couldn’t come back.
Guys, ads are my only source of revenue, so please do not turn on the AdBlock when you are accessing this website…. Thank you, this would be a great help…
You can buy me a ko-fi and sponsor a chapter on: https://ko-fi.com/midnightrambles
Or become a Patron or access advance chapters on: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=45665005
If you support me, I would be able to provide more chapters….
Previous • Table of Contents• Next
[1] The Wa people (佤族, Wǎzú) are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China, numbering approximately 350,000 to 400,000, primarily residing in the mountainous, southwestern region of Yunnan Province along the Myanmar border. Known for their historic role as fierce warriors, they now mostly engage in agriculture, living in compact communities in the Ximeng Va Autonomous County and surrounding areas. They historically practiced ritual headhunting to ensure agricultural fertility, community protection, and to strengthen social bonds, a custom that largely ceased by the 1970s.
