Another Raise?

The memory Li Fan obtained belonged to Jiang Hua, the deputy leader of the Qingshan Archaeological Team.

This was the memory of Jiang Hua following the Qingshan Archaeological Team deep into Cloud Mountain in search of an ancient tomb.

After discovering the first tomb of the King of Dian, the Qingshan Archaeological Team had achieved a monumental discovery and earned great honor.

During this process, they found a bronze inscription in that tomb which read, "The King's God, in the wild rivers," which unexpectedly pointed toward another tomb of the King of Dian.

Synthesizing this with many long-standing rumors from the villages surrounding Cloud Mountain.

All sorts of clues indicated that deep within Cloud Mountain, there was yet another tomb of the King of Dian.

As the advance team of the Qingshan Archaeological Team, their mission was to find traces of this ancient tomb based on the clues, ideally pinpointing its exact location.

Once found, when combined with existing data, it would absolutely be enough to fully reconstruct the complete picture of the former Ancient Dian Kingdom.

It would be sufficient to become one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in the world.

On this day, the advance team was trekking through the mountains when they arrived at a mountain col and found a small jade figurine.

It was clearly the craftsmanship of the Ancient Dian Kingdom, and everyone was very excited.

Immediately afterward, however, a thick fog suddenly rose.

Following that, all communication equipment failed completely.

There were often such patches of fog in the mountains; one just had to walk out of them and it would be fine.

They groped their way forward, only to arrive at a black forest they had never seen before.

The trees here grew in strange, distorted shapes, looking from a distance like a group of dancing people.

When they drew closer, they discovered that the area was shrouded in clouds and mist, and inside the black forest, a group of people with the air of immortals were holding a banquet!

These people's faces seemed to be obscured by some kind of halo, making them impossible to see clearly, yet one could feel their transcendent, ethereal grace.

Jiang Hua and the others first suspected they were hallucinating, perhaps due to something in the mountain mist refracting light and shadow.

Only later did they discover that these immortals were actually real!

Upon seeing them appear, these immortals immediately warmly invited them to join the banquet.

Then came the passionate dancing; although they couldn't see their faces, they could feel the exquisite figures of these immortals.

After that, Jiang Hua's memory came to an abrupt end.

Li Fan understood that he had already died at this moment.

When the investigators from the Anomaly Bureau's Investigation Department found this archaeological advance team, what they saw was a bizarre forest.

Within the woods, the corpses of these archaeological team members were fused together with the strangely twisted trees, smiles still lingering on their faces.

Clearly, there was something in Cloud Mountain.

That forest was highly problematic.

As for the so-called immortals, Li Fan did not believe in them at all.

All anomalies could be explained by science; in the final analysis, it was just a mutation caused by psychic radiation.

Jiang Hua and the others were likely infected by some kind of psychic radiation, which induced hallucinations.

After obtaining this information, Li Fan pushed Jiang Hua's corpse back and pulled open another morgue drawer.

Sure enough, he found another Human-Faced Snake psychic entity.

This time, he was familiar with the process and directly used the Tiger Pillar God to swallow it, accumulating psychic power in his subconscious.

The memory fragments of these archaeological team members were similar, so this time Li Fan did not acquire the memory fragments left by the other party, but instead continued to search for the next one.

The position of the Human-Faced Snake within the corpses was not fixed; some were in the torso, some in the limbs, and others in the head, making them not very easy to find.

Fortunately, after some effort, Li Fan finally absorbed the vast majority of the Human-Faced Snakes, with only the last one remaining.

After the Tiger Pillar God's psychic power possessed him, Li Fan's behavior was subtly influenced; he jumped directly onto the morgue bed, used the power of the psychic entity to scan back and forth, and finally plucked the last Human-Faced Snake from the chest of the body, swallowing it on the spot.

"Cough, cough..." Just as Li Fan finished swallowing the last Human-Faced Snake, a slight coughing sound rang out.

Li Fan was sprawled on the morgue bed; he turned his head toward the door and saw Zhang Hongbing standing there, smoking a cigarette.

"The surveillance flickered just now, so I thought I'd come down and take a look..."

Zhang Hongbing's face was shrouded in smoke, making his expression impossible to read, and he only said in a somewhat slurred voice:

"Fan, if you have any difficulties, tell your uncle. There's no need to be like this... How about this, Uncle will introduce you to someone? If that doesn't work, Uncle has a friend who knows a masseur... You can't keep going on like this."

Li Fan was stunned by Zhang Hongbing's words, unable to grasp what the other party meant for a moment.

Then, he turned his face and suddenly realized that the body beneath him was a female corpse; he quickly jumped down and waved his hands, saying:

"No, Engineer Zhang, you've misunderstood. I'm looking for an anomaly; I couldn't see clearly from far away, so I just got a bit closer..."

Zhang Hongbing nodded slightly:

"Uncle understands. It's just like how some people like salty tofu pudding, some like sweet tofu pudding, and others like savory or spicy tofu pudding. Regardless, it's all tofu pudding, just eaten differently.

But you're still young; eating such strange tofu pudding really isn't appropriate. Take Uncle's advice: at the very least, it should be a living one."

Li Fan's face was covered in black lines, and he said urgently:

"I really don't! I'm actually working! I just wanted to see if any anomalies had been overlooked."

"Did you find anything?"

"No... I didn't find anything..."

"Oh."

Zhang Hongbing nodded, turned around, and headed back to the duty room.

Li Fan hurriedly pushed the morgue cabinet back and followed Zhang Hongbing upstairs.

"Engineer Zhang, it's really not what you think."

"I understand."

Seeing that it was impossible to explain clearly, Li Fan bid farewell to Zhang Hongbing with a sullen face and left the Anomaly Bureau.

Fortunately, the harvest tonight was significant; not only had he devoured a pile of Human-Faced Snake spiritual bodies to gain a good amount of mental power, but he had also found clues regarding the anomaly fusion event.

It was highly likely that the Unity Society was behind it again; he would have the Cleaning Association personnel investigate it once he got back.

I, a big shot of the Cleaning Association, am undercover here perfectly fine, so why are you, a mere Unity Society, causing me trouble?

Walking down the street and watching the bustling crowd, Li Fan couldn't help but sigh.

He really didn't want to go back to that house, but there was no other way; life is like a play, and he had to keep acting.

He hailed a taxi and returned to the entrance of the villa.

It was already past seven in the evening, and from afar, he could hear laughter and the clinking of glasses coming from the villa's garden, as if they were celebrating something.

Li Fan took a deep breath and pushed the door open, and the laughter instantly ceased.

His father, mother, Auntie Zhang, the gardener Old Sun, and the driver Old Chen all stood up abruptly, watching Li Fan return without daring to breathe a word.

They quietly set the wine glasses in their hands back onto the table.

However, it was clear that they didn't seem as terrified as before.

Li Fan immediately felt a sense of dread in his heart.

"You... you're back..." his father said, a smile still lingering on his face.

"There is good news to tell you. The headquarters has sent word that the aura of the Lord of the Abyss has been detected in the Shell Currency you submitted!"

His mother also hurriedly added:

"As expected of Lord Collector! Your subordinates were truly overjoyed, so we celebrated a little in advance; please forgive us."

Auntie Zhang and the others also hurriedly nodded and bowed with smiles.

It was evident that they were genuinely happy.

If Lord Collector could find items containing the aura of the Lord of the Abyss, it meant that he was truly the existence closest to the Lord of the Abyss!

The one they were following was likely the messenger of the Lord of the Abyss walking among mortals.

He was perhaps even closer to the Lord of the Abyss than that mysterious president of the Cleaning Association.

The aura of the Lord of the Abyss? Could it have been brought from the Prison of Suppression? Or could it be that the so-called Lord of the Abyss is imprisoned within the Prison of Suppression!? These thoughts flashed through Li Fan's mind, and he was shocked by his own realization.

Maintaining a calm expression on the surface, he said:

"Understood."

His mother seemed accustomed to Lord Collector's stern and humorless demeanor and continued:

"The headquarters has sent word that, to commend your achievements, you have been appointed as the Shepherd of the Southwest Region of Central Province, in charge of all the association's affairs in this area!"