Chapter 17: Missing

One shouldn't have too many smooth sailing days.

Otherwise, it's easy for joy to turn into sorrow.

There's always a reason behind every statement.

Yan Shi sat in his office, coughing hysterically, reflecting painfully.

Because she laid off the entire Household Registration Department on Monday, the entire Bureau of Foreign Affairs, from top to bottom, swept away the laxity and became diligent and conscientious. Some departments even went back ten years to review previous reports, redoing any flaws, for fear that she would think that department should also be laid off.

With little work these past two days, and all the tasks that could be delegated already done, Yan Shi is enjoying a peaceful and leisurely time in the office every day.

It's Friday today, another week has passed, and tomorrow is the happy weekend.

As a result, she caught a cold.

I feel dizzy and lightheaded, and have a severe cough.

She shouldn't have turned the air conditioner to the lowest temperature yesterday to avoid getting cold, and she didn't even wrap herself properly in the blanket when she went to sleep last night.

Even in a fantasy world, people still get sick.

Yan Shi didn't understand.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor, and her office door was flung open.

"Director Yan," Gui Gemu strode into the office, his usual laziness completely gone, his sharp features revealing the coldness cultivated by a prominent family.

“Sheng Chunqiu has gone missing.” She stared at Yan Shi, emphasizing each word: “I can’t reach her.”

Yan Shi suppressed the itch in his throat and asked her in a hoarse voice, "Tell me the specifics."

Because of a severe cold, Yan Shi lost her voice after saying only a few words.

He was startled as he returned to the pavilion.

Yan Shi had not shown up since she swiftly dismissed the Household Registration Department on Monday, and she hadn't expected that Yan Shi would be so weak.

Before heading to the Forest of Life, Sheng Chunqiu had subtly mentioned to her that she suspected Yan Ju would have to pay a price to repair the world barrier.

Sheng Chunqiu didn't go into much detail either.

Because Guige Mu comes from a family of array masters, the family relationships in the inner world are complicated, and everyone wants to get involved in the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs.

Finally, a bureau chief arrived who was not from a prominent family, possessed unfathomable strength, and was extremely fair in his decisions.

Sheng Chunqiu wanted more than anyone else for Yan Shi to be sidelined during his period of weakness.

But she didn't want to be caught in the middle and put in a difficult position.

Gui Gemu sighed inwardly. From the moment she refused to provide convenience for the family and insisted on helping Sheng Chunqiu take charge of the executive department, she had broken ties with the family in fact.

Sheng Chunqiu doesn't need to keep trying to persuade her to communicate properly with her family.

Guigemu had neither a high opinion nor a low opinion of Yanju; she was an array master, and one of the top array masters at that. No matter who was in charge of the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, they wouldn't touch her.

She only hoped that Sheng Chunqiu's ideals could all come true.

When Yan Shi asked her, Gui Ge Mu first calmed down her anxiety and explained, "Sheng Chunqiu led the team to the Forest of Life on Monday. She sent a message early Wednesday morning saying that she had arrived, and then she never replied."

“I asked my friends from the B004 and B421 teams who participated in this operation, and they haven’t replied since Wednesday. At first, I thought it was because the Forest of Life’s network was bad, but we were just checking with the Elf Temple to see the status of the Wood Elf race. They should have been out of the Forest of Life in two more days.”

Gui Gemu said, taking out a simple origami bear from his spatial bracelet.

The little bear noticed that the paper looked quite old, as it was slightly yellowed. However, it had been carefully preserved, with densely packed and intricate arrays drawn on it.

"These are origami. The array on them is my own creation. It can transmit messages over long distances regardless of space, and if it is not opened within an hour of receiving the message, it will automatically jump out of the folded space. I left a message for Sheng Chunqiu through origami this morning, and now more than half a day has passed, but she still hasn't replied."

“Director Yan,” Gui Gemu leaned forward slightly, resting his head on his desk, “I reasonably deduce that Sheng Chunqiu has not only gone missing, but is also unable to move freely. She went there for the affairs of the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs.”

“Without Sheng Chunqiu, you wouldn’t have been able to take over the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs so quickly,” Gui Gemu said, staring at her with a sharp gaze.

"Are you threatening me?" Yan Shi looked up and looked back.

“I’m begging you,” Gui Gemu said. “Please, go and save her.”

No, what's wrong with people in the underworld? They threaten you before asking for your help.

Yan Shi, who was threatened twice in one week: ...

She's going to make a scene.

“Director Gui,” Yan Shi said, suppressing the pain rising in his throat, “I hope you understand that I have no obligation to save Sheng Chunqiu. This is her making up for her previous oversight.”

Sheng Chunqiu is indeed very useful, but it's not worth Yan Shi spending a weekend working overtime on it.

Yan Shi was preoccupied with the question of who would take over if Sheng Chunqiu couldn't continue.

Fine, whatever, let her go home first.

My head hurts so much, I want to go back to sleep.

Just as Guige Mu and Yan Shi were at an impasse, there was another knock at the door.

Yu Junxun led Lin Cai, who was carrying several documents, in as he walked in.

Yan Shi: ...She was quite lively this afternoon.

"Director Yan, and Director Gui," Yu Junxun greeted them. "Our department's intern just discovered a problem."

Yan Shi nodded slightly, signaling him to continue.

Yu Junxun: "The black market incident in Zhui Ri City last weekend involved people being trafficked by illegal trading groups. According to the Enforcement Department, there were a total of 13 victims. Among them, seven were students of Zhan Zhou, three were beast cubs, two were elves, and Lin Cai was also a victim."

Lin Cai continued, "Zhan Zhou's students were deliberately lured in to investigate the black market, the beast cubs were brought in by the merchant caravan to exchange for auction items, and the elves happened to be unregistered wood elves. All the living auction items brought in by this caravan have complicated origins and are easy to investigate. I think the caravan deliberately wanted to sabotage this black market."

She quickly added, "Today I went through all the black market investigation records at the information office and found that among the registered black market participating groups, there is no group leader named Wei Ning."

Lin Cai took the file out of her hand and placed it on Yan Shi's desk.

“The wood elves in the medical ward have been unwilling to speak. Actually,” Lin Cai hesitated, “I also think that they were deliberately lured into this merchant group with a purpose.”

The blazing sun crowns the crown.

It is related to the authority of what appears to be a spirit.

Yan Shi forced himself to stand up: "Let's go to the medical ward."

Make those two wood elves speak.

Sheng Chunqiu made the trip to the Forest of Life because of the Wood Elf, and then went missing. Gui Gemu frowned and followed closely behind Yan Shi as they went out to the medical station.

The General Administration of Foreign Affairs is actually a very large locality.

The main building is in the middle, housing most of the core departments of the Executive Office and the Information Office. Yan Shi's office is also located here.

The medical department is a separate small building, located to the right of the main building.

The biggest anomalies for the General Administration recently are the Black Market in Suncity and the rupture of the World Barrier.

Fortunately, the breach in the global barrier was contained in time, preventing widespread casualties.

At this time, there were only two Wood Elves in the Fantasy Trauma Department of the Medical Center.

Yan Shi led his men through the door.

This is a double hospital room. Outside the window, pothos plants grow, cascading down the windowsill. The two wood sprites don't interact; they simply sit on the bed, intently watching the pothos.

Lin Cai: "They've always been like this, they don't communicate, and they don't react to the outside world. There's a pothos plant watching over the pothos plant. Before, in the doctor's office, they would look after the jasmine plant that the doctor was growing."

Wood elves are very much in line with the dreamlike appearance of the elven race.

The wood elf on the left has green hair and pink eyes; her hair is half-cut, with one half short and the other half braided into several thin braids.

The wood elf on the right has brown hair and orange eyes, with a thick braid hanging down the back of her head.

Over the past few days, Lin Cai has become completely immune to the elves' appearance. She's numb to it all; every afternoon she comes to chat with the elves, trying to get them to speak.

Lin Cai even suspected that she was talking to the wood, as there was no response at all.

She should still be quite kind; that's the problem with these two wood elves!

Yan Shi also glanced at the green ivy outside the window, which was full of life, a stark contrast to the two listless little creatures in the ward.

She touched the blazing sun crown on her hand.

Since the night the world barrier was repaired, the Crown of the Sun has been inactive, as if it really is just a beautiful decorative bracelet.

There are no existing records within the bureau that document the authority of the spirits, and there are very few records of the Crown of the Blazing Sun.

Yan Shi suddenly spoke up: "You cannot summon wood spirit power. The wood elf race has lost the authority over wood."

Upon hearing this, the wood elf on the left became agitated and turned to look at Yan Shi: "No! It was you thieves who stole the Scepter of Life!"

Lin Cai: ! She spoke up!

They were actually speaking a universal language!

Yan Shi didn't continue speaking.

The wood elf on the left seemed to be getting emotional, and continued angrily, "I told you the chieftain shouldn't have taken in those outsiders twenty years ago. Pshaw, what kind of Bureau of Heretics is that? The chieftain claims to be maintaining world order, but I think they're just a bunch of thieves!"

"Fia!" the elf on the right whispered, stopping her.

"Leona, I wasn't wrong! This is the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, isn't it? That's where those thieves come from!"

Although he didn't know exactly what happened twenty years ago, Yan Shi seemed to know why Sheng Chunqiu had gone missing.

I'm afraid he was mistaken for a thief and detained by the Forest of Life.

Gui Gemu also thought of this, and his face turned extremely ugly: "You two are both from the Forest of Life, right? I wonder if it's feasible for me to exchange you for Sheng Chunqiu."

Leaving aside what will happen to the two team members who were brought over this time, will the elves be unable to reconcile with the Bureau of Evil in the future?

This is solid evidence that the Bureau of Evil Affairs stole the Scepter of Life.

But there's no record in the Bureau of Foreign Affairs that it has any authority over wood.

Yan Shi's headache worsened.

Where did this mess come from?

She took a deep breath, her tone carrying a subtle warning: "Return to the pavilion."

At the very least, she must not antagonize the elves during her term of office.

Yan Shi was so hoarse that he couldn't speak, so he issued an emergency task order on his phone.

"Urgently dispatch Shu Zhijing to lead Execution Team A106 to assemble at the World Gate in the Imperial Capital. Dispatch Guige Mu, Yu Junxun, and Lin Cai, along with the Wood Elf Fia and Leona, to the World Gate in the Imperial Capital to join the execution team and head together to the Forest of Life."

Yan Shi hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to bring Lin Cai along.

She always felt that two consecutive incidents related to what appeared to be spiritual authority happened right next to Lin Cai.

As the protagonist of the comic, Lin Cai is probably the "key" to unlocking the power to collect spirits.

A note from the author:

Yan Lan and Yan Shi are two characters with tragic, beautiful lives, offering completely different experiences. Comparing them, neither is inherently luckier. Yan Shi's story is built upon the foundation of Yan Lan's (and it will be soon, time to get started!).

They're all fake knives, don't imagine it.

All the current doubts will be explained gradually later.

Thank you everyone (sending love)