After discussing it, the team decided to go and see Jiao Yan.
Since they don't have any tasks to do right now, instead of randomly running off to try their luck elsewhere, they might as well go and see what Jiao Yan has to say.
Even if they desperately wanted a high score for a level six mission, they wouldn't act impulsively and let Jiao Yan lead them by the nose without thinking.
Jiao Yan said he had some private information, so they went to listen to it. Whether or not they accepted the mission after listening was their own decision.
After discussing it, Mao Xiaoqian immediately sent a message to Jiao Yan.
Time waits for no one. Not long after Jiao Yan received the reply, he arrived at the hotel where Ruan Bei and the others were staying.
He came alone, without any teammates.
Mao Xiaoqian had some old grudge against him, and upon meeting him, he couldn't help but make sarcastic remarks: "What private information? You even kept it from your teammates."
Jiao Yan gave him a mocking smile, glanced at him sideways, and lightly swept his eyes over him, which immediately made Mao Xiaoqian furious.
Conan gave a wink, and Lao Bai immediately pulled Mao Xiaoqian aside and smoothed things over: "If you really intend to take on a mission, the others will find out eventually. It doesn't matter whether you say it sooner or later."
Jiao Yan sat down opposite Conan and said bluntly, "I didn't tell them. I contacted you guys first. If you don't agree, I can't take on this mission myself, so there's even less need to tell them."
Conan raised an eyebrow in confusion: "Since we can't be left out, aren't you afraid to tell us the news and we'll leave your team behind and do it ourselves?"
Jiao Yan smirked: "If you can really get rid of me, that's your skill."
Conan and Ruan Bei exchanged a glance, understanding the meaning behind his words. It seemed that he was also indispensable in this mission.
"Then let's stop beating around the bush and just get to the point," Conan said.
Jiao Yan had sent them the mission details beforehand. The mission objective was not difficult at all. Other missions were about catching ghosts, but this mission was about finding someone.
They don't even require the person to be alive; they just want to bring back relevant information.
Compared to other backlogged tasks, this task has been pending for a very short time, only four or five months.
However, more than a dozen people have filled in the form.
It started as a group of young people who recklessly went on an expedition deep into the mountains. If it were another mountain, even if they encountered danger, it would at most be wild beasts or poisonous insects. If they were even more unlucky and encountered poachers, they could still be rescued by the police.
But these people are so reckless; they're running into restricted areas.
Before Jiao Yan arrived, Ruan Bei and the others had studied the mission Jiao Yan sent and discussed its difficulties.
According to Conan's analysis, the difficulty of this mission lies in its location.
What ordinary people see is a forest marked with a restricted area sign. The official explanation is that there are peculiar plants in the dense forest that produce poisonous miasma, threatening people's lives, and entry is prohibited.
There are also barriers and forest rangers set up outside the forest area. Even if someone accidentally trespasses, they will be persuaded to go back, and if they cannot be persuaded, they will be forcibly withdrawn.
But Conan and his friends can always hear some real inside information from their elders or senior classmates.
That place wasn't some poisonous forest at all; it was clearly the hiding place where the Ghost King and his ghost generals fled after the great battle!
Back then, the Special Affairs Bureau wasn't strong enough, and the Xuanmen sect hadn't recovered from the blows of decades ago, so they couldn't completely wipe out the Ghost King and were forced to make peace, allowing them to occupy several dense forests.
Fortunately, those forests were not suitable for human habitation and were deserted, so it's fine if they occupy them. As long as they don't cause trouble, we can tolerate them for the time being.
At most, they'll just fence off the forest to prevent people from entering. Anyway, with so many ghosts inside, the yin energy gathers, making it almost like miasma.
Logically speaking, nothing should happen under these circumstances. People living nearby know that there is miasma in the forest, and occasionally they can see black smoke billowing around. They would never go looking for death.
There are those who accidentally wander in, and there are also forest police; the entrance is guarded very tightly.
But if someone wants to die, you can't stop them no matter what.
Those ignorant and arrogant young people, having heard about the forest from somewhere, came to explore it.
Even after being stopped, they were still unwilling to give up. They offered a large sum of money to lure the local villagers into taking a shortcut into the forest.
After that, the person disappeared without a trace. A few days later, the mountain villager's family couldn't bear it any longer and went to report it to the police.
Meanwhile, the families of the missing young people also found they could not contact them and reported the incidents to the police.
To be honest, when they checked the mission information, all they could think when they saw this was "serves them right," this was truly a fancy way of courting death.
With seven or eight people trapped in the mountains, it wouldn't be right not to rescue them. The official rescue team included people from the Special Affairs Bureau.
As a result, they never returned. The higher-ups sent people to negotiate, but what was troublesome was that the two ghost kings exploded as soon as they heard that the Special Affairs Bureau had entered their territory. Regardless of the reason, they immediately turned against each other.
You want our people? Why should we take advantage of your own people?
They've already retreated into the dense forest, yet they still won't let them go. Are they planning to start a war?
The Special Affairs Bureau is not afraid of fighting now; twenty years is enough time for them to train more talent, but they still have reservations.
The Ghost King has a group of powerful and fierce ghosts under his command. If a real battle breaks out and they cannot be contained, they will recklessly attack the people, and countless people will die.
So the matter remained deadlocked. As time dragged on, the chances of those people surviving decreased, so the objective of the mission has now become bringing back news of those people.
Especially for the later batch of rescuers, whether they are dead or alive, there must be a conclusion.
In other words, if they want to do the mission, they have to go to Ghost King Forest.
Yes, the mission objective didn't say they had to catch ghosts, but they've already entered the Ghost King's lair, so how could they not see ghosts?
So this task is really a trap, a huge trap.
After they finished discussing it, they were still willing to see Jiao Yan. In Mao Xiaoqian's words, they wanted to see if Jiao Yan could come up with something interesting.
Jiao Yan didn't bother with any fancy tricks; he directly revealed his trump card: "My great-uncle is a ghost general under the White Bone Ghost King."
Others: "...???"
"Holy crap, you, you, your family..." Mao Xiaoqian didn't dare say "treason" in front of him. Although he liked to talk, he knew what he could and couldn't say.
Jiao Yan rolled his eyes: "What's the big deal? Ghosts are people who turned into ghosts. What's so strange about having a relative become a ghost?"
That's true; it's said that several of the ghost kings were cultivators in their previous lives.
"Besides, everyone who needs to know about this already knows. Go back and ask your grandfather and father; they definitely know too," Jiao Yan said.
Mao Xiaoqian looked dazed, but Jiao Yan ignored him and continued, "I've studied this mission. With the stamina and abilities of the first group of missing people, they wouldn't get very far before they died. Even if they were lucky and lived a few more days, they still wouldn't be able to get deep into the Ghost King Forest."
If you don't go deep inside, you naturally won't provoke the Ghost King.
Jiao Yan pulled out a map and pointed it out to the others: "You should know that ghosts occupy territory. Coincidentally, this territory happens to belong to my great-uncle."
Ruan Bei sighed inwardly, thinking that this guy was really something else. He thought he had a strong backer, but this guy even had a backer among ghosts.
"Then what do you want with us?" Conan had already figured out what Jiao Yan meant. If they didn't go deeper into the area and stayed on the outskirts, they might be able to avoid conflict with the ghosts because of Jiao Yan's great-uncle's influence.
Jiao Yan spread his hands: "Although he is my great-uncle, I am not very familiar with him. As a junior, I can't come to ask for help empty-handed."
"What do you want?" Conan asked.
Jiao Yan looked at Ruan Bei, and the others immediately looked at him warily.
"Why are you so nervous?" Jiao Yan laughed. "I just want the Yin Qi Talisman. I saw you draw the wrong talisman last time."
Ghosts all want Yin Qi talismans. Even if his great-uncle is the Ghost King, he might not be as effective as other ghosts when he uses one, but he'll still be quite happy.
Ruan Bei touched his waist pouch. He did have some Yin Qi talismans, but not many, only about twenty. Some were for Niu Niu and Pudding, but he didn't bring them with him, so he saved them.
"If you don't want to go, you can sell me the Yin Qi Talisman," Jiao Yan said directly, seeing their concerns.
Yin Qi talismans are extremely rare. There are very few talisman masters who can draw them, and even if they could, they wouldn't bother drawing such useless talismans.
So he couldn't buy it anywhere, and when he met Ruan Bei, he had to seize the opportunity.
His words made it seem like the mission's danger had indeed decreased considerably.
Seeing their hesitation, Jiao Yan continued, "How about this, if you're still worried, I'll take the Yin Qi Talisman to see my great-uncle first, and only after he makes a promise will we go in."
"But let's make this clear first: if it doesn't work and the Yin Qi Talisman is lost, I won't compensate you."
He knew that his great-uncle had a good relationship with his father, so his life was safe, but the talismans might not be safe and might be confiscated.
Having said all that, Jiao Yan could be said to have taken the greatest risk; he would have to go in twice.
Conan and the others exchanged glances, and finally Conan said, "We need to discuss this."
This reply was not unexpected. Jiao Yan got up and left: "You need to give me a reply quickly." If this didn't work, he would have to think of another way.
"Okay, I'll let you know whether it works or not before midnight tonight," Conan said.
After Jiao Yan left, the group sat down in a circle, and Conan asked, "Do you want to go?"
Yes, of course I want to!
If I didn't want to go, I would have refused Jiao Yan outright just now, instead of saying we should discuss it.
However, Conan's main question was about Ruan Bei, because if he agreed, the only extra person he would have to pay was Ruan Bei, as he was the one who provided all the Yin Qi talismans.
Ruan Bei pondered for a moment, then said earnestly, "I want to go."
The mission was indeed dangerous, but which mission they took on this past month wasn't dangerous?
Besides, if what Jiao Yan said is true, at least their lives are safe. To put it bluntly, if Jiao Yan's great-uncle turns against them, they can take Jiao Yan hostage in a moment of crisis.
"Alright, since that's the case..."
Conan looked at Mao Xiaoqian: "Go ask your elders if what Jiao Yan said is true."
"The rest of you should report your whereabouts to your elders." That way, if something unexpected happens, there will be a direction for rescue.
Ruan Bei thought for a moment and then sent a message to Qin Gu.
Qin Gu called soon after, and Ruan Bei asked his teammates before quietly telling him the details.
After listening, Qin Gu said to Ruan Bei, "What he said is right. And do you remember? Before, the Yinming Ghost King led his ghost generals deeper into the mountains, and it seems that the White Bone Ghost King also chased after them."
Ruan Bei remembered it; it was the evil ghost that burned to death in the hospital. Later, the investigation traced it back to the Underworld Ghost King, and his senior brother sent people from the Special Affairs Bureau and his elders to gather a group of people to fight it.
This is different from the nature of their mission. Their mission is that their people have broken into the Ghost King's territory and are in the wrong. If they cause trouble, the White Bone Ghost King will definitely help the Underworld Ghost King, and then it might really lead to a full-scale war.
But that time, it was the Underworld Ghost King who broke the rules first, sending his evil minions out of the Ghost King Forest to cause trouble, and bullying Ruan Bei, a kid with a lot of powerful backers. No wonder his parents came knocking on his door.
Even the White Bone Demon King didn't say anything, and even fought with the Underworld Demon King because the Underworld Demon King framed him.
They didn't kick him when he was down, all because they were both ghost kings and had been neighbors for so many years.
This is good news for Ruan Bei; the Yinming Ghost King is certainly not fleeing in this direction.
The Ghost King Forest may seem like a continuous expanse, but in reality, the entrances are different. It's impossible for two Ghost Kings to emerge from the same territory; the Underworld Ghost King would have to pass through the territory of the Bone Ghost King.
Their retreat into the deep mountains meant that neither of the two ghost kings was present, greatly increasing their safety if they were to enter the Ghost King Forest.
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