Chapter 978: Watanabe Ryuusei in Action |
“Setting fire to the mountains, and you'll rot in prison.”
The area that was ablaze was actually a small wooded hill. As the flames spread, Liu Xing and the others could see the distant, towering inferno from the city.
“This fire is beyond saving,” Dio remarked while looking into the distance. “Morio Town only has one fire truck. The nearest fire engines, especially from Nagoya, would take at least two hours to get here. By that time, at the current rate, the entire woodland would have burned down.”
Liu Xing nodded in agreement. With the fire's current intensity, controlling it in a short time was nearly impossible... and now, the wind had picked up.
Due to water’s higher specific heat capacity, its temperature rises slowly. During the day, the land heats up faster, causing the warm air above to rise, which creates a pressure difference, leading to wind blowing from the sea toward the land.
That’s why during the day, the wind generally blows from the sea toward land, while at night, it reverses direction.
Ahem, back to the topic.
With the sea breeze fueling it, the fire in the woods suddenly intensified several times over, becoming even more frightening.
Li Hanxing, swallowing nervously, muttered with a hint of fear, “Honestly, right now, I'd rather go one-on-one with a Great Old One than face a natural disaster like this. At least with the Old One, I know there’s no way I could win head-on.”
The house transfer procedures had already been completed, and Mai Yuqiang’s car had been modified and outfitted with fake plates. Liu Xing and the others had planned to move into their new home after lunch.
Even though Liu Xing was mostly convinced that Bai Liang was neither a spy nor an assassin sent by the Swollen Woman, he suspected Bai Liang might be a backup plan set by Ithaqua. Therefore, Liu Xing decided to tail Bai Liang to see if he could spot any flaws.
If he could confirm Bai Liang’s connection to Ithaqua, Liu Xing planned to have someone eliminate him. After all, he had no interest in dealing with that overpowered entity again.
Liu Xing had no intention of playing games with such a cheat-level opponent.
“Let’s go. Maybe we can be of some help,” Liu Xing suggested.
There’s no smoke without fire.
Liu Xing highly doubted this fire was a natural occurrence.
Thus, Liu Xing and his group drove to the scene.
By the time they arrived, nearly all members of the Morio Town Protection Association were present, along with a number of spontaneous volunteers assisting with the firefighting. There were also quite a few onlookers; Liu Xing even noticed several people live-streaming with their mobile phones.
Since Liu Xing and his two companions were not members of the Protection Association, they were asked to wait in their car while Mai Yuqiang and the others went to attend a meeting.
Not long after, Sirius appeared.
“Sirius, what brings you here?” Liu Xing joked with surprise. “I didn’t know you had such a charitable side.”
Shrugging, Sirius looked at the raging fire in the distance. “I’ve been hanging around Morio Town with nothing much to do, so I figured I’d return to some old research. I recently built an Energy Collector based on the conditions here. Despite its name, it doesn’t actually collect energy; rather, it detects energy fluctuations.”
Liu Xing raised an eyebrow. “So, you’re saying that this fire was deliberately set?”
“Correct,” Sirius nodded. “I detected several unusual energy fluctuations in this area, which led me to come and investigate to test the effectiveness of my Energy Collector. When I arrived, I was already certain that this fire was no accident. Someone deliberately set it using magic spells.”
Liu Xing turned to look at the distant flames but couldn’t discern anything unusual about them.
Seeing this, Sirius chuckled. “That’s the difference between us Ancient Ones Clan and you humans—or most mythical creatures, for that matter. To put it simply, our eyes can perceive more colors, giving us an advantage in research. We genetically modified ourselves long before we even arrived on Earth. The flames generated by magic are subtly different from natural fire, which is how I can confirm that someone used spells to start this blaze.”
Pausing for a moment, Sirius continued, “You can also see that the woods here aren’t that dense, and the current weather is neither hot nor dry. So, a naturally occurring fire couldn’t have spread this quickly. Now the question is: who would want to burn this woodland, and for what reason?”
Faced with Sirius’s question, Liu Xing and his two companions furrowed their brows, unable to come up with an answer.
After all, this fire seemed like a completely unanticipated event, with no prior buildup.
At that moment, Mai Yuqiang returned. After greeting Sirius, he said seriously, “It’s now confirmed that the fire was caused by human actions. However, after thoroughly searching the woods, we didn’t find any signs of large creatures, which means the arsonist likely had no intention of perishing along with the forest.”
“What about the human-faced rat?” Li Hanxing couldn’t help but ask. “Could this fire be related to them? Maybe someone wanted to burn out their nest.”
Mai Yuqiang shook his head. “So far, we still can’t confirm if human-faced rats are present in these woods. But we can be sure that a fire like this poses no threat to them. They could easily avoid it by hiding deep underground.”
Sirius chimed in, “Exactly. Human-faced rats aren’t just ordinary rodents. They can easily evade a fire like this. In fact, when I heard rumors of their presence here, I specifically came to check, but I found no traces of their activity.”
Since even Sirius, a fellow mythical creature, had said so, Liu Xing and the others began to doubt the presence of human-faced rats in the area.
But that only made the situation more intriguing.
Sirius then explained his findings to Mai Yuqiang.
“I see,” Mai Yuqiang nodded. “If this were just a natural fire, it shouldn’t have spread so extensively. So someone really did use magic spells... But that makes me wonder—what if Leopard did indeed discover an assassin sent by the Swollen Woman, and that assassin happened to specialize in using fire-based spells? In the heat of their battle, the woods might have caught fire accidentally.”
Before Liu Xing and the others could respond, Mai Yuqiang shook his head again. “No, that doesn’t seem right. Leopard typically wouldn’t engage in one-on-one combat. He would usually confirm his target’s identity and then call others to assist in a coordinated ambush. If Leopard had been attacked first, unless he was taken out instantly, he would have sent a signal. So the lack of any clues doesn’t add up.”
After Mai Yuqiang’s analysis, Liu Xing and his group were still confused about what had actually transpired in the forest. However, one thing they were sure of: the forest fire was beyond saving.
Although the forest wasn't far from the coast, the issue was that more than 80% of it had already burned. By the time enough fire trucks arrived, the entire area would have already been scorched.
Realizing this, Liu Xing felt it was time for their group to leave.
Indeed, this was the reality of the situation.
Mai Yuqiang let out a sigh and said, "Liu Xing, you all can drive away from here now. There’s nothing left for you to do. As for us at the Morio Town Protection Association, we’ll stay behind to wait for the fire to die down, then assess the scene."
Upon hearing Mai Yuqiang’s words, Liu Xing and his companions decided to leave, knowing their presence was unnecessary. Meanwhile, other members of the Morio Town Protection Association were busy persuading the remaining civilians to evacuate.
Thus, Liu Xing and his group were the first to make their exit.
This time, they drove directly to their new home.
At this point, the estate had been officially marked with the Sawada Family nameplate. Initially, Liu Xing had considered using the Watanabe family name instead, since it was more common in the island nation. Moreover, those familiar with the Public-Military Conflict were aware that a new rising star within the Warrior Faction was the Sawada Family.
However, Liu Xing eventually reconsidered. He was worried that Ithaqua might have prepared certain keywords related to the “Bai Liang” character card, making “Bai Liang” immediately wary upon hearing terms like Liu Xing, Watanabe Ryuusei, or Yis People. Therefore, he ultimately decided to stick with the Sawada Family name—especially since the estate was funded by the Sawada Family in the first place.
Speaking of Watanabe Ryuusei, Liu Xing was quite curious about what that character card was currently up to.
As it turns out, Watanabe Ryuusei was indeed plotting something.
Currently, Watanabe Ryuusei, accompanied by his followers, was conducting a “team-building exercise” at the base of Mount Fuji. The number of worshippers participating in the Worshipers of the Yellow Sect activities had swelled to over a thousand.
Yes, over a thousand fanatic believers had gathered at the foot of Mount Fuji. If Liu Xing were able to check Watanabe Ryuusei’s character card right now, he would see that the list of followers had grown to include a legion of fanatical devotees.
Simply put, in this period, Watanabe Ryuusei had amassed a large following by exposing the truth behind the Public-Military Conflict, finally earning him the status befitting a cult leader.
Meanwhile, to house and feed these fanatics at the base of Mount Fuji, Watanabe Ryuusei and his team had seized control of a secret base belonging to some unknown faction. Not that it was easy—the base's original defenders had put up quite the resistance.
After taking over, Watanabe Ryuusei learned why so many secret bases were hidden within the Aokigahara Forest at Mount Fuji.
In short, Mount Fuji had once been home to numerous Old Gods, leaving behind countless relics. These relics often contained items that could allow those who obtained them to instantly gain a significant advantage. With modern technological advancements lowering the barrier to building secret bases, various factions had set up operations around Mount Fuji.
However, since Mount Fuji had become a popular tourist destination, the secret base owners had to compromise by setting up operations in the secluded Aokigahara Forest, where the chances of being discovered were minimal. And even if they were discovered, silencing intruders in Aokigahara was, frankly, quite easy.
As a result, the Aokigahara Forest now housed an unknown number of secret bases. These bases, aside from having living quarters, were mainly dedicated to excavation.
For instance, the base Watanabe Ryuusei had taken over was primarily focused on vertical excavation rather than horizontal expansion. Instead of digging outward, they were digging upward, since the Old Gods preferred elevated domains, unlike subterranean dwellers like Tsathoggua.
Who knows how many upward tunnels currently exist beneath Mount Fuji?
"Master, do you think that if this continues, Mount Fuji might collapse in a few decades?" Honekawa Suneo asked with some concern.
At that moment, Watanabe Ryuusei was reading a report in the base’s office. Without even looking up, he responded, "Most likely. At this rate, Mount Fuji might not even last ten years. But that’s none of our concern, is it?"
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Chapter 979: Morio Town in Flames?