Chapter 19 – Time

Zhao Yu immediately thought of the bureau’s current assignment—to pay attention to any anomalies related to texts and report them to higher-ups upon discovery.

He had a hunch that the large-scale investigation the bureau was conducting might be looking for none other than Ruan Shu!

Zhao Yu promptly took out his phone to call Li Zheng for backup, but there was no signal.

This wasn’t surprising; Ruan Shu had been obedient these past few days at the Records Department, presumably waiting for an opportunity to enter the archives room.

Now that he was no longer hiding his powers, it meant he was confident in dealing with Zhao Yu and the others, and he had ways to prevent external assistance from arriving.

Not only would he block signals, but he’d also find a way to seal the archives room, preventing anyone from leaving.

Ruan Shu’s whereabouts were currently unknown, and there were two things Zhao Yu needed to do.

Firstly, safely escort the interns out so they could seek help outside.

Secondly, hold the archives room door with his life. Even if both he and White Tiger died here, they couldn’t let Ruan Shu into the archives room.

“Everyone, don’t run around, follow me behind. Let’s try to leave the archives room and seek help outside,” Zhao Yu said calmly.

“It’s probably impossible to get out. If Ruan Shu dared to act like this, he must have sealed off the exit,” Yun Xiguang said calmly. “I suggest we don’t waste our energy trying. Instead, we should conserve our strength and directly guard the entrance to the confidential records room. There should be some defensive measures there that can hold out for a while.”

Zhao Yu thought similarly, but he still said, “We can’t just sit and wait to die. At least let’s try to see if we can get out.”

Yun Xiguang turned to look at the archives room door, where the investigation report on his parents’ case was kept. Ruan Shu’s target was the confidential records room, and he would definitely try to get in. Yun Xiguang might be able to use this opportunity to read the case investigation report.

Yun Xiguang’s palm trembled slightly. He knew how bizarre Ruan Shu was, and their situation was perilous, but this was his closest chance to uncover the truth.

Should he think of a way to stay? Should he… A wicked thought flashed through Yun Xiguang’s mind.

At that moment, Yun Xiguang’s pocket moved, as if the little spirit bird, who had been sleeping all day, was turning over.

Feeling this subtle movement, Yun Xiguang calmed down.

He couldn’t be so selfish, nor should he take risks in such a crisis.

He had the little spirit bird and Wu Ailang, the big fool, to protect, and his life was preserved by his parents’ souls. He couldn’t squander the precious wealth his parents left him.

Revenge was indeed important, but he couldn’t lose his mind.

“Let’s give it a try then. I’ll bring up the rear,” Yun Xiguang said.

Yun Xiguang picked up several blank records, and with a touch on Snow Wolf’s back, a lighter appeared in his palm.

The lighter was something he bought to mask the essence of his fire control ability.

A normal fire control ability included igniting flames, but Yun Xiguang’s fire control ability was of Heavenly Fire grade, which allowed him to dominate ordinary fires. In other words, as long as there were ordinary fires present, he could manipulate them, but he couldn’t ignite them himself.

On the first day of reporting, there were some cigarettes in Zhao Yu’s office ashtray that hadn’t completely gone out, and Yun Xiguang could manipulate those ordinary fires. However, open flames were strictly prohibited in the archives room, so there wouldn’t be any lit sparks, meaning Yun Xiguang wouldn’t have any ordinary fires to manipulate.

There were contraband scanning devices outside the archives room doors, prohibiting items like lighters and matches from entering and requiring them to be discarded in the trash outside.

It wasn’t until Yun Xiguang was about to enter that he remembered he had a lighter on him. He didn’t intend to bring it in and threw it in the trash. However, Snow Wolf saw that Yun Xiguang couldn’t bring the lighter inside and, in an unusually servile manner, followed along, caught the lighter when no one was paying attentionm and hid it on himself.

With Snow Wolf’s ice-based abilities concealing it, the scanner couldn’t detect the lighter.

Yun Xiguang didn’t want the lighter he carried to ignite the records within the archives room, so he had Snow Wolf carry it, and used its temperature to prevent the lighter from spontaneously combusting.

Unexpectedly, this accidental event gave him another means to counter Ruan Shu.

Regardless of how Ruan Shu erased the texts on the records, his goal was surely the secrets within the confidential records room, and he would fear a fire here more than anyone else.

With the lighter and paper that could ignite, and Yun Xiguang’s fire control ability, he was the most suitable person to bring up the rear.

Seeing Yun Xiguang with one hand holding a lighter and the other a stack of blank paper, Zhao Yu didn’t scold him for bringing a lighter into the archives room. Instead, he nodded at him discreetly.

Zhao Yu tapped his temple, and his head transformed into a massive tiger’s head.

The tiger’s head looked around alertly, its white ears twitched a few times, and its pupils contracted, observing the surroundings.

This was one of White Tiger’s abilities—primal intuition, a sense for danger.

Zhao Yu was searching for a safe path.

After looking around, he felt nowhere was safe, as if the entire archives room was filled with some invisible force.

In that case, it might be better to simply go back the way they came.

They had just entered the archives room and were less than five meters from the entrance, needing only a few steps to reach it.

“Run!” the tiger-headed Zhao Yu said in a rough voice.

Upon receiving the signal, everyone sped towards the entrance. However, after rounding the file cabinet in front of the entrance, they saw another file cabinet opposite them.

Tiger-headed Zhao Yu glanced at the file cabinet’s number and said solemnly, “This is the file cabinet Ruan Shu was leaning against earlier. We’ve returned to our starting point. It seems we really can’t get out.”

The three interns, Ji Sisi, Xue Lan, and Lian Gu, looked quite grim. They were just C-grade Spiritbond Masters and weren’t particularly skilled in combat. They chose to intern at the Records Department because they thought it was safe and could learn new knowledge. They never expected that what they encountered here might be more dangerous than what the field teams faced!

Yun Xiguang and Wu Ailang, however, remained calm.

Wu Ailang blindly trusted Brother Yun, believing that if Yun Xiguang could summon True Sun Fire and severely injure 18 opponents that day, today he could blow up the archives room with one move. The reason Brother Yun hadn’t acted yet was because Ruan Shu was using the records as “hostages,” and Brother Yun didn’t want to destroy such important records.

For Yun Xiguang, not being able to leave was actually better because it gave him more opportunities to approach the confidential records room.

Zhao Yu led the students in two other directions, discovering that they would only return to the starting point when heading toward the exit, but wouldn’t deviate when going in other directions.

He decisively said, “To the confidential records room!”

Since they couldn’t escape, their mission was now solely to defend the confidential records room with their lives.

The interns realized they only had this path left, their moods heavy, but fortunately, their resilience was strong, and no one cried out. They followed Zhao Yu silently.

This time, they successfully reached the entrance to the confidential records room. There was a barrier protecting it, and when necessary, Zhao Yu could use the authority granted by his position to activate the barrier, making it somewhat safer.

Knowing there was a barrier protecting them, Xue Lan let out a slight sigh of relief and patted her chest gently, saying, “Thank goodness, this time we didn’t end up going in circles.”

Lian Gu said, “It seems Ruan Shu only sealed off the exit. His abilities aren’t powerful enough to trap us in one place.”

“That makes it even more troublesome,” Yun Xiguang and Zhao Yu said simultaneously.

Looking at each other, they knew their speculations matched.

Yun Xiguang spoke first, “If I were Ruan Shu, I certainly wouldn’t want my enemies to come to the entrance of the confidential records room. That would cause a lot of trouble for my actions.”

Zhao Yu said, “However, on our way to the confidential records room, Ruan Shu didn’t try to stop us. This doesn’t make sense.”

Yun Xiguang said, “Either he has already stopped us, and someone among us has fallen victim.”

Zhao Yu said, “Or he’s stalling for time, preparing to forcibly open the door of the confidential records room. This indicates that the longer time drags on, the stronger Ruan Shu becomes, making him harder to deal with.”

Yun Xiguang said, “I guess that within the archives room, Ruan Shu should grow stronger over time, and the reason for his growth should be related to these case records that have turned into blank paper.”

While the two were discussing countermeasures, Wu Ailang curiously popped his head out and said, “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. I only have one question. Isn’t Ruan Shu just an intern like us? Isn’t Director Zhao a Grade A Spiritbond Master? Why does it seem like we can hardly handle him even if we join forces?”

“I don’t understand either,” Zhao Yu sighed. “On the first day of reporting, I couldn’t figure out what Ruan Shu’s spirit beast was, and the list passed on by the Youying Spiritbond Academy didn’t include information on the interns’ spirit beasts.”

Zhao Yu could have asked the teachers at Youying Spiritbond Academy, but he was still somewhat arrogant, believing that he shouldn’t be unable to discern a mere intern’s spirit beast. He insisted on probing Ruan Shu’s depth on his own, and he dragged things out until today.

“It was my arrogance,” Zhao Yu sighed.

Yun Xiguang didn’t want Director Zhao to blame himself too much, so he said, “Our top priority is to determine Ruan Shu’s spirit beast so we can devise targeted strategies. Classmate Ji, you and Ruan Shu are both from Youying Spiritbond Academy and have been classmates for years. Do you know what his spirit beast is?”

Ji Sisi subconsciously touched her Phantom Butterfly hair clip and shook her head. “Our academy’s teaching focus is on how to hide the traces of spirit beasts when there’s no contract space. Unless classmates are particularly close, they won’t know about each other’s spirit beasts. Ruan Shu and I were just ordinary classmates. Over the years, we’ve spoken less than ten sentences to each other, so I don’t know what his spirit beast is.”

“This is problematic. Different spirit beasts require different methods to deal with,” Zhao Yu glanced back at the door to the confidential records room. “I hope we can hold out until the outside world realizes something is wrong with the archives room. If we can’t hold out and no reinforcements arrive, then I’ll have to…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone understood. Zhao Yu’s intention was that he’d have to activate the self-destruct function of the confidential records room, taking everything down with him.

Everyone was in a heavy mood.

Yun Xiguang comforted everyone, “We don’t need to hold out for long. As long as we can hold out for six hours, someone will come looking for us.”

“Who could come looking for us?” Xue Lan asked. “Director Zhao has already instructed us that we might work overtime tonight. It’s only two in the afternoon, and it’ll be hard for anyone to notice anything unusual with the archives room before eight tomorrow morning. We have to hold out for at least eighteen hours. How could it be just six hours?”

Yun Xiguang pointed at Wu Ailang, who was trying hard to squeeze behind him. “Don’t forget, he’s on duty tonight at eight. If he doesn’t show up at the field team, Leader Ling should come to the Records Department to fetch him.”

Zhao Yu’s tiger eyes lit up, and he slapped the wheelchair. “With Old Ling’s personality, he’ll definitely come to the archives room to fetch him!”

Compared to aimlessly enduring indefinitely, six hours seemed like a more manageable duration.

Having a specific time frame, everyone rekindled hope.