"With the Japan Islands setting combined with folklore, I can already anticipate the style of this script task..."

Wang Congshan rubbed her brow, troubled, "But Ogashira Masashi might not necessarily be the father,

he could be Tetsuya and Ayaka’s uncle, elder, or grandfather—at the very least someone they were quite close to and valued.

By the way, what’s the content of the other newspaper?"

"Let me take a look."

Li Ang looked at the second clipping,

The title of the clipping was a sudden geological disaster in Gumma County’s mountain village.

"A Richter scale 7.0 earthquake suddenly struck Fate Carving Village in eastern Gumma County, and coupled with six consecutive days of intense rainfall, triggered a mudslide from the adjacent Yuan Shan, destroying local surface buildings and causing the entire village’s residents to go missing."

This newspaper was even more severely faded and aged, with many paper fibers formed from the softening of the edges, and the newspaper’s typography was much more old-fashioned.

"The date is July of Showa 54,"

Wang Congshan calculated, saying, "That should be, in the real world, the late 1970s, precisely 40 years from 2019, 30 years since Ogashira Masashi’s disappearance.

A magnitude 7 earthquake capable of cooperating with a mudslide to destroy an entire village...

Could it be the one we just felt?"

"Possibly."

Li Ang carefully inspected the clipping itself, finding no layers or hidden text,

The backs of both clippings were incomplete reports, one about a Japan Islands comedy movie actor’s death and the other about a nuclear power plant accident in the United States, likely unrelated to the current situation.

Li Ang thought for a moment and took out the tear-off memo pad from his jacket pocket.

Many pages of the memo pad had already been torn off, and the remaining pages contained some drawings,

including a samurai wearing armor, holding a katana, and wearing a Prajna mask;

A stone well beneath a twisted dry tree;

A torii set up halfway up a mountain;

In addition, there were several drawings with lines too sloppy to discern specific depictions.

"Samurai, stone well, torii."

Wang Congshan carefully observed these three drawings, frowning, "This should be the potential hint given by the system, but I don’t know what they each represent."

"Hmm."

Li Ang nodded, currently the clues could only be gathered up to this point,

He glanced around, after the earthquake subsided, the surrounding forest fell silent once again,

The ground was shrouded with a layer of thin fog, in the night no bug buzz or bird calls could be heard, the quiet was somewhat terrifying.

As Li Ang observed around, he said, "In this script task, you can only choose one item, one skill, have you decided?"

"I’ve decided."

Wang Congshan said, "After all, I only have the ability of a Traveling Mage and the item Axis Cube.

So I chose these two.

But because attribute enhancement is restricted, my Spirit Energy Value cap is also lowered, only under 500 points.

The equipment in the Axis Cube can’t all be taken out, just one or two items."

After saying that, she tested it, and the electronic equipment in the cube, like drones, night vision goggles, even flashlights, couldn’t be used,

Currently, only a semi-automatic pistol and a bulletproof vest could be accessed at a relatively low cost.

The enchanted-bullet assault rifle that was assimilated by Axis Cube, maybe due to its high quality, just one rifle alone takes up the entire Spirit Energy quota.

Li Ang said, "You should equip the bulletproof vest and pistol first, the Traveling Mage ability isn’t very useful here."

Wang Congshan nodded, "What about you?"

"I chose this stick for gear,"

Li Ang waved the [Heart Monkey] in his hand, "As for the skill, it’s Spiritual Energy."

Psychic Abilities have six schools, each school has its own specialization, and the source of Spiritual Energy is spiritual power, thus less constrained by Spirit Energy Value.

Although due to restricted attributes now, high-level abilities can’t be used,

Zero-level and first-level abilities are enough to cover many special situations.

Regarding dealing with supernatural phenomena, it’s stronger compared to the severely weakened Swamp God Power system.

"Stage one task goal is to let us head to Fate Carving Village, which theoretically was destroyed by earthquake disaster in Showa 54."

Li Ang glanced at the road ahead, "There is no task time limit set, so we can’t deduce the approximate distance from a time limit.

Hmm... Let’s first see if there’s a shortcut other than this muddy path around here."

The two explored the surroundings and found fifty meters behind, a wooden sign, battered by weather and nearly decayed, indicating Fate Carving Village ahead.

Behind the wooden sign was a deep chasm, likely created by the earthquake,

The chasm’s Abyss was unfathomable, and dense fog filled the gorge, dropping a stone down, it took about ten seconds before the faint sound was heard.

And on the road surface on the other side of the chasm, thick fog also lingered.

"In horror games, this would be the map boundary that won’t let you pass."

Li Ang examined the chasm, tore a vine from a nearby tree, tied one end to a stone, and wrapped the other end around the Heart Monkey staff,

Infused spiritual power into Heart Monkey to slightly extend the stick,

Like casting a fishing line, he swung the vine with the stone,

Briefly testing the depth and breadth of the Abyss.

The conclusion was, even if he infused all current spiritual power into Heart Monkey staff,

Heart Monkey’s length was still insufficient,

It couldn’t be used for pole vaulting across to the other side of the chasm.

"Alright, this is definitely designed to block the way back."

Li Ang sighed and released the vine.

Wang Congshan glanced at the fog-filled chasm, if falling down, one would surely be shattered to pieces, "Then we’ll just have to follow the sign and keep walking along this path."

They returned to the winding path, stepping forward under moonlight, noticing a stone Ksitigarbha statue placed in a stone shrine by the roadside.

The Japan Islands traditionally have the practice of worshipping Ksitigarbha, roadside Ksitigarbha stone statues are common.

However, Japan Islands’ Ksitigarbha stone statues are a fusion of Shinto beliefs and Tang Buddhism,

They can either be the traditional Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva,

Or an incarnation form of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva—Taoist Ancestor God (どうそじん), the Japan Islands version of the land deity, responsible for protecting villages, preventing plagues and evil spirits, protecting children and pedestrians.

Taoist Ancestor God is a comprehensive deity, not referring to any one god,

Therefore, the shape and form of the Taoist Ancestor God stone statues are not uniform, some even depict "mother and child Ksitigarbha."

The stone statue in front of Li Ang and Wang Congshan showed a serene expression, legs crossed, eyes closed, chanting scriptures.

On the low stone platform in front of the shrine, there were two short white candles on both sides.

"The surface of the stone platform shows obvious cleaning marks, the moss on top is much less than the bottom, but it’s unclear when exactly was cleaned.

And these two candles probably went out halfway through burning, the wax dripped down the candles, binding them to the platform, thus they weren’t blown away by the wind and rain.

Hmm... Since there’s a Taoist Ancestor God, the village should be just ahead."

Li Ang used Spiritual Energy to examine the shrine, finding no anomalies,

As the candles were quite slender, he didn’t take them as a light source—currently, the moonlight was relatively bright, and his Spiritual Energy list contained [Elf Vision], which allowed him to see in the dark.

"There’s a light over there."

Wang Congshan whispered softly, Li Ang turned around, noticing through the swaying tree shadows, faintly visible lights flickering ahead,

Those were the lights of the village.