Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 224, page 222: As shown in the picture.

One of the villas in the resort hotel.

In the room that was temporarily serving as an office, Ping Shenglong sat on the sofa and typed out his latest report.

He was well aware of Leon's recruitment efforts. As far as he was concerned, the country was unlikely to escape America's control, so he had no major reservations about working for America.

Only by leveraging existing trends can one gain momentum.

As for the future, accidents can happen at any time, and no one can see that far into the future.

He had just stopped to organize his thoughts when his phone screen lit up, displaying the name [Himeko].

He paused for two seconds before pressing the answer button, his voice calm and even: "Minister Yuan."

"Team Leader Ping." On the other end of the phone, Yuan Jizi's voice was urgent, getting straight to the point, "Regarding today's cross-investigation, did you make any key discoveries?"

Heisei Ryu's expression remained unchanged: "Minister Gen, Kurosaki's investigation is a routine cross-information verification process, aimed at completing the full picture of the incident and supplementing any details that may have been overlooked. The information that has been compiled so far has been shared to the internal system according to procedure. If there are any breakthroughs, I will not hide them and will share them with all relevant departments immediately."

A very soft gasp came from Gen Himeko's side, followed by a tone of barely suppressed urgency and disappointment.

“Ping Shenglong, you haven’t changed at all. You can’t trust anyone. Are you only interested in achievements? Wild boars, giant bears, and those out-of-control citizens. This is no longer an ordinary supernatural event. It could very well escalate into a national crisis! If we share information and cooperate, we might be able to find the source faster and stop the disaster from spreading! I can promise you that as long as you tell me the information, I will fully cooperate with you and let you take the lead.”

Himeko's voice softened, taking on a pleading tone.

"Shenglong, let's not let the disaster continue to spread and harm innocent people. We have a responsibility to the people, okay?"

Ping Shenglong's fingers tightened slightly as he gripped his phone.

He neither refuted nor explained.

He remained silent for a long while before slowly speaking, his voice clear.

"I only need to be accountable to those in power."

There was complete silence on the other end of the phone.

A few seconds later, a busy tone came through.

Genji stared at the phone in her hand, her chest heaving and her clothes taut.

She took a deep breath, suppressed her turbulent emotions, and slammed her phone down on the table.

Beside the phone, the report that Akari had just submitted was spread out, detailing Kurosaki's movements and observation locations in Kofu City, as well as the half-destroyed Jizo Bodhisattva statue that Kurosaki had been focusing on, and the content of resident interviews.

"Stone Jizo," Genjiko muttered to herself. This thing must be very important, but judging from the report alone, it clearly involves metaphysics.

The metaphysical version of Tianjin AI is not yet fully developed, but she has already assigned metaphysical experts from the Extraordinary Countermeasures Department to study it, and there should be some news soon.

She looked up at Mingli, who was standing to the side with a slightly embarrassed expression: "Mingli, tomorrow you will take a team to Ping Shenglong to conduct a cross-investigation. Focus on whether they also have Shijizang there. Record everything carefully and investigate openly and honestly."

"Yes, Minister!"

Mingli quickly straightened his back.

On Ping Shenglong's side, he stood by the window, his gaze fixed on the deep night in the forest outside.

A few minutes later, he turned around and looked at the desk that had been taken over.

At this moment, Kurosaki Chimei was lying in front of a makeshift large desk, the surface of which was covered with large sheets of washi paper and notebooks.

He held a calligraphy brush in his hand, sighing and gesturing as he repeatedly traced the crooked, ink-stained characters "口" and "" on the paper, muttering to himself.

"No. The stroke should be a leftward flick. The pressure is also wrong. What was this character originally supposed to look like?"

He seemed completely absorbed in his own world, oblivious to the tense phone call he had just received, and focused entirely on solving the riddle of the incomplete character.

"No way!" Kurosaki Chimei suddenly raised his head, looking at Heisei Ryu with frustration. "I have no calligraphy background, I can't grasp the handwriting at all! We still need to find a professional calligraphy master to deduce it. Team Leader Heisei, quickly use your connections! Find a master who understands calligraphy!"

Ping Shenglong did not answer immediately; his eyes were somewhat unfocused, as if he was still processing the exchange on the phone or thinking about something.

After a while, he slowly walked to Kurosaki Chimei's side.

Under Kurosaki Chimei's slightly surprised and puzzled gaze, Heisei Ryu silently took the ink-stained brush from his hand.

"You know calligraphy?!" Kurosaki Chimei stood there stunned.

Ping Shenglong didn't look at him, but simply replied, "Can't you tell?"

His fingers naturally adjusted his grip on the pen, with his thumb, index finger, and middle finger firmly holding the pen, his ring finger and little finger bracing against it, and his wrist suspended in the air, demonstrating perfect form.

"."

Kurosaki Chimei twitched the corner of his mouth, looking at Heisei Ryu's skillful and natural pen-holding posture, and was speechless for a moment.

Okay, this guy's posture is definitely much stronger than his; at least he can intimidate people.

"Fine, at least your pen-holding posture is better than mine."

Kurosaki Chimei quickly pointed to the two large sheets of paper spread out on the table.

"Look, this is the area of ​​the inscription and its approximate shape that I reconstructed based on the feel of the touch and the size and proportion of the stone statue."

"This is a speculative diagram of the '口' character remnant from Kofu City, and this is the '' character remnant from our side. Try to fill in the most likely complete Chinese character with it."

The table was almost entirely covered with papers, densely covered with ink stains, pencil lines, and annotations.

Ping Shenglong did not start writing immediately. He first carefully examined the two drawings, his gaze lingering for a moment on the direction of the incomplete strokes, then closed his eyes, his chest rising and falling slightly, as if adjusting his breathing and calming his mind.

Kurosaki Chimei watched from the side, muttering to himself.

Is this guy still trying to calm down after being rebuked by Genji?

Their phone call was a bit loud, loud enough to be easily heard in this quiet room, but Kurosaki didn't hear it.

Ping Shenglong is probably pretending to be nonchalant on the surface, but his heart is churning with turmoil. Tsk, what was their relationship before? Lovers? It feels like there's some dramatic backstory.

It wasn't that Kurosaki didn't care about the lives of the citizens; rather, he believed that none of the so-called metaphysical consultants and experts in the Extraordinary Countermeasures Department were capable of fighting, and they were also full of trolls. Letting them join would only add to the burden.

Even with Heisei Ryu, Kurosaki didn't let him get involved in more in-depth metaphysical knowledge.

Therefore, instead of spending time debating with those people, he should solve this riddle himself as soon as possible.

A moment later, Ping Shenglong opened his eyes, his gaze now clear and sharp.

He dipped his brush in ink and then, with his wrist suspended, began to write.

The pen strokes were steady and powerful, landing on the first sheet of paper:
Wisdom, Substitute, Person, Prosperity
Then, he switched to the second sheet of paper:

Product, Approaching, Equipment, Noise
He wrote at a moderate pace, but without appearing rusty; he must have practiced for quite some time.

Kurosaki Chimei stood nearby, his eyes fixed on the ink characters flowing from Heisei Ryu's brush.

"The wise and virtuous arrive."

After Heisei Ryu finished writing, he moved aside, only to find Kurosaki rooted to the spot, eyes wide open, staring intently at the words on the paper.

The CPU looks like it's about to burn out.

However, this also shows that he already has a plan and is frantically organizing his thoughts.

Just then, the phone on Ping Shenglong's desk suddenly rang.

He put down his pen, walked over, and answered the phone: "Minister Leon."

Leon's slightly troubled voice came from the other end of the phone: "Shenglong, just now, the center of Fujiyoshida was attacked. It was a combined attack by a herd of wild boars and those giant black bears. It was quite large."

Ping Shenglong: "How is the situation?"

"Fortunately, Muramasa and Hirosue were stationed in the city, cooperating with the local troops, and they repelled the monster horde, preventing large-scale destruction and casualties. I will have someone compile and share the details of this attack as soon as possible; please see if there are any helpful clues."

Leon quickly explained the general situation, and Ping Shenglong immediately responded after listening.

"Minister, are there any small stone statues of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in the area of ​​the attack? Especially those that have been damaged. I urgently need this information. If so, please take clear photos."

"Stone Earth Treasury?" Leon roughly understood that Ping Shenglong must have a new lead, and immediately agreed, "Okay, I'll arrange for someone to investigate right away."

Ping Shenglong had just hung up the phone and hadn't even turned around when he heard a long, almost roaring howl behind him.

"Aww—I get it!!!"

The sound was filled with ecstatic joy and the excitement of sudden enlightenment; even people outside the villa could hear it and turned to look in this direction.

Ping Shenglong was so startled that his heart skipped a beat. He subconsciously closed his eyes and took a deep breath to suppress the palpitation caused by the fright.

He turned around and saw that Kurosaki Chimei was so excited that his face was flushed, as if he were drunk, and his eyes were shining as he stared intently at the few words that Heisei Ryu had just written, especially "Lin" and "Zhe".

He rushed forward suddenly, his hands gripping Ping Shenglong's shoulders like iron clamps, his strength astonishing, his voice trembling and distorted with excitement:
"I know! I know! It's that one! That one, that one!"

Ping Shenglong pressed down on his shoulders, stared at him calmly, and slowly suppressed his emotions.

"Don't speak yet."

"Hoo hoo. Okay, okay." Kurosaki took a deep breath.

"Have you calmed down? Tell me what you found." Heisei Ryu let go of his hand and walked to the table.

Kurosaki quickly followed, throwing the large piece of paper he had just been treasuring onto the ground and pulling out a large-scale map of Yamanashi Prefecture.

"You must have already guessed when you wrote it, after all, those two words are so obvious." Kurosaki grinned at him.

Heisei Ryu hummed in agreement: "Is it a Linhezhe?"

“Yes.” Kurosaki nodded vigorously, took out a marker, marked the center of Kofu City on the map, and wrote “Rin” on it.

Then write "者" on the location of the resort hotel.

Next, two dots were drawn, one in the center and one in the suburbs of Fujiyoshida City, and the marker was drawn: "Next, one of these two places will be attacked. Once we know which one it is—"

“This is the city center. Just now.” Ping Shenglong nodded.

Kurosaki opened his mouth, then continued writing.

Soon, he officially marked nine points on the map.

"As shown in the picture! This is the answer, the true target of those crazed beasts!"

"Mirroring the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper and the Nine Words of Ksitigarbha Formation—although I made up this name, that's the core idea!"

"The language of the formation is simple: use water to seal fire. Seal something within Mount Fuji!"

"The fact that mountains, rivers, and lakes can be used as part of the seal means that the person who set up this formation must be a powerful Taoist or Yin-Yang master! And the one sealed inside must be a great demon!"

"But even the most exquisite formation cannot withstand the vicissitudes of time. Now, it is obvious that the sealing power has weakened considerably, giving that great demon an opportunity to take advantage."

"If it were me breaking the formation, I would definitely break the Left and Right Assistants first, then start with the Broken Army and Martial Stars, and finally the Greedy Wolf Star, so as to achieve the effect of extinguishing the fire, causing the earth to collapse, the metal to fall, the wood to rot, and the water to decay! In the end, the entire seal will collapse in due course."

"But clearly, the other side has bigger ambitions; they want more than just breaking the formation!"

“Look, apart from the Left and Right Assistants, among the remaining seven stars of the Big Dipper, three are in water and three are on land, while the Giant Gate is in the Fuji River, which is half water and half land, locking the water and connecting the land.”

"I suspect, no, I'm certain, that this sealed great demon intends to trigger a massive flood disaster by breaking the seal! Therefore, its order should be to first break the Left and Right Assistants, then the three land-based stars of Greed Wolf, Literature Star, and Martial Star, followed by the three lake-based stars. Finally..."

Kurosaki spoke at length, took a deep breath, and moved the brush to the character "兵" (soldier), the point where the Fuji River converges, representing the giant gate, and looked solemnly at Heimori Ryu.

"The Jumen Gate has collapsed, flooding the Jiafu Basin!"

(End of this chapter)