Chapter 187: Decryption | Noah Pipe Successfully Transforms!

The skiing trip to Mount Nathanjoya was just too intense—no one felt like going back for a second round anytime soon.

So, after hitching a ride back to the ranger cabin, everyone spent the rest of the winter break taking it easy. They stayed put in the heated cabin, listening to the radio, binge-watching shows, and occasionally taking walks in the forest. From time to time, they would use their homemade bows to hunt small animals, practicing their skills.

During this period, Rebecca kept a quiet but constant eye on the news from Micano City.

Around New Year’s Day, media reports claimed that a serious natural gas leak had occurred in Micano’s urban area. A damaged pipeline had come into contact with an open flame, triggering a chain of explosions throughout the city and causing multiple civilian casualties.

At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary accident—easy to scroll past while browsing the news. But Rebecca had been an established fortune-teller in Micano for years and had an extensive network of contacts.

According to one of her friends who lived in the city, what happened before New Year’s wasn’t a gas leak at all. Instead, a massive creature had appeared in the city, killing and devouring civilians along its path.

“That day was absolutely terrifying. I was eating at a restaurant just a few blocks away. While I was eating, I started hearing screams coming from the distance. Not long after, several people ran past covered in blood, shouting that a monster was eating people. Soon after that, there were bursts of gunfire and explosions from that direction. I got scared and went straight home. The next day, the military started sending people into the neighborhoods, telling everyone it was just a gas leak… Seriously, who would believe that?” Rebecca’s friend spoke excitedly over the phone.

“Did the monster die?”

“Of course it did. I heard the military later deployed armed helicopters—no way something like that wouldn’t be killed.”

“Alright, got it. Thanks.”

After hanging up, Rebecca lit some coca leaves and performed a divination for Micano City amid the curling smoke. The result showed that the gloom hanging over the city had already dissipated—the matter was indeed over.

“Everly, thank you for taking care of me during this time. I’ve been away too long, and several regular clients are waiting for me. I’ll head back to Micano now.”

After confirming that the danger had passed, Rebecca packed her belongings and said her goodbyes to Everly near the end of winter break.

Old John was leaving as well.

His trip to New Osebuch State had three purposes: first, to seek refuge; second, to check on his granddaughter’s university living environment and spend Christmas and New Year with her; and third, to make a stop in the neighboring Yonah State, specifically Yonah City.

Someone there was selling the latest model of a water purification system. Its performance was advertised as almost miraculous, and the price was outrageously high. Old John had long wanted to upgrade the purification system in his underground shelter. He was very interested in the product but worried that it might not live up to its claims, so he hadn’t placed an order.

He had already arranged a time and place to meet the seller online—right around the end of the winter break.

After reluctantly seeing Old John off, the new semester began, and Everly and Misha moved back into their dormitory.

It had to be said—American efficiency could be shockingly low.

The avalanche on Mount Nathanjoya had occurred in late December, yet the subsequent rescue efforts dragged on for a full month before the last remains of the victims buried beneath the snow were finally recovered.

Later investigations into the cause of the avalanche found that human activity at the mountaintop had weakened the cohesion of the snowpack on the steep slope. This first triggered a small slab avalanche at the summit, which then disrupted the internal balance of the accumulated snow and led to a much larger avalanche.

Investigators also discovered skeletal remains of climbers in the surrounding avalanche area. Further examination confirmed that the two sets of remains belonged to two mountaineers who had previously gone missing.

After this incident, the climbing route on Mount Nathanjoya was officially designated as a “prohibited crossing route.” Any mountaineer caught attempting to pass through illegally would face a fine of up to 5,000 USD and detention.

Of course, all of that came later.

For now, after the avalanche area had been cleared, Everly waited several more days. It wasn’t until early February 2X16 that she finally received a call from the lodge owner, informing her that the road up the mountain had been cleared and she could come retrieve her car.

Life without a car was indeed inconvenient, so one weekend, Everly rented a vehicle and went to Mount Nathanjoya with Misha.

Passing by Pence Ski Resort along the way, Everly saw that the snow at the base of the mountain had already been cleared, revealing the ruined remains of the ski resort. Beneath the battered entrance sign, countless flowers and candles had been placed in mourning.

Even more than a month later, family members of the victims still lingered at the foot of the mountain, gazing at the silent, towering snow peak with tears streaming down their faces.

Sometimes death is just a number; other times, it cuts deep into the bone.

Moving past the ruins of the ski resort and continuing up the cleared mountain road, the two finally arrived at the Yomoor Holiday Lodge.

At this point, the lodge had already resumed operations. It was said that the kind-hearted owners deeply sympathized with the victims’ families and had been providing them with free lodging and meals during this period.

Seeing Everly and Misha, the couple warmly came out to greet them. Behind them stood an unexpected figure—the mystery novelist Lucas.

Compared to his previously spirited demeanor, he had grown much thinner, and his whole presence seemed weighed down.

“I originally came to the mountain lodge for a vacation, to gather material for my new novel. I never expected that decision would end my writing career…” Seeing Everly and Misha, he gave a somewhat dejected smile. “Ever since that night, I haven’t been able to write a proper mystery novel again. No matter what kind of plot I come up with, the moment I think about those supernatural beings that can ignore the laws of physics, I just can’t continue writing.”

“…”

Wow. That’s rough.

“I’m really lost right now. I don’t know what I should do in the future… Miss Everly, I’ve been waiting here for you these past days just to ask—what do you think I should do?”

Everly had no idea what advice to give.

“Then just write supernatural fiction instead. It’s all still fiction—there’s bound to be some overlap. And paranormal stories still need logic,” she said offhandedly, brushing him off.

It was meant as a casual remark, but a few months later, the famous mystery novelist “Noah Pipe” actually did switch genres.

Drawing inspiration from his experience being trapped at the Yomoor Snow Mountain lodge, he wrote a supernatural horror novel titled Snow Mountain Terror. After it was released, his loyal fans were initially confused, but out of affection for the author, they still gave it a try.

And once they started reading, they were completely hooked.

[A truly fascinating book. The first half is packed with classic ‘snowbound manor’ mystery elements, but the second half overturns all the earlier deductions through a series of twists, steering the truth toward the supernatural. Going back and rereading the first half, you realize the clues were subtly planted all along. From this perspective, the core is still Mr. Noah’s signature mystery style—it’s just that the method of the crime no longer follows the laws of physics…]

[This is the most gripping horror novel I’ve ever read! It’s also Mr. Noah’s first time making a female character the protagonist. Liv is just a college student, yet she’s calm, intelligent, highly skilled, and possesses an uncanny intuition. Even by the end of the novel, her secrets remain unrevealed. Does that mean there’s hope for a whole series centered around her?]

[Yes! Liv is incredibly charismatic. Even as a woman myself, I’m completely captivated by her… Please turn this into a series—I’ll follow you forever, Mr. Noah!]

Searching for the book online and clicking on any random reader review, all Everly could see was a flood of praise.

Everly: “…”

Although the novel had deliberately obscured Liv’s identity—so that no one except those who had personally experienced the snow mountain lodge incident would connect the character to Everly—she still felt as if she were being publicly exposed. It was unbearably awkward.

But at this point, Everly had no idea what the future would bring.

After retrieving the car from the lodge, she said goodbye to the owner couple and drove back down the mountain with Misha, returning to Dalami City.

For a period afterward, aside from her studies, Everly focused most of her energy on deciphering the text Old John had managed to recover.

The note had been accidentally torn from a page, so the writing was split into two incomplete lines.

The first line read: “enviar a Juan Ponce de L,” and the second line read: “a la Hispani.”

Everly looked it up online. “enviar” is a verb in Spanish or Portuguese meaning “to send” or “to dispatch.” The common structure is “enviar + a + someone + a + place / to do something.”

From this, she inferred that “Juan Ponce de L” was likely a person’s name.

Considering the sentence was written in Spanish or Portuguese, Everly added those countries as keywords when entering the name into the search bar. This search actually led her to a seemingly relevant historical figure—Juan Ponce de León.

He was a Spanish explorer whose full name, “Juan Ponce de León,” matched the text on the note perfectly.

As for information about him, there wasn’t much available online. Most sources simply described his achievements, noting his close ties to the histories of Puerto Rico and Florida.

However, when Everly brought Juan’s name to a university history professor and, on the professor’s recommendation, purchased a rare book titled A Brief History of the New World, she was pleasantly surprised to find that her line of investigation was not wrong—Juan was indeed connected to the Fountain of Youth.

The author of the book was Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, an official Spanish historian of the 16th century. The entire work was written in Spanish, which was good news since translation software could handle it.

In the book, Peter Martyr mentions that in 1511, Juan—who was then in the Americas—wrote a letter to the Spanish king Ferdinand.

In the letter, Juan claimed that during the torture and interrogation of Indigenous people on the island of Hispaniola, his soldiers accidentally learned of a legend concerning the Fountain of Youth.

—As a side note, “Hispaniola” refers to what is now known as Haiti.

The Spanish spelling of Hispaniola is “Hispaniola,” which perfectly matched the word at the end of the second line of the note. And “la” in Spanish functions similarly to “the” in English, so Everly concluded that the second line of the note most likely referred to the island of Haiti.

Returning to the book’s contents:

The Indigenous people captured on the island told Juan that in the northwestern waters of Hispaniola, there existed a mysterious island containing a spring that granted immortality. This island was associated with a distant oceanic tribe’s deity, and out of fear of offending that god, the people of Hispaniola dared not set foot there.

The island was known among the natives as “Pavuka Oris Ananino.”

As a king, Ferdinand naturally desired eternal youth. Therefore, upon hearing that Juan had obtained information about the Fountain of Youth, in 1512 Ferdinand dispatched naval forces and an expedition team from Hispaniola to assist Juan in searching for the island of Pavuka Oris Ananino.

They quickly realized this was a massive undertaking.

The Indigenous descriptions were far too vague. Starting from Hispaniola and heading northwest, the expedition would pass through more than a hundred islands—most of which belonged to what is now the Bahamas. The sailors at the time had no idea which island contained the Fountain of Youth, so they had no choice but to stop at every island they encountered and drink its water.

Even so, after crossing a vast strait and reaching what is now the modern state of Delaware (referred to in the text as “Dalifer State”), they still had not found the location of Pavuka Oris Ananino.

Realizing that continuing like this would likely consume far more time than they could afford, Juan wrote to the king for assistance, requesting that the monarch “collaborate with the Church and seek its support.”

This passage was written vaguely by Peter Martyr, without specifying what kind of “support” it referred to.

In any case, seven years after the first failed attempt, a naval vessel directly escorted by the royal fleet arrived in Hispaniola, delivering several mysterious women with black cloths covering their heads into Juan’s custody.

Not long after that, Juan claimed he had finally identified the general location of the island. In 1521, he set out once again in search of the Fountain of Youth.

However, something went wrong along the way. This time as well, he failed to find the island.

After a futile search, in July, the fleet landed at what is now Charlotte Harbor in Delaware. Shortly afterward, Juan was struck by an arrow during a battle with local Indigenous people and died. Most of the soldiers accompanying him also perished in the conflict, while a few survivors fled in the chaos.

With that, the Spanish Crown’s pursuit of the Fountain of Youth finally came to an end.

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Author’s Note:

The history of Juan’s search for the Fountain of Youth contains some fictionalized elements. It can be regarded as an alternate-history within a fictional world.