What This Means

My goodness...

When Luo Qi finally arrived at the scene and saw the vast emptiness before him, as if it had been evaporated out of thin air, even someone as experienced as him could not help widening his eyes.

Luo Qi had always known Isaiah was strong, the number one figure in the Star Relic Sect, but he had assumed Isaiah could not be that much stronger than him. With the Corpse Pieces aiding him, if they really fought, even if it was not an even match, it should at least be a four-six split. At worst, perhaps three-seven?

But the scene before him slapped Luo Qi hard across the face. That horrifying white light from earlier still left his eyes somewhat dizzy, and he could not help wondering whether he could withstand it if he were the one fighting Isaiah.

Probably not.

But this was far too absurd. That old man did not even have any Corpse Pieces, yet he could achieve something like this?

Was this what a Star Relic Sorcerer was capable of?

But the skies were bad tonight. There were barely any stars visible. If Isaiah could fight like this under such conditions, what would he be capable of on a true Spotless Night?

At that thought, Luo Qi could not help feeling a trace of dread as he looked at Isaiah. Just then, Isaiah glanced at him. It was an utterly ordinary look, yet it immediately made Luo Qi stand at attention. He promptly greeted him politely, "Mr. Isaiah, you have worked hard."

Thank goodness they were allies. Otherwise, killing him would probably have been no more than a casual matter for Isaiah.

Luo Qi was quite self-aware in that regard.

Isaiah merely gave a quiet hum, revealing nothing of what he was thinking. He did not even respond when his student Mina came forward to ask him something. He simply watched the forces from various factions continuously rushing toward them.

There were Star Relic Sorcerers, Rhine Knights, Dream Weavers from Eternal Nightmare, Guardians from Contract Land, and several surviving black merchants.

The commotion earlier had simply been too great, naturally alerting all the factions stationed nearby.

Isaiah's gaze swept across every faction before he seemingly casually glanced at Luo Qi. In the end, however, he did nothing.

"Mr. Isaiah." Fenris of Eternal Nightmare stepped forward and asked respectfully, "Have you dealt with those two fugitives?"

Was that not obvious?

Luo Qi could not help mocking him inwardly.

After all this, could those two possibly still be alive?

Thinking of that damned freak being blasted into dust by that scorching light earlier, Luo Qi felt a rush of satisfaction, as if even the pain in his right hand, which had lost four fingers, had disappeared.

Then came the part where they would need to scheme against each other over dividing the Corpse Pieces.

Luo Qi glanced once more at the emptiness behind Isaiah.

Clearly, not even that freak's bones remained, but Visas' Corpse Pieces had to still be there. There was no method in this world capable of destroying Corpse Pieces.

Luo Qi's original plan had been to show up while Isaiah was fighting, make himself known, and claim just a tiny bit of credit so that he would qualify to receive some Corpse Pieces. But in reality, he had not even arrived before Isaiah had already ended the battle. That made things rather awkward.

Still, Luo Qi was not worried that Isaiah would keep them all for himself.

After all, there were Three Corpse Pieces. No matter how bold Isaiah was, there was absolutely no way he would...

"No. The ones I fought were not those two fugitives."

Everyone froze.

Fenris was shocked. "Not those two fugitives?"

Isaiah gave another quiet hum. "Tonight, from beginning to end, I never saw the Seven Sound Player you spoke of, nor the scholar who possessed forbidden knowledge. They were not here at all. The one I fought was a madman who came from who knew where. His target was not me, but the black merchants here. I only acted in order to save those black merchants."

Hearing this, everyone, Mina included, exchanged looks, thinking Isaiah was joking.

"H-how could that be?" Mina said. "Teacher, could it be that you..."

"Enough." Isaiah had no intention of explaining further. He turned and left. "I am tired. I will leave the cleanup to you."

This sudden development completely bewildered everyone. Yet they could not possibly stop Isaiah, so they could only watch him leave. Mina led the Star Relic Sorcerers after him, leaving Luo Qi and Fenris standing there at a loss.

"What does this mean?" Fenris asked Luo Qi. "If it was not the Seven Sound Player and Ai De Wen, then who was it?"

"You ask me? How would I know?" With Isaiah gone, Luo Qi no longer needed to play the obedient student. His brows immediately furrowed. "What nonsense is that old man talking about?"

They had followed the Tongue all the way here, yet Isaiah was now saying that the one he had dealt with was not the Tongue?

If it was not the Tongue, then who else could it have been? Who else could fight Isaiah to this extent?

And he said the other party had come for the black merchants, while he had acted to protect them... What kind of ridiculous excuse was that?

Where were the black merchants? Why was there nothing left?

What exactly had he protected?

Moreover, Luo Qi was certain Isaiah was lying. While Isaiah had been fighting, he could sense that undisguised power that belonged to Visas.

But he did not understand why Isaiah was lying...

Hm?

Luo Qi thought of something. He narrowed his eyes slightly and muttered, "You old bastard, you really want to keep all Three Corpse Pieces for yourself."

"Teacher, Teacher!" Mina quickly caught up to Isaiah. "Please wait for me."

Isaiah stopped, but he did not turn around. With his back to Mina, he asked, "What is it?"

Mina's heart abruptly trembled.

She could feel the undisguised chill Isaiah held toward her.

But... why? Had she done something wrong?

Mina suppressed her unease and dread, asking carefully, "What... exactly happened tonight?"

"You are asking me?"

"This student is asking her teacher."

"Oh, I thought you knew."

"This student... does not know." Mina became anxious. "This student has been acting according to your instructions all along. I do not understand what she has done wrong. Please enlighten me."

"Acting according to my instructions." Isaiah spoke softly. "So that is how it is."

"...Teacher?"

Isaiah waved his hand, dismissing the other Star Relic Sorcerers and leaving only himself and Mina.

Only then did he slowly speak. "Tell me directly, Mina. What sort of price did that Tongue offer you, for my most beloved student to betray me?"

Mina's eyes widened instantly, and even her voice began to tremble. "Teacher... how could I possibly betray you?"

"If you did not betray me, then why did you come here tonight?" Isaiah finally turned around, fixing Mina with his cold eyes. "Do not tell me you remembered the time incorrectly."

"An accident happened tonight. It was because the Holy Sound Player acted a day early and alerted the target. We had no choice but to follow up."

"If there was an accident, why did you not report it?"

"I-I did report it."

"Oh?" Isaiah narrowed his eyes slightly. "You reported it? How did you report it? In a dream?"

"O-of course not." Mina panicked. "I used the star chart to report it."

"If so, why not open your star chart and take a look?"

Mina hurriedly opened her star chart, wanting to prove herself. But she quickly discovered that the last message in her star chart sent to Isaiah had been her speculation that Luo Qi was the Thumb. Everything after that was blank.

"No, h-how could this be?!" Mina had never expected this. "I clearly reported it to you. It was last night. I-I-I..."

Faced with undeniable proof, Mina's voice grew quieter and quieter, while her expression became increasingly panicked.

Throughout this, Isaiah had been watching his prized student. If Mina truly harbored ulterior motives and had lied, she would never have escaped the sight of his right eye.

But Mina displayed no abnormalities. Isaiah could determine that everything she had said was true.

Since that was the case, Isaiah had no reason to continue testing Mina. He said directly, "Tell me everything that happened from last night until now... everything."

"Yes!"

Mina could sense that Isaiah no longer suspected her, but there was no time to feel relieved. She hurriedly told him everything, from last night's operation in Dela Town to arriving at the scene just now. She did not dare leave out even the smallest detail.

After hearing it all, Isaiah roughly understood the situation. He then said quietly, "That was the Tongue."

"...Teacher?" Mina did not understand what Isaiah meant.

"All of us stepped into the trap laid by the Tongue."

Isaiah drew a deep breath to ease the negative emotions in his heart. Ever since obtaining that eye, he had never suffered a loss in any regard. Before him, anyone was like someone dancing naked. No scheme, no conspiracy could escape that eye.

Yet now, he had stepped straight into someone else's trap.

As he recalled what he had said to Lai Er during their earlier battle—"The rules I possess surpass yours"—the indescribable sense of defeat within him grew even stronger.

"The Tongue's rules guided all of this," Isaiah slowly said. "The Holy Sound Player and you were both influenced by him."

"I... was influenced by him?"

"Have you not noticed what was wrong with what you just told me?" Isaiah said coldly. "You explained everything clearly. You even noticed details like that old asshole Luo Qi secretly giving himself a thumbs-up every now and then. Yet when it came to reporting to me, you were strangely vague."

Mina's mouth slowly fell open.

"Because it never happened. Someone implanted false memories into your mind," Isaiah said. "That is why, just like those Holy Sound Players, you were unknowingly controlled!"

Mina broke out in a cold sweat. Once she understood everything, she immediately dropped to her knees before Isaiah.

"I am sorry, Teacher... this is all my fault!" Mina clenched her teeth. "Please punish me!"

Isaiah looked at his prized student. In the past, he might have lectured her, but after personally witnessing the Tongue's power and realizing that even he had been caught in its snare, he had no grounds to blame Mina.

"Get up," Isaiah said. "The past has no meaning. What matters is the future."

Mina pressed her lips together, but still rose to her feet. Then she asked in confusion, "According to what you said, if the person influencing us was the Tongue, then who was the person we had been tracking, the one with the Forbidden Scholar? And the one who fought you tonight... was that the Tongue himself?"

"The one who fought me tonight was a black merchant named Lai Er... the very person who once came to our door posing as an envoy of Contract Land. At the time, his alias was Lai Si." Isaiah spoke slowly. "He used the Tongue's rules on me. It was precisely because I experienced that feeling of being controlled myself that I understood what happened on your side."

Mina naturally remembered Lai Er as well. "Then it seems he was the Tongue himself. Did you kill him?"

"Of course," Isaiah said. "And I obtained his Corpse Piece."

He obtained the Tongue's Corpse Piece?

Mina's heart jolted.

Did that not mean Teacher Isaiah now possessed four Corpse Pieces?

But keeping four Corpse Pieces without handing them over, was that not somewhat...

Mina was about to ask when she saw Isaiah spread open his palm and show her a severed middle finger. She could not help freezing.

Why was it... a middle finger?

Several seconds later, an indescribable sense of terror shot from Mina's feet to her brain. Every hair on her body stood on end.

"Th-this..." Mina could not even speak.

"There is only this finger. I can confirm that it is genuine," Isaiah said calmly.

Looking at the finger before her, Mina's breathing became abnormally heavy. Countless questions surged into her heart alongside terror, tangled together like an impossible knot.

"The Hand Eye and the Tongue..." she said with difficulty. "Are they the same person?"

"I do not know." Beneath Isaiah's calm tone seemed to churn countless emotions. "There is too much unknown information. I cannot determine whether they are the same person, or whether one has already killed the other. The only thing certain is that all of Peach Blossom Paradise is a deception woven by him, or by them."

Mina looked at Isaiah. "Even you cannot see through it?"

"If I could see through it, I would not be in this situation now," Isaiah said. "Have you not considered why he left this finger for me?"

Mina followed Isaiah's line of thought. It took only a moment for her face to turn pale.

"This is... framing you," Mina said softly. "This way, everyone will believe you killed the Tongue and obtained Three Corpse Pieces."

"Yes. That is his objective."

"Can you hand this finger over?" Mina asked. "Tell Contract Land everything and let Contract Land punish him?"

"Do you think Contract Land would believe me?" Isaiah said. "Who saw that I only obtained this one finger?"

No one had seen it.

By the time they arrived at the scene, everything had already ended.

In other words, the moment Isaiah killed Lai Er and picked up that finger, he had already fallen into the trap.

Mina still refused to give up. "But the Tongue did not have fingers to begin with, and after you were affected by the Tongue's rules, you picked up a finger..."

Mina could not finish, because she realized the most crucial problem.

"It seems you have thought of it." Isaiah spoke softly. "The information that 'the Tongue and the Hand Eye are not the same person' came from Peach Blossom Paradise, not information possessed by Contract Land."

"In the information held by Contract Land, which was provided by Rhine, there was no Tongue and no Hand Eye. There was only one person. His name was Ulu."

"And why did Contract Land convene the gathering? Because Rhine believed Ulu had most likely obtained four Corpse Pieces, including the finger and the Tongue."

"In other words, once it is confirmed that the person I killed was Ulu, then in Contract Land's eyes..." Isaiah looked at Mina and spoke each word distinctly, "I have now obtained those four Corpse Pieces."

"Do you know what this means?"