[First, Aunt showed up at exactly the right time.]
[How did she happen to be at the Star Dou Great Forest, and how did she happen to find me?]
[Second, earlier, at the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.]
[Hu Liena's interest in me clearly went beyond the normal. She seemed to be watching me all the time, with that inquisitive look in her eyes.]
[I thought I'd done a good job of hiding things. What exactly had she noticed?]
The text stopped there.
Hu Liena and Liu Erlong both felt their hearts tighten.
Yu Tiancheng stared at the questions, his gaze turning grave.
Either of those things on its own might have been a coincidence or an accident, but happening one after the other made them seem strangely suspicious.
[I have a vague feeling that some things might not be as simple as they seem.]
He continued writing, the tip of his pen wavering slightly.
[I'll have to confirm this suspicion in a bit.]
Confirm?
Confirm what?
At almost the same moment, in different corners of the continent, several holders of Diary Copies all felt their hearts skip a beat!
Near the Star Dou Great Forest, in a room at an inn in a small town.
Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and Xiao Wu were squeezed into one room.
After the incident at the Star Dou Great Forest and the journey, they were all a little tired. But the warmth that suddenly emanated from their Diary Copies instantly woke them up.
The three of them wordlessly took out their copies and quickly flipped through them.
When they saw Yu Tiancheng's suspicions about Liu Erlong and Hu Liena, along with that meaningful "confirm," the air in the room seemed to freeze for a moment.
"Rongrong, Zhuqing, what do you think he figured out?"
Xiao Wu couldn't hold back her question.
Zhu Zhuqing had no idea either. She stayed silent and turned to look at Ning Rongrong.
Ning Rongrong thought for a while, then offered a guess:
"I think he's figured out that someone can read his diary."
Xiao Wu covered her mouth, nearly crying out in surprise. Her lively eyes filled with shock and panic.
"He suspects we can read his diary!"
Zhu Zhuqing had never considered that possibility either, and she looked just as shocked.
"How could he? Just from Liu Erlong and Hu Liena's unrelated actions?"
She thought it over quickly. If that was really the case, Yu Tiancheng's mind might be frighteningly sharp.
Ning Rongrong hadn't expected the two of them to react so strongly.
She made a face and replied, "I'm only guessing. What if he's thinking of something else?"
"Then what do we do?" Xiao Wu looked at her two companions, flustered. "If that's really what he thinks, could he set a trap in his diary? Or... stop writing about anything important?"
Zhu Zhuqing forced herself to calm down and reasoned, "If that's the case, we'll have to be more careful when we read his diary. We can't react too obviously just because we know what it says."
Those few lines had made all three of them nervous. They felt as if they'd gone from safe bystanders to "spies" who might be discovered.
In the Pope's Palace, Bibi Dong suddenly realized something too.
"Oh?" A barely audible syllable slipped from her perfect lips, yet it carried immense weight in the empty hall.
"To have figured something out from such tiny clues... His insight and ability to make connections are truly surprising."
Meanwhile, the two people involved were still confused, with no idea what was going on.
Hu Liena and Liu Erlong had no idea what their unrelated actions meant, or what anyone could possibly have inferred from them.
The diary continued:
[Now, about what happened today. I enrolled at Blue Tyrant Academy.]
[The atmosphere at the academy is pretty good. Strength comes first—simple and straightforward.]
[Since I was new, though, Tailong questioned me.]
[As expected, Tailong is just like he was in the original story: straightforward and rash, with no ill intent. He just thought I was a nepotism hire.]
[But I proposed a solution: a three-move challenge. If he could make me move even half a step or force me to use my full defensive strength within three moves, I'd leave on my own.]
[Level 23 versus Level 37.]
[Challenging someone at a higher level and attacking where he's strongest—this is the kind of treatment a webnovel protagonist gets to enjoy.]
[In the end, of course, I cleverly used my two Soul Skills and won the match outright. Hahaha!]
[I really nailed that moment.]
[But I also learned a lot from this fight.]
[My First Soul Skill can not only speed me up or slow down external objects, but also create a time differential, letting me observe other people's openings.]
[In a high-speed battle, a momentary slowdown can turn into an opening.]
[The combination of my two Soul Skills works really well too. I can shift between solid and illusory, advance and retreat at will. It helped me avoid a fatal blow, though I still need to consider the Soul Power cost.]
[After this match, I should have a lot less trouble at the academy and be able to focus more on cultivation.]
Because of Yu Tiancheng's cryptic behavior earlier, no one paid much attention to his showboating in the rest of the diary. They were all wondering what exactly Yu Tiancheng knew.
After writing the last line, Yu Tiancheng closed his diary, but didn't put it away as he usually did.
He took a deep breath and let his thoughts sink into the depths of his sea of consciousness, actively reaching out to the system that had been silent for some time.
"System." He asked silently, seeking one last confirmation. "Are there readers of the diary in this world besides me?"
After a brief silence, the cold mechanical voice sounded. This time, though, it carried a hint of something different:
[The host has actively touched upon the core rules] [Hidden conditions have been met] [System upgrading...] Yu Tiancheng's heart shuddered. As expected! The system's response had practically confirmed his suspicions! A moment later, a brand-new system interface unfolded in his consciousness, a stream of information pouring in: [Upgrade complete] [Core rules updated:] [Diary update frequency adjusted to once per week. Each entry must follow the "weekly theme."] [Reward settlement adjusted to once per week. The total quantity and quality of rewards have been greatly increased.] [New binding feature: Once per month, the host may attempt to bind one holder of a Diary Copy. If successful, the host will randomly copy and acquire one of that holder's soul skills. If unsuccessful, the attempt for that month will be forfeited.]
"Just as I thought..."
Yu Tiancheng slowly opened his eyes, a look of understanding and sharpness flashing in them.
His suspicions had been completely confirmed. The diary wasn't a private outlet just for him; it was connected to unknown readers.
At the same time, all the holders of Diary Copies, no matter where they were or what they were doing, felt their copies tremble slightly in their hands and emit a gentle glow.
A clear explanation of the new rules appeared on the first page of every copy:
[Rules Update Notice] [Diary updates will now occur once per week, and the content must follow the weekly theme.] [Rewards will now be distributed once per week, and will be more generous.] [The person whose name is mentioned most often in the diary each week will receive a basic reward.] [Each week, one lucky reader will be randomly selected from among everyone mentioned in the diary to receive a random reward.] [Each week, one person mentioned in the diary will be randomly selected to choose the theme for the following week's diary.]
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