The Snake Took a Book That Didn't Belong to It

Steam enveloped Yu Xing she soaked in the wooden tub, carefully processing Mingzhu's words in her mind.

The special side quest, which required him to "meet everyone in the Fang Mansion," was completed the moment he saw Mingzhu's face. However, the system did not announce it at that time. Instead, it made a notification in a female voice the moment he left Mingzhu's room.

[Exclusive Side Quest: Meet everyone in the family. Completed.]

Yu Xing could tell at a glance that these Side Quest were a series of quest loops, where completing one would lead to another, gradually deepening the experience until one got close to what the system truly wanted them to do.

Therefore, Yu Xing was not surprised at all by the arrival of the next mission; however, the difficulty of the mission left him speechless.

[Second Stage of Exclusive Side Quest: You can choose to complete one of the following quests.]

[Make Fang Xiao agree to attend tomorrow's Snow Festival with you, and then damage his ceremonial robes during the festival.]

[Take Mingzhu away from the area of Nanshui Town, so that she can regain her freedom]

[Paint a portrait of Xu Wan, then disfigure her face]

[Kill Fang Deming]

[Completing multiple tasks will grant additional rewards after the simulation ends; failing to complete tasks will result in cognitive confusion, causing the character to remain permanently in Nanshui Town.]

Apart from the first task related to Fang Xiao, the other three tasks have no time limit, meaning they end when the simulation concludes.

This basically confirms that the so-called second stage of the exclusive Side Quest is the final step in the main quest.

At first glance, all four options seem simple and straightforward, but each one represents a lot of hidden preparations and immeasurable subsequent chaos, making it quite difficult to choose.

For example, Fang Xiao is the actual controller of Nanshui Town. His sacrificial robes cannot possibly have the same function as the divination person's formal attire. Destroying the formal attire will definitely not kill him.

However, the dress must have its significance. If he ruins it, Fang Xiao might get angry and come up with some idea that even his younger brother doesn't matter and everyone should die. That would be a huge problem, and we would regret that the dress didn't actually kill him.

For example, Fang Deming is no longer able to move, but he is still alive. Regardless of whether the truth is as Fang Xiao said, that he was kept alive to torture him, or whether there are other hidden reasons, if Yu Xing were to take action, it could trigger the hidden conditions for death.

The remaining two points are self-evident. The prerequisite for taking Mingzhu out is to break the false blockade of Nanshui Town, which can only be done after everything is over. Painting is fine, but ruining Xu Wan's face would be asking for trouble, and there's no need to provoke her at this time.

"..." Yu Xing silently soaked in the water for another two minutes, then shifted to a more comfortable sitting position and suddenly said, "System, the Yan Kingdom map for this Side Quest is too short, don't you think so yourself?"

During simulations, the system generally doesn't respond to the participants except when tasks are assigned, and it remains silent now.

"Still trying to pretend you're not here? Fine, then I'll have a chat with you." Yu Xing draped an arm over the rim of the bucket, letting the water droplets slide down to the ground.

Without needing to put on any performance, his expression and tone were indifferent, as if he were simply talking to himself.

"Fang Deming caused the snow disaster because a python gave him a book that allowed him to write his own stories. He froze everyone in the town to death, effectively clearing the area so he could rebuild it however he pleased."

"After the pages were used up, it evolved into the Nanshui Town that Fang Xiao controls now. His control over the details of the town is clearly much stronger; he can even turn all the townspeople into demons overnight. This shows that he can modify everything in the town at any time."

Yu Xing scooped up some water and splashed it on her shoulders and neck. "Up to this point, Nanshui Town is no longer simply a story written in one book. There are many almost independent stories interspersed in between. For example, Mingzhu said that her memories were altered and she thought she was a freelance writer dating Fang Xiao. During that time, the entire Baibao Street cooperated with her memories and completely deceived her."

"At night, the hotel displays footage from the snowstorm. Ten rooms were specially reserved, and the occupants of each room seem to have been born to piece together a complete picture."

"Now we know that when Fang Deming was just a teenager, he used the residents of the Peaceful Sleep Inn to create a Yugi. He deliberately made them his amusement, letting them fight amongst themselves in a closed environment, and even created a role for the hotel owner who could only observe and not interfere."

"The hotel at night is meant to show us this piece of history."

"Let's talk about what happened after the deducers entered the town. The townspeople's strange friendliness was just like Mingzhu remembered. They didn't really have those emotions; rather, they were constantly following a pattern, like robots programmed with an underlying logic."

"In the book's timeline, each town resident lived an independent life after being created, but in this current phase... someone told me last night that if they don't follow the tour group's schedule when they go out, the streets outside are quiet and deserted. When they follow the rules, the streets are bustling with people."

"So I can say that the townspeople are no longer independent. Perhaps they have no past and no future. They have become mere objects of display, whether it's their enthusiasm or their pursuit of demons, it's all geared towards tour groups."

"Don't you think this is more like another form of recording than a book?"

Yu Xing had previously changed the subject twice under Fang Xiao's questioning, failing to reveal the other fact that Fang Xiao had guessed. Now, however, he could tell the system about it properly.

--Of course, there are many more listeners in the live stream. Blocking the screen only blocks the visuals; there are also some sounds that should be blocked, such as when someone is speaking normally, the audience can still hear them.

[Is the boss really talking to the system? Does he mean the system is constantly watching him and can even communicate with him?]

[Just kidding, this is a top-tier player. I've always thought that if you compare the system to a streamer and us to the audience, then the stronger you are, the higher you rank on the contribution leaderboard.]

[The streamer can ignore us viewers and not even say a word, but those who sent gifts and ranked high on the leaderboard, especially the top two, don't they deserve to play Yugi with the streamer?]

This analogy is brilliant; I can't find anything to refute it.

[I'm so envious. I wish I could reach the same level as that big shot someday. But judging from Xing's words, is the system deliberately pretending not to be there and ignoring him?]

[It's probably related to what he's analyzing right now. Damn, I love that feeling of being soaking wet yet so coolly getting down to business!]

[You're so smitten, you're soaking wet if you can even see him!]

[Wasn't he taking a bath? If he wasn't soaking wet, was he completely dry? Why don't you, you nitpicker, go lift weights?]

[Another form of recording...]

[Others aren't as obvious, but in Mingzhu's segment, the entire Baibao Street seemed like hired background actors—what's that word again? Oh, extras! Weren't they just acting to make Mingzhu firmly believe in her fake identity?]

[The inn quest also showed strong signs of deliberate design; otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that each room contained a clue, and that they complemented each other? Wasn't it designed to force the deducer to find all the clues and deduce a past event?]

[The system immediately said, "Are you nitpicking? What's wrong with it leaving us with all these weird clues?"]

[Don't change the subject, I haven't finished yet. If the people in the town are no longer characters in a story, but actors in a performance, they become characters in a story on screen--]

[Isn't that new form of recording just film!]

In the live stream, Yu Xing, who didn't expect the system to respond, paused for only two seconds before continuing to mutter to herself, "It's just a movie."

"Fang Deming writes books, Fang Xiao makes movies. Books have a limit to their capacity, but movies are indeed a very abstract concept. They can appear on the big screen or be burned onto DVDs. In short, no physical medium can limit how many takes a movie can be made."

"The entire Nanshui Town is like a movie being filmed. Regardless of whether tour groups come or not, Nanshui Town advances the main storyline through filming, keeping itself in the same era and time as other parts of the real world, so that outsiders can't see any flaws."

The water had already cooled down a bit, but Yu Xing was too lazy to get up and remained immersed in the water.

"I suspect... when nothing's happening, Nanshui Town is like a rehearsal before filming, as long as it doesn't look fake to outsiders. Only when special events occur—like the arrival of our tour group, or the appearance of the real outsiders before us—does Nanshui Town officially begin filming, making the plot in the town more suspenseful."

"It is precisely because it is a movie that two kinds of time, real and fiction, appear. Taking the screen as an example, the plot shown on the big screen is fictional, while the audience watching the movie is real. The screen surface divides the two scenes."

He spoke in a straightforward manner, and the fact that he could explain things in such detail by himself made people realize that he might not only be making the system listen, but also explaining things to the audience.

"The scenes inside the big screen are movie sets used to deceive everyone. As soon as the tour group enters the Nanshui Town area, they automatically step into the big screen. The townspeople are extras created by Fang Xiao, and the actor can barely be considered a temporary lead actor."

"This time, the lead actors are filming a three-day horror tour. Several people die on the first day, and they're not allowed to stay together at night, forcing them to experience the terrifying scenes separately. The second day is a bit more relaxed, with long-running missions to stretch out the filming time and prepare for the climax of the third day."

"During this time, the lead actor is unaware that he is merely a frame on the big screen, and he needs to work hard to realize this... The movie screen is a fictional setting, while the audience seats outside the movie are the real setting."

"When we, the deducers, Side Quest, there's a chance we'll cross the screen and arrive in real-world scenarios."

"As anyone who has seen a movie knows, for the sake of the plot, it's impossible to film every single second. Often, a single scene can take several days to unfold. This is why time flows differently in real and fictional scenes."

The problem of time flow that had previously troubled him was quietly resolved, and another concept that had been deduced early on—the inevitable death timeline—also found a reasonable explanation.

"Perhaps filming for us lead actors will end on the seventh day."

Yu Xing watched the water seep through her fingers. "There's a very peculiar phenomenon that, as we learn more, is gradually being overlooked: those people in town who are freezing to death from frostbite."

The snow disaster had long passed, and Nanshui Town had remained open to the outside world to prevent any unusual occurrences. Whether it was during Fang Deming's or Fang Xiao's control, things had been peaceful for many years. But now, another case of people freezing to death had occurred in the town.

"The registration page for the event said that people haven't seen the sun in Nanshui Town for months."

"Because of the anomaly, an investigation is necessary. I suspect there's a problem with the film, and Fang Xiao failed to resolve it, causing the film to fall apart. The freezing cold returned, which is how the outside world came to the fore."

The cold, like a virus, began to disrupt the film's production. Some extras, affected by the cold as the film collapsed, became the most numerous frostbite victims in the hospital. Others, however, were unaffected and continued to move according to the plot designed by the creators. This is why some people were freezing to death, while others seemed completely unaffected, wholeheartedly devoting themselves to the upcoming Snow Festival.

"Once filming can no longer be done, the screen will be temporarily shut down. At that time, the lead actors who haven't left Nanshui Town remain there forever—this timeframe, on the surface, should be seven days."

"If the problems in Nanshui Town are not resolved in seven days, it will be destroyed. This is the most optimistic scenario. It's possible that the film won't be able to hold up until the third day after the Snow Festival ends."

"Only by completing Side Quest, gaining benefits from the time difference in the real world, and ending the '7-day period' early can you leave safely."

It is reasonable, well-founded, and convincing.

The comments section was flooded with "Oh, I see," but there was a fatal flaw in the explanation.

[Fortunately, this analysis is based on the premise that the film is truly on the verge of collapse in less than 7 days, and the manifestation and proof of this collapse is the appearance of those who froze to death. But why exactly will the film collapse?]

[Everything was fine before, from when Fang Deming was a teenager until now that he's old. All that time, and the method the python gave him hadn't failed. So what's causing it to fail now?]

[Most importantly, if that were the case, Fang Xiao would definitely know that disaster was imminent, so how could he be so calm and unhurried? When he was talking to Xing, it was clear that he still had a very, very long time to go...]

Yu Xing couldn't see their questions, so he didn't answer them.

He finally stood up from the wooden tub, took a towel from the side to dry himself, and then put on the new clothes that Fang Xiao had prepared for him.

This was a rather casual modern outfit. The black T-shirt with the oil painting decoration looked somewhat familiar. Yu Xing glanced at it and then recognized the painting style he was used to from the oil painting pattern on the front of the T-shirt.

Under the deep blue starry sky, several houses of uneven height and shape were reduced to shadows of black. The ground beneath the houses surged with a rich, golden-red hue like magma, and countless black hands reached out from the bottom of the magma, like people struggling to be pulled out of hell.

He hadn't painted this picture before, but the brushstrokes and techniques were indeed very familiar, and the style... it seemed to be painted by San, the painter from this world, also known as Fang Xing.

Fang Xiao not only paid attention to what he had painted, but even used his paintings as patterns to make very fashionable clothes, and then made him wear them at this time.

It was as if it were telling him, "Although your brother has never left Nanshui Town, he has always been watching over you."

Yu Xing curled her lips into a smile, pulled the T-shirt over her head, and casually said to the system as she dressed, "Fang Xiao has indeed been quite good to me, and the Fang Mansion is clearly part of the real-world scenario. I've gone to so much trouble to prove how much I've guessed; if you keep pretending to be mute..."

"At worst, I'll just stay at the Fang Mansion for six days, lie around to make up the seven-day time limit, and then escape this simulation instance."

[I am here.]

The system's female voice finally appeared after his threat; clearly, the system didn't want him to leave the instance so easily.

I admit I need you right now. What else do you know?

"There's a lot more." Hearing the response, Yu Xing chuckled, "Not pretending to be dead anymore?"

[...]

[I wasn't playing dead; I was just assessing whether you were worth the honesty I was asked to say.]

A system is a system. Even when talking about something she pretended to be absent from, her tone was businesslike. Even though the female voice deliberately imitated a human's tone, there was still a very obvious difference.

"But I already know why you organized this event simulation." Yu Xing finished dressing and, because she still had things to talk about, she didn't leave the bathroom immediately. Instead, she found a dry corner and leaned against the wall.

"You've brought so many people in, but the only person you really want is me."

If others heard him say this, they might think he was being overly arrogant for a moment.

"Because my role is that of Fang family, and you only need to be a Fang family as well." Yu Xing, with a dry towel draped over her head, rubbed it casually. "If I'm not mistaken, Fang Xiao's control over Nanshui Town became abnormal for some reason a few months ago. To solve this problem, a key factor is missing."

[What factors]

"Of course it is me, the Fang family, who also carries the blood of the Fang family." Yu Xing's lips curled up. "The python told Fang Deming that it would protect the Fang Mansion and the Fang family, and from the very beginning, it chose Fang Deming as its sole protector."

"Based on my limited understanding of the evil gods of Yin Yang City, snakes are basically symbols of Qianjie. Nanshui Town also has very obvious cognitive distortion and manipulation abilities. I'm sure you won't deny that pythons represent Qianjie, will you?"

[Of course, this information was obtained through your own abilities, but what does it have to do with your identity Fang family?]

"Yes, it does exist, but it's quite convoluted to explain. For the sake of simplicity, I'll just call this python Qianjie."

Yu Xing blinked, her tone calm:

"If Qianjie can truly grant immortality—after all, it can even alter the flow of time, and Fang Deming can't leave the town—if he can slow down the flow of time within himself and speed up the flow of time in the town, he'll essentially be close to immortality."

"Since Qianjie saw a certain trait in him and decided to give him the book to help him, why didn't she cooperate with him from beginning to end, or remind him how to live long enough? Instead, she supported Fang Deming and Xu Wan's marriage, and after they had two children, she couldn't wait to distort the children with it, forcing them to have the same beliefs as Fang Deming?"

"It must be because it felt it necessary to do so."

"Now that Fang Deming has been replaced by Fang Xiao, Qianjie doesn't even pity its original choice, letting Fang Xiao treat him badly. Clearly, as long as it has a partner, it doesn't matter who in the Fang family that partner is."

"And speaking of this, we also have to talk about why Qianjie Fang Deming. It's not a good thing, nor does it have any overflowing compassion. It only gave away the book that could change the future, which it only had one copy of, because of Fang Deming's hatred for others and his obsession with the Fang Mansion's status."

"Not only did he give away a book, he even gave himself away, making himself like General Fang, someone who would protect certain people for generations."

A hint of mockery flashed in Yu Xing's eyes. "There's only one possibility: it has actually already gotten what it wanted."

What do you think it gained?

"Fang Deming's personality in his later years is completely different from his earlier one. Even now, the fact that he has ended up being schemed against by his wife and son shows that he probably wouldn't have made such a mistake when he was a teenager."

"Fang Xiao too. If Mingzhu hadn't told me about her past, I wouldn't have known that Fang Xiao was actually quite 'normal' when he married her."

This "normal" is relative to the present. Back then, Fang Xiao really cared about Mingzhu. Although the methods he used were somewhat terrible, everything he did was to win Mingzhu's favor.

On their wedding night, in order to prevent Mingzhu from distancing herself from him and running away from him, he even resorted to such threats. However, after Mingzhu showed obvious signs of distress, he backed down again and didn't even dare to make any more threats. In fact, he didn't want to hurt Mingzhu.

But what about now? Perhaps he cares more about his younger brother than about Mingzhu, so he is willing to share Mingzhu with his brother. But even so, he shouldn't treat Mingzhu with the same detachment and superiority that comes from keeping an object as a possession.

Even if their love has become a particularly morbid kind of love, at least after Yu Xing leaves Mingzhu's room, Fang Xiao should check on Mingzhu's condition. Isn't he afraid that their perverse behavior will cause irreversible damage to Mingzhu's body?

Fang Deming and Fang Xiao both seemed like completely different people.

Especially Fang Xiao.

Qianjie's point about Fang Deming's cognitive distortion should be about getting future generations to accept his beliefs, so that they will stand with him and the family will not be separated.

In reality, at the moment the cognitive distortion was completed, Fang Xiao was not only changed in his beliefs and thinking, but also in something deeper, such as his personality.

"If," Yu Xing took the towel off her head, "I'll start with an assumption."

"--What Qianjie did all this for was control of Nanshui Town, and now she has obtained it."

"If we reach this conclusion, wouldn't the problem become much clearer?"

The two leaders' drastic personality changes in succession—if it wasn't because they became arrogant due to their positions of power, what other explanation could there be?

And then there's that snake that's vanished behind them.

The Qianjie symbol that leads to Nanshui Town can simultaneously distort the consciousness of so many people. It wouldn't be difficult to completely take over a person's mind without them realizing it.

[Are you saying that both Fang Deming during his time in power and Fang Xiao now are puppets, and the ones truly using their bodies to do the work are the pythons behind them?]

The system knows the whole truth, but according to principles and rules, it cannot directly tell the truth to anyone. Even if it stops pretending now, lays its cards on the table, and admits that it was playing dumb, it can only echo what Yu Xing says.

--Until Yu Xing reveals the truly important information, it can only act as a broken record, proving that it is not continuing to play dead.

"Fang Xiao forced me to stay by attacking with Qianjie's consciousness. I heard the sound of the snake's tail sliding as he eavesdropped outside Mingzhu's room and left," Yu Xing chuckled. "Even if Qianjie helped Fang Xiao, it shouldn't have assimilated Fang Xiao to this extent."

"I believe that after selecting Fang Deming, it was already determined to use the Fang family's bloodline to firmly control Nanshui Town. However, there is a limitation: it can only use genuine Fang family."

"Moreover, each Fang family has a limited term. If they are not replaced before the term expires, the illusion of Nanshui Town will be exposed, just like now, returning to the original day, with ice and snow returning."

[Good idea, this way it's relevant to you.]

Yes, that explains why the Fang family suddenly became so anxious to find their youngest son.

Because Fang Xiao's usage period has expired, Fang Xing must be brought back so that Qianjie can continue to use Fang Xing's body to control the world of Nanshui Town.

Originally, the world of Nanshui Town was about to collapse in less than seven days, so Fang Xiao was naturally anxious. However, Yu Xing signed up under the temptation of the system's activities and came without knowing anything. Fang Xiao... or rather, Qianjie, whose mind was mostly controlled by Fang Xiao, had already relaxed.

There's no need to completely distort perceptions immediately. As long as people are alive, and there's this fresh Fang family bloodline, allowing him to have some exposure to this kind of thing will prevent the collapse of the Nanshui Town world from continuing to worsen.

Maintaining the current situation is good enough. Qianjie definitely wouldn't mind keeping Yu Xing here first, and then slowly wearing her down with cognitive distortion.

"Without this simulation, my character in this world wouldn't have been able to return to Nanshui Town to die on his own. I've read the rules for investigator-type simulations. During the time the simulator doesn't have control over the character, the character might suffer minor injuries, but will definitely avoid serious injuries and death that could affect the difficulty of the simulation."

"In other words, without the Nanshui Town event, Qianjie will fail directly after seven days. It is absolutely impossible for it to find Fang Xing within those seven days, because the significance of Fang Xing's identity is not as important as the eerie painter 'San.' San is mine, both in body and soul."

Yu Xing laughed for no apparent reason, licking his lips with his long tongue, the red eye-shaped markings on the tip of his tongue emitting a dark, blood-red glow.

The next second, his spine stiffened, and a chill ran down his spine. "Wait... that last sentence wasn't what I wanted to say."

[I understand. Your tongue became distorted after it merged with you. It was originally just a mindless lump of flesh.]

The system's voice inexplicably carried a hint of amusement.

The system gave him this tongue, and it knew all its attributes, both before and after the fusion.

"... You still want to laugh at me?" Yu Xing raised an eyebrow, the slight upturn of her eyes becoming extremely dangerous. "I was just about to talk about you. Because Qianjie wanted me, you summoned this event instance in order to deliver me to it."

"From beginning to end, your goal was to get me into your hands. That's why you didn't disclose the danger level of Nanshui Town, and allowed some people who weren't strong enough and were destined to die here to sign up. Because those people are not within your scope of concern. You just need to make the event seem bigger to attract me."

"You don't care at all about the fairness of this simulation. The information I can get from the Fang Mansion is something no one else could get even after seven days of investigation."

Yu Xing was actually aware of this.

At first, he didn't think so much about it. Even if San was actually a native of Nanshui Town, it had nothing to do with him as the deducer. He wouldn't inherit San's memories, and the others also received various initial information due to the system's arrangements. They were all on the same starting line.

But when Hua Subai reminded him that the worldview was actually a movie, he began to doubt the system's purpose.

If all of this is a movie that deceives the whole world, then who made it? It can only be the Fang family special status in Nanshui Town is beyond doubt.

It's like in Yugi, where players fight tooth and nail to reach the boss just to get some equipment, but he's a familiar face to the boss, and all he has to do is stand there and the boss happily gives him all the equipment.

How unfair!

The system has always touted itself as fair and impartial, Yu Xing just couldn't understand why the system would go to such lengths to create a deduction that would be seen as unfair by others.

It wasn't until he stayed at the Fang Mansion for a short while that he figured everything out.

For a system to violate its stated principles, there must be something more important in the matter than its principles.

[You're right]

Yu Xing has already stated it directly, the system no longer needs to hide it.

[So why would I let you fall into its hands? You should be able to sense that I have no intention of harming you.]

"Yes, you like me so much, how could you possibly hurt me?" Yu Xing chuckled again, drawing out the last syllable, "You don't want to hurt me, but you want to hurt it."

"If this little Qianjie fails like this, it will probably give up on this place after seven days and leave. You might then have a hard time finding it in the vast universe."

"So you're really in a hurry, really in a hurry~ You're willing to damage what little image you have left, just to pull this stunt at the last minute, making me appear with a body that has the bloodline of the Fang family. And this time, it seems you're not just trying to buy time, but also want me to just use it as a deduction boss and destroy it, right?"

The system remained silent.

A few more seconds passed.

[First of all, I wasn't pretending to be dead.]

[Secondly, after I decided to rapidly update and iterate the ranks of the deducers, aside from the veteran deducers who knew me inside and out, the new deducers who joined the deduction system were still very grateful to me for giving them the opportunity to possess special powers, and for the assistance I provided them in the deduction dungeons.]

The female voice seemed to still have a bit of pride, but the proud tone it wanted to project was affected by the inhuman feeling, making it sound a little naive.

[Therefore, my image still has a lot left, not almost nothing as you say. Making this decision has damaged my image more than you imagine.]

Yu Xing: "Amazing, amazing."

Finally, how did you determine that I wanted to kill this snake?

This question made the young man, who was leaning against the wall and seemed unwilling to even stand up straight, hesitate for a moment.

What are you hesitating about?

"Actually, I'm not sure at all right now." Yu Xing swept her not-quite-dry hair back, revealing her aggressively superior eyebrows and eyes.

There was not a trace of doubt in his eyes; he already had the answer, and had even thought of more.

But he still insisted on asking this question, "If I were to say this and expose your secret, would you kill me to cover it up?"

[No, our conversation is muted from the live stream, so no third person will know what we're talking about.]

[If you're worried that my "secret" will only be exposed to you personally, then rest assured, if I want to silence you, whether you speak it aloud or keep it to yourself, the outcome will be the same. You might as well bravely face your fate.]

Yu Xing: "Oh~ so it's possible you've already decided to kill me. Once I've done what you want me to do, you'll abandon me and do something drastic—"

[I was just joking with you.]

Are you going to continue pretending not to understand, then try to provoke me with your words, just to see how anxious I am to explain?

The female voice had completely seen through Yu Xing's intentions.

Yu Xing regretfully shut up.

[Let's get back to the main point, how can you be sure I want to kill this snake?]

This time, Yu Xing didn't interrupt. He casually crumpled the towel in his hand, his tone lazy and relaxed. "Because it stole your things, didn't it?"

"As I just mentioned, Qianjie has found someone it can exploit, but this has also limited it, forcing it to use only Fang family from now on."

"The Fang family's control over the Nanshui Town world has an expiration date; once that date is exceeded, Qianjie's control will be lost."

"These two conditions being applied to Qianjie is already absurd. She is the creator of everything, so why should she be subject to such restrictions?"

Leaving aside why it would allow itself to be bound by these two fatal rules, let's just say...

Where did these rules come from?

With the abilities of this giant python in Nanshui Town, it can speak human language, control people's hearts, and predict many things in advance. It can completely alter a person's perception for a lifetime and control them for a lifetime, and then pat its tail and leave.

Furthermore, regarding the Fang family bloodline, is there any rule about Qianjie Possession? Absolutely not; it can use its abilities on whomever it wants.

So since it chose Fang Deming in the first place, why couldn't it choose someone else to act as its puppet in controlling Nanshui Town?

The problem isn't with it.

Yu Xing smiled and said, "That book was originally yours, right?"

[...]

"After hearing Fang Xiao's story, I already felt something was wrong. All the signs pointed to that the giant python as a symbol of Qianjie. If that's the case, how could it have the ability to create the world?"

"Furthermore, it told Fang Deming that there was only one copy of this book, and if he didn't handle it well, it wouldn't be able to help Fang Deming anymore."

"It sounds like it has a box that doesn't belong to it, one it can't open, but it really wants what's inside, so it finds a double-sided socket and uses that as a way to indirectly achieve its goal."

How could you think this is mine?

"I didn't immediately think of you, but then I suddenly remembered something." Yu Xing blinked.

"During the time I was out of contact, I met a very ambitious woman who was trying to combine two completely different forces to create a third."

Dead Silent Island Dungeon.

Witch Wizard Cult.

The woman used the Ghost Tree as a medium and the power of time as a springboard to create Wizard Cult, like the Deducers, could appear in various worlds.

"Back then, I exposed her, saying she was very ambitious and wanted to become the third system," Yu Xing said. "She didn't create the world, but she constantly influenced it using the sect's power. In other words, she wanted to seize control of the 'system,' and her initial attempt was to change the content of the world."

"So the system itself can create small worlds, and the deducers have learned quite a bit from you about that."

[Um.]

"So, as I thought about it, I realized that this book and you are the same in terms of ability. Of course, it is much more narrow-minded than you, but you share the same system of abilities."

Yu Xing smiled and said, "They're similar not only in creating worlds, but also in setting rules and regulations for people."

I can forgive all your wording for now.

Yu Xing shrugged. "So the case is solved. The thing that restricted the creation of the Nanshui Town world was the book, not the snake."

"It can only be controlled by the first person to use it and their descendants. This rule is probably inherent in that book, so if Xiao Qianjie wants to control the world of Nanshui Town, she can only use the Fang family."

"Ultimately, the Fang family were originally just ordinary humans. Creating a world with human bodies would likely cause considerable harm to their bodies. I know very well the feeling of constant collapse when the body can no longer bear the power."

"Therefore, each Fang family can only hold out for a period of time. Fang Deming and Fang Xiao themselves probably don't know this, but Qianjie does."

"It had all planned out in advance, so it brought in Xu Fang Deming, Xu Wan with an irresistible, fiery, and romantic charm, and the two married and had children."

"Then, let Mingzhu, who perfectly matches all of Fang Xiao's preferences, appear. This is even more outrageous. As long as Fang Xiao sees Mingzhu, he will fall in love at first sight and there is only one possibility: he will be completely captivated."

The Fang family could no longer leave Nanshui Town, also because of the book.

However, Qianjie is not subject to this restriction. She can go wherever she wants and create coincidences by distorting cognition, leading Xu Wan and Mingzhu step by step into Nanshui Town.

"The child born to Fang Xiao and Mingzhu was supposed to be Xiao Qianjie's third puppet, but it miscalculated the timing."

It doesn't understand the rules of the book or the system well enough. It has used Fang Deming for a long time, so it naturally assumes that Fang Xiao can use it for just as long.

To its surprise, before Fang Xiao and Mingzhu could even have a child, Fang Xiao's body was already beyond repair.

"This difference stems from the different mindsets of Fang Deming and Fang Xiao, right? Fang Deming hit it off with Qianjie and took the initiative to do these things, while Fang Xiao resisted for so long."

Is the perseverance a human being expends to maintain their sense of self truly worthless?

Yu Xing narrowed her eyes, thinking of the hardships Fang Xiao had endured from adolescence to adulthood, and softly uttered four words: "Absolutely."

Impossible."