Li Ke, Heart's Inquiry

"I'm puzzled. Your memorial service is in three days, and you'll need to be cremated then. If we go to Forbidden Zone No. 002, it will take at least half a month, or even longer," Qing Chen said seriously. "You might not be able to make it back in time for the cremation."

The old man said irritably, "Are you even speaking human language? Do you think I have to go through this process?"

Qing Chen said, "At the funeral, everyone will say goodbye to your body. If you run away now, will they be saying goodbye to thin air? There will definitely be problems."

"Don't worry about it," the old man waved his hand. "With today's technology, creating an exact replica of a corpse is a piece of cake. Once the crystal coffin is closed, who would dare to open it for inspection?"

"But if the ashes aren't yours, then when the Li family descendants kneel and worship during Qingming Festival, won't it be a fake Li Xiurui? You won't receive the paper money either," Qing Chen asked doubtfully.

"Can't you think about things from the living world?" the old man said. "Stop talking nonsense and get out of here!"

Li Ke stood weakly to the side, completely bewildered by what was happening.

He glanced at Qing Chen for a moment, then at the old man.

His face showed confusion and panic.

How could my grandfather, who had just passed away, suddenly come back to life?

We've been crying for four hours straight, so all that crying was for nothing?

And.

Although he knew that his grandfather and his tutor knew each other and that they were close enough to be able to give each Dragon Fish, he never expected that the tutor and grandfather could talk so casually.

Moreover, Grandpa seemed to have changed. He had lost his former dignity and was now like a skinny old man from next door. He no longer spoke with such seriousness and caution, but rather as if he were just chatting casually.

Who was Li Ke's grandfather?

Just hours before, this old man was the head of the Li family, wielding one-fifth of the federal government's power and able to decide the future of hundreds of millions of people.

Normally, who wouldn't be trembling with fear and showing utmost respect when they see this old man?

The old man looked at Li Ke with a half-smile, "Never seen a grandfather like this before, have you?"

Li Ke nodded. "I feel like you're a fake."

"You'll get used to it," the old man chuckled. "I've been bound by an identity for most of my life. It's both a tragedy and a blessing that I can finally be myself again. I hope you won't follow in my footsteps."

Li Ke was stunned. The family head, whom everyone envied, actually didn't like that position.

At this moment, Qing Chen said, "Don't rush to educate your grandson; I still have things to ask. You can naturally leave through the secret passage now, but what about me? What about Li Ke? We need to give the outside world an explanation for our sudden disappearance, right?"

"Don't worry about unnecessary things. The Privy Council has already prepared the documents to approve your trip. Li Yunshou will also help you forge your entry and exit records," the old man said.

Qing Chen thought to himself, "These entry and exit records are really unreliable. Let's go then... To be honest, if you don't receive the Zhunti Method, you probably won't have a chance to come back. So, would you like to take one last look at this Banshan Manor?"

The old man waved his hand. "No need, I've seen it all my life, I'm tired of it."

After saying that, he went into the house and opened the secret passage. Li Ke was stunned. He didn't know that Autumn Leaf Villa had a hidden secret.

Today was too magical for young Li Ke. In just a few hours, the amount of information he received was so overwhelming that he was speechless.

The three entered the secret passage and walked through the long 2.7-kilometer corridor. Li Ke was like a curious child, touching this and that.

"Grandpa, did you build this secret passage?" he asked. "Why did you build this secret passage... By the way, you used to come here every year to mourn your mentor, was it so you could leave through this secret passage? Were you going out to do something very important, like meeting with important figures from the Qing or Chen families?"

Just as Qing Chen was about to say something, the old man suddenly coughed. "Ahem, ahem, ahem, now that you've faked your death, let's not bring up the past!"

He was implying to Qing Chen to give him some privacy, after all, Li Ke was his most beloved grandson, and some things should be kept secret.

Qing Chen curled his lips. He didn't know how important the people the old man met were, but they were definitely not from the Qing or Chen Corporation.

The three arrived at the end of the passageway, and the old man picked out a key and said, "Let's use this one. I had Li Yunjing take it to be serviced a few days ago, and all the parts that needed replacing were replaced with new ones."

"It's your car, you decide what to do with it," Qing Chen said without even checking what the seven cars were. The main problem was that he couldn't even find the parking lot for the Microcosm World!

Qing Chen opened the wardrobe on his own, revealing a wall full of guns hidden in a secret compartment behind it.

He selected three automatic rifles, three pistols, and three small boxes full of ammunition.

The old man frowned. "Are you going to fight in a war?"

Qing Chen glanced at him. "At first, I thought Li Yunjing would come to protect you, but you just let him go. Now I have to prepare some means to save my life, right? Once someone finds out you're still alive, do you know how terrifying the people will be that come after us?"

The old man chuckled and said, "I'm no longer the head of the family, what's the point of them killing a dead man like me? But seeing how well you've prepared, then I'll leave it to you."

The next moment, Qing Chen looked at Li Ke: "Before we go to Forbidden Zone No. 002, there is one more thing to do. Li Ke, sit cross-legged on the ground."

The old man said from the side, "Are you going to formally accept him as your disciple? Li Ke, kowtow to your master."

Li Ke paused for a moment, then knelt down with a thud and kowtowed three times earnestly. His head hit the floor with a loud thud, which sounded painful.

Qing Chen looked at the old man. "We knights don't perform the ritual of kowtowing."

"It's alright, he kowtowed to you, so you must help him if anything happens to him in the future," the old man said.

Qing Chen: "..."

However, upon hearing this conversation, Li Ke suddenly looked up. "A knight?"

His heart was churning with emotions; it seemed that the word "knight" held a unique charm for the Li family members!

Li Ke looked at his grandfather, then at Qing Chen.

Before this, the old man only told him to become his apprentice, but did not explicitly say that Qing Chen was a knight!

All of this was a wonderful surprise for Li Ke!

"Master, what is your relationship with my Uncle Qi?" Li Ke asked curiously.

Qing Chen looked at Li Ke and patiently explained, "Your Uncle Qi, Li Shutong, is my master. From today onwards, your Uncle Qi is your grandmaster..."

The old man, listening nearby, raised his eyebrows. What kind of nonsense was this? How did Li Shutong suddenly become his senior?!

Qing Chen looked at the old man. "This is the grandson you chose yourself. If the generations are messed up, it has nothing to do with me. Logically speaking, you should have chosen a great-grandson."

The old man said impatiently, "Let's get started."

After saying that, Qing Chen grasped Li Ke's pulse.

As the young Li Ke watched Qing Chen exhale sharply, he himself was plunged into endless pain.

The old man held his breath. The last time he had seen this scene was decades ago, when Li Shutong was taken in as an apprentice by his friend.

The next moment, flame lines bloomed on both sides of Li Ke's cheeks, and his brows furrowed into the character "Chuan".

Qing Chen watched silently, worried that Li Ke would also succumb to the Heart's Inquiry.

If Hu Xiaoniu can't endure it, he can take another path and advance to A-level after completing all eight Life and Death Trial. But if Li Ke can't endure it, the path of the knight will be over for him.

In his Heart's Inquiry, Li Ke seemed to have returned to his childhood.

At the age of 6, he entered the Li Clan Academy and became the most outstanding student there.

At 18, he was admitted to the Spark Military Academy and became its most outstanding student.

At the age of 22, he joined the Federation Group Army as a junior officer.

He was promoted to major at the age of 26.

Later, he was summoned back to the Banshan Manor by his family and began working in the Privy Council.

His family arranged a marriage for him with a beautiful girl, but they had no feelings for each other.

He tried to build a relationship with her, and she tried her best to please him.

Just when he thought everything was going in a good direction, his wife called out someone else's name in her dream.

Li Ke had the intelligence department investigate, and it turned out that it was his wife's first love.

At the age of 34, he became a director of the Privy Council and began to truly participate in important family affairs. Some media outlets began to refer to him as the Crown Prince of the Li family.

However, all that remained in his life were documents, and all that remained in his eyes was the awe he received from others.

Li Ke sat in his office at midnight, constantly approving documents and exchanging official pleasantries with various people in his newly acquired, fluent speech.

Once the office was empty, he suddenly felt...

Is this how I'm going to spend the rest of my life, these decades, in such a dull way?

At the age of 48, he took over the reins of the family from his father.

From then on, he rarely left the Banshan Manor, and wherever he went, he never met anyone who would tell him the truth.

At 60, Li Ke began to feel that his body no longer belonged to him, but to his illness. The trauma he had sustained in the military in his earlier years began to torment his body and soul.

He is 80 years old and has a large family of children and grandchildren.

The children in the family suddenly produced a birthday cake and asked him to make a wish.

But at that moment, Li Ke thought for a long time, as if he had forgotten what the wish he had made but had not fulfilled was.

Oh right, it seems to be about becoming a knight.

That was a wish he made every year, but he never fulfilled it.

At that moment, Li Ke's spirits suddenly waned, as if all his strength had been drained away. He seemed to have no interest in doing anything, and life no longer held any meaning.

At the age of 90, he lay in his hospital bed, realizing that he was about to die.

At one point, Li Ke suddenly realized that when he closed his eyes again, he might really die.

Beside his bedside, his grandson asked softly, "Is there anything you haven't finished wishing for?"

Li Ke was thinking that he had never actually fulfilled his wish. In his whole life, he had only ever been "the person others expected him to be," and had never been himself.

Such a long life must be really hard to endure.

But then, a boy walked in from outside the ward, stood in front of him in the sunlight streaming through the window.

Suddenly, Qing Chen's voice asked him, "Are you willing to exchange everything you once had for a chance to become a knight?"

Would you be willing to relinquish power, climb a mountain, watch a snowfall, and chase a dream?

With tears streaming down his face, Li Ke said he was willing.

Only at this moment did he remember that he had entered this place decades ago, within the Heart's Inquiry, and had forgotten everything outside of Heart's Inquiry.

It took Li Ke almost a century to finally find the deepest wish in his heart.

After an unknown amount of time had passed in the dimly lit room, Li Ke suddenly opened his eyes and whispered, "Master."

Qing Chen smiled, a very happy smile, "Congratulations."

This means that the knightly tradition in the Inner World has not been broken!

The old man asked curiously, "Does this count as passing the Heart's Inquiry?"

"Of course," Qing Chen nodded.

"What if we can't get through?" the old man asked.

"If you can't get through this, you die," Qing Chen said, looking at Li Ke. "You're Heart's Inquiry 've been through that took so long?"

Li Ke glanced at his watch and realized that 24 hours had already passed.

He looked at Qing Chen and asked, "Master, can I not tell you?"

"Okay," Qing Chen rubbed his head. "The Heart's Inquiry is every knight's own secret. You don't have to tell him."

Just like Qing Chen never mentioned to Li Shutong, he had actually been abandoned by his mother once when he was very young.

"Let's go," Qing Chen said with a smile, "Let's head to Forbidden Zone No. 002."

After saying that, he changed his appearance and walked out.

Li Ke stared blankly at Qing Chen's retreating figure, wondering what would have happened if that young man hadn't come in when he was 90 years old and lying in a hospital bed.

Am I really dead?

Li Ke always felt that he hadn't overcome this Heart's Inquiry on his own, but rather that his exceptionally young master had helped him.

In the long dream of Heart's Inquiry, when the other person walked into the ward, it was as if they were draped in a layer of light.

At this moment, Qing Chen turned around at the door and asked with a smile, "What are you standing there for? Let's go."

"Oh," Li Ke snapped out of his daze and ran towards the door.

In the parking lot of the Microcosm World.

Qing Chen looked at the huge off-road vehicle in front of him. He opened the trunk and checked it. There were two spare tires, four cans of diesel fuel, and a suitcase tied to the roof, which seemed to contain tents and emergency supplies needed in the wilderness.

"You've prepared quite thoroughly," Qing Chen exclaimed.

This was much better prepared than when Li Shutong took him to Forbidden Zone No. 002.

However, Qing Chen suddenly noticed a ginkgo leaf logo on the side of the SUV.

He asked doubtfully, "Isn't this the Qing family's symbol?"

"Yes," the old man said matter-of-factly.

Qing Chen was puzzled. "Why would the car of a Head of the Li Clan have the Qing family's ginkgo leaf emblem? What's with your self-righteousness? This is clearly abnormal! Your self-righteousness makes it seem like the problem isn't with you, but with me!"

The old man patiently explained, "Having a conglomerate logo makes things much easier when you're out and about. Besides, if you lose face, it's the Qing family that loses face. Is there a problem?"

"Aren't you afraid of being exposed?" Qing Chen asked, puzzled.

The old man smiled and said, "Who dares to inspect the conglomerate's vehicles? The conglomerate doesn't even need to go through the visa process when entering and leaving the country."

"You really are skilled and daring," Qing Chen said with a smirk. "If this gets exposed by the media and they say that 'the Head of the Li Clan is impersonating the Qing family's mark to commit crimes,' it will become big news for the entire Federation."

"What's there to be afraid of? Just don't get caught!" the old man said.

"Alright then," Qing Chen sighed.

But at this moment, everyone suddenly realized a very mysterious problem: who would drive?

Qing Chen will not open.

Li Ke was still young and had never studied it.

The master and apprentice both turned their gazes toward the old man.

Li Xiurui raised an eyebrow. "You two little brats, you don't expect me to drive, do you? I'm just an old man on my deathbed, all I want is a relaxed and beautiful memory in the final moments of my life, and this is how you treat me?!"

Qing Chen shrugged. "But neither of us can drive. How about this, you drive to the Fourth District, and we'll pick up another person there to be the driver."

The old man thought for a moment and said, "That's more like it."

The massive, full-size SUV drove out of the Microcosm World community and sped towards Fourth District.

Hu Xiaoniu had packed his things early. When the car stopped in front of him, he looked at the old man in the driver's seat through the car window and felt that he looked familiar, as if he had seen him in some news...

But for a moment, it didn't quite add up.

The old man had already glued on his beard with remarkable skill.

Moreover, who would have thought that the old man who had just died was now alive and kicking, driving a punk-style off-road vehicle and swaggering through the city?

Qing Chen waved to Hu Xiaoniu: "Xiaoniu, get in the car, you drive."

"Okay," Hu Xiaoniu recognized Qing Chen.

Before this time travel, Qing Chen had specifically shown him the disguise he was going to wear, which was still Zard.

The old man sized up Hu Xiaoniu, then asked Qing Chen, "Is this the driver you found? Is he reliable?"

Hu Xiaoniu wondered to himself how he had become a driver, but he didn't argue.

Qing Chen said, "You can rest assured, it's reliable."

"Brother Chen, where are we going?" Hu Xiaoniu asked.

"Leave City No. 18 through the southern border crossing and head to Forbidden Zone No. 002," Qing Chen said.

Hu Xiaoniu was stunned for a moment. Qing Chen had not told him before that he was going to Forbidden Zone No. 002!

As the vehicle traveled south and passed through the immigration checkpoint, Hu Xiaoniu suddenly noticed dozens of SUVs parked in front of the checkpoint, waiting for Immigration and Customs Administration to verify their documents.

Hu Xiaoniu asked, "Brother Chen, where are our documents?"

Qing Chen: "No."

Hu Xiaoniu was stunned for a moment. "Huh?"

The old man said, "We'll take the left lane and drive straight there. The car has the Qing family's ginkgo leaf logo, even though it's fake, no one will dare to check it."

Hu Xiaoniu was a little nervous. He thought to himself, "Grandpa, you're so open about admitting that the logo is fake. Is there really no problem?"

With dozens of armed soldiers standing at the border crossing and drones constantly patrolling the sky, if someone were to discover that the markings were wrong, they would probably be riddled with bullets.

However, Hu Xiaoniu remained calm and stepped on the gas without stopping.

The gate at the checkpoint was opened, and just as the old man had said, no one checked it!

Just then, Hu Xiaoniu glanced at the passageway next to him and froze. "Brother Chen, I saw Qi Duo and Zhang Lanjin in that convoy."

Those two members of the Outer World.

There's a 5,000-word chapter, and another chapter will be released at 11 PM tonight.

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