Sure enough, after Shen Hong barred him from participating in family affairs, Shen Fei shut himself in his room and thought for three full days.
He barely left during those three days. The servants left his meals outside the door, and he waited until the food went cold before bringing it in to eat.
He turned every possibility over and over in his mind-he would certainly have to rely on himself, but there was only so much one person could do.
He needed help. He needed someone stronger than him, someone with greater influence, someone who could turn back the raging tide at the critical moment.
Then he remembered that hazy title. Tales of Demons and Gods.
Novels always have protagonists. Isn't this exactly what protagonists are for?
He didn't know the protagonist's name or what he looked like. He wasn't even sure whether his memory was mistaken.
But if he could find that person, there might still be a chance to turn things around.
He turned the idea over in his mind several times, then set to work.
Using his position as the Sacred Family's eldest legitimate son, Shen Fei obtained the complete student rosters of the Holy Orchid Institute.
Beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes-more than three hundred names altogether.
He spread the rosters across his desk, sliding his finger down the lists one name at a time, his lips silently forming each one.
Most names received only a glance. Just a few made him pause.
Not because those students were particularly outstanding, but because he needed to confirm they weren't the person he sought.
Shen Yue's name appeared near the top of the advanced-class roster.
He had yet to condense soul force, but his instructor's assessment was glowing: exceptionally gifted, with keen sensitivity to soul force. Condensing it was only a matter of time.
He already stood among the best of his peers.
Shen Fei looked at his younger brother's name and turned the page without expression. He knew Shen Yue wasn't the person he sought.
Aside from Shen Yue, the roster included several young members whom the major families were grooming.
A collateral descendant of the Huyan Family, Bronze Rank 2-Star, consistently ranked first in theory classes but performed unremarkably in actual combat.
His instructor's comment read, "Skilled at theoretical deduction, but lacks adaptability in actual combat."
A direct descendant of the Sacred Nether Family, Bronze Rank 1-Star, had good combat scores but was withdrawn and never teamed up with anyone.
There was also someone named Du Ze, whose aptitude was mediocre and whose grades always fell below average. His instructor's comment consisted of just two words: quiet, reserved.
Lu Piao had a little cleverness and barely passed his combat assessments, though he certainly had a gift for talking. His instructor's comment read, "Clever but not diligent; unremarkable grades."
Xiao Ning'er of the Xiao family was strikingly beautiful and reasonably gifted, but her meridians were damaged, leaving her cultivation stalled.
Her instructor's comment read, "Exceptional talent, sadly hampered by damaged meridians. A pity."
Shen Fei noted all these names, but he knew none of them was his target.
The protagonist couldn't be one of these people who don't even rank in the top three on the roster.
Then he turned to that name.
Nie Li.
At that instant, Shen Fei's finger paused on the paper.
That combination of surname and given name fit perfectly with the hazy fragment of memory in his mind-Nie Li. That was the name.
He had heard it only once in his previous life on Earth, in a break room, in an elevator, on some occasion he could no longer remember.
But he was certain those were the two syllables he had heard.
He took a deep breath, turned the roster to the corresponding page, and carefully examined the file.
The instructor's comment was only a short sentence: "Poor aptitude; unsuited to cultivation."
His soul force reading on the entrance test had ranked third from the bottom in his entire year, below even the average for ordinary students.
After nearly two years at the Holy Orchid Institute, his cultivation had made no progress. He couldn't even manage the most basic condensation of soul force.
His combat grades were a complete shambles, and he barely passed theory. The only subject in which he was remotely decent was medicinal herb identification.
Even that was only at a "barely serviceable" level.
Every entry in the file pointed toward the same conclusion:
This was an ordinary person, ordinary through and through, with no hidden talent and no sign of a reversal in his fortunes.
Shen Fei stared at that brief assessment for a long time.
He closed the roster and leaned back in his chair.
Outside the window, the Holy Orchid Institute's bell rang out the noon hour. Sunlight slipped through the gaps in the window lattice and fell across the spread-out papers.
He thought perhaps he had remembered the name wrong. Perhaps the novel's protagonist had a name that only sounded similar, rather than being exactly the same.
Perhaps this Nie Li and that Nie Li were two entirely different people.
He couldn't pin his hopes on a student with bottom-tier aptitude simply because of a hazy memory.
But looking through the rosters alone wasn't enough. He hadn't given up-not because he harbored illusions about Nie Li, but because he couldn't leave an investigation half-finished.
He needed more comprehensive information to confirm his judgment.
He went to the city guard's archive room and retrieved the combat reports from the past two years.
He combed through every record, from frontline combat units to logistical support troops, from enemy kill counts on the main battlefield to assignments for defending the flanks.
He found no mention of Nie Li.
That meant this person had either never participated in any city-defense battle or wasn't even qualified to enter the battlefield.
Neither possibility fit the definition of a "protagonist."
He sat in the archive room for an entire afternoon, going through everyone's files.
Then he sifted through the backgrounds of young members from several newly rising minor families in the city.
The final file landed on the desk.
Outside the window, the Holy Orchid Institute's bell rang out the evening hour. The setting sun slipped through the gaps in the window lattice and fell across the spread-out papers.
The documents formed a thick stack on the desk, their corners curled from all the handling.
More than three hundred students, eleven young officers, promising talents from several minor families, and one lone operator who had made a name for himself in the black market.
The name Nie Li did exist, but the person in the file bore no resemblance to the person he sought.
He leaned back in his chair and suddenly felt a bone-deep chill.
It wasn't fear. It was something deeper than fear, creeping slowly up from the soles of his feet until even his fingertips felt cold.
He had always thought that arriving in this world already at Gold Rank 1-Star gave him a starting point others could only dream of. He was the strongest of the younger generation; his words ought to carry weight.
Yet faced with the crisis threatening all of Glory City, that strength amounted to nothing.
He needed a protagonist, someone who could turn back the raging tide just as they did in novels.
Someone who could shoulder the entire city at the critical moment and change everyone's fate.
But that person didn't exist.
He had found that the name Nie Li truly existed. The Holy Orchid Institute's archives contained his enrollment record.
His report cards were there, along with his instructor's assessments.
But that Nie Li had nothing whatsoever to do with the protagonist in his hazy memories.
"Poor aptitude; unsuited to cultivation." That brief sentence summed up everything about him.
He had spent three days searching through every document. In the end, he hadn't confirmed where the protagonist was, but that Glory City had no savior at all.
Shen Fei stood and walked to the window.
The city walls gleamed gray-green in the dusk. Banners fluttered over the battlements, and sentries carrying spears patrolled back and forth with steady, orderly steps.
People in the streets hurried home before sunset. Vendors packed up their stalls, while children chased one another through the alleys.
Faint laughter drifted to his ears.
Everything in the city looked normal. It could even be called peaceful.
No one knew what kind of explosives lay buried beneath its walls. No one knew what would happen in a few months.
His hand slowly tightened around the window lattice.
If I can't find the protagonist, I'll have to rely on myself.
What can one Gold Rank 1-Star change in the Demon Beast Tide on his own? For now, he had no answer.
But the other side of that question was this: if he did nothing, he already knew the ending.
Darkness would swallow everything, and everyone would die.
He closed the window, returned to his desk, sorted the scattered documents, and picked up the first roster again.
This time, he wasn't looking for a protagonist. This time, he was looking for allies.
If he couldn't find someone who could turn back the raging tide, he would find people who could fight shoulder to shoulder with him.
He didn't have much time left, but he wouldn't waste it complaining.
Outside, the bells fell silent, and the setting sun sank beneath the city walls. Beneath the oil lamp, he turned to a fresh page.
The demon beasts won't wait until you're ready.
Before you continue