Testing and Compromise

Two years ago, a severe wildfire broke out in northeastern Australia. Flames leaped into the clouds, smoke and ash blotted out the sky, and the fire spread rapidly, sweeping across nearly hundreds of thousands of hectares. Countless animals fled in panic, trampling more than seventy villages flat in succession and causing innumerable casualties.

The Australian authorities tried many methods but could not put out the fire, so they had no choice but to appeal to the international community for help.

A few hours later, the Western Transcendent Alliance, led by the United States of America, dispatched thirteen top Transcendents to investigate the truth.

Half a month later, the fire was successfully brought under control.

But the thirteen top Transcendents sent to investigate were almost completely wiped out.

Although the Western allied nations classified the incident, Great Xia's intelligence department pieced together clues obtained through various channels and concluded that the wildfire might have been caused by a Transcendent creature with third-tier strength losing control and unleashing Zhulong, the Oracle ranked tenth in the sequence.

This guess was close to the truth.

It was described as "close to the truth" rather than "the truth" because, although Great Xia's intelligence department had guessed the two key concepts of "losing control" and "Zhulong," it had failed to guess that the one who unleashed Zhulong while out of control was not a Transcendent creature, but a Transcendent.

In short, ever since the wildfire, the international community had deemed the top ten Oracles taboo.

If a taboo descended upon someone again, the best response was to control or kill that person before their wings had fully grown.

Su Bai looked at Gu Jiuge, who had fallen silent, and his heart tightened slightly. "Could it be that my Oracle is really powerful?"

Gu Jiuge flicked the ash from his cigarette. "It's all right."

Wrath was an Oracle of a higher rank than Zhulong, representing absolute uncertainty and danger. Deciding what to do with Su Bai was far beyond the Grave Keepers' authority.

According to the Grave Keepers' rules, if something beyond their authority occurred, the law enforcers on the scene had to report it to their superiors immediately.

Gu Jiuge could foresee that if word of this reached Tianjing, a large number of top Transcendents would rush over within thirty minutes, and the whole of Suzhou would be sealed off in less than two hours.

And Su Bai would probably lose his freedom forever.

Humanity longed desperately for the power of gods, yet would never welcome gods into the mortal world.

For the majesty of gods lay far beyond human understanding, and the unknown meant limitless fear and danger.

The top ten Oracles in the sequence were no different.

"All right." Although Su Bai had his suspicions, he put on an easy expression and said with a smile:

"Actually, I was prepared for this. I spent a long time studying it, but I still couldn't use 'Wrath.' I reckon... this thing is either a passive skill or a really trashy active skill."

Gu Jiuge suddenly raised his head and met Su Bai's eyes. "If possible, I'd like to know why you refused to join the Grave Keepers."

Su Bai lowered his eyes and sighed.

"How should I put it... actually, I'm not a selfish person. Really. If I find money on the road, I'll hand it over to a police officer. If I see an old lady crossing the street, I'll help her across. If you ask me what my biggest shortcomings are, they're probably my fear of heights and my fear of dying.

"Everyone has dreamed of becoming a hero who saves the world, and I'm no exception.

"But if the price of becoming a hero is 'having to hide in absolute darkness and fight those hideous monsters with everything you've got, possibly even giving your life for it,' I believe most people, like me, would choose to be turtles hiding in their shells.

"Me... I'm just a guy who spends all day fantasizing about how awesome he is. In reality, I'm not awesome at all. All I can do is shoot my mouth off and talk nonsense. It took me a full eighteen years to realize that I really am just an ordinary person, with nothing remarkable or different from anyone else about me. Things like courage and strength can only stay hidden in my heart.

"A coward like me, who's so afraid of dying, could never become a... hero like you. The biggest contribution I can make in this life is probably to study hard and improve every day, try to get into a good university, and once I've made something of myself, add a brick or a tile to our great society."

"Afraid of dying?" Gu Jiuge lowered his gaze, a faint smile on his face, and his thoughts gradually wandered.

Strictly speaking, being afraid of death was nothing to be ashamed of.

Everyone was born with a fear of death.

Gu Jiuge was afraid of dying too, but he was even more afraid that, when death was upon him, he would suddenly discover he had never truly lived.

Seven years ago, on a stormy night, Li Ming had found Gu Jiuge wearing a black trench coat and asked him a question: "Do you want to live a mediocre life, mocked by life itself, or die in a blaze of glory, remembered by history?"

In a moment of excitement, Gu Jiuge had chosen the latter on the spot.

To be honest, Li Ming really had been feeding Gu Jiuge a line back then.

History was a weighty thing that never deliberately remembered any one person's name, but those simple words, "be remembered by history," had held an almost fatal attraction for the adolescent Gu Jiuge, with his delusions of grandeur.

Now, Gu Jiuge was using the same method to feed Su Bai a line.

But Su Bai wasn't the kind of hot-blooded youth who would get carried away and let his "spirit of adolescent delusion" take control.

Gu Jiuge thought in silence for a long time, then pulled a small, crumpled slip of paper from his trouser pocket, stepped forward and handed it to Su Bai. "After signing the confidentiality agreement, send the document to this address. Once the document passes review, the payment I promised you will be deposited into your bank account automatically."

Su Bai breathed a sigh of relief, took the slip of paper and examined it carefully.

It was a very simple business card, even an extremely slapdash one. The picture on the back was a stretch of blue sky, and Gu Jiuge's name and address were printed on the front. Other than that, it didn't even have basic information like his occupation or phone number.

Su Bai seriously suspected that the so-called Grave Keepers organization was really just a shell company hidden away in some dark alley.

Then Gu Jiuge pulled a Nokia phone missing two or three buttons from his pocket and tossed it into Su Bai's arms. "I've already submitted your phone as evidence, so I can't return it to you for now. Use this one in the meantime. Don't mention it."

Black lines covered Su Bai's face.

It was a shell company, wasn't it?

It had to be!

"Brother Gu, are we really just letting him leave like this?"

Qingxue looked in the direction Su Bai had gone and asked quietly.

That was "Wrath"!

Gu Jiuge took the last cigarette from his pack and put it between his lips, then crumpled the empty pack, threw it on the ground and stepped on it. He beckoned to her. "Come here."

Qingxue's expression gradually grew grave. "Is there something important you need to tell me?"

"My lighter isn't windproof. Come block the wind for me."

"Oh, okay..."

Qingxue hung her little head and obediently served as a human windbreak.

Sigh, the wind was so strong, the sky so cold, and my heart so chilled.

After lighting his cigarette, Gu Jiuge took a drag and turned his head to ask, "What did you just ask me?"

"Oh, I asked if we were really just letting him leave like this."

"Leave?" Gu Jiuge flicked the ash from his cigarette and said mockingly:

"Where could he go? A wolf trying to hide in a sheepfold and live a peaceful life will either be driven out by a sharp-nosed sheepdog or shot dead by a hunter with impeccable aim. The moment the Novelist found him, he had only one path left: to join the wolf pack... He's a smart man. He should soon realize that if he doesn't join us, sooner or later he'll be shot dead by a hunter."

Qingxue blinked, then raised her thumb and exclaimed, "Brother Gu, that was so well said. I didn't understand a word of it."

Gu Jiuge vigorously rubbed Qingxue's little head and smiled.

Could a wolf in sheep's clothing live in harmony with a flock of sheep?

Su Bai didn't know, and he didn't want to know, because the answer would soon be revealed.

The moment he gazed into the Transcendent, his wolf's tail had been yanked out. His sheepskin had been stripped away, leaving him standing naked among the sheep as a wolf.

When Su Bai returned to the dormitory, Shen Fei stared fixedly at him with bloodshot eyes, like a bull in heat that had spotted the cow he fancied.

That fierce gaze sent a chill down Su Bai's spine, and he hurriedly raised a hand to cover his chest.

Shen Fei walked two circles around Su Bai, narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "You lied to me, you punk. You're not Tiga at all!"

Su Bai rolled his eyes hard. "You actually figured it out. Fine, fine, I admit it. My real identity is Sun Wukong, Great Sage Equal to Heaven."

To his surprise, Shen Fei's eyes filled with an expression that said he had been right all along.

Keeper of the Heavenly Horses, it really was you!

Sigh, this kid really is beyond saving. Who knows where all the cleverness he uses on girls has gone?

Su Bai summarized the matter of the "Transcendent" as concisely as he could, then solemnly warned them it was best not to tell anyone about it, or it would bring a lot of unnecessary "trouble."

By trouble, he meant that even if they told anyone, nobody would believe them. Instead, people would take them for lunatics and might even lock them up in a psychiatric hospital.

Su Bai hadn't signed the confidentiality agreement yet, so revealing a few things about the Transcendent realm didn't count as a breach of contract.

Even so, he was still puzzled about why Gu Jiuge had let him go so easily.

When Su Bai said his Oracle was "Wrath," the look Gu Jiuge gave him had been almost identical to the look Shen Fei had given him when he first returned to the dormitory: both had looked at him fiercely, as though they wanted to devour him whole.

But things hadn't developed as he had imagined.

What on earth had gone wrong?

Su Bai lay on his bed, holding Gu Jiuge's business card and reading it over and over by the dim moonlight coming through the window.

Name: Gu Jiuge.

Address: Room 807, Building 13, Jingtai Square, East Second Ring Road.

No one noticed the woman in a red dress hiding in the shadows where the moonlight couldn't reach.

The Contaminated Novelist!

She stared unblinkingly at Su Bai with a terrifying scarlet gaze.

In a hoarse, obscure voice, she snarled under her breath, beside herself with rage.

"Satan!"