"You're not leaving?"
"I'm not leaving..." Inside the regional commander's residence, Chen Qing looked at the man who had long anticipated his arrival and felt inexplicably uncomfortable. Still, he answered honestly, "You were right, my lord. Running away won't solve many things. Just because I avoid them doesn't mean they'll avoid me. If they succeed, they won't spare me either."
He paused, then added, "Besides, His Majesty holds you in such high regard. If you don't want me to hide, I couldn't hide anyway, could I?"
"Now, don't make me sound so harsh." Wang Ye laughed. "Still, it's best that you've come around, Lord Chen."
Chen Qing drank his tea in silence, offering no reply and continuing to express his displeasure.
He kept feeling that this man surnamed Wang would mean plenty of trouble in the future. Once this was over, he would be better off avoiding any further dealings with him if he could.
Wang Ye paid no mind to his cold attitude and went straight to the point. "Can you truly remember what Cui Yan's wife looked like?"
"Yes!" Chen Qing replied respectfully. "I traveled to the capital with Cui Yan. While we prepared for the examinations, his wife took care of his daily needs. I saw her many times and haven't forgotten her appearance!"
"Hmm..." Wang Ye rubbed his fingers together and lowered his voice. "Lord Chen, since you've decided to involve yourself fully in this matter, there are certain things you'd best not conceal."
"How would I dare conceal anything from my superior?" Chen Qing's coldness vanished, replaced at once by a fearful expression.
"There's no need to be nervous, Lord Chen..." Wang Ye hurriedly reassured him with a smile. "I merely wish to know whether, at any point since childhood, you've noticed anything different about yourself."
"Well..." Chen Qing looked puzzled. "I matured early as a child. Thanks to my father's careful instruction, I was also somewhat brighter than the other children in the village... All the teachers who taught me said I had a gift for scholarship..."
"Aside from that?"
"Aside from that?"
"What do you mean, my lord?" Chen Qing shook his head in confusion. "I've never done farmwork, so naturally my face is better-looking than those of the people around me. Of course, I certainly can't compare to Cui Yan..."
Wang Ye laughed in exasperation. "You're quite self-aware, aren't you? You even know you can't compare to Cui Yan."
"I've always stuck to the facts!" Chen Qing said solemnly.
Wang Ye's face twitched. He exchanged a glance with Yuchi Peng, who sat opposite him, and the latter nodded slightly.
They had investigated him many times already. Chen Qing came from a clean background. At least five generations of his ancestors had been farmers, and only in his father's generation had one earned the xiucai degree. His family bloodline had never left Longquan County, either. He should not have inherited any bloodline.
"Since you're so confident, Lord Chen, I'll report to His Majesty that the selection of the crown princess should proceed as scheduled!"
Chen Qing promptly rose and bowed. "Such a weighty responsibility fills me with trepidation, but having received such great imperial favor, I shall give it my all and never shirk my duty!"
"Such spirit!" Wang Ye clapped his hands and laughed. "The court needs hot-blooded men like you, Lord Chen. Well, it's getting late. Go rest in the guest room. We'll return to the capital tomorrow!"
"Yes, my lord!"
After Chen Qing bowed and took his leave, Yuchi Peng, who had barely spoken, said, "So that's the interesting lad you mentioned?"
Wang Ye smiled. "Very interesting, isn't he? He's clearly hiding something, but I've used every means available and still can't find a trace."
A hint of hesitation crossed Yuchi Peng's face. He very much wanted to ask whether Wang Ye might simply be overthinking it.
Wasn't he just a perfectly ordinary scholar? A clean background, an unremarkable performance...
"Could there be another possibility?" Yuchi Peng asked quietly. "Since that thing can alter memories, perhaps it deliberately left Chen Qing's memories intact?"
"There'd be no need..." Wang Ye shook his head. "If all it wanted was to infiltrate the imperial harem, the best choice would have been not to alert anyone in the first place. As long as no one thought of the Thousand-Faced Fox, the crown princess selection would proceed as scheduled. Why go through such a complicated routine?"
"That's true..." Yuchi Peng rubbed his chin and nodded. "But I really didn't sense the slightest Bloodline Power in him. It's rather strange that he can see through the Thousand-Faced Fox's illusions."
"Yes..." Wang Ye nodded as well. Having no Bloodline Power yet being able to see through the Thousand-Faced Fox's illusions-he had never heard of anything like it, even in the Record of Strange Things.
"If Chen Qing really can see through the Thousand-Faced Fox, protecting him and getting him back to the capital safely should be our highest priority. Why deliberately have him alert the enemy?"
Wang Ye smiled. "If all we wanted was for Chen Qing to identify someone, we wouldn't have let him leave the capital in the first place. If we're going to catch them, naturally we should root them out entirely. Master Huang is a great scholar of the previous dynasty, a man of exceptional standing. As you said, we can't act rashly without conclusive evidence. But what if..." At this point, Wang Ye's smile slowly disappeared, and his gaze turned cold. "What if this great scholar of ours is a demon hiding among humans? Are we supposed to let him remain here forever?"
"That's..." Yuchi Peng froze. "Surely that isn't very likely?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" Wang Ye sneered. "Have you forgotten the King of Qin's affair so soon, General Yuchi?"
The King of Qin...
Yuchi Peng's face darkened. That name was taboo. Back when the various kings had fought for supremacy, the King of Qin had been the most likely to conquer the Central Plains. Yet who could have imagined that the future emperor followed by so many bloodline families was actually a great demon!
Would Master Huang make a move?
That was also the first question Chen Qing thought of after returning to his room. He understood perfectly well why Wang Ye had sent him to probe Master Huang: to alert the enemy. And his probing had made one thing very clear to him-the Master Huang who had taught him for three years was no ordinary man!
That man named Wang Ye was no good person. He had made Chen Qing the bait to draw Master Huang into action. Master Huang was a great scholar and could not easily be arrested without evidence. As long as Wang Ye could force him to act, he would have grounds to arrest him.
Chen Qing truly wanted no part in this sort of thing, but he had no choice. Living in this world, there were things he couldn't avoid simply because he wanted to. Since he couldn't avoid it, he had to secure the greatest possible benefit.
First came information. He needed to know how far this world's means of fighting demons had developed!
Taking off his outer robe and curling up in bed, Chen Qing tried hard to recall the details of when he and his partner had designed this world.
The things he had designed were terrifying. Given the right environment, many species could evolve into ultimate forms with the horrifying ability to end a civilization. During the beta, countless closed-beta players had been tormented beyond endurance and flocked to the comments to curse his family.
Meanwhile, his partner, who was responsible for designing the world's background, had needed to create a corresponding setting to balance the monsters Chen Qing designed. For instance... how had the people of this world survived those rampaging monsters before the players arrived?
He remembered that before the players descended, the NPCs in the game world had relied on something called Bloodline Power to resist demons.
In the backstory, demons were far too powerful for fragile humans to contend with. Resisting demons required the power of demons themselves. After a period of great chaos, some humans of mixed human and demon ancestry had stepped forward and carved out a path to survival through their powerful demon bloodlines. It was also during a certain incident that those beings capable of moving mountains, overturning seas, and destroying the world at a whim had fallen into slumber one after another, giving humanity a brief period in which to develop its civilization.
In other words, humanity had relied on those terrifying dormant bloodlines to barely suppress the relatively lesser demons still active in the world, barely achieving a balance!
There had been no Great Jin dynasty in the original world setting. Chen Qing knew that very well. The players had appeared after the previous dynasty's Thousand-Faced Fox incident, when certain sleeping things began awakening one after another. The balance was shattered, and a hell on earth descended once more. The players had to master enough power within a limited time to change humanity's fate.
That had been the overarching background they originally designed.
There were certainly no players in the world Chen Qing now inhabited. Otherwise, everything would have fallen into chaos long ago. How could there have been a new dynasty?
But Chen Qing was very puzzled. Without players, how had humanity endured? The previous dynasty's history had been destroyed, discussion of it was forbidden among the populace, and privately possessing any books from that dynasty was treated as treason. He had no information whatsoever, yet the peace in this world was real.
In the twenty-odd years since coming to this world, he truly had never seen... or even heard of any supposed demon incidents. If he hadn't become embroiled in Cui Yan's affair this time, he might always have believed this was simply an ancient dynasty in a parallel world.
What had happened back then? What had become of those awakened monsters? How had humanity survived and established a new dynasty? What sort of people now controlled the court? What powers did they possess?
He knew nothing...
Against such a backdrop, knowing nothing left him at a severe disadvantage. Since he had already been drawn into this incident, he might as well use this opportunity to observe carefully. It was a rare chance: on one side stood a rising talent of the court, and on the other, a great scholar left over from the previous dynasty who associated with demons. What sorts of powers did each possess?
Without player intervention, had this new dynasty mastered those power systems that were originally meant to be developed by players, those powers beyond Bloodline Power? If it had, how much had it mastered?
And then there was that Mirror Demon!
At that thought, a gleam flashed in Chen Qing's eyes. If he had the chance, he had to obtain that thing. As a designer, he knew very well that among all the power systems, one was the most difficult but also the most comprehensively powerful. And if he wanted to follow that path, the Mirror Demon would be an exceptional support item!