Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 157

Beneath the grey sky, Xu Yang was kept at gunpoint by Little Dragon the entire time.

Completely unafraid, he walked right up to Zhou Qian, repeated his question, and then looked at Bai Zhou with curiosity. “He doesn’t know—so you don’t know either?”

Bai Zhou’s tall and slender body stood in the valley. Een his gaze seemed veiled in the same pallid grey as the sky.

He looked at Xu Yang and calmly countered, “Why should I know?”

“You killed Xie Huai years ago,” Xu Yang said. “Shouldn’t you be very familiar with this game?”

Bai Zhou shook his head indifferently. “I never killed him.”

“No way, but the rumors—” Xu Yang scrutinized Bai Zhou for a moment, deep in thought.

“Rumors aren’t necessarily true. And what the Peach Blossom Legion is looking for here may not be what you want,” Bai Zhou replied.

“How do you know what I want? Are you saying—wait a sec—”

Xu Yang laughed, glancing back and forth between Bai Zhou and Zhou Qian. “I get it. You two are singing in duet, trying to pump me for information, right? Well, you’re already dead men in my eyes, so why not tell you—

“This is a god-selection game. The system evaluates every stat a player has and offers a direction—let’s say a path—to whoever it deems suitable, and that path leads to the Divine Realm.”

On hearing this, Zhou Qian instinctively turned to meet Bai Zhou’s eyes.

—The system had been deliberately opening hidden-quest instances to Zhou Qian all along. Could it be that gathering every element from the seven-day creation myth would piece together a trail that leads to this so-called Divine Realm?

Did such a realm really exist?

A sudden thought made Zhou Qian chuckle in a private-chat whisper to Bai Zhou: “A scoundrel like me, chosen by a god?”

Without waiting for Bai Zhou to answer, he muttered to himself, “Mm, I suppose it’s possible. Of all the ‘gods’ inside this game’s many instances, plenty aren’t exactly benevolent.”

Bai Zhou gave Zhou Qian a long, deep look. “Once we get out of here, find Shao Chuan. He should clear up a lot. Xie Huai was created by Shao Chuan and killed by Shao Chuan.”

“When Shao Chuan killed Xie Huai… it was about the same time he made you a god-level player. So most people think you killed Xie Huai.”

Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes, suddenly looking vicious. “That Shao Chuan—dirty move. Not only did he stick you with the hate, I have a feeling the aggro on me is his doing too.”

Xu Yang could see their expressions shift yet heard no words—clearly they were using a private-chat item.

Staring at the two, Xu Yang continued, “Who else could create a game—or system—like this? Only a god. Through this game the gods are picking people who can reach the Divine Realm. For those it favors, it deliberately opens instances and guides them.

“For the ones it hasn’t noticed yet—or doesn’t like—well, they have to fight for themselves. Take me: if it won’t come to me, I’ll chase it down myself! In this life I will reach the Divine Realm, no matter the method or the cost!”

With that, Xu Yang turned and strode off with his five subordinates.

“Hold up—” Zhou Qian suddenly called after him. “You’re leaving one guy behind.”

When Xu Yang looked back, Zhou Qian pointed at Qi Liuxing and smiled. “He’s in your purple faction, you know.”

Xu Yang’s gaze at Zhou Qian was downright baffling. Qi Liuxing’s too.

Meeting Qi Liuxing’s eyes, Zhou Qian seemed to read the question in them—Don’t kill Xu Yang?

Qi Liuxing quickly caught on, said nothing more, and—with sword in hand—walked to Xu Yang’s side.

He had three reasons: first, to link up with Hidden Blade and the others and report what happened; second, to dig for intel; and third—and most importantly—not killing Xu Yang meant leaving him to fight the Peach Blossom Legion.

Xu Yang said to Zhou Qian, “You’re really sending him after us? Fine, you guessed it: I can’t switch to another wristband color yet, so for now I won’t go after your teammates. But ‘for now’ doesn’t mean forever. You think you’re using me, but you’re shoving your friends into the fire—

“The three of them will be surrounded by my whole army. Even if they get tons of intel from us… do you really think they’ll get out unharmed?”

Zhou Qian found that delightful.

If Xu Yang had multiple other-color wristbands and his escorts were all loyalists, he could simply kill Qi Liuxing once they rejoined the main force, unseen by others.

Normally Xu Yang would think of that and use it to threaten or mock him.

But apparently Zhou Qian’s repeated jabs had Xu Yang so riled up he missed it and ran with his own logic instead.

Which proved something vital—Xu Yang had only one other-color wristband for now. He’d save it for the final moment to betray the purple faction and slaughter most teammates, not waste it on little Qi Liuxing.

While he and Peach Blossom were still fighting for turf, who knew how many wristbands remained unfound?

If he swapped now and killed Qi Liuxing but couldn’t find another later, he’d be stuck in purple. When purple exceeded the “max value,” he’d die with them.

Thinking this, Zhou Qian shot Xu Yang a cocky look. “Xiao Qi, he says I’m shoving you into a pit of fire. Wanna jump?”

“I’ll bring back what you want,” Qi Liuxing replied, then looked at Xu Yang. “Lead the way. You’re my boss now.”

Xu Yang: “…………”

“Zhou Qian, you’re something else—turning everyone around you into reckless gamblers. Guess we fought to get acquainted. Someday I’ll gather the corpses of you and your fanatics.”

Leaving that parting shot, Xu Yang walked off.

Once he was gone, Little Dragon hop-skipped back into Zhou Qian’s arms.

With worry on his face, he clutched Zhou Qian’s collar and whimpered twice.

“Relax, nothing to fret about.” Zhou Qian patted its head. “Xu Yang’s obnoxious, sure, but he handed us loads of intel.

“Thanks to him we can confirm that the only groups who came prepared and keep forcing others to join them are Peach Blossom and Feidu.”

The moment he finished, a new system message arrived—

[Wristband colors and counts updated: Orange – 11; Yellow – 21; Green – 25; Blue – 17; Indigo – 12; Violet – 25]

“Hmm… the only colors that never drop are green and purple. Purple’s Feidu, so green must be Peach Blossom. Finally—”

Zhou Qian lifted Little Dragon, leaned close to its ear, and said with a smile in his eyes, “Xiao Qi and the others will be fine. Xu Yang came in person to handle me and Zhou Ge. He knows I can deduce his eventual betrayal of purple from the wristband updates.

“To keep me from blurting it out and exposing him, he only dared bring his five loyalists—the ones aiming guns at us. Those five will defect with him. He’s told them long ago and promised not to kill them.

“But Feidu brought a crowd… most of them have no clue. When soldiers who worship their king learn he’s been planning to betray and kill them—what’ll they do?”

Zhou Qian’s smile grew even brighter. “And what if the system sets the ‘max value’ below seven? Xu Yang has to save himself and Xu Feiyu—that’s two slots. Out of his five henchmen, some must die.

“Actually, whether it’s under seven doesn’t matter. As long as those five believe it is. I want Qi Liuxing, Hidden Blade, and He Xiaowei to outshine their predecessor—once behind enemy lines, let them stir up a bloody storm.”

After murmuring that, he rubbed Little Dragon’s head again. “Tsk, I just realized—you’re still young. Am I teaching you bad things?”

Little Dragon shook its head hard, whimpered once, and burrowed back into his arms, tail curling round his arm.

Next instant its neck was pinched and it was lifted into the air.

Bai Zhou had walked over and grabbed it. “Let Zhou Qian rest a bit.”

Little Dragon glared back, frowning in protest.

Bai Zhou stared at it for a moment, patted its head. “Your skill points are about spent. You rest too.”

Little Dragon shook its head vigorously, but Bai Zhou pressed a finger to its brow. It instantly reverted to a scale, lying quietly in his palm.

Zhou Qian took the scale and tucked it into his pack, shaking his head. “Tsk, you and our ‘son’ don’t seem to get along.”

Bai Zhou: “He’s old enough to train on his own.”

Zhou Qian laughed and squeezed Bai Zhou’s hand. “Yeah, let him rest. I have another job for him soon.”

Glancing around, his gaze finally settled on what had been Purple Mist Mountain’s peak.

“Let’s go, Zhou Ge.”

“Where to?”

“Occupy a mountain and call myself king. You’re my one and only general.”

“Very well. It’s my honor.”

A little later, Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou retraced all the places Little Dragon had scouted.

Just as Xu Yang said, there were indeed no more weapons. Zhou Qian even removed his magazine—only three bullets left.

Clutching their sole firearm, they gathered twelve yellow wristbands, then headed straight for the mountaintop—Purple Mist Mountain’s summit.

This was the ruined Blue Harbor City now; perhaps the Demon King father-and-son tale no longer existed in this timeline.

A few green pines crowned the peak. In a starless, moonless world, no silvery moon would ever perch on their tips. Even the pines were shrouded in heaven’s ashen haze. Who knew if the city would ever regain its gaudy splendor?

Blue Harbor’s colors had always seemed too flashy, too flamboyant to many.

But Zhou Qian loved them.

Back then, through the city’s multi-colored neon, he had glimpsed the one he longed to meet from afar. They had been reunited amid that dreamlike palette.

Zhou Qian raised his eyes to the grey vault above. After fleeting memories of the city flashed by, he refocused on the current instance.

As he and Bai Zhou gathered wristbands they secretly scouted.

With Bai Zhou’s senses as a god-level player, he could tell more and more people were converging on their location—moving in perfect order, like troops on command.

Thanks to Xu Yang, Zhou Qian had a clearer grasp of his situation.

Two separate forces were indeed closing in. Before long they would encircle the area completely.

Zhou Qian knew full well that Ke Yuxiao would be among them.

He and Bai Zhou would be the fish in a barrel. When the system announced the “max value”—or even earlier—Peach Blossom and Xu Yang would both strike.

Worse yet, Zhou Qian now had no way to scout outward. His intel on the various killers inside the instance would be sharply limited.

Even so, Zhou Qian simply held Bai Zhou’s hand, as relaxed as if on a lovers’ date.

He resummoned Little Dragon—rested and with a bit of skill energy restored—and called forth the bone spirit Gao Shan. Handing some yellow wristbands to Gao Shan, Zhou Qian looked at him solemnly. “Shan Ge, here’s the rundown on this instance—”

Gao Shan said, “I’m awake. I can hear. I already know most of it. What do you want me to do?”

“Great,” Zhou Qian said. “Apart from the Peach Blossom and Feidu, most players here are unorganized. Before the system announces any rules, we’ve run into many—some just promoted to S-rank, visiting Blue Harbor for the sights, and got dragged in by accident.

“Your job is to persuade them to join me. Tell them Peach Blossom and Feidu will betray them and send them to die. I’m the only one who can keep them alive.

“My name should carry some weight now—that’s number one.

“Number two, find Hidden Blade and the others and coordinate from inside and out. Number three—”

He paused, his pupils darkened. “If you meet Yun Xiangrong… whether to convince her to come over is up to you.”

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