Chapter 511: The Truth?

"Go home..." Wuhe murmured. His tone was light, yet laced with a ruthless edge, as if he wanted to break those two words apart, crush them, and grind them into ink.

He chuckled and looked at Yan Jing. "You probably don't know this, but I entered the Great Prison willingly. I came here so I could reach the Summit. Until I achieve that, I have no intention of going back."

Yan Jing smiled and shook his head. "You didn't come here just for the Heart of reaching the summit. Your brother told me about your family's situation. You're quite prominent back home. Things that would cause a massive uproar in the outside world are nothing more than children's pets to your family."

Hearing Yan Jing's description, Wuhe's face tightened. He now believed that this cat in front of him had truly met his two younger brothers. Otherwise, he absolutely wouldn't know about the Fear Bird.

He wanted to strike. The back of his hand itched, and the Weird Energy within it almost couldn't be held back. But remembering the methods Yan Jing had displayed over these past few days, he took a deep breath and curled his lips into a smile. "Then tell me, if it isn't for the Heart of reaching the summit, what did I come to this godforsaken place for?"

"Let me guess, let me guess." Yan Jing hopped down from the ship's rail and strode forward with his hands behind his back, as if patrolling his own territory.

"Your family is very affluent, but you still have enemies. Otherwise, your two brothers wouldn't have fallen into a Space Rift," Yan Jing said. "Two children... Let's be honest, I've met your brothers, and they are completely and utterly just children.

"It would be one thing if it was just the younger one, but the older one isn't young anymore, yet he's still so naive. He couldn't outplay those shameless old monsters and suffered quite a few losses."

"What happened to San Shan?!" Hearing this, Wuhe realized something was wrong and glared at him. "Who bullied them?!"

Yan Jing didn't answer his question, continuing instead, "What does this show? It shows that your parents protected you all very well. Sneaking out to play with a younger brother while two factions are in the middle of a war—that's called being ignorant. Getting schemed against without even understanding the situation—that's called being naive. If it were only the little guy, it would be one thing, but the older brother is exactly the same. Deducing from that, I'm afraid this reflects your family's overall approach to raising you."

"So, Mr. Wuhe, you must be the same." Yan Jing lifted his head. His turquoise eyes seemed to pierce right through the black cloak to see through Wuhe. "At a glance, anyone can tell you're used to living a pampered life, yet you still came to the Great Prison. This place probably isn't much better than where you're from, right? I think it might be because... you didn't want to leave yourself a way out. You wanted to force your own hand."

Seeing Wuhe's pupils shrink, Yan Jing's lips curved slightly, one of his sharp canines glinting in the sunlight. He had guessed correctly. Yan Jing began to laugh.

"Therefore, you need my Ship even more. After you reach the Summit, only my Ship can take you home."

Wuhe fell silent for a few seconds before speaking in a flat tone, "I don't need to go home. I'll help you finish building the Ship, and you take me to find my brothers. It's that simple."

"Deal." Yan Jing extended a paw.

A few seconds later, a pale hand reached down and gently grasped the furry paw.

"Then it's settled."

Yan Jing tipped an imaginary hat. "I'm still very busy, so I'll take my leave now. See you around, Mr. Wuhe."

With that, Yan Jing hopped off the deck, got back into his own little boat, and rowed off into the distance.

On the deck, the young female first mate looked at the silent Wuhe and couldn't help asking, "Are... are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Wuhe smiled. "I finally have news of my two brothers. This is a good thing. I couldn't be happier."

Worry still lingered on the girl's face. "I remember you saying that you don't have a good relationship with your family..."

"That's my own problem." Wuhe dropped his smile. "My father and mother treat all the children well. I'm just not very likable, that's all. Alright, go fetch me a basin of hot water so I can soak my feet."

"Oh, okay." The girl nodded, turned, and ran off.

Wuhe stared in the direction Yan Jing had left, his eyes flickering.

"One day, two days, three days... nine days... so many days..."

Inside the Special Prison Cell.

Wen Qiao looked at the tally marks she had carved into the wall and pouted in grievance.

It had been so many days.

Ever since Ning Wei last came and completed their transaction, she hadn't received any more news from Wen Xu's side.

Wen Qiao sighed, tiptoed back to her bed, and pulled her knees to her chest. She rested her head against her knees, her eyes inexplicably misting over. "Xiao Xu..."

If her yearning for that figure could be restrained before, ever since she entered the dreamscape with Yan Jing last time, her longing had breached its dam.

"I miss you so much..."

The woman's words were as light as a sigh, drifting into the air and turning into white mist.

"Yiya, yiya~"

Suddenly, a voice echoed in the silent cell. For a moment, Wen Qiao thought she was hallucinating.

She lifted her head and saw the exquisitely cute, doll-like little girl hovering in the air. Surprise flashed in her eyes.

Xiao Xin held a portrait in her hands. Her big eyes glanced at the picture, then back at the woman.

She puffed out her cheeks. "It'sh you, wight? Dish pwace hasn't changed pwisoners, has it?"

"I am a prisoner," the woman replied instinctively.

"Not pwisoners! I ashked if dey changed pwersons!"

Xiao Xin slapped her little forehead with her tiny palm.

Her Zhu Leng always attracted these silly dummies. It was so hard to deal with!

Even though Xiao Xin explained, the woman still didn't quite understand her meaning. She blinked. "Who told you to come?"

"I can't tell you dat!" Xiao Xin tucked the portrait away into her little bag.

She was certain now; this silly dummy should be the person in the picture.

"Your wettew! Pwease shign for it!"

Xiao Xin flew up to the woman, gave a little salute, and then placed a letter in front of her.

"Thank you." The woman instinctively reached out and took it.

Then, looking at Xiao Xin who had plopped down right next to her, she couldn't help but ask, "Are you a Messenger?"

"Yesh, I am!"

Xiao Xin pulled out the latest model camera that Yan Jing had given her and began fiddling with it earnestly.

"Such high sentience. Is this the Traveler Pathway? But there are very few Messengers with such high intelligence; it requires at least the Ninth Tier..." the woman murmured as she watched Xiao Xin operate the camera.

Xiao Xin ignored her, raising the camera to take a picture of the woman.

"Shay cheese!"

"Cheese." The woman played along again, flashing a standard, bright smile.

Seeing Xiao Xin lower her head again, the woman's smile faded. "This isn't right. Her emotions are too rich. This kind of situation usually only appears in corporeal Messengers, but this Messenger without a physical body was clearly summoned from the void realm."

"Yet those little guys should all be as cold as ice blocks, and they shouldn't be able to speak either... There's something off about this little one..."

"Why aren't you weading the letter yet?" Xiao Xin looked up, puzzled to see the woman staring at her. "I shtill have to take a letter back later. Zhu Leng ish waiting, we can't washte time!"

"Oh, right, sorry." The woman reluctantly withdrew her gaze and opened the envelope in her hand.

[Sister Wen Qiao, how have you been lately?]

[Court is about to commence. Don't worry, I won't say anything.]

[But I want to hear your thoughts.]

[Sister Wen Qiao, who exactly are you?]

[Recently, I chanced upon some memories of the past. Those things you taught me might truly be related to Deities.]

[I asked a friend named Mao Si to deliver this letter for me. Just write your reply and hand it to his Messenger.]

[I miss you very much.]

The letter was short, and it took almost no time for Wen Qiao to finish reading it.

But she read it over and over again, the hand holding the paper trembling slightly.

"What'sh wong?" Xiao Xin asked with some concern, watching Wen Qiao's constantly shifting expressions.

"I... I'm fine..."

She said she was fine, but Wen Qiao's body continued to shiver slightly.

Xiao Xin reached out and touched Wen Qiao's arm. Goosebumps had formed on her normally smooth skin.

"Don't be afwaid! Zhu Leng ishn't a bad pwerson!" Xiao Xin gently comforted her.

Wen Qiao looked up. Her tear-filled eyes made Xiao Xin's heart ache.

"Little sweetie, could you please tell me who your master really is? I'm begging you."

"I can't do dat..." Seeming to feel a bit apologetic, Xiao Xin's voice grew very quiet, and she looked away. "Zhu Leng's identity hash to be kept shecret."

"Then what should I do..."

The light in Wen Qiao's eyes almost shattered. She clutched the letter tightly, her face looking inexplicably pitiful in the cell's shadows. "Is it this time... Is it really this time...?"

"Don't be afwaid, don't be afwaid..." Xiao Xin gently patted Wen Qiao's arm. "It doesn't matter how wong you've waited. What'sh meant to happen will awways happen, Big Shister, don't be afwaid..."

Wen Qiao's gaze trembled. Wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, she reached out and pulled Xiao Xin tightly into her embrace.

"How did you know I've been waiting for a long time?"

"Becaushe Xiao Xin alsho waited in a pwace for a very wong time," Xiao Xin replied, burying her little head against Wen Qiao's chest and sniffing her scent. The fragrance was even fainter than moonlight, like an osmanthus tree under the moon.

"Big Shister shmells jusht like Xiao Xin."

"Xiao Xin waited a wong time back then too, but then I finally waited until Zhu Leng came!"

Perhaps Xiao Xin's words touched something deep within Wen Qiao's heart. Her gaze trembled, eventually hardening into resolve.

Using her finger as a pen, she began to write on the letter paper.

Soon, a reply was handed to Xiao Xin.

"Bye-bye, Big Shister!"

Xiao Xin tucked the letter away, waved to Wen Qiao, and vanished from the cell.

Wen Qiao stared at the once-again empty room, feeling as though everything that had just happened was a dream.

Only the lingering warmth on the bed where Xiao Xin had sat proved that it was all real.

She took a few deep breaths and muttered to herself, "That's right, don't be afraid, Wen Qiao. Weren't you already prepared for this?"

"Just proceed as planned."

"That little one was right. It's been so long, a little longer won't hurt. I must make foolproof preparations."

"Thank you."

Deep within the dense forest, Yan Jing, currently in Wen Xu's identity, smiled and patted Xiao Xin's head. Xiao Xin narrowed her eyes in comfort.

"Did anything happen when you were delivering the letter?" Yan Jing asked, looking at the system prompts in front of him.

[Security Officer Favorability +25]

[Security Officer Favorability -1, +1, -1...]

[Security Officer Favorability +15]

[Security Officer Favorability -1, -1, -1...]

These were all the fluctuations generated while Xiao Xin had been delivering the letter.

"Yesh, Zhu Leng! When I dewivered the letter, that Big Shister ashked who you were!" Xiao Xin began recounting the situation.

Yan Jing's eyes flickered. "Did you tell her, Xiao Xin?"

"Of course not!" Xiao Xin patted her little chest. "I can't tell anyone!"

"Good job, Xiao Xin." Yan Jing rubbed her head.

The woman was the security officer for this identity. He definitely couldn't expose his true self, otherwise it would be quite 'interesting' if she found out this body had been taken over by someone else.

However, this was also the strange part of this role-playing session.

The reason he had deduced the woman was the security officer was because every time he interacted with her, directly or indirectly, the security officer's Favorability would change.

But... after he entered the illusion last time, the security officer's Favorability had actually skyrocketed.

At one point, it nearly approached 100.

Then, as time passed, it slowly dropped again, falling by about two or three points a day.

Before Xiao Xin delivered the letter this time, the woman's Favorability had been around 70.

And right before Xiao Xin returned, the Favorability had fluctuated violently again, peaking at 97 before dropping back to 70.

Yan Jing offered a helpless smile. "Perhaps there truly is an eighteen-year-old girl living in this lady's heart."

"Earwier! Earwier, that Big Shister cwied!" Xiao Xin suddenly remembered something else and hurriedly reported it.

Yan Jing raised an eyebrow and quickly pressed for the specific details of what had happened.

After Xiao Xin finished explaining, Yan Jing's frown deepened. "No, that's not right."

"Then that's not the case at all."

This was completely different from what he had imagined.

If he mapped it out against the timeline of events that had just occurred...

The woman hadn't been arbitrarily adding and subtracting Favorability in her heart for no reason.

Instead...

He pulled out a piece of paper. Together with Xiao Xin, he leaned over a crude wooden table and began comparing the details carefully.

Soon, a complete timeline was drawn up.

The first sharp increase in the woman's Favorability happened when she read the letter he had written.

Immediately after, the woman shed tears.

This was likely the period where the Favorability fluctuated up and down.

Following that, the woman had asked Xiao Xin who he was...

The pen in Yan Jing's hand paused.

"Perhaps it can be understood like this," Yan Jing muttered. "She suspects my identity. She saw the letter and her Favorability went up, but then she realized I might not be Wen Xu, so it fluctuated."

"But that doesn't make sense either."

Yan Jing's pen continued to trace downward. "If that's the case, why did her Favorability increase by 15 when Xiao Xin comforted her?"

"Xiao Xin, you said she had been waiting a long time, right?" Yan Jing looked at the doll.

"Yiya, yiya~" Xiao Xin nodded vigorously.

By now, she was holding a magnifying glass she had pulled from nowhere, her big eyes wide as she stared at the paper on the table—even though she couldn't read a single word of it.

"Then that's wrong... That should have made her doubt my identity even more. Why would it increase her Favorability?"

Yan Jing drew a massive question mark on the paper.

Grappling with this question, he thought from deep in the night all the way until dawn the next day.

It had started raining around three or four in the morning, but he paid it no mind. His brain constantly pieced together the recent events until the rain cleared and the sun began to rise.

Suddenly, the moment he saw the sun peek over the horizon, transitioning night into day, a flash of inspiration pierced his mind.

"Wait... Wait..."

He grabbed his pen and tapped it hard against the table. Next to him, Xiao Xin, who had been sleeping sprawled out and drooling, jolted awake. She rubbed her eyes and looked at Yan Jing.

"Maybe I had it backwards."

"Her Favorability didn't go up because she thought I was Wen Xu."

"Her Favorability went up because she realized I wasn't Wen Xu!"

The more Yan Jing thought about it, the more sense it made. "She could tell from the letter that I wasn't Wen Xu, so her Favorability rose. Then, because she was worried I might not be the person she was hoping for, it fluctuated. When Xiao Xin saw that she had been waiting a long time, her Favorability spiked again. Then it dropped..."

"Aside from being unable to explain the final drop in Favorability, the logic flows perfectly now."

"So who does she think I am?"

As he murmured, a scene that had been looping in his mind these past few days flashed before Yan Jing's eyes again, like lightning illuminating a pitch-black night.

"She said it was so hot."

"That day in the illusion, her phantom self felt that it was too hot in her dream."

"Xiao Xin, you also said she had waited for a long time. If we assume she came from a long time ago..."

"Does that mean she was burned to death?"

"Who could have been burned to death, or at least connected to being burned to death...?"

Yan Jing blankly raised his head. In a puddle in front of him, he saw his current face.

A face that was gentle to the extreme.

In this world, he wasn't the only one who had once worn this face.

"Wu Xu."

Yan Jing muttered to himself, "She mistook me for Wu Xu."

"I entered the God Storage Land, and after coming out, my personality changed."

"Her face is identical to Wu Xu's older sister."

"Wu Xu's residual soul was brought into the God Storage Land by Huo Tong. And the Divine Monstrous Progeny formed from the corpse of Wu Xu's sister is also inside the God Storage Land, being swallowed by magma round after round."

"Just like reincarnation."

"She's an incredibly powerful expert, so she carried Wu Xu's soul and endured through the River of Time... Is that... even possible...?"

If everything before was deduction, only this last sentence was Yan Jing's doubt.

He didn't know what those higher-tier entities were truly capable of, but as for himself, even entering the River of Time as a Retriever was currently impossible.

So it could only be an assumption.

But looking at it now, this possibility was the most likely.

With the puzzle solved, Yan Jing laughed in relief. "So the Xiao Xu she had been calling out for was Wu Xu."

"It's just that Wen Xu and Wu Xu are both 'Xiao Xu'."

"Now, all I need to do is check if there are any other similar-looking people between Wen Xu and Wu Xu, and the truth will be revealed."

"If I can find more clues, I'll be able to trace it to the source."

"Right, it's Wu Xu... I knew it... It's Wu Xu..."

Yan Jing murmured with a smile, his gaze distant as he stared blankly ahead.

"Yiya, yiya..." Next to him, Xiao Xin watched Yan Jing's expression. Inexplicably, she sensed a faint trace of sorrow coming from her master.

He had clearly figured out the answer, and he clearly looked relieved.

So why was he sad?

Wasn't this the answer her master wanted?

Xiao Xin couldn't understand. She simply reached out her little arms and gave Yan Jing a tight hug.