Xing Ye

“We didn’t do it.”
Kuke removed his hat, revealing his face.

His face was not as horrifying as Lulu’s; the only thing that distinguished him from an ordinary person was his pupils—vertical pupils like those of a cold-blooded animal.

Kuke said, “We discovered that the deeper one’s sin, the more severe the demonization. Among us, the most severe case is Lulu—she once sold one of the God-Child’s eyes. Everyone who has survived to this day has, to some extent, benefited from the statue. Even if they didn’t directly take the golden armor, they once sustained themselves with money obtained from trading it. That’s why all of us show varying degrees of demonization, but none worse than this.”

“I believe you, and I will help everyone—please rest assured,” Lu Mingze nodded. “However, I need some information. How many of you are left? Who directly obtained treasure from the statue, what exactly they took and how much; who were only indirect beneficiaries; and what level of demonization corresponds to each person. I hope you can help me compile all this into a clear, at-a-glance chart.”

The shadows: “……”

Kuke and Luluting looked at each other, their faces full of worry, and said, “Honorable Prince, we… can’t read or write.”

Guan Ling tugged at Lu Mingze as well. “Don’t even talk about them—what you just described, I can’t do it either.”

Lu Mingze shook his head. “Even if you can’t, it still has to be done. This is very important information—not only do I need it, you need it too. It doesn’t matter if you can’t read; you can use symbols instead. For example, draw an eye for an eye, draw a square for golden armour—one piece of armour is one square. Use symbols you can understand to represent different meanings. If you can’t count, draw tally marks—one person, one line. Once you finish all that, a rough statistical chart will basically take shape. Afterward, people who understand numbers can tell me the exact figures.”

After hearing this explanation, Ku Ke and the others were relieved. He said, “We come out at night to forage and hide in cellars during the day. I’ll go gather the remaining people now.”

Lu Mingze said, “We’ll regroup here before dawn. Try to give me as complete a set of numbers as possible. All this work will count as merit—real crimes can be offset with merit, and those without guilt will receive rewards once the town is rebuilt. At that time, draft a list based on how much each person contributed and give it to me.”

After receiving his instructions, the shadows left with several “whoosh, whoosh” sounds.

At first, the shadows had been full of hostility, even attacking Lu Mingze; now they were proactively helping him with work, each one unusually enthusiastic.

Cao Qian looked at Lu Mingze and began to see him in a new light. Her first impression of him had been a lucky, naïve sweet fool. Then he became someone who saw things clearly yet still chose to remain gentle and naïve. And now, unexpectedly, Lu Mingze had revealed genuine leadership ability.

Indeed, at the beginning Lu Mingze had relied on his initial skill to stop the shadows from attacking, but that skill had a time limit. What truly allowed him to obtain key information was his personal charisma and a subtle, almost imperceptible leadership quality.

This kind of leadership was very gentle—not the domineering style of a typical group leader, but rather something like…

Cao Qian carefully recalled Lu Mingze’s words, remembering how patiently he taught the shadows how to do statistics, and suddenly thought: Like a teacher.

It was the kind of influence that moistens things silently, making people willing to listen without realizing it.

After the shadows left, the three continued toward the church. Cao Qian asked, “Is your real-world job a teacher?”

Lu Mingze shook his head. “I’m not a teacher, but my mom is a professor. I’ve been studying abroad these past few years, but whenever I go home during holidays, I help her as an assistant—attending lectures and teaching seminars with her. I guess I picked up a little from that.”

So that was it.

In Cao Qian’s mind, another label was added to Lu Mingze: patient.

Good-looking, narcissistic, a bit temperamental, kind, gentle, not vengeful, perceptive—and possessing plenty of patience.

“That method was really clever,” Cao Qian said. “Using that kind of statistical approach makes it easy for the townspeople to discover whether someone among them is lying.”

For example, residents who took fragments of golden armour would all suffer limb mutations. If someone claimed to have taken only one fragment but had a rotting face, then he was very likely lying. This kind of statistical cross-checking would be difficult for players to execute, but for residents it was easy. After sorting through the data, it would be simple to identify suspicious individuals or those with key clues among hundreds of survivors.

“I-Is that so?” Lu Mingze froze slightly after hearing the praise. “I didn’t think that far… If they said they weren’t lying, I just believed them. I had them do statistics because I wanted to see how many people in the town needed treatment. Demonization symptoms should be treated somehow, right…”

Cao Qian: “……”

So this method was born from kindness—and luck? She couldn’t quite figure Lu Mingze out anymore. Was he actually smart, or just so lucky that he looked smart?

Amid Cao Qian’s confusion, the three arrived in front of the church.

The reason the shadows couldn’t wander near the lord’s manor, the plaza, or the church matched the book Xing Ye’s analysis exactly: first, they lacked the strength; second, they felt guilt; third, the church inflicted harm on demonized beings.

The church doors were tightly shut. Lu Mingze very politely stepped forward and knocked on the dust-covered doors, lowering his voice as much as possible.
“Is anyone there? I’m a prince sent by the king to govern this city. If anyone is inside, could you please open the door for us?”

His well-behaved, proper demeanour made Cao Qian stop the foot she had been about to use to kick the door open.

Guan Ling whispered, “There’s so much dust on the door—it must have been ages since anyone came. There’s no way anyone’s inside.”

Cao Qian tugged him back, signalling him to stop talking before getting slapped in the face by reality.

Things that happened around Lu Mingze could not be judged by common sense. His seemingly foolish words and actions, under specific circumstances, always produced extremely rare chemical reactions—until the outcome appeared, no one could judge whether he was right or wrong.

Just as Guan Ling said, no one opened the door. Lu Mingze frowned slightly and said, “The church is locked from the inside. That proves there must be someone inside. Breaking in rashly would be very impolite.”

“The people inside could also be dead,” Guan Ling said. “Why don’t we just break the door or wall and go in?”

“But…” Lu Mingze looked up at the remarkably intact church. “Every other building in this town is falling apart, yet only the church is preserved so well. Destroying such a complete structure feels sinful. It would be best if we could open the door.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the book in his hand trembled.

Lu Mingze hurriedly opened it, and Cao Qian and Guan Ling leaned over to look as well.

Words appeared on the page: “What Lu Mingze says makes sense. The church should not be destroyed lightly.”

“Why?” Guan Ling asked instinctively. Toward the powerful book, he felt an inexplicable sense of trust.

The book erased the previous line and continued writing: “First, demonized residents do not dare approach the church. Second, the monsters in the lord’s mansionwill not leave it. Third, the bandits outside the town will not easily enter the city. Fourth, although the town’s buildings are old, the map is still usable after twenty years—this indicates the main structure has not been destroyed.”

At this point, Cao Qian suddenly understood. “All these traits point to one thing: although the town looks like ruins, in reality there is still a mysterious force protecting it.”

The book seemed very satisfied with her answer and wrote: “Exactly so. Furthermore, since the holy sword is very likely inside the church, I have reason to suspect that on the Day of Disaster, the mysterious force that protected the city is located within the church.

“This force has kept everything in the city frozen as it was twenty years ago. If its structure is destroyed rashly, the residents who have not aged for twenty years may instantly grow old, the city’s main structure will collapse, and the bandits outside will attack immediately.”

After reading Xing Ye’s analysis, Guan Ling shrank his neck in fear. “Good thing Lu Mingze didn’t force the door open.”

The young master had acted out of politeness, without considering all that—but ended up achieving an unexpected result.

“Then if the people inside really have died, how are we supposed to enter the church?” Lu Mingze asked the book seriously for advice.

The book fell silent for a moment, then continued writing: “Two methods. The first is that you like me.”

Lu Mingze: “……”

The book wrote: “When the intimacy level between an item and a player exceeds 80, the item can use its own initial skill. My initial skill can solve this problem. Intimacy is calculated by taking the lower of the two parties’ favourability values. My favourability toward you is 100 and will not change; the intimacy value depends entirely on you.”

Lu Mingze: “……”

This clever book was constantly trying to trick him into liking it.

Seeing that Lu Mingze did not respond, the book continued writing: “There is another method. The bracelet engraved with my name has three notches. Each time you use one, I can manifest once, with a duration of five minutes.”

“Why do Cao Qian and Guan Ling get a full day, but you only get five minutes? Isn’t that blatant unequal treatment?” Lu Mingze asked, puzzled.

The book wrote: “Because I am different to you.”

Lu Mingze, Cao Qian, Guan Ling: “……”

This book was way too strange!

Lu Mingze originally wanted to use “Truth Magic Mirror” to see what exactly was happening inside the church, but none of the mirrors inside the church showed any images—someone had used a mysterious power to prevent the mirrors from recording anything.

It seemed that only the method Xing Ye mentioned would work.

Lu Mingze raised his arm to look at the bracelet, frowned, and tapped one of the engraved notches.

The book in his hand began flipping pages without any wind, faster and faster. A flash of light passed, the book vanished, and Xing Ye appeared in front of Lu Mingze.

When Cao Qian saw Xing Ye’s face, she froze slightly and whispered to Guan Ling, “I’ve seen him before.”

Guan Ling also froze. “Me too—wait, how is it him? Didn’t Lu Mingze say earlier that the book was female? Well, that’s not important right now…”

The two exchanged looks. Cao Qian spoke first: “I just resigned and interviewed at a new large corporation. He’s the chairman of our company. I haven’t met him face-to-face, but everyone in the company knows who he is.”

Guan Ling looked utterly shocked. “He’s the chairman of a big company? Then why, a few nights ago, did he come to my barbecue stall to eat skewers? He was wearing a black shirt, looked cold and distant. He ordered one of each skewer, took just one bite of each, nodded after finishing, said nothing, paid, and left.”

Cao Qian: “…… Come to think of it, when I was working overtime the day before yesterday, a delivery suddenly arrived with a huge pile of skewers for the colleagues staying late. They were actually pretty good…”

“The day before yesterday? Someone came to my stall and bought a ton of skewers to take away,” Guan Ling said.

The two of them looked at Xing Ye at the same time, an inexplicable feeling rising in their hearts.

 

Translator : DarNan