Xiao Jie leisurely leaned back against the chair, his gaze calmly observing the Heavenly Venerate whose expression had suddenly changed. Like a patient angler, he quietly awaited the fish’s final struggle and confession. The air in the restaurant’s dreamscape seed to have solidified, with only the fictional city’s ambient noise outside flowing silently.
The shock on the Heavenly Venerate’s face lasted for several seconds before gradually turning into a look of incredulous confusion. "I say, Brother Sui Feng... Where did you hear this from? You actually know about the ’Immortal Puppet’... Wait, no!" He shook his head suddenly, frowning, "Logically, only I should have reached the Great Thousand Worlds in this entire ga so far! And ’Immortal Puppet’ is a unique monster and setting of the Great Thousand Worlds, sothing Nine States players shouldn’t have access to... This, this is truly inexplicable!"
He racked his brains, seemingly trying to dig up any potential leaks from the corners of his mory, but ultimately found nothing and could only cast a puzzled look at Xiao Jie.
Yet Xiao Jie remained calmly seated without the slightest intention of explaining the source of his information. He rely used those eyes that seed to see through human hearts to quietly et the Heavenly Venerate’s gaze, waiting for him to reveal the truth or expose more cracks.
"No need to trouble yourself guessing, I naturally have my sources." Xiao Jie spoke with an unfazed tone, yet with an indisputable certainty, "So don’t think you can easily fool with those glossed-over lies—especially regarding the parts about the ’Immortal Puppet’ and the truth of the Great Thousand Worlds."
"Oh, co on! That’s just too much!" The Heavenly Venerate slapped his forehead in exasperation, looking bewildered and amused.
"Your statent is just too hilarious and absurd, isn’t it? Players can’t be transford into Immortal Puppets! We have system rules as protection, this is part of the core chanics! Only in ancient tis, with those old versions of native Immortals born from the world itself, would they be unable to resist the Demon Lord’s corruption and turn into Immortal Puppets. This is part of the background setting! You suspect I’m an Immortal Puppet... what a joke."
"I know." Xiao Jie’s response remained succinct and composed.
"You know?" The Heavenly Venerate was taken aback, thinking to himself, if you know, why are you still bringing this up?
"Of course, I know."
"Then why ask? Trying to scare on purpose?" The Heavenly Venerate seed a bit agitated.
"Although I know that players can’t be transford into Immortal Puppets," Xiao Jie’s lips curled slightly into a subtle smile that suggested he saw through everything, "I’m not sure if the Great Thousand Worlds is really as you say, freely accessible. Or rather, I can’t be sure that once there, you can easily ’co back’."
He paused, looked into the Heavenly Venerate’s eyes, and slowly said, "But now, through your reaction... I can pretty much confirm it."
Of course, Xiao Jie wouldn’t arbitrarily label the other as an Immortal Puppet. There was no logical basis for that. In the Nine States, there were also various Walking Dead and controlled Puppets transford from natives, but player character templates were special, inherently immune to such permanent negative transformations that overturned player control. No mature ga chanism would directly turn a player character into an uncontrollable monster, as that would deprive the player of their core experience.
The worst-case scenario for players is death.
Since the Great Thousand Worlds is an expansion pack of "Old Soil," it must adhere to the sa foundational ga rules, theoretically making such a chanism impossible.
The reason he brought up the sharp and serious accusation of "Immortal Puppet" was essentially as a conversation technique, a cover for his real first question—"Once you go to the Great Thousand Worlds, can you never co back?"
When faced with two accusations simultaneously, where one is particularly severe and absurd (being an Immortal Puppet), and the other relatively mild but closer to the truth (concealing the inability to return), people’s instinctive reaction is often to refute the more severe charge urgently to prove their "innocence."
Yet for the relatively milder, but indeed existent accusation, unless it’s utterly baseless, people often overlook or even subconsciously admit it while hurriedly clarifying the main grievance. This thinking pattern is quite common during interrogations of criminals—criminals deny serious charges like murder but might inadvertently admit to lighter cris like theft or assault.
Now, the Heavenly Venerate’s reaction perfectly confird this. He vigorously refuted the absurd accusation of being an "Immortal Puppet," but regarding the "inability to return," while he attempted to downplay it, he didn’t outright deny its existence emphatically.
"It seems the other party is indeed concealing this key truth," Xiao Jie realized in his heart, "The Great Thousand Worlds is most likely a... one-way ticket, a world of no return."
The Heavenly Venerate, hearing Xiao Jie’s analysis, was initially stunned, his mind racing before fully understanding the deeper aning of Xiao Jie’s words and the fact that he had been led into a trap. His face displayed a mixture of relief but also intense annoyance, with a smile that was both amused and frustrated.
"Damn! You rascal... You’re really too cunning!" The Heavenly Venerate pointed at Xiao Jie, his tone complex, "Now I’m starting to wonder if inviting you to the Great Thousand Worlds was really the right decision. You’re too crafty!"
Xiao Jie, however, broke out in laughter, his smile carrying confidence and composure: "Of course, it’s the right decision. If it’s really as you say, where the Great Thousand Worlds has many small player groups from different ’Newbie Villages’ and competition is fierce, then having soone like , who’s smart and capable, would at least provide you with a reliable ally to help compete against players from other worlds for resources. That’s much better than tricking soone gullible, soone who’d just be a burden, isn’t it?"
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