"What are you doing?"
Outside the factory, Yingu Yue, who was crouching in front of Chen Chenchen’s corpse, heard a voice behind him. His fingers pinched a thin piece of purple veil. "I’m trying to figure out how to use this. Pretty amazing stuff, it can actually create darkness that devours light. I want it."
"You can’t use it," Xia Lingguo said, "Extre Divine Weapons require an elaborate ritual every ti ownership changes hands, and even temporarily transferring usage rights needs the original owner’s consent. This veil definitely doesn’t belong to the assassin—it’s probably sothing the head of their organization lent him."
"So, unless that so-called boss dies, I can’t use this veil?"
"Why else do you think he dares to lend such a treasure to so blade-licking assassin?"
"Can’t we just hide it until he dies of old age?"
"Never mind when the leader of the Assassin Organization might kick the bucket," Xia Lingguo said, folding his arms, "but knowing the General’s personality, there’s no way he’d keep such a useless item just to piss off the organization. On the contrary, returning the veil is a golden opportunity to build a good relationship with them."
"He’s not afraid of being assassinated by so white-haired killer anyway, I’m sure the Assassin Organization will get the ssage."
"Wouldn’t count on it," Yingu Yue grumbled, putting the veil away. "This ti he wanted to kill a bunch of rich kids, and you know there’s always soone who’ll pay loads to hire an assassin. More money? Blue Yan’s got nothing on rchants. That cheap bastard’s never even bought dinner, honestly, I must’ve been blind to follow him..."
No one else was around, so Yingu Yue kept grumbling out of habit, then added, "Mr. Xia, you be careful. Blue Yan’s not afraid of assassins, but you, scrawny as you are—one night slaving away, soone might just slit your throat."
Suddenly Xia Lingguo said, "I think Blue Yan won’t do it in the end, or at least, it won’t be him who does it."
Yingu Yue shook his head. "How could that be? He said it himself—he’s going to kill the others."
"Want to make a bet?"
"Bet what?"
"If Silver Blood Association’s people die here, you win. If they don’t, then I win."
"And what if I win or lose?"
"If I win, don’t bother again unless it’s official business," Xia Lingguo said coolly.
"And what if you lose?"
"Do whatever you want."
"Deal! I’m betting on it!" Yingu Yue snorted. "When Blue Yan says he’ll kill your whole family, you better believe he’ll wipe your whole family out!"
"You really don’t know the General well enough." Xia Lingguo turned to leave. "Sure, he takes his promises seriously, but..."
"He’s also willing to break his word for ’justice.’"
...
...
"Everyone, are you done writing?"
Blue Yan seed to rember sothing and said, "By the way, though more is better in this case, I get that the Silver Blood Association has its limits, sa as its president. So, rather than making empty promises, I prefer solid, realistic commitnts."
"Making a promise you can’t keep only exposes your weakness."
Everyone’s face twitched, then they all started crossing things out on their pages.
Le Yu squinted and said with a sneer, "Passing judgnt on other people’s fate from high above—does that really give you that much pleasure?"
The others stared at Le Yu in shock. Luo Zhen and the rest desperately gave him warning glances.
"Are you crazy!?"
"Why the hell are you provoking him here?"
"If you want to die, fine, but why now of all tis?"
Only Qinyue Yin’s face turned gloomy. He narrowed his eyes at Le Yu and put down his paper and pen.
"When I was a kid, my dream was to be a teacher." Blue Yan smiled, ignoring Le Yu’s provocation. "I was the smart kid in class, and whenever classmates had a problem they didn’t get, they’d co to . I was better academically, more patient, and it made it easier for them to learn."
"The best feeling was always when I saw them improve thanks to my help. Seeing them hand in a better test paper, it was like recognition for my own efforts."
"No denying it, having power is intoxicating." Blue Yan tapped the table. "But the biggest thrill has always been the sense of accomplishnt from teaching others."
"Back then, I used knowledge as the bait, and pen and paper as my tools. Now, my bait is profit, and my tools are the strength of my army."
Le Yu didn’t care for this highfalutin conversation. "You planning on making Dongyang your classroom?"
Blue Yan laughed, "That depends on whether you can hand in a satisfactory answer."
"Ti’s up."
A soldier ca and took away their papers. "Le Yu felt completely calm, already prepared for death and substitution."
"He’d provoked Blue Yan on purpose as a setup—he’d already stabbed Blue Yan once with chopsticks, and though Blue Yan hadn’t held a grudge, Le Yu needed to leave a deeper impression. Only then would Blue Yan possibly do the deed himself."
"Sure, if soone else killed Le Yu, he could always intentionally get killed by Blue Yan later, but the fewer substitute deaths, the better. He didn’t want his soul and mories to suffer from repeating the process too often."
"As for plans after replacing Blue Yan, Le Yu already had those prepared."
"Before, just relying on the Jing Family, he’d turned the whole city upside down. Now, with the Linhai Army, tearing Dongyang apart wouldn’t be hard at all."
"He didn’t even need to order the Linhai Army into action. Just by stationing them here, he’d keep the Heyang Army in check. Add a little collusion with White Night, and Xuanzhu County would be a ss."
"It would definitely be tough, but Blue Yan had already paved the way."
"Now, it was like going from a high-level rich player account, ’Jing Zhengwei,’ to another high-level military-political player account, ’Blue Yan.’ Even if it ant shouldering more main and side quests, he’d also gain a lot more resources to exploit."
"With Blue Yan’s legacy at his disposal, Le Yu’s life would drop to ’tourist’ difficulty—he could even take over Dongyang’s Chenfeng District, maybe even set his sights on the entire world, turning this whole harem novel into a conquest saga wasn’t impossible."
"Even if he still wanted to get ho, having thousands of soldiers at his command would seriously boost his chances of finding the Divine Demon Well."
"However you looked at it, substituting Blue Yan was an absolute win, and he’d get payback for Star Engraving White Night’s people on the side."
"Hell, he could even take the chance to abandon the serialized novel running in the papers. Pure bliss."
"The only problem was Qing Lan."
"Storm into Xuanzhu and snatch Qing Lan?"
"But that just feels so weird... It doesn’t seem wrong, but sothing about it was definitely off."
"Still, once Jing Zhengwei’s death was public, White Night’s crew in Xuanzhu would probably take Qing Lan away. Le Yu might not see her again."
"Honestly, Le Yu had already spent so ti wondering how he’d deal with friends and lovers, if he kept reincarnating by substitution."
"It was bound to happen soday. People die, but Le Yu had no finish line."
"Just, he hadn’t expected to hit his fourth death so quickly."
"His mindset remained: go with the flow."
"Explain when you need to, love when you want to. He trusted his loved ones would trust him in return."
"So what if you swap accounts? At least this one’s still a guy. Next run, if he got a girl account, that’d be a trip."
"Do what feels right, whatever’s most fun."
"The rest can wait until later."
"Right now—ti to die and jump into Blue Yan."
"Then keep being a badass, this ti in his skin."
"As far as inheriting Blue Yan’s player account, Le Yu didn’t feel the slightest bit of psychological resistance!"
"And he was seriously looking forward to it!"
"He could hardly wait to see Blue Yan’s actual character stats!"
Directly across from Le Yu, Blue Yan sat reading through the six test papers they’d just handed in, taking his ti with each one.
The others were sweating bullets, all nerves as they watched him.
If this was an exam, then the six of them were candidates. Only, in this exam, just one person could pass—and failure ant losing their right to keep breathing.
"All right, results are in."
Blue Yan straightened the test papers and smiled. "Everyone’s answers were impressive, I’m genuinely satisfied, but unfortunately, I can only accept one person."
"And the most satisfying answer for was—"
"Young Master Jing’s."
Luo Zhen, Quan Xin, Ting Chaozao, and the others instantly turned as pale as the dead. Lan Jianbo hung his head, lost in thought. Only Qinyue Yin looked unbothered, almost like he’d seen this coming.
The one most confused, of course, was Le Yu.
"Why ?" he blurted out. "Didn’t I hand in a blank?"
"Looks like Young Master Jing wants everyone to lose without complaints." Blue Yan spread his hands. "Everyone, do you know what blank sheets of paper signify?"
"It ans you can write whatever you want," Qinyue Yin said. "No limits, so you can ask for anything."
"Exactly," Blue Yan laughed. "Your responses were all clever, but they can’t top the brilliance of that blank sheet."
"For the record, Master Qin also handed in an identical blank answer."
At that, the others totally lost hope—if only Jing Zhengwei had handed in a blank, they might think he got lucky, but if Qinyue Yin did it too, then it ant the rest of them had definitely lost.
Lost completely.
Lost so badly they didn’t even know how to suck up properly.
"Damn it, how are you two so good at kissing ass?"
Blue Yan pushed up his glasses and continued, "I understand you’re wondering, Master Qin. You both gave the sa answer—so why did only one of you win? I can only pick one leader, and after weighing it all, Young Master Jing ca out ahead."
"Apart from family background, enterprises, and abilities, there’s one thing, Master Qin, you just can’t match."
Qinyue Yin said, "May I ask, what is it?"
"Impression," Blue Yan said, rising from his seat. "When I look at Young Master Jing, it feels like I’m reuniting with an old friend. Maybe we’ve never t, but maybe, just maybe, there’s sothing like instant karmic connection in this world."
Qian Yuliu, Yin Yinyin, and the rest thought this was complete bullshit, and Le Yu felt the sa.
Blue Yan said, "Master Qin, are you willing to accept this answer?"
"I accept," Qinyue Yin nodded. "I believe in fate. It can’t be denied."
"In that case, the rest of you—just hang tight, or help yourself to our cook’s offerings," Blue Yan said, graciously refraining from calling it a ’last al.’ "Young Master Jing, please co with ."
Le Yu: "..."
"This feels like when you can’t answer a test question, so you leave it blank, and then the teacher says there was an error in the test, and only those who left it blank get points..."
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