Chapter 6: It’s Evil Shiyuan’s Turn (1)
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While it might seem a bit cruel to reveal the truth right after Little Shiyuan’s heartfelt confession, sometimes a short pain is better than a long one. After all, it’s way better than keeping him in the dark forever.
Plus, for Lin Nan, since her progression with Little Shiyuan was maxed out, she didn’t need to worry so much anymore.
Just like the system promised, even if Little Shiyuan fainted because he couldn’t accept that the red dust woman and the Mountain King were the same person, his progress remained rock solid, unaffected in the slightest.
However, ever since Good Shiyuan left, she hadn’t seen any other personalities besides Little Shiyuan, and that was part of why she was in such a hurry to finalize her plan with Little Shiyuan.
And these last couple of days, she’d truly felt the magic of the luck value; she was convinced that getting more would greatly help her complete her missions.
Even if she couldn’t unify the Martial World, at least she could ensure her safety for the next two months.
As for the treasure map fragment she got from the side quest, to be honest, she wasn’t too interested.
Many martial arts novels revolve around treasure maps because countless people have met their demise over them.
She certainly wouldn’t let anyone else know about her connection to the treasure map.
After all, as of now, the Martial Arts Alliance’s manhunt for the mountain stronghold was still ongoing, and martial artists in Lehua Town kept coming in waves, hoping to test their luck.
Unfortunately, the mountain stronghold was heavily fortified, with plenty of soldiers guarding it. To wipe them out completely, they would need at least five thousand regular troops.
The only time anyone had managed to sneak into the mountain stronghold was when bl**d Cloak Building took advantage of a wedding banquet to sneak into the back mountains, and they almost succeeded in an assassination.
But she believed that under the lure of a great reward, there’d be plenty of brave souls among the martial artists aiming for the stronghold in the coming days.
After bringing Little Shiyuan back to the stronghold, she needed to figure out how to extract the other personalities from him. Otherwise, wouldn’t all the time she saved through her efforts go to waste?
Lost in thought, she suddenly noticed Fatty running towards her from the back of the group, looking as if he had just seen a ghost.
“Please tell me it’s not Shiyuan that’s causing trouble!”
Lin Nan caught on to his panic.
“Great King, you probably won’t believe it, but the son-in-law literally disappeared right from under my nose!”
“What happened?”
Lin Nan hurried after him to the back of the line, where two soldiers had been carrying the still unconscious Little Shiyuan on a stretcher—but now the stretcher was completely empty!
Fatty wore a miserable expression. “I swear, it was literally a blink of an eye! He was lying there just fine, but when I looked back, poof! Gone!”
Lin Nan turned to the two soldiers.
Both nodded vigorously, confirming Fatty’s words.
“Yeah, Great King, just a moment ago we noticed the stretcher suddenly felt lighter, and when we looked again—poof! He disappeared!”
Lin Nan’s expression darkened.
Neither Fatty nor those two soldiers had any reason to lie.
Besides, aside from the three of them, there were soldiers marching front and back. If they were trying to pull a fast one and secretly take Little Shiyuan, there was no way they could’ve slipped by everyone’s eyes.
The only possibility was that what they said was true.
For now, Lin Nan decided to not dig deeper.
But this meant that their return to the stronghold couldn’t go as planned.
This time, the stronghold had attacked the Giant Wave Gang’s branch and accepted the surrender of Jin Wen and other remaining gang members, temporarily securing the lakeside docks.
However, besides the stronghold and the Giant Wave Gang, there were plenty of merchants and dock workers hiding in the corners, all witnessing the chaos.
They knew the Giant Wave Gang’s branch was now under the stronghold’s control.
Before long, rumors would spread like wildfire through the merchants hustling between towns.
People would say the remnants of the demon sect were taking the stronghold to task against the Giant Wave Gang.
This was good news for the Martial Arts Alliance; they had always disapproved of the Giant Wave Gang’s rise, but alas, every major gang in the Alliance relied on rivers and lakes for transport, and offending the Giant Wave Gang would lead to huge losses.
Now, the stronghold they considered a thorn in their side was actively clashing with the Giant Wave Gang, much to the excitement and joy of the martial artists in the rivers and lakes.
As they say, ” Dogs biting dogs leads to a whole lot of fur flying!”—who knows what the outcome of this conflict between the two powers will be?
But undoubtedly, the Martial Arts Alliance would be the ultimate winners.
So, people were actually hoping for a fierce battle between the stronghold and the Giant Wave Gang, because who knows? Other gangs might just swoop in to profit, taking advantage of the Giant Wave Gang’s decline to dominate the waterways.
Perhaps Lehua Town’s waterway would become the focal point for all sorts of forces.
Lin Nan thought this was a splendid opportunity for a defensive counterattack for the stronghold.
However, hunkering down inside was never Lin Nan’s style.
That would be like tying her own hands and feet, making it hard to adjust strategies and motivate the stronghold’s troops.
Now that they had torn their masks off with the Giant Wave Gang, she might as well take the chance to expand the stronghold’s power, making sure those martial artists wouldn’t dare to attack them outright.
This would also indirectly increase her own survival chances.
The only thing troubling Lin Nan was, Little Shiyuan’s sudden disappearance; did it mean one of his other personalities had awakened?
If it were Good Shiyuan, he would never have quietly left.
So the answer was apparent—it had to be either Evil Shiyuan or Diamond Shiyuan.
But which one?
Why rush to leave her the moment they awaken?
“System, can you tell me what personality Shiyuan is currently possessed by?”
【Evil Shiyuan.】
This time, the system’s answer was straightforward.
“Then where is Evil Shiyuan now?”
【Please explore on your own. The system will not answer similar questions.】
Technically, with over two thousand luck points, she had enough to enjoy for a while. But after experiencing the miraculous effects of luck points, she started to treasure them even more.
After all, it’s a case of use it and lose it; the only way to earn more was to deepen her feelings with Shiyuan.
Given that Little Shiyuan’s progression was already at 100%, he held no further value in terms of luck points, while Good Shiyuan was at 80% with limited room for growth—she was left with the treasures of Evil Shiyuan and Diamond Shiyuan.
She certainly didn’t want to miss out.
Letting Fatty and the others return to the stronghold first, Lin Nan ventured alone to Lehua Town, finding a tea house where “Qīngchéng Yī Jiàn” Mu Zhi had had an altercation. Maybe she could glean some useful information from the gossip flowing around.
Tea houses, taverns, and inns were the prime spots for messages to spread in the martial world, where various folks gathered.
There were always people waxing lyrical, trying to catch attention and boost their own popularity.
Last time, that’s how Mu Zhi got everyone’s focus.
This time, she wondered who would spill some tidbits worthy of her interest—like maybe the Martial Arts Alliance Leader’s son committing a crime and being pursued.
As for Evil Shiyuan, given his abrasive and malevolent nature, no matter what trouble he stirred up, Lin Nan wouldn’t be surprised one bit.
