Convergence

The information Lou Ji revealed left Xu Yuan with a lingering sense of unease. The world of *Cangyuan* was vast, sketched across millions of words and varied plotlines into the rough outline of an immortal xianxia realm. Yet beneath the surface of this unified world lay countless "miniature worlds." Secret realms. Or in gaming terms, dungeon instances. These pocket dimensions possessed tangled, innumerable ties to the fourteen provinces of the Central Plains, yet remained subtly detached from them. Now, through his disruption, these dungeon instances were merging with the main world for the very first time. The crimson slime in the jade vial had come from the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit of Wanyao Valley, yet it was now surfacing elsewhere. This was not a good omen. Xu Yuan understood all too well how perverted and horrifying certain entities within those secret realms were. In the game, these horrors had been strictly bound within their instances by hard rules, practically incapable of influencing the outside world. Now, however, things were different. Once unleashed into the main world, their presence might not instantly plunge all living beings into ruin, but it would undeniably brew into a catastrophic disaster. To say nothing of other horrors, consider merely what he had personally encountered in the Qionghua secret realm and the Silent Crypt: Yuchu, the Meishen cherry tree, and Qi, the Aberrant Ghost King. The former possessed the power to charm a Saint, while the latter carried a nearly invincible infectivity. Though neither was in their prime, as sentient beings, laying low to gradually restore their strength was hardly an impossible task. After all, Tianyan had already said it: The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion, guardian of the human race, had been rendered entirely blind to the future because of his existence. If those two bosses were let loose into the territory of Great Yan without anyone noticing... Yuchu, the Meishen tree spirit, was less of a concern. Her vengeance had already been exacted twenty thousand years ago, and she yearned only for death, possessing no desire to forge a world where Jinghe lived. Qi, the Aberrant Ghost Queen, was another story entirely. As a former Semi-Saint aberrant ghost, Xu Yuan knew full well how terrifying that thing could be. Once unleashed and given careful orchestration, it would sweep through an entire province at the very least, and at worst, drown several provinces in simultaneous calamity. How immense a ripple effect such a disaster could trigger in these already turbulent times... Just thinking about it gave Xu Yuan a headache. Amidst these thoughts, Xu Yuan turned his gaze to the femme fatale beside him, who exuded the fragrance of red spider lilies. His tone turned solemn: "Sis, the reason I asked you to look into this before was because I heard a few rumors during my travels." Lou Ji lowered her eyes, twirling the jade vial between her fingers, her slender eyelashes fluttering slightly. "Then do you know where this Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit is, Changtian?" Xu Yuan glanced at her, speaking ambiguously: "Roughly." After a brief pause, seeing that she showed no inclination to press him about his sources, Xu Yuan continued: "At the bottom of Heiqian Gorge. But I don't know the exact location." "Is that so?" Lou Ji let out a soft sigh, bracing her hands behind her and leaning back. Her dark hair cascaded toward the floor as she breathed a faint lament: "I understand." Xu Yuan eyed the alluring, dangerous stunner beside him with a sidelong glance. "Sis, you're not planning to go there yourself, are you?" "Why? Worried about me?" Lou Ji turned her head to meet his gaze, her serpent-slit emerald pupils seeming to shimmer with crystalline threads. Yet it lasted only a heartbeat before she shook her head with a soft huff: "Guess not. It seems our little Changtian still knows a few things he hasn't told his big sister." "..." Xu Yuan remained silent. Sometimes, Xu Yuan truly felt as if he were stripped completely bare before the upper echelons of the Prime Minister's Manor. A single glance was enough for them to see right through him down to his underwear. With many things, they simply deemed it unnecessary to speak up, seeing through the truth without giving voice to it. Well, Xu Changge excluded. After a moment of silence, Xu Yuan murmured: "What's hidden inside that Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit is enough to warrant the extermination of an entire sect. As long as Wanyao Sect isn't completely stupid, they'll keep it under tight wraps." "Extermination?" Lou Ji remained noncommittal. Xu Yuan met her gaze with certainty in his eyes: "The moment whatever is inside comes to light, the Sect Alliance will never tolerate Wanyao Valley. After all, the members of the Sect Alliance are all nominally righteous, reputable sects." Just as there were no absolute villains or saints in this world, morality was cheap—it could be weighed in coins. Yet morality was also priceless, beyond any sum of wealth. At the very least, once a certain baseline was breached, anyone who still considered themselves human would refuse to tolerate it. Naturally, the chief reason was that until rites and norms thoroughly collapsed, conflicts of interest still had to abide by rules. And Wanyao Valley's Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit had already stepped far beyond that line. Hearing this, Lou Ji narrowed her eyes, a dangerous smile curving her moist lips: "It seems this Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit isn't as simple as just containing ten thousand?" Xu Yuan lifted the teapot, pouring a cup of Longyan Xiang tea for each of them, and nodded: "Yes. And it starts with hundreds of ten thousands, at the very least." Hearing that number, Lou Ji's gaze did not waver in the slightest. She murmured thoughtfully: "In the millions, is it? That does sound like quite a lot." Pausing for a breath, Lou Ji flicked a finger, striking a soft *ping* from her porcelain cup, and suddenly asked: "Then how did you learn of this, Changtian?" *Well, she asked after all.* Xu Yuan sighed inwardly. "Just teasing. If you don't wish to say, then forget it." Seeing his expression, Lou Ji suddenly broke into a brilliant smile. "Everyone has their secrets. I won't pry." Xu Yuan shook his head and replied in a low voice: "It's nothing. The way I found out was actually quite simple. An insider within Wanyao Valley who knew the truth leaked it." He was telling the truth. Back when he played *Cangyuan* in his past life, an insider from Wanyao Valley had indeed been unable to stomach the carnage and defected from the sect. Players had followed that trail of clues through a chain of quests until they eventually uncovered the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit. "I see." Lou Ji nodded lightly, offering a faint, amused assessment: "To be exposed that way is rather ironic..." Seeing her accept the explanation so readily, Xu Yuan was momentarily caught off guard: "Aren't you going to ask who that person was?" "Does it matter?" Lou Ji countered with a sidelong glance, giving him a playful glare before musing aloud: "Well... it does seem somewhat important. Someone who could access such matters and still manage to escape alive from that place must hold no small rank and strength in Wanyao Valley." With that, she gently ran a slender finger along her smooth jawline: "Let me think. Which high-ranking figures from Wanyao Valley haven't shown their faces in a long time... "Zhang Xingtian? "Lü Kongdao? "Or perhaps Yue Yanxun?" "..." Xu Yuan inhaled a sharp breath, feeling a flutter of panic in his chest. He had not expected this older woman's deductive prowess to be this sharp. In a single breath, she had narrowed the correct answer down to just a handful of people. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Lou Ji stretched lazily before him, resting her weight against his shoulder, and chuckled softly: "When someone holds the majority of the puzzle pieces, all they need is a single key to deduce the correct answer directly." After a brief pause, Lou Ji's voice rose again, gentle as a wraith from the underworld: "Of course... "The main reason is that I run places like that under my command as well." "..." Xu Yuan froze, subconsciously glancing sideways, only to meet her dark, bottomless green eyes. A silent exchange of gazes. Lou Ji broke into an enchanting, blossom-bright smile, her body trembling with amusement as she said: "Changtian, you didn't actually think your big sister was a good person, did you?" Xu Yuan remained still for a heartbeat, then looked down and chuckled softly: "Heh, a good person?" With that, he raised his eyes to meet hers, speaking with utmost sincerity: "Sis, I don't care how others see you. "As long as you're good to me, that's enough." "..." Hearing his words, Lou Ji's smile faltered slightly. Then, brimming with delight, she pulled his head firmly against the bountiful expanse of her chest, her eyes curving in amusement: "Good boy. I knew I didn't spoil you for nothing~" "..." *All evil must be brought to justice.* With the scent of red spider lilies filling his nostrils, Xu Yuan thought to himself. After ruffling his hair vigorously for several breaths, Lou Ji gently let go of Xu Yuan and rose to her feet. As the warm softness pulled away, Xu Yuan looked up with a hint of regret. Lou Ji turned back abruptly, catching his gaze, and eyed him with a teasing grin: "Hm? Seems our little Changtian still wants more?" Xu Yuan let out an indifferent snort: "Teasing of this level means nothing to me." An intrigued glint flashed through Lou Ji's eyes. Leaning slightly forward, the black gauze shawl draped over her shoulders parted, immediately revealing a dizzyingly deep valley. She patted his head: "Seems next time, I'll have to reward my little Changtian with something much deeper~" Xu Yuan remained entirely unmoved. They all threw around empty promises left and right; he wasn't going to fall for it. After a pause, Xu Yuan swatted her hand away: "Sis, aren't you going to ask who that person was?" Lou Ji pulled her hand back and stood straight, gazing down at him: "It doesn't matter." Xu Yuan furrowed his brow slightly. Lou Ji explained softly: "If that person truly intended to provide further information about the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit, I would have received word long before you mentioned it, Changtian." With that, she spread her fair, bare arms to either side: "The fact that I haven't means that person simply couldn't stomach the inhuman cruelty of the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit, rather than truly wishing to betray Wanyao Valley." Xu Yuan pointed a finger at himself, his expression unchanged: "Yet he gave the information to me." "Changtian, people are contradictory and complex creatures," Lou Ji said languidly: "The atrocities a sect commits do not erase the debts of gratitude owed to it, nor do they diminish a person's affection toward the loved ones within. "Refusing to report the sect to the authorities out of gratitude for its upbringing; fleeing in self-exile out of disgust for its deeds; yet leaving behind a single thread of a clue for the sake of conscience and morality." At this point, Lou Ji let out a light laugh. "Changtian, would you say my description of that person misses the mark?" "..." Xu Yuan looked deeply at the shapely woman before him, moistened his lips, and murmured: "Spot on." "Since it's accurate, and the man has already chosen seclusion, there is no need for me to track him down." Lou Ji exhaled slowly, her tone rich with unspoken meaning. "Changtian, if we leave him alone, he might still live. If I go to find him, he will surely die." "..." Xu Yuan fell silent. A sudden feeling struck him, an impression that the Lou Ji before him had read the plot just as he had. What Lou Ji meant was not that she would execute the man, but that once the man saw her—the Chief Commander of the Black Scale Guards—he would inevitably take his own life. He would not even give her the chance to interrogate him. And in the plot of *Cangyuan*, events had unfolded precisely as Lou Ji described. Once players cleared the Ten-Thousand-Corpse Pit instance, Wanyao Valley was besieged and destroyed on account of the pit's exposure. After completing all this, returning to the man's secluded dwelling presented the player with a choice when turning in the quest: Inform him of Wanyao Valley's destruction, or conceal it. If concealed, the man would become the player's close friend across generations, opening up trade options and even stepping in to help if the player lured monsters to his retreat. If informed, the next time the player visited the hermitage, all that remained was a skeleton. No vengeance, no revelations—only an act of suicide to demonstrate his loyalty and repay his sect's debt of upbringing. At the same time, the player would unlock an achievement called *The Ostrich*. *As long as one does not know, it never happened...* An ostrich burying its head in the sand. "A complicated man..." Xu Yuan murmured under his breath. A fleeting urge to meet the man arose in him, but upon reflection, he dismissed the thought. Now that the original protagonist, Qin Mo, was dead, no one would disturb the man's peace. If Xu Yuan went and the man recognized his identity, it would only lead that somewhat straightforward old fellow to an early grave. He bore no ill will toward the man, so it was best left alone. "Complicated indeed, yet rather common." Lou Ji seemed long accustomed to such things. "Not everyone is born a creature of pure self-interest, nor is everyone a rotten seed who treats human lives like grass. On the contrary, many within the sects are held hostage by vested interests, compelled to do things they loathe, numbing themselves with grand slogans about the human race, the future of the common folk, or the good of the sect—until they can numb themselves no longer, ending up just like the man you spoke of." Listening to the complexity in her tone, Xu Yuan took a sip of the Longyan Xiang tea from his cup: "Why the sudden reflection?" Lou Ji gave a soft scoff and rolled her eyes at him: "I just recalled a former comrade-in-arms." "A comrade?" "An admirer of your father. She even held you when you were little. But when trouble arose with the sects, she tried to remain neutral. Your father ordered her execution... Well, I carried it out with my own hands." "..." Xu Yuan's eyelid twitched. Her tone was casual, yet chilled with the cold reality of absolute power. No wonder he had heard that almost all of his father's peers and friends in Di'an City had been wiped out by him and the Emperor. After a quiet moment, Xu Yuan said softly: "Sis, you're getting sentimental." Lou Ji looked at him deeply and gave an amused huff: "Heh, my sentimentality isn't something just anyone gets to witness." With that, she glanced sideways toward the adjoining room where Tianyan stayed: "With certain things, Changtian, you'd better prepare yourself mentally." Having said her piece, Lou Ji ruffled his hair once more, then turned and swayed her hips toward the door. Xu Yuan sat quietly for a brief moment, then suddenly asked: "Could you let me see what's in that jade vial?" Standing before the door, Lou Ji stopped in her tracks, her delicate brows knitting slightly: "That thing is extremely dangerous. If you get infected, even I won't have an antidote ready anytime soon." Xu Yuan met her gaze and said in a low voice: "Sis, trust me this once." As he spoke, Xu Yuan raised his hand in demonstration, faint traces of viscous red silk swirling in his palm. Lou Ji's emerald eyes narrowed, a soft smile gracing her lips: "It seems you want to consult that spiritual essence spirit wrapped around your neck, Changtian? Why not let her come out to meet your sister?" "..." Luo Xiran.